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Although there is a growing literature on the use of telepresence robots in institutional dementia care settings, limited research focused on the perspectives of frontline staff members who deliver dementia care. Our objective was to understand staff perspectives on using telepresence robots to support residents with dementia and their families. Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, we conducted four focus groups and 11 semi-structured interviews across four long-term care (LTC) homes and one hospital in Canada. We included 22 interdisciplinary staff members (e.g., registered nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, recreational therapists) to understand their experiences with telepresence robots. Thematic analysis identified three key themes: 1) Staff Training and Support; 2) Robot Features; 3) Environmental dynamics for Implementation. Our results underscore the imperative of structural support at micro-, meso- and macro-levels for staff in dementia care settings to effectively implement technology. This study contributes to future research and practice by elucidating factors facilitating staff involvement in technology research, integrating staff voices into technology implementation planning, and devising strategies to provide structural support to staff, care teams, and care homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a 3 dB compact Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) Substrate Integrated Gap Waveguide (SIGW) based hybrid coupler suitable for 5G mm-wave applications. It is a key component in signal processing for wireless communication. It provides a way to control the power distribution of the signal along different ports. It could be used to achieve beamforming and adaptive antenna system. The design steps started with implementing a unit cell of the gap waveguide structure satisfying the required bandwidth of the coupler. A supercell is then implemented. A network of complete ridges is constructed. A further step is to design a coupling section which achieves the required power distribution along the coupling and isolated ports. This coupling section is implemented using a novel approach of inserting an elliptical slot with variable major and minor axes with a certain orientation that achieves the standard performance of a 3 dB directional coupler with 90◦±5% phase shift. For precise adjustment of this amplitude and phase, vias are further added perpendicular to the major axis of the slot. Its dimension and location have to be optimized. The Finite-Integral-Time-Domain (FDTD) analysis method is adopted (CST Microwave Studio). In addition, another novel approach is developed on this coupler such that the transition and gap layer is implemented on the same PCB layer, which saves the number of layers to only two layers compared to the usual three layers used in literature. Also, using SIGW technology saves the collapse of the top ground layer on the ridge structure, and only plastic pins are used to fix the two layers. The proposed coupler is fabricated and tested, and the results show that it serves the majority of frequency bands employed in 5G systems in the USA and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many digital technologies, such as social media, community systems, and public displays, have been studied to explore how people engage with each other in their community. Yet little is known about how one form of technology, location-based games (LBGs), can support urban residents in community awareness, city exploration, and placemaking as they navigate spaces and places in their cities. To explore this topic, we investigated the challenges urban residents faced in finding information about their community along a transit network. We then designed, developed, and evaluated an LBG called City Explorer that supports city exploration using gamification and the viewing and sharing of community information. We found that residents valued the fun, competition, and rewards afforded through play in public spaces, creating opportunities for placemaking through location services and knowledge sharing. Players also wanted additional knowledge about their transit commutes, including data about the frequency and routines of their transit rides. Collectively, such ridership data offers potential for smart city initiatives and illustrates that careful design considerations are required to balance people's needs for play, personal data, privacy, and community information acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We know that the importance, need and utility of EHR (Electronic Health Record) system is increasing rapidly in the modern world. The developed countries like USA, Canada has adopted this system years ago but still they are facing security issues in that system. The situation is very poor for developing countries like India where data breaching news are very common in EHR system. One can imagine the situation that Indian government is accepting data breaching cases with associated authentication problems and helpless to develop secure EHR system. EHR information is very sensitive and communication over insecure wireless communication channels increases the vulnerability. Here we are going to propose an authenticated key agreement protocol among three users (doctor, hospital and patient) using conjugacy search problem (CSP) and braid decomposition problem (BDP). We discuss the required security analysis of the protocol and prove that the proposed protocol passes the security parameters assuming that the BDP and CSP are hard in braid groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs as of 2014. An International Association For Medical Education (AMEE) Office would be moving to a new location in Dundee, Scotland. The workshop entitled "Social Media Boot Camp" at the Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME) featuring panelists including Anne Marie Cunningham would be held on April 25, 2014. The use of flipped classrooms helped students to secure better grades at University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Objectives: The research investigated the extent to which students, residents, and faculty members in Canadian medical faculties use mobile devices, such as smartphones (e.g., iPhone, Android, Blackberry) and tablet computers (e.g., iPad), to answer clinical questions and find medical information. The results of this study will inform how health libraries can effectively support mobile technology and collections. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed by medical librarians at four Canadian universities to medical students, residents, and faculty members via departmental email discussion lists, personal contacts, and relevant websites. It investigated the types of information sought, facilitators to mobile device use in medical information seeking, barriers to access, support needs, familiarity with institutionally licensed resources, and most frequently used resources. Results: The survey of 1,210 respondents indicated widespread use of smartphones and tablets in clinical settings in 4 Canadian universities. Third- and fourth- year undergraduate students (i.e., those in their clinical clerkships) and medical residents, compared to other graduate students and faculty, used their mobile devices more often, used them for a broader range of activities, and purchased more resources for their devices. Conclusions: Technological and intellectual barriers do not seem to prevent medical trainees and faculty from regularly using mobile devices for their medical information searches; however, barriers to access and lack of awareness might keep them from using reliable, library-licensed resources. Implications: Libraries should focus on providing access to a smaller number of highly used mobile resources instead of a huge collection until library- licensed mobile resources have streamlined authentication processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section offers news briefs on the field of library science of July 2013. Rick Anderson, interim dean and university librarian at the University of Utah's Marriott Library, was chosen as the 2013 recipient of the HARRASSOWITZ Award for Leadership in Library Acquisitions. The Techniques for Electronic Resources (TERMS) project has been converted into a wiki. The 2013 UKSH Conference and Exhibition was held in Bournemouth, England.

The article presents 2013 news on medical teachers and education. James Pickering of the University of Leeds has developed a series of electronic learning screencasts that are concerned with anatomy. The website of St. Jude Cure4Kids received the Gold award for Best Overall Internet Site at the 2013 e-healthcare leadership awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Second International Conference on Faculty Development in the Health Professions will be held on August 23-25 in Prague, Czech Republic.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of harassment in high school and into university, and the impact of one particular form of harassment: cyber-harassment. Participants were 1,368 students at one US and two Canadian universities (mean age = 21.1 years, 676 female students). They responded on five-point scales to questions about the frequency and impact of harassment. A total of 33.6% of students stated they had been cyber-harassed and 28.4% had been harassed off-line when in high school. Also, 8.6% were cyber-harassed and 6.4% were harassed off-line while in university. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses show that the type of harassment experienced in high school is associated with the type of harassment experienced in university. Various negative outcomes of cyber-harassment were also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the British airship the R-100, which made a transatlantic flight to Canada in July of 1930. The author comments on the ship's use of technology during the crossing, with a particular focus on its wireless communications, which were used to study meteorology to ensure the ideal flight path. He also provides an analysis of some of the navigation reports and other messages sent during the journey, which is accompanied by photographs and charts documenting the R-100's trek. The global press coverage of the event is also explored.

Review of several articles including "Self-Reported Use of Handheld Computers: A Survey of Nova Scotia Pharmacists," by Alicia McCallum and colleagues; "Institutional Access to Mobile Resources," by Leigh Mihlrad and Nancy R. Glassman; and "UpToDate: Evidence-Based Medicine Database," by Anya McKinney, are presented.

The end of the Second World War saw global telecommunications governance renegotiated. The dominant British Imperial (later Commonwealth) network experienced multiple changes: the tightly integrated and collaborative imperial governance system fell away as the governing partners increasingly pursued their own, rather than a collective agendas and as the ‘imperial’ company, Cable and Wireless', dominance gave way to a competition and interconnection based regime as American firms and their networks entered markets hitherto closed to them. Though key elements of the Bermuda Telecommunications Agreement 1945 were soon to be renegotiated, the Bermuda Conference, at which the imperial partners and the new hegemonic power, the USA, bargained, was the fulcrum transitional event. Drawing on archival sources (notably in Canada and the UK) the author tells of the tensions within the fragmenting Imperial partnership, of an American mix of interest and idealism and of this episode in telecommunications liberalisation foreshadowing later changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on emerging opportunities for services and computer interactions in times to come. It is mentioned that the user, value and worth centred ethos of human-computer interaction (HCI) approaches is making its way into service design approaches. The article also discusses other issues related to mobile data services (MDS).

Question: Can a mobile optimized subject guide facilitate medical student access to mobile point-of-care tools? Setting: The guide was created at a library at a research-intensive university with six teaching hospital sites. Objectives: The team created a guide facilitating medical student access to point-of-care tools directly on mobile devices to provide information allowing them to access and set up resources with little assistance. Methods: Two librarians designed a mobile optimized subject guide for medicine and conducted a survey to test its usefulness. Results: Web analytics and survey results demonstrate that the guide is used and the students are satisfied. Conclusion: The library will continue to use the subject guide as its primary means of supporting mobile devices. It remains to be seen if the mobile guide facilitates access for those who do not need assistance and want direct access to the resources. Internet access in the hospitals remains an issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated the influence of psychological stress and depression on motivation to adhere to recommended guidelines for exercise and diet. This study was conducted within a larger e-counseling trial. Subjects diagnosed with hypertension (n = 387, age = 44-74 years, 59% female) completed assessments at baseline and within 2 weeks after a 4-month intervention period. Outcomes included mean level of readiness to change diet and exercise and symptoms of depression and stress. Per protocol analysis defined e-counseling support as follows: ⩾8 e-mails = therapeutic dose, 1-7 e-mails = subtherapeutic dose, and 0 e-mails = Controls. Baseline adjusted symptoms of depression and stress were inversely correlated with improvement in exercise (partial R = -.14, P = .01, and partial R = -.17, P = .01, resp.) but not diet or e-counseling. Subjects who received a therapeutic dose of e-counseling demonstrated greater readiness for diet adherence versus Controls (P = .02). Similarly, subjects receiving a therapeutic level of ecounseling demonstrated significantly greater readiness for exercise adherence versus Controls (P = .04). In sum, e-counseling is associated with improved motivation to adhere to exercise and diet among patients with hypertension, independent of symptoms of psychological stress and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Prior research suggests that wireless subscribers often overpay for their services due to subscription of rate plans that are not financially optimized. Some wireless carriers have responded by introducing a new type of plan called “Flex”, which gives subscribers the best service rate based on their actual usage. In Canada, this kind of cost-minimizing plan is only available for 3G data service. Should it be extended to customers who are using the “bread-and-butter” voice service? To what extent do they select inappropriate rate plans? This paper explores these issues by analysing subscribers'' rate plan suitability with a focus on their revenue implications. Based on a 44-month study of 8146 postpaid wireless subscribers, this paper reveals that optimal rate plan subscribers contribute approximately 50% less revenue than those with non-optimal plans. Wireless carriers should be prepared to sacrifice the short-term revenue in exchange of loyalty by having subscribers on financially optimized plans. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Distracted driving caused by cellphone use is a significant source of needless injuries. These injuries place unnecessary financial burden, emotional stress and health care resource misuse on society. This paper states the Canadian Association of Emergency Physician's (CAEP's) position on cellphone use while driving. In recent years, numerous studies were conducted on the danger of cellphone use while driving. Research has shown that cellphone use while driving negatively impacts cognitive functions, visual fields, reaction time and overall driving performances. Some studies found that cellphone use is as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol. Moreover, vehicle crash rates were shown to be significantly higher when drivers used cellphones. Countermeasures have been implemented in recent years. Over 50 countries worldwide have laws limiting the use of cellphones while driving. Six Canadian provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, currently have legislation prohibiting cellphone use. Other provinces are considering implementing similar bans. As emergency physicians, we must advocate for injury prevention. Cell phone related road traumas are avoidable. CAEP supports all measures to ban cellphone use while driving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual adoption of technology has been studied extensively in the workplace (Brown & Venkatesh, 2005). Far less attention has been paid to adoption of technology in the household (Brown & Venkatesh, 2005). Obviously, mobile phone is now integrated into our daily life. Indeed, according to the more recent forecast of Gartner Research, 1.22 billion of mobile phones have been sold throughout the world in 2008, a 6 percent increase over 2007 sales (Gartner Newsroom, 2008). And, as the tendency is showing up, mobile phone use will be still increasing in the future. The purpose of this study is then to investigate who really are the mobile phone users and what are the determining factors who make such they are using a mobile phone? On the basis of the moderator-type research model developed by Brown and Venkatesh (2005) to verify the determining factors in intention to adopt a computer in household by American people, this study examines the determining factors in the use of mobile phone in household by Canadian people. Data were gathered from 327 Atlantic Canadian people who own a mobile phone. Data analysis was performed using the structural equation modeling software Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results revealed that half of the variables examined in the study showed to be determining factors in the use of mobile phone by people in household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs optimization to improve the performance of the system the Canadian Army uses to give a Commander a picture of where his forces are. This system uses the Army's wireless battlefield communication network to send vehicle positions as data messages. The difficulty is that, when vehicles compete to send these reports, the messages sometimes collide and this wastes valuable network capacity. At the heart of the problem is the channel access control mechanism. We show how a simple change to this mechanism can improve the system's performance significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most existing assessments of local Wi-Fi projects have concentrated on either top-down, government-driven endeavors, or bottom-up projects developed by volunteers or community organizations. In both Canada and the United States, existing local Wi-Fi projects—both top down and bottom up—have failed to fulfill expectations that they could increase digital inclusion. Current policy frameworks may play some role in these failures. This article argues for a policy approach that favors hybrid public broadband that is neither completely bottom up nor top down, and for the development of policy frameworks that support hybrid public broadband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores three Canadian wireless network projects that demonstrate that Wi-Fi technologies, like landline telephones, radio, and hydro, can be used to bring services to local communities. It is our position that despite the strengths and weaknesses of Fredericton's eZone, Montréal's Île Sans Fil, and the Lac Seul network in Northern Ontario, these three highlighted Wi-Fi networks demonstrate that a public information utilities model is still a useful lens through which to understand the development and implementation of telecommunications in Canada. Through our case studies, we have observed that in order for municipally based and community Wi-Fi networks to successfully take root in a community, it is advantageous to build on existing technological infrastructure. Moreover, municipal and community needs must be considered in the project. Finally, a cohort of interested advocates from the region is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes several small printed circuit board planar antennas that can be integrated with amplifiers for short-range vehicle wireless communication. The antennas are designed for the 315-MHz frequency band, which is commonly used for control and security devices in the USA and Canada. Each antenna has dimensions of 50 × 70 mm (much less than the free-space wavelength λ = 0.95 m) and is implemented on FR-4 dielectric substrate. These investigated antennas were compared with respect to input impedance, radiation resistance, radiation efficiency, directivity, directionality, bandwidth, matching system complexity, and gain. This paper also includes experimental verification of the final antenna design in the vehicle. It is shown that the antenna diversity method can increase communication range for remote keyless entry systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers several studies on a number of mobile e-mail users, their addictive usage behaviour and how it infringes their work-life boundaries in Canada. It is pointed out that even though mobile e-mail is highly functional and efficient, it also introduces disturbances into work-life balance. The authors distinguish between a functional component and a dysfunctional component and conclude that both components can be explained through Plato's cave metaphor. It is argued that it is important to understand and explore the dysfunctional perspective of mobile email adoption. It concludes with a series of questions that challenge organisations to reflect critically on their assumptions about mobile email usage.

Reports on the description of a novel polling scheme for intra-piconet scheduling in Bluetooth piconets by researchers from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Coexistence of fixed cycles and adaptive bandwidth allocation; Development of a scheme that allocates time to each slave according to its current traffic; Impact of the approach on the scheduling of mixed asynchronous and constant-bit-rate traffic.

Reports on the development of an efficient wireless resource management scheme by researchers from Vancouver, British Columbia. Use of the system to support handoff data recovery in packet-switched cellular multicast networks; Propositions to allow part of a multicast group's assigned bandwidth to be shared by the handoff terminals for transient data recovery; Simulations using self-similar traffic sources.

Reports on the development of a new code division multiple access/space division multiple access structure with transmit diversity by researchers from Victoria, Columbia. Technique used to increase the capacity of mobile communication systems; Utilization of the spatial separation between different users; Significance of space-time block codes on the performance of wireless fading channels through spatial diversity.

This paper reports on a recently concluded empirical study into the development of Wireless E9-1-1 (emergency service) in Canada that initially focussed on privacy concerns raised in the context of an emerging location based service (LBS) for mobile phone users. In light of existing regulatory arrangements this paper concludes that in Canada the emerging Wireless E9-1-1 system establishes a reasonable level of protection for the privacy rights of mobile phone users who choose to contact emergency services. However, an important and surprising issue was raised in the proceedings regarding the obligation of wireless service providers offering prepaid mobile phone service to obtain verifiable subscriber records from their customers. This paper provides details regarding the issue and contributes a number of points to an emerging debate concerning the right to anonymity for customers who elect to use prepaid or other services provided over commercial networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Discusses the potential health risks of radio frequency (RF) fields from wireless communication devices in Canada. Thermal effects associated with exposure to radio frequency fields; Biological effects and effects of RF on cell proliferation; Emergence of wireless technologies; Implications for safety code 6; Non-thermal biological effects.

Since the Royal Society of Canada report on potential health risks of radiofrequency (RF) fields from wireless telecommunications in the spring of 1999, there have been several newly published reports on risks associated with the use of mobile phones. This article provides a summary of scientific research on the potential health effects of radiofrequency fields that has been reported since the original Royal Society report was published. This update also discusses several earlier results not included in the original report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]