Identifying adoption and usability factors of locator devices for persons living with dementia

A growing number of Canadians live with dementia. Strategies to reduce the risks of getting lost include physical barriers, restraints and medications. However, these strategies can restrict one’s participation in meaningful activities and reduce quality of life. Locator devices can be used to manage safety risks while also supporting engagement and independence among persons living with dementia. As more locator devices become available on the market, adoption rates would be affected by certain factors. There is no clear, standardized approach to identify the factors that have an influence on the acceptance and usability of locator devices for persons with dementia and their care partners. This project aimed to identify factors related to acceptance and usability of locator devices that are important to individuals with dementia, their care partners, service providers and technology developers. Qualitative description and conventional content analysis guided our approach. We conducted 5 focus groups with 21 participants. Trustworthiness strategies included multiple data sources, data verification for accuracy and peer debrief. Five overarching factors emerged as critical aspects in the acceptance and usability of locator devices. These factors were inclusivity, simplicity, features, physical properties and ethics. Participants thought that locator devices do not adequately consider privacy and stigma. Therefore, the acceptance and usability of locator devices could be enhanced if privacy and stigma are addressed. The factors identified will inform the creation of an acceptance and usability scale for locator devices used by persons living with dementia, their care partners and service providers.

DEVELOPMENT OF IOT ENABLED GLOBAL TRACKING SYSTEM AND MOBILE APPLICATION FOR PEOPLE WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Alzheimer’s is a degenerative disease meaning that it gets worse with time. Memory loss, speaking problems, wandering, and getting lost are some of the signs of the disease. The risk of wandering results in high demand for extensive monitoring solutions for the patients suffering from the disease. Tracking solutions are crucial, especially for family members and caregivers, so researchers develop new wearable tracking devices to overcome missing patients. GPS technology can provide location data with high accuracy, but it is not sufficient to use only by itself. Thus, a more extensive solution should be provided. In this paper, a mobile wearable tracking device that can provide data to the mobile application through internet has been developed for patient tracking purposes.

An Alternative Tool for Production Logging in Horizontal Wells

From year to year, well drilling is becoming more technologically advanced and more complex, therefore we observe the active development of drilling technologies, well completion and production intensification. It forms the trend towards the complex well geometry and growth of the length of horizontal sections and therefore an increase of the hydraulic fracturing stages at each well. It's obvious, that oil producing companies frequently don't have proved analytical data on the actual distribution of formation fluid in the inflow profiles for some reasons. Conventional logging methods in horizontal sections require coiled tubing (CT) or downhole tractors, and the well preparation such as drilling the ball seat causing technical difficulties, risks of downhole equipment getting lost or stuck in the well. Sometimes the length of horizontal sections is too long to use conventional logging methods due to their limitations. In this regard, efficient solution of objectives related to the production and development of fields with horizontal wells is complicated due to the shortage of instruments allowing to justify the horizontal well optimal length and the number of MultiFrac stages, difficulties in evaluating the reservoir management system efficiency, etc. A new method of tracer based production profiling technologies are increasingly applied in the global oil industry. This approach benefits through excluding well intervention operations for production logging, allows continuous production profiling operations without the necessity of well shut-in, and without involving additional equipment and personal to be located at wellsite.

The Theatre of the Senses: Introductory Words and a Short Conversation for the Symposium

What happens to us when we enter a Teatro de los Sentidos (Theatre of the Senses) experience? Why do we need to play? Where does our need to play come from? Why is sensory theatre relevant today? For what strange reasons do humans like to play getting lost and finding themselves in the dark? I want to share with you the reasons why Teatro de los Sentidos has been significant to me ever since I became aware of inventing myself and inventing it in my childhood games, imagining forbidden labyrinths in Colombian coffee plantations, until today, at my eighty years of age. It is clear that a lot of primal and parallel knowledge has developed over time in all cultures. Myths, celebrations, imagination, poetry, symbolic powers ... resonate differently, each according to historical circumstances. Let us ask ourselves together: what potential does sensorial theatre have today? (Enrique Vargas: Some questions before the symposium.)

Collection of Data on Persons Living With Dementia Who Go Missing: First Responder Perspectives

While it is commonly cited that 60% of persons living with dementia (PLWD) wander, it is unclear whether this number reflects global contexts. Population aging has created a pressing need for the development of programs to mitigate the risks of PLWD from getting lost and going missing. Such programs would require a national strategy for the collection and integration of data on missing incidents involving this population. This study is a first step to inform such a strategy. The purposes were to: 1) identify approaches to data collection on missing persons incidents involving PLWD among Canadian police and search and rescue (SAR) organizations; 2) describe the foreseeable challenges associated with developing a national data collection strategy. We used generic qualitative description to generate data with fifteen key informants. Virtual semi-structured interviews were completed and transcribed verbatim. Content analysis and trustworthiness strategies guided analysis and rigor. Our findings indicate that police and SAR organizations collect a multitude of data pertaining to missing incidents involving PLWD. However, there is a lack of standardization in data collection, entry and analysis. Privacy legislation, limited resources, and incompatible data management systems pose challenges to data sharing and interoperability. Underreporting of missing incidents to police results in an underestimation of missing incidents. An intersectoral, uniform approach to data collection would enable the storage, analysis and comparison of national data. Accurate data on critical wandering can inform prevention, search strategies, resource allocation and effectiveness of programs.

Development of a locator device usability scale for persons with dementia at risk of getting lost

There is an increasing number of persons living with dementia who live alone. Recent COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have resulted in more persons receiving care remote through information and communication technologies. Locating technologies can be a tool to help care partners monitor their loved ones living with dementia. These devices can also mitigate risks associated with going missing, by reducing time for search and returning the lost person home safely. However, there is no clear, standardized approach to assess the usability of these devices. The purpose of this study was to develop a locator device usability scale for persons living with dementia at risk of getting lost. A two-phase study that utilized a multi-method design and included participatory and iterative strategies was conducted. In the first phase, an item pool was generated through online focus groups with service providers, technology developers, care partners and persons living with dementia. The second phase refined the item pool using an online survey and online focus groups with the same stakeholder groups. Five overarching categories were identified as important for the usability of locating device: features, inclusivity, simplicity, aesthetic appeal, and ethics. Participants identified the need for multiple versions of the usability scale including one specifically for persons living with dementia. The newly developed locator device usability scale can enhance the acceptance of these devices, thereby supporting remote caregiving and promote the safety and autonomy of persons living with dementia.

Waiting

This chapter explores the dialectics of walking and resting, and of mobility and waiting, with regards to creativity in language. It thereby focuses on the interruption and unintended break as an opportunity for interactions and encounters across linguistic epistemes, boundaries and norms. Walking as a methodology and epistemic approach has been discussed in anthropology, the social sciences and literary critique, but met very little interest in linguistics. This chapter on the one hand consequently attempts to address walking as a substantial approach to the study of multilingualism and improvisation, but on the other aims at highlighting disruption and stillness as creating the very liminal space and practice through which language creativity can emerge and be realized. It touches upon various practices that are crucial: being stuck, passing time, getting lost. Points of special interests interest include the role of language in the love songs and other genres, especially in the context of the Mediterranean, disruptions associated with migrations and peoples’ movements, the context of tourism, and the linguistic effects of spirit possession.