The Impact of Digital Technologies on Public Health in Developed and Developing Countries

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2020, held in Hammamet, Tunisia, in June 2020.* The 17 full papers and 23 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. They cover topics such as: IoT and AI solutions for e-health; biomedical and health informatics; behavior and activity monitoring; behavior and activity monitoring; and wellbeing technology. *This conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Improving Access and Mental Health for Youth Through Virtual Models of Care

The overall objective of this research is to evaluate the use of a mobile health smartphone application (app) to improve the mental health of youth between the ages of 14–25 years, with symptoms of anxiety/depression. This project includes 115 youth who are accessing outpatient mental health services at one of three hospitals and two community agencies. The youth and care providers are using eHealth technology to enhance care. The technology uses mobile questionnaires to help promote self-assessment and track changes to support the plan of care. The technology also allows secure virtual treatment visits that youth can participate in through mobile devices. This longitudinal study uses participatory action research with mixed methods. The majority of participants identified themselves as Caucasian (66.9%). Expectedly, the demographics revealed that Anxiety Disorders and Mood Disorders were highly prevalent within the sample (71.9% and 67.5% respectively). Findings from the qualitative summary established that both staff and youth found the software and platform beneficial

The Impact of Digital Technologies on Public Health in Developed and Developing Countries

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2020, held in Hammamet, Tunisia, in June 2020.* The 17 full papers and 23 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. They cover topics such as: IoT and AI solutions for e-health; biomedical and health informatics; behavior and activity monitoring; behavior and activity monitoring; and wellbeing technology. *This conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic

A Survey on the Web of Things

The Web of Things (WoT) paradigm was proposed first in the late 2000s, with the idea of leveraging Web standards to interconnect all types of embedded devices. More than ten years later, the fragmentation of the IoT landscape has dramatically increased as a consequence of the exponential growth of connected devices, making interoperability one of the key issues for most IoT deployments. Contextually, many studies have demonstrated the applicability of Web technologies on IoT scenarios, while the joint efforts from the academia and the industry have led to the proposals of standard specifications for developing WoT systems. Through a systematic review of the literature, we provide a detailed illustration of the WoT paradigm for both researchers and newcomers, by reconstructing the temporal evolution of key concepts and the historical trends, providing an in-depth taxonomy of software architectures and enabling technologies of WoT deployments and, finally, discussing the maturity of WoT vertical markets. Moreover, we identify some future research directions that may open the way to further innovation on WoT systems

“But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart”. IBA Berlin 1979 – 1987, the drawing as tool to read and disclose

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (Costanzo, 1991, p.14) On the occasion of his direction of the Berlin International Bauausstellung (IBA 1979-1987) the German architect Josef Paul Kleihues referred to the fable of Antoine de Saint - Exupéry to encourage architects to awaken the values of ingenuity and imagination. He emphasized the Imago, as a point of reference and stable values at the base of human consciousness. The problem is based on the dialectic between tradition and modernity, the field of experimentation on which he himself elaborates the concept of "critical reconstruction". According to the architect, the rediscovery of the laws of the historic city is a decisive instrument for Berliners to recognize themselves in it. Another important concept which Kleihues placed at the base of his guidelines is the "poetic rationalism" presented during the Triennale di Milano exhibition entitled "The cities of the world of 1988 and the future of the metropolis". On this occasion, he maintained that "the possibility of a new rationalism exists only when the deterministic tendency is questioned by poetry". (Kleihues, 1989, p.57) Through this “poetic rationalism”, he criticizes the excessive bureaucracy that conditions and limits the creative process. One of the most interesting areas of the Berlin International Bauausstellung is the Südliche Friedrichstad. It is interesting to take into account the rules imposed by Josef Paul Kleihues about the permanence of the existing layout and the reconstruction of the continuity of the facades along the plot perimeter and to see how the architects Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas stand about these principles. The proposed study investigates their interpretation of the concept of "poetic rationalism" through drawing, considered by the author as a fundamental interpretative, creative and cognitive activity

CHANCES. Practices, Spaces and Buildings in Cities' Tranformation

CHANCES has been an international conference that was aimed to explore, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the fragile but continuous urban transformation through the effective contribution of culture, nature and technology. The aim of this conference was to provide a deeper understanding of urban transformations’ research and practices, focusing on the use, re-use, design, renovation and innovative governance and management of public spaces, urban commons and buildings. We believe that these thoughts will largely contribute to shape and increase sustainable design, construction and planning in constant cities’ transformation. Contributions could build on reflections and studies concerning current or historical approaches that are changing or drastically changed the cities we lived in