Adaptive Applications Research Articles

Development and Initial Testing of a Personalized, Adaptive, and Socially Focused Web Tool to Support Physical Activity Among Women in Midlife: Multidisciplinary and User-Centered Design Approach.

BackgroundWomen in midlife are vulnerable to developing cardiovascular disease, particularly those who have conditions such as hypertension. Physical activity (PA) can reduce risk, but efforts to promote PA in this population have been only modestly effective. More attention to social influences on PA behavior may be useful, particularly social support and social comparison processes. Activating these processes with digital tools can provide easy access that is flexible to the needs of women in midlife.ObjectiveThis paper describes the user-centered design processes of developing and conducting initial evaluation of a personalized and adaptive web application, tailored to the social needs of women in midlife. The goal was to gather feedback from the population of interest, before and during the design process.MethodsThis study was conducted in 4 stages. The first and second authors (DA and AFL) developed technical specifications, informed by their experience with the population of interest. We collected feedback on potential content for the web application with women in midlife using both interviews (5/10, 50%; mean age 47.4, SD 6.66 years; mean BMI 35.3, SD 9.55 kg/m2) and surveys (5/10, 50%; mean age 51, SD 6.60 years; mean BMI 32.7, SD 8.39 kg/m2). We used their feedback to inform support messages and peer profiles (ie, sources of social comparison information). Nine members of the behavioral science team and 3 testers unfamiliar with the web application completed internal testing. We conducted naturalistic functionality testing with a different group of women in midlife (n=5; mean age 50, SD 6.26 years; mean BMI 30.1, SD 5.83 kg/m2), who used the web application as intended for 4 days and provided feedback at the end of this period.ResultsIterative storyboard development resulted in programming specifications for a prototype of the web application. We used content feedback to select and refine the support messages and peer profiles to be added. The following 2 rounds of internal testing identified bugs and other problems regarding the web application’s functioning and full data collection procedure. Problems were addressed or logged for future consideration. Naturalistic functionality testing revealed minimal further problems; findings showed preliminary acceptability of the web application and suggested that women may select different social content across days.ConclusionsA multidisciplinary and user-centered design approach led to a personalized and adaptive web application, tailored to the social needs of women in midlife. Findings from testing with this population demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of the new application and supported further development toward its use in daily life. We describe several potential uses of the web application and next steps for its development. We also discuss the lessons learned and offer recommendations for future collaborations between behavioral and computer scientists to develop similar tools.

Comparing patient acceptability of MR-guided radiotherapy to conventional CBCT on two Elekta systems: a questionnaire-based survey

AbstractBackground and Purpose:The magnetic resonance linear accelerator system (MR Linac) is a novel piece of radiotherapy (RT) equipment allowing the routine application of daily MR-guided treatment adaptation. The hardware design required for such technical capabilities and the increased complexity of the treatment workflow entails a notable departure from cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based RT. Patient tolerability of treatment is paramount to RT practice where high compliance is required. Presented is a comparative analysis of how such modality specific characteristics may ultimately impact the patient experience of treatment.Materials and Methods:Forty patients undergoing RT for prostate cancer (PCa) on either the MR Linac (n= 20) or a CBCT-based linac (n= 20) were provided with a validated patient reported outcomes measures (PROM’s) questionnaire at fraction 1 and fraction 20. The 18-item questionnaire provided patient responses recorded using a 4-point Likert scale, 0 denoting a response of ‘Not at all’, 1 ‘Slightly’, 2 ‘Moderately’ and 3 signifying ‘Very’. The analysis provided insight into both comparisons between modalities at singular time points (fractions 1 and 20), as well as a temporal analysis within a single modality, denoting changing patient experience.Results:Patients generally found the MR Linac treatment couch more comfortable, however, found the increase in treatment duration harder to tolerate. Responses for all items remained stable between first and last fraction across both cohorts, indicating minimal temporal variation within a single modality. None of the responses were statistically significant at the 0·01 level.Conclusion:Whether radiotherapy for PCa is delivered on a CBCT linac or the MR Linac, there is little difference in patient experience with minimal experiential variation within a single modality.

Technology Integration and Transformative Innovation in Education

Integrating technology into the classroom helps and supports teachers in bridging the gap and making up for the weakness of traditional teaching methods with technology-based teaching and learning tools and facilities. Teachers' ability to integrate technology is a growing topic concern about the importance of technology and skilled readiness in the 21st century in both academia and the global society. This study attempted to determine the correlation between technology integration and transformative innovation in education. The descriptive survey method of research was applied in this research study. Survey questionnaire in checklist form served as the main instrument for gathering the needed data. Statistics tools such as mean, standard deviation, Product Moment Correlation were used. The study revealed that all the measures of technology integration such as response and support, teachers? adaptation and technology application are significantly related to the transformative innovation of education in terms of performance, reforms and opportunities, and vision and aspiration. Based on the above findings, the following recommendations are given: It is suggested that school administrators may offer professional development to create innovative practices in technology integration. Next, the teachers are also encouraged to participate in training to utilize transformative innovation from technology integration and increase collaborative learning with colleagues. Lastly, future researchers may conduct similar descriptive correlational studies about transformative innovation in education with the perception of stakeholders on issues and challenges that innovative transformation would bring.

A new Kalman filter approach for structural parameter tracking: Application to the monitoring of damaging structures tested on shaking-tables

In this paper, a new data assimilation framework for correcting finite element models from datasets acquired on-the-fly in low-frequency dynamics is presented. An Unscented Kalman filter algorithm is coupled with a modified Constitutive Relation Error (mCRE) observer, leading to a Modified Dual Kalman Filter algorithm (MDKF). Built as a Hermitian data-to-model distance written in the frequency domain enriched with a CRE residual accounting for model bias, the mCRE functional has shown interesting assets for model updating purposes, in particular enhanced convexity and robustness to measurement noise. The proposed data assimilation strategy integrates the latter through a metric change in the measurement update equation. It thus differs from classical nonlinear Kalman filtering for parameter estimation as the comparison between measurements and model predictions is achieved through the mCRE functional itself. Besides, the calibration of MDKF internal parameters is facilitated by a set of general guidelines that ensure the performance of the algorithm. The methodology is applied to two earthquake engineering examples. The performances of MDKF are first assessed using synthetic measurements from a plane frame subjected to random ground acceleration. Actual measurements from the SMART2013 benchmark are then assimilated in a real-time context to monitor the eigenfrequency drop of a reinforced-concrete structure submitted to a sequence of gradually damaging shaking-table tests. The nice correlation with (i) data-driven identification results, and (ii) sequential mCRE-based model updating results, illustrates the relevance of this new approach and suggests promising use of MDKF for on-the-fly adaptive control prospects and applications involving data-to-model interaction.

Remote sensing and AI for building climate adaptation applications

Urban areas are not only one of the biggest contributors to climate change, but also they are one of the most vulnerable areas with high populations who would together experience the negative impacts. In this paper, we address some of the opportunities brought by satellite remote sensing imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to measure climate adaptation of cities automatically. We propose a framework combining AI and simulation which may be useful for extracting indicators from remote-sensing images and may help with predictive estimation of future states of these climate-adaptation-related indicators. When such models become more robust and used in real-life applications, they may help decision makers and early responders to choose the best actions to sustain the well-being of society, natural resources and biodiversity. We underline that this is an open field and an on-going area of research for many scientists, therefore we offer an in-depth discussion on the challenges and limitations of data-driven methods and the predictive estimation models in general.

The adaptive application of the typological map: from the Italian approach to Chinese historic areas

The adaptive application of the typological map: from the Italian approach to Chinese historic areas

The adaptive application of the typological map: from the Italian approach to Chinese historic areas

The adaptive application of the typological map: from the Italian approach to Chinese historic areas

Adaptive application of machine learning models on separate segments of a data sample in regression and classification problems

Introduction: Achievement of specified qualitative indicators in machine learning solutions depends not only on the efficiency of algorithms, but also on data properties. One of the lines for the development of classification and regression models is the specification of local properties of data. Purpose: To improve the qualitative predictors when solving classification and regression problems based on the adaptive selection of various machine learning models on separate local segments of data sample. Results: We propose a method that uses a combination of different models and machine learning algorithms on subsamples in regression and classification problems. The method is based on the calculation of qualitative predictors and the selection of the best models on the local segments of data sample. The finding of transformations of data and time series allows to create sample sets, with the data having different properties (for example, variance, sampling fraction, data range, etc.). We consider the data segmentation based on the change point detection algorithm in time series trends and on analytical information. On the example of the real dataset, we show the experimental values of the loss function for the proposed method with different classifiers on separate segments and on the whole sample. Practical relevance: The results can be used in classification and regression problems for the development of machine learning models and methods. The proposed method allows to improve classification and regression qualitative predictors by assigning models that have the best performance on separate segments.

Study and evaluation of optimum location deployment for environment adaptive applications

Heterogeneous hardware other than a small-core central processing unit (CPU) such as a graphics processing unit (GPU), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or many-core CPU is increasingly being used. However, to use heterogeneous hardware, programmers must have sufficient technical skills to utilise OpenMP, CUDA, and OpenCL. On the basis of this, I have proposed environment-adaptive software that enables automatic conversion, configuration, and high performance operation of once written code, in accordance with the hardware. However, although it has been considered to convert the code according to the offload devices, there has been no study where to place the offloaded applications to satisfy users' requirements of price and response time. In this paper, as a new element of environment-adapted software, I examine a method to calculate appropriate locations using the linear programming method. I confirm that applications can be arranged appropriately through simulation experiments when some conditions such as application type and users' requirements are changed.

Evaluation of Adaptive Reuse in the Context of Sustainability: Cases from Kastamonu, Türkiye

Changes in today's living and comfort conditions negatively affect the use of historical buildings in accordance with their original functions, and as a result, these buildings can become idle. It is very important to preserve and maintain the original identities of historical buildings, as they carry the accumulation of the period in which they were built, which is an important element of the urban identity. With the adaptive reuse method, historical buildings that have lost their original functions are given a function again, these structures are revived, and their sustainability is ensured. This study uses the survey data of five historical khans in Kastamonu to reveal the success of adaptive reuse practices and their contribution to the sustainability of the historical environment. It includes analyzes made in the sample area, on-site examinations and observations, archive and literature review. The research shows that some of the adaptive reuses are made without considering the spatial and structural features of the existing structures and that the applications are not suitable for the material and color texture of the structures. For this reason, adaptive reuse studies should be well analyzed and implemented by authorized institutions and organizations both in the project and restoration stages. The study is important in terms of determining criteria for evaluating adaptive reuse in terms of international standards and evaluating adaptive reuse applications in Kastamonu historical city center within the framework of these criteria and emphasizing the problems.

Immersive media experience: a survey of existing methods and tools for human influential factors assessment.

Virtual reality (VR) applications, especially those where the user is untethered to a computer, are becoming more prevalent as new hardware is developed, computational power and artificial intelligence algorithms are available, and wireless communication networks are becoming more reliable, fast, and providing higher reliability. In fact, recent projections show that by 2022 the number of VR users will double, suggesting the sector was not negatively affected by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The success of any immersive communication system is heavily dependent on the user experience it delivers, thus now more than ever has it become crucial to develop reliable models of immersive media experience (IMEx). In this paper, we survey the literature for existing methods and tools to assess human influential factors (HIFs) related to IMEx. In particular, subjective, behavioural, and psycho-physiological methods are covered. We describe tools available to monitor these HIFs, including the user’s sense of presence and immersion, cybersickness, and mental/affective states, as well as their role in overall experience. Special focus is placed on psycho-physiological methods, as it was found that such in-depth evaluation was lacking from the existing literature. We conclude by touching on emerging applications involving multiple-sensorial immersive media and provide suggestions for future research directions to fill existing gaps. It is hoped that this survey will be useful for researchers interested in building new immersive (adaptive) applications that maximize user experience.

Rapid consolidation of 3D printed composite parts using compression moulding for improved thermo mechanical properties

Purpose3D printing techniques such as material extrusion based additive manufacturing provide a promising and cost effective manufacturing technique. However, the main challenges in industrial applications remain with the quality assurance of mass produced parts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of compression moulding as a rapid consolidation method for 3D printed composites, with an aim to reduce voids and defects and thus improving quality assurance of printed parts.Design/methodology/approachTo develop an understanding of the inherent voids in 3D parts and the influence on mechanical properties, material extrusion additively manufactured (MEX) parts were post consolidated by using compression moulding at elevated temperature.FindingsThis study comparatively investigates the influence of carbon fibre length, undergoing process induced scission during filament extrusion and IM and its impact on void content and mechanical properties. It was found that the post consolidation significantly reduced the voids and the mechanical properties were significantly improved compared to the nonconsolidated material extrusion additively manufactured parts, reaching values similar to those of the IM parts.Practical implicationsAdaptation of extrusion-based additive manufacturing with hybridisation of reliable compression moulding technology transcends into series production of highly adaptive end user applications, such as drones, advanced sports prosthetics, competitive cycling and more.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the current understanding of 3D printing and provides a step towards quality assurance for mass production.

The relationship between spiritual intelligence, resilience, and well-being in an Aotearoa New Zealand sample

ABSTRACT Existing research highlights adaptive applications of spiritual intelligence, specifically its relationship to positive well-being and quality of life. Limited studies have examined its applicability within secular Western contexts. Two-hundred and fourteen New Zealand university students completed a questionnaire measuring their spiritual intelligence, resilience, and several aspects of wellbeing. Results revealed that spiritual intelligence was significantly associated with increased resilience and reduced feelings of depression and stress, but not anxiety. However, the relationship between spiritual intelligence scores and combined depression, anxiety, and stress scores was fully mediated by resilience scores, suggesting that spiritual intelligence per se may not directly affect wellbeing.

Improving on Atmospheric Turbulence Profiles Derived from Dual Beacon Hartmann Turbulence Sensor Measurements

Atmospheric turbulence is an inevitable source of wavefront distortion in all fields of long range laser propagation and sensing. However, the distorting effects of turbulence can be corrected using wavefront sensors contained in adaptive optics systems. Such systems also provide deeper insight into surface layer turbulence, which is not well understood. A unique method of profile generation by a dual source Hartmann Turbulence Sensor (HTS) technique is introduced here. Measurements of optical turbulence along a horizontal path were taken to create Cn2 profiles. Two helium-neon laser beams were directed over an inhomogeneous horizontal path and captured by the HTS. The measured differential tilt variances imposed on the laser wavefronts were used in conjunction with a set of computed weighting functions to profile the turbulence over the sensing path. The weighting function matrix is inherently ill-conditioned, therefore, Tikhonov regularization was applied to produce accurate Cn2 profiles. A distribution of sonic anemometers and a co-located boundary layer scintillometer (BLS) collected independent Cn2 measurements to add confidence to the HTS profiles. The Cn2 profiles generated by this approach agree very well with the auxiliary anemometer and scintillometer measurements. This method of producing turbulence profiles may be useful in future multi-conjugate adaptive optics applications.

Capacity Building Forum Kesehatan Kelurahan (FKK) Dalam Mendukung Adaptasi Kebiasaan Baru Dalam Keluarga Di Kecamatan Tembalang

To prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic, the government establishes a policy of new normal adaptation by implementing health protocols in daily life. However, the community should be active in implementing new normal adaptation. Forum Kesehatan Kelurahan (FKK) as a forum for community participation in the health sector has an important role in the success of supporting health programs at the village level. Based on research studies, the application of new normal adaptation in Tembalang District by the community hasn’t been optimal. Therefore, the role of FKK in Tembalang District has to adapt new normal from the family. The ability and knowledge of FKK cadres regarding adaptation of new normal must be good in order to have sufficient capacity to support new normal families in Tembalang District. In this case, the capacity building of the FKK carried out through activities to 38 FKK cadres representing each sub-district in Tembalang District. Counseling done by doing pre-test, presenting materials, discussions with participants, and ended by post-test. The results of discussion, the community had made efforts to support the implementation of the new normal, there are education, field operations, reporting of COVID-19 cases, and jogo tonggo. Challenges for FKK are community’s lack awareness of COVID-19 pandemic and health protocols impportance. Post-test result showed increasing number of cadre with good knowledge about New Normal. In this activity, participants were also given a booklet. The capacity of FKK cadres to mobilize community will be stronger that hopefully can contribute more efforts to support the adaptation of new normal in the family and be able to solve challenges well.

Data assimilation of adaptive observation and application for typhoon forecasts over the Western North Pacific

In this study, we added the post-processing module of the Ensemble Transform Sensitivity (ETS) to identify regions sensitive to adaptive observations of different variables at different levels for typhoon forecasts. We selected five cases between 2015 and 2020 over the Western North Pacific (WNP) using 50 ensemble forecasts from the European Center provided by the THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) portal. Furthermore, intercomparison experiments were performed to explore the impact of adaptive observational data assimilation with conventional observations and Himawari-8 data over the sensitive (SEN), non-sensitive (NOSEN), and all studied regions (ALL) on typhoon forecasts using the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) assimilation system of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of United States. The results show that the assimilation of less observational data in the SEN areas can achieve the forecast effect of assimilation in ALL regions, the intensity error can be reduced by approximately 15%, and the track error is reduced in some cases. Finally, detailed analysis of the circulation field and flux perspectives for Typhoon Lekima, which occurred in August 2019 over the WNP, confirmed our conclusion. At 1800 UTC on August 8, the data assimilation was performed over the SEN, NOSEN, and ALL areas. The initial circulation field, in which the vorticity increased in the southwest of the typhoon and decreased in the southeast, benefited the westward movement of the typhoon. The 18 h forecast indicated that the circulation in the SEN area assimilation experiment showed a negative vorticity increase in the southwest side of the typhoon and positive potential temperature as well as water vapor forecast differences on its north side, which contrasted with the results obtained in the NOSEN and ALL experiments. This provided favorable weather conditions for the typhoon to change direction and move northward. Targeted observation experiments investigating Typhoon Lekima indicated that assimilating observations of sensitive areas greatly improves typhoon forecasting and assimilation efficiency. However, the ALL experiment yielded the best forecast among the three cases.

A Q-Learning Driven Energy-Aware Multipath Transmission Solution for 5G Media Services

Supported by the latest evolution of the 5G technologies, Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) video streaming services are experiencing an unprecedented growth. However, the transmission issues caused by heterogeneous access and dynamic traffic are still challenging 5G communications. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)’s Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) can aggregate bandwidth and balance traffic across multiple subflows in a heterogeneous network environment. However, in order to support delivery of high quality 5G media services, researchers should also address MPTCP’s inefficient data scheduling to heterogenous sub-paths, consideration of multiple criteria, including energy consumption and its inconsistent behavior when employed along with the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) adaptive application layer protocol. To address these issues, we propose a Q-Learning driven Energy-aware Data Scheduling (QLE-DS) mechanism for MPTCP-based media services. QLE-DS models the multipath scheduling as a Q-learning process and employs a novel quantum clustering approach to discretize the high dimensional continuous Q-table. An asynchronous framework is designed to improve the learning efficiency of QLE-DS. The simulation results show that QLE-DS performs better than other MPTCP scheduling algorithms in terms of flow completion time (FCT), retransmission rate, and energy consumption.

Determining Ability Levels by Using Computerized Adaptive Testing and Paper-And-Pencil Testing in the Distance Education: A Multi-Centred Real Data Study

Aim: With the popularity of distance education in the current Covid-19 pandemic, the use of computerized adaptive testing is becoming increasingly important in order to determine the ability level of individuals more accurately and to analyze the exam strategies in online exams. In this study, it is aimed to compare the estimations of students' ability levels in the distance education with computerized adaptive testing and paper-pencil test.Methods: This study is a cross-sectional and methodological study which was conducted between March 2020 and December 2020. The study population consists of 4th class students which were studyingphysical education and sports teaching at Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Gazi University, Erciyes University and Kastamonu University Sports Sciences Faculties. In this study, analyzes were performedby using R programming language (ver. 3.6.2) and RStudio (ver. 1.2.5033) software. Number of people was 176; the number of items in the question bank was 80 (formed with 20 questions each prepared byexperts from each of 4 different fields (exercise physiology, psychomotor development, training information, exercise and nutrition)); the standard error for the computerized adaptive test stoppingcriterion was taken as <0.5. The agreement of Paper-And-Pencil Test and computerized adaptive test θ values were evaluated with the intraclass correlation coefficient. CAT estimates of individuals wereperformed with the “randomCAT” function in the catR package. The ability level of a person was obtained with computerized adaptive test application, the standard error of θ and the number of items used were presented as a result of the analysis. Maximum Fisher information criterion was used for question selection in computerized adaptive test. Maximum likelihood estimation was used for iterative approaches in the ability level estimations.Results: There was moderate agreement between the classical test score (on a 0-100 scale) and the computer-adapted test (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.682, confidence interval 95%CI=0.594-0.765, F(175.175)=17.1; p<0.001). In this study, the ability level estimations by using the item response theory from the answers obtained from the paper-and-pencil test and the ability level estimations with thecomputer adaptive test were examined. It was seen that the agreement was at an excellent level (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.90; 95%CI: 0.866-0.924). Also it was also found that computerized adaptive test reduced the number of addressed questions by 80% when compared to Paper-And-Pencil Test. Conclusions: The results obtained from this study show that with the application of computer-adapted testing, safe results can be obtained in a shorter time, with less number of items, and the results can bemonitored shortly after the completion of the test.

Estimation of Symmetry in the Recognition System with Adaptive Application of Filters

The aim of this work is to study the influence of lighting on different types of filters in order to create adaptive systems of perception in the visible spectrum. This problem is solved by estimating symmetry operations (operations responsible for image/image transformations). Namely, the authors are interested in an objective assessment of the possibility of reproducing the image of the object (objective symmetry of filters) after the application of filters. This paper investigates and shows the results of the most common edge detection filters depending on the light level; that is, the behavior of the system in a room with indirect natural and standard (according to the requirements of the educational process in Ukraine) electric lighting was studied. The methods of Sobel, Sobel x, Sobel y, Prewitt, Prewitt x, Prewitt y, and Canny were used and compared in experiments. The conclusions provide a subjective assessment of the performance of each of the filters in certain conditions. Dependencies are defined that allow giving priority to certain filters (from those studied) depending on the lighting.

Comparing lab and field agility kinematics in young talented female football players: Implications for ACL injury prevention

ABSTRACT Modifiable (biomechanical and neuromuscular) anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk factors have been identified in laboratory settings. These risk factors were subsequently used in ACL injury prevention measures. Due to the lack of ecological validity, the use of on-field data in the ACL injury risk screening is increasingly advocated. Though, the kinematic differences between laboratory and on-field settings have never been investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the lower-limb kinematics of female footballers during agility movements performed both in laboratory and football field environments. Twenty-eight healthy young female talented football (soccer) players (14.9 ± 0.9 years) participated. Lower-limb joint kinematics was collected through wearable inertial sensors (Xsens Link) in three conditions: (1) laboratory setting during unanticipated sidestep cutting at 40-50°; on the football pitch (2) football-specific exercises (F-EX) and (3) football games (F-GAME). A hierarchical two-level random effect model in Statistical Parametric Mapping was used to compare joint kinematics among the conditions. Waveform consistency was investigated through Pearson’s correlation coefficient and standardized z-score vector. In-lab kinematics differed from the on-field ones, while the latter were similar in overall shape and peaks. Lower sagittal plane range of motion, greater ankle eversion, and pelvic rotation were found for on-field kinematics (p < 0.044). The largest differences were found during landing and weight acceptance. The biomechanical differences between lab and field settings suggest the application of context-related adaptations in female footballers and have implications in ACL injury prevention strategies. Highlights Talented youth female football players showed kinematical differences between the lab condition and the on-field ones, thus adopting a context-related motor strategy. Lower sagittal plane range of motion, greater ankle eversion, and pelvic rotation were found on the field. Such differences pertain to the ACL injury mechanism and prevention strategies. Preventative training should support the adoption of non-linear motor learning to stimulate greater self-organization and adaptability. It is recommended to test football players in an ecological environment to improve subsequent primary ACL injury prevention programmes.