1ª Edición Premios APP Fundación Vodafone-UPCT

El Presidente de la Fundación Vodafone España y su equipo, presentó el pasado día 25 de abril las bases del concurso entre nuestros estudiantes y poder comentarles casos de éxito anterior, así como dudas e inquietudes que muestren los aspirantes. El acto de presentación fue en el salón de grados de la ETSIT-UPCT. Este concurso exclusivo para la UPCT de la Fundación Vodafone es un aliciente para que los estudiantes aprendan, desde antes de finalizar su estudios, a poner la tecnología al servicio de la sociedad, aumentando el catálogo de aplicaciones móviles que permitan hacer más accesible el día a día de las personas con cierta discapacidad o la de nuestros mayores”, ha resaltado el vicerrector de TIC, Juan Luis Pedreño. La convocatoria cuenta con las categorías Vida independiente, para aplicaciones que promuevan la mejora de la calidad de vida y la autonomía personas de las personas con algún tipo de discapacidad, y Envejecimiento activo, para aplicaciones que contribuyan a promocionar el envejecimiento activo y así ayuden a mejorar de la calidad de las personas mayores. Los ganadores de ambas categorías obtendrán 3.000 euros y en ambas habrá un accésit de 1.000 euros. Los premiados en la categoría de ‘Envejecimiento activo´ son Jorge Mendoza Saucedo, que ha recibido el primer premio dotado con 3.000 euros y Luis Miguel Navarro, ganador del accésit de 1.000 euros. Los estudiantes premiados en la categoría de ‘Vida independiente’ son José Illán Hernández, que ha recibido el primer premio de 3.000 euros y Alonso Javier Sánchez García, ganador del accésit 1000 euros. Los alumnos recibieron el premio en la Noche de las Telecomunicaciones, encuentro organizado por la Asociación de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación de la Región de Murcia (AITeRM) con la colaboración del Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación de la Región de Murcia (COITeRM).La Fundación Vodafone presentó y financió la 1ª Edición de los Premios Apps de desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles accesibles en dispositivos Android, en colaboración con la UPCT. Los destinatarios de estos premios (4 en total) son única y exclusivamente estudiantes de la UPCT, está iniciativa es de un gran interés para fomentar el espíritu emprendedor y las capacidades de nuestros alumnos, sin limitación de curso

Cell Phones to Collect Pregnancy Data From Remote Areas in Liberia

Purpose: To report findings on knowledge and skill acquisition following a 3‐day training session in the use of short message service (SMS) texting with non‐ and low‐literacy traditional midwives. Design: A pre‐ and post‐test study design was used to assess knowledge and skill acquisition with 99 traditional midwives on the use of SMS texting for real‐time, remote data collection in rural Liberia, West Africa. Methods: Paired sample t‐tests were conducted to establish if overall mean scores varied significantly from pre‐test to immediate post‐test. Analysis of variance was used to compare means across groups. The nonparametric McNemar's test was used to determine significant differences between the pre‐test and post‐test values of each individual step involved in SMS texting. Pearson's chi‐square test of independence was used to examine the association between ownership of cell phones within a family and achievement of the seven tasks. Findings: The mean increase in cell phone knowledge scores was 3.67, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 3.39 to 3.95. Participants with a cell phone in the family did significantly better on three of the seven tasks in the pre‐test: “turns cell on without help” (χ 2 (1) = 9.15, p = .003); “identifies cell phone coverage” (χ 2 (1) = 5.37, p = .024); and “identifies cell phone is charged” (χ 2 (1) = 4.40, p = .042). Conclusions: A 3‐day cell phone training session with low‐ and nonliterate traditional midwives in rural Liberia improved their ability to use mobile technology for SMS texting. Clinical Relevance: Mobile technology can improve data collection accessibility and be used for numerous health care and public health issues. Cell phone accessibility holds great promise for collecting health data in low‐resource areas of the world. Journal of Nursing Scholarship , 2012; 00:0, 1–8.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93561/1/j.1547-5069.2012.01451.x.pd

Geographic information retrieval in a mobile environment: evaluating the needs of mobile individuals

This paper describes research that aims to define the information needs of mobile individuals, to implement a mobile information system that can satisfy those needs, and finally to evaluate the performance of that system with end-users. First a review of the emerging discipline of geographic information retrieval (GIR) is presented as background to the more specific issue of mobile information retrieval. Following this, a user needs study is described evaluating the requirements of potential users of a mobile information system; the study finds that there is a strong geographic component to users' information needs. Next, four geographic post-query filters are described which attempt to represent the region of space associated with an individual's query made at some specific spatial location. These filters are spatial proximity (distance in space), temporal proximity (travel time), speed-heading prediction surfaces (likelihood of visiting locations) and visibility (locations that can be seen). Two of these filters — spatial proximity and speed-heading prediction surfaces — are implemented in a mobile information system and subsequently evaluated with users in an outdoor setting. The results of evaluation suggest that retrieved information to which post-query geographic filters have been applied is considered more relevant than unfiltered information, and that users find information sorted by spatial proximity to be more relevant than that sorted by a prediction surface of likely future locations. The paper closes with a discussion of the wider implications of these results for developers of mobile information systems and location-based services

The use of mobile phone data for the estimation of the travel patterns and imported Plasmodium falciparum rates among Zanzibar residents

Background: malaria endemicity in Zanzibar has reached historically low levels, and the epidemiology of malaria transmission is in transition. To capitalize on these gains, Zanzibar has commissioned a feasibility assessment to help inform on whether to move to an elimination campaign. Declining local transmission has refocused attention on imported malaria. Recent studies have shown that anonimized mobile phone records provide a valuable data source for characterizing human movements without compromising the privacy of phone users. Such movement data in combination with spatial data on P. falciparum endemicity provide a way of characterizing the patterns of parasite carrier movements and the rates of malaria importation, which have been used as part of the malaria elimination feasibility assessment for the islands of Zanzibar. Data and methods: records encompassing three months of complete mobile phone usage for the period October-December 2008 were obtained from the Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel) mobile phone network company, the principal provider on the islands of Zanzibar. The data included the dates of all phone usage by 770,369 individual anonymous users. Each individual call and message was spatially referenced to one of six areas: Zanzibar and five mainland Tanzania regions. Information on the numbers of Zanzibar residents travelling to the mainland, locations visited and lengths of stay were extracted. Spatial and temporal data on P. falciparum transmission intensity and seasonality enabled linkage of this information to endemicity exposure and, motivated by malaria transmission models, estimates of the expected patterns of parasite importation to be made. Results: over the three month period studied, 88% of users made calls that were routed only through masts on Zanzibar, suggesting that no long distance travel was undertaken by this group. Of those who made calls routed through mainland masts the vast majority of trips were estimated to be of less than five days in length, and to the Dar Es Salaam Zantel-defined region. Though this region covered a wide range of transmission intensities, data on total infection numbers in Zanzibar combined with mathematical models enabled informed estimation of transmission exposure and imported infection numbers. These showed that the majority of trips made posed a relatively low risk for parasite importation, but risk groups visiting higher transmission regions for extended periods of time could be identified. Conclusion: anonymous mobile phone records provide valuable information on human movement patterns in areas that are typically data-sparse. Estimates of human movement patterns from Zanzibar to mainland Tanzania suggest that imported malaria risk from this group is heterogeneously distributed; a few people account for most of the risk for imported malaria. In combination with spatial data on malaria endemicity and transmission models, movement patterns derived from phone records can inform on the likely sources and rates of malaria importation. Such information is important for assessing the feasibility of malaria elimination and planning an elimination campaign