The Medical Device Dongle: An Open-Source Standards-Based Platform for Interoperable Medical Device Connectivity

Emerging medical applications require device coordination, increasing the need to connect devices in an interoperable manner. However, many of the existing health devices in use were not originally developed for network connectivity and those devices with networking capabilities either use proprietary protocols or implementations of standard protocols that are unavailable to the end user. The first set of devices are unsuitable for device coordination applications and the second set are unsuitable for research in medical device interoperability. We propose the Medical Device Dongle (MDD), a low-cost, open-source platform that addresses both issues

Extending Conditional Simple Temporal Networks with Partially Shrinkable Uncertainty

The proper handling of temporal constraints is crucial in many domains. As a particular challenge, temporal constraints must be also handled when different specific situations happen (conditional constraints) and when some event occurrences can be only observed at run time (contingent constraints). In this paper we introduce Conditional Simple Temporal Networks with Partially Shrinkable Uncertainty (CSTNPSUs), in which contingent constraints are made more flexible (guarded constraints) and they are also specified as conditional constraints. It turns out that guarded constraints require the ability to reason on both kinds of constraints in a seamless way. In particular, we discuss CSTNPSU features through a motivating example and, then, we introduce the concept of controllability for such networks and the related sound checking algorithm

Clinical significance of cerebral microbleeds on MRI

__Background:__ Cerebral microbleeds can confer a high risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, death and dementia, but estimated risks remain imprecise and often conflicting. We investigated the association between cerebral microbleeds presence and these outcomes in a large meta-analysis of all published cohorts including: ischemic stroke/TIA, memory clinic, “high risk” elderly populations, and healthy individuals in population-based studies. __Methods:__ Cohorts (with > 100 participants) that assessed cerebral microbleeds presence on MRI, with subsequent follow-up (≥3 months) were identified. The association between cerebral microbleeds and each of the outcomes (ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, death, and dementia) was quantified using random effects models of (a) unadjusted crude odds ratios and (b) covariate-adjusted hazard rations. Results: We identified 31 cohorts (n = 20,368): 19 ischemic stroke/TIA (n = 7672), 4 memory clinic (n = 1957), 3 high risk elderly (n = 1458) and 5 population-based cohorts (n = 11,722). Cerebral microbleeds were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.58–2.89 and adj-HR: 2.09; 95% CI: 1.71–2.57), but the relative increase in future intracerebral hemorrhage risk was greater (OR: 4.65; 95% CI: 2.68–8.08 and adj-HR: 3.93; 95% CI: 2.71–5.69). Cerebral microbleeds were an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (adj-HR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.24–1.48). In three population-based studies, cerebral microbleeds were independently associated with incident dementia (adj-HR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.00–1.82). Results were overall consistent in analyses stratified by different populations, but with different degrees of heterogeneity. __Conclusions:__ Our meta-analysis shows that cerebral microbleeds predict an increased risk of stroke, death, and dementia and provides up-to-date effect sizes across different clinical settings. These pooled estimates can inform clinical decisions and trials, further supporting cerebral microbleeds role as biomarkers of underlying subclinical brain pathology in research and clinical settings

SocioEconomicMag Meets a Platform for SES-Diverse College Students: A Case Study

Emerging research shows that individual differences in how people use technology sometimes cluster by socioeconomic status (SES) and that when technology is not socioeconomically inclusive, low-SES individuals may abandon it. To understand how to improve technology's SES-inclusivity, we present a multi-phase case study on SocioEconomicMag (SESMag), an emerging inspection method for socio+economic inclusivity. In our 16-month case study, a software team developing a learning management platform used SESMag to evaluate and then to improve their platform's SES-inclusivity. The results showed that (1) the practitioners identified SES-inclusivity bugs in 76% of the features they evaluated; (2) these inclusivity bugs actually arise among low-SES college students; and (3) the SESMag process pointed ways towards fixing these bugs. Finally, (4) a user study with SES-diverse college students showed that the platform's SES-inclusivity eradicated 45-54% of the bugs; for some types of bugs, the bug instance eradication rate was 80% or higher.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Using ClassCraft to Improve Primary School Students´ Knowledge and Interest in Sustainable Mobility

ABSTARCT: Teaching students awareness about sustainable mobility has been lacking to date. There is a need to expand the themes being addressed in order to achieve a change in attitude. Society needs to design a curriculum that teaches about sustainable mobility to guarantee a better environment for future generations. This article presents the most important results of an experiment based on gamification to promote the education of sustainable mobility in primary school classrooms. This new teaching method, aimed at children aged 10?12 years old, applies non-gambling play metaphors to real-life tasks to motivate a change in attitude. The didactic approach was developed using the ClassCraft platform to create specific activities that consider the environmental, economic, and social aspects of sustainable mobility. The initial analysis revealed a perception about sustainable mobility that focused on environmental problems with very little input on the economic and social aspects. The experience has shown that by using the gamified ClassCraft tool applying structured activities about all aspects of sustainable mobility, the pupils acquired new concepts that clarified the social and economic components and began to develop a conscience about how to become an active part in behavioural change

Responsive Asthma Care for Teens (ReACT): Development protocol for an adaptive mobile health intervention for adolescents with asthma

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Introduction Asthma is a leading cause of youth morbidity in the USA, affecting >8% of youth. Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) can prevent asthma-related morbidity; however, the typical adolescent with asthma takes fewer than 50% of their prescribed doses. Adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to suboptimal asthma self-management due to still-developing executive functioning capabilities that may impede consistent self-regulation and weaken attempts to use problem solving to overcome barriers to ICS adherence. Methods and analysis The aims of this project are to improve adherence to ICS as an important step towards better self-management among adolescents aged 13–17 years diagnosed with asthma by merging the efficacious behaviour change strategies found in behavioural health interventions with scalable, adaptive mobile health (mHealth) technologies to create the Responsive Asthma Care for Teens programme (ReACT). ReACT intervention content will be developed through an iterative user-centred design process that includes conducting (1) one-on-one interviews with 20 teens with asthma; (2) crowdsourced feedback from a nationally representative panel of 100 adolescents with asthma and (3) an advisory board of youth with asthma, a paediatric pulmonologist and a behavioural health expert. In tandem, we will work with an existing technology vendor to programme ReACT algorithms to allow for tailored intervention delivery. We will conduct usability testing of an alpha version of ReACT with a sample of 20 target users to assess acceptability and usability of our mHealth intervention. Participants will complete a 4-week run-in period to monitor their adherence with all ReACT features turned off. Subsequently, participants will complete a 4-week intervention period with all ReACT features activated. The study started in October 2018 and is scheduled to conclude in late 2019. Ethics and dissemination Institutional review board approval was obtained at the University of Kansas and the University of Florida. We will submit study findings for presentation at national research conferences that are well attended by a mix of psychologists, allied health professionals and physicians. We will publish study findings in peer-reviewed journals read by members of the psychology, nursing and pulmonary communities