Low Cost LoRaWAN Image Acquisition System for Low Rate Internet of Things Applications

This paper proposes a low cost LoRaWAN image acquisition and transmission prototype for low rate and un-constrained delay IoT applications. Real scenario tests were performed and images, at distances up to 2.5 km from node to gateway in urban environment, were transmitted and correctly decoded. The obtained results show the effectiveness of a low-power wide-area (LPWAN) technology prototype for long distance image transmission in applications without delay constraints and where other wireless technologies are not available.This work has been funded by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Projects UIDB/05567/2020 and UIDP/05567/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

VITASENIOR-MT: A distributed and scalable cloud-based telehealth solution

VITASENIOR-MT is a telehealth platform that allows to remotely monitor biometric and environmental data in a domestic environment, designed specifically to the elderly population. This paper proposes a highly scalable and efficient architecture to transport, process, store and visualize the data collected by devices of an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario. The cloud infrastructure follows a microservices architecture to provide computational scalability, better fault isolation, easy integration and automatic deployment. This solution is complemented with a pre-processing and validation of the collected data at the edge of the Internet by using the Fog Computing concept, allowing a better computing distribution. The presented approach provides personal data security and a simplified way to collect and present the data to the different actors, allowing a dynamic and intuitive management of patients and equipment to caregivers. The presented load tests proved that this solution is more efficient than a monolithic approach, promoting better access and control in the data flowing from heterogeneous equipment.This work has been financially supported by the IC&DT project VITASENIOR-MT CENTRO-01-0145- FEDER-023659 with FEDER funding through programs CENTRO2020 and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Emotionally-relevant features for classification and regression of music lyrics

This research addresses the role of lyrics in the music emotion recognition process. Our approach is based on several state of the art features complemented by novel stylistic, structural and semantic features. To evaluate our approach, we created a ground truth dataset containing 180 song lyrics, according to Russell’s emotion model. We conduct four types of experiments: regression and classification by quadrant, arousal and valence categories. Comparing to the state of the art features (ngrams - baseline), adding other features, including novel features, improved the F-measure from 69.9%, 82.7% and 85.6% to 80.1%, 88.3% and 90%, respectively for the three classification experiments. To study the relation between features and emotions (quadrants) we performed experiments to identify the best features that allow to describe and discriminate each quadrant. To further validate these experiments, we built a validation set comprising 771 lyrics extracted from the AllMusic platform, having achieved 73.6% F-measure in the classification by quadrants. We also conducted experiments to identify interpretable rules that show the relation between features and emotions and the relation among features. Regarding regression, results show that, comparing to similar studies for audio, we achieve a similar performance for arousal and a much better performance for valence

Usability of a telehealth solution based on TV interaction for the elderly: the VITASENIOR-MT case study

Remote monitoring of biometric data in the elderly population is an important asset for improving the quality of life and level of independence of elderly people living alone. However, the design and implementation of health technological solutions often disregard the elderly physiological and psychological abilities, leading to low adoption of these technologies. We evaluate the usability of a remote patient monitoring solution, VITASENIOR-MT, which is based on the interaction with a television set. Twenty senior participants (over 64 years) and a control group of 20 participants underwent systematic tests with the health platform and assessed its usability through several questionnaires. Elderly participants scored high on the usability of the platform, very close to the evaluation of the control group. Sensory, motor and cognitive limitations were the issues that most contributed to the difference in usability assessment between the elderly group and the control group. The solution showed high usability and acceptance regardless of age, digital literacy, education and impairments (sensory, motor and cognitive), which shows its effective viability for use and implementation as a consumer product in the senior market.This work has been financially supported by the Portuguese foundation for science and technology (FCT) and European funds through Project VITASENIOR-MT with grant CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-023659.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O papel da inovação tecnológica e da ciência aberta no desenvolvimento sustentável das cidades e regiões – Um caso prático

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Inteligência para a Sustentabilidade das Cidades

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

VITASENIOR–MT: Architecture of a Telehealth Solution

This poster was awarded the Best Poster Award at the Portuguese Conference Gestão & Tecnologi@ - Criação de Valor em Saúde.VITASENIOR-MT is a telehealth solution under development that aims to monitor and improve the healthcare of elderly people living in the region of Médio Tejo. This solution performs both remote and local monitoring of biometric parameters of the elderly, and also of environmental parameters of their homes. The biometric variables include heart rate and temperature measurements collected automatically, by means of a bracelet, throughout the day. Blood pressure, body weight, and other biometric parameters are measured on a daily basis by the senior’s own initiative, and automatically recorded. The environmental parameters include temperature, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide measurements. A TV set is used as a mean of interaction between the user and the medical devices. The TV set is also used to receive medical warnings and recommendations according to clinical profiles, and to receive environmental alerts. All data and alerts can be accessible to senior’s family and healthcare providers. In alarm situations, an automatic operational procedure will be triggered establishing communication to predefined entities.This work has been financially supported by the IC&DT project VITASENIOR-MT Programa operacional regional do centro CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-023659.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

VITASENIOR-MT: a telehealth solution for the elderly focused on the interaction with TV

Remote monitoring of health parameters is a promising approach to improve the health condition and quality of life of particular groups of the population, which can also alleviate the current expenditure and demands of healthcare systems. The elderly, usually affected by chronic comorbidities, are a specific group of the population that can strongly benefit from telehealth technologies, allowing them to reach a more independent life, by living longer in their own homes. Usability of telehealth technologies and their acceptance by end-users are essential requirements for the success of telehealth implementation. Older people are resistant to new technologies or have difficulty in using them due to vision, hearing, sensory and cognition impairments. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an IoT-based telehealth solution designed specifically to address the elderly needs. The end-user interacts with a TV-set to record biometric parameters, and to receive warning and recommendations related to health and environmental sensor recordings. The familiarization of older people with the TV is expected to provide a more user-friendly interaction ensuring the effectiveness integration of the end-user in the overall telehealth solution.This work has been financially supported by the IC&DT project VITASENIOR-MT CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER- 023659 with FEDER funding through programs CENTRO2020 and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The state of health in the European Union (EU-27) in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease study 2019

Background: The European Union (EU) faces many health-related challenges. Burden of diseases information and the resulting trends over time are essential for health planning. This paper reports estimates of disease burden in the EU and individual 27 EU countries in 2019, and compares them with those in 2010.Methods: We used the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study estimates and 95% uncertainty intervals for the whole EU and each country to evaluate age-standardised death, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rates for Level 2 causes, as well as life expectancy and healthy life expectancy (HALE).Results:In 2019, the age-standardised death and DALY rates in the EU were 465.8 deaths and 20,251.0 DALYs per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Between 2010 and 2019, there were significant decreases in age-standardised death and YLL rates across EU countries. However, YLD rates remained mainly unchanged. The largest decreases in age-standardised DALY rates were observed for "HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases" and "transport injuries" (each -19%). "Diabetes and kidney diseases" showed a significant increase for age-standardised DALY rates across the EU (3.5%). In addition, "mental disorders" showed an increasing age-standardised YLL rate (14.5%).Conclusions: There was a clear trend towards improvement in the overall health status of the EU but with differences between countries. EU health policymakers need to address the burden of diseases, paying specific attention to causes such as mental disorders. There are many opportunities for mutual learning among otherwise similar countries with different patterns of disease

Burden of non-communicable diseases among adolescents aged 10–24 years in the EU, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019

Background Disability and mortality burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen worldwide; however, the NCD burden among adolescents remains poorly described in the EU. Methods Estimates were retrieved from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019. Causes of NCDs were analysed at three different levels of the GBD 2019 hierarchy, for which mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were extracted. Estimates, with the 95% uncertainty intervals (UI), were retrieved for EU Member States from 1990 to 2019, three age subgroups (10–14 years, 15–19 years, and 20–24 years), and by sex. Spearman's correlation was conducted between DALY rates for NCDs and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) of each EU Member State. Findings In 2019, NCDs accounted for 86·4% (95% uncertainty interval 83·5–88·8) of all YLDs and 38·8% (37·4–39·8) of total deaths in adolescents aged 10–24 years. For NCDs in this age group, neoplasms were the leading causes of both mortality (4·01 [95% uncertainty interval 3·62–4·25] per 100 000 population) and YLLs (281·78 [254·25–298·92] per 100 000 population), whereas mental disorders were the leading cause for YLDs (2039·36 [1432·56–2773·47] per 100 000 population) and DALYs (2040·59 [1433·96–2774·62] per 100 000 population) in all EU Member States, and in all studied age groups. In 2019, among adolescents aged 10–24 years, males had a higher mortality rate per 100 000 population due to NCDs than females (11·66 [11·04–12·28] vs 7·89 [7·53–8·23]), whereas females presented a higher DALY rate per 100 000 population due to NCDs (8003·25 [5812·78–10 701·59] vs 6083·91 [4576·63–7857·92]). From 1990 to 2019, mortality rate due to NCDs in adolescents aged 10–24 years substantially decreased (–40·41% [–43·00 to –37·61), and also the YLL rate considerably decreased (–40·56% [–43·16 to –37·74]), except for mental disorders (which increased by 32·18% [1·67 to 66·49]), whereas the YLD rate increased slightly (1·44% [0·09 to 2·79]). Positive correlations were observed between DALY rates and SDIs for substance use disorders (rs=0·58, p=0·0012) and skin and subcutaneous diseases (rs=0·45, p=0·017), whereas negative correlations were found between DALY rates and SDIs for cardiovascular diseases (rs=–0·46, p=0·015), neoplasms (rs=–0·57, p=0·0015), and sense organ diseases (rs=–0·61, p=0·0005)