Understanding Smart Home Sensor Data for Ageing in Place Through Everyday Household Routines: A Mixed Method Case Study

Research has shown that using graphic novels in the classroom is one of useful approaches to promote the understanding of learners especially for lengthy and difficult literature texts. This study reports the extent of graphic novel in facilitating students’ understanding of literature and the students’ perceptions towards using graphic novel in learning literature (L2) as compared to other genre of texts. This is a mixed method study which employs quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain data. The findings indicate that most students found that graphic novel helped them to enrich their vocabularies and understand the text better. The findings also reveal that students were attracted to the illustrations in the literature text in which this helps to boost their motivation to learn literature in the classroom. The findings provide useful insights for English as Second Language (ESL) teachers in incorporating and expanding the literature learning through graphic novels in the future. The findings also imply the need of ESL teachers to use graphic novels effectively in facilitating their teaching and learning of literature in L2 classrooms particularly to suit the 21st century teaching and learning.

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A case study evaluation of a community multidisciplinary team in South East England using a mixed-method approach

British Journal of General Practice ◽

10.3399/bjgp20x711569 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 70 (suppl 1) ◽

pp. bjgp20X711569

Author(s):

Jessica Wyatt Muscat

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Social Care ◽

Free Form ◽

Normalisation Process Theory ◽

Multidisciplinary Teams ◽

Mixed Method Approach ◽

Health And Social Care ◽

Method Approach

BackgroundCommunity multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) represent a model of integrated care comprising health, social care, and the voluntary sector where members work collaboratively to coordinate care for those patients most at risk.AimThe evaluation will answer the question, ‘What are the enablers and what are the restrictors to the embedding of the case study MDT into the routine practice of the health and social care teams involved in the project?’MethodThe MDT was evaluated using a mixed-method approach with normalisation process theory as a methodological tool. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a questionnaire consisting of the NoMAD survey followed by free-form questions.ResultsThe concepts of the MDT were generally clear, and participants could see the potential benefits of the programme, though this was found to be lower in GPs. Certain professionals, particularly mental health and nursing professionals, found it difficult to integrate the MDT into normal working patterns because of a lack of resources. Participants also felt there was a lack of training for MDT working. A lack of awareness of evidence supporting the programme was shown particularly within management, GP, and nursing roles.ConclusionSpecific recommendations have been made in order to improve the MDT under evaluation. These include adjustments to IT systems and meeting documentation, continued education as to the purpose of the MDT, and the engagement of GPs to enable better buy-in. Recommendations were made to focus the agenda with specialist attendance when necessary, and to expand the MDT remit, particularly in mental health and geriatrics.

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Privacy-Aware Sensor Data Upload Management for Securely Receiving Smart Home Services

2020 IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP) ◽

10.1109/smartcomp50058.2020.00048 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sopicha Stirapongsasuti ◽

Yugo Nakamura ◽

Keiichi Yasumoto

Keyword(s):

Smart Home ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Data Upload

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DOLARS, a Distributed On-Line Activity Recognition System by Means of Heterogeneous Sensors in Real-Life Deployments—A Case Study in the Smart Lab of The University of Almería

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21020405 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 405

Author(s):

Marcos Lupión ◽

Javier Medina-Quero ◽

Juan F. Sanjuan ◽

Pilar M. Ortigosa

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Activity Recognition ◽

Real Life ◽

Recognition System ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Heterogeneous Sensors ◽

On Line ◽

The University

Activity Recognition (AR) is an active research topic focused on detecting human actions and behaviours in smart environments. In this work, we present the on-line activity recognition platform DOLARS (Distributed On-line Activity Recognition System) where data from heterogeneous sensors are evaluated in real time, including binary, wearable and location sensors. Different descriptors and metrics from the heterogeneous sensor data are integrated in a common feature vector whose extraction is developed by a sliding window approach under real-time conditions. DOLARS provides a distributed architecture where: (i) stages for processing data in AR are deployed in distributed nodes, (ii) temporal cache modules compute metrics which aggregate sensor data for computing feature vectors in an efficient way; (iii) publish-subscribe models are integrated both to spread data from sensors and orchestrate the nodes (communication and replication) for computing AR and (iv) machine learning algorithms are used to classify and recognize the activities. A successful case study of daily activities recognition developed in the Smart Lab of The University of Almería (UAL) is presented in this paper. Results present an encouraging performance in recognition of sequences of activities and show the need for distributed architectures to achieve real time recognition.

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A Mixed Method Approach to Quality of Life Research: A Case Study Approach

Social Indicators Research ◽

10.1007/s11205-007-9131-5 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 85 (1) ◽

pp. 145-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Heather Dunning ◽

Allison Williams ◽

Sylvia Abonyi ◽

Valorie Crooks

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Case Study Approach ◽

Mixed Method Approach ◽

Study Approach ◽

Quality Of Life Research ◽

Method Approach

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Innovative real-time sensing of flow dynamics in groundwater and sediments to map contaminant spreading

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13338 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Goedele Verreydt ◽

Niels Van Putte ◽

Timothy De Kleyn ◽

Joris Cool ◽

Bino Maiheu

Keyword(s):

Surface Water ◽

Groundwater Flow ◽

Real Time ◽

Flow Direction ◽

Flow Dynamics ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Time Data ◽

Mass Fluxes ◽

First Case

Groundwater dynamics play a crucial role in the spreading of a soil and groundwater contamination. However, there is still a big gap in the understanding of the groundwater flow dynamics. Heterogeneities and dynamics are often underestimated and therefore not taken into account. They are of crucial input for successful management and remediation measures. The bulk of the mass of mass often is transported through only a small layer or section within the aquifer and is in cases of seepage into surface water very dependent to rainfall and occurring tidal effects.&#160;This study contains the use of novel real-time iFLUX sensors to map the groundwater flow dynamics over time. The sensors provide real-time data on groundwater flow rate and flow direction. The sensor probes consist of multiple bidirectional flow sensors that are superimposed. The probes can be installed directly in the subsoil, riverbed or monitoring well. The measurement setup is unique as it can perform measurements every second, ideal to map rapid changing flow conditions. The measurement range is between 0,5 and 500 cm per day.&#160;We will present the measurement principles and technical aspects of the sensor, together with two case studies.&#160;The first case study comprises the installation of iFLUX sensors in 4 different monitoring wells in a chlorinated solvent plume to map on the one hand the flow patterns in the plume, and on the other hand the flow dynamics that are influenced by the nearby popular trees. The foreseen remediation concept here is phytoremediation. The sensors were installed for a period of in total 4 weeks. Measurement frequency was 5 minutes. The flow profiles and time series will be presented together with the determined mass fluxes.&#160;A second case study was performed on behalf of the remediation of a canal riverbed. Due to industrial production of tar and carbon black in the past, the soil and groundwater next to the small canal &#8216;De Lieve&#8217; in Ghent, Belgium, got contaminated with aliphatic and (poly)aromatic hydrocarbons. The groundwater contaminants migrate to the canal, impact the surface water quality and cause an ecological risk. The seepage flow and mass fluxes of contaminants into the surface water were measured with the novel iFLUX streambed sensors, installed directly in the river sediment. A site conceptual model was drawn and dimensioned based on the sensor data. The remediation concept to tackle the inflowing pollution: a hydraulic conductive reactive mat on the riverbed that makes use of the natural draining function of the waterbody, the adsorption capacity of a natural or secondary adsorbent and a future habitat for micro-organisms that biodegrade contaminants. The reactive mats were successfully installed and based on the mass flux calculations a lifespan of at least 10 years is expected for the adsorption material.&#160;&#160;

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Practice Report “Smart Disaster Management” — Combining Smart City Data and Citizen Participation to Increase Disaster Resilience

i-com ◽

10.1515/icom-2021-0016 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 177-193

Author(s):

Daniel Wessel ◽

Julien Holtz ◽

Florian König

Keyword(s):

Citizen Participation ◽

Smart City ◽

Development Process ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Government Support ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Specific Information ◽

Mutual Support ◽

The Everyday

Abstract Smart cities have a huge potential to increase the everyday efficiency of cities, but also to increase preparation and resilience in case of natural disasters. Especially for disasters which are somewhat predicable like floods, sensor data can be used to provide citizens with up-to-date, personalized and location-specific information (street or even house level resolution). This information allows citizens to better prepare to avert water damage to their property, reduce the needed government support, and — by connecting citizens locally — improve mutual support among neighbors. But how can a smart city application be designed that is both usable and able to function during disaster conditions? Which smart city information can be used? How can the likelihood of mutual, local support be increased? In this practice report, we present the human-centered development process of an app to use Smart City data to better prepare citizens for floods and improve their mutual support during disasters as a case study to answer these questions.

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Research Networking and Collaboration: A Case Study

Qualitative Inquiry ◽

10.1177/1077800418809144 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (9-10) ◽

pp. 1128-1136

Author(s):

Ian F. Shaw

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Science ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Research Network ◽

International Social Work ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Social Work Research ◽

Research Networking ◽

International Social

Doing social science involves collaboration. Yet, there has been little attention to the character of collaboration between social scientists, or to if and in what ways research networks exist. This article reports aspects of a mixed method, participatory case study of a small international social work research network. It sets out how someone becomes a member of—or leaves—the network, how roles appeared to form and be assigned or taken, how the network operates, and the perceived transitional status of the network. The nature of collaboration is central to this analysis. The article illumines forms of collaboration typically deemphasized in arguments for its desirability. It was not characterized by consensus, but required role friction and creative reflexivity, where uncertainty and ambiguity were endemic, sometimes productively so.

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Dynamic Data-Driven Spatiotemporal System Behavior Prediction With Simulations and Sensor Measurement Data

Volume 2B: 44th Design Automation Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2018-86043 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Xiangxue Zhao ◽

Shapour Azarm ◽

Balakumar Balachandran

Keyword(s):

Dynamical System ◽

Real Time ◽

Measurement Data ◽

Data Driven ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Model Parameters ◽

High Fidelity ◽

System Behavior ◽

Sensor Measurement

Online prediction of dynamical system behavior based on a combination of simulation data and sensor measurement data has numerous applications. Examples include predicting safe flight configurations, forecasting storms and wildfire spread, estimating railway track and pipeline health conditions. In such applications, high-fidelity simulations may be used to accurately predict a system’s dynamical behavior offline (“non-real time”). However, due to the computational expense, these simulations have limited usage for online (“real-time”) prediction of a system’s behavior. To remedy this, one possible approach is to allocate a significant portion of the computational effort to obtain data through offline simulations. The obtained offline data can then be combined with online sensor measurements for online estimation of the system’s behavior with comparable accuracy as the off-line, high-fidelity simulation. The main contribution of this paper is in the construction of a fast data-driven spatiotemporal prediction framework that can be used to estimate general parametric dynamical system behavior. This is achieved through three steps. First, high-order singular value decomposition is applied to map high-dimensional offline simulation datasets into a subspace. Second, Gaussian processes are constructed to approximate model parameters in the subspace. Finally, reduced-order particle filtering is used to assimilate sparsely located sensor data to further improve the prediction. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a case study. In this case study, aeroelastic response data obtained for an aircraft through simulations is integrated with measurement data obtained from a few sparsely located sensors. Through this case study, the authors show that along with dynamic enhancement of the state estimates, one can also realize a reduction in uncertainty of the estimates.

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