Mobile system for managing and mitigating the accommodation problems among students in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

Students either local or international experience different adjustment problems while moving one place to another place, and out of those problems, finding suitable accommodation is the most challenging one. However, at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), the accommodation center for the students utilizing the traditional method for managing and processing the issues related to the students’ accommodation. Therefore, this project seeks to exploit the mobile technologies to enhance the accommodation process and increase the communication among the students and management of the resident. This project has three core objectives: identifying the requirements, analysis and designing, and evaluating the usability of the mobile accommodation system (MAS). To evaluate the usability of the MAS, a usability scale is used and feedbacks were collected from 40 students around the UUM campus. The results have revealed that the users strongly accepted and are satisfied with the interface functions, usability, integrity and other facilities for the application. Thus, students and accommodations staff can use the applications for managing their accommodation with successfully

Investigating the effectiveness of mobile peer support to enhance the quality of life of older adults: a systematic literature review

Aging is the biological, psychological, or social change that occur with the passage of time, which leads to functional impairment, and eventually chronic diseases. The number of people living older is rapidly increasing, and there is a natural decline in physical activity. The reduced mobility affects their daily life activities making them dependent on others for health. Therefore, mobile technologies such as m-health applications provide potential for enhanced health care among older adults. The present study highlights the factors that affect the adoption of smartphone applications, and potential factors such as mobile peer support can facilitate older adults to adopt latest technologies. However, previous studies have remained unsuccessful in explaining the moderating role of mobile peer support. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an insight with potential solution to the challenges of aging life, hence, enhancing their quality of life. This paper is only a conceptual explanation, which aims to identify the possible factors that influence their smartphone adoption using a systematic literature review on relevant peer reviewed papers. It is expected that this work will lead towards the empirical findings on the explanation of the interplay of the peer support to address the relationship of assistive mobile health applications and quality of life. This paper provides directions for future studies in improving the quality of life of older adults by using technology

Conceptualizing mobile health application use intention and adoption among Iraqian older adults: from the perspective of expanded technology acceptance model

The aim of this article is to discuss how different factors affect the decision of intention to use and adopt mobile health applications using the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) among older adults in Iraq. “Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), subjective norm (SN), and facilitating conditions (FC)” were four key predictors. Gender and age were included as factors for moderating the impact of two key TAM components in the proposed model (PU and PEU) on intention to use and adoption behaviors. The results of the past studies indicated that PU, PEU and SN were important predictors of adoption of mobile health applications among older adults in Iraq, While PU, SN, and FC were important predictors of the intention to use mobile health applications. Previous studies highlighted a strong impact of PEU on the intention to use mobile health applications on older adults than for younger adults. Implications are discussed for future research and practices

A Heuristic Evaluation of Iraq E-Portal

The integration of Information Technology (IT) and Communication Technology (CT) creates Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which has changed the citizens’ lives and the manner they interact. Therefore, the governments around the world took serious steps to adopt and implement ICT to provide the best services to their citizens. However, these governments have focused only on adoption and implementation of these new technologies and not so much on their usability aspect. This paper aims to investigate the usability of e-portal in Iraq based on the citizens’ standpoint. The e-portal in Iraq has seen a decline of the number of citizens who visit the portal to conduct transactions electronically, which is due to the improper design that does not attract the citizens and stakeholders to browse and use it. Moreover, this study is based on a heuristic evaluation, which aims to capture citizens’ standpoint of usability on this e-portal. The results indicated that out of 10 principles, 5 and 7 were inappropriate design

Smartphone’s off grid communication network by using Arduino microcontroller and microstrip antenna

After a major disaster, the present communication system fails in providing the services in the affected area. No means of communication proves to be more dangerous as the rescue and relief operations become more difficult. Our current research is about establishing a network in such a disaster-prone area, which would facilitate to communicate and carry out the rescue missions. This research project used Java to create a fire-chat application and used it with the smartphone android system. It used Bluetooth model HC-05 linked with Arduino UNO by the SPI interface to connect Arduino with the smartphone. The FR-model HCW69 connected with Arduino by using UART to transceiver the message. The microstrip antenna 915 MHz connected with the FR-model HCW69 to give us more distance. The maximum effective range of the transceiver was 1 kilometer, to communicate by forming a mesh network. This application is helpful in the case when the smartphone is out of service; it (smartphone) can be communicated connected to the other nearby users with a message

Smartphone’s off grid communication network by using Arduino microcontroller and microstrip antenna

After a major disaster, the present communication system fails in providing the services in the affected area. No means of communication proves to be more dangerous as the rescue and relief operations become more difficult. Our current research is about establishing a network in such a disaster-prone area, which would facilitate to communicate and carry out the rescue missions. This research project used Java to create a fire-chat application and used it with the smartphone android system. It used Bluetooth model HC-05 linked with Arduino UNO by the SPI interface to connect Arduino with the smartphone. The FR-model HCW69 connected with Arduino by using UART to transceiver the message. The microstrip antenna 915 MHz connected with the FR-model HCW69 to give us more distance. The maximum effective range of the transceiver was 1 kilometer, to communicate by forming a mesh network. This application is helpful in the case when the smartphone is out of service; it (smartphone) can be communicated connected to the other nearby users with a message

Mobile healthcare application design model for older adults from adoption factors perspective

Mobile Healthcare Application (MHA) plays an important role in providing solutions for managing diabetes and reducing deaths. However, the diabetes application market report stales that MHA is not adopted by older adults because the existing applications only cater to the needs of younger adults. Consequently, MHA does not fulfill the requirements of older adults with physical and cognitive limitations. In addition, existing design models for MHA do not provide appropriate guidelines for MHA developers in developing applications for older adults. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to construct a mobile healthcare application design model for older adults from an adoption factors perspective. A mixed methods research design was used in which qualitative data was collected using a systematic literature review to identify the adoption factor of MHA for older adults. A purposive sampling technique was applied for semi-structured interviews with adopters and non-adopters of MHA in gathering the user interface design requirements for older adults. The adoption factors, related to design features, and the proposed MHA design model were verified by knowledge and domain experts. The prototype was developed following the proposed design guidelines as stated in the model and validated by older adults with diabetic implication. Findings show nineteen adoption factors which were divided into three components: User, Technological and Environmental Context. The model was improvised based on the feedback from experts and respondents. This demonstrated the reliability, validity, and applicability of the model as guidelines for developers in developing MI-IA. This study significantly contributes by providing a model for designing Ml-IA by incorporating new adoption factors such as peer support, cognitive decline, and credibility for older adults. In addition, the involvement of the end-user in the requirement phase along with the combination of constructive and empirical aspects will lead to higher adoption of the MHA in the futur

Conceptualizing Mobile Health Application Use Intention and Adoption Among Iraqian Older Adults: From the Perspective of Expanded Technology Acceptance Model

The aim of this article is to discuss how different factors affect the decision of intention to use and adopt mobile health applications using the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) among older adults in Iraq. “Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), subjective norm (SN), and facilitating conditions (FC)” were four key predictors. Gender and age were included as factors for moderating the impact of two key TAM components in the proposed model (PU and PEU) on intention to use and adoption behaviors. The results of the past studies indicated that PU, PEU and SN were important predictors of adoption of mobile health applications among older adults in Iraq, While PU, SN, and FC were important predictors of the intention to use mobile health applications. Previous studies highlighted a strong impact of PEU on the intention to use mobile health applications on older adults than for younger adults. Implications are discussed for future research and practices

Relationships between the Older Adult’s Cognitive Decline and Quality of Life: The Mediating Role of the Assistive Mobile Health Applications

This article examines the link between the older adult's cognitive decline, and Assistive Mobile Health Applications in terms of quality of life as researcher has found scarcity in explaining the mediating role of assistive mobile health applications towards the quality of life of older adults with cognitive decline. Researchers have identified the importance of using assistive mobile health applications in connection of the older adult's cognitive decline. However, it remained unaddressed in the explaining the mediating role of assistive mobile health application. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an insight that the adoption of assistive m-health applications will provide this population with potential solution to their challenging aging life, hence, enhancing their quality of life. In addition, this paper is only a conceptual explanation, as it aims to identify the possible reasons that influence their Smartphone adoption. Factors were identified using a systematic literature review on relevant peer reviewed papers. The study summarized the empirical evidences which were used to support the conceptual explanation. It is expected that this work will lead towards the empirical findings on the explanation of the mediating role of the assistive mobile health applications to address the relationship of older adult's cognitive decline and quality of life. This paper provides directions for future studies in improving the quality of life of older adults. © 2019 International Association of Online Engineering