Using Mobile Technology to Bring Families Together

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradthana Jarusriboonchai ◽  
Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila

Increased use of digital technology, such as social media or individual entertainment systems, may lead to less face-to-face communication between family members. This paper presents a two-phase design research study on a novel use of technology that could help reconnect co-located family members. The authors present the design qualities for a domestic technology that can increase the level of social interaction within a family. These design qualities provide a guideline for the second phase, in which a novel system concept, FAMEX, is designed to support discussion about family experiences. FAMEX is based on the concept of family history, and involves the creation, finding, and discussion of family memories, which are represented as virtual notes around the home. The design emphasizes ludic values in the form of playful stimulants to face-to-face discussion. Mobile devices, together with augmented reality and embodied interaction, are utilized within the home context: this combination has the potential to raise curiosity and interest, and therefore, encourage ongoing use of the system. In an iterative user study, with prototypes of various fidelities, the participants rejected the features of formal game play, but gave positive feedback to the main features of FAMEX.

2021 ◽  
pp. 026461962110190
Author(s):  
Lil Deverell ◽  
Jahar Bhowmik ◽  
Abdullah Al Mahmud ◽  
Bee Theng Lau ◽  
Fakir M Amirul Islam ◽  
...  

Since the 1960s, many electronic travel aids have been developed for people with low vision or blindness to improve their independent travel skills, but uptake of these specialist devices has been limited. This study investigated what technologies orientation and mobility (O&M) clients in Australia and Malaysia have, use, like, and want to support their travel, to inform technology research and development. This two-phase mixed-methods study surveyed O&M clients face-to-face in Malaysia ( n = 9), and online in Australia ( n = 50). Participants managed safe walking using a human guide, long cane, or guide dog when their vision was insufficient to see hazards, but a smartphone is now a standard travel aid in both Australia and Malaysia. Participants relied on smartphone accessibility features and identified 108 apps they used for travel: for planning (e.g., public transport timetables), sourcing information in transit (e.g., GPS location and directions, finding a taxi), sensory conversion (e.g., camera-to-voice, voice-to-text, video-to-live description), social connections (e.g., phone, email, Facebook), food (e.g., finding eateries, ordering online), and entertainment (e.g., music, games). They wanted to ‘carry less junk’, and sought better accessibility features, consistency across platforms, and fast, reliable, real-time information that supports confident, non-visual travel, especially into unfamiliar places.


Author(s):  
Geraldine Torrisi-Steele

Universities are investing considerable resources into blended learning as an institutional strategy to respond to pressures of uncertain economies, increasing globalisation, and the changing expectations of cohorts of digitally savvy students. However, the widespread adoption of effective blended teaching practices has generally not been achieved. A greater understanding of academics' blended teaching practices is needed to facilitate the uptake of effective blended practices on a larger scale. By exploring how various factors influence academics' use of technology with face-to-face teaching, the study makes a contribution to the understanding of academics' blended practices. The study described in this paper uses a mixed method, two phase methodology to develop a predictive model of blended strategy use. A major finding of the study is gender differences in factors predisposing academics towards blended strategy. Factors predisposing academics towards the use of blended in strategies in current practice were found to be: perceived usefulness (but only for male academics), higher education teaching experience, and self-efficacy (but only for females). Significant factors influencing academics' intentions for future blended practice were found to be: perceived usefulness, current use of blended strategies and, for female academics, perceived feasibility.


Author(s):  
Geraldine Torrisi-Steele

Universities are investing considerable resources into blended learning as an institutional strategy to respond to pressures of uncertain economies, increasing globalisation, and the changing expectations of cohorts of digitally savvy students. However, the widespread adoption of effective blended teaching practices has generally not been achieved. A greater understanding of academics' blended teaching practices is needed to facilitate the uptake of effective blended practices on a larger scale. By exploring how various factors influence academics' use of technology with face-to-face teaching, the study makes a contribution to the understanding of academics' blended practices. The study described in this paper uses a mixed method, two phase methodology to develop a predictive model of blended strategy use. A major finding of the study is gender differences in factors predisposing academics towards blended strategy. Factors predisposing academics towards the use of blended in strategies in current practice were found to be: perceived usefulness (but only for male academics), higher education teaching experience, and self-efficacy (but only for females). Significant factors influencing academics' intentions for future blended practice were found to be: perceived usefulness, current use of blended strategies and, for female academics, perceived feasibility.


Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Aoyama

The revised building code of Japan, to become effective in June, 1981, is reviewed. It features a two-phase design for earthquakes. The first phase design is for medium earthquake motions, and this is basically the unchanged traditional seismic design. The new second phase design is intended to give protection to buildings in case of severe ground shaking. It requires the checking of several aspects of the building that
has been proportioned by the first phase design. These include storey drift, vertical stiffness distribution, horizontal accentricity and ultimate lateral load carrying capacity. Both phases of the design are reviewed in detail, with some numerical examples where it is appropriate to illustrate the design procedure. Some provisions are discussed in the light of
recent earthquake damage in Japan. A comparison with New Zealand seismic design loadings is also made.


Author(s):  
M.G. Burke ◽  
M.K. Miller

Interpretation of fine-scale microstructures containing high volume fractions of second phase is complex. In particular, microstructures developed through decomposition within low temperature miscibility gaps may be extremely fine. This paper compares the morphological interpretations of such complex microstructures by the high-resolution techniques of TEM and atom probe field-ion microscopy (APFIM).The Fe-25 at% Be alloy selected for this study was aged within the low temperature miscibility gap to form a <100> aligned two-phase microstructure. This triaxially modulated microstructure is composed of an Fe-rich ferrite phase and a B2-ordered Be-enriched phase. The microstructural characterization through conventional bright-field TEM is inadequate because of the many contributions to image contrast. The ordering reaction which accompanies spinodal decomposition in this alloy permits simplification of the image by the use of the centered dark field technique to image just one phase. A CDF image formed with a B2 superlattice reflection is shown in fig. 1. In this CDF micrograph, the the B2-ordered Be-enriched phase appears as bright regions in the darkly-imaging ferrite. By examining the specimen in a [001] orientation, the <100> nature of the modulations is evident.


1985 ◽  
Vol 46 (C5) ◽  
pp. C5-251-C5-255
Author(s):  
S. Pytel ◽  
L. Wojnar

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 25-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Rykaart ◽  
J. Haarhoff

A simple two-phase conceptual model is postulated to explain the initial growth of microbubbles after pressure release in dissolved air flotation. During the first phase bubbles merely expand from existing nucleation centres as air precipitates from solution, without bubble coalescence. This phase ends when all excess air is transferred to the gas phase. During the second phase, the total air volume remains the same, but bubbles continue to grow due to bubble coalescence. This model is used to explain the results from experiments where three different nozzle variations were tested, namely a nozzle with an impinging surface immediately outside the nozzle orifice, a nozzle with a bend in the nozzle channel, and a nozzle with a tapering outlet immediately outside the nozzle orifice. From these experiments, it is inferred that the first phase of bubble growth is completed at approximately 1.7 ms after the start of pressure release.


Author(s):  
Yiguang Gong ◽  
Yunping Liu ◽  
Chuanyang Yin

AbstractEdge computing extends traditional cloud services to the edge of the network, closer to users, and is suitable for network services with low latency requirements. With the rise of edge computing, its security issues have also received increasing attention. In this paper, a novel two-phase cycle algorithm is proposed for effective cyber intrusion detection in edge computing based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and modified back-propagation neural network (MBPNN), namely TPC-MOGA-MBPNN. In the first phase, the MOGA is employed to build a multi-objective optimization model that tries to find the Pareto optimal parameter set for MBPNN. The Pareto optimal parameter set is applied for simultaneous minimization of the average false positive rate (Avg FPR), mean squared error (MSE) and negative average true positive rate (Avg TPR) in the dataset. In the second phase, some MBPNNs are created based on the parameter set obtained by MOGA and are trained to search for a more optimal parameter set locally. The parameter set obtained in the second phase is used as the input of the first phase, and the training process is repeated until the termination criteria are reached. A benchmark dataset, KDD cup 1999, is used to demonstrate and validate the performance of the proposed approach for intrusion detection. The proposed approach can discover a pool of MBPNN-based solutions. Combining these MBPNN solutions can significantly improve detection performance, and a GA is used to find the optimal MBPNN combination. The results show that the proposed approach achieves an accuracy of 98.81% and a detection rate of 98.23% and outperform most systems of previous works found in the literature. In addition, the proposed approach is a generalized classification approach that is applicable to the problem of any field having multiple conflicting objectives.


Author(s):  
Tamas Szili-Torok ◽  
Jens Rump ◽  
Torsten Luther ◽  
Sing-Chien Yap

Abstract Better understanding of the lead curvature, movement and their spatial distribution may be beneficial in developing lead testing methods, guiding implantations and improving life expectancy of implanted leads. Objective The aim of this two-phase study was to develop and test a novel biplane cine-fluoroscopy-based method to evaluate input parameters for bending stress in leads based on their in vivo 3D motion using precisely determined spatial distributions of lead curvatures. Potential tensile, compressive or torque forces were not subjects of this study. Methods A method to measure lead curvature and curvature evolution was initially tested in a phantom study. In the second phase using this model 51 patients with implanted ICD leads were included. A biplane cine-fluoroscopy recording of the intracardiac region of the lead was performed. The lead centerline and its motion were reconstructed in 3D and used to define lead curvature and curvature changes. The maximum absolute curvature Cmax during a cardiac cycle, the maximum curvature amplitude Camp and the maximum curvature Cmax@amp at the location of Camp were calculated. These parameters can be used to characterize fatigue stress in a lead under cyclical bending. Results The medians of Camp and Cmax@amp were 0.18 cm−1 and 0.42 cm−1, respectively. The median location of Cmax was in the atrium whereas the median location of Camp occurred close to where the transit through the tricuspid valve can be assumed. Increased curvatures were found for higher slack grades. Conclusion Our results suggest that reconstruction of 3D ICD lead motion is feasible using biplane cine-fluoroscopy. Lead curvatures can be computed with high accuracy and the results can be implemented to improve lead design and testing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s93-s94
Author(s):  
Linda Huddleston ◽  
Sheila Bennett ◽  
Christopher Hermann

Background: Over the past 10 years, a rural health system has tried 10 different interventions to reduce hospital-associated infections (HAIs), and only 1 intervention has led to a reduction in HAIs. Reducing HAIs is a goal of nearly all hospitals, and improper hand hygiene is widely accepted as the main cause of HAIs. Even so, improving hand hygiene compliance is a challenge. Methods: Our facility implemented a two-phase longitudinal study to utilize an electronic hand hygiene reminder system to reduce HAIs. In the first phase, we implemented an intervention in 2 high-risk clinical units. The second phase of the study consisted of expanding the system to 3 additional clinical areas that had a lower incidence of HAIs. The hand hygiene baseline was established at 45% for these units prior to the voice reminder being turned on. Results: The system gathered baseline data prior to being turned on, and our average hand hygiene compliance rate was 49%. Once the voice reminder was turned on, hand hygiene improved nearly 35% within 6 months. During the first phase, there was a statistically significant 62% reduction in the average number of HAIs (catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), central-line–acquired bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), and Clostridiodes difficile experienced in the preliminary units, comparing 12 months prior to 12 months after turning on the voice reminder. In the second phase, hand hygiene compliance increased to >65% in the following 6 months. During the second phase, all HAIs fell by a statistically significant 60%. This was determined by comparing the HAI rates 6 months prior to the voice reminder being turned on to 6 months after the voice reminder was turned on. Conclusions: The HAI data from both phases were aggregated, and there was a statistically significant reduction in MDROs by 90%, CAUTIs by 60%, and C. difficile by 64%. This resulted in annual savings >$1 million in direct costs of nonreimbursed HAIs.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


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