Messenger Services Research Articles

The Open SprayBot: A high-throughput paper spray mass spectrometry platform for disease screening

Newborn disease screening increases survival, improves quality of life and reduces treatment costs for healthcare systems. Mass spectrometry (MS) is an effective method for metabolic screening. However, conventional analytical methods require biofluid handling and cooling conditions during transport, making the logistics difficult and expensive, especially for remote regions. ’Paper-spray’ (PS) ionization generates a charged solvent spray from samples deposited on paper strips. Therefore, samples can be applied on a suitable matrix and shipped as dried spots to diagnostic laboratories with standard postal or messenger services. We built a robotic platform, the ’Open SprayBot’, to automatically analyze paper-deposited samples via PS-MS and increase the sample throughput. The system is operated via RUMBA32 and Arduino Mega boards. A commercial syringe pump and power supply provide solvent application and electrical current required for PS-MS. The usability of the Open SprayBot was demonstrated by quantifying palmitoyl-l-carnitine, a common biomarker in newborn screening.

Service user experiences of using internet-based testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs): a qualitative study

ObjectivesInternet-based testing for sexually transmitted infections allows individuals to order a self-sampling kit online, send samples to a central laboratory and receive their results electronically, reducing the need to attend...

Smart Unary Multilevel Marketing

The "Raksham" project stands as a cutting-edge Unilevel Marketing platform meticulously engineered to promote and distribute Raksham Ayurvedic health-conscious products. Harnessing a sophisticated amalgamation of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, and PHP technologies, Raksham orchestrates a seamless and intuitive interface for interactions between distributors and end-users, redefining the paradigm of online marketing and sales. The Admin Portal emerges as the nerve center of Raksham, furnishing distributors with an array of powerful tools and features to streamline their operations. These include dynamic dashboards that furnish real-time insights into team performance, robust profile management capabilities, streamlined package enrollment processes, agile payment systems for seamless financial transactions, and sophisticated team management functionalities. These tools empower distributors to monitor their business performance meticulously, manage their teams effectively, and orchestrate secure and efficient financial transactions with ease. On the end-user front, Raksham presents a captivating and user-centric interface designed to enhance the shopping experience and foster customer engagement. Through features like intuitive messenger services facilitating seamless communication between users and distributors, comprehensive product catalogs showcasing the diverse range of Raksham products, and streamlined order tracking mechanisms, Raksham ensures that end-users can navigate the platform effortlessly, make informed purchasing decisions, and track their orders with convenience. The strategic integration of these features within Raksham's technological infrastructure not only augments operational efficiencies for distributors but also enhances user satisfaction and engagement among end-users. By leveraging state-of-the-art technologies and a user-centric design philosophy, Raksham solidifies its position as a formidable contender in the realm of Ayurvedic health-conscious products, poised to revolutionize the landscape of online marketing and sales in this domain. Keywords: The Advertising, Business ,Social , Network Service, Internet, Data Mining, Website

ДИСТАНЦИОННОЕ ФАРМАЦЕВТИЧЕСКОЕ КОНСУЛЬТИРОВАНИЕ С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ ЧАТ-БОТА

The article discusses the use of chatbots for a variety of tasks in the medical field – such as scheduling doctor’s appointments, monitoring patients with chronic conditions, and providing healthy lifestyle recommendations – and in pharmacy operations, including verifying pharmacy addresses and hours, searching for and ordering products, and accessing information about delivery and payment, as well as operator consultations. It identifies several challenges faced in pharmaceutical counseling: time constraints, lack of motivation, absence of a dedicated counseling space, and low demand for the service. Chatbots are proposed as a solution to these issues, offering the benefit of pre-determined specific questions to address the time shortage, while the virtual nature of counseling negates the need for a physical space. Pursuant to recommended standards and legal requirements, we have developed a seven-stage model for remote pharmaceutical counseling, tailored for digital implementation. When integrated into a website, mobile app, messenger, or other online pharmacy services as a chatbot, this model enables pharmacists to consider individual client needs and provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care remotely without significantly extending consultation times. Integration with online pharmacy services is suggested to be facilitated through an API (Application Programming Interface). Furthermore, the article describes a mechanism to safeguard user personal data in the application of this algorithm.

Sustainable use of a smartphone and regulatory needs

AbstractThe significance of information and communication technologies (ICT) for the Paris Climate Agreement is continuously increasing because of its growing energy consumption. Here we examine the question for the smartphone and extend the investigation to more aspects of sustainability. Critical issues are identified for ten UN Sustainable Development Goals. Measurements of smartphone energy consumption show that a significant savings potential can be unlocked by reducing the data outflow and the large amount of personal data stored in data centers. Main discrepancies are also traced to the oligopolistic market structure of operating systems (OSs), messenger services, and social media apps. Technical means for a sustainable smartphone use are suggested as alternative OSs, social media channels of the Fediverse, as well as free and open‐source software. Finally, societal conditions are emphasized to make the market for OSs and apps more diverse so that a sustainable smartphone use can generally prevail.

The Medium is the Messenger A Quantitative Study on the Relation between Social Media Services and Neighbourhood Social Interactions

Internet-based social networking services (ISNS) like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others have revolutionized the way people connect, enabling interactions across great distances. This has sparked a debate about the impact of ISNS use on face-to-face contact, particularly within neighbourhoods. Some argue that ISNS diminish the significance of local physical place and hinder meaningful interactions, especially among neighbours. Conversely, others view ISNS as tools that foster new forms of connectedness and enhance relationships within neighbourhoods by creating opportunities to engage with existing peers. However, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the varying effects of ISNS on offline social interaction within neighbourhoods. Do different ISNS, including messenger services, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and neighbourhood-specific social networks (e.g.nebenan.de), 1 have distinct effects on offline social interaction within neighbourhoods? Are there differences in usage between native residents and migrants? We analyse data from a 2022 postal survey conducted in two German cities (Essen and Cologne), involving 2, 676 residents in 166 neighbourhoods. The results from our multiple linear regression model show that the impact of different ISNS on social interactions varies. Messenger services and neighbourhood-specific social networks have a positive impact on social interactions within the neighbourhood. However, popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter do not significantly affect social interactions within the neighbourhood. Additionally, individuals from the native population do have more social interaction with their neighbours compared to those with a migration background.

Assessment of the Practices and Perspectives of Healthcare Providers Towards Utilization of Telemedicine for the Care of Adult Patients With Diabetes Mellitus During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India.

Background and purpose The lockdowns and restrictions enforced periodically during the COVID-19 pandemic posed a serious challenge for non-COVID care, especially in diabetes where telediabetes, the utilization of telemedicine consultations for diabetic care, became more necessary than ever before. Although studies have shed light on the perception of patients, there is a paucity of studies from the perspective of healthcare providers, especially in an Indian context. Moving forward, it is imperative to understand the perspectives of telediabetes providers in this domain. Hence, a nationwide survey was carried out to assess providers' practices and perspectives towards using telemedicine for providing diabetes care in India during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Methods An online questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was carried out involving diabetes care physicians. The study tool was developed after the identification of broad themes and constructs from published literature, national guidelines, and diabetes experts' recommendations, following which, it was validated by six experts and pilot-tested.An online open survey, hosted on a professional platform, was circulated to internists, endocrinologists, and other diabetes care physicians of various institutions, hospitals, and clinics from both public and private sectors across the country through individual and group emails and various mobile messenger services. Results Out of the 239 doctors who responded to the survey, 195 (81.6%) had provided telediabetes services since the COVID-19 outbreak, and 84.1% were actively providing teleconsultations for diabetes at the time of the survey. The majority of participants (63.2%) were private practitioners. Telediabetes engagement was 3.5 hours per day at the peak of the pandemic and reduced significantly to one hour after the end of the pandemic. Video calling was the most preferred modality for consultation, whereas messaging services were preferred for input from the patients. Printed prescription images followed by text messages were the common modalities for sending treatment advice. The overall perception towards telediabetes was positive (50.1%). Most physicians reported being reasonably and somewhat aware (65.6% and 20.5%, respectively) of telemedicine practice guidelines but were not sure about the extent of compliance. Conclusions Our study sheds light not only on the utilization of telediabetes from physicians' perspectives and practices but also on its acceptability while identifying areas requiring clarity and focus moving forward.

Emotional leader communication in the digital age: An experimental investigation on the role of emoji

The rapid pace of digitalization in the workplace confronts leaders and followers with the demand to get accustomed to digital ways of communication. The prevalent digital media platforms, like e-mail and messenger services, however, are less broad in informational depth, omitting nonverbal cues and usually adopting a more stifled and factual tonality. This constitutes a substantial challenge for leaders, as the transferal of emotions, mostly driven by a message's nonverbal delivery, constitutes one of the key pathways for their effectiveness. Quasi-nonverbal signals, like emoji, could be a means to re-enrich written leader communication with affect. We conducted two experiments to gain insights into the benefits and risks of emoji in leader communication. Our findings reveal the potential of positive emoji to enhance followers' ascriptions of desirable leader attributes, approval of the leader, and their other-regarding behaviour, however only in certain organisational contexts. Conversely, negative emoji substantially undermined the leader's standing, leading to various undesirable outcomes. Our findings thus allow for inferences on how followers will likely react to specific quasi-nonverbal displays and provide leaders with recommendations for adapting their affective signalling to elicit desired responses.

"Because he was disgusting": transforming relations through positioning in messenger-supported group psychotherapy.

This article deals with positioning in messenger-supported group psychotherapy in terms of transforming relations. The aim of the messenger-supported therapy format is to work through conflicts that have arisen with people via messenger services. This is achieved in different phases of conversation, such as describing the situation, analysing one's own behaviour and defining wishes, by collaboratively drafting a message to the person from the conflict. The data basis is a corpus of 14 video-recorded group psychotherapy sessions. Methodologically, the study is guided by interactional linguistics, a linguistic research field that focuses on interpersonal interaction. Using a case study, I show how the interactants work through a conflict through positioning, constitute group identity and relationships, and thus also transform their stance concerning the issue. Moreover, positioning serves the collaborative formulation of a message and thus also the change of the relationship to the person from the messenger communication. Relationship management in eSA group psychotherapy can be observed on different levels: (1) among the interactants in the room, (2) with the persons from the chat messages, and (3) between the patient(s) and the therapist.

A Study on Comparing User Experience Design for Messenger Services Focused on WhatsApp and Telegram

A Study on Comparing User Experience Design for Messenger Services Focused on WhatsApp and Telegram

Digital Support Systems to Improve Child Health and Development in Peru: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Children living in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at greater risk for experiencing adversities that can undermine their health and early development. Recently launched digital early childhood development (ECD) programs attempt to support families with young children in their home environments using digital technologies. However, relatively little is known regarding the effectiveness of these new technologies. The goal of this study is to rigorously assess the reach, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of a newly developed digital ECD platform called Afini. The Afini platform was designed to support parents of young children in low-resource settings to improve ECD and interact with caregivers through messenger services and a chatbot. This is a 3-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. In total, 2471 caregivers and their 3- to 9-month-old children were enrolled in the study across 164 study clusters in the San Marcos, Cajabamba, and Cajamarca provinces of Peru. Clusters of participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a control group (72 community clusters and 980 caregiver-child dyads), a home visit intervention group (20 community clusters and 316 caregiver-child dyads), and an Afini intervention group (72 community clusters and 1175 caregiver-child dyads). Families in the control group receive no focused ECD intervention. The home visit group is receiving biweekly home visits by a trained field staff following the national ECD program (Programa Nacional Cuna Más) curriculum and training guidelines. Caregivers in the Afini group are receiving ECD activities and advice through the digital platform. The primary study outcome is children's overall development at the age of 2.5 years, using the internationally validated long form of the Global Scales for Early Development. Secondary outcomes include caregiver engagement; caregiver mental health; screen time; as well as caregiver reports of children's motor, cognitive, language, and socioemotional development measured through locally piloted and validated tools. Enrollment started in September 2021 and ended in March 2023. Endline assessments will take place between August 2023 and September 2024. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to rigorously assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of digital ECD technologies in LMICs. Given the large number of children in LMICs currently receiving only limited external support, the evaluated platform has the potential to improve the short- and long-term well-being of millions of children and their parents globally. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05202106; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05202106. DERR1-10.2196/50371.

Perspectives on Digital Transformation Initiatives in the Mechanical Engineering Industry

Companies from the mechanical engineering industry are eager to embrace new technologies in their pursuit of a competitive advantage. However, the complete digitalization of the sector encounters limitations, as certain aspects necessitate human supervision or manual labor. This is where the concepts of Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, and digital transformation become relevant. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to gather and extract valuable insights and lessons from the experiences of German companies in the plastic extrusion machinery sector with digital transformation (DT). Qualitative interpretative research was used, using in-depth expert interviews with C-level executives. We organized the findings into three categories: (i) DT communication initiatives, including the elimination of paper, CRM solutions, messenger services, home office, and online procurement platforms; (ii) departments and areas most involved, including accounting and procurement, sales and production, and construction; and (iii) cost–benefit perception, including positive assessment, long-term impacts, and variation from company to company. The results provide valuable insights into the progress of DT initiatives in companies operating in the pipe extrusion sector in Germany. Additionally, several DT misconceptions were identified, thereby enriching the DT misconceptions framework that has been intensely discussed in the DT literature.

Of tubes and telegrams: The names of social media platforms and messenger services

Although names play a crucial role in the communication of products, services and companies and their acceptance by the public, virtually no research findings are available to date about the naming strategies used by social media platforms and messenger services. This article explores the naming strategies of the most successful social media platforms and messenger services in terms of the numbers of their users worldwide. For this purpose, 17 brand names were analysed with the help of a taxonomy of brand names that is used in marketing practice. Furthermore, etymological and semantic aspects of the brand names are examined. One finding is that most of the brands use fanciful names, which can best be protected. Additionally, this study highlights the fact that many of the social media platforms and messenger services contain hints to prior media forms in their names. But why do they use these semantically retro references? This study adopts different approaches (remediation, skeuomorphism, invented tradition) to illuminate this retro-naming strategy.

Remote care through telehealth for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Remote care through telehealth for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Informationsweitergabe zur COVID-19-Impfung: Quantitative Online-Befragung zu Akteuren, Inhalten, Quellen und Motiven

ZusammenfassungHintergrundWelche Meinung eine Person zur COVID-19-Impfung vertritt und wie ihre Impfentscheidung ausfällt, hängt u. a. von den sie erreichenden Informationen ab. Es scheint somit zentral, das Phänomen der Informationsweitergabe im Kontext der COVID-19-Impfung zu untersuchen. Die Studie exploriert, wer welche Informationen zur Impfung an wen weitergibt, wie die Weitergabe mit der Nutzung von Informationsquellen zusammenhängt und welche Motive bestehen.MethodeIm Zeitraum vom 19.06. bis 13.07.2021 wurde eine Umfrage mit 833 Personen über das deutsche nicht-repräsentative Social Sciences’ (SoSci) Panel durchgeführt. Erfragt wurden die Informationsweitergabe an Fremde und Personen aus dem sozialen Umfeld, Inhalte und Motive sowie die Informationsquellen. Die Antworten von 828 Personen wurden mittels deskriptiver Statistiken und multipler linearer Regressionsanalysen ausgewertet.ErgebnisseInformationen zur COVID-19-Impfung wurden tendenziell häufiger von älteren Personen, Frauen und Ungeimpften weitergegeben und umfassten Vorteile und Risiken der Impfung sowie persönliche Erfahrungen. Die Informationsweitergabe erfolgte häufiger im sozialen Umfeld als an Fremde. Personen, die sich über die Webseiten von Gesundheitsbehörden informieren, gaben häufiger Informationen zu Vorteilen sowie persönliche Erfahrungen weiter, während Personen, die YouTube oder Messenger-Dienste nutzen, häufiger Informationen zu Risiken teilten. Motive der Informationsweitergabe sind, anderen Menschen helfen, sozialer Austausch, Aufmerksamkeit schaffen, Statusgewinn und die Angst vor Angriffen oder Verurteilung.DiskussionDie Informationsweitergabe zur COVID-19-Impfung ist inhaltlich wie motivational vielschichtig. Um die Impfbereitschaft zu fördern, sollte das Informationsangebot offizieller Webseiten ausgebaut sowie die Gesundheitskompetenz der Bevölkerung gestärkt werden.

The Culture of Distraction: Fragmented Vision and the Misery of the Senses

This paper investigates postmodern modalities of the consumption of art, transformed and accelerated by the advent of the Web, and the emergence of social platforms, locus of altered forms of sensuous experience. Fragmented reality appears well suited to a culture of distraction, the general feeling of perpetual diversion and alienation, propelled by device applications, web surfing, social media, and messenger services; a reality in which space is no longer experienced with a synchronous unity of perception and emplacement. I will examine a reality that has abandoned linear text as the vessel of transmitting information, a reality that in the past few decades has been carried forward by a flood of technical images, following Vilem Flusser’s notion. Lastly, I will scrutinise paradoxical aspects of this virtual domain: what is it that makes an experience itself, when surrogates of someone else’s direct or indirect experiences are fed to us through social media, including images, videos, game simulations of various sorts, virtual reality, extended reality? This paradox Bernard Stiegler calls “the loss of participation in the production of symbols” (Stiegler 2014, 10): a symbolic misery that originated in audiovisual and informational mnemotechnological activities, locus of mutated relations with the senses.

From private phones to public screens: Cross-media recontextualization of chat discourse in the case of the Austrian ÖVP corruption affair

The profound establishment of text-based interaction via mobile messenger services has not only changed interpersonal communication, but also reshaped its quotability. Drawing on the notion of recontextualization, this paper investigates the cross-media transfer-and-transformation of text messages from their former confidential contexts into public media environments. The data are drawn from the media discourse on the corruption affair of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which was triggered by the publication of confidential chat messages in the fall of 2021. Comparing the presentation of text messages in the journalistic media with their intertextual antecedents (in investigative files and related documents), the analysis highlights several linguistic and visual transformations. The findings demonstrate how formerly private chat interactions have been represented in media discourse and reveal different multimodal forms of cross-media quotation, ranging from linguistic replay and visual restaging to elaborate forms in which text messaging is audio-visually re-enacted. These modes of cross-media recontextualization differ in the degree to which the mediality of the digital chat discourse is conveyed or imitated. Through this media linguistic lens, the study contributes to the theory of recontextualization and raises the question what concept of quotation and re-enactment is appropriate and linguistically due in the age of a deep digitalization of everyday communication.

Smartphone Use and Security Challenges in Hospitals: A Survey among Resident Physicians in Germany.

Although mobile devices support physicians in a variety of ways in everyday clinical practice, the use of (personal) mobile devices poses potential risks for information security, data protection, and patient safety in hospitals. We used a cross-sectional survey-based study design to assess the current state of smartphone use among resident physicians in hospitals and to investigate the relationships between working conditions, current smartphone usage patterns, and security-related behavior. In total, data from 343 participating physicians could be analyzed. A large majority (98.3%) used their smartphones during clinical practice. Of the respondents who used a smartphone during clinical practice, only 4.5% were provided with a smartphone by their employer. Approximately three-quarters of the respondents who used their smartphones for professional communication never/almost never used dedicated GDPR-compliant messenger services. Using a hierarchical regression model, we found a significant effect of the organizational resources Social Support (Supervisor) and Information Security-related Communication on security-related behavior during the selection of medical apps (App Selection). Smartphones are an important part of digital support for physicians in everyday clinical practice. To minimize the risks of use, technical and organizational measures should be taken by the hospital management, resulting, for example, in a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiative.

Delineating Zero-Price Markets with Network Effects: An Analysis of Free Messenger Services

AbstractBillions of users worldwide utilize digital zero-price services every day. This study proposes a market definition method for digital zero-price services, using the messenger service as an example. We employ the small but significant nontransitory increase in cost test, which is an improved version of the small but significant nontransitory increase in price test, and conduct conjoint analysis while considering the network effect, a characteristic of digital services. Our results show that the price elasticity of demand is 0.628 and the critical markup ratio is 1.492–1.542 when only the price effect is considered. When the direct network effect is considered, the price elasticity of demand is 1.728 and the critical markup ratio is 0.479–0.529. Furthermore, when considering a two-sided market with indirect network effects, the price elasticity of demand is 2.162 and the critical markup ratio is 0.363–0.413. Thus, the price elasticity of demand for free messenger services is higher when the network effects and two-sided markets are considered.

The Potential of E-Health in Patients after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

Introduction Modern information and communication technologies (ICT) have become increasingly important in daily life as well as in patient-physician interaction, health monitoring and health related information (E-Health). Progress in allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) has led to improved survival and increasing numbers of patients. However, with a multitude of potential complications, follow-up of allo-SCT patients remains complex requiring close monitoring, support and treatment with a plethora of medical fields involved. Early studies have shown that E-Health can benefit caretaking of these patients. So far, only little information is known about the patients’ current use of E-Health and their perspective on its potential. Yet, this knowledge is of particular importance for re-structurization of follow-up after allo-SCT including the standardized use of E-Health and its comprehensive acceptance. This multicenter study aims to close this knowledge gap by investigating the patients’ view towards E-Health and use of telemedicine after allo-SCT. The results will help to facilitate the implementation of E-Health in standard follow-up after allo-SCT and other cellular therapies with a focus on patients’ perspective. Methods and Results Between May 2021 and June 2022, 237 patients after allo-SCT were asked to answer a structured questionnaire at the university hospitals Aachen, Bonn, Cologne and Duesseldorf (Center for Integrated Oncology, CIO ABCD) in Germany. Overall, 219 patients returned the questionnaire leading to a response rate of 92%. Of these, 34% were female and 66% were male with a median age of 59 years (range 18-81). In our patient cohort, the current distribution of internet-enabled computers/smartphones is over 90% and the electronic devices are mainly used for daily life activities. Nevertheless, the use of ICT in medical monitoring and patient-physician interaction is still limited. Only a minority of patients have digitized medication plans, use digital monitoring of health data/fitness-apps or own wearables for health monitoring such as smartwatches. In contrast, the majority of patients favors additional online patient-physician interaction such as scheduling and transmission of medical reports and 65% of the patients support real-time transmission of health data through wearables to the physician for a limited time period. Of note, 40-50% of patients have concerns regarding data safety, even more when using messenger services (67%). The majority of patients considers online chats or video calls with their physician to be beneficial and expects an improvement of the treatment quality through increased use of E-Health. Additionally, most patients favor local treatment with online correspondence between their local practitioner and a specialized center, especially if the patients are present during the online communication or with intermittent personal patient contact to the center. Subgroup analyses revealed that in most areas there is no gender difference in use and perspective on E-Health. However, male patients consider online chats more beneficial and expect an improved patient-physician interaction through increased use of ICT compared to females. Age and educational attainment are very significant factors in patients’ view on E-Health. Younger (<60 years) as well as higher educated patients favor increased use of online communication, applications and devices in almost all regards and expect benefits of patient-physician interaction and treatment quality, which is in significant contrast to the views of older or less educated patients. Hometown size or distance to a specialized center does not show a relevant impact on the view on E-Health. This is also true for time after allo-SCT or frequency of outpatient visits at the time of questioning. Conclusions Dissemination of internet-enabled devices is wide and the potential of E-Health is high in patients after allo-SCT. The majority of patients favors further standardized implementation of E-Health technologies and telemedically supported caretaking post allo-SCT and potentially other cellular therapies to improve patient-physician interaction and cross-sectoral care. Future research should focus on patients’ needs in the context of data safety and exchange of medical information in interdisciplinary care processes to successfully integrate new E-Health technologies.