Utilization Of Digital Technology Research Articles

Effective utilization of digital technology in complete denture fabrication.

Although digital technology is commonly used in various forms of dental treatment, its application to fabrication of removable dentures is still associated with limitations or challenges, such as the recording of occlusal vertical dimensions and determination of the occlusal plane. Here, a simple and inexpensive technique for fabrication of removable complete dentures, partly aided by digital technology, is proposed.

Utilizing Digital Technology in the Public Health System During an Epidemic

The people-centric public health measures and an integrated model of health service delivery can be obtained through the efficient utilization of digital technologies during the epidemics. The classical epidemic control measures like contact tracing, social distancing, and quarantine should be supported by the efficient analytical digital tools. This paper aims to explore the feasibility of digital interventions during a pandemic situation such as COVID-19 to enhance monitoring, surveillance, detection, and prevention of the spread of disease, along with to mitigate the impact on health services. The accessible health services can be ensured with the effective use of digital tools; web-based and cloud-based services, Internet of things, smartphones mHealth, data analytics, etc., to support an emergency public health response, real-time tracking, data monitoring, virtual clinics, and telemedicine/teleconsultation during a disease outbreak. Digital technologies to advance the management of public health services and to balance between data privacy and of public health measures should be considered for the effective management of an epidemic.

Digital Healthcare for Airway Diseases from Personal Environmental Exposure.

Digital technologies have emerged in various dimensions of human life, ranging from education to professional services to well-being. In particular, health products and services have expanded by the use and development of artificial intelligence, mobile health applications, and wearable electronic devices. Such advancements have enabled accurate and updated tracking and modeling of health conditions. For instance, digital health technologies are capable of measuring environmental pollution and predicting its adverse health effects. Several health conditions, including chronic airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, can be exacerbated by pollution. These diseases impose substantial health burdens with high morbidity and mortality. Recently, efforts have been made to develop digital technologies to alleviate such conditions. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has facilitated the application of telemedicine and telemonitoring for patients with chronic airway diseases. This article reviews current trends and studies in digital technology utilization for investigating and managing environmental exposure and chronic airway diseases. First, we discussed the recent progression of digital technologies in general environmental healthcare. Then, we summarized the capacity of digital technologies in predicting exacerbation and self-management of airway diseases. Concluding these reviews, we provided suggestions to improve digital health technologies’ abilities to reduce the adverse effects of environmental exposure in chronic airway diseases, based on personal exposure-response modeling.

TEACHING ENGLISH USING WHATSAPP DURING LEARNING FROM HOME: IMPACTS TO STUDENTS AND IMPLICATION TO TEACHERS

This research departed from the result of training on the development of online learning design for secondary school teachers before the pandemic. On that training, WhatsApp is the best choice to be implemented by the teachers. In this research, WhatsApp-based learning design is chosen to facilitate English teachers during learning from home. As a result, the impact for students is that their learning outcomes were positively correlated to their perception, knowledge, motivation, and attitudes during learning from home using WhatsApp. Then, the implication of this research is that English teachers have competitiveness and also competence in the utilization of digital technology, especially in developing English learning designs while they taught from home.

Genre Analysis of Undergraduate Dissertation Abstracts in Two Disciplines

This research departed from the result of training on the development of online learning design for secondary school teachers before the pandemic. On that training, WhatsApp is the best choice to be implemented by the teachers. In this research, WhatsApp-based learning design is chosen to facilitate English teachers during learning from home. As a result, the impact for students is that their learning outcomes were positively correlated to their perception, knowledge, motivation, and attitudes during learning from home using WhatsApp. Then, the implication of this research is that English teachers have competitiveness and also competence in the utilization of digital technology, especially in developing English learning designs while they taught from home.

Implementation of User Centered Design Method on e-Catalog Information System of UMKM in South Aceh Agency

The utilization of digital technology produces efficiency, effectiveness and accountability that can support the UMKM (Usaha Mikro, Kecil, Menengah) so that the Regional Government (PEMDA) in this case the Koperasi and UKM Office of South Aceh agency can contribute in providing services and education for UMKM which are expected to be able to improve productivity and profit of UMKM in their region. To using of the UCD (User Centered Design) model involves the user in the development process. This study focuses on the implementation of the use of the UCD development model after going through the evaluation process of the user context, analysis and design of solutions based on recommendations from users. Based on the evaluation results, it is known that the implementation of UCD method to the system have a good response from users.

Digital Applications of Maxillofacial Reconstruction– A systematic review

Objectives: Many patients with maxillofacial defects require maxillofacial prosthetic rehabilitation due to cancer, trauma, or congenital diseases. Adequate surgical and prosthetic treatment planning is required to achieve satisfactory morphological and functional results. Before computer-aided design/computer-assisted manufacture (CAD/CAM) technology was introduced, conventional methods have been used to reconstruct the facial form, which involved making impressions, obtaining models and fabricating the prosthesis all of which is time consuming and requires multiple visits. A rapid progress has been made with advances in digital technology, such as milling systems, rapid prototyping, three-dimensional (3D) scanning, and 3D printing, which has improved the patients’ expectations, the functional and esthetic treatment outcomes. Materials and methods: An electronic search was conducted in the Cochrane, PubMed (MEDLINE), and ScienceDirect databases between July 2000 and October 2020. A manual search was also performed to cover all digital aspects of the maxillofacial prosthesis. The inclusion criteria were randomized clinical trials, prospective or retrospective cohort, and cross-sectional studies performed on humans with at least 1 year of follow-up and published within the last 20 years. Results: The results showed that the used technologies in a digital workflow of auricular, orbital and nasal prosthesis reduce the manufacturing time and allow the manufacture of high-quality prostheses for missing facial parts. The methodology provides a good position for further development issues and is usable for clinical practice. Conclusion: Utilization of digital technologies in the facial prosthesis manufacturing process can be a good contribution for higher patient comfort and production efficiency but also comes with a higher initial investment and greater demands for experience with software tools.

Age-Related Digital Divide during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China.

China has adopted a variety of digital technologies to effectively combat the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. The massive utilisation of digital technologies, however, to a great extent, magnifies the age-related digital divide. This paper aims to examine the impacts of the age-related digital divide on older adults in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cases of three age-related digital divide scenarios, including older people taking public transportation, seeking medical care, as well as conducting digital transactions, are collected from Chinese official news outlets. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the pace of digital technology utilisation but exacerbates the age-related digital divide. Such an age-related digital divide has largely excluded older adults from both the real society and the virtual society. Older adults’ personal attitudes and motivations, as well as education and income, governmental policies, and family and social supports, are all major contributors to the severe impacts of the age-related digital divide on old adults during the pandemic. More measures should be adopted to bridge the age-related digital divide and build a senior-friendly e-society.

Subjective markers of successful aging and change in Internet use among older adults: The distinctive role of subjective health

Lower rates of Internet adoption among older adults pose significant challenges in delivering important online services to older adults. Addressing the age-related digital divide requires determining factors that can influence Internet use in aging and may be targeted for intervention. Candidate factors include self-perceptions associated with successful aging, but prior research has not determined whether changes in self-perceptions are related to changes in Internet use within individuals. The present study examined the relationship between self-perception measures (subjective age, subjective health, and life satisfaction) and Internet use among older adults, using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study. Results indicated a selectively robust relationship between Internet use and better subjective health among older Americans. Further, these relationships were not altered by changes in technology adoption over time. Finally, longitudinal data over eight years revealed that change in Internet use was selectively associated with changes in subjective health. Together, these results indicate that among self-perception measures of successful aging, subjective health has a robust relationship with both current Internet use and changes in Internet use over time among older Americans. Such findings suggest that effective interventions to increase digital technology utilization likely require accommodations for older adults with poor subjective health.

Understanding Quality Paradigm Shifts in the Evolving Pharmaceutical Landscape: Perspectives from the USP Quality Advisory Group

Recent changes in the pharmaceutical industry have led to significant paradigm shifts in the pharmaceutical quality environment. Globalization of the pharmaceutical industry, increasingly rapid development of novel therapies, and adoption of new manufacturing techniques have presented numerous challenges for the established regulatory framework and quality environment and are impacting the approaches utilized to ensure the quality of pharmaceutical products. Regulators, industry, and standards-setting organizations have begun to recognize the need to rely more on integrated risk-based approaches and to create more nimble and flexible standards to complement these efforts. They also increasingly have recognized that quality needs to be built into systems and processes throughout the lifecycle of the product. Moreover, the recent COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the need to adopt practices that better promote global supply chain resilience. In this paper, the USP Quality Advisory Group explores the various paradigm shifts currently impacting pharmaceutical quality and the approaches that are being taken to adapt to this new environment. Broad adoption of the Analytical Procedure Lifecycle approach, improved data management, and utilization of digital technologies are identified as potential solutions that can help meet the challenges of these quality paradigm shifts. Further discussion and collaboration among stakeholders are needed to pursue these and other solutions that can ensure a continued focus on quality while facilitating pharmaceutical innovation and development.

From SARS to COVID-19: Digital infrastructures of surveillance and segregation in exceptional times

The COVID-19 pandemic, an exceptional crisis, sparked the introduction of new digital infrastructure to halt the novel coronavirus's spread. This paper explores how such digital infrastructure's impact might reverberate over the long term, by comparing Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China's utilization of digital technology in response to the 2003 SARS outbreak, and their responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We find that advancements in digital technology since 2003 have boosted governments' surveillance and segregation abilities substantially—most dramatically so in China. Even though some of these new digital interventions are ostensibly designed to be temporary ones to address the needs of the immediate crisis, we argue that the resultant extensions of state power experienced during COVID-19 are likely to have profound long-term effects because they fundamentally affect sociopolitical contexts, institutional capabilities, and digital cultures. We also find that the extent to which governments can extend digital surveillance and segregation abilities during the pandemic is contingent on their respective sociopolitical, institutional, and digital cultural contexts.

Three-dimensional Line Mapping from Airborne Digital Photogrammetry for Detail Spatial Planning

Government regulation mentioned that detail spatial planning has to use detailed map data, which mean detail thematic information with high accuracy in term of geometric aspect. Three-dimensional (3D) representation of city infrastructures needs to fulfil due to the spatial planning office application to organize their city, for example building permit purpose. This kind of data is very useful for another spatial analysis and application as well, such as smart city and digital twin. The utilization of digital technology to streamline a long-standing business workflow is an issue in various fields in recent years, including geospatial technology for city planning. Currently, the development of large format digital camera and photogrammetric workflow has experienced rapid progress. City infrastructures such as building, sewerages, roads, electricity poles, etc. is possible to be extracted accurately including their position, shape and dimension with this mapping technique. This paper presents the creation of high accuracy three-dimensional line map derived from digital photogrammetric workflow for Bandung City as a study area. This area has ramps characterized in the southern part and hilly terrain in the northern part where height discrepancies between those two areas is more than five hundred meters. It is a challenge to meet high accuracy spatial data for the whole areas with this condition. Validation of positional accuracy was carried out using hundreds pre-marking independent check points (ICP) including well identified geographic features as an addition. The result show that almost all city infrastructures on the terrain can be identified and positional accuracy in centimeter level can be obtained by this technique.

Global health classroom: mixed methods evaluation of an interinstitutional model for reciprocal global health learning among Samoan and New Zealand medical students

BackgroundGlobal health education partnerships should be collaborative and reciprocal to ensure mutual benefit. Utilisation of digital technologies can overcome geographic boundaries and facilitate collaborative global health learning.Global Health Classroom (GHCR) is a collaborative global health learning model involving medical students from different countries learning about each other’s health systems, cultures, and determinants of health via videoconference. Principles of reciprocity and interinstitutional partnership informed the development of the GHCR. This study explores learning outcomes and experiences in the GHCR between students from New Zealand and Samoa.MethodsThis study used a mixed methods approach employing post-GHCR questionnaires and semi-structured face-to-face interviews to explore self-reported learning and experiences among medical students in the GHCR. The GHCR collaboration studied was between the medical schools at the University of Otago, New Zealand and the National University of Samoa, Samoa.ResultsQuestionnaire response rate was 85% (74/87). Nineteen interviews were conducted among New Zealand and Samoan students. Students reported acquiring the intended learning outcomes relating to patient care, health systems, culture, and determinants of health with regards to their partner country. Interview data was indicative of attitudinal changes in relation to cultural humility and curiosity. Some reported a vision for progress regarding their own health system. Students in the GHCR reported that learning with their international peers in the virtual classroom made learning about global health more real and tangible. The benefits to students from both countries indicated reciprocity.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates GHCR to be a promising model for collaborative and reciprocal global health learning using a student-led format and employing digital technology to create a virtual classroom. The self-reported learning outcomes align favourably with those recommended in the literature. In view of our positive findings, we present GHCR as an adaptable model for equitable, collaborative global health learning between students in internationally partnered institutions.

디지털 기술 활용이 정부 조직성과에 미치는 영향 분석: 공무원 인식을 중심으로

본 연구는 디지털 기술 활용이 정부 조직성과에 어떤 영향을 미치는 실증분석하고, 효과적인 디지털 활용과 조직성과 제고를 위한 시사점을 제안하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 한국행정연구원에서 실시한 ‘공공부문 디지털 트랜스포메이션 전략에 관한 연구’의 공무원 인식조사 데이터를 활용하여 기초통계분석과 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 기초통계 분석 결과, 디지털 기술 활용 정도가 낮은 것으로 나타났으며, 중앙부처와 광역자치단체 공무원 간 클라우드 기술 활용에 있어 인식차이가 나타났다. 연구분석 틀 구성은 디지털 기술(클라우드, 빅데이터, 인공지능 기술)을 독립변수로, 정부 조직성과(업무 효율성 제고, 가치창조업무 확대, 대국민서비스질 제고)를 종속변수로 설정하였으며 조직 · 개인요인을 통제하였다. 회귀분석 결과, 디지털 기술 중 클라우드 기술이 가치창조업무 확대와 대국민서비스 질 제고에 긍정적인 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 업무 효율성 제고에는 어떤 디지털 기술도 영향을 주지 않았다. 끝으로, 분석 결과를 바탕으로 정부 간 디지털 기술 활용 차이의 개선, 인사부문 개선, 디지털 기술 활용 제고 방안에 대한 시사점을 제시하였다.

IoT for Smart Cities: Machine Learning Approaches in Smart Healthcare—A Review

Smart city is a collective term for technologies and concepts that are directed toward making cities efficient, technologically more advanced, greener and more socially inclusive. These concepts include technical, economic and social innovations. This term has been tossed around by various actors in politics, business, administration and urban planning since the 2000s to establish tech-based changes and innovations in urban areas. The idea of the smart city is used in conjunction with the utilization of digital technologies and at the same time represents a reaction to the economic, social and political challenges that post-industrial societies are confronted with at the start of the new millennium. The key focus is on dealing with challenges faced by urban society, such as environmental pollution, demographic change, population growth, healthcare, the financial crisis or scarcity of resources. In a broader sense, the term also includes non-technical innovations that make urban life more sustainable. So far, the idea of using IoT-based sensor networks for healthcare applications is a promising one with the potential of minimizing inefficiencies in the existing infrastructure. A machine learning approach is key to successful implementation of the IoT-powered wireless sensor networks for this purpose since there is large amount of data to be handled intelligently. Throughout this paper, it will be discussed in detail how AI-powered IoT and WSNs are applied in the healthcare sector. This research will be a baseline study for understanding the role of the IoT in smart cities, in particular in the healthcare sector, for future research works.

Exogenous Shocks and the Adaptive Capacity of Family Firms: Everything New in the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been and is currently still affecting organizations of any size and in any industry and research still lacks profound insights into the managerial implications of this phenomenon. In particular, it is unclear how family firms, which are the economic backbone of most of the countries affected by the pandemic, have adapted to COVID-19. This paper addresses this gap by drawing on a rich body of evidence collected from 90 interviews and secondary data in a longitudinal case study of four German family firms. We develop a framework for understanding how family firms adapt to exogenous shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and find that the exogenous shock further reinforces the family firm’s resource constraints and the family’s fear of losing their socioemotional wealth (SEW). These motivational sources, in turn, trigger behavioral changes in both the firm and the family. In addition to a temporarily induced short-term orientation, these changes manifest in a (pseudo-)family cohesion, less rigid mental models, and a utilization of digital technologies. Organizational outcomes such as new alliances, digital platforms, and the adaptive capacity of family firms are the result of these behavioral changes. By providing a comprehensive understanding of how COVID-19 affects family firms, the insights from our study contribute to innovation research, business practice, and policy-making alike. More broadly, we provide innovation scholars with a theoretical comprehension of how exogenous shocks can challenge our canonical understanding of organizations’ (innovative) behavior.

Model for Converting PDF to Audio Format (Listen Your Book)

The present paper has introduced an innovative and efficient technique that enables user to hear the contents of text images instead of reading through them. In the current world, there is a great increase in the utilization of digital technology and multiple methods are available for the people to capture images. such images may contain important textual content that the user may need to edit or store digitally. It merges the concept of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Text to Speech Synthesizer (TTS). This can be done using Optical Character Recognition with the use of Tesseract OCR Engine. OCR is a branch of AI that is used in applications to recognize text from scanned documents or images. The analyzed text can also be converted to audio format to help visually impaired people hear the content that they wish to know. Text-to-Speech conversion is a method that scans and reads alphabets and numbers that are in the image using OCR technique and convert it into voices. The aim is to study and compare the multiple methods used for STT conversions and to figure out the most efficient technique that can be adapted for the conversion processes. As a result, based on review study it is found that HMM is a statistical model which is most suitable for TTS conversions.

Gender composition of ownership and management of firms and the gender digital divide in Africa

Purpose: This study analysed the determinants of firms’ adoption and utilisation of digital technologies in Africa, with specific attention to the gender structure of firms’ ownership and management, in the interest of closing the gender digital divide.Design/methodology/approach: Logistic and Poisson regression techniques were used to analyse firm-level data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey in 48 African countries for the period 2006–2019.Findings/results: (1) Representation: The descriptive analysis shows very low representation of women in the ownership and management of firms in Africa. Whilst just over a quarter of the firms were partly women-owned, less than 10% are majority- or all-women-owned and only 12% have women as a top manager. The results are a comparison of firms according to gender composition. (2) Adoption: The regression estimates suggest that firms that are partly women-owned are more likely to adopt digital technologies, but all-women-owned and firms with women as top managers are less likely to adopt digital technologies for their business activities. These results on the adoption of digital technologies remained consistent with the results on utilisation of digital technologies for business activities. (3) Utilisation: Partly women-owned or women-led firms are less likely to use digital technologies for business activities such as using the Internet for research and placing orders. However, these firms are more likely to use e-mail for business communication. Partly women-owned firms are more likely to use digital technologies more intensively, whilst the opposite was observed for majority- or fully women-owned and women-led firms.Practical implications: This study highlights the need for initiatives focussed on developing women in Africa’s knowledge and use of digital technologies in business. Based on the results, women are urged to enhance their skills in this domain. This may present greater opportunities in terms of employment of women to increase women’s representation.Originality/value: The article contributes to knowledge on the nexus between gender digital divide and gender inequality in ownership and management of firms. The results may also inform initiatives to narrow the digital divide in Africa.

Strategic Analysis of the Turkish Over-the-Counter Drugs and Non-pharmaceutical Products Market

The over-the-counter (OTC) drug (i.e., non-prescription drugs) market is growing significantly on a global scale. Our study reviews strategies for OTCs, together with other non-pharmaceutical products, such as herbal products, dietary supplements, and other healthcare products. The aim of this study is to analyze the expanded OTC industry to offer possible strategic solutions for existing problems. We utilized integrated SWOT and Fuzzy Analytic Network Process analyses, together with quantitative analysis covering industry professionals' perspectives. Our findings showed that the most suitable market strategies are WO2 (i.e., to use information and digital technologies, including mobile applications and social media, to reduce marketing costs), SO2 (i.e., to promote self-medication/self-care to grow the OTC market and invest in information and communication technologies for this purpose), and ST2 (i.e., to improve health literacy and increase access to accurate and understandable information via alternative channels, such as the internet and social media). These key strategies are closely related to the utilization of digital technologies. Other strategies, such as SO1 (i.e., to encourage pharmacists to provide consulting for OTC products, which carry high profitability) and ST1 (i.e., to undertake stakeholder training programs to ensure production quality and introduce safe use to improve community health), were examined in detail, and their outcomes were interpreted in this study. Given the impact of digital transformation, the same strategies can be implemented for other emerging OTC markets. This study underlines the importance of the OTC sector as one of the main drivers for improving community health and reducing health costs.

Research on Sustainable Conservation of Ancient Villages by Utilizing Digital Technologies

With the coming of the 5G era, it has become a crucial international trend to conserve ancient villages and the sustainability by utilizing multiple digital technologies. The recognition of landscape and culture is a momentous step in the sustainable conservation of ancient villages’ study, as well as the extended application and management approach of data should be considered seriously. In the pages that follow, it tries to provide a conservation method systematically in which emphasizes the integration utilization of digital technologies by taking the Taoping Qiang Stockade Village in Sichuan as a case study. Moreover, this article proposes that the conservation should be carried out at three steps: landscape recognition, establish the data chain and cultural inheritance and dissemination. In general, this essay seeks to explore the utilization of digital technologies and provide a systematic perspective and methodology for the sustainable conservation of ancient villages.