Assistive Technologies for Supporting the Wellbeing of Older Adults

As people age, they are more likely to develop multiple chronic diseases and experience a decline in some of their physical and cognitive functions, leading to the decrease in their ability to live independently. Innovative technology-based interventions tailored to older adults’ functional levels and focused on healthy lifestyles are considered imperative. This work proposed a framework of active and healthy ageing through the integration of a broad spectrum of digital solutions into an open Pan-European technological platform in the context of the SHAPES project, an EU-funded innovation action. In conclusion, the SHAPES project can potentially engage older adults in a holistic technological ecosystem and, therefore, facilitate the maintenance of a high-quality standard of life.

Meteo-Hydrological Sensors within the Lake Maggiore Catchment: System Establishment, Functioning and Data Validation

Climate change and human activities have a strong impact on lakes and their catchments, so to understand ongoing processes it is fundamental to monitor environmental variables with a spatially well-distributed and high frequency network and efficiently share data. An effective sharing and interoperability of environmental information between technician and end-user fosters an in-depth knowledge of the territory and its critical environmental issues. In this paper, we present the approaches and the results obtained during the PITAGORA project (Interoperable Technological Platform for Acquisition, Management and Organization of Environmental data, related to the lake basin). PITAGORA was aimed at developing both instruments and data management, including pre-processing and quality control of raw data to ensure that data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR principles). The main results show that the developed instrumentation is low-cost, easily implementable and reliable, and can be applied to the measurement of diverse environmental parameters such as meteorological, hydrological, physico-chemical, and geological. The flexibility of the solutions proposed make our system adaptable to different monitoring purposes, research, management, and civil protection. The real time access to environmental information can improve management of a territory and ecosystems, safety of the population, and sustainable socio-economic development.

Comparing Output from Two Methods of Participatory Design for Developing Implementation Strategies: Traditional Contextual Inquiry vs. Rapid Crowd Sourcing

BackgroundParticipatory design methods are a key component of designing tailored implementation strategies. These methods vary in the resources required to execute and analyze their outputs. No work to date has examined the extent to which the output obtained from different approaches to participatory design varies.MethodsWe concurrently used two separate participatory design methods: 1) field observations and qualitative interviews and 2) rapid crowd sourcing (an innovation tournament). Our goal was to generate information to tailor implementation strategies to increase the use of evidence-based data collection practices among one-to-one aides working with children with autism. Each method was executed and analyzed by study team members blinded to the output of the other method. We estimated the personnel time and monetary costs associated with each method to further facilitate comparison.ResultsObservations and interviews generated nearly double the number of implementation strategies (n = 26) than did the innovation tournament (n = 14). When strategies were classified into clusters from the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) taxonomy, there was considerable overlap in the content of identified strategies. Strategies derived from observations and interviews were more specific than those from the innovation tournament. Nine strategies (23%) reflected content unique to observations and interviews and 4 (10%) strategies were unique to the innovation tournament. Only observations and interviews identified implementation strategies related to adapting and tailoring to context; only the innovation tournament identified implementation strategies that used incentives. Observations and interviews required more than three times the personnel hours than the innovation tournament, but the innovation tournament was more costly overall due to the technological platform used.ConclusionsThere was substantial overlap in content derived from observations and interviews and the innovation tournament. However, each yielded unique information. To select the best participatory design approach to inform implementation strategy design for a particular context, researchers should carefully consider what each method may elicit and weigh the resources available to invest in the process.Trial RegistrationN/A

Feature Engineering for Motion Classification in Machine Vision

With the most advanced classification algorithms in the technological platform, the computational power requirement is on the surge. The paper hereby presents computationally trivial algorithms to simplify the process of computational intensive classifications techniques, especially in the Motion Classification arena. The proposed methods prove crucial in acting as a lightweight and computationally fast stepping stone to a fundamentally more significant application of Motion indexing and classification, Action recognition, and predictive analysis of motion energy. The algorithms classify the motions into linear, circular, or periodic motion types by following an appropriate execution order. They consider the tracked motion path of the object of interest as a sequence and use it as a starting point to perform all operations, resulting in a feature that can be classified into separate classes. Using a single parameter for classifying the motion engenders a faster and relatively more straightforward route to motion identification and elicits the algorithm’s uniqueness. Two algorithms are proposed, namely, Angle Derivative Technique and Determinant Method for classifying the motion into two classes (linear & circular). On the other hand, a different algorithm identifies periodic motion using the principle of correlation on the motion sequences. All the algorithms show an average accuracy of over 95%. It also elicited an average processing time of 15.6 ms and 19.86 ms for Angle Derivative Method and Determinant Method, respectively, and 31.2 ms for periodic motion on Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-5005U CPU @ 2.00 GHz and 8GB RAM. A dataset of camera-captured videos consisting of three motion types is used for testing while the proposed methods are trained on a dataset of motion described by mathematical equations with added 3σ noise levels.

Innovation of Women Farmers: A Technological Proposal for Mezcalilleras’ Sustainability in Mexico, Based on Knowledge Management

Currently, technology usage is a fundamental asset for creating, developing, and implementing innovations; however, these are not available to everyone, which is accentuated in women with agricultural occupations. The present study develops a proposal of technologies for mezcalilleras’ sustainability from Oaxaca, Mexico, based on a knowledge management methodology, through the application of questionnaires in face-to-face sessions, field visits, and statistical analysis to explore the imbalances enclosed in the agave–mezcal activity seen as its problems, failures, and barriers, as well as its correlation with the identified technological routes. The results reveal that a technological platform creation, the fabrication of fiber optic refractometer, a metal roof construction, the design of a horizontal distiller–fractionator, the employment of metal containers and production of glass bottles, and the generation of a software and an application, are the suitable technologies, according to the mezcalilleras’ requirements. This proposal can be important for academics, policymakers, and producers who wish to revitalize traditional knowledge of the small-scale sectors in Mexico through new ways of interaction with external agents and customers, new ways of production, and previous years’ production analysis.

Regul-A: A Technological Application for Sensory Regulation of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Home Context

(1) Background: Sensory processing disorder is now recognised as a core feature of autism spectrum disorder that influences children’s adaptive behaviours, which, in turn, may interfere with their participation in life situations. This study describes the process of developing a technological platform, in the form of an app, to help families regulate children with ASD, aged 3–6 years old, by applying sensory strategies to improve the child’s participation in daily routines in the home context. (2) Methods: A focus group formed by four specialised occupational therapists who intervene with children with ASD was selected in order to understand and discuss content that should be included in the app. At a later stage, a group of three was involved to ensure quality and veracity in technological platform elaboration. (3) Results: The purpose of the app, named Regul-A, is to help parents regulate children with ASD regarding their participation in home routines. The sensory strategies provided by the focus group in the three major occupations of the child were the first results obtained, followed by the development of the app structure. (4) Conclusions: The next phase of the study will be the use of the platform by families of children with ASD and occupational therapists. It is believed that, in the future, Regul-A will be used as a tool to gather, analyse and manage data on the occupational performance of children with ASD in the home context, particularly for activities of daily living, sleep, rest and play, facilitating the implementation of strategies and the sharing of information between parents and occupational therapists.

Good practices in the self-evaluation of graduate distance learning programs

The purpose of this essay is to share the good practices installed in the virtual postgraduate programs of the Universidad Arturo Prat (UNAP), Chile associated with the continuous evaluation of quality processes. Our focus is on the continuous improvement of good practices through the accreditation process with the Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Quality in Distance Education (CALED) and the self-evaluation that the institution carries out to deliver quality service. The methodology used in this work is the documentary review and description of experiences under a qualitative approach. The results reveal that the UNAP has promoted the self-evaluation and international certification of its programs, in a context of normative change in Chile, which establishes new criteria and standards under the new Law of Higher Education Nº v 21.091, in wich are recognized as good practices: the institutional policies, the planning of the self-evaluation process, the updates of the technological platform, the virtual education enviroment, the virtualization adequate to the context, the active-participative academic actions, the rol of the teacher and the student, the academic training, as well as the components of the self-evaluation process, that must be constantly monitored and evaluated, in order to deliver quality services in the training of people participating in graduate programs under the virtual learning modality.

Femtosecond laser micromachining for integrated quantum photonics

Integrated quantum photonics, i.e. the generation, manipulation, and detection of quantum states of light in integrated photonic chips, is revolutionizing the field of quantum information in all applications, from communications to computing. Although many different platforms are being currently developed, from silicon photonics to lithium niobate photonic circuits, none of them has shown the versatility of femtosecond laser micromachining (FLM) in producing all the components of a complete quantum system, encompassing quantum sources, reconfigurable state manipulation, quantum memories, and detection. It is in fact evident that FLM has been a key enabling tool in the first-time demonstration of many quantum devices and functionalities. Although FLM cannot achieve the same level of miniaturization of other platforms, it still has many unique advantages for integrated quantum photonics. In particular, in the last five years, FLM has greatly expanded its range of quantum applications with several scientific breakthroughs achieved. For these reasons, we believe that a review article on this topic is very timely and could further promote the development of this field by convincing end-users of the great potentials of this technological platform and by stimulating more research groups in FLM to direct their efforts to the exciting field of quantum technologies.

Uso de las TIC en alumnos en condición de vulnerabilidad: Una mirada desde la transdisciplinar

En la última década, los estudios transdiciplinarios, en la última década han constituido procesos para la generación y aplicación del conocimiento entre disímiles disciplinas. Por un lado, buscan atender una problemática u objeto de estudio con la finalidad de impactar de manera proactiva y, por otra parte, ser un proceso de investigación que se aborda desde diversos campos del saber (Co-producción del conocimiento). Los estudios de Comunicación siempre se han caracterizado por el aporte y retroalimentación que reciben de otras disciplinas, de ahí que sus vías para acceder a la realidad social se realicen desde diferentes aristas. Las universidades e instituciones de educación superior, están regidas por instrumentos jurídicos apegados al estado de derecho para proteger y preservar los miembros de su comunidad, como es el caso de la Universidad Veracruzana que dispone de la Ley Orgánica, estableciendo como fines esenciales, conservar, crear y transmitir la cultura en beneficio de la sociedad, ofreciendo programas académicos tanto a los usuarios tradicionales, como a sectores de la población marginados de este nivel educativo. Asimismo, el compromiso de ampliar, multiplicar y reforzar su misión estratégica para la distribución social del conocimiento en todo tipo de sectores y para una gama diversa de poblaciones, donde la nueva plataforma tecnológica, las redes virtuales, las alianzas estratégicas, y la educación a distancia, sean la pauta para cumplir con su compromiso social. Por tal motivo, esta comunicación aborda el uso de las TIC, en el entorno universitario dónde convergen estudiantes en condición vulnerable (capacidades especiales), y contrarrestar barreras que impidan su aprendizaje. The transdisciplinary studies, in the last decade have constituted processes for the generation and application of knowledge between dissimilar disciplines. On the one hand, they seek to address a problem or object of study in order to impact proactively and, on the other hand, to be a research process that is addressed from various fields of knowledge (Co-production of knowledge). Communication studies have always been characterized by the input and feedback they receive from other disciplines, hence their ways to access the social reality, are made from different edges. Universities and higher education institutions are governed by legal instruments attached to the rule of law to protect and preserve the members of their community, as is the case of the Universidad Veracruzana which has the Organic Law, establishing as essential purposes, to conserve, create and transmit culture for the benefit of society, offering academic programs to both traditional users and sectors of the population marginalized from this educational level. Likewise, the commitment to expand, multiply and reinforce its strategic mission for the social distribution of knowledge in all types of sectors and for a diverse range of populations, where the new technological platform, virtual networks, strategic alliances, and education to distance, be the guideline to fulfill your social commitment. For this reason, this communication addresses the use of ICT, in the university environment where students converge in vulnerable condition (special abilities) and counteract barriers that impede their learning.