Monitoring Website Research Articles

Efficacy of an mHealth intervention to stimulate physical activity in COPD patients after pulmonary rehabilitation.

Physical inactivity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with poor health status and increased disease burden. The present study aims to test the efficacy of a previously developed mobile (m)Health intervention to improve or maintain physical activity in patients with COPD after pulmonary rehabilitation.A randomised controlled trial was performed in 32 physiotherapy practices in the Netherlands. COPD patients were randomised into intervention or usual care groups. The intervention consisted of a smartphone application for the patients and a monitoring website for the physiotherapists. Measurements were performed at 0, 3, 6 and 12 months. Physical activity, functional exercise capacity, lung function, health-related quality of life and body mass index were assessed.157 patients started the study and 121 completed it. There were no significant positive effects of the intervention on physical activity (at 0 months: intervention 5824±3418 steps per weekday, usual care 5717±2870 steps per weekday; at 12 months: intervention 4819±2526 steps per weekday, usual care 4950±2634 steps per weekday; p=0.811) or on the secondary end-points. There was a significant decrease over time in physical activity (p<0.001), lung function (p<0.001) and mastery (p=0.017), but not in functional exercise capacity (p=0.585).Although functional exercise capacity did not deteriorate, our mHealth intervention did not improve or maintain physical activity in patients with COPD after a period of pulmonary rehabilitation.

A Fuzzy based Ranking Framework for Ascertaining the Optimal Cloud Service Provider

Cloud Computing has become the buzz word in today's business and information technology sector. But many businesses are yet to deploy their applications in the cloud fearing the risk involved. Enterprises fear the risks related in deploying their applications with the wrong cloud service provider(CSP). Moreover there are so many CSPs that it becomes very confusing for businesses to choose the right ones for their own unique individual needs. A CSP which is suitable for one enterprise application maybe totally wrong for another. In this work we propose a Fuzzy framework to solve this nontrivial problem of finding the optimal cloud service provider (CSP) based on the enterprise requirements. We look at data about CSP's from CSP's themselves and from data collected from third party cloud monitoring websites. From time immemorial from the instance Moldstov proposed it, soft sets have been used to solve uncertain and multi criteria decision making problems. Hence in this paper we use the fuzzy weighted soft sets to rank the CSPs.

The information ecology of parliamentary monitoring websites: Pathways towards strengthening democracy

This paper investigates the monitoring of parliamentarians by independent parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs). Three parliamentary monitoring websites (PMWs) in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France are compared regard- ing their contribution to strengthening democracy. An information ecology perspective reveals the interrelationships between the national institutional context, the democratic values pursued by the initiators, and website design. Two types of PMWs can be distinguished. One type focuses on enabling citizens to discharge their monitorial role, whereas the other type com- bines this focus with an explicit reformist stance. PMWs seem to have positive effects on various aspects of transparency and accountability. However, a better understanding is needed about what these websites entail for the quality of parliamentary work.

A Qualitative Assessment of Kansas Tracking and Reporting of Controlled Substances (K-TRACS)

Introduction. This study assessed the Kansas Tracking and Reporting of Controlled Substances system (K-TRACS), the online controlled prescription medication monitoring website in Kansas. The specific aims were to determine if and when pharmacists and physicians in Kansas were using K-TRACS and to identify any perceived benefits or barriers to using K-TRACS. Methods. A non-randomized, convenience sample of Kansas pharmacists and family physicians were interviewed face to face using a guided semi-structured questionnaire. NVivo 10 (QSR International Pty Ltd.) was used to analyze data. Results. Ten physicians and sixteen pharmacists were interviewed. All pharmacists and 70% of physicians were using K-TRACS. Usage was prompted by encounters with new patients or unease with the patient interaction. The perceived benefits included increased communication with the patient and all providers, increased provider comfort with treating chronic pain, and altered prescriber habits. Barriers to the use of K-TRACS were identified as login, password, and operating system problems. Conclusions. Among study participants, K-TRACS is used regularly, is perceived to be a benefit to providers, patients and communities, and has become a useful new tool in the treatment of chronic pain. K-TRACS is perceived to facilitate increased communication between providers and with patients.

Monitoring Web Site Usage of e-Bug: A Hygiene and Antibiotic Awareness Resource for Children.

Backgrounde-Bug is an educational resource which teaches children and young people about microbes, hygiene, infection, and prudent antibiotic use. The e-Bug resources are available in over 22 different languages and they are used widely across the globe. The resources can be accessed from the e-Bug website.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to analyze the usage of the e-Bug website in order to understand how users access the website, where and when they access the site, and to review variation in use across the different areas of the site.MethodsThe usage statistics for the e-Bug website were monitored by Google Analytics between September 2010 and August 2013.ResultsThe statistics show the website had over 324,000 visits during the three years, from just under 250,000 visitors, with the number of visitors increasing year after year. Visitors accessed the website from 211 different countries, with more than 267,000 documents downloaded. The majority of visitors were from the United Kingdom and visited the English website, although countries such as France and Portugal were also frequent visitors.ConclusionsThese website statistics confirm that e-Bug is frequently used across Europe and highlight that e-Bug use has expanded across the world. The findings from this report will be used to inform future modifications or updates to the materials, as well as the development of new educational resources.

Evaluation of ALOS PALSAR Data for High-Resolution Mapping of Vegetated Wetlands in Alaska

As the largest natural source of methane, wetlands play an important role in the carbon cycle. High-resolution maps of wetland type and extent are required to quantify wetland responses to climate change. Mapping northern wetlands is particularly important because of a disproportionate increase in temperatures at higher latitudes. Synthetic aperture radar data from a spaceborne platform can be used to map wetland types and dynamics over large areas. Following from earlier work by Whitcomb et al. (2009) using Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1) data, we applied the “random forests” classification algorithm to variables from L-band ALOS PALSAR data for 2007, topographic data (e.g., slope, elevation) and locational information (latitude, longitude) to derive a map of vegetated wetlands in Alaska, with a spatial resolution of 50 m. We used the National Wetlands Inventory and National Land Cover Database (for upland areas) to select training and validation data and further validated classification results with an independent dataset that we created. A number of improvements were made to the method of Whitcomb et al. (2009): (1) more consistent training data in upland areas; (2) better distribution of training data across all classes by taking a stratified random sample of all available training pixels; and (3) a more efficient implementation, which allowed classification of the entire state as a single entity (rather than in separate tiles), which eliminated discontinuities at tile boundaries. The overall accuracy for discriminating wetland from upland was 95%, and the accuracy at the level of wetland classes was 85%. The total area of wetlands mapped was 0.59 million km2, or 36% of the total land area of the state of Alaska. The map will be made available to download from NASA’s wetland monitoring website.

Using targeted design interventions to encourage extra‐role crowdsourcing behavior

Crowdsourcing has seen a substantial increase in interest from researchers and practitioners in recent years. Being a new form of work facilitated by information technology, the rise of crowdsourcing calls for the development of new theoretical insights. Our focus in this article is on extra‐role behavior—employees' voluntary activities, which are not part of their prescribed duties. Specifically, we explored how user interface design can help increase extra‐role behavior among crowdsourcing workers. In a randomized experiment, we examined the joint effects of the presentation of a performance display to crowdsourcing workers and the personal attributes of these workers on the workers' likelihood to engage in extra‐role behavior. The experimental setting included an image analysis task performed on an environmental monitoring website. We compared workers' behavior across the different experimental conditions and found that the interaction between the presence of a performance display and the workers' personality trait of curiosity has a significant impact on the likelihood of engaging in extra‐role behavior. In particular, the presence of a performance display was associated with increased likelihood of extra‐role behavior among low‐curiosity workers, and no change in extra‐role behavior was observed among high‐curiosity users. Implications for design are discussed.

Entrepreneurial Training: A Comparative Study across Fifteen European Countries

This paper arises from the contents of the Lisbon Strategy, a set of cooperation policies stressing the role of education and training. The findings from a comparative study of the influence that entrepreneurial training – classified as formal or informal – can have on start-up expectations are analysed. The study covers fifteen European countries and uses data derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) website. The results of a logistic regression model show significant differences across Europe: in some countries, start-up expectations are influenced only by participation in formal entrepreneurial training programmes; in others, they are affected only by participation in informal entrepreneurial training activities; in yet others, such expectations are induced by both formal and informal entrepreneurial training. Regarding the current status of entrepreneurial training, it appears that although the fifteen European countries are following the correct path there is still much to do to achieve the overall objectives established by the Lisbon Strategy. Some recommendations for policy makers and the implications for future research are suggested in the concluding section of the paper.

Design of the Resources and Environment Monitoring Website in Kashgar

Despite the development of the web geographical information system (web GIS), many useful spatial analysis functions are ignored in the system implementation. As Kashgar is rich in natural resources, it is of great significance to monitor the ample natural resource and environment situation in the region. Therefore, with multiple uses of spatial analysis, resources and environment monitoring website of Kashgar was built. Functions of water, vegetation, ice and snow extraction, task management, change assessment as well as thematic mapping and reports based on TM remote sensing images were implemented in the website. The design of the website was presented based on database management tier, the business logic tier and the top-level presentation tier. The vital operations of the website were introduced and the general performance was evaluated.

Aligning Websites with Enterprise Success: An Evaluative Approach

Substantial resources have been continuously invested in Website development since this technology was introduced. However, it is still unclear whether enterprise sites fully support their primary business activities. This paper proposes the use of organizational critical activities (OCAs) to help businesses align Web designs with business priorities and thus to achieve success. A case study is presented to demonstrate why identification of OCAs provides the opportunity to understand and monitor the effectiveness of Websites in supporting business activities. The importance-performance analysis (IPA) technique is used to analyze and understand the alignment of Websites with enterprise priorities. It is concluded that OCAs and IPA may assist enterprises in designing, implementing, and monitoring Websites in terms of supporting the activities that are crucial for business success.

What Next for the Millennium Development Goals?

It is just about time for yet another round of internationaldevelopment goals. The Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) – the eight goals, 20 targets and 60+ indicatorsthat came out of the United Nations in 2000 – are comingto the end of their natural life. Although the official enddate is not until 2015, if your country is not close to reach-ing the MDGs now, there is simply not much time tocatch up. (Helpfully, the UN’s MDG Monitor websitecounts down to 2015 by the second.)As 2015 ticks ever closer, international bureaucrats (andI use that term affectionately since I have been one) aredeciding how to cook up the nextround of goals. We can be assuredthat there will be another round ofMDG-like goals sometime fairly soonbecause this has been the consistentpattern for much of the last century.My colleague Michael Clemens docu-ments how global universal primaryeducation has been repeatedly prom-ised by grand international summitssince at least 1934, even if their actual impact has beenquestionable (Clemens, 2004).So what should MDGs redux look like if we want themto be constructive and not merely more of the same? Agood place to start is to consider the pluses and minuses ofthe current set. On the positive side, the MDGs have beenhugely successful at fundraising. The MDGs evolved outof a set of goals created at the OECD in the mid-1990s asa direct attempt to try to reverse the steep cuts in foreignaid after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Total aidplummeted by more than 20 per cent between 1992 and1997, prompting waves of panic within the aid community.At the time of the September 2000 UN Summit when theMDGs were adopted unanimously by the largest-ever gath-ering of heads of state, total aid was around $60 billion peryear. By 2005 the level had doubled to around $120 billionand it has hovered around this level ever since. Coinciden-tally, a series of ‘MDG costing studies’ suggested that justsuch a doubling was necessary for those goals to beachieved (Devarajan et al., 2002; Zedillo, 2001). A linkbetween the MDGs and this spike in aid seems highlyplausible. Nearly all donor countries justified their increaseson the basis of, if not directly meeting the MDGs, helpingto reach MDG-like goals, such as fighting poverty, educat-ing children or stemming the HIV⁄AIDS pandemic.Another useful contribution of the MDGs has been tofocus the development community – and the taxpayingpublic – on outcomes, if somewhat belatedly. Although itseems obvious today to track progress on intended targets,common practice in the past was simply to calculate inputs:how much money was spent, how many books werebought, etc., rather than on the hoped-for changes incountries, such as healthier and more educated people.Finding out what is actually happening on the ground notonly helps to establish if money andeffort are reaching their intendedobjectives, but also helps to makecritical efficiency decisions. If we aimfor educated children, a logical firststep is at least to know how manykids are enrolled in school. It alsoprovides a baseline for deeper evalua-tion that can help make policy deci-sions, such as: is it better to useadditional marginal dollars to build schools or pay teachershigher salaries or fight diseases that too often keep kidsout of school? In fact, the approach of finding out how weare actually doing is obvious now in part because of theMDGs. Tracking and reporting have become mainstream –and it is not too much of a stretch to give the goals part ofthe credit.Yet, the MDGs also have some serious weaknesses.While the goals were initially intended as global aspira-tions, they quickly became actual targets for countries.Some of this was (likely well-intentioned if lazy) misuse ofthe goals as a replacement for national targets. If Goal Fivesays that the maternal mortality ratio should be reduced bythree-quarters, then that has been the target assigned toNiger, Cambodia and Honduras as well. Some of thistransfer to national goals was however by design, such asGoal Two which calls for universal completion of primaryschooling.But does it really make sense for all countries around theworld to have the same goals? Should China and CapeVerde be applying the same objectives and measuringsticks? More to the point, should we be determining the‘success’ or ‘failure’ of a country’s efforts at progress based

Media Reporting of Health Interventions: Signs of Improvement, but Major Problems Persist

BackgroundStudies have persistently shown deficiencies in medical reporting by the mainstream media. We have been monitoring the accuracy and comprehensiveness of medical news reporting in Australia since mid 2004. This analysis of more than 1200 stories in the Australian media compares different types of media outlets and examines reporting trends over time.Methods and FindingsBetween March 2004 and June 2008 1230 news stories were rated on a national medical news monitoring web site, Media Doctor Australia. These covered a variety of health interventions ranging from drugs, diagnostic tests and surgery to dietary and complementary therapies. Each story was independently assessed by two reviewers using ten criteria. Scores were expressed as percentages of total assessable items deemed satisfactory according to a coding guide. Analysis of variance was used to compare mean scores and Fishers exact test to compare proportions. Trends over time were analysed using un-weighted linear regression analysis. Broadsheet newspapers had the highest average satisfactory scores: 58% (95% CI 56–60%), compared with tabloid newspapers and online news outlets, 48% (95% CI 44–52) and 48% (95% CI 46–50) respectively. The lowest scores were assigned to stories broadcast by human interest/current affairs television programmes (average score 33% (95% CI 28–38)). While there was a non- significant increase in average scores for all outlets, a significant improvement was seen in the online news media: a rise of 5.1% (95%CI 1.32, 8.97; P 0.009). Statistically significant improvements were seen in coverage of the potential harms of interventions, the availability of treatment or diagnostic options, and accurate quantification of benefits.ConclusionAlthough the overall quality of medical reporting in the general media remains poor, this study showed modest improvements in some areas. However, the most striking finding was the continuing very poor coverage of health news by commercial current affairs television programs.

Inventing Jewish Ritual (review)

Inventing Jewish Ritual, by Vanessa Ochs. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007. 276 pp. $25.00. Commentators of contemporary Jewish life often fall into two categories. Some anxiously describe the Jewish world as dying, teetering on the brink of an assimilation crisis. These Jews see the world as a glass more than half-empty. More optimistic observers see reasons to celebrate and imagine the Jewish world as a glass half-full. In Vanessa Ochs' new book, Inventing Jewish Ritual, that proverbial glass is not just half-full, it's joyously overflowing. The title of this book is somewhat of a misnomer and actually doesn't do it justice. Inventing Jewish Ritual is not just a thought-provoking and accessibly written analysis of the ways in which Jews from every denominational stripe (and beyond) are coming up with new rituals. Vanessa Ochs has also written richly ethnographic accounts of how people imagine new possibilities for living creative and inspired Jewish lives. By providing case studies, sample texts, snippets of email exchanges, fieldnotes, and websites, Ochs offers fascinating descriptions of how contemporary Jews borrow freely from diverse cultural currents, sometimes in extraordinary and surprising ways. The ethnography makes plain her primary argument: that Jews are constantly re-interpreting and expanding what counts as authentically Jewish (whether objects, stories, or practices). In other words, Inventing Jewish Ritual charts how Jews are making American Judaism a more meaningful, relevant, interesting, and compelling place to callhome. Ochs begins her analysis with a personal discussion of how she herself came to ritual innovation, albeit slowly and over a few decades. Initially hesitant and tentative, her first efforts to create new Jewish rituals emerged out her own desire to ritually acknowledge moments in her life and community using tools and concepts from Judaism. Ochs came of age with Jewish feminism, a movement that she credits, along with American democratic do-it-yourself impulses and the havurah movement, as primarily responsible for this extraordinary flowering of new Jewish rituals, practices, and material objects circulating amongst American Jews for the past generation. But the creativity she witnesses is both eclectic and decidedly not denominational. Innovation seems to be emerging from all corners of Jewish life - from Haredi attempts to regulate internet usage through chevrusa- style monitoring of websites to Heeb magazine to new ritualists - people (usually women) who eschew traditional rabbinic training and provide customized lifecycle rituals, often for people estranged and alienated from traditional forms of Jewish communal worship and organizational life. What's also astonishing, but perhaps not surprising, is how quickly new (and seemingly radical) innovative rituals become incorporated into so many people's lives, and take on the patina of tradition. Thanks to the veritable explosion of blogs, listserves, and websites where Jews can post and circulate new rituals and their explanations, the time-frame for adoption has become compressed. In several cases, these new rituals quickly acquire historical narratives, legends, and origin myths that accompany their practice. The most familiar case is the story and now widespread practice of putting an orange on the seder plate at Passover. Here, the various circulating legends provide insight into how new rituals can prompt multiple, and sometimes competing, narrative versions of their origins. Most people mistakenly attribute the orange-seder plate ritual to a fictitious, tense exchange between Susannah Heschel and an irate congregant, who angrily retorted that allowing women up on the bimah is like putting an orange on the seder plate! In fact, the real story is much more radical. …

The Telecoms Packagee and the Copyright Amendments A European Legal Framework to Stop Downloading, and Monitor the Internet

This paper considers how imminent changes to European telecommunications law will permit the monitoring and blocking of websites and peer-to-peer exchanges by ISPs, in a way that is currently not legally possible. These legal changes will also permit ISPs to sanction users by suspending or terminating Internet access. And they are essential in order for the French ‘riposte graduee’ or ‘3 strikes’ copyright enforcement measures to be implemented.The changes are a series of hidden amendments related to copyright, and contained in the so-called ‘Telecoms package’. This paper argues that these amendments will effectively erode the ISP’s legal status of ‘mere conduit’, which currently protects individual rights and liberties on the Internet. It argues that the ‘mere conduit’ status should be preserved, and the copyright amendments rejected.The proposed copyright amendments will result in the loss of individual freedom and privacy on the Internet – in breach of fundamental principles of human rights law in Europe. Ultimately, they could open the door to wider political or commercial censorship, and this is the real danger of permitting them to get into law. The risk is that this will happen without proper legislative scrutiny or public debate. The European Parliament committees responsible for the Telecoms package voted on July 7th and the Parliament as a whole voted on September 2nd.

Application of Road Visibility Information System to Winter Maintenance

A road visibility information system (RVIS) was developed that uses images transmitted by multiple closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras as road visibility information. Feasibility studies in the daytime during the winters of 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007 were performed on national routes 230 and 231. During those two winters, the RVIS calculated visibility scale and road visibility index (RVI) automatically, accurately, continuously, and in a timely manner from road images recorded by multiple CCTV cameras. The RVIS processed 90% of the images transmitted by 14 CCTV cameras. The RVIS provided areawide visibility information in many formats and through many kinds of media and devices. On the basis of stored road visibility data, the finding was a high correspondence between the RVI and the subjective visibility evaluation for the same road images. In addition, this study demonstrates that the RVI monitoring website and e-mail alerts can speedily and reliably inform road administrators of snowstorm-induced poor visibility. The RVIS has the potential to collect data on road visibility reliably during daytime using images transmitted by multiple CCTV cameras. However, it is necessary to improve data collection at night and to capture still images accurately and quickly.

도서관 정보서비스 향상을 위한 기술의 RSS 응용 : 프랑스 사례를 중심으로

The new technology, RSS(Really Simple Syndication), allows people to send and receive a lot of up-to-date information by constant monitoring websites and databases for new information, without having to visit the site or database. The task for capturing and delivering various information influx via new digital channels as speedy as possible, is being discussed as a new form of service in the field of information service system nowadays. Given this situation, the RSS tool can be greatly useful in the gatekeeping task. This paper, by analyzing concrete cases in which RSS is actually employed in libraries and also newly applied to other diverse information services in France, expects to provide insightful ideas for developing innovative information services in other countries.

Monitoring the quality of medical news reporting: early experience with media doctor

To analyse the reviews of medical news articles posted on media doctor, a medical news-story monitoring website. A descriptive summary of operating the media doctor website between 1 February and 1 September 2004. Consensus scores for 10 assessment criteria for the medical intervention described in the article (novelty, availability in Australia, alternative treatment options given, evidence of "disease mongering", objective supportive evidence given, quantification of benefits, coverage of harms, coverage of costs, independent sources of information, and excessive reliance on a press release); cumulative article rating scores for major media outlets. 104 news articles were featured on media doctor in the study period. Both online and print media scored poorly, although the print media were superior: mean total scores 56.1% satisfactory for print and 40.1% for online; percentage points difference 15.9 (95% CI, 8.3-23.6). The greatest differences were seen for the use of independent information sources, quantification of benefits and coverage of potential harms. Australian lay news reporting of medical advances, particularly by the online news services, is poor. This might improve if journals and researchers became more active in communicating with the press and the public.

The eShopmonitor: A comprehensive data extraction tool for monitoring Web sites

Typical commercial Web sites publish information from multiple back-end data sources; these data sources are also updated very frequently. Given the size of most commercial sites today, it becomes essential to have an automated means of checking for correctness and consistency of data. The eShopmonitor allows users to specify items of interest to be tracked, monitors these items on the Web pages, and reports on any changes observed. Our solution comprises a crawler, a miner, a reporter, and a user component that work together to achieve the above functionality. The miner learns to locate the items of interest on a class of pages based on just one sample supplied by the user, via the user interface (UI) provided. The learning algorithm is based on the XPaths of the Document Object Model (DOM) of the page.

A model for monitoring Web site effectiveness

Presents a model which organizations can use to monitor Web site effectiveness. Argues that anecdotal evidence can be colorful but is not useful in structuring and managing an effective site. Suggests that traditional disciplines of composition and communication ‐ explicit purpose, coherent structure, relevant conclusion ‐ should be applied to Web site design. Concludes that customer feedback must be managed in a disciplined way, by ensuring that feedback is representative of the customer population as a whole, not just of those with a propensity to comment; and that the purpose and aims of a Web site must be thought through with the utmost care and attention to give a higher likelihood of creating an effective site.