Search

Inspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools' unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Patient Reported Outcomes, Burdens, and Experiences (PROBE) questionnaire is a patient‐reported outcome tool that assesses quality of life and disease burden in people with haemophilia (PWH). Aim: To assesses the test–retest reliability of PROBE when completed using the mobile phone application. Methods: We recruited PWH, including carriers, and individuals with no bleeding disorders who attended haemophilia‐related workshops or via social media. Participants completed PROBE three times (twice on the app: T1 and T2, and once on the web, T3). Test–retest reliability was analysed for T1 versus T2 (app to app, time period one) and T2 versus T3 (app to web, time period two). Results: We enrolled 48 participants (median age = 56 [range 27–78] years). Eighteen participants (37.5%) were PWH and seven (14.6%) were carriers. On general health domain questions, we found almost perfect agreement, except for a question on the frequency of use of pain medication in the last 12 months [Kappa coefficient (κ).72 and.37 for time period one and two, respectively] and any use of pain medications (κ.75) for time period two. For haemophilia‐related questions, we found substantial to perfect agreement, except for the questions on the number of joint bleeds in the previous 6 months for time period one (κ.49) and the number of bleeds in the previous two weeks for time period two (κ.34). Conclusions: The results demonstrate the reliability of the PROBE app. The app can be used interchangeably with the paper and web platforms for PROBE administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-induced lockdowns have increased the importance of technology in education. Though access to technology as well as availability of the internet remain a major concern for a lot of children in the global south, children with intellectual disabilities are disadvantaged even more as most of the e-content is developed keeping in mind the average learner. Unstructured interviews were conducted with children with intellectual disabilities studying in government schools in Haryana as well as their teachers and parents. Thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted to understand the use-patterns of mobile phones by children with intellectual disabilities. Findings suggest that these children are learning to use mobile phones on their own or with some support and are able to navigate the complexities of these smartphones quite well. They use these devices mostly for their entertainment. This paper then reflects on the need and strategies to develop these technologies in ways that they can be used as effective tools for teaching children with intellectual disabilities, especially in the inclusive education system in developing countries. The paper reflects on the need to develop technology and tools using flexible and exploratory designs to enhance the learning processes for children with intellectual disabilities from the lower income strata. This study highlights the importance of being able to use mobile phones by children with intellectual disabilities belonging to low income families. Following this, the article argues for designing of mobile phones suitable for use by children with intellectual disabilities using playfulness and explorations, and Building e-content keeping the elements of playfulness and exploration which can enhance the learnings of this group of students which is often ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the 5G digital era, cell phones are becoming ubiquitous in all aspects of our lives, and the increasing demand for remote interaction makes the app interaction experience an indispensable part of our lives. Due to the operational characteristics of gesture interaction in the interface of a smart terminal application (app), this mode of human-computer interaction has become the mainstream mode of human-computer interaction. Educational app is the result of a combination between mobile Internet technology and education, which not only provides a more efficient and convenient method of learning for each subject but also expands the possibilities for teaching each subject through intelligent interaction. On this basis, this paper proposes an educational app design method based on collaborative filtering recommendations and investigates ways to improve the use of mobile apps to create an interactive teaching mode. Simultaneously, this paper combines user activity, item popularity, and time factors to comprehensively measure user visibility of items and incorporates them into the collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm in order to effectively mitigate the effects of data sparsity and user selection bias and improve recommendation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the 5G digital era, cell phones are becoming ubiquitous in all aspects of our lives, and the increasing demand for remote interaction makes the app interaction experience an indispensable part of our lives. Due to the operational characteristics of gesture interaction in the interface of a smart terminal application (app), this mode of human-computer interaction has become the mainstream mode of human-computer interaction. Educational app is the result of a combination between mobile Internet technology and education, which not only provides a more efficient and convenient method of learning for each subject but also expands the possibilities for teaching each subject through intelligent interaction. On this basis, this paper proposes an educational app design method based on collaborative filtering recommendations and investigates ways to improve the use of mobile apps to create an interactive teaching mode. Simultaneously, this paper combines user activity, item popularity, and time factors to comprehensively measure user visibility of items and incorporates them into the collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm in order to effectively mitigate the effects of data sparsity and user selection bias and improve recommendation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Difficulty in transportation to access skilled providers has been cited repeatedly as a major barrier to utilization of emergency obstetric care in Nigeria. Objective: The objective of this paper is to describe the design, implementation, and outcomes of a mobile phone technology aimed at rapidly reaching rural Nigerian women who experience pregnancy complications with emergency transportation and access to providers. Method: The project was implemented in 20 communities in two predominantly rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Edo State, in southern Nigeria, as part of a larger implementation project aimed at improving the access of rural women to skilled pregnancy care. The digital health innovation named Text4Life, allowed women to send a brief message from their mobile phone to a server linked to Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities and to access pre-registered transport owners. Pregnant women were registered and taught to text short messages to a server from their mobile phones or those of a friend or relative when they experience complications. Results: Over 18 months, 56 women out of 1620 registered women (3.5%) texted the server requesting emergency transportation. Of this number, 51 were successfully transported to the PHC facilities, 46 were successfully treated at the PHC, and five were referred to higher-level care facilities. No maternal deaths occurred during the period, while four perinatal deaths were recorded. Conclusion: We conclude that a rapid short message sent from a mobile phone to a central server and connected to transport providers and health facility managers is effective in increasing the access of pregnant women to skilled emergency obstetric services in rural Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the users' cross-app behavior characteristics in mobile search and to predict users' cross-app behavior using multi-dimensional information. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a longitudinal user experiment in 15 days. This paper recruited 30 participants and collected their mobile phone log data in the whole experiment. The structured diary method was also used to collect contextual information in mobile search. Findings: This study focused on the users' cross-app behavior in mobile search and described cross-app behavior's basic characteristics. Usage of communication app and tool apps could trigger more cross-app behavior in mobile search. The method of cross-app behavior prediction in the mobile search was proposed. Collecting users' more contextual information, such as search tasks, search motivation and other environmental information, can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of cross-app behavior in mobile search. Practical implications: The future research on cross-app behavior prediction should focus on context information in mobile search. Better prediction of cross-app behavior can reduce the users' interaction burden. Originality/value: This paper contributes to research into cross-app behavior, especially in the mobile search research domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new traditional Mongolian word-level online handwriting dataset, MOLHW. The dataset consists of handwritten Mongolian words, including 164,631 samples written by 200 writers and covering 40,605 Mongolian common words. These words were selected from a large Mongolian corpus. The coordinate points of words were collected by volunteers, who wrote the corresponding words on the dedicated application for their mobile phones. Latin transliteration of Mongolian was used to annotate the coordinates of each word. At the same time, the writer's identification number and mobile phone screen information were recorded in the dataset. Using this dataset, we propose an encoder–decoder Mongolian online handwriting recognition model with a deep bidirectional gated recurrent unit and attention mechanism as the baseline evaluation model. Under this model, the optimal performance of the word error rate (WER) on the test set was 24.281%. Furthermore, we present the experimental results of different Mongolian online handwriting recognition models. The experimental results show that compared with other models, the model based on Transformer could learn the corresponding character sequences from the coordinate data of the dataset more effectively, with a 16.969% WER on the test set. The dataset is now freely available to researchers worldwide. The dataset can be applied to handwritten text recognition as well as handwritten text generation, handwriting identification, and signature recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raw observations (carrier-phase and code observations) from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can now be accessed from Android mobile phones (Version 7.0 onwards). This paves the way for GNSS data to be utilized for low-cost precise positioning or in ionospheric or tropospheric applications. This paper presents results from data collection campaigns using the CAMALIOT mobile app. In the first campaign, 116.3 billion measurements from 11,828 mobile devices were collected from all continents. Although participation decreased during the second campaign, data are still being collected globally. In this contribution, we demonstrate the potential of volunteered geographic information (VGI) from mobile phones to fill data gaps in geodetic station networks that collect GNSS data, e.g. in Brazil, but also how the data can provide a denser set of observations than current networks in countries across Europe. We also show that mobile phones capable of dual-frequency reception, which is an emerging technology that can provide a richer source of GNSS data, are contributing in a substantial way. Finally, we present the results from a survey of participants to indicate that participation is diverse in terms of backgrounds and geography, where the dominant motivation for participation is to contribute to scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful inclusion is a subject that addresses the question of how well a society can prevent discrimination and ensure access to information, products, services, and spaces for all. Disability may not necessarily lead to exclusion, unless society fails to respond to the needs of people regardless of their impairment. Digital tools combined with ethnographic research may help researchers explore users' needs, perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes and can aid in understanding the interactions between the human, the space, and the digital within the urban realm. This paper thus outlines a diversity of digital tools in the context of the disability-inclusive city. Through ethnographic encounters with Joe, Ann, and Vanessa, we then explore how these tools can be applied to practice. Centering on Joe, we attempt to exemplify some of the key issues that need to be addressed when looking into the terrain of disability, the city, and digital tools. This paper explores how mobile phones and mobile applications can support people with disabilities in accessing the city and its services. The research also explores how modern technology, such as mobile applications can support city officials in understanding better what makes cities more disability friendly. With the help of Joe, Vanessa and Ann from Maribor, Slovenia, the authors have tried out a selected number of mobile applications and observed how these can help people with disabilities use the city and its services. The research with Joe, Vanessa and Ann showed that mobile phones and mobile applications can be useful for moving around the city, but people with disabilities may still face difficulties using mobile phones while moving. The research also showed that technology can make cities more disability friendly, but it cannot remove all the barriers that people with disabilities face in their everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current digital information age, PDF417 code has become an indispensable tool in daily life because it is extensively used. By the universal use of PDF417 code applications, mobile code scanning has become an indispensable part of people's lives. Before scanning a PDF417 code, it is extremely important to confirm the security of the two-dimensional code, thus we need to take the necessary means to authenticate the two-dimensional code. Many researchers have proposed a digital watermarking algorithm that combines binary image watermarking technology and PDF417 code technology in view of the poor anti-counterfeiting performance of PDF417 codes. These algorithms can effectively resist replication, forgery and tampering attacks. However, these algorithms are limited to the use of mobile phone applications and cannot be integrated into mobile phones, which brings inconvenience to users. Therefore, this paper proposes a watermarking algorithm for PDF417 codes which is suitable for mobile terminal detection. First, based on the characteristics of PDF417 codes, the algorithm finds the appropriate boundary position to embed the watermark information and the watermark information is used for pixel inversion. Then, the geometrically distorted image of PDF417 obtained from the mobile phone is preprocessed and corrected into a relatively standard PDF417. Finally, the watermark information is extracted by the boundary error calculation. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the watermark which is embedded by this method can be extracted by mobile phone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the tremendous growth in mobile phones, mobile application development is an important emerging arena. Moreover, various applications fail to serve the purpose of getting the attention of the intended users, which is determined by their User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). As a result, developers often find it challenging to meet the users' expectations. To date, several reviews have been carried out which explored various aspects of design and the experience of mobile applications using UX/UI. However, many of these existing surveys primarily focused on only some of the issues in isolation but did not consider all the major parameters such as visualisation/graphics, context, user behaviour/emotions/control, usability, adaptability/flexibility, language, and feedback. In our pilot survey, we gathered the preferences and perceptions of a heterogeneous group of concerned people and considered all the aforementioned parameters. These preferences would serve as a reference to mobile application developers, giving them useful insights. Our proposed approach would help mobile application developers and designers focus on the particular UI/UX problems of mobile applications as per their relevant context. A comparative analysis of the various UI and UX factors that determine a mobile application interface is presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the Internet, as a global network, new challenges have appeared particularly due to technology improvement. In the meantime, mobile phones have provided new opportunities in educational settings and libraries thereby stimulating creation of specialized mobile apps for specific educational and library purposes. This paper reconsiders the question of mobile applications for library purposes, taking as a starting point the classifications proposed in the relevant literature on the subject. The paper is organized around the following sections: the first section is a brief overview of certain aspects of the Internet development, communication technology enhancement, and specific mobile phone usage. The second part is more descriptive in orientation since it provides the data on which our analysis was based, and describes the relevant features of mobile applications for libraries. The third part is more empirical in nature in that it outlines the applicability of the previously mentioned theoretical postulates to a group of practical challenges. By way of illustration, this part examines the utilization of mobile apps for the library based on concrete examples from the author’s needs analysis for students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. The fourth part summarizes our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a brief introduction to mobile technology applications and their use in library services. The paper also examines the types of mobile applications for librarians and highlights the specific applications available to librarians. Some prominent features of the applications are briefly described, as well as the advantages and the potential disadvantages. The author attempts to consider important issues such as security, reliability, availability, and cost, that library professionals must be aware of before using mobile applications. Library mobile applications, in addition to providing access to library collections, have some advanced features, such as lending books, searching archives, and others. It is also said that library mobile applications are “libraries that fit in your pocket”. Unlike the libraries around the world, there are just a few libraries in Serbia that have developed a mobile application. This paper presents the expectations and possibilities of using library mobile applications in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the rapid development of technologies for mobile phones and other portable devices (tablets, iPods, etc.), as well as the evolution of mobile applications, what was until recently a dream now it’s a reality. We can now take a virtual tour through libraries and museums and even glance inside their treasure vaults, browse digital editions of old and rare books, examine important historical documents or manuscripts, read scientific articles online, or simply work through pending paperwork from our homes or any other place, at any time of the day or even night. The aim of this paper is to examine different types of applications and their possible use in different library services. The main intention of this paper is to encourage libraries to transform their operations by following modern trends, having in mind that almost every library user today has a mobile phone and actively uses its applications. The first part of the paper is dedicated to different types of mobile applications and their characteristics, while the second part presents several examples of good practices in the use of mobile applications in different types of libraries, both in Serbia and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of digital technology in healthcare has been found to be useful for data collection, provision of health information and communications. Despite increasing use of medical mobile phone applications (apps), by both clinicians and patients, there appears to be a paucity of peer-reviewed publications evaluating their use, particularly in pregnancy. This scoping review explored the use of mobile phone apps for clinical decision support in pregnancy. Specific objectives were to: 1. determine the current landscape of mobile phone app use for clinical decision support in pregnancy; 2. identify perceived benefits and potential hazards of use and 3. identify facilitators and barriers to implementation of these apps into clinical practice.Methods: Papers eligible for inclusion were primary research or reports on the development and evaluation of apps for use by clinicians for decision support in pregnancy, published in peer-reviewed journals. Research databases included Medline, Embase, PsychoInfo, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the online digital health journals JMIR mHealth and uHealth. Charting and thematic analysis was undertaken using NVivo qualitative data management software and the Framework approach.Results: After screening for eligibility, 13 papers were identified, mainly reporting early stage development of the mobile app, and feasibility or acceptability studies designed to inform further development. Thematic analysis revealed four main themes across the included papers: 1. acceptability and satisfaction; 2. ease of use and portability; 3. multi-functionality and 4. the importance of user involvement in development and evaluation.Conclusions: This review highlights the benefits of mobile apps for clinical decision support in pregnancy and potential barriers to implementation, but reveals a lack of rigorous reporting of evaluation of their use and data security. This situation may change, however, following the issue of FDA and MHRA guidelines and implementation of UK government and other international strategies. Overall, the findings suggest that ease of use, portability and multi-functionality make mobile apps for clinical decision support in pregnancy useful and acceptable tools for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that mobile phone usage has increased rapidly throughout the world, one possibility to increase parental involvement in monitoring their children's progression is to train parents or primary caregivers on the use of mobile phone technology to track their children's developmental milestones. The current paper aimed to describe the development of a mobile phone application for use among primary caregivers and establish the feasibility and preliminary impact of caregivers using a mobile phone application to track the progression of their children's development in a context where there is a paucity of similar studies. This study is a substudy that focusses on the intervention group only of a recently completed two-armed quasi-experimental study in an informal settlement in Nairobi. The mobile phone application which consisted of questions on children's developmental progression, as well as stimulation messages, was developed through a step-wise approach. The questions covered five child developmental domains: communication; fine motor; gross motor; personal-social; and, problem-solving. Depending on the response received, the child would be classified as having 'achieved a milestone' or 'milestone not achieved.' If a child had achieved the milestone for a specific age, a caregiver would receive an SMS on how to stimulate the child to achieve the next milestone. Where the milestone was not achieved, the caregiver would get a message to enhance development in the area of delay. Caregivers with children aged between six months and two years were recruited into the study and received questions and messages regarding their children's development (age-specific) on a monthly basis for 12 months. Caregiver adherence to the intervention was above 90% in the first three months of implementation. Thereafter, the response rate fluctuated between 76% and 86% across the subsequent months of the intervention. The high level and fairly stable caregivers' rate of response to the 12 rounds of messaging indicated feasibility of the mobile technology. Further, in the first three months of intervention implementation, the majority of caregivers were able to keep track of how their children attained their developmental milestones. The intervention seems to be scalable, practical and potentially low-cost because of the wide coverage of phones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban greenspace is a valuable component of the urban form that has the potential to improve the health and well-being of residents. Most quantitative studies of relationships between health and greenspace to date have investigated associations only with what greenspace exists in the local environment (i.e. provision of greenspace), rather than to what extent it is used. This is due to the difficulty of obtaining usage data in large amounts. In recent years, GPS functionality integrated into mobile phones has provided a potential solution to this problem by making it possible to track which parts of the environment people experience in their day-to-day lives. In this paper, we demonstrate a method to derive cleaned, trip-level information from raw GPS data collected by a mobile phone app, then use this data to investigate the characteristics of trips to urban greenspace by residents of the city of Sheffield, UK. We find that local users of the app spend an average of an hour per week visiting greenspaces, including around seven trips per week and covering a total distance of just over 2.5 km. This may be enough to provide health benefits, but is insufficient to provide maximal benefits. Trip characteristics vary with user demographics: ethnic minority users and users from more socioeconomically deprived areas tend to make shorter trips than White users and those from less deprived areas, while users aged 34 years and over make longer trips than younger users. Women, on average, make more frequent trips than men, as do those who spent more time outside as a child. Our results suggest that most day-to-day greenspace visits are incidental, i.e. travelling through rather than to greenspace, and highlight the importance of including social and cultural factors when investigating who uses and who benefits from urban greenspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a miniaturized antenna design for a mobile phone. The second design is 2 × 4 elements multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna with 8 port having a substrate size is 20 × 40 mm2 which fits easier within smartphone handset devices for fifth generation technology. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, the first design is a conventional patch antenna, and its dual-band characteristics are obtained by characteristic mode analysis. In this method, orthogonal modes are carried out for 28 GHz and 38 GHz, and further, both orthogonal modes are excited by finite integration technique full-wave method with 50 Ohm single port coaxial feed line. Findings: In this configuration, better return loss, high gain, larger bandwidths and low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) are evaluated by the full-wave simulation computer simulation technology (CST) studio suite. Originality/value: In this arrangement, the performance metrics of the antenna are analyzed using electromagnetic simulator CST Studio suite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop an Augmented Virtuality (AV) system that brings the full-featured smartphone into a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. • Using a mobile phone with our AV interfaces in VR was stressful than the regular smartphone touch interaction. • We explored augmented hand visualization for the AV mobile touch input to improve the on-screen content interaction, especially in typing. • A skin-colored hand visualization method provided better usability and immersiveness than other hand rendering styles. [Display omitted] Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Display (HMD) technology immerses a user in a computer generated virtual environment. However, a VR HMD also blocks the users' view of their physical surroundings, and so prevents them from using their mobile phones in a natural manner. In this paper, we present a novel Augmented Virtuality (AV) interface that enables people to naturally interact with a mobile phone in real time in a virtual environment. The system allows the user to wear a VR HMD while seeing his/her 3D hands captured by a depth sensor and rendered in different styles, and enables the user to operate a virtual mobile phone aligned with their real phone. We conducted a formal user study to compare the AV interface with physical touch interaction on user experience in five mobile applications. Participants reported that our system brought the real mobile phone into the virtual world. Unfortunately, the experiment results indicated that using a phone with our AV interfaces in VR was more difficult than the regular smartphone touch interaction, with increased workload and lower system usability, especially for a typing task. We ran a follow-up study to compare different hand visualizations for text typing using the AV interface. Participants felt that a skin-colored hand visualization method provided better usability and immersiveness than other hand rendering styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring vine water status is a major issue for vineyard management because water constraints impact both the quality and the quantity of the harvest. Existing methods are often costly and complex to implement. ApeX-Vigne is a free mobile application developed to facilitate the collection and geolocation of 50 vine apex observations to characterise vine shoot growth and classify it into 3 growth categories. The application also provides the user with a simple estimate of vine water status based on shoot growth. This paper presents the results obtained over two seasons (2019 and 2020) after the launch of the Apex-Vigne application and its use over a large wine producing region in the south of France. An existing method was adapted for evaluating the interest of the application based on the number of installations and uninstallations. The results showed that the application had more than 1200 downloads and 6000 observations made in the 2020 season. Examples from the commercially collected data showed that ApeX-Vigne can be used as a tool for characterizing water stress at within-field and inter-field scales. Finally, it was also demonstrated that by enabling the massive and centralized collection of spatial field and within-field scale observations of shoot growth, the ApeX-Vigne data was able to characterise the spatial structure of vine water status at the regional scale. Access to this new source of information offers opportunities for the management of water resources at a regional scale as well as for site- and vineyard-specific management. These results also raised new research questions on the joint use of this new source of spatial data with other sources of high spatial resolution information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To achieve malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion, including Myanmar, it is necessary to ensure all malaria cases are detected, treated, and reported in a timely manner. Mobile phone-based applications for malaria reporting, case management, and surveillance implemented at a community-level may overcome reporting limitations associated with current paper-based reporting (PBR), but their effectiveness in this context is unknown. Methods: A mixed methods evaluation study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of a national Malaria Case-Based Reporting (MCBR) mobile phone application in improving malaria case reporting compared to the existing PBR reporting system in Myanmar. Methods included secondary analysis of malaria case report data, questionnaires, focus group discussions and field observations of community volunteers, interviews and direct observations of malaria programme stakeholders, and cost analysis. Using a combination of these approaches the following areas were investigated: data quality and completeness, data access and usage, capacity for timely reporting, the acceptability, functionality, and ease of use of the application and facilitators and barriers to its use, and the relative cost of MCBR compared to the PBR system. Results: Compared to PBR, MCBR enabled more accurate and complete data to be reported in a much timelier manner, with 63% of MCBR users reporting they transmit rapid diagnostic test outcomes within 24 h, compared to 0% of PBR users. MCBR was favoured by integrated community malaria volunteers and their supervisors because of its efficiency. However, several technical and operational challenges associated with internet coverage, data transmission, and e-literacy were identified and stakeholders reported not being confident to rely solely on MCBR data for programmatic decision-making. Conclusions: Implementation of MCBR provided timely and accurate data for malaria surveillance. Findings from this evaluation study will enable the optimization of an application-based reporting system for malaria monitoring and surveillance in the Greater Mekong Subregion and advance systems to track progress towards, and certify, the achievement of malaria elimination targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess and report the feasibility and efficacy of electronic follow-up in patients after mid-urethral sling (MUS) operation. Methods: All 235 patients after MUS operation for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) were divided into the WeChat follow-up (WFU) and the outpatient follow-up (OFU) groups. Patients completed electronic or paper-validated questionnaires. Demographic and clinical characteristics, questionnaire scores, loss to follow-up rate, patient satisfaction, and complications were compared and analyzed. Results: Overall, 189 patients completed the follow-up assessment. The OFU group showed a higher rate of loss to follow-up (25.6% vs. 13.2%, p = 0.016). The mean preoperative International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-UI SF) scores were 18.22 ± 2.64 and 18.06 ± 2.75 in the WFU and OFU groups, respectively (p = 0.672). The mean postoperative ICIQ-UI SF scores were 3.70 ± 1.65 and 3.86 ± 1.48, respectively (p = 0.489). There were 84.8% of WFU patients and 80% of OFU patients reported "very much better" or "much better" on the Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) scale (p = 0.381). Patient satisfaction rate was higher in the WFU group than in the OFU group (87.9% vs. 74.4%, p = 0.018). Seventeen patients reported postoperative complications (9 and 8 patients in the WFU and OFU groups, respectively, p = 0.961). Conclusions: It appears that electronic follow-up using a mobile phone application is feasible and efficient for patients after MUS operation, and may be associated with improved rates of satisfaction and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical consumption mobile phone apps are increasingly popular. These apps allow consumers to scan the barcodes of products they are considering purchasing and determine whether or not they align with their ethics. App technologies are often applauded for their potential to provide consumers with targeted, crowd‐sourced information about products while shopping and to foster more political, and less individualistic, consumption practices by connecting users to one another and to campaigns. There is a growing field of scholarship conceptually examining the role of information and digital technologies in ethical consumption. However, there is little empirical research on how consumers engage with ethical consumption apps in everyday ways. Drawing on an in‐depth study with 21 participants, this paper explores how app use mediates people's experiences of ethical consumption. We contend that the app design structures and limits how individuals engage in ethically motivated consumption and influences their conceptualizations of ethical consumption as a political practice. We conclude by illustrating that critically examining what it means to be "ethical" in a digital world is a crucial area of research for geographers, particularly as these ethics play out through the everyday use of mobile technologies. Key Messages: Ethical consumption mobile phone apps digitally mediate users' everyday shopping experiences and affect what products they buy and where they shop.Users interact with crowd‐sourced information on the app in nuanced and complicated ways and often feel emotionally drained from the labour involved.Ethical consumption scholars must pay attention to app design, technologies, and use to better understand how "ethical" is mediated through practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most interesting theories launched in the software industry presents the following aspect: software applications alter purposes, consumption behaviors and everything related to motivation. And this is extremely obvious where mobile phones replace personal computers by the numerous applications offered by the mobile gadgets to users. Companies adopt complex security solutions, but hackers use more and more the concealment technique, creating a complex code difficult to analyze. The more complex the concealment, the longer it takes until the antivirus solution neutralizes the malware code, leaving hackers enough time to steal more money. Experts explain the danger behind the loan tenders sent as spam, especially if users reply, and experts also give some useful tips for users to prevent them from becoming the victims of these merciless financial organizations and Internet scams [1, 2]. The paper presents certain aspects regarding computer/cybernetic attacks on company data, information, applications, systems, with the help of mobile devices. The subject is vast and generous and this paper will discuss only aspects from the field of cybernetic security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In orienteering and by extension in physical education we learn to locate ourselves on a map to get where we want. We are moving in an increasingly technological world and the use of mobile phones in teenagers is increasing. The main objective of this study was to compare and evaluate the influence on the use of a geolocation mobile application on a final performance in a school orienteering course, using three different types of maps. A student satisfaction survey was administered at the end of the activity performed. The type of maps used were: paper orienteering map, digitized orienteering map and digitized orthophoto map, the latter two georeferenced in a mobile application. The results show that using smartphone resulted in significantly better times, as well as a higher level of satisfaction, than doing it without digital support. This could be because the geolocation pointer facilitates decision-making during the race and thus would improve the total time. We therefore conclude that the use of the located base application during school orienteering course is more efficient and motivating than the use of traditional maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine translation has become an irreplaceable application in the use of mobile phones. However, the current mainstream neural machine translation models depend on continuously increasing the amount of parameters to achieve better performance, which is not applicable to the mobile phone. In this paper, we improve the performance of neural machine translation (NMT) with shallow syntax (e.g., POS tag) of target language, which has better accuracy and latency than deep syntax such as dependency parsing. In particular, our models take less parameters and runtime than other complex machine translation models, making mobile applications possible. In detail, we present three RNN-based NMT decoding models (independent decoder, gates shared decoder and fully shared decoder) to jointly predict target word and POS tag sequences. Experiments on Chinese-English and German-English translation tasks show that the fully shared decoder can acquire the best performance, which increases the BLEU score by 1.4 and 2.25 points respectively compared with the attention-based NMT model. In addition, we extend the idea to transformer-based models, and the experimental results also show that the BLEU score is further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Purpose: Visual impairment is a disability more commonly caused by diseases that lead to several disadvantages to the daily activities amongst those blind. For almost a century since the white cane was first introduced, the cane has remained as the most reliable tool for those affected by blindness. Methods: By using a combination of the capabilities of Internet of Things (IoT) and existing devices, such as mobile phones, an InWalker system is proposed to expand the functionality of the typical white cane, so as to introduce several new features that enhance the safety and confidence amongst people who are blind. As such, this paper explores the existing works and projects to comprehend the motivation and the standard practices for each proposed feature. Each of the strength and drawback has been assessed thoroughly to refine the scope of this project. Results: The proposed project, InWalker, is an intelligent system that has an embedded board system with various sensors to enhance the usability of white cane. The inputs from the sensor are processed on a microcontroller, which then pass the data to a smartphone via Bluetooth for additional features, such as global positioning system (GPS) tracking and SMS services. Conclusions: Based on the initial user testing, the proposed system has successfully fulfilled most of the users' need. Visual impairment is a disability more commonly caused by diseases that lead to several disadvantages amongst those blind. The white cane has been seen as the most reliable tool for the visual impaired. This tool could be further improved with the integration of additional sensors that works with today's mobile devices. The proposed system, InWalker, is able to improve the overall quality of life among people who are blind through several features: obstacle detection, GPS tracking and a light illumination in dark environments for increased safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arid and semi-arid rangelands support a significant portion of the world's human population, as well as its biodiversity. These landscapes are threatened by degradation, through loss of vegetation, increasing spread of invasive or undesirable species, or both. Efforts to halt or reverse degradation exist, but lack of monitoring and reporting of restoration outcomes hampers efforts to replicate and upscale effective practices to other areas. This paper demonstrates how monitoring can inform future efforts through retrospective analysis of restoration projects on Acacia reficiens invaded rangelands in northern Kenya. A. reficiens has encroached into productive rangeland undermining both livestock production and endangered wildlife species conservation. Using a mobile phone application, LandPKS, we assessed 22 plots across 13 restoration sites in Westgate and Kalama conservancies in Northern Kenya that had been cleared of A. reficiens and reseeded with Cenchrus ciliaris. We found that these restoration treatments led to increases of more than 25% in overall ground cover, 34% in perennial grass cover, and 60% in standing herbaceous biomass. We therefore suggest that manual clearing of A. reficiens , when carried out in the late dry season and combined with both reseeding and prudent pre- and post-treatment seed and soil conservation practices, has the potential to provide an efficient and cost-effective solution to help reverse habitat losses. Our use of mobile phone applications allowed rapid assessment of restoration outcomes, and the resulting data are already being used to help design restoration projects on rangelands in northern Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many studies assessed the effect of mobile phone applications on self-management outcomes in patients with asthma, but all of them presented variable results. In this paper. we examined the effect of a mobile phone application on self-management and disease control in Romanian population.Methods: This study included 93 patients diagnosed with asthma that were recalled every three months for a year for assessment and treatment. Patients were divided into two groups. The first group included patients that received treatment, and the second group received treatment and also used the smartphone application. Number of exacerbations and asthma control test (ACT) were recorded.Results: The ACT score was significantly higher for asthma patients using also the mobile application than for the patients using the treatment alone, for all the evaluation moments (Mann-Whitney U test, p <  0.001). Also, we found significant differences between the ACT score with-in each group, observing a significant improvement of the score between evaluations and baseline (related-samples Friedman's test with Bonferroni correction, p <  0.001). When considering the exacerbations rate, significantly less patients using the application presented exacerbations, 10.30% vs. 46.30% (Pearson Chi-square test, X2 (1) = 13.707, p <  0.001).Conclusion: Our study indicates that smartphone applications are an effective way to improve asthma control and self-management when used continually in our population. We found significant positive effects in disease control and exacerbation frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to solve an inverse problem which regards a mass moving in a bounded domain. We assume that the mass moves following an unknown velocity field and that the evolution of the mass density can be described by a partial differential equation, which is also unknown. The input data of the problems are given by some snapshots of the mass distribution at certain times, while the sought output is the velocity field that drives the mass along its displacement. To this aim, we put in place an algorithm based on the combination of two methods: first, we use the dynamic mode decomposition to create a mathematical model describing the mass transfer; second, we use the notion of Wasserstein distance (also known as earth mover's distance) to reconstruct the underlying velocity field that is responsible for the displacement. Finally, we consider a real-life application: the algorithm is employed to study the travel flows of people in large populated areas using, as input data, density profiles (i.e., the spatial distribution) of people in given areas at different time instants. These kinds of data are provided by the Italian telecommunication company TIM and are derived by mobile phone usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We explore driver behaviour through driving analytics collected by smartphone sensors. • Data processing by Machine Learning algorithms yields exposure and behaviour metrics. • We develop mixed logistic regression models for the use of mobile phone while driving. • Mobile phone use is associated with longer trips, lower speeds, smoother driving. • The model can correctly 'detect' mobile phone use while driving by ∼70%. The aim of this paper is to explore driving behaviour during mobile phone use on the basis of detailed driving analytics collected by smartphone sensors. The data came from a sample of one hundred drivers (18,850 trips) during a naturalistic driving experiment over four months. A specially developed smartphone application was used, through which driving exposure and behaviour metrics are captured by the smartphone sensors and transmitted to a back-end platform. The data are processed by Machine Learning algorithms yielding exposure (e.g. distance travelled per road type and time of day) and behaviour indicators (e.g. speeding, speed and acceleration variations, harsh braking, harsh manoeuvring, use of mobile phone etc.). Mixed binary logistic regression models were developed to investigate whether mobile phone use during a trip is correlated with other driving metrics, and can be accurately "detected" based on them. A model for all trips was developed, as well as models for trips on different road types (urban, rural, highway). Exposure metrics found to be significantly associated with the probability of mobile phone use are trip length, and driving off-morning rush. Exceeding the speed limits and the number of harsh events (particularly harsh cornering), are all negatively associated with the probability of mobile phone use. A general pattern of less speeding and smoother driving appears indicative of mobile phone use, in line with known assumptions of driver compensatory behaviour. The results suggest that mobile phone use while driving may be accurately predicted by the model in more than 70% of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of audio as a means to access books while being at locations referred to within the books, through a mobile app, called Tipple. The books are sourced from a digital library-either self-contained on the mobile phone, or else over the network-and can either be accompanied by pre-recorded audio or synthesized using text-to-speech. The paper details the functional requirements, design and implementation of Tipple. The developed concept was explored and evaluated through three field studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the socio-economic level of an urban region is of great significance for governments and city managers when allocating resources and making decisions. However, the current approaches for estimating regional socio-economic levels heavily rely on census data, which demands significant effort in terms of time and money. With the ubiquitous usage of smart phones and the prevalence of mobile applications, massive amounts of data are generated by mobile networks that record people’s behaviors. In this paper, we propose a low-cost approach of using humans’ online and offline indicators to predict the socio-economic levels of urban regions. The results show that the socio-economic prediction model that is trained using online and offline features extracted from these data achieves a high accuracy over 85%. Notably, online features are showed to be tightly linked with socio-economic development. In environments where censuses are rarely held, our method provides an option for timely and accurate prediction of the economic status of urban regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the approaches that is arising more and more in the field of education, and more specifically in the foreign language field, is mobile phone assisted learning. The aim of this paper is to investigate, through a questionnaire survey divided into 4 parts, the actual use of mobile phones by 40 Ourense campus (University of Vigo, Spain) students, their attitudes and the problems they face. The most significant findings show that in order to integrate the mobile device successfully into the teaching-learning process, this should be accompanied by specific training of users, encouraging the use of the tool and favouring attitudes, because if the end users are not convinced of its success, this will result in a high probability of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is an effective technique to improve gait and reduce freezing episodes for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD). The BeatHealth system, which comprises a mobile application, gait sensors, and a website, exploits the potential of the RAS technique. This paper describes the tools used for co-designing and evaluating the system and discusses the results and conclusions. Methods: Personas, interviews, use cases, and ethnographic observations were used to define the functional requirements of the system. Low fidelity prototypes were created for iterative and incremental evaluation with end-users. Field trials were also performed with the final system. The process followed a user centered design methodology defined for this project with the aim of building a useful, usable, and easy-to-use system. Results: Functional requirements of the system were produced as a result of the initial exploration phase. Building upon these, mock-ups for the BeatHealth system were created. The mobile application was iterated twice, with the second version of it achieving a rating of 75 when assessed by participants through the System Usability Scale (SUS). After another iteration field trials were performed and the mobile application was rated with an average 78.6 using SUS. Participants rated two website mock-ups, one for health professionals and another for end-users, as good except from minor issues related to visual design (e.g. font size), which were resolved in the final version. Conclusion: The high ratings obtained in the evaluation of the BeatHealth system demonstrate the benefit of applying a user centered design methodology which involves stakeholders from the very beginning. Other important lessons were learned through the process of design and development of the system, such as the importance of motivational aspects, the techniques which work best, and the extra care that has to be taken when evaluating non-functional mock-ups with end users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Research has shown that mobile applications provide a powerful alternative to traditional paper diaries; however, little data exists in comparing apps to the traditional mode of paper as a patient education and engagement tool in the clinical setting. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of a mobile app versus a spiral-notebook guide throughout prenatal care.Methods: This randomized (n=173) controlled pilot was conducted at an East Coast community hospital. Chi-square and repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to test intervention effects in the sample of 127 pregnant mothers who completed their prenatal care in the healthcare system.Results: Patients who were distributed the mobile application used the tool to record information about pregnancy more frequently (p=.04) and developed greater patient activation (p=.02) than patients who were distributed notebooks. No difference was detected on interpersonal clinical communication.Conclusion: A mobile application successfully activated a patient population in which self-management is a critical factor.Practice Implications: This study shows that mobile apps can prompt greater use and result in more activated patients. Findings may be translated to other patient populations who receive recurring care for chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mobile health care monitoring, compression is an essential tool for solving storage and transmission problems. The important issue is able to recover the original signal from the compressed signal. The main purpose of this paper is compressing the ECG signal with no loss of essential data and also encrypting the signal to keep it confidential from everyone, except for physicians. In this paper, mobile processors are used and there is no need for any computers to serve this purpose. After initial preprocessing such as removal of the baseline noise, Gaussian noise, peak detection and determination of heart rate, the ECG signal is compressed. In compression stage, after 3 steps of wavelet transform (db04), thresholding techniques are used. Then, Huffman coding with chaos for compression and encryption of the ECG signal are used. The compression rates of proposed algorithm is 97.72 %. Then, the ECG signals are sent to a telemedicine center to acquire specialist diagnosis by TCP/IP protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Research has shown that when presenting large amounts of social media information on small devices, design should consider multiple contexts which include user preferences, time, location, environment and so on. It should also take into account the purpose of use, for example, the kind of tasks undertaken by users. However, little research has been done on the organization of social media information by multiple context and tasks. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -- Using tourism as a domain, the authors conducted a user evaluation study with a prototype to investigate users' preferred ways of organizing different types of social media information based on multiple contexts. Findings -- In this paper, the authors present a sequence of context types for organizing four types of social media information (recommendations, events, friends and media elements). The study revealed that users preferred to view recommendations by location and environment context, events by location and temporal context, contacts by location and identity context and finally, list of media elements by environment and identity context. Research limitations/implications -- There may be different sequences of context types for organizing social media information in domains other than tourism. Researchers are encouraged to analyze users' needs in other domains so as to find their preferred ways of organizing social media information. Practical implications -- This paper includes implications for the design and development of user interface, in particular, for mobile applications presenting large amount of social media information. Originality/value -- It presents a new way of organizing social media information using multiple context types and with consideration of users' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

mHealth is seen as the next stage of developing applications for information and communication technologies in the area of health care. This paper presents the evolution of mHealth systems and the results of the latest analyses of the effectiveness of mHealth interventions. Intensive mHealth development results from the near universal access to mobile devices, primarily smartphones, and devices that use sensory technologies. The great interest in mobile applications is reflected in the offer of online stores, which already provide many thousands of programs that can be installed on a mobile phone. Of the many possible mHealth applications, those supporting chronic diseases care and health promotion activities are regarded as the most promising. The growing interest in the area of mHealth is proven by the large number of publications that present syntheses of the available evidence. Although studies aimed at assessing the usefulness and effectiveness of health applications quite often raise doubts about the methodological quality, the significance of the analyses is positive. However, problems in maintaining the involvement of health users in mHealth solutions may be a cause for concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing dependence on smartphones for everyday activities, a large number of pedestrians nowadays are constantly fixated on their smartphone screens, and hence are susceptible to walking off pavements or colliding with other pedestrians. Reduced attention and situational awareness can render smartphone-occupied users, or smombies, oblivious to potential risks when using their smartphones while walking or driving. In this paper, we introduce a smartphone application, called Smombie Guardian, that detects obstacles and alerts smombies as they walk while viewing their smartphone screens to prevent potential collisions. Based on a user study with 74 participants who used Smombie Guardian in a real-life scenario, we highlight the effectiveness, usefulness, and unobtrusiveness of the algorithm and Smombie Guardian in helping users to avoid potential obstacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of mobile technology such as phone applications (apps) has been proposed as an efficient means of providing health and clinical information in a variety of healthcare settings. We developed the Health-e Babies app as an Android smart phone application for pregnant women attending a tertiary hospital in a low socio-economic community, with the objective of providing health information about early pregnancy that would increase maternal confidence and reduce anxiety. Based on our earlier research, this form of health communication was viewed as a preferred source of information for women of reproductive age. However, the pilot study had a poor participation rate with 76% (n = 94) not completing the study requirements. These initial findings raised some very important issues in relation to the difficulties of engaging women with a pregnancy app. This paper analyses the characteristics of the participants who did not complete the study requirements in an attempt to identify potential barriers associated with the implementation of a pregnancy app. Methods: This retrospective review of quantitative and qualitative data collected at the commencement of the Health-e Babies App trial, related to the participant’s communication technology use, confidence in knowing where to seek help and mental health status, maternal-fetal attachment and parenting confidence. Engagement and use of the Health-e Babies App was measured by the completion of a questionnaire about the app and downloaded data from participant’s phones. Mental health status, confidence and self-efficacy were measured by questionnaires. Results: All women were similar in terms of age, race, marital status and level of education. Of the 94 women (76%) who did not complete the trial, they were significantly more anxious as indicated by State Trait Anxiety Inventory (p = 0.001 Student T-test) and more likely to be unemployed (50% vs 31%, p = 0.012 Student T-Test). Conclusion: This study provides important information about the challenges associated with the implementation of a pregnancy app in a socially disadvantaged community. The data suggests that factors including social and mental health issues, financial constraints and technological ability can affect women’s engagement with a mobile phone app. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]