Grounded Task Prioritization with Context-Aware Sequential Ranking

People rely on task management applications and digital assistants to capture and track their tasks, and help with executing them. The burden of organizing and scheduling time for tasks continues to reside with users of these systems, despite the high cognitive load associated with these activities. Users stand to benefit greatly from a task management system capable of prioritizing their pending tasks, thus saving them time and effort. In this article, we make three main contributions. First, we propose the problem of task prioritization, formulating it as a ranking over a user’s pending tasks given a history of previous interactions with a task management system. Second, we perform an extensive analysis on the large-scale anonymized, de-identified logs of a popular task management application, deriving a dataset of grounded, real-world tasks from which to learn and evaluate our proposed system. We also identify patterns in how people record tasks as complete, which vary consistently with the nature of the task. Third, we propose a novel contextual deep learning solution capable of performing personalized task prioritization. In a battery of tests, we show that this approach outperforms several operational baselines and other sequential ranking models from previous work. Our findings have implications for understanding the ways people prioritize and manage tasks with digital tools, and in the design of support for users of task management applications.

A Human Factors Study Exploring the Experience of Participants Using VEGA, a Smartphone Migraine Management Application

Background and objectives: There is increasing interest by patients and healthcare providers in using digital tools such as smartphone applications to log migraine days, potential triggers and medication use. However, there are opportunities to optimize the learnability and ease of use of these applications. In this human factors study, we evaluated the experience of individuals with migraine using the VEGA mobile application. Material and methods: For 4 weeks, individuals diagnosed with migraine used the VEGA application, which generated a migraine report containing 4 weeks of data, where migraine days were reported based on functional impact, pain severity, and medication use. Participants also responded to a survey and rated the ease of use of the application using a 6-point Likert scale, with “very easy” being the highest ranking. Results: A total of 22 participants completed this study, ranged between 22 to 57 years old, and 54% were males. Eighteen participants completed the migraine report and logged 160 total migraine days. Participants reported the functional impact of migraine as "mild," "moderate," or "severe" for respectively 2, 44, and 50 of the logged migraine days. The pain severity was scored as “mild” for 24 days, “moderate” for 65 days, and “severe” for 63 days. Moreover, 20 participants reported it was “easy” or “very easy” to learn how to use the application, and 19 participants found it “simple” or “extremely simple” to use. Conclusions: In this human factors study, the VEGA application was easy to use, providing real-time patient-reported data.

PROGRAM APLIKASI PENGELOLAAN KAS MENGGUNAKAN MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC 2015 PADA MASJID AL JIHAD BANJARMASIN

Research purposes. This study aims to determine the proper cash management at Al Jihad Mosque, and to produce a computer-based Cash Management Application Program using Microsoft Visual Basic 2015 as the Front End, and Sql Server 2014 as a back end at the Al Jihad Mosque in Banjarmasin. Theoretical thinking framework. In this study the theoretical framework is analyzing the cash management that runs on the Al Jihad Mosque in Banjarmasin, by analyzing the information needed by management, related functions, accounting documents and records used, and flowcharts. The application program that was developed in the first step was carried out with relations between tables, designing interfaces, and designing outputs. Research result. The results of this study concluded that all cash records are semi-computerized. However, the author recommends using Microsoft Visual Basic 2015 as a Front End, and Sql Server 2014 as a back end so that it can help Al Jihad Mosque to record cash receipts and disbursements quickly and precisely.

Demographic and socio-economic risk factors associated with self-reported TB

BACKGROUND: The infectiousness of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is known to be shaped by the human environment, with research showing positive associations with poverty, homelessness and overcrowding, among other factors. In this study, the focus is primarily on environmental health risks for TB, particularly on those associated with sociodemographic and household living conditions in South Africa.METHODS: Data for this study were collected between 2014 and 2019 from a number of sites implementing community-oriented primary care (COPC) in the Gauteng Province of the country. Community health workers (CHWs) used AitaHealthtm, a custom-built mobile information management application, to obtain data on the TB status and environmental conditions of households. Statistical models were used to determine associations between various demographic, socio-economic and environmental risk factors, and TB.RESULTS: Approximately 12,503 TB cases were reported among 7,769 households. Substance use and male-headed households were found to have significant associations in households with at least one individual with TB. Overcrowding, as well as lack of access to piped water and adequate sanitation were also found to be positively associated with a ‘TB-household.´CONCLUSION: Improvements in housing and services, particularly the provision of piped water and reticulated flush toilets, are needed to control and prevent TB in South Africa.

AUTOMATE TASK’ DEPENDENCIES COMPLETION TRACKING IN SMARTSHEET

Smartsheet is the well-known project management application. It helps managers to develop project plans and track their execution. When project’s tasks have many dependencies, a manager often has to scroll the plan up and down for visual assessment of completion statuses each of them. It needs many efforts and time. The article proposes a solution to automate the dependencies completion tracking in Smartsheet for a specific task. The solution allows tracking different types of dependencies for a task: completing direct dependencies from other tasks and completing dependencies for all of its ancestors. The algorithm of the solution, Smartsheet’s functions for its implementation, and the screen forms of the obtained results are given.

Towards a Trusted and Unified Consortium-Blockchain-Based Data Sharing Infrastructure for Open Learning—TolFob Architecture and Implementation

Open learning is now facing a complex higher education ecosystem that involves a variety of heterogeneous information systems and comprises decentralized stakeholders, such as universities, professors, students, and software vendors. Authentic, non-repudiable, and fast available data sharing among open learning information systems and stakeholders is a key issue that remains unresolved. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a consortium blockchain extended architecture featuring integration and cross-chain functions to provide a unified and trusted data-sharing infrastructure for open learning. The overall architecture consists of three elements: a blockchain-integrated open learning scenario schema; a blockchain-integrated open learning application model; and a pragmatic blockchain integration framework. The proposed blockchain integration framework is implemented based on Hyperledger Fabric 1.4. A trusted open-learning behavior and achievement management application is developed as a proof-of-concept which integrates two educational institutions’ four productional learning systems into a blockchain network and has stably run over six months. A suite of experiments is designed and executed to verify our blockchain system’s viability and scalability. The test result shows the implementation of the blockchain system is competent for the production environment and outperforms related works investigated. However, it does have limitations and optimization potential, which will be studied in the future.