8,277 research outputs found

    Evolutionary Service Composition and Personalization Ecosystem for Elderly Care

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    Current demographic trends suggest that people are living longer, while the ageing process entails many necessities, calling for care services tailored to the individual senior’s needs and life style. Personalized provision of care services usually involves a number of stakeholders, including relatives, friends, caregivers, professional assistance organizations, enterprises, and other support entities. Traditional Information and Communication Technology based care and assistance services for the elderly have been mainly focused on the development of isolated and generic services, considering a single service provider, and excessively featuring a techno-centric approach. In contrast, advances on collaborative networks for elderly care suggest the integration of services from multiple providers, encouraging collaboration as a way to provide better personalized services. This approach requires a support system to manage the personalization process and allow ranking the {service, provider} pairs. An additional issue is the problem of service evolution, as individual’s care needs are not static over time. Consequently, the care services need to evolve accordingly to keep the elderly’s requirements satisfied. In accordance with these requirements, an Elderly Care Ecosystem (ECE) framework, a Service Composition and Personalization Environment (SCoPE), and a Service Evolution Environment (SEvol) are proposed. The ECE framework provides the context for the personalization and evolution methods. The SCoPE method is based on the match between the customer´s profile and the available {service, provider} pairs to identify suitable services and corresponding providers to attend the needs. SEvol is a method to build an adaptive and evolutionary system based on the MAPE-K methodology supporting the solution evolution to cope with the elderly's new life stages. To demonstrate the feasibility, utility and applicability of SCoPE and SEvol, a number of methods and algorithms are presented, and illustrative scenarios are introduced in which {service, provider} pairs are ranked based on a multidimensional assessment method. Composition strategies are based on customer’s profile and requirements, and the evolutionary solution is determined considering customer’s inputs and evolution plans. For the ECE evaluation process the following steps are adopted: (i) feature selection and software prototype development; (ii) detailing the ECE framework validation based on applicability and utility parameters; (iii) development of a case study illustrating a typical scenario involving an elderly and her care needs; and (iv) performing a survey based on a modified version of the technology acceptance model (TAM), considering three contexts: Technological, Organizational and Collaborative environment

    Is this Digital Resilience? Insights from Adaptation and Exaptation of a Cyber-Physical-Social System

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    This paper is based on a qualitative case study that explores the adaptation and customisation of a Cyber Physical Social System (CPSS)-based patient monitoring solution for use during Covid19 in the Norwegian health sector. The study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) what are the preconditions that enable the adaptive use of a CPSS in crisis response efforts? 2) what are the contributions of the adaptive use of technology in the building of digital resilience in a health organisation? The study identifies five main themes emerge as enabling factors forming a basis for the preconditions to adaptive use of the CPSS. We conclude with a discussion on the practical and theoretical implications of this research and how it contributes to crisis management and digital resilience theory

    Inflammaging: a new immune–metabolic viewpoint for age-related diseases

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    open5siThis work was partly supported by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio delle Province Lombarde (CARIPLO) (Rif. 2015–0564 to C.F. and Rif. 2016–0835); European Union (EU) FP7 Project HUMAN (Health and the Understanding of Metabolism, Aging and Nutrition) (grant agreement 602757) and EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) Adage to C.F.; EU H2020 Project PROPAG-AGEING (grant agreement 634821) to C.F. and P.G.; the Italian Ministry of Health Ricerca Finalizzata Young Researchers (under 40)–Giovani Ricercatori (GR-2013-02358026) to A.S.; Basic Research Projects of the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna (ALMA-IDEA-2017) to C.G.; and a grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (agreement 074-02-2018-330) "Digitalized and Personalized Medicine of Healthy Aging (DPM-AGEING)" at Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod to C.FAgeing and age-related diseases share some basic mechanistic pillars that largely converge on inflammation. During ageing, chronic, sterile, low-grade inflammation — called inflammaging — develops, which contributes to the pathogenesis of age-related diseases. From an evolutionary perspective, a variety of stimuli sustain inflammaging, including pathogens (non-self), endogenous cell debris and misplaced molecules (self) and nutrients and gut microbiota (quasi-self). A limited number of receptors, whose degeneracy allows them to recognize many signals and to activate the innate immune responses, sense these stimuli. In this situation, metaflammation (the metabolic inflammation accompanying metabolic diseases) is thought to be the form of chronic inflammation that is driven by nutrient excess or overnutrition; metaflammation is characterized by the same mechanisms underpinning inflammaging. The gut microbiota has a central role in both metaflammation and inflammaging owing to its ability to release inflammatory products, contribute to circadian rhythms and crosstalk with other organs and systems. We argue that chronic diseases are not only the result of ageing and inflammaging; these diseases also accelerate the ageing process and can be considered a manifestation of accelerated ageing. Finally, we propose the use of new biomarkers (DNA methylation, glycomics, metabolomics and lipidomics) that are capable of assessing biological versus chronological age in metabolic diseases.openopenFranceschi C.; Garagnani P.; Parini P.; Giuliani C.; Santoro A.Franceschi C.; Garagnani P.; Parini P.; Giuliani C.; Santoro A

    Leveraging IS in the complexity of healthcare: a combined NCA- and PLS-SEM analysis on the effects of co-evolutionary IS-alignment

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    Several studies have advocated for the value of co-evolutionary approaches to business-IT alignment in healthcare settings because they would be better suited to deal with complexity. However, empirical evidence supporting this premise is scarce and mainly based on qualitative works. We address this research gap by performing a survey among 85 Dutch healthcare organizations, looking into the effects of co-evolutionary information systems alignment (COISA) on organizational performance and the role of dynamic capabilities in this value path. We combine Necessary Condition Analysis and Partial Least Squares Modeling to see which aspects are indispensable and help further develop dynamic capabilities and performance. Our results confirm that COISA indeed positively influences healthcare organizations’ organizational performance through dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, we demonstrate that alignment motivation and interconnections between heterogeneous IS stakeholders are indispensable, and show the seemingly higher importance of the operational and orchestrational alignment competencies and the sensing dimension of dynamic capabilities

    Supporting evidence-based adaptation decision-making in the Australian Capital Territory: a synthesis of climate change adaptation research

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    This research synthesis provides policy-makers and practitioners with an understanding of the building blocks for effective adaptation decision-making, as evidenced through the NCCARF research program. It synthesised a portfolio of adaptation research for each Australian state and territory and addressing the complex relationships between research and policy development.   Each state and territory synthesis report directs users to research relevant identified priorities. Authored by Jennifer Cane, Laura Cacho, Nicolas Dircks and Peter Steele

    A different approach in an AAL ecosystem: a mobile assistant for the caregiver

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    Currently the Ambient Assisted Living and the Ambient Intelligence areas are very prolific. There is a demand of security and comfort that should be ensured at people’s homes. The AAL4ALL (ambient assisted living for all) pro-ject aims to develop a unified ecosystem and a certification process, allowing the development of fully compatible devices and services. The UserAccess emerges from the AAL4ALL project, being a demonstration of its validity. The UserAc-cess architecture, implementation, interfaces and test scenario are presented, along with the sensor platform specially developed for the AAL4ALL project.Project "AAL4ALL", co-financed by the European Community Fund FEDER, through COMPETE - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC). Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Lisbon, Portugal, through Project PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013 and the project PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/2014. Project CAMCoF - Context-aware Multimodal Communication Framework funded by ERDF -European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980

    Supporting evidence-based adaptation decision-making in South Australia: a synthesis of climate change adaptation research

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    This research synthesis provides policy-makers and practitioners with an understanding of the building blocks for effective adaptation decision-making, as evidenced through the NCCARF research program. It synthesised a portfolio of adaptation research for each Australian state and territory and addressing the complex relationships between research and policy development.   Each state and territory synthesis report directs users to research relevant identified priorities

    Living Innovation Laboratory Model Design and Implementation

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    Living Innovation Laboratory (LIL) is an open and recyclable way for multidisciplinary researchers to remote control resources and co-develop user centered projects. In the past few years, there were several papers about LIL published and trying to discuss and define the model and architecture of LIL. People all acknowledge about the three characteristics of LIL: user centered, co-creation, and context aware, which make it distinguished from test platform and other innovation approaches. Its existing model consists of five phases: initialization, preparation, formation, development, and evaluation. Goal Net is a goal-oriented methodology to formularize a progress. In this thesis, Goal Net is adopted to subtract a detailed and systemic methodology for LIL. LIL Goal Net Model breaks the five phases of LIL into more detailed steps. Big data, crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd testing take place in suitable steps to realize UUI, MCC and PCA throughout the innovation process in LIL 2.0. It would become a guideline for any company or organization to develop a project in the form of an LIL 2.0 project. To prove the feasibility of LIL Goal Net Model, it was applied to two real cases. One project is a Kinect game and the other one is an Internet product. They were both transformed to LIL 2.0 successfully, based on LIL goal net based methodology. The two projects were evaluated by phenomenography, which was a qualitative research method to study human experiences and their relations in hope of finding the better way to improve human experiences. Through phenomenographic study, the positive evaluation results showed that the new generation of LIL had more advantages in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.Comment: This is a book draf

    Resilience and adaptability of traditional healthcare systems: a case study of communities in two regions of Brazil

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    The traditional healthcare systems (THS) of communities in two different regions of Brazil were investigated through the lens of social-ecological resilience, assuming that the resilience of THS and of the communities influence each other. We analyzed what has sustained and changed in the trajectory of THS of different rural and coastal communities in Brazil during the last seven decades, focusing on the domains of social biodiversity (especially on plant diversity for medicinal use), health practices learning, and social organization. The THS analyzed refer to three rural communities in northeastern Brazil, and three Quilombola communities on the southern coast of Brazil. Data were obtained through participatory methods, interviews, and secondary sources. The main drivers affecting the THS were the (1) development of national and regional infrastructure, (2) access to public healthcare, (3) implementation of protected areas, and (4) recognition of Quilombola territories (Quilombos). The components of social biodiversity, learning, and social organization contributed to the adaptive capacity and resilience of the systems through the continuity of knowledge transmission, use of local biodiversity for healthcare, request for local specialists, recovery of cultural practices, and institutional development of local organizations and partnerships. Challenges concerning the resilience of the THS are explained by the urbanization processes, restriction of access and use of some native plants, decrease in economic dependence on local biodiversity resources, and the need to improve social capital. After assessing the factors affecting the resilience of THS, we recommend actions that could enhance social-ecological resilience in different communities and under different situations.241CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPES309613/2015-9Sem informaçã
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