20 research outputs found
A Deep Dive on the Impact of COVID-19 in Software Development
Context: COVID-19 pandemic has impacted different business sectors around the
world. Objective. This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on software
projects and software development professionals. Method: We conducted a mining
software repository study based on 100 GitHub projects developed in Java using
ten different metrics. Next, we surveyed 279 software development professionals
for better understanding the impact of COVID-19 on daily activities and
wellbeing. Results: We identified 12 observations related to productivity, code
quality, and wellbeing. Conclusions: Our findings highlight that the impact of
COVID-19 is not binary (reduce productivity vs. increase productivity) but
rather a spectrum. For many of our observations, substantial proportions of
respondents have differing opinions from each other. We believe that more
research is needed to uncover specific conditions that cause certain outcomes
to be more prevalent
Congratulations! You are severely underweightâExploring negative consequences of persuasive system design
Personal health and wellbeing have grown as an object of study within HCI research and many individuals undergoing weight loss journeys use persuasive systems, such as weight loss apps, to guide them. These systems rely on various principles to persuade users toward their health goal and have in much research been considered having positive effects. There are however also parallel findings indicating unwanted effects. To explore the effects of persuasive system design, we conduct a longitudinal exploratory expert evaluation of 10 free weight loss tracking apps by emulating drastic weight loss for an extended period of time. The objective of the exploration is to unravel potential negative effects of using such systems. Our findings highlight risks of negative effects as some apps take a passive stance toward drastic weight loss, while others actively encourage it through design. We contribute to a growing strand of health related HCI research by mapping out the relation between design and negative consequences of persuasive system use
Implications of immersive technologies in healthcare sector and its built environment
ObjectivesThis research focuses on how built environment experts can contribute to the MXR-enabled digital innovation as part of the multidisciplinary team effort to ensure post-pandemic resilience in healthcare built environment. The goal of this research is to help healthcare providers, built environment experts, and policy makers respectively: (1) Advocate the benefits of MXR for innovating health and social care; (2) Spark debate across networks of expertise to create health-promoting environment; and (3) Understand the overriding priorities in making effective pathways to the implementation of MXR.MethodsTo highlight the novelty of this research, the study relies on two qualitative methodologies: exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews. Based on the evaluation of prior works and cross-national case studies, hypotheses are formulated from three arenas: (1) Cross-sectional Initiatives for Post-pandemic Resilience; (2) Interoperability and Usability of Next-gen Medicines; and (3) Metaverse and New Forms of Value in Future Healthcare Ecosystems. To verify those hypotheses, empirical findings are derived from in-depth interviews with nine key informants.ResultsThe main findings are summarized under the following three themes: (1) Synergism between Architecture and Technology; (2) Patient Empowerment and Staff Support; and (3) Scalable Health and Wellbeing in Non-hospital and Therapeutic Settings. Firstly, both built environment and healthcare sectors can benefit from the various capabilities of MXR through cross-sectional initiatives, evidence-based practices, and participatory approaches. Secondly, a confluence of knowledge and methods of HCI and HBI can increase the interoperability and usability of MXR for the patient-centered and value-based healthcare models. Thirdly, the MXR-enabled technological regime will largely affect the new forms of value in healthcare premises by fostering more decentralized, preventive, and therapeutic characteristics in the future healthcare ecosystems.ConclusionWhether it's virtual or physical, our healthcare systems have placed great emphasis on the rigor of evidence-based approach linking health outcome to a clinical environment. Henceforth, built environment experts should seek closer ties with the MXR ecosystems for the co-production of scalable health and wellbeing in non-hospital and therapeutic settings. Ultimately, this is to improve resource efficiency in the healthcare sector while considering the transition of health resources towards in silico status by increasing the implementation of MXR
Work Zone Safety: Virtual Reality-Based Traffic Co-simulation Platform for Workforce Training and Pedestrian Behavior Analysis
First, an assessment was conducted to evaluate the suitability of VR in replicating reality and to compare worker behaviors in real-world and virtual environments. Second, an existing VR-based traffic co- simulation platform was enhanced by incorporating realistic worker and pedestrian behavior. This improvement allows for more accurate simulations of movement, including restrictions, tasks, and random movements. The platform also enables users to modify variables to adjust worker behavior. Finally, VR-based training modules were implemented and evaluated against traditional methods to enhance worker preparedness for hazards
A Gamified Mobile Application to support Societal Participation of Youth of Different Cultures in Finland
Youth are always the major stakeholders of society, and they should be taught about the value of society as they are the future of every society. Country like Finland, where a significant population is of internationals, it is important to have more societal participation of youth for the right development of society and country. Although Finnish youth is the key stakeholder of this society but participation of youth of other backgrounds also has the significant value. It is significant to mention that previous studies have shown that Finnish youth are facing the challenges of societal participation due to lack of information, lack of social integration and lack of interest. Youth of age 16-25 from different backgrounds including Asian, Finnish, and European were invited to discover the reasons and challenges for societal participation.
The study has determined the challenges of social integration which includes shy nature of Finnish citizens, differences of language, lack of interest and lack of information about system and society. Gamification is an effective approach which is majorly appreciated by youth, and it could help in learning new concepts. Therefore, to support the youth in social integration and societal participation, the study has suggested a gamified mobile application which gives the opportunity to youth to integrate and to get information about societal participation with attracting gamified elements. Furthermore, mentorship could be the motivation and a way of attraction for youth in societal participation as they are facing the challenges of lack of information, shy nature and hesitance due to difference of cultures
Telecommunication Economics
This book constitutes a collaborative and selected documentation of the scientific outcome of the European COST Action IS0605 Econ@Tel "A Telecommunications Economics COST Network" which run from October 2007 to October 2011. Involving experts from around 20 European countries, the goal of Econ@Tel was to develop a strategic research and training network among key people and organizations in order to enhance Europe's competence in the field of telecommunications economics. Reflecting the organization of the COST Action IS0605 Econ@Tel in working groups the following four major research areas are addressed: - evolution and regulation of communication ecosystems; - social and policy implications of communication technologies; - economics and governance of future networks; - future networks management architectures and mechanisms
An Unexpected Journey: Towards Runtime Verification of Multiagent Systems and Beyond
The Trace Expression formalism derives from works started in 2012 and is
mainly used to specify and verify interaction protocols at runtime, but other
applications have been devised. More specically, this thesis describes how
to extend and apply such formalism in the engineering process of distributed
articial intelligence systems (such as Multiagent systems).
This thesis extends the state of the art through four dierent contributions:
1. Theoretical: the thesis extends the original formalism in order to represent
also parametric and probabilistic specications (parametric trace
expressions and probabilistic trace expressions respectively).
2. Algorithmic: the thesis proposes algorithms for verifying trace expressions
at runtime in a decentralized way. The algorithms have been
designed to be as general as possible, but their implementation and
experimentation address scenarios where the modelled and observed
events are communicative events (interactions) inside a multiagent system.
3. Application: the thesis analyzes the relations between runtime and static
verication (e.g. model checking) proposing hybrid integrations in both
directions. First of all, the thesis proposes a trace expression model
checking approach where it shows how to statically verify LTL property
on a trace expression specication. After that, the thesis presents a
novel approach for supporting static verication through the addition
of monitors at runtime (post-process).
4. Implementation: the thesis presents RIVERtools, a tool supporting the
writing, the syntactic analysis and the decentralization of trace expressions
Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns
Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse