Adaptation of an Evaluation System for e-Health Environments

Proceedings of: 14th International Conference, KES 2010, Cardiff, UK, September 8-10, 2010The increase in ageing of European population implies a high cost in economy and society in any European country and it can be reduced if we pay attention and develop home care systems. Evaluation of these systems is a critical and challenging issue but seldom tackled. It is important before evaluating a system to figure out what is the evaluation goal. In our case, such a goal is to evaluate enhanced user experience and beyond the evaluation goal it is also a central concern about what to evaluate. In this paper we propose a multi-agent home care system where we describe how agents coordinate their decisions to provide e-services to patients when at home after hospitalization. Finally we center our proposal on the adaptation of an evaluation system, previously developed, to support the challenges of an e-Health environment and also the multi-user evaluation. These evaluation methods (online/offline) will provide user's (patients, patient's relatives and healthcare professionals) feedback into the system.This work was supported in part by Projects CICYT TIN2008-06742-C02-02/ TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/ TIC-1485) and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Review: Towards the agroecological management of ruminants, pigs and poultry through the development of sustainable breeding programmes. II. Breeding strategies

Agroecology uses ecological processes and local resources rather than chemical inputs to develop productive and resilient livestock and crop production systems. In this context, breeding innovations are necessary to obtain animals that are both productive and adapted to a broad range of local contexts and diversity of systems. Breeding strategies to promote agroecological systems are similar for different animal species. However, current practices differ regarding the breeding of ruminants, pigs and poultry. Ruminant breeding is still an open system where farmers continue to choose their own breeds and strategies. Conversely, pig and poultry breeding is more or less the exclusive domain of international breeding companies which supply farmers with hybrid animals. Innovations in breeding strategies must therefore be adapted to the different species. In developed countries, reorienting current breeding programmes seems to be more effective than developing programmes dedicated to agroecological systems that will struggle to be really effective because of the small size of the populations currently concerned by such systems. Particular attention needs to be paid to determining the respective usefulness of cross-breeding v. straight breeding strategies of well-adapted local breeds. While cross-breeding may offer some immediate benefits in terms of improving certain traits that enable the animals to adapt well to local environmental conditions, it may be difficult to sustain these benefits in the longer term and could also induce an important loss of genetic diversity if the initial pure-bred populations are no longer produced. As well as supporting the value of within-breed diversity, we must preserve between-breed diversity in order to maintain numerous options for adaptation to a variety of production environments and contexts. This may involve specific public policies to maintain and characterize local breeds (in terms of both phenotypes and genotypes), which could be used more effectively if they benefited from the scientific and technical resources currently available for more common breeds. Last but not least, public policies need to enable improved information concerning the genetic resources and breeding tools available for the agroecological management of livestock production systems, and facilitate its assimilation by farmers and farm technicians

Resilient seed systems for climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in the East Africa sub-region: Report of training workshop, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 17-21 September 2019

Bioversity International is implementing a Dutch-supported project entitled: Resilient seed systems for climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihoods in the East Africa sub-region. This work aims to boost timely and affordable access to good-quality seed for a portfolio of crops / varieties for millions of women and men farmers’ and their communities across east Africa. A first project training: i) contextualized farmer varietal selection, ii) provided practical demonstrations of tools for climate-change analysis, iii) introduced policy issues associated with managing crop diversity, iv) outlined characterization and evaluation of genetic resources, and v) articulated associated gender issues, and issues related to disseminating elite materials. The training concluded with a contextualizing field trip. In the workshop evaluation, 98% participants declared their overall satisfaction level to be high (74%) or medium (24%), indicating the training furnished them with good ideas for networking and using the tools and methods they learned about

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

The Online Faculty Development and Assessment System

This article evaluates the role of the Online Faculty Development and Assessment System (OFDAS), created at universities in the Canary Islands, Spain, in staff development. The evaluation indicates that the system helped staff in learning to teach curriculum and teaching capacities. The tasks, online resources and opportunities for discussions provided within the learning environment created for the system helped shape their attitudes towards learning curriculum and teaching capacities and enabled them to share their concerns about students’ classroom learning environment assessment

Artificial neural network analysis of teachers��� performance against thermal comfort

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Emerald in International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation on 17/04/2020, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBPA-11-2019-0098 The accepted manuscript may differ from the final published version.Purpose: The impact of thermal comfort in educational buildings continues to be of major importance in both the design and construction phases. Given this, it is also equally important to understand and appreciate the impact of design decisions on post-occupancy performance, particularly on staff and students. This study aims to present the effect of IEQ on teachers��� performance. This study would provide thermal environment requirements to BIM-led school refurbishment projects. Design: This paper presents a detailed investigation into the direct impact of thermal parameters (temperature, relative humidity and ventilation rates) on teacher performance. In doing so, the research methodological approach combines explicit mixed-methods using questionnaire surveys and physical measurements of thermal parameters to identify correlation and inference. It was conducted through a single case study using a technical college based in Saudi Arabia. Findings: Findings from this work were used to develop a model using an Artificial Neural Network to establish causal relationships. Research findings indicate an optimal temperature range between 23��C and 25��C, with a 65% relative humidity and 0.4m/s ventilation rate. This ratio delivered optimum results for both comfort and performance

Beach users’ perceptions of coastal regeneration projects as an adaptation strategy in the western Mediterranean

Some coastal environments facing climate change risks are starting to be managed with nature-based solutions (NBS). Strategies based on the rehabilitation of green infrastructures in coastal municipalities, such as renaturalization of seafronts, are considered adaptive to the effects of climate change but may cause misconceptions that could lead to social conflicts between the tourist sector and the society. A survey was carried out to study user perceptions on the effects of climate change, preferences for adaptation strategies, and the assessment of projects of dune reconstruction. We find that while beach users recognize the benefits of NBS for environmental conservation and storm protection, they show little concern about possible effects of climate change on recreational activity and have limited understanding about the protective capacity of NBS. Thus, a greater effort must be made to better explain the effects of climate change and the potential benefits of NBS in coastal risk management.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft