2,849 research outputs found
Robust modeling of human contact networks across different scales and proximity-sensing techniques
The problem of mapping human close-range proximity networks has been tackled
using a variety of technical approaches. Wearable electronic devices, in
particular, have proven to be particularly successful in a variety of settings
relevant for research in social science, complex networks and infectious
diseases dynamics. Each device and technology used for proximity sensing (e.g.,
RFIDs, Bluetooth, low-power radio or infrared communication, etc.) comes with
specific biases on the close-range relations it records. Hence it is important
to assess which statistical features of the empirical proximity networks are
robust across different measurement techniques, and which modeling frameworks
generalize well across empirical data. Here we compare time-resolved proximity
networks recorded in different experimental settings and show that some
important statistical features are robust across all settings considered. The
observed universality calls for a simplified modeling approach. We show that
one such simple model is indeed able to reproduce the main statistical
distributions characterizing the empirical temporal networks
Validation of a smartphone app to map social networks of proximity
Social network analysis is a prominent approach to investigate interpersonal
relationships. Most studies use self-report data to quantify the connections
between participants and construct social networks. In recent years smartphones
have been used as an alternative to map networks by assessing the proximity
between participants based on Bluetooth and GPS data. While most studies have
handed out specially programmed smartphones to study participants, we developed
an application for iOS and Android to collect Bluetooth data from participants
own smartphones. In this study, we compared the networks estimated with the
smartphone app to those obtained from sociometric badges and self-report data.
Participants (n=21) installed the app on their phone and wore a sociometric
badge during office hours. Proximity data was collected for 4 weeks. A
contingency table revealed a significant association between proximity data
(rho = 0.17, p<0.0001), but the marginal odds were higher for the app (8.6%)
than for the badges (1.3%), indicating that dyads were more often detected by
the app. We then compared the networks that were estimated using the proximity
and self-report data. All three networks were significantly correlated,
although the correlation with self-reported data was lower for the app (rho =
0.25) than for badges (rho = 0.67). The scanning rates of the app varied
considerably between devices and was lower on iOS than on Android. The
association between the app and the badges increased when the network was
estimated between participants whose app recorded more regularly. These
findings suggest that the accuracy of proximity networks can be further
improved by reducing missing data and restricting the interpersonal distance at
which interactions are detected.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Assessing the Exposome with External Measures: Commentary on the State of the Science and Research Recommendations
The exposome comprises all environmental exposures that a person
experiences from conception throughout the life course. Here we
review the state of the science for assessing external exposures
within the exposome. This article reviews (a) categories of
exposures that can be assessed externally, (b) the current state
of the science in external exposure assessment, (c) current
tools available for external exposure assessment, and (d)
priority research needs. We describe major scientific and
technological advances that inform external assessment of the
exposome, including geographic information systems; remote
sensing; global positioning system and geolocation technologies;
portable and personal sensing, including smartphone-based
sensors and assessments; and self-reported questionnaire
assessments, which increasingly rely on Internet-based
platforms. We also discuss priority research needs related to
methodological and technological improvement, data analysis and
interpretation, data sharing, and other practical
considerations, including improved assessment of exposure
variability as well as exposure in multiple, critical life
stages
Tracking Human Mobility using WiFi signals
We study six months of human mobility data, including WiFi and GPS traces
recorded with high temporal resolution, and find that time series of WiFi scans
contain a strong latent location signal. In fact, due to inherent stability and
low entropy of human mobility, it is possible to assign location to WiFi access
points based on a very small number of GPS samples and then use these access
points as location beacons. Using just one GPS observation per day per person
allows us to estimate the location of, and subsequently use, WiFi access points
to account for 80\% of mobility across a population. These results reveal a
great opportunity for using ubiquitous WiFi routers for high-resolution outdoor
positioning, but also significant privacy implications of such side-channel
location tracking
Using artificial intelligence and longitudinal location data to differentiate persons who develop posttraumatic stress disorder following childhood trauma
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by complex, heterogeneous symptomology, thus detection outside traditional clinical contexts is difficult. Fortunately, advances in mobile technology, passive sensing, and analytics offer promising avenues for research and development. The present study examined the ability to utilize Global Positioning System (GPS) data, derived passively from a smartphone across seven days, to detect PTSD diagnostic status among a cohort (N = 185) of high-risk, previously traumatized women. Using daily time spent away and maximum distance traveled from home as a basis for model feature engineering, the results suggested that diagnostic group status can be predicted out-of-fold with high performance (AUC = 0.816, balanced sensitivity = 0.743, balanced specificity = 0.8, balanced accuracy = 0.771). Results further implicate the potential utility of GPS information as a digital biomarker of the PTSD behavioral repertoire. Future PTSD research will benefit from application of GPS data within larger, more diverse populations
From Personalized Medicine to Population Health: A Survey of mHealth Sensing Techniques
Mobile Sensing Apps have been widely used as a practical approach to collect
behavioral and health-related information from individuals and provide timely
intervention to promote health and well-beings, such as mental health and
chronic cares. As the objectives of mobile sensing could be either \emph{(a)
personalized medicine for individuals} or \emph{(b) public health for
populations}, in this work we review the design of these mobile sensing apps,
and propose to categorize the design of these apps/systems in two paradigms --
\emph{(i) Personal Sensing} and \emph{(ii) Crowd Sensing} paradigms. While both
sensing paradigms might incorporate with common ubiquitous sensing
technologies, such as wearable sensors, mobility monitoring, mobile data
offloading, and/or cloud-based data analytics to collect and process sensing
data from individuals, we present a novel taxonomy system with two major
components that can specify and classify apps/systems from aspects of the
life-cycle of mHealth Sensing: \emph{(1) Sensing Task Creation \&
Participation}, \emph{(2) Health Surveillance \& Data Collection}, and
\emph{(3) Data Analysis \& Knowledge Discovery}. With respect to different
goals of the two paradigms, this work systematically reviews this field, and
summarizes the design of typical apps/systems in the view of the configurations
and interactions between these two components. In addition to summarization,
the proposed taxonomy system also helps figure out the potential directions of
mobile sensing for health from both personalized medicines and population
health perspectives.Comment: Submitted to a journal for revie
Conducting visitor studies using smartphone-based location sensing
Visitor studies explore human experiences within museums, cultural heritage sites, and other informal learning settings to inform decisions. Smartphones offer novel opportunities for extending the depth and breadth of visitor studies while considerably reducing their cost and their demands on specialist human resources. By enabling the collection of significantly higher volumes of data, they also make possible the application of advanced machine-learning and visualization techniques, potentially leading to the discovery of new patterns and behaviors that cannot be captured by simple descriptive statistics. In this article, we present a principled approach to the use of smartphones for visitor studies, in particular proposing a structured methodology and associated methods that enable its effective use in this context. We discuss specific methodological considerations that have to be addressed for effective data collection, preprocessing, and analysis and identify the limitations in the applicability of these tools using family visits to the London Zoo as a case study. We conclude with a discussion of the wider opportunities afforded by the introduction of smartphones and related technologies and outline the steps toward establishing them as a standard tool for visitor studies
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