Enhanced Living Environments

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”. The concept of Enhanced Living Environments (ELE) refers to the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) that is more related with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Effective ELE solutions require appropriate ICT algorithms, architectures, platforms, and systems, having in view the advance of science and technology in this area and the development of new and innovative solutions that can provide improvements in the quality of life for people in their homes and can reduce the financial burden on the budgets of the healthcare providers. The aim of this book is to become a state-of-the-art reference, discussing progress made, as well as prompting future directions on theories, practices, standards, and strategies related to the ELE area. The book contains 12 chapters and can serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate students, post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, medical doctors, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and research strategists working in this area

Quantifying Quality of Life

Describes technological methods and tools for objective and quantitative assessment of QoL Appraises technology-enabled methods for incorporating QoL measurements in medicine Highlights the success factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods This open access book presents the rise of technology-enabled methods and tools for objective, quantitative assessment of Quality of Life (QoL), while following the WHOQOL model. It is an in-depth resource describing and examining state-of-the-art, minimally obtrusive, ubiquitous technologies. Highlighting the required factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods and tools for QoL assessment, it also describes how these technologies can be leveraged for behavior change, disease prevention, health management and long-term QoL enhancement in populations at large. Quantifying Quality of Life: Incorporating Daily Life into Medicine fills a gap in the field of QoL by providing assessment methods, techniques and tools. These assessments differ from the current methods that are now mostly infrequent, subjective, qualitative, memory-based, context-poor and sparse. Therefore, it is an ideal resource for physicians, physicians in training, software and hardware developers, computer scientists, data scientists, behavioural scientists, entrepreneurs, healthcare leaders and administrators who are seeking an up-to-date resource on this subject

Quantifying Quality of Life

Describes technological methods and tools for objective and quantitative assessment of QoL Appraises technology-enabled methods for incorporating QoL measurements in medicine Highlights the success factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods This open access book presents the rise of technology-enabled methods and tools for objective, quantitative assessment of Quality of Life (QoL), while following the WHOQOL model. It is an in-depth resource describing and examining state-of-the-art, minimally obtrusive, ubiquitous technologies. Highlighting the required factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods and tools for QoL assessment, it also describes how these technologies can be leveraged for behavior change, disease prevention, health management and long-term QoL enhancement in populations at large. Quantifying Quality of Life: Incorporating Daily Life into Medicine fills a gap in the field of QoL by providing assessment methods, techniques and tools. These assessments differ from the current methods that are now mostly infrequent, subjective, qualitative, memory-based, context-poor and sparse. Therefore, it is an ideal resource for physicians, physicians in training, software and hardware developers, computer scientists, data scientists, behavioural scientists, entrepreneurs, healthcare leaders and administrators who are seeking an up-to-date resource on this subject

Programming Languages and Systems

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 30th European Symposium on Programming, ESOP 2021, which was held during March 27 until April 1, 2021, as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2021. The conference was planned to take place in Luxembourg and changed to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 24 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 79 submissions. They deal with fundamental issues in the specification, design, analysis, and implementation of programming languages and systems

Interacção 2010: actas da 4ª Conferência Nacional em Interacção Humano-Computador

Prefácio: Encontramo-nos perante mais uma edição do congresso nacional sobre Interacção, o “Interacção 2010”, um evento científico cuja regularidade tem permitido consolidar a sua natureza profundamente transdisciplinar. A referência do congresso continua a ser a área científica internacional de “Human-Computer Interaction”, uma área que tem ganhado relevância e valor no progresso sócio-económico desta última década, onde o ser humano e a coisa social assumem a prioridade que lhes é devida. O “Interacção” tem assumido sempre a condição da debater um vasto leque de temas, mas sempre em contextos de mediação tecnológica e onde o objectivo final é servir a condição humana. Esta edição continua a confirmar esta atitude que se reflecte nas grandes áreas temáticas que anunciou para submissão de trabalhos: Concepção, Desenvolvimento e Estudo da Interacção, Tecnologias e Aplicações de Suporte à Interacção, Aspectos Humanos, Sociais e Organizacionais, e Contextos de Interacção diversos. A resposta da comunidade científica nacional ao apelo de participação foi de extrema eficiência e riqueza. Foram submetidos um total de 64 artigos longos, artigos curtos e posters e/ou demos. O resultado da avaliação (“double-blind”) pelos revisores, e as conversões de formato sugeridas a alguns autores, conduziram a que o leitor venha a encontrar nestas actas 21 artigos longos, 20 artigos curtos e 15 posters. Por insuficiência de propostas de demos esta possibilidade de exposição não foi considerada. Esta quantidade crescente de trabalho em relação a edições anteriores do “Interacção”, e os três oradores convidados (2 internacionais e 1 nacional), originaram um programa de trabalho que incontornavelmente se estendeu a três dias de trabalho contrariando os tradicionais dois dias de congresso. O programa decorreu de 13 a 15 de Outubro de 2010 na Universidade de Aveiro e as 8 sessões que o caracterizaram foram organizadas respeitando os temas: i) Interfaces Multi-toque; ii) Interacção com Dispositivos Móveis; iii) Concepção e Desenvolvimento da Interacção; iv) Realidade Virtual e Aumentada; v) Visualização de Informação; vi) Videojogos e Interacção; vii) Acessibilidade e viii) Interacção em Contextos Diversos. Por fim, e porque um evento desta natureza não se consegue organizar sem a mobilização, o trabalho de grande qualidade e a dedicação de várias pessoas, importa agradecer a todos os elementos da Comissão Organizadora, e aos estudantes voluntários que ajudaram em toda a logística, bem como a todos os elementos da Comissão de Programa e aos revisores externos que também aceitaram analisar trabalhos submetidos. Aos nossos convidados, Francisco Providência, Jennifer Preece e Shahram Izadi, pela disponibilidade de estarem e partilharem connosco o seu conhecimento e experiência na área, o nosso sincero obrigado. Pelo papel fundamental de um secretariado profissional e eficiente fica ainda o nosso agradecimento à Anabela Viegas. Terminamos com o especial agradecimento a todos os autores e conferencistas que acreditaram na competência e rigor de toda esta equipa para acolher o seu trabalho e expô-lo publicamente. Despedimo-nos acreditando que o "Interacção" continuará por terras lusas, quiçá numa toada cada vez mais internacionalizada, e deixando votos para que a edição de 2012 seja pautada por igual sucesso e entusiasmo; a área da Interacção assim o exige e merece. Bem hajam. Aveiro, Outubro de 2010. Óscar Mealha, Daniel Tércio, Beatriz Sousa Santos, Joaquim Madeira.publishe

Muscle activation patterns in shoulder impingement patients

Introduction: Shoulder impingement is one of the most common presentations of shoulder joint problems 1. It appears to be caused by a reduction in the sub-acromial space as the humerus abducts between 60o -120o – the 'painful arc'. Structures between the humeral head and the acromion are thus pinched causing pain and further pathology 2. Shoulder muscle activity can influence this joint space but it is unclear whether this is a cause or effect in impingement patients. This study aimed to observe muscle activation patterns in normal and impingement shoulder patients and determine if there were any significant differences. Method: 19 adult subjects were asked to perform shoulder abduction in their symptomatic arm and non-symptomatic. 10 of these subjects (age 47.9 ± 11.2) were screened for shoulder impingement, and 9 subjects (age 38.9 ± 14.3) had no history of shoulder pathology. Surface EMG was used to collect data for 6 shoulder muscles (Upper, middle and lower trapezius, serratus anterior, infraspinatus, middle deltoids) which was then filtered and fully rectified. Subjects performed 3 smooth unilateral abduction movements at a cadence of 16 beats of a metronome set at 60bpm, and the mean of their results was recorded. T-tests were used to indicate any statistical significance in the data sets. Significance was set at P<0.05. Results: There was a significant difference in muscle activation with serratus anterior in particular showing a very low level of activation throughout the range when compared to normal shoulder activation patterns (<30%). Middle deltoid recruitment was significantly reduced between 60-90o in the impingement group (30:58%).Trends were noted in other muscles with upper trapezius and infraspinatus activating more rapidly and erratically (63:25%; 60:27% respectively), and lower trapezius with less recruitment (13:30%) in the patient group, although these did not quite reach significance. Conclusion: There appears to be some interesting alterations in muscle recruitment patterns in impingement shoulder patients when compared against their own unaffected shoulders and the control group. In particular changes in scapula control (serratus anterior and trapezius) and lateral rotation (infraspinatus), which have direct influence on the sub-acromial space, should be noted. It is still not clear whether these alterations are causative or reactionary, but this finding gives a clear indication to the importance of addressing muscle reeducation as part of a rehabilitation programme in shoulder impingement patients

The development of a quality function deployment (QFD) model for the implementation of a mobile augmented reality (AR) tourism application in the context of urban heritage tourism

Technology has been widely implemented in tourism to enhance the tourism product and tourist experience. However, it remains a challenge for many tourism businesses in urban heritage areas to identify technological solutions and successfully implement them into their business strategy. Particularly for urban heritage sites, it is often challenging to provide information within and around a heritage site without disturbing or destroying the heritage image. Augmented Reality (AR) was identified as a suitable technology to overcome this challenge. However, while AR is not considered a new technology in many industries, and mobile tourism applications with AR functions exist, it has provided limited benefits to tourists due to the lack of using AR functions meaningfully. In addition, the development of wearable devices is increasingly focused on the use of augmented and virtual reality to enhance the user experience. Therefore, there is a need to explore methods of meaningful implementation of such technologies for the tourism industry. This study will investigate current standards of AR technology and tourist requirements in order to examine how to develop meaningful mobile AR tourism applications. For the development of a beneficial product, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), as a tool within Total Quality Management (TQM) was identified as the suitable theoretical background for the purpose of this study. QFD was developed in the theory of quality management, in particular TQM. QFD has since been employed across many industries including the hospitality and tourism sector in a number of studies. However, it has not yet been implemented in the urban heritage tourism context, presenting a knowledge gap. As QFD is designed to incorporate the customers’ view into the product design stage, the aim is to design a meaningful product that is valuable for the visitor and benefit the destination. Therefore, this research aims to eliminate the gap by generating a QFD model for the development of mobile AR tourism applications in the context of urban heritage tourism. Dublin was selected as the research site due to its rich urban heritage. After Dublin’s re-branding strategy in 2013, it has marketed itself with the brand image of ‘Digital Dublin’ in order to encourage the implementation of technology for the purpose of promoting urban heritage tourism. Therefore, Dublin was considered as the suitable research site for the purpose of this study. To achieve the research aim, a mixed method approach was employed for the primary research including semi-structured interviews, focus groups and questionnaires. The study was divided into three research phases. Research phase 1 investigates requirements of tourists, mobile AR application developers and industry experts from Dublin’s tourism industry for the development and use of mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. 26 in-depth interviews were conducted with international tourists visiting Dublin in addition to 9 interviews with mobile AR application developers and industry experts from Dublin. Findings were analysed using thematic analysis, providing the knowledge base for Research Phase 2 – focus groups. The second research phase was conducted with tourists as a post-experience study. It aimed to confirm identified tourist requirements from the literature and Research Phase 1, and examine additional findings to design the questionnaire for the quantitative Research Phase 3. Research Phase 3 was conducted with domestic and international tourists in Dublin and provided an importance rating of identified tourist requirements for the development of the final QFD model for mobile AR tourism applications in the urban heritage tourism context. The outcomes from the quantitative research were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to reduce tourist requirements for the final QFD model. By identifying tourist requirements and translating them into respective technical characteristics, this study provides a set of technological elements in hierarchical order for the design of meaningful mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. The final 18 requirements are in close alignment with the outcomes of the qualitative research of this study highlighting the need of immediate access to information regardless of time and place, while being able to filter the available information to the tourists’ interest and needs. The final QFD model for the development of mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism was presented as the outcome of this research. The main contribution to theory is the extension in the identification process of customer requirements for the QFD model. While previous studies in QFD have mainly focused on product functions, such as software and hardware capabilities, the QFD model in this study aims to provide a balance between functional requirements and behavioural characteristics of tourists that are driven by psychological aspects. This study not only explored tourist requirements as in previous studies, but furthermore user resistance factors that would result in avoiding mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. Including these criteria as customer attributes in the HOQ, the QFD model was extended to include behavioural and psychological attributes of customers, which is valuable for further implementation of QFD particularly in social studies. This research will furthermore contribute to professionals, Destination Marketing Organisations (DMO) as well as mobile AR application developers alike, by providing a model for the development of mobile AR applications in the context of urban heritage tourism that has incorporated tourist requirements as well as mobile AR application developer considerations. Furthermore, it needs to be acknowledged that the requirements are not limited to mobile AR applications, but are considered particularly valuable for further research in the area of mobile application development for tourism purposes and are expected to be partially transferable to other technology implementations for tourism products