Household Technology Research Articles

Personalisation, customisation and bricolage: how people with dementia and their families make assistive technology work for them

AbstractAssistive technologies (ATs) are being ‘mainstreamed’ within dementia care, where they are promoted as enabling people with dementia to age in place alongside delivering greater efficiencies in care. AT provision focuses upon standardised solutions, with little known about how ATs are used by people with dementia and their carers within everyday practice. This paper explores how people with dementia and carers use technologies in order to manage care. Findings are reported from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 13 people with dementia and 26 family carers. Readily available household technologies were used in conjunction with and instead of AT to address diverse needs, replicating AT functions when doing so. Successful technology use was characterised by ‘bricolage’ or the non-conventional use of tools or methods to address local needs. Carers drove AT use by engaging creatively with both assistive and everyday technologies, however, carers were not routinely supported in their creative engagements with technology by statutory health or social care services, making bricolage a potentially frustrating and wasteful process. Bricolage provides a useful framework to understand how technologies are used in the everyday practice of dementia care, and how technology use can be supported within care. Rather than implementing standardised AT solutions, AT services and AT design in future should focus on how technologies can support more personalised, adaptive forms of care.

Models for individual adoption of eCommerce, eBanking and eGovernment in Spain

This paper analyzes the adoption patterns of selected internet services such as eCommerce, eBanking and eGovernment in Spain. High quality official data from the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households (ICT-H) of the National Institute of Statistics are used. The dataset is a cross section of 16,209 individuals for 2016. Theoretical demand models, grounded in a standard neoclassical utility maximization framework, are adapted to these services. Logistic regression techniques allow quantifying the impact of the socioeconomic characteristics of the individual on the adoption of each service. The resulting models are statistically significant and with a high predictive power. Age, education and levels of internet and computer skills are all significant in explaining the adoption of any of the three services; as are gender and income, but just for eCommerce and eBanking. Interestingly, the level of trust in internet is only significant to explain participation in eCommerce. Finally, policy recommendations are suggested, highlighting the desirability of using specific measures for the different socio-demographic groups and income strata.

Valuating renewable microgeneration technologies in Lithuanian households: A study on willingness to pay

Abstract Promoting clean energy requires finding the right balance among economic, social and environmental factors as the renewable energy generation technologies are often more costly than the conventional ones and imply additional requirements for their operation. Measurement of willingness to pay (WTP) can be a very useful tool for eliciting the possibilities for developing the renewables considering multiple determinants. This approach, indeed, reflects the preferences of energy consumers towards different renewable energy sources (RES) technologies and represents them in monetary terms. In this paper, we present a discrete choice experiment that was applied to gauge the WTP of individual houses owners for different RES micro generation technologies. As regards the theoretical novelty of the research, we account for willingness to share micro-generation technologies. The unlabelled discrete choice experiment has been carried out in Lithuania – a Central and Eastern European country – and thus offers a contribution to scientific discussion on the development of renewables in the region. The mixed logit model was applied in order to account for differences in tastes (preferences). Based on the results of mixed logit model, WTP was estimated for the selected RES micro generation technologies (solar photovoltaic, biomass boilers, solar thermal and micro-wind). The results show that owners of detached houses in Lithuania households are ready to pay for solar energy-based technologies (some 3300 EUR and 1363 EUR per solar panel and solar thermal installations, respectively), whereas the other two options are less desirable. As regards willingness to share, the households did not consider the latter criterion as a significant factor.

Economics of household technology adoption in developing countries: Evidence from solar technology adoption in rural India

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of economic development. Even in developing countries, households have access to a wide array of new technologies. However, factors affecting households' technology adoption decisions remain poorly understood. Using data on solar microgrid adoption from rural India, we investigate the determinants of household technology adoption. We offer all households identical solar products to avoid bias from product differentiation. Households pay a monthly fee for technology use, allowing us to abstract away from credit constraints as a barrier to adoption. The results show that household expenditures and savings as well as the household head's entrepreneurial attitude are strong predictors of adoption. In contrast, past fuel expenditures, risk acceptance, and community trust are not associated with technology adoption decisions. These findings suggest new directions for research on the microeconomics of household technology adoption, which is critical for sustainable development among the poor in developing countries.

Will This Get Me a Job? Gender, Employment and College Attainment, Before and After the Mancession.

Between 1981 and 2008, US college attainment rates rose faster for young women than men. However, after the 2008 “Mancession,” male attainment rose faster than female attainment. The most widely supported explanations for women’s domination of the pre-2008 college expansion (improved contraceptive and household technologies, no-fault divorce laws, and young women’s greater college readiness), do not readily explain the post-2008 reversal in gendered attainment trends. We show, in a variety of ways, that sharp differences in female and male employment trends before and after 2008 offer a plausible account for the post-2008 reversal of gendered attainment trends. Pre-2008, a rapid increase in the representation of women in high wage occupations increased the incentive for women to go to college. Post-2008, this trend disappeared, and men, driven by receding opportunities in traditionally male sectors, were incentivized to go to college seeking access to service jobs, especially those whose wages are institutionally shielded from labor market competition. These results indicate some convergences in the ways that men and women capitalize on their college educations in the labor market.

Home-based digital leisure

ABSTRACTThe introduction and domestication of the information and communication technologies –ICT, in the home has transformed leisure activities Now, those technologies have an important role on leisure of households’ members and the transformation in leisure activities and experiences is a necessary issue to explore, because we actually know little about these changes and transformations. Leisure at home has a digital aspect we called here as home-based digital leisure. In this article we expose some aspects from a study developed under a constructivist and interpretive perspective, analysing 30 informants narratives that explain leisure activities undertaken during informant’s free time at home, using any kind of digital technologies in different households of Barcelona, Spain. Analysis was conducted under thematic analysis to construct and interpret texts, looking for patterns, creating categories and properties to find themes and elements shared in order to describe and interpret how digital technologies have transformed home-based leisure activities. Main findings show how individuals use available technologies for home-based leisure activities, how traditional leisure activities are changing, how domestic leisure and individual and household maintenance activities overlap, and how the appeal of traditional leisure activities has changed in the home when digital leisure activities are performed. Changes brought about are qualitatively different from those produced by radio and television devices, digital technologies increase the exposure to different experiences and allow people to control them. Technologies consumption for leisure is no longer homogeneous within household members due to the nature of ICT and Internet, narrative led us to report how our informants have greater freedom regarding their choice to do home-based leisure activities with more satisfaction given a decrease in time and money costs. Findings can be used for the design and development of home leisure technologies and services. There is an opportunity to go deeper and find more information about digital leisure in other areas of people’s life, considering social connections and according to the evolution of digital technologies, devices and applications.

Models for Individual Adoption of eCommerce, eBanking and eGovernment in Spain

This paper analyzes the adoption patterns of selected internet services such as eCommerce, eBanking and eGovernment in Spain. High quality official data from the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households (ICT-H) of the National Institute of Statistics are used. The dataset is a cross section of 16,209 individuals for 2016. Theoretical demand models, grounded in a standard neoclassical utility maximization framework, are adapted to these services. Logistic regression techniques allow quantifying the impact of the socioeconomic characteristics of the individual on the adoption of each service. The resulting models are statistically significant and with a high predictive power. Age, education and levels of internet and computer skills are all significant in explaining the adoption of any of the three services; as are gender and income, but just for eCommerce and eBanking. Interestingly, the level of trust in internet is only significant to explain participation in eCommerce. Finally, policy recommendations are suggested, highlighting the desirability of using specific measures for the different socio-demographic groups and income strata.

Environmental health policies for women's, children's and adolescents' health.

Environmental health risks especially affect women and children, because they are more vulnerable socially and because exposures to environmental contaminants create greater risks for children's developing bodies and cognitive functions. According to the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, modifiable environmental risk factors cause about 1.7 million deaths in children younger than five years and 12.6 million total deaths every year. (1) Although the Global strategy for women's, children's and adolescents' health (2016-2030) (2) was launched during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015, governments rarely recognize the sustainable development agenda as a transformative factor for health. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) offer opportunities for countries to create healthier environments for women, children and adolescents. This paper explores how the SDGs can be used to reduce environmental health risks and enhance the health of women, children and adolescents. In particular, we focus on drivers for urbanization and sustainable development (e.g. transport, housing, urban design and energy provision) that can advance the global strategy, but have not traditionally been a focus of health policy-making. We frame the discussion around the three pillars of the global strategy: survive, thrive and transform, while recognizing the inevitable overlap between these objectives. Survive Since women and children are especially affected by the environment, intersectoral interventions that reduce environmental risks will improve early childhood survival as well as reducing risks of premature death throughout the life-course. For instance, household air pollution from dirty fuels and inefficient cookstove was estimated to have caused around 4 million premature deaths in 2012 and was responsible for more than half of deaths due to childhood pneumonia. (3) Among women, indoor exposures to household cookstove smoke were estimated to cause 34% (452 548/1336601) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths, 21% (732 937/3 476 815) of stroke deaths, 19% (93 537/489 390) of lung cancer deaths and 14% (479478/3425 835) of ischaemic heart disease deaths in 2012. (4,5) Improving access to reliable electricity and clean water in health-care facilities can also help reduce maternal and newborn mortality, as such infrastructure is a critical determinant of quality of care. (6) A review of health-care facilities in 11 sub-Saharan African countries showed that an average of 26% of facilities had no electricity whatsoever. (7) Another review of 54 low- and middle-income countries found that 38% (25 118/66 101) of health facilities lack a clean drinking water source. (8) Ensuring that health-care facilities have access to power and water is a minimum requirement for attracting women to facilities and guaranteeing quality services for safe childbirth. Thrive Housing and energy sector interventions that promote the transition to cleaner fuels and for domestic cooking, heating and lighting can not only reduce deaths but improve the health of the 3 billion people worldwide who are reliant upon inefficient and polluting cookstoves. For this reason, the monitoring framework of the Global strategy for women's, children's and adolescents' health (2016-2030) explicitly tracks an indicator for primary reliance on clean fuels and technologies in households as part of its thrive pillar. (9) Examples of cleaner fuels and include liquefied petroleum gas, biogas, ethanol and electricity including photovoltaic solar-power for lighting. Improving access to clean fuels and can also reduce the burden of childhood burns and poisonings due to the use of kerosene for cooking and lighting. While most of the estimated 3 million deaths annually from outdoor ambient air pollution are among adult populations, reducing such pollution exposures are also critical to improving children's health and development across the life-course. …

The things that belong: a grounded theory study of student categorizations of complex technical artifacts

Technical artifacts play a central role in teaching and learning about technology. The artifact exemplars used in the classroom to illustrate and discuss various technological concepts should therefore be carefully chosen in order to actually support the abstraction and successful transfer of these concepts. Research from the learning and cognitive sciences strongly suggests that this requires an understanding of how students actually perceive and conceptualize various technical artifacts, what similarities, differences and features are most salient and meaningful in their eyes. In this paper, we propose a grounded theory of how students differentiate and relate various complex technical artifacts. The core of our theory is formed by four hierarchically ordered juxtapositions: (1) technology versus non-technology, (2) everyday versus specialized, (3) private versus public, and (4) luxury versus necessity, which divide the realm of technical artifacts into five broad categories: high technology, household technology, public technology, real technology, and no/low technology. Our claim is that these differentiations and categories are generally salient and meaningful for students. Based on the theory of variation, we outline how they might help educators make more informed and systematic selections of exemplar artifacts to use in the classroom.

Performance assessment of an improved cook stove (Esperanza) in a typical domestic setting: implications for energy saving

BackgroundMuch of the Malawi’s energy source, which is biomass, is consumed using traditional household technologies. These technologies contribute to over consumption of biomass leading to increased forest degradation, and they release various gases and particulate matter that often cause indoor air pollution which is a health hazard to the users. To combat deforestation and pollution, improved cookstoves were introduced in Malawi from early 2000. A number of improved stoves were introduced including Esperanza which is reported to have 60% wood fuel saving under controlled conditions compared to the traditional 3-stone stove. The efficiencies of improved stoves were obtained through controlled cooking test, but very limited studies have evaluated them under normal household settings. Therefore, this study sought to compare the performance of the Esperanza stove with a 3-stone stove in a typical domestic setting.MethodsA Volunteer in Technical Assistance (VITA) standardized questionnaire was administered to households that were using the Esperanza stove. A cross-sectional Kitchen Performance Test (KPT) was conducted to compare the wood-saving performance of exclusive use of Esperanza stove and the 3-stone stove using the VITA KPT tool.ResultsIn the study area, a policy of banning household use of other cooking technologies has been in place with the main goal of encouraging the use of new technologies. There is evidence that the Esperanza stove was used more often, though it was used in combination with other technologies. Although Esperanza stove had earlier been reported to be more fuel efficient than the 3-stone stove, results revealed that due to improper use, the Esperanza stove consumed 86% more wood fuel compared to 3-stone stove.ConclusionsThree-stone stoves are still the preferred mode of cooking technology in most rural and peri-urban environments in Malawi. The shift to the improved stove technologies therefore requires urgent government intervention to ensure total use of these technologies that save energy and the environment. Additionally, the optimum efficiency of the Esperanza stove can be viable with training to new users. Thus, the importance of training on the proper use of Esperanza stove is recommended in order to optimize its performance and maximize energy saving.

A Review of the Recent Development of the Philippine Household Tech-nologies and Energy Consumption

Background: The Philippines is becoming one of the largest and most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia in recent years, since the government effected several national reforms. The progressing economy demands an increase in residential buildings and expects higher energy consumption as many households become able to afford better and more comfortable living conditions. Keywords: Philippines, tropical climate, building construction, household, energy consumption, concrete.

Ecological and economical aspects of solar energy use

The natural environment is devastated by the industry and by households, which use fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas for heating water and buildings as well as for generating electricity. One of the ways to limit the degradation of the environment and the usage of natural resources is to use unconventional and renewable resources and to implement energy-saving technologies in construction, industry and households. A dynamic development of systems based on renewable energy sources such as biomass, water, wind, heat from inside the Earth and sunbeams has recently occurred in the whole world. This thesis is related to the purest and the least onerous for environment source of energy which is undoubtedly the energy that comes directly from the solar radiation. In this article the solar energy application is presented, taking into account its impact on the environment and financial costs of developing solar techniques. The installation of alternative energy sources are entitled to grants and credits, which reduces the investment costs. Ecological effects, although immeasurable, are significant and definitely testify in favor of the solar system.

THE INTERNET AND COMPUTERS IN THE LIFELONG LEARNING OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN POLAND

As a continuation of the discussion on the social perception of civilization in the light of people with disabilities using information and (tele)communication technologies, the authors of the article attempt to analyze their use of information and (tele)communication technologies. The problem is discussed with reference to people with disabilities who are provided with social welfare services and those who are not. Also the use of those technologies in households is discussed. The authors used the results of the 2015 research conducted in Poland on 28.9 million adults. The authors believe that the results of the research can serve as a basis for a set of actions amending the social exclusion of people with disabilities in social welfare programs and people with disabilities who do not use social welfare services.

Water, Rights and Poverty: an Environmental Justice Approach to Analysing Water Management Devices in Cape Town

Fair processes and just outcomes are recognised globally as an important part of climate change adaptation and water resource management in particular. Achieving this is challenging, particularly in a developing country context where there is a myriad of pressing needs and conflicting ideas of what is needed across scales. This study takes a qualitative approach to exploring issues of justice and fairness in implementing water management technologies in low-income households. Water management devices (WMDs) are employed as part of the City of Cape Town’s water conservation and water demand management strategy. Through applying an environmental justice approach, this study shows that the WMDs have impacted on justice at the local level. The justice implications relate to the following: limited participation by households and a lack of procedural justice, distributional impacts and rights infringement, and the failure of the policy to fully recognise the diverse needs and vulnerabilities experienced by households. The perspectives of City officials and representatives of households with WMDs installed reveal that there is a mismatch between the City’s stated benefits of WMDs and the growing dissatisfaction of households with their devices. This dissatisfaction stems, in particular, from the inability of households to fulfil their needs with a limited water allocation, and personal convictions that water access is and should remain their unrestricted right. This research suggests that for water resource management and adaptation measures to be effective at the local and city scale, policies will require the inclusion of local communities’ understandings and experiences in order to uphold principles of social justice.

Drain water heat recovery storage-type unit for residential housing

The drain water heat recovery (DWHR) system is an interesting household technology to reduce energy costs and environmental impact. The objective of the utilisation of these devices is the recovery of the waste heat from domestic warm drain water, and transferring it to cold water entering the house. A drain water heat recovery unit has been built in this work. The authors are using both numerical and experimental tools to design and study the performance of this device, focusing on the analysis of a specific drain water heat recovery storage-type based on a cylindrical tank with an internal coiled pipe. The numerical simulation has been performed using an in-house platform, where the different elements of the DWHR storage are linked to solve the system. On the other hand, an experimental infrastructure has been developed to analyse of the system, which has been instrumented to provide detailed information of its heat recovery and storage capacities and temperature map. Different internal flow rates and operational temperatures have been studied. From the results obtained it can be said that the device shows interesting heat recovery and storage capacities, while the numerical platform shows promising comparison results against the experiments.

Hydraulic performance of a modified constructed wetland system through a CFD-based approach

Low-cost household technologies, as horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands, are important to address water and sanitation needs in the Asia-Pacific region in a more integrated and sustainable manner, and a better understanding of these technologies would benefit their engineering design. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of a modified constructed wetland system (EvaTAC) were undertaken to determine empirical effects of geometric and flow parameters on the hydraulic performance and the effluent pollutant fraction. The CFD model was validated by comparing the computed residence time distribution (RTD) with experimental results. RTD functions were then used to quantify hydraulic indexes: short-circuiting, mixing, and moment. The EvaTAC is composed of an evapotranspiration and treatment chamber (CEvaT) and a horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland (HSSF-CW). For the CEvaT, length and the interaction between length and flow rate were the most important factors for the hydraulic efficiency. For the effluent pollutant fraction, the most important factor was flow rate. For the HSSF-CW, the strongest influence on the hydraulic efficiency was the length. Baffles and the interaction between length and baffles also had significant statistical influence on the hydraulic efficiency. Furthermore, the results showed that flow rate, length, and the interaction between flow rate and length influenced the effluent pollutant fraction significantly. Finally, a poor correlation between hydraulic indexes and effluent pollutant fraction was obtained, indicating that the hydraulic indexes are not good predictors of the effluent pollutant fraction.

Does household technology influence female labour force participation in Nigeria?

The technological revolution in the production of household durable goods has no doubt influence female labour force participation in most economies of the world. Studies from the developed economies show conflicting views on the effect of household technology on female labour force. The unanswered question in the literature remains if ownership of household technologies could lead women to either decrease or increase the time allocated to household production, thereby propelling women into the work force or leading them to a greater preference for leisure. This paper therefore empirically examines the effect of ownership of modern household technology – such as washing machine, gas cooker and refrigerators – on female labour force participation in a developing economy context. Primary data obtained through questionnaires were employed in this study. The data were analysed using Logit econometric technique. Findings indicate that the ownership of washing machine has a positive significant effect on female labour force participation. The study concluded that ownership of household technology does influence female labour force participation, to an extent, in a developing economy perspective.

Domestic LPG interventions in South Africa: Challenges and lessons

A majority of grid-connected households in South Africa use electricity for cooking and heating tasks. This thermal intensive use of electricity has a high load factor and is a contributory factor of electricity demand outstripping supply at peak demand periods. The government has promoted liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as an alternative thermal energy source for household cooking and heating. This study evaluates the long-term successes, challenges and social impacts of an LPG intervention project that was piloted in Atteridgeville Township, a typical low-income suburb. The data was gathered through one-on-one household interviews with a sample of the beneficiaries. The results indicate that seven years after the LPG intervention, about 70% of the beneficiaries continue to use LPG and report that the intervention has improved their welfare. Fast cooking is cited as the key tangible benefit of LPG technology in households, followed by saving on electricity bills. The project would have achieved more success through better community engagement, including strict beneficiary selection criteria; a long-term LPG distribution and maintenance plan; and inclusion of recurring monthly LPG subsidies for indigent households. The study discusses the subset of factors necessary for successful rollouts of similar energy projects.

USE OF UNSAFE COOKING FUELS AND BOILING PRACTICE AMONG INDONESIAN HOUSEHOLDS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE 2012 DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY

Improved drinking-water sources need not be microbiologically safe. Hence, households usually boil their water prior to drinking. However, this practice can potentially harm health when households rely on unsafe cooking fuels. In Indonesia, little is known about the association of use of unsafe fuels with boiling practice. Hence, an analysis was carried out to elicit information regarding boiling practice using unsafe fuels. Such information would be useful in determining appropriate household water treatments. Data from the 2012 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS) were analysed to examine the relationship between the use of unsafe cooking fuel and choosing boiling as household water treatment. Bivariate and multivariate probit regression models (PRM) were fitted and compared using average marginal effects (AME) and its respective 95 per cent confidence interval (95% CI) as measures of association. The results suggest that using kerosene as cooking fuel is positively significantly associated with higher probability of practicing boiling (p = 0.006; AME: 0.019; 95% CI: 0.0056, 0.0333). This is also true for use of solid fuel (p< 0.001; AME: 0.3115; 95% CI: 0.3026, 0.3203). These association holds, albeit attenuated (Kerosene, p< 0.001; AME: 0.02706; 95% CI: 0.0186, 0.0355; Solid fuel, p< 0.001; AME: 0.0373; 95% CI: 0.02839, 0.0463), after the control variables are included. The authors suggest that stakeholders should promote the use of other household water treatment technologies to reduce the boiling practice using unsafe cooking fuels as to minimize the risk of smoke related infections. Moreover, universal access and equity to safe drinking water and sanitation facility in Indonesia should be realised to reduce demand of boiling water using unsafe cooking fuels.

CYBERCULTURE, ICT AND SOCIAL NETWORKS: NEW FORMS OF COMMUNICATION FOR FAMILIES.

This article deals with the education and the uses of these technologies in Spanish households as a mechanism for the expansion of new forms of communication...