Incorporation of Defined Quality Attributes into Solutions Based on Service-Oriented Architecture

The shift of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to the\ud Information Technology, its use and implementation enables the feature of having more robust system offered to the Service Industry. This paper will present enhancement efforts to software platform solution with including quality\ud attributes and will describe the design of the Quality Service-Oriented Architecture. A well known branch of the service industry market in the US is the Pest Control Services which should be part of every single physical object in the USA. There are many Service-Oriented Platforms that handle the Pest Control Industry and our target in this article will be to describe a Quality Oriented and Service-Oriented Design for the Pest Control Industry, which will meet the criteria and the needs of the industry as well to meet all laws requirements to each\ud US state related to the pest control policies and rules. Most important is that the presented software platform provides competitive edge

Migration of an Escape Room–Style Educational Game to an Online Environment: Design Thinking Methodology

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has led to a sudden change in education, closing schools and shifting to online teaching, which has become an enormous challenge for teachers and students. Implementing adequate online pedagogical approaches and integrating different digital tools in the teaching process have become a priority in educational systems. Finding a way to keep students' interest and persistence in learning is an important issue that online education is facing. One possible way to establish engaging and interactive learning environments, using the energy and enthusiasm of students for educational purposes, is the use of game-based learning activities and gamification of different parts of the educational process. This paper presents a use case of migrating an escape room–style educational game to an online environment by using the design thinking methodology. We wanted to show that the design thinking methodology is useful to create engaging and motivating online games that provide educational value. Starting from students’ perspective, we created a simple digital escape room–style game where students got an opportunity to self-assess their knowledge in computer science at their own pace. Students tested this prototype game, and their opinions about the game were collected through an online survey. The test's goal was to evaluate the students' perceptions about the implemented digital escape room–style educational game and gather information about whether it could achieve students' engagement in learning computer science during online teaching. In total, 117 students from sixth and seventh grades completed the survey regarding the achieved student engagement. Despite the differences in students’ answers about game complexity and puzzle difficulty, most students liked the activity (mean 4.75, SD 0.67, on a scale from 1 to 5). They enjoyed the game, and they would like to participate in this kind of activity again (mean 4.74, SD 0.68). All (n=117, 100%) students found the digital escape room–style educational game interesting for playing and learning. The results confirmed that digital escape room–style games could be used as an educational tool to engage students in the learning process and achieve learning outcomes. Furthermore, the design thinking methodology proved to be a useful tool in the process of adding novel educational value to the digital escape room–style game.publishedVersio

Testing framework for investigating learning outcome from quiz game : A Study From Macedonia and Norway

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Učenička iskustva integracije tradicionalnih igara u osnovnoškolski program

Even though the potential of game-based learning is widely recognized, we need to understand students to effectively integrate games in the classroom environment. This study aims to identify relevant factors that influence students’ experience during the integration of traditional children’s games into the elementary school program. The research involved 142 students from different elementary schools who participated in multiple learning sessions with pure game-based activities or games technologically enhanced with asynchronous/synchronous distance learning. A structural equation model was developed and tested using students’ responses to a survey conducted after each session. The results suggest that students’ experience is directly influenced by their motivation to participate in the new environment, their attitude during purely game-based classes, and technological behaviour during classes with distance learning activities. We also found that students of different ages showed similar subjective experience and identified a clear distinction between students’ views and learning outcomes during in-class gaming and asynchronous/synchronous conditions.Iako je potencijal učenja zasnovanog na igri široko prepoznat, učinkovita integracija igara u okruženje učionice prije svega zahtijeva bolje razumijevanje učenika. Cilj ovog istraživanja jest identificirati relevantne čimbenike koji utječu na iskustva učenika prilikom integracije tradicionalnih dječjih igara u program osnovne škole. U istraživanju su sudjelovala 142 učenika iz različitih osnovnih škola, koji su pohađali veći broj sati na kojima su se koristile isključivo aktivnosti zasnovane na igri, odnosno igre tehnološki pojačane (a)sinkronim učenjem na daljinu. U sklopu istraživanja razvijen je model zasnovan na strukturnim jednadžbama, koji je testiran uz pomoć odgovora učenika, prikupljenih s pomoću anketa provođenih nakon svakog sata. Rezultati sugeriraju da na iskustvo učenika izravno utječe njihova motivacija za sudjelovanje u novom okruženju, njihovi stavovi (u vezi sa satima zasnovanim isključivo na igri), kao i tehnološka učinkovitost (u vezi sa satima koji uključuju aktivnosti zasnovane na učenju na daljinu). Također smo ustanovili da učenici različite dobi dijele slična subjektivna iskustva te identificirali jasnu razliku između stavova učenika i ishoda učenja u kontekstu igranja u učionici i (a)sinkronog učenja

Improving Activity Recognition Accuracy in Ambient-Assisted Living Systems by Automated Feature Engineering

Ambient-assisted living (AAL) is promising to become a supplement of the current care models, providing enhanced living experience to people within context-aware homes and smart environments. Activity recognition based on sensory data in AAL systems is an important task because 1) it can be used for estimation of levels of physical activity, 2) it can lead to detecting changes of daily patterns that may indicate an emerging medical condition, or 3) it can be used for detection of accidents and emergencies. To be accepted, AAL systems must be affordable while providing reliable performance. These two factors hugely depend on optimizing the number of utilized sensors and extracting robust features from them. This paper proposes a generic feature engineering method for selecting robust features from a variety of sensors, which can be used for generating reliable classi cation models. From the originally recorded time series and some newly generated time series [i.e., magnitudes, rst derivatives, delta series, and fast Fourier transformation (FFT)-based series], a variety of time and frequency domain features are extracted. Then, using two-phase feature selection, the number of generated features is greatly reduced. Finally, different classi cation models are trained and evaluated on an independent test set. The proposed method was evaluated on ve publicly available data sets, and on all of them, it yielded better accuracy than when using hand-tailored features. The bene ts of the proposed systematic feature engineering method are quickly discovering good feature sets for any given task than manually nding ones suitable for a particular task, selecting a small feature set that outperforms manually determined features in both execution time and accuracy, and identi cation of relevant sensor types and body locations automatically. Ultimately, the proposed method could reduce the cost of AAL systems by facilitating execution of algorithms on devices with limited resources and by using as few sensors as possible.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Leveraging Interdisciplinary Education Toward Securing the Future of Connected Health Research in Europe: Qualitative Study

Background: Connected health (CH) technologies have resulted in a paradigm shift, moving health care steadily toward a more patient-centered delivery approach. CH requires a broad range of disciplinary expertise from across the spectrum to work in a cohesive and productive way. Building this interdisciplinary relationship at an earlier stage of career development may nurture and accelerate the CH developments and innovations required for future health care. Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of interdisciplinary CH researchers regarding the design and delivery of an interdisciplinary education (IDE) module for disciplines currently engaged in CH research (engineers, computer scientists, health care practitioners, and policy makers). This study also investigated whether this module should be delivered as a taught component of an undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral program to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary learning. Methods: A qualitative, cross-institutional, multistage research approach was adopted, which involved a background study of fundamental concepts, individual interviews with CH researchers in Greece (n=9), and two structured group feedback sessions with CH researchers in Ireland (n=10/16). Thematic analysis was used to identify the themes emerging from the interviews and structured group feedback sessions. Results: A total of two sets of findings emerged from the data. In the first instance, challenges to interdisciplinary work were identified, including communication challenges, divergent awareness of state-of-the-art CH technologies across disciplines, and cultural resistance to interdisciplinarity. The second set of findings were related to the design for interdisciplinarity. In this regard, the need to link research and education with real-world practice emerged as a key design concern. Positioning within the program context was also considered to be important with a need to balance early intervention to embed integration with later repeat interventions that maximize opportunities to share skills and experiences. Conclusions: The authors raise and address challenges to interdisciplinary program design for CH based on an abductive approach combining interdisciplinary and interprofessional education literature and the collection of qualitative data. This recipe approach for interdisciplinary design offers guidelines for policy makers, educators, and innovators in the CH space. Gaining insight from CH researchers regarding the development of an IDE module has offered the designers a novel insight regarding the curriculum, timing, delivery, and potential challenges that may be encountered

Technological solutions for older people with Alzheimer’s disease : Review

Funding Information: The authors would like to acknowledge networking support from COST Action CA16226: Indoor living space improvement: Smart Habitat for the Elderly. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technol-ogy) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. www.cost.eu. Furthermore, authors acknowledge the internal research project Excellence 2018, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Authors acknowledge the funding provided by FCT through the scholarship SFRH/BPD/115112/2016 (Joana Madureira) as well as to Solange Costa and João Paulo Teixeira, both from EPIUnit – Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto and National Institute of Heath, Environmental Health Department. Authors also acknowledge the funding from the University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Bentham Science Publishers.In the nineties, numerous studies began to highlight the problem of the increasing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease in developed countries, especially in the context of demographic progress. At the same time, the 21st century is typical of the development of advanced technologies that penetrate all areas of human life. Digital devices, sensors, and intelligent applications are tools that can help seniors and allow better communication and control of their caregivers. The aim of the paper is to provide an up-to-date summary of the use of technological solutions for improving health and safety for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Firstly, the problems and needs of senior citizens with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their caregivers are specified. Secondly, a scoping review is performed regarding the technological solutions suggested to assist this specific group of patients. Works obtained from the following libraries are used in this scoping review: Web of Science, PubMed, Springer, ACM and IEEE Xplore. Four independent reviewers screened the identified records and selected relevant articles which were published in the period from 2007 to 2018. A total of 6,705 publications were selected. In all, 128 full papers were screened. Results obtained from the relevant studies were furthermore divided into the following categories according to the type and use of technologies: devices, processing, and activity recognition. The leading technological solution in the category of devices are wearables and ambient non-invasive sensors. The introduction and utilization of these technologies, however, bring about challenges in acceptability, durability, ease of use, communication, and power requirements. Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out that these technological solutions should be based on open standards.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Sleep Apnea Detection in Fog Based Ambient Assisted Living System

Ambient Assisted Living environments use different sensors and actuators to enable their endusers to live in their preferred environments. Unlike smart homes, where a target audience is usually a family unit, standard Ambient Assisted Living end users are care receivers and care providers. This article describes an approach based on the fog computing paradigm to detect sleep apnea in an Ambient Assisted Living context unobtrusively. The edge nodes process and detect local activities of daily living events and have direct control of the local environment. The fog nodes are used to further process and transmit data. The cloud is used for more complex and anonymous data computation. This research shows that sensors, which are unobtrusive and do not interfere with users' daily routines, can be successfully used for pattern observation

Aging at work: A review of recent trends and future direction

Demographic data suggest a rapid aging trend in the active workforce. The concept of aging at work comes from the urgent requirement to help the aging workforce of the contemporary industries to maintain productivity while achieving a work and private life balance. While there is plenty of research focusing on the aging population, current research activities on policies covering the concept of aging at work are limited and conceptually different. This paper aims to review publications on aging at work, which could lead to the creation of a framework that targets governmental decision-makers, the non-governmental sector, the private sector, and all of those who are responsible for the formulation of policies on aging at work. In August 2019 we searched for peer-reviewed articles in English that were indexed in PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Springer and published between 2008 and 2019. The keywords included the following phrases: “successful aging at work”, “active aging at work”, “healthy aging at work”, “productive aging at work”, and “older adults at work”. A total of 47,330 publications were found through database searching, and 25,187 publications were screened. Afterwards, 7756 screened publications were excluded from the further analysis, and a total of 17,431 article abstracts were evaluated for inclusion. Finally, further qualitative analysis included 1375 articles, of which about 24 are discussed in this article. The most prominent works suggest policies that encourage life-long learning, and a workforce that comprises both younger and older workers, as well as gradual retirement.V.T., E.Z., I.C. and P.L. acknowledge the support of Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia. In addition, this manuscript is funded by FCT/MEC through portuguese national funds and when applicable co-funded by FEDER—PT2020 partnership agreement under the project UIDB/EEA/50008/2020 (Este trabalho é financiado pela FCT/MEC através de fundos nacionais e quando aplicável cofinanciado pelo FEDER, no âmbito do Acordo de Parceria PT2020 no âmbito do projeto UIDB/EEA/50008/2020). This manuscript is based upon work from COST Action IC1303-AAPELE-Architectures, Algorithms, and Protocols for Enhanced Living Environments and COST Action CA16226-SHELD-ON-Indoor living space improvement: Smart Habitat for the Elderly, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. More information in www.cost.eu. Based on CA16226 project, LTC18035 INTER COST was proposed for national funding support of COST ACTION Framework by MEYS, Czech Republic. This work was also supported in part by the project (2020/2206), Grant Agency of Excellence, University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Informatics and Management, Czech Republic