Use of the Smartphone Camera to Monitor Adherence to Inhaled Therapy

Self-management strategies can lead to improved health outcomes, fewer unscheduled treatments, and improved disease control. Compliance with inhaled control drugs is essential to achieve good clinical outcomes in patients with chronic respiratory diseases. However, compliance assessments suffer from the difficulty of achieving a high degree of trustworthiness, as patients often self-report high compliance rates and are considered unreliable. This thesis aims to enable reliable adhesion measurement by developing a mobile application module to objectively verify inhalation usage using image snapshots of the inhalation counter. To achieve this, a mobile application module featuring pre and post processing techniques and a default machine learning framework was built, for inhaler and dosage counter numbers detection. In addition, in an effort to improve the app’s capabilities of text recognition on a worst-performing inhaler, a machine learning model was trained on an inhaler image dataset. Some of the features worked on during this project were incorporated on the current version of the app InspirerMundi, a medication management mobile application, planned to be made available at the PlayStore by the end of 2021. The proposed approach was validated through a series of different inhaler image datasets. The carried-out tests with the default machine learning configuration showed correct detection of dosage counters for 70% of inhaler registration events and 93% for three commonly used inhalers in Portugal. On the other hand, the trained model had an average accuracy of 88 % in recognizing the digits on the dose counter of one of the worst-performing inhaler models. These results show the potential to explore mobile and embedded capabilities to gain additional evidence for inhaler compliance. These systems can help bridge the gap between patients and healthcare professionals. By empowering patients with disease selfmanagement and drug adherence tools and providing additional relevant data, these systems pave the way for informed disease management decisions

An Exploratory Examination of the Digital Marijuana Policy Messaging of Liberal, Governmental, and Conservative Organizations Utilizing Websites

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to examine whether differences exist between the digital media promotion of marijuana policies by organizations based on their type (liberal, federal government, or conservative ). Concerns about illicit drug use in America are apparent when looking at the current discourse on marijuana policy. This discourse has been impacted by the media\u27s construction of the drug problem and how that problem is defined by different sources. This messaging has the potential to impact societal views on crime, justice, and related policies. In the process of media persuasion, there are various organizations conveying divergent marijuana policies through strategic efforts utilizing digital media. These campaigns are instruments through which goals of enacting social change and influencing policy are pursued. This study is an exploratory investigation into how organizations are using digital media (specifically Internet websites) to promote marijuana policies. Constructivist inquiry was employed to provide knowledge about how the selected organizations included in the sample are using digital media to advance agendas (the goal of which is to influence support for different marijuana policies). Although similarities were found when the content analysis was conducted, there was divergence on most measures. Variation between the messaging strategies of organizations, based on their type, may impact who is the recipient of the organizations\u27 messages, how they are received, and potentially how they influence future behaviors and policies

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF ABU DHABI MUNICIPALITY TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT

The new generation is rapidly adapting to the digital era, where government and private services are being transformed into electronic services, commonly known as Eservices. Cities are leveraging digitalization to streamline their business processes and business services. This digitalization has improved service delivery time and quality for individuals. With digitalization, business processes align with technology, enhancing performance and customer satisfaction. However, there are challenges associated with digitalization, particularly people working in various municipality departments who find it challenging to adapt to digitization. Employees may take time to adjust to the new techniques and technologies, which may hamper the actions of the municipality departments. Therefore, the main objective of this research proposal is to investigate the benefits of digital transformation in different departments of local municipalities. In this research, we will use qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection through surveys. The study will be conducted in the Transport Department of Abu Dhabi Municipality, targeting the employees and customers in the Abu Dhabi and Al Ain centers. The results indicate that around 86% of the respondents believe that service delivery has improved due to digital transformation, with 96% of the participants considering digital transformation essential. Customer satisfaction is closely linked to the development of online service, and a considerable percentage of respondents confirm that service delivery time and efficiency have significantly improved due to digital transformation. Finally, a reference framework for digital transformation will be presented, and discuss the result outcomes based on this reference framework

Building a Helpcenter for the webmasters of ESN Satellite

74 σ.Το Erasmus Student Network (ESN) αποτελεί έναν από τους μεγαλύτερους μη κερδοσκοπικούς οργανισμούς φοιτητών στην Ευρώπη και ιδρύθηκε το 1989 με σκοπό τη στήριξη και ανάπτυξη της ανταλλαγής φοιτητών. Το ESN εργάζεται στον τομέα της Τριτοβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης με 12.000 εθελοντές που προσφέρουν υπηρεσίες σε 150.000 φοιτητές σε 370 ιδρύματα τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης από 35 χώρες της Ευρώπης. Τα διάφορα συστήματα πληροφορικής που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα στο ESN και δημιουργήθηκαν και συντηρούνται από εθελοντές-μέλη της οργάνωσης. Για λόγους συνέχειας και εύκοης επεκασιμότητας, τα συστήματα αυτά έχουν κατασκευαστεί με χρήση λογισμικού ανοικτού κώδικα και ειδικότερα του Συστήματος Διαχείρισης Περιεχομένου "Drupal". Το ESN χρησιμοποιεί επίσης μια βάση δεδομένων των χρηστών και των τοπικών συλλόγων, η οποία είναι φτιαγμένη σε Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Το σημαντικότερο από όλα τα συστήματα είναι το ESN Galaxy, ένα intranet για τα μέλη του ESN που λειτουργεί και ως aggregatorτοπικών νέων και δραστηριότητες από όλους τους τοπικούς συλλόγους. Επιπλέον, το ESNπροσφέρει στους τοπικούς συλλόγους μια πρότυπη ιστοσελίδα πουλέγεται ESN Satellite καιείναι επίσης βασισμένη σε Drupal. Το ΕSNSatelliteτου κάθε συλλόγου είναι διασυνδεδεμένο με το ESN Galaxy και παρέχει feedsμε τα τοπικά νέα και δραστηριότητες καθώς και λαμβάνει άλλες πληροφορίες, εξού και το όνομα «δορυφόρος» και «γαλαξίας» Σκοπός αυτής της εργασίας ήταν να δημιουργηθεί ένα Κέντρο Βοήθειας για την παροχή τεχνικής υποστήριξης και καθοδήγησης των webmasters του ESN τον τοπικών συλλόγων χρησιμοποιούν το πρότυπο ESNSatellite για τις ιστοσελίδες τους. Η βοήθειας παρέχεται σε είναι tutorials, βίντεο καθώς και καθοδήγηση και επίλυση αποριών μέσω ενός φόρουμ συζητήσεων. Ακόμη, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη μας ότι οι τοπικοί webmasters δεν διαθέτουν κατ 'ανάγκη βαθιά τεχνική γνώση, προσπαθήσαμε να καλύψουμε όσο το δυνατόν ευρύτερο πεδίο θεμάτων, από αρχάρια μέχρι προχωρημένα. Η επιτυχία του Helpcenter κρίθηκε ικανοποιητική. Ωστόσο, για να πετύχει ενα τέτοιο έργο χρειάζεται συνεχή προώθηση, ιδίως για τους μη τεχνικούς χρήστες. Η προώθηση και η αποτελεσματική επικοινωνία έχει αποδειχθεί μέχρι στιγμής το πιο αδύναμο σημείο. Στην εργασία αυτή, παρουσιάζουμε το Erasmus StudentNetwork, μελετούμε τα συστήματα πληροφορικής που έχουν αναπτυχθεί και χρησιμοποιούνται, σχεδιάζουμε τις τεχνικές προδιαγραφές που απαιτούνται, κατόπιν περιγράφουμε τη διαδικασία της ανάπτυξής του, και τέλος αξιολογούμε το τελικό προϊόν.Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe, founded in 1989 for supporting and developing student exchange. ESN is working in the field of Higher Education with 12.000 volunteers offering services to 150.000 students in 370 Higher Education Institutions from 35 countries. There are several IT systems in ESN, all created and maintained by volunteer members of the organization. For reasons of continuity, those IT systems are built using open source software and more specifically the Content Management System “Drupal”. ESN is also using a database of users and local sections which is built on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Among those there is ESN Galaxy, an intranet for ESN members and aggregator of local events, activities and news, ESN Satellite, a Drupal based website template for general use in the network and more specifically for the local section’s websites, which are also interconnected to the ESN Galaxy; they are providing feeds of their news and activities and they are receiving settings and International feeds. The scope of this work was to create a Help Center for providing technical support and guidance to the webmasters of ESN local sections who are using the Drupal based ESN Satellite template for their websites. The forms of the help are tutorials, video tutorials and one-on-one guidance via discussion forums. The local webmasters do not necessarily possess deep technical knowledge so we tried to cover a variation of topics, from beginner to the advanced ones. The reception of the Helpcenter was considered satisfactory; however, as it is an IT project it needs continuous promotion, especially to non-technical users. The promotion has proven to be so far its weakest point. In this document, we are presenting the Erasmus Student Network, we are studying its IT systems and infrastructure, we are designing the technical requirements needed and describing the process of its development, and in the end we are evaluating the final product.Ουρανία Χ. Χαντζοπούλο

Automatic management tool for attribution and monitorization of projects/internships

No último ano académico, os estudantes do ISEP necessitam de realizar um projeto final para obtenção do grau académico que pretendem alcançar. O ISEP fornece uma plataforma digital onde é possível visualizar todos os projetos que os alunos se podem candidatar. Apesar das vantagens que a plataforma digital traz, esta também possui alguns problemas, nomeadamente a difícil escolha de projetos adequados ao estudante devido à excessiva oferta e falta de mecanismos de filtragem. Para além disso, existe também uma indecisão acrescida para selecionar um supervisor que seja compatível para o projeto selecionado. Tendo o aluno escolhido o projeto e o supervisor, dá-se início à fase de monitorização do mesmo, que possui também os seus problemas, como o uso de diversas ferramentas que posteriormente levam a possíveis problemas de comunicação e dificuldade em manter um histórico de versões do trabalho desenvolvido. De forma a responder aos problemas mencionados, realizou-se um estudo aprofundado dos tópicos de sistemas de recomendação aplicados a Machine Learning e Learning Management Systems. Para cada um desses grandes temas, foram analisados sistemas semelhantes capazes de solucionar o problema proposto, tais como sistemas de recomendação desenvolvidos em artigos científicos, aplicações comerciais e ferramentas como o ChatGPT. Através da análise do estado da arte, concluiu-se que a solução para os problemas propostos seria a criação de uma aplicação Web para alunos e supervisores, que juntasse as duas temáticas analisadas. O sistema de recomendação desenvolvido possui filtragem colaborativa com factorização de matrizes, e filtragem por conteúdo com semelhança de cossenos. As tecnologias utilizadas no sistema centram-se em Python no back-end (com o uso de TensorFlow e NumPy para funcionalidades de Machine Learning) e Svelte no front-end. O sistema foi inspirado numa arquitetura em microsserviços em que cada serviço é representado pelo seu próprio contentor de Docker, e disponibilizado ao público através de um domínio público. O sistema foi avaliado através de três métricas: performance, confiabilidade e usabilidade. Foi utilizada a ferramenta Quantitative Evaluation Framework para definir dimensões, fatores e requisitos(e respetivas pontuações). Os estudantes que testaram a solução avaliaram o sistema de recomendação com um valor de aproximadamente 7 numa escala de 1 a 10, e os valores de precision, recall, false positive rate e F-Measure foram avaliados em 0.51, 0.71, 0.23 e 0.59 respetivamente. Adicionalmente, ambos os grupos classificaram a aplicação como intuitiva e de fácil utilização, com resultados a rondar o 8 numa escala de 1 em 10.In the last academic year, students at ISEP need to complete a final project to obtain the academic degree they aim to achieve. ISEP provides a digital platform where all the projects that students can apply for can be viewed. Besides the advantages this platform has, it also brings some problems, such as the difficult selection of projects suited for the student due to the excessive offering and lack of filtering mechanisms. Additionally, there is also increased difficulty in selecting a supervisor compatible with their project. Once the student has chosen the project and the supervisor, the monitoring phase begins, which also has its issues, such as using various tools that may lead to potential communication problems and difficulty in maintaining a version history of the work done. To address the mentioned problems, an in-depth study of recommendation systems applied to Machine Learning and Learning Management Systems was conducted. For each of these themes, similar systems that could solve the proposed problem were analysed, such as recommendation systems developed in scientific papers, commercial applications, and tools like ChatGPT. Through the analysis of the state of the art, it was concluded that the solution to the proposed problems would be the creation of a web application for students and supervisors that combines the two analysed themes. The developed recommendation system uses collaborative filtering with matrix factorization and content-based filtering with cosine similarity. The technologies used in the system are centred around Python on the backend (with the use of TensorFlow and NumPy for Machine Learning functionalities) and Svelte on the frontend. The system was inspired by a microservices architecture, where each service is represented by its own Docker container, and it was made available online through a public domain. The system was evaluated through performance, reliability, and usability. The Quantitative Evaluation Framework tool was used to define dimensions, factors, and requirements (and their respective scores). The students who tested the solution rated the recommendation system with a value of approximately 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, and the precision, recall, false positive rate, and F-Measure values were evaluated at 0.51, 0.71, 0.23, and 0.59, respectively. Additionally, both groups rated the application as intuitive and easy to use, with ratings around 8 on a scale of 1 to 10

The AI4Citizen pilot: Pipelining AI-based technologies to support school-work alternation programmes

The School-Work Alternation (SWA) programme was developed (under a European Commission call) to bridge the gaps and establish a well-tuned partnership between education and the job market. This work details the development of the AI4Citizen pilot, an AI software suite designed to support the SWA programme. The AI4Citizen pilot, developed within the H2020 AI4EU project, offers AI tools to automate and enhance the current SWA process. At the same time, the AI4Citizen pilot offers novel tools to support the complex problem of allocating student teams to internship programs, promoting collaborative learning and teamwork skills acquisition. Notably, the AI4Citizen pilot corresponds to a pipeline of AI tools, integrating existing and novel technologies. Our exhaustive empirical analysis confirms that the AI4Citizen pilot can alleviate the difficulties of current processes in the SWA, and therefore it is ready for real-world deployment

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission