Context-Aware End-User Development Review

Context-aware application development frameworks enable context management and environment adaptation to automatize people’s activities. New technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) increase environment context (from devices/services), making functionalities available to augment context-aware applications. The result is an increased deployment of context-aware applications to support end-users in everyday activities. However, developing applications in context-aware frameworks involve diverse technologies, so that it traditionally involves software experts. In general, context-aware applications are limited in terms of personalization for end-users. They include configurations to personalize applications, but non-software experts can only change some of these configurations. Nowadays, advances in human–computer interaction provide techniques/metaphors to approach non-software experts. One approach is end-user development (EUD)—a set of activities and development tools that considers non-software experts as application builders. In this paper, we present our analysis of existing EUD approaches for building context-aware applications. We present a literature review of 37 screened papers obtained from research databases. This review aims to identify the methods, techniques, and tools proposed to build context-aware applications. Specifically, we reviewed EUD building techniques and implementations. Building techniques include metaphors/interaction styles proposed for application specification, composition, and testing. The implementations include a specification method to integrate and process context on the target application platforms. We also present the adoption trend and challenges of context-aware end-user development.

Sensory Processing Abnormalities in Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment: A Mixed Methods Study

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia often leads to behavioral and psychiatric symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Sensory processing abnormalities may be associated with BPSD. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships among sensory processing, behavior, and environmental features within the homes of people with MCI or dementia. This project used mixed methods to assess participants’ sensory processing, care partner perspectives on behaviors, and in situ observations of the home environment. Nine participants with cognitive impairment (MCI n = 8, early dementia = 1) and their care partners were included. Seven participants with cognitive impairment were reported to have abnormal sensory processing. Findings suggest that unique environmental adaptations, tailored to personal and sensory preferences for each participant, were associated with a decreased level of behavioral disruption during the observation periods. Implementing sensory-based approaches to maximize environment adaptation may be beneficial in reducing disruptive behaviors for adults with cognitive impairment.

Identifying barriers and problems of physical environment in older adults’ homes: An ergonomic approach

BACKGROUND: The main purpose of ergonomics is environment adaptation to humans, and the root cause of the barriers and problems of the older adults is the mismatch between the home environment and their limitations. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to identify and explain physical environment barriers and problems among older adults’ homes in Yazd, Iran. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted as conventional content analysis. In total, 53 participants including 36 older adults and 17 caregivers were enrolled in the study. The participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling methods, while the data collection method was a semi-structured interview. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and then analyzed using MAXQDA11 software. RESULTS: Following data analysis, 268 initial codes were extracted. They were classified into three major categories and 31 sub categories. The main categories are “barriers and problems associated with older adults’ sensory limitations,” “barriers and problems associated with older adults’ motor limitations,” and “barriers and problems associated with older adults’ cognitive limitations.” CONCLUSIONS: Although the data collected from the older adults and their caregivers are in many cases similar, caregivers can provide reasons for the barriers and problems as well as solutions better than the older adults. The data also indicate that most of the problems and barriers are related to motor limitations.

Different contributions of efferent and reafferent feedback to sensorimotor temporal recalibration

Adaptation to delays between actions and sensory feedback is important for efficiently interacting with our environment. Adaptation may rely on predictions of action-feedback pairing (motor-sensory component), or predictions of tactile-proprioceptive sensation from the action and sensory feedback of the action (inter-sensory component). Reliability of temporal information might differ across sensory feedback modalities (e.g. auditory or visual), which in turn influences adaptation. Here, we investigated the role of motor-sensory and inter-sensory components on sensorimotor temporal recalibration for motor-auditory (button press-tone) and motor-visual (button press-Gabor patch) events. In the adaptation phase of the experiment, action-feedback pairs were presented with systematic temporal delays (0 ms or 150 ms). In the subsequent test phase, audio/visual feedback of the action were presented with variable delays. The participants were then asked whether they detected a delay. To disentangle motor-sensory from inter-sensory component, we varied movements (active button press or passive depression of button) at adaptation and test. Our results suggest that motor-auditory recalibration is mainly driven by the motor-sensory component, whereas motor-visual recalibration is mainly driven by the inter-sensory component. Recalibration transferred from vision to audition, but not from audition to vision. These results indicate that motor-sensory and inter-sensory components contribute to recalibration in a modality-dependent manner.

Sound level context modulates neural activity in the human brainstem

Optimal perception requires adaptation to sounds in the environment. Adaptation involves representing the acoustic stimulation history in neural response patterns, for example, by altering response magnitude or latency as sound-level context changes. Neurons in the auditory brainstem of rodents are sensitive to acoustic stimulation history and sound-level context (often referred to as sensitivity to stimulus statistics), but the degree to which the human brainstem exhibits such neural adaptation is unclear. In six electroencephalography experiments with over 125 participants, we demonstrate that the response latency of the human brainstem is sensitive to the history of acoustic stimulation over a few tens of milliseconds. We further show that human brainstem responses adapt to sound-level context in, at least, the last 44 ms, but that neural sensitivity to sound-level context decreases when the time window over which acoustic stimuli need to be integrated becomes wider. Our study thus provides evidence of adaptation to sound-level context in the human brainstem and of the timescale over which sound-level information affects neural responses to sound. The research delivers an important link to studies on neural adaptation in non-human animals.

Biologisation of production and technological processes in nursery farming

We conducted a retrospective analysis of national scientific and technological advances by technological design to manifest the demand for organisation processes remodelling towards the methods and approaches of the sixth design, especially in biotechnology. The article defines terms such as nursery, biologisation, promising technology and resource conservation. We analyse the fruit crop seedling production and structure of nursery-specific processes. We determine the main agrocenotic components most susceptible to chemical and technogenic impacts. Studies of soil fertility and biota prioritised the challenge of declined soil activity and biogenicity. We establish that an increased chemical pressure on fruit nursery agrocenoses leads to disturbances in benign microflora, microbiotic, acaro- and entomosystems, alters plant infection pathways and immune status. We report destructive manifestations of microbiotic, entomo- and acarosystems in agrocenoses via the emergence of new pathogenic fungal species, root rotting agents, vascular system necroses (tracheomycoses), resistant typically dominant pathogen strains, higher pathogenicity, the expansion of species list and ranges of bacterial communities, phytoplasmas, viruses and viroids, a more aggressive invasion of new pests, including stem pathogens, emerging hazardous adaptations in economically impactive phytophages. Furthermore, we consider the scientific and practical issues in fruit crop reproduction: sweeping off forms (genotypes) from selection, changes in infection pathways in candidate parental plants, reduced “plant — external environment” adaptation, impaired plant immunity under climatic and anthropogenic stress, selection of candidates with a higher production value under environmental stress burden, reduction of best-quality planting stock, seedling root system retardation, massive crown invasion with fungal and bacterial agents, inadequacy of trait databasing for promising varieties and genotyping techniques. The priority role of agrocenotic biologisation in sustainable fruit nursery is substantiated through adopting modern approaches, especially in biotechnology, based on molecular biology, biochemistry and genetic engineering.

Octopamine drives honeybee thermogenesis

In times of environmental change species have two options to survive: they either relocate to a new habitat or they adapt to the altered environment. Adaptation requires physiological plasticity and provides a selection benefit. In this regard, the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) protrudes with its thermoregulatory capabilities, which enables a nearly worldwide distribution. Especially in the cold, shivering thermogenesis enables foraging as well as proper brood development and thus survival. In this study, we present octopamine signaling as a neurochemical prerequisite for honeybee thermogenesis: we were able to induce hypothermia by depleting octopamine in the flight muscles. Additionally, we could restore the ability to increase body temperature by administering octopamine. Thus we conclude, that octopamine is necessary and sufficient for thermogenesis. Moreover, we show that these effects are mediated by β octopamine receptors. The significance of our results is highlighted by the fact the respective receptor genes underlie enormous selective pressure due to adaptation to cold climates. Finally, octopamine signaling in the service of thermogenesis might be a key strategy to survive in a changing environment.

The Influence of Cooperative Learning Through Authentic Assessment-Based Jigsaw on Social Development of Early Childhood

The early childhood education system nowadays requires the use of authentic assessment in schools. Authentic assessment is an integrative method of assessing the learning process, reflective to the real-world situations, using varieties methods and holistic criteria to assess the cognitive, affective, and skills in early childhood. Social development occurs dominantly after physical, cognitive, and language developments. Based on the minimal developmental standard, many early-childhood children show substandard development in environment adaptation ability, self-managing ability, responsibility, ability to follow rules, sharing, respecting others, cooperation, toleration, and emotional expression. This study aims to identify the influence of cooperative learning through authentic assessment-based jigsaw in the social development of early childhood. This study uses a pre-test post-test design on 50 subjects aged 5-6 years old. The experiment was carried out in 4 stage with 4 learning sub-themes. Data collected with a 1-4 scale observation instrument to get quantitative data and analyzed using t-Test. Results from data analysis concluded that cooperative learning through authentic assessment-based jigsaw has a positive influence on social development in early childhood. We recommend the implementation of this method to optimize social development in early childhood.