Are Embodied Conversational Agents effective Tools for collecting Patient-reported Outcome Measures? – Towards a novel Approach in Multiple Sclerosis Care

Treating chronic diseases often involves repeated assessments from the patient’s perspective to guide therapy decisions and promote quality of care. Therefore, patient- reported outcome measures (PROMs) have been established in the form of questionnaires. One promising approach for collecting PROMs are embodied conversational agents (ECAs), which have the potential to make the questionnaire completion more engaging, interactive and lower the response burden for the patient. Building on Satisficing Theory, this research-in-progress paper reports on the design and preliminary evaluation of an ECA for multiple sclerosis patients. The results indicate that such a system meets the needs of the patients and motivates a comparative study to contribute further evidence on the use and advantage of ECAs for this purpose. Based on a literature review, an evaluation approach including a research model is derived, and implications for future research are discussed

Building Habits in the Digital Age: Incorporating Psychological Needs and Knowledge from Practitioners to Inform the Design of Digital Therapeutics

Interventions for noncommunicable diseases (NCDSs) often require changing behaviors. In this regard, habitual behaviors (i.e., habits) are positively evaluated to foster behavioral changes. Forming habits is challenging but can be supported digitally until the habit is formed. This paper reviews the requirements of forming habits and uses a content analysis to investigate how these requirements are implemented in habit apps. Based on the results, design principles to digitally support habit formation are discussed for digital therapeutics. In contrast to conventional apps, digital therapeutics have a definite medical purpose and can be prescribed for the time it needs for a habit to form. The analysis results reveal that conventional apps try to bind the user and ignore the state where the habit needs to be strengthened by decreasing technology use. In this regard, digital therapeutics reveal great potential in supporting the formation of habits to prevent and treat NCDs

Navigating within the Digitalization Journey: Results and Implications of the First Maturity Assessment of German Public Health Agencies

The Covid 19 pandemic revealed the need for Public Health Agencies to mature digitally. To help those agencies with their digitalization endeavor, a public health agency maturity model (PHAMM) has been developed, evaluated, and employed by 366 institutions to determine their digital maturity and to prior-itize actions within digitalization projects. This paper discusses the digital ma-turity of German public health institutions and derives first insights into compo-nents spanning the PHAMM dimensions. Public health agencies can use these components to leverage their digital maturity in future digitalization projects. Im-plications are discussed for how digitalization projects with an enhanced impact can be defined and for future maturity modeling research

Room-Temperature Solid-State Transformation of Na4 SnS4 ⋅ 14H2 O into Na4 Sn2 S6 ⋅ 5H2 O: An Unusual Epitaxial Reaction Including Bond Formation, Mass Transport, and Ionic Conductivity

A highly unusual solid-state epitaxy-induced phase transformation of Na4 SnS4  ⋅ 14H2 O (I) into Na4 Sn2 S6  ⋅ 5H2 O (II) occurs at room temperature. Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations indicate an internal acid-base reaction to form [SnS3 SH]3- which condensates to [Sn2 S6 ]4- . The reaction involves a complex sequence of O-H bond cleavage, S2- protonation, Sn-S bond formation and diffusion of various species while preserving the crystal morphology. In situ Raman and IR spectroscopy evidence the formation of [Sn2 S6 ]4- . DFT calculations allowed assignment of all bands appearing during the transformation. X-ray diffraction and in situ 1 H NMR demonstrate a transformation within several days and yield a reaction turnover of ≈0.38 %/h. AIMD and experimental ionic conductivity data closely follow a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann type T dependence with D(Na)=6×10-14  m2  s-1 at T=300 K with values increasing by three orders of magnitude from -20 to +25 °C

Room‐Temperature Solid‐State Transformation of Na4_{4}SnS4_{4} ⋅ 14H2_{2}O into Na4_{4}Sn2_{2}S6_{6} ⋅ 5H2_{2}O: An Unusual Epitaxial Reaction Including Bond Formation, Mass Transport, and Ionic Conductivity

A highly unusual solid-state epitaxy-induced phase transformation of Na$_{4}$SnS$_{4}$ ⋅ 14H$_{2}$O (I) into Na$_{4}$Sn$_{2}$S$_{6}$ ⋅ 5H$_{2}$O (II) occurs at room temperature. Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations indicate an internal acid-base reaction to form [SnS$_{3}$SH]$^{3-}$ which condensates to [Sn$_{2}$S$_{6}$]$^{4–}$. The reaction involves a complex sequence of O−H bond cleavage, S$^{2–}$ protonation, Sn−S bond formation and diffusion of various species while preserving the crystal morphology. In situ Raman and IR spectroscopy evidence the formation of [Sn$_{2}$S$_{6}$]$^{4–}$. DFT calculations allowed assignment of all bands appearing during the transformation. X-ray diffraction and in situ $^{1}$H NMR demonstrate a transformation within several days and yield a reaction turnover of ≈0.38 %/h. AIMD and experimental ionic conductivity data closely follow a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann type T dependence with D(Na)=6×10$^{-14}$ m$^{2}$ s$^{-1}$ at T=300 K with values increasing by three orders of magnitude from −20 to +25 °C

Pre-M Phase-promoting Factor Associates with Annulate Lamellae in Xenopus Oocytes and Egg Extracts

We have used complementary biochemical and in vivo approaches to study the compartmentalization of M phase-promoting factor (MPF) in prophase Xenopus eggs and oocytes. We first examined the distribution of MPF (Cdc2/CyclinB2) and membranous organelles in high-speed extracts of Xenopus eggs made during mitotic prophase. These extracts were found to lack mitochondria, Golgi membranes, and most endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but to contain the bulk of the pre-MPF pool. This pre-MPF could be pelleted by further centrifugation along with components necessary to activate it. On activation, Cdc2/CyclinB2 moved into the soluble fraction. Electron microscopy and Western blot analysis showed that the pre-MPF pellet contained a specific ER subdomain comprising "annulate lamellae" (AL): stacked ER membranes highly enriched in nuclear pores. Colocalization of pre-MPF with AL was demonstrated by anti-CyclinB2 immunofluorescence in prophase oocytes, in which AL are positioned close to the vegetal surface. Green fluorescent protein-CyclinB2 expressed in oocytes also localized at AL. These data suggest that inactive MPF associates with nuclear envelope components just before activation. This association may explain why nuclei and centrosomes stimulate MPF activation and provide a mechanism for targeting of MPF to some of its key substrates

Bodenschutzberatung auf erosionsgefährdeten Ackerflächen in Thüringen – Konzeption und Abschätzung der Wirkungseffizienz von Erosionsschutzmaßnahmen

Die Wirkungseffizienz von Erosionsschutzmaßnahmen auf ackerbaulich genutzten Flächen lässt sich oft nur schwer quantifizieren. Im Rahmen der Thüringer Gewässerschutzkooperation werden daher unterschiedliche Gis-Tools wie AVErosion, AccumPlus sowie Drohnenbefliegungen als bildgebendes Monitoring genutzt, um Erosionsschutzmaßnahmen zu planen und die umgesetzte Erosionsschutzmaßnahme zu bewerten. GIS-gestützten Analysen zeigen, dass deutliche Reduktionen des Bodenabtragsrisikos auf erosionsgefährdeten ackerbaulich genutzten Flächen oftmals nur durch eine Kombination von mehreren Erosionsschutzmaßnahmen möglich sind. So kann beispielsweise durch den pfluglosen Anbau von Mais in Kombination mit der Begrünung von dominanten Abflussbahnen aber auch durch eine Maisaussaat im Mulchsaatverfahren im Vergleich zur betriebsüblichen Variante (pflugloser Maisanbau ohne Winterbedeckung) der potenzielle Bodenabtrag um 30 % reduziert werden. Durch Auswertung von Luftbildaufnahmen aus Drohnenbefliegungen nach Starkniederschlägen können einerseits on- und off-site Schäden dokumentiert und andererseits auch Wirksamkeiten umgesetzter Maßnahmen im Feld überprüft werden

Monitoring cold water injections for reservoir characterization using a permanent fiber optic installation in a geothermal production well in the Southern German Molasse Basin

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Fiber optic sensing has gained importance for wellbore monitoring and reservoir characterization in geothermal fields as it allows continuous, spatially highly resolved measurements. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technologies, among others, enable monitoring of flow regimes and heat transport inside the wellbore to describe the dynamical behavior of the reservoir. The technically challenging installation of a permanent fiber optic monitoring system in a geothermal production well over the entire wellbore length was conducted for the first time at the geothermal site Schäftlarnstraße in Munich, Germany. One cable with two DAS fibers, two DTS fibers, and one fiber for a downhole fiber optic pressure/temperature gauge were clamped to ¾-in. sucker rods and installed to 3.7 km measured depth to collect data from the wellbore after drilling, during testing, and during operations. We present DTS profiles during 3 months of well shut-in and show the results of two cold water injection tests conducted to localize inflow zones in the reservoir and to test the performance of the fiber optic setup. A vertical displacement in temperature peaks of approximately 1.5 m was observed during the injection tests, presumably resulting from thermal contraction of the sucker rod–cable setup. This was verified by analyzing the strain information from the DAS records over 1 h of warm-back after cold water injection with the calculated theoretical thermal contraction of DTS of the same period. We further verified the flowmeter measurements with a gradient velocity analysis of DTS profiles during injection. Intake to the major inflow zone was estimated to 93.5% for the first injection test, respective 94.0% for the second, intake of flowmeter was calculated to 92.0% for the same zone. Those values are confirmed by analyzing DTS profiles during the warm-back period after the well was shut.</jats:p&gt