Persuasive Technology for Human Well-Being: Setting the Scene

In this short paper we aim to give a brief introduction to persuasive technology, especially as it pertains to human well-being. We discuss a number of current research opportunities in areas of healthcare, environmental conservation, and education. We conclude by highlighting what we regard as the key research challenges that need to be addressed, focusing on context sensing and appropriate feedback, the need for longitudinal user studies, and ethical concerns

Mechanisms affecting the bioaccumulation of dietary quinoline by rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri)

Graduation date: 1988Factors that influenced the uptake, storage, and elimination of dietary quinoline by rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) were studied to obtain an understanding of the mechanisms affecting the bioaccumulation of dietary contaminants in teleosts. Rainbow trout readily absorbed ¹⁴C-quinoline from pelleted food (1% ration at 138 ug quinoline/g food) and most tissues reached apparent steady-state after 10 days feeding. Maximum whole-body concentrations of quinoline plus metabolites were only 30 ng/g after 7 days depuration. Uptake rate constants ranged from 0.00006/day for muscle to 0.1455/day for gallbladder plus bile. Mean elimination half-life for quinoline-derived radioactivity ranged from 0.4 days in gills to 8.7 days for muscle. Depending on tissue, 58-83% of the stored radioactivity was present as metabolites. About 14% of the radioactivity in the bile was present as glucuronide conjugates. Quinoline was absorbed from the stomach by rainbow trout and peak serum levels occurred 4-8 hr after a single feeding. Pharmacokinetics were described using a two-compartment body model with first-order absorption and disposition; estimated half-lives for the a and B phase were 4.1 and 54.1 hr, respectively. Depending on dose, 71 to 83% of the ingested radioactivity was excreted during the first 24 hr after feeding. Branchial excretion was the primary route of excretion, all other routes (fecal, biliary, urinary, dermal) contributing <5% of the eliminated dose within 48 hr after ingestion. There was evidence for saturation of minor excretory pathways as the dose was increased from 1 to 100 mg quinoline/kg body weight. Apparent spillover into the branchial route occurred at the 100 mg/kg dose. Quinoline was eliminated across the gills as parent compound; no peaks representing individual polar metabolites were detected. Physiological processes associated with feeding and digestion influenced the absorption and fate of dietary quinoline. The pH of the gut environment affected the availability of quinoline and potential for transfer across tissue membranes. Acidic gastric secretions were initially buffered by the food bolus, affecting the degree of ionization of parent compound. In the more alkaline intestine. >99% of quinoline was available for absorption. About 60% of the residual body burden was stored in the gallbladder bile, but bile was retained only in starved fish. There was no evidence for enterohepatic circulation of quinoline or its metabolites following ejection of gallbladder bile. Increased feeding rates enhanced the movement of the food bolus and associated radioactivity through the intestine, but did not affect patterns of tissue disposition

Activity Recognition in the Home using Simple and Ubiquitous Sensors

Abstract. In this work, a system for recognizing activities in the home setting using a set of small and simple state-change sensors is introduced. The sensors are designed to be “tape on and forget ” devices that can be quickly and ubiquitously installed in home environments. The proposed sensing system presents an alternative to sensors that are sometimes perceived as invasive, such as cameras and microphones. Unlike prior work, the system has been deployed in multiple residential environments with non-researcher occupants. Preliminary results on a small dataset show that it is possible to recognize activities of interest to medical professionals such as toileting, bathing, and grooming with detection accuracies ranging from 25 % to 89 % depending on the evaluation criteria used 1.

Tools for Studying Behavior and Technology in Natural Settings

Three tools for acquiring data about people, their behavior, and their use of technology in natural settings are described: (1) a context-aware experience sampling tool, (2) a ubiquitous sensing system that detects environmental changes, and (3) an image-based experience sampling system. We discuss how these tools provide researchers with a flexible toolkit for collecting data on activity in homes and workplaces, particularly when used in combination. We outline several ongoing studies to illustrate the versatility of these tools. Two of the tools are currently available to other researchers to use

Voting with your feet: An investigative study of the relationship between place visit behavior and preference

Abstract. Real world recommendation systems, personalized mobile search, and online city guides could all benefit from data on personal place preferences. However, collecting explicit rating data of locations as users travel from place to place is impractical. This paper investigates the relationship between explicit place ratings and implicit aspects of travel behavior such as visit frequency and travel time. We conducted a four-week study with 16 participants using a novel sensor-based experience sampling tool, called My Experience (Me), which we developed for mobile phones. Over the course of the study Me was used to collect 3,458 in-situ questionnaires on 1,981 place visits. Our results show that, first, sensor-triggered experience sampling is a useful methodology for collecting targeted information in situ. Second, despite the complexities underlying travel routines and visit behavior, there exist positive correlations between place preference and automatically detectable features like visit frequency and travel time. And, third, we found that when combined, visit frequency and travel time result in stronger correlations with place rating than when measured individually. Finally, we found no significant difference in place ratings due to the presence of others.