Is the timed-up and go test feasible in mobile devices? A systematic review

The number of older adults is increasing worldwide, and it is expected that by 2050 over 2 billion individuals will be more than 60 years old. Older adults are exposed to numerous pathological problems such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, post-stroke, and orthopedic disturbances. Several physiotherapy methods that involve measurement of movements, such as the Timed-Up and Go test, can be done to support efficient and effective evaluation of pathological symptoms and promotion of health and well-being. In this systematic review, the authors aim to determine how the inertial sensors embedded in mobile devices are employed for the measurement of the different parameters involved in the Timed-Up and Go test. The main contribution of this paper consists of the identification of the different studies that utilize the sensors available in mobile devices for the measurement of the results of the Timed-Up and Go test. The results show that mobile devices embedded motion sensors can be used for these types of studies and the most commonly used sensors are the magnetometer, accelerometer, and gyroscope available in off-the-shelf smartphones. The features analyzed in this paper are categorized as quantitative, quantitative + statistic, dynamic balance, gait properties, state transitions, and raw statistics. These features utilize the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors and facilitate recognition of daily activities, accidents such as falling, some diseases, as well as the measurement of the subject's performance during the test execution.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Job Mobility and Earnings Over the Life Cycle

The paper analyzes the effects of job mobility on earnings both at young and at older ages. The model takes into account the discontinuity of earnings across jobs, the decline of human capital investment within the job and over the life cycle, and the effects of mobility on the slope of the earnings profile. Careful attention to the functional form of the earnings equation indicates why the coefficient of the current segment is usually larger than the coefficient of the previous segments. Findings from the NLS data include: (1.) Mobile individuals at all ages invest significantly less in on-the-job training. (2.) Although job mobility is associated with significant wage gains (across jobs), there is a substantial wage differential between the mobile and the non-mobile at older ages. (3.) The explanatory power of the earnings equation is significantly increased by accounting for the effects of job mobility; job mobility is an important determinant of the wage structure.

Technoligical Life Cycles Regional Clusters Facing Disruption

The phenomenon of technological life cycles is argued to be of great importance in the development of regional clusters. New 'disruptive' technologies may initiate the emergence of new regional industrial clusters and/or create new opportunities for further development of existing ones. However, they may also result in stagnation and decline of the latter. The term disruptive refers to such significant changes in the basic technologies that may change the industrial landscape, even in the shorter run. The paper examines the key features of a regional cluster, where the economic development patterns are quite closely related to the emergence of new key technologies.Technological life cycles, regional clusters, communication technology

Are pensions worth the cost?

The U.S. Treasury estimates that personal income tax receipts in fiscal 1992 would be $51 billion higher without the special provisions accorded employer-sponsored pension plans. Pension provisions, in fact, were the single largest item in the tax expenditure budget. Like most other tax expenditures, and unlike direct expenditures, the revenue loss from favorable tax provisions for employer-sponsored plans is not submitted to a formal and systematic review each year by Congress. Therefore, the question of whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from this very large implicit outlay should be addressed periodically. ; To that end, this paper first takes a closer look at the tax expenditure for employer-sponsored pensions--a number that has been the subject of considerable controversy. After establishing that the forgone revenues are substantial no matter how they are estimated, the following sections explore whether the expenditures produce the desired results. Section II addresses the saving issue and concludes that support for employer-sponsored pension plans should not rest on the assumption that they increase national saving. ; The last three sections assess the effectiveness of pensions as a provider of supplementary retirement income. They discuss three serious weaknesses with the current system. Section III focuses on the coverage problem; only 46 percent of the private work force is currently covered and coverage continues to decline. Section IV explores the erosion in the value of benefits experienced by mobile employees under defined benefit plans. Section V addresses the lack of cost-of-living adjustments to annuity payments to retired employees, under either defined benefit or defined contribution plans. ; The conclusion that emerges from this review is that despite a myriad of legislative changes, all of which combine to increase the likelihood that persons covered by pension plans will actually receive benefits, the U.S. pension system is still a very erratic and unpredictable way to provide retirement income and it benefits only a privileged subset of the population. In short, the$51 billion is not well spent. If the government is going to use taxpayers’ money to subsidize supplementary retirement income, it should do so in a fashion whereby all citizens enjoy the subsidy. If this seems unrealistic in the current environment, the alternative is to recoup the subsidy. One way to accomplish this goal would be simply to levy an annual tax of roughly 2.5 percent on the stock of pension assets; of course, numerous other approaches are possible. The important message is that it is time to explore the alternatives for revising the tax treatment of employer-sponsored pension plans.Pensions

Use of nonintrusive sensor-based information and communication technology for real-world evidence for clinical trials in dementia

Cognitive function is an important end point of treatments in dementia clinical trials. Measuring cognitive function by standardized tests, however, is biased toward highly constrained environments (such as hospitals) in selected samples. Patient-powered real-world evidence using information and communication technology devices, including environmental and wearable sensors, may help to overcome these limitations. This position paper describes current and novel information and communication technology devices and algorithms to monitor behavior and function in people with prodromal and manifest stages of dementia continuously, and discusses clinical, technological, ethical, regulatory, and user-centered requirements for collecting real-world evidence in future randomized controlled trials. Challenges of data safety, quality, and privacy and regulatory requirements need to be addressed by future smart sensor technologies. When these requirements are satisfied, these technologies will provide access to truly user relevant outcomes and broader cohorts of participants than currently sampled in clinical trials

How does Internet usage influence young travellers' choices?

New technologies have significant effects on travel behavior, attitudes, habits and potentially future travel demand. Effects may be more prominent for Millennials. Little empirical research has investigated these relationships, mainly due to data limitations. This study focuses on the potential influence of using the Internet while traveling on Millennials’ plans for car ownership. We examine two questions: Does using the Internet while traveling influence trip frequencies? and Does it affect Millennials’ intention to purchase a car? Results suggest that Internet use while traveling is positively associated with travel demand and the intention to purchase a car in the near future