Mobile platform-independent solutions for body sensor network interface

Body Sensor Networks (BSN) appeared as an application of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to medicine and biofeedback. Such networks feature smart sensors (biosensors) that capture bio-physiological parameters from people and can offer an easy way for data collection. A new BSN platform called Sensing Health with Intelligence Modularity, Mobility and Experimental Reusability (SHIMMER) presents an excellent opportunity to put the concept into practice, with suitable size and weight, while also supporting wireless communication via Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 standards. BSNs also need suitable interfaces for data processing, presentation, and storage for latter retrieval, as a result one can use Bluetooth technology to communicate with several more powerful and Graphical User Interface (GUI)-enabled devices such as mobile phones or regular computers. Taking into account that people currently use mobile and smart phones, it offers a good opportunity to propose a suitable mobile system for BSN SHIMMER-based networks. This dissertation proposes a mobile system solution with different versions created to the four major smart phone platforms: Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android. Taking into account that, currently, iPhone does not support Java, and Java cannot match a native solution in terms of performance in other platforms such as Android or Symbian, a native approach with similar functionality must be followed. Then, four mobile applications were created, evaluated and validated, and they are ready for use

Managing change for environmental sustainability: an international comparison of small and medium enterprises in the fabric and textile industry

As environmental sustainability (ES) efforts gain traction globally, pressure is mounting for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to also ‘go green’. Literature pertaining to change management in SMEs in a variety of geographical regions is available; however very little is known regarding ES intentions, initiatives, change management and outcomes in SMEs, especially within the specific context of the Fabric and Textile (FT) Industry. This study uses in-depth interviews to gather rich data from 12 ES ‘champions’ in the FT industries of Canada, the US and Australia. The results help to fill theoretical gaps relating to attitudes, motivations, barriers, change management, and outcomes of ES change in SMEs. Furthermore, an international comparison is completed. The research contributes to motivational and change management theory for both small and medium enterprises and sustainability change. The findings indicate that by far the most important factors that influence ES change include attitudes such as seeing social, economic and emotional value in ES, perceived behavioural control as in SME owner/managers believing they have control for the most part to make the change, subjective norms including books, people, timing, culture, government, and motivations, which were to inspire and promote change, internal values, to educate others, business success, environmental impact, personal health, and to prove others wrong. However, often intentions and motivations can be present without any ensuing action. Barriers such as price, consumers, cost, infrastructure and government, and expectations as in to make change, job satisfaction, buy-in, financial success, and nothing, help or hinder the conversion of the influential factors into actions. Once an SME in the FT industry begins its change journey, the ES actions including fibre choice, recycling, decrease in fossil fuel use, dyes and printing choices, alternative energy, design and modality are determined to be much more important than having a strategic or written plan, which was identified as being primarily in the DNA of the owner-manager, creating an ES culture either through leading by example or communicating well, or leadership style - either hands off or hands on. Lastly, the results of this study provide a lengthy list of positive organisational outcomes, including happier and harder working staff, cost savings, helping communities through local economies, employment and awareness, adapting a competitive strategy, helping, and personal pride. The dissertation concludes with commentary on both theoretical and methodological implications for researchers, practical implications for SME managers and policy makers, and implications for further research

Implementing a Health Maintenance Organisation in West Africa

The purpose of this report is to determine whether health maintenance organisations (HMOs) can provide a suitable and viable form of financial health protection and service provision in selected West African countries, supplementary to existing healthcare provision and coverage. Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone were chosen as country examples. Chapter 1 provides the context for the health and healthcare situation in West Africa as well as specific country profiles, whilst Chapter 2 describes factors to be considered when establishing an HMO. The range of technical di-mensions of an HMO introduced in this report includes: administration, human resources, financing, accreditation, service availability and readiness, the benefits catalogue, paying providers, drugs and quality management. Each of these dimensions is further discussed in Chapters 3 – 10. The administration of an HMO consists of nine interconnected fields: management dash-board, quality management, IT department, purchasing and coordination, finance and ac-counting, health plan and benefit package, member management, human resources, and marketing. In Chapter 3, the authors give a more in-depth analysis of the fields of marketing and member management. Recommendations provided in this chapter include the use of different marketing approaches to bridge the gap between communities and the HMO by establishing informative advertising (e.g., via a mobile responsive website, social media, posters, flyers, radio, and recorded information). Chapter 4 focuses on an HMO’s human resources, particularly in regard to staff recruiting, development and retention. Staff development expands staff competence by increasing employees’ motivation and job satisfaction, which leads to an increase in their performance and productivity, thereby improving staff retention. Furthermore, staff retention is important for ensuring a long-term commitment to the HMO. In conclusion, the success of an HMO is crucially dependent on motivating staff and enabling them to exercise, develop and share their skills. Chapter 5 covers the financial aspects of an HMO, including dimensions related to its target population, financial barriers, funding resources, management of funds, and specific coun-try challenges. In order to calculate the necessary resources, this chapter make clear that an HMO must consider cost projections for the benefit package, infrastructure development, administration, expansion and a reserve. To establish an accreditation system, HMOs can interact with stakeholders from different fields and levels of service delivery and administration, as examined in Chapter 6. The polit-ical and social conditions of a country must be considered by the HMO in order to effective-ly implement an accreditation system. Besides this, an HMO can seek to improve the per-formance quality of healthcare by supporting the establishment of an accreditation scheme. Reliable information on service availability and readiness is necessary for successful health systems management as it allows health services to be tracked in terms of how they have responded to changed inputs and processes. In Chapter 7, the authors analyse the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) tool, and recommend its application within the HMO, as it offers a standardised approach to monitoring the supply of services by providing a standard set of tracer indicators. To implement a health benefit package (HBP), the authors assess existing models, such as the one introduced by Glassman et al. (2017) which specifies ten core elements of an HBP design and helps to enable discussions on the most relevant aspects in designing an HBP for an HMO. Chapter 8 presents a coinsurance scheme within the HBP design which will affect the service utilisation of members as well as utilisation management as one method for cost control. In addition, actuarial calculations are proposed using Sierra Leone as a case example. Chapter 9 describes the pharmaceutical supply chain required by an HMO. Important steps of the HMO’s medicine supply chain include: selection, quantification and forecasting, pro-curement, storage, and distribution of medical products. Medicines provided by the HMO must be safe, available, accessible, and affordable at all times and for all members. Stock-outs must be avoided, and therefore this chapter recommends employing community-based health workers in order to ensure distribution to patients in rural areas. Quality management is an important field in an HMO analysed in Chapter 10 of this report. It includes patient safety, efficiency, and patient satisfaction; all factors that must be con-sidered during the implementation of an HMO. The chapter concludes by noting that quality is highly subjective and must therefore be applied to the specific context of an HMO within a specific country. Finally, Chapters 11 and 12 of the report include implementation challenges of an HMO in West Africa, as well next steps that should be followed. Although similar challenges con-cerning the social, political, or structural environment can be found in most West African countries, direct transfer of elaborated information to other countries and healthcare situa-tions is not always possible. As well as these situational challenges, HMOs encounter dif-ferent questions such as how to balance the scope of available services against the cover-age of diverse geographical areas, engagement of various stakeholders and reflection of respective values, interests and perspectives of local populations. Limitations of the report include a lack of specificity in general, and the use of many specific country settings, as observations and examples for one HMO dimension may not always be transferable to other regions and healthcare situations. Therefore, this report is not meant to provide concrete conclusions or solutions in regard to the implementation of an HMO in a specific country setting. In conclusion, this report states that HMOs have the potential to play a substantial role in healthcare system strengthening, provision of quality healthcare services and the preven-tion of financial burden due to ill-health. As a result, an HMO can support West African countries in their role to fulfil their obligation of protecting the health of their citizens. Addi-tionally, the authors strongly believe that an HMO must reflect the cultural, societal and political environment in which it is implemented. Therefore, it is essential that research be conducted prior to its implementation in addition to including the relevant local stakeholders as early as possible in the process

Risk assessment of email accounts: Difference between perception and reality

The use of Internet is associated with a growing number of security threats. This thesis analyzes how users perceive the security of their email account based on the email account provider. With our study, we aim to contribute to the information security systems literature in three ways: First, by taking a more complete view on security online, and reviewing the concept of usable security, usability, human-computer interaction, trust and user perception. Second, by performing an analysis of providers of online services specifically emails. Third, by applying a renowned risk analysis method called Information Security Risk Analysis Method (ISRAM) for risk assessment. The ISRAM analysis revealed that Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo email accounts have a medium risk level, while the reality analysis demonstrated no clearly more secure account provider with only low level risk counts

Strategies Information Technology Managers Use to Motivate Remote Employees

Some managers are experiencing challenges keeping remote workers motivated. Managers are concerned with motivating remote employees to ensure production levels are met or exceeded. Grounded in Vroom’s expectancy theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies information technology (IT) managers from five organizations in the Southeastern United States used to motivate remote employees. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 business leaders, company website information, and other documentation provided by the IT leader. Data analysis involved recognizing frequent phenomena and coding meaningful and common themes, phrases, or key words. Four themes were evident: transformation leadership, communication, work-life balance through flexible work schedules, and employee engagement. A significant recommendation is precise communication and weekly team meetings to motivate remote employees. The implications for positive social change increase employee performance, reducing unemployment rates, and improving the local economy

Investigating the Use of M-Health for Learning and Clinical Training by Medical Students in Ghana

There is a challenge with healthcare access in most developing countries. With the high rate of mobile technology penetration in these countries, there is a strong belief that mobile technology can help address this and other health system and education challenges. This study investigated how clinical year medical students in Ghana used m-health and with what outcomes. This was a mixed-methods study to assess what technologies students used, what the impact of use was, what enablers and barriers they encountered, what factors explained m-health adoption and what the attitudes of students, staff and faculty members were towards m-health use. The study was conducted in four out of five medical schools in Ghana with clinical year students, namely, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Medical Sciences (KNUST-SMS), University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences (UCC-SMS), University of Development Studies School of Medicine and Health Sciences (UDS-SMHS) and University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry (UG-SMD). Online and paper questionnaires were distributed to 828 students and 291 questionnaires were returned. Questionnaires from dental students at UG-SMD (n = 5) were excluded from the analysis.Two focus group discussions were held involving seven students while three students, seven faculty members and five staff were interviewed. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Only one student did not own a mobile device. About 78% of students reported using m-health at some point during their medical education. The most popular devices used by students were laptop computers (90.8%), smartphones (66.2%), cellular phones (46.6%) and tablets (44.1%). Over 84% of the students owned Android devices, while 21% owned iPhones and iPads. Majority of students owned three devices or less. Students used mobile technologies in ways that suited their learning needs and contexts. M-health helped students to participate better in lessons and improve their knowledge, skills and efficiency in various contexts. The main drawbacks of m-health use were distraction and time wasting, difficulty in determining credibility of some online information and the risk of using these technologies inappropriately around patients and during assessments. The main facilitating conditions for m-health use were availability, quality and reliability of technological services, technical support, security, price value, technology competence and training, portability, task and goal fit, social influence and organizational factors. Habit and Hedonic Motivation were the only significant factors that explained intention to use m-health and actual m-health use respectively in the UTAUT2 model, in the presence of age, gender and experience. Students, staff and faculty members were open to using m-health in teaching and learning, although they recommended regulation of use through policies and guidelines to ensure effective teaching and learning and ethical m-health use. Considering the benefits offered by m-health, the study encourages medical schools in Ghana to explore mobile learning with the possibility of incorporating it into their curricula. This should be accompanied by development of policies and guidelines to spell out how mobile technologies should be used in order to mitigate most of the drawbacks identified. This study contributed empirical evidence from the Ghanaian context regarding m-health adoption and use in medical education. This evidence will contribute to theory regarding benefits, drawbacks, facilitating conditions and factors that influence m-health adoption among medical students in a developing country context. Understanding how medical students use mobile technology in learning will be useful in planning how m-health can be incorporated into their curricula. It will also help in informing development and deployment of m-health in healthcare in contexts similar to Ghana

To Heck With Ethics: Thinking About Public Issues With a Framework for CS Students

This paper proposes that the ethics class in the CS curriculum incorporate the Lawrence Lessig model of regulation as an analytical tool for social issues. Lessig’s use of the notion of architecture, the rules and boundaries of the sometimes artificial world within which social issues play out, is particularly resonant with computing professionals. The CS curriculum guidelines include only ethical frameworks as the tool for our students to engage with societal issues. The regulation framework shows how the market, law, social norms, and architecture can all be applied toward understanding social issues

Virtual kitchens: A new business model in the foodservice industry

Over the last years, restaurants have been forced to adapt to new circumstances. Changing eating trends, technological advancements and fierce competition made it harder for some to stay afloat. On top of that, a global pandemic compelled everyone to shut their doors overnight, posing extra pressure on the sector. The latest consumer trend indicates strong affluence to online food delivery services and many restaurants are struggling to respond to this shift and evolve accordingly. This pedagogical case study focuses on a business model that emerged to support restaurants to optimise off-premise operations and thrive in the digital space, known as Virtual Kitchens. As the object of study, it was chosen the start-up Kitch, one of the first companies to introduce the concept in Portugal. Thus, this paper allows to verify how innovative businesses models can arise on long-established markets and have a great impact on the evolution of supply chains. It also enables to verify the potential of VKs in the Portuguese context through the use of a Dynamic SWOT and an adapted statistical model (UTAUT). To collect the necessary data, the research combined a questionnaire to Portuguese restaurateurs (n=55), an interview with Kitch’s Product Manager and desk research. The present case is expected to be a useful tool for students and companies attracted to emerging market areas, especially in the hospitality scope, providing theoretical and practical approaches to uncover new value through unforeseen partnerships and innovative business models that defy the ordinary to fit the latest market needs.Nos últimos anos, os restaurantes têm sido forçados a adaptarem-se a novas circunstâncias. A mudança nas tendências alimentares, os avanços tecnológicos e a concorrência intensa tornaram mais difícil para alguns manterem-se à tona. Além disso, a pandemia obrigou todos a fecharem as portas, colocando uma pressão extra no sector. A última tendência dos consumidores indica uma forte afluência aos serviços online de entrega de alimentos e muitos restaurantes estão a lutar para responder eficazmente a esta mudança e evoluir em conformidade. Este caso de estudo pedagógico centra-se num modelo de negócio que surgiu para apoiar os restaurantes a otimizar operações de takeaway no espaço digital, designado por Cozinhas Virtuais. Como objeto de estudo, foi escolhida a start-up Kitch, uma das primeiras empresas a introduzir o conceito em Portugal. Assim, este caso permite verificar como modelos de negócios inovadores podem surgir em mercados consolidados e ter um grande impacto na evolução das cadeias de abastecimento. Permite também verificar o seu potencial no contexto português através da utilização da SWOT Dinâmica e de um modelo estatístico adaptado (UTAUT). Para a recolha de dados, a pesquisa combinou um questionário a restaurantes portugueses (n=55), uma entrevista com o Gestor de Produto da Kitch, e pesquisa de dados secundários. O presente caso adivinha-se útil para estudantes e empresas interessados em áreas de mercados emergentes no âmbito da hospitalidade, facultando abordagens teóricas e práticas para descobrir novos produtos através de parcerias e modelos de negócios que desafiam o comum para se adaptarem às necessidades do mercado

Metabolic effects of duodenal mucosal resurfacing on insulin resistant women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Background Insulin resistant conditions such as T2DM, obesity and PCOS are significant contributors of morbidity and mortality worldwide. At present, the principal treatment modalities are lifestyle measures, pharmacotherapy and metabolic surgery. Although metabolic surgery is a highly-effective option, there remains no ideal remedy. This has resulted in the development of endoluminal procedures such as duodenal mucosal resurfacing (DMR) to fill the treatment gap. Initial DMR results suggests efficacy in patients with T2DM. The DOMINO trial aimed to investigate the insulin-sensitising effect of DMR in women with PCOS, as a model of insulin resistance, as it additionally allowed assessment of reproductive function. Methods This was a mechanistic study conducted using a multi-centre prospective double-blinded sham-controlled RCT design. Thirty women of reproductive potential with PCOS, insulin resistance and oligomenorrhoea were randomised to receive either DMR or a sham endoscopic procedure with 6 months follow-up. All participants were investigated with OGTTs and hyperinsulinaemic-euglycaemic clamps pre- and post-procedure. Participants were also investigated with weekly reproductive blood tests and pelvic ultrasound scans from 3-months post-procedure to completion of the trial. Results Thirty women (mean age 31.1years, mean BMI 42.5kg/m2, mean HOMA-IR 6.2) were recruited. The rate of glucose appearance (Ra) and disappearance (Rd)– to quantify insulin sensitivity– were not significantly different between the DMR and sham groups. Ovulatory events from pelvic ultrasound scans and reproductive blood tests did not demonstrate a difference between the two groups. Conclusion DMR use did not result in significant improvement in insulin sensitivity or reproductive function in women with PCOS, insulin resistance and oligomenorrhoea. This suggests that the improvement in glycaemia and insulin resistance seen in patients with Type 2 diabetes melitus post-DMR is likely secondary to a pathophysiological difference that is not evident in a cohort of patients without T2DM. However, further evidence is needed to substantiate this hypothesis.Open Acces

Complex adaptive systems theory applied to virtual scientific collaborations: The case of DataONE

This study is the exploration of the emergence of DataONE, a multidisciplinary, multinational, and multi-institutional virtual scientific collaboration to develop a cyberinfrastructure for earth sciences data, from the complex adaptive systems perspective. Data is generated through conducting 15 semi-structured interviews, observing three 3-day meetings, and 51 online surveys. The main contribution of this study is the development of a complexity framework and its application to a project such as DataONE. The findings reveal that DataONE behaves like a complex adaptive system: various individuals and institutions interacting, adapting, and coevolving to achieve their own and common goals; during the process new structures, relationships, and products emerge that harmonize with DataONE’s goals. DataONE is quite resilient to threats and adaptive to its environment, which are important strengths. The strength comes from its diversified structure and balanced management style that allows for frequent interaction among members. The study also offers insights to PI(s), managers, and funding institutions on how to treat complex systems. Additional results regarding multidisiplinarity, library and information sciences, and communication studies are presented as well