COLAEVA: Visual Analytics and Data Mining Web-Based Tool for Virtual Coaching of Older Adult Populations

The global population is aging in an unprecedented manner and the challenges for improving the lives of older adults are currently both a strong priority in the political and healthcare arena. In this sense, preventive measures and telemedicine have the potential to play an important role in improving the number of healthy years older adults may experience and virtual coaching is a promising research area to support this process. This paper presents COLAEVA, an interactive web application for older adult population clustering and evolution analysis. Its objective is to support caregivers in the design, validation and refinement of coaching plans adapted to specific population groups. COLAEVA enables coaching caregivers to interactively group similar older adults based on preliminary assessment data, using AI features, and to evaluate the influence of coaching plans once the final assessment is carried out for a baseline comparison. To evaluate COLAEVA, a usability test was carried out with 9 test participants obtaining an average SUS score of 71.1. Moreover, COLAEVA is available online to use and explore.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 769830

Effect of a red to far red light filtering plastic film on growth of gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides)

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of a light filtering plastic film (red to far red ratio modification) on gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides) growth and to investigate the possibility to use this film as a greenhouse cover material for compact gardenia pot plant production in a greenhouse. Experiments were carried out on gardenia cuttings and plants grown under low tunnels covered by a) a light filtering (light modification within the range of 600 to 750 nm) plastic film, b) a plastic film with low radiation transmission or c) a common plastic film. The energy flux entering the low tunnels, within the range of 400 to1100 nm, and the climate parameters, along with plant growth parameters (shoot length, leaf area, number of lateral shoots, number of nodes, leaf and root dry weight) were measured. Cuttings rooted under the light filtering plastic film, receiving light with high R/FR and B/R ratio, were found 68% shorter, and had 21% and 29% lower leaf area and dry weight, respectively, compared to cuttings grown under common plastic film. Developed plants grown under the light filtering plastic film were found 59% shorter, produced no lateral shoots, and had lower leaf area, dry weight and node number compared to plants grown under common covering material. So, light filtering plastic films with high R/FR and B/R ratio, could be promising for greenhouse covering, as an alternative method to chemical growth regulator use, for compact gardenia pot plant production. The effect on lateral branching though, may become a serious problem to the final compact plant formation. For this reason photoselective plastic films with different R/FR and B/R ratios must be tested

Development of a simple growth model for light control in tomato seedling production

Models are necessary for application of automatic control on any process in greenhouses. Despite the existence of several tomato crop growth models, no models are available for tomato seedlings. In the present paper, a simple empirical model was tested for the prediction of growth and development of tomato seedlings. Dry matter production, shoot length and leaf area were simulated as a function of incoming solar radiation, under different temperature regimes. In order to evaluate the model, experiments were conducted under various temperature and solar irradiance regimes. The experiments were carried out at the experimental farm of the University of Thessaly near Volos (Velestino, Thessaly), situated on the continental area of Eastern Greece, during three periods (winter, spring and late spring). Three light intensity levels were tested in each experimental period, namely: control level (natural light level), 20% higher than the control light level (using HPS lamps) and 15% lower than the control light level (using a shading net). The calibration of the model gave satisfactory results and revealed that it could be used for prediction of seedling dry matter production, shoot length and leaf area, as a function of light intensity. The calibrated model can be used for optimal greenhouse climate control and crop growth optimisation through greenhouse microclimate management by designing and implementing a robust controller

Physical training in‐game metrics for cognitive assessment: Evidence from extended trials with the fitforall exergaming platform

Conventional clinical cognitive assessment has its limitations, as evidenced by the environmental shortcomings of various neuropsychological tests conducted away from an older person’s everyday environment. Recent research activities have focused on transferring screening tests to computerized forms, as well as on developing short screening tests for screening large populations for cognitive impairment. The purpose of this study was to present an exergaming platform, which was widely trialed (116 participants) to collect in‐game metrics (built‐in game performance measures). The potential correlation between in‐game metrics and cognition was investigated indepth by scrutinizing different in‐game metrics. The predictive value of high‐resolution monitoring games was assessed by correlating it with classical neuropsychological tests; the area under the curve (AUC) in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was calculated to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the method for detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Classification accuracy was calculated to be 73.53% when distinguishing between MCI and normal subjects, and 70.69% when subjects with mild dementia were also involved. The results revealed evidence that careful design of serious games, with respect to in‐game metrics, could potentially contribute to the early and unobtrusive detection of cognitive decline. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Other Advanced Research Initiatives in Elderly Care and Fragility Prevention

Based on the lessons learnt from the co-design, development and inte- gration processes, the research findings and the outputs from the engagement with a network of stakeholders over the course of the EU funded initiatives, this chapter will aim to help sketching the future policies and research funding programmes for ageing well in Europe. The chapter presents the visions and the perspectives of the running projects in the frame of the H2020 Personalized Medicine-15 call

A secure data publishing and access service for sensitive data from Living Labs: enabling collaboration with external researchers via shareable data

Intending to enable a broader collaboration with the scientific community while maintaining privacy of the data stored and generated in Living Labs, this paper presents the Shareable Data Publishing and Access Service for Living Labs, implemented within the framework of the H2020 VITALISE project. Building upon previous work, significant enhancements and improvements are presented in the architecture enabling Living Labs to securely publish collected data in an internal and isolated node for external use. External researchers can access a portal to discover and download shareable data versions (anonymised or synthetic data) derived from the data stored across different Living Labs that they can use to develop, test, and debug their processing scripts locally, adhering to legal and ethical data handling practices. Subsequently, they may request remote execution of the same algorithms against the real internal data in Living Lab nodes, comparing the outcomes with those obtained using shareable data. The paper details the architecture, data flows, technical details and validation of the service with real-world usage examples, demonstrating its efficacy in promoting data-driven research in digital health while preserving privacy. The presented service can be used as an intermediary between Living Labs and external researchers for secure data exchange and to accelerate research on data analytics paradigms in digital health, ensuring compliance with data protection laws.This research was partly funded by the VITALISE (Virtual Health and Wellbeing Living Lab Infrastructure) project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Program of the European Union for Research Innovation (grant agreement 101007990)

A New Approach for Ageing at Home: The CAPTAIN System

Our work exhibits how previous projects on the Active and Healthy Ageing field have advanced to the conception of CAPTAIN, a radically new approach towards increased enduser acceptance. The goal is to create intuitive technology that does not require specific skills for interaction and blends in with real life. CAPTAIN will be co-designed by all types of stakeholders, including older adults, involved in all stages, from the initial design to delivery of the final syste

Other Advanced Research Initiatives in Elderly Care and Fragility Prevention

Based on the lessons learnt from the co-design, development and integration processes, the research findings and the outputs from the engagement with a network of stakeholders over the course of the EU funded initiatives, this chapter will aim to help sketching the future policies and research funding programmes for ageing well in Europe. The chapter presents the visions and the perspectives of the running projects in the frame of the H2020 Personalized Medicine-15 call