Personal Mobile Devices Research Articles

Individualized Web-Based Attention Training With Evidence-Based Counseling to Address HIV Treatment Adherence and Psychological Distress: Exploratory Cohort Study.

BackgroundThe prevalence of mood, trauma, and stressor-related disorders is disproportionately higher among people living with HIV than among individuals without the virus. Poor adherence to HIV treatment and heightened psychological distress have been linked to symptoms associated with these disorders.ObjectiveThe objective of this exploratory pilot study was to develop and implement an intervention that combined individualized web-based attention training with evidence-based counseling to promote HIV treatment adherence and reduce psychological distress among people living with HIV. The study targeted African American and Latino young men who have sex with men, two population groups in the US that continue to experience disparities in HIV treatment outcomes.MethodsStudy participants with elevated symptoms of depression and suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy were recruited primarily through referrals from Los Angeles health and social service providers as well as postings on social media. Participants enrolled in the 4-week intervention received weekly counseling for adherence and daily access to web-based attention training via their personal mobile devices or computers.ResultsOf the 14 participants who began the intervention, 12 (86%) completed all sessions and study procedures. Using a pretest-posttest design, findings indicate significant improvements in adherence, depressive symptoms, and attention processing. Overall, the proportion of participants reporting low adherence to antiretroviral therapy declined from 42% at baseline to 25% at intervention completion (P=.02, phi=0.68). Mean depressive symptoms measured by the 9 item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) showed a substantial reduction of 36% (P=.002, Cohen d=1.2). In addition, participants’ attentional processing speeds for all types of stimuli pairings presented during attention training improved significantly (P=.01 and P=.02) and were accompanied by large effect sizes ranging from 0.78 to 1.0.ConclusionsOur findings support the feasibility of web-based attention training combined with counseling to improve antiretroviral therapy adherence among patients with psychological distress. Future research should include a larger sample, a control group, and longer-term follow-up.

Preserving Continuity of Behavioral Health Clinical Care to Patients Using Mobile Devices

The current model for treating behavioral health patients requires that providers and patients be in the same location for appointments. However, deploying warfighters present a challenge to this current model. Recent advances in technology make telehealth or virtual visits a viable option to replace the current model. This project leveraged mobile technology to see if performing tele-behavioral health visits presented a viable option to the current in-person model for future deployed warfighters. At the time of this publication, the authors note the current pandemic lends all the more urgency to the need for enhancing our video communication platforms for remote monitoring with the Military Health System. The research team assessed existing Internet protocol-based desktop teleconferencing solutions, generically known as a Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) system, for establishing a secure connection to a Service Members personal mobile device outside of the Department of Defense (DoD) network. Of the five existing WebRTC systems evaluated, only the backbone component to the existing Defense Information Systems Agency Global Video Services (DISA GVS) known as Vidyo, was suitable to meet DoD security requirements and still connect with both major operating systems (OS) on mobile devices. An existing DoD program of record mobile application, mCare, was integrated with Vidyo desktop technologies to form what the research team called "Mobile Connect." Deployment of the Mobile Connect product yielded distinct differences and high levels or variability between the .osd.mil and the army.mil network connections over time. These network differences impacted quality of service solution where Mobile Connect could not be used to provide care between the .mil and patient's personal mobile devices from a osd.mil domain connection. The current DoD WebRTC systems offer potential solutions but presently cannot connect with personal mobile devices in their current configurations. Additionally, any WebRTC system used by the DoD for future connections to personal mobile device must leverage commercial Single Socket Layer certificates (e.g., not DoD issued), or the communications with the mobile device will fail as a result of an authentication error. It is technically feasible to provide desktop Video Tele-Conference capabilities from a .mil computer to a personal mobile device without compromising DoD security and information assurance requirements using future WebRTC systems. Approved ports, protocols, and system settings must be configured to accept both inbound and outbound, encrypted traffic to/from personal mobile devices to maintain consistent quality of service with all DoD networks. Of the current DoD WebRTC options, working with the DISA GVS Program Manager to expand services to support commercial mobile devices has the highest probability of future success.

Empirical Results for High-definition Video and Augmented Reality Content Delivery in Hyper-connected Cars

Abstract Software architecture and applications for the connected car can process and share a variety of digital content, among which high-definition video and augmented reality (AR) content, toward enhanced driving assistance, navigation and infotainment systems and services. However, several technical challenges need to be overcome to make such systems and services viable and efficient, including dealing effectively with a variety of types of systems, devices and platforms, either installed inside the vehicle or represented by the personal mobile and wearable devices of the drivers and passengers. In this paper, we outline these technical challenges and propose a software solution in the form of an event-based middleware layer by modeling the smart, connected car as a specific type of a smart environment. We employ an adapted version of Euphoria, a recently introduced software architecture for general-purpose smart environments, to implement asynchronous communications among heterogeneous input/output devices inside the vehicle. We also adapt Euphoria to fit into the four-layer infrastructure model of the connected car. We conduct a technical evaluation of the request-response time performance achieved with the Euphoria middleware for streaming digital content from 1 Mbps (360p@30fps) to 32 Mbps (4K@30fps) on various devices, either integrated in the vehicle, not integrated but used inside the vehicle and devices outside the vehicle (the control condition). Our results show effective live streaming achieved for 2K content at 30fps with the 600 Mbps network (i.e., the connected car) and for 4K content at 30fps with the 1.7 Gbps network envisioned for hyper-connected vehicles. These results open up opportunities for high-definition video and AR applications in the automotive industry.

Разработка модели аутентификации обучаемого на основе персональных данных его поведения при работе с персональным мобильным устройством в m-learning

Разработка модели аутентификации обучаемого на основе персональных данных его поведения при работе с персональным мобильным устройством в m-learning

A narrative review of current evidence supporting the implementation of electronic patient-reported outcome measures in the management of chronic diseases.

An application of telemedicine of growing interest and relevance is the use of personal computers and mobile devices to collect patient-reported outcomes (PROs). PROs are self-reports of patients’ health status without interpretation by anyone else. The tools developed to assess PROs are known as patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs). The technological innovations that have led to an increased ownership of electronic devices have also facilitated the development of electronic PROMs (ePROMs). ePROMs are a conduit for telemedicine in the care of patients with chronic diseases. Various studies have demonstrated that the use of ePROMs in routine clinical practice is both acceptable and feasible with patients increasingly expressing a preference for an electronic mode of administration. There is increasing evidence that the use of electronic patient-reported outcome (ePROMs) could have significant impacts on outcomes valued by patients, healthcare providers and researchers. Whilst the development and implementation of these systems may be initially costly and resource-intensive, patient preferences and existing evidence to support their implementation suggests the need for continued research prioritisation in this area. This narrative review summarises and discusses evidence of the impact of ePROMs on clinical parameters and outcomes relevant to chronic diseases. We also explore recently published literature regarding issues that may influence the robust implementation of ePROMs for routine clinical practice.

Performance Analysis of Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks in Urban Scenarios

Device-to-Device (D2D) is one of the emerging technologies expected to have significant contributions to the future of the Internet. The combination of personal mobile devices and D2D communications forms the Mobile Ad-hoc Network architecture, called MANETs. Nowadays, due to the flexibility and simplicity of establishing data transmission, MANETs are applied in various areas such as healthcare, intelligent transportation systems, tactical, smart retail, and smart agriculture. In practice, due to the mobility of network nodes, the network structure often changes, and the performance of MANETs is relatively low. Routing is one of the significant challenges of MANETs. In this study, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the traditional routing protocols for MANETs. Based on the analysis results, we obtained a common framework for designing routing protocols for MANETs. To visualize the efficiencies of protocols under variable network traffic, we performed a simulation to compare the performance of typical protocols, including AODV, DSR, and OLSR. The obtained results again demonstrated that on-demand-based routing protocols are suitable for dynamic topology networks. We hope that this work will be an essential guide in researching and proposing energy-saving, secure, and QoS routing protocols for MANETs in the future.

The Influence of BYOD Concept on Development of Learning Process in Universities

Education is one of the largest markets promoting implementation of Bring Your Own Device BYOD. The BYOD model was originated in colleges and universities, being stimulated by technologically advanced students, who demanded it, and administrators of educational entities, who agreed that allowance to get access to the network using personal devices was a competitive advantage. Nowadays this concept attracts great attention. People depend on their personal devices and want to have the opportunity to use them anywhere in order to make their life simpler and more efficient. While BYOD implementation increases, teachers determine new methods of integration of mobile devices into learning. The use of personal mobile devices of students for learning seems to be attractive for universities, since these devices would help to reduce expenses and to support teaching and learning. The research objective: to detect the level of influence of BYOD concept on learning process. In the conclsuoins authors confirm that BYOD is the dominant model in universities.

Methodology and tools for creating training samples for artificial intelligence systems for recognizing lung cancer on CT images

Introduction. Medical imaging techniques can diagnose many diseases at the early stages of their development, improving the patient survival. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems, requiring the high-quality annotated and marked-up sets of medical images, are a suitable and promising means of improving the diagnostics’ quality. The purpose of the study was to develop a methodology and software for creating AIS training sets. Material and methods. We compared the main annotation methods’ performance and accuracy and based the information system on the most efficient method in both domains to develop an optimal approach. To markup objects of interest, we used the cluster model of lesions localization previously developed by the authors. We used C++ and Kotlin programming languages for software development. Results. A structured annotation template with delivered a glossary of terms became the basis of the information system. The latter consists of three interacting modules, two of which are executed on a remote server’s capacities and one on a personal computer or mobile device of the end-user. The first module is a web service responsible for the workflow logic. The second module, a web server, is responsible for interacting with client applications. Its role is to identify users and manage the database and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) connections. The front-end module is a web application with a graphical interface that assists the end-user in images’ markup and annotation. Conclusions. An algorithmic basis and a software package have been created for annotation and markup of CT images. The resulting information system was used in a large-scale lung cancer screening project for the creation of medical imaging datasets.

MyDigitalFootprint: An extensive context dataset for pervasive computing applications at the edge

The widespread diffusion of connected smart devices has greatly contributed to the rapid expansion and evolution of the Internet at its edge, where personal mobile devices follow the behavior of their human users and interact with other smart objects located in the surroundings. In such a scenario, the user context is represented by a large variety of information that can rapidly change, and the ability of personal mobile devices to locally process this data is fundamental to make the system able to quickly adapt its behavior to the current situation. This ability, in practice, can be represented by a single elaboration process integrated in the final user application, or by a middleware platform aimed at implementing different context processing and reasoning to support third-party applications. However, the lack of public datasets that take into account the complexity of the user context in the mobile environment strongly limits the advance of the research in this field.In this paper, we present MyDigitalFootprint, a novel large-scale dataset composed of smartphone embedded sensors data, physical proximity information, and Online Social Networks interactions aimed at supporting multimodal context-recognition and social relationships modeling. The dataset includes two months of measurements and information collected from the personal mobile devices of 31 volunteer users, in their natural environment, without limiting their usual behavior. Existing public datasets generally consist of a limited set of context data, aimed at optimizing specific application domains (human activity recognition is the most common example). On the contrary, our dataset contains a comprehensive set of information describing the user context in the mobile environment. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed dataset, we present three context-aware applications based on different machine learning tasks: (i) a social link prediction algorithm based on physical proximity data, (ii) the recognition of daily-life activities based on smartphone-embedded sensors data, and (iii) a pervasive context-aware recommender system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale dataset containing such heterogeneity of information, representing an invaluable source of data to validate new research in mobile and edge computing.

An electronic survey of preferred podcast format and content requirements among trainee emergency medicine specialists in four Southern African universities.

IntroductionGlobal usage of educational Emergency Medicine (EM) podcasts is popular and ever-increasing. This study aims to explore the desired content, format and delivery characteristics of a potential educational, context-specific Southern African EM podcast, by investigating current podcast usages, trends and preferences among Southern African EM registrars of varying seniority.MethodsWe developed an electronic survey - using a combination of existing literature, context-specific specialist-training guidance, and input from local experts – exploring preferred podcast characteristics among EM registrars from four Southern African universities.ResultsThe study's response rate was 75%, with 24 of the 39 respondents being junior registrars. Ninety-four percent (94%) of respondents used EM podcasts as an educational medium: 64% predominantly using podcasts to supplement a personal EM study program. The primary mode of accessing podcasts was via personal mobile devices (84%). Additionally, respondents preferred a shorter podcast duration (5–15 min), favoured multimedia podcasts (56%) and showed an apparent aversion toward recorded faculty lectures (5%). Eighty-two percent (82%) of respondents preferred context-specific podcast content, with popular topics including toxicology (95%), cardiovascular emergencies (79%) and medico-legal matters (74%). Just-in-Time learning proved an unpopular learning strategy in our study population, despite its substantial educational value.ConclusionPodcast-usage proved to be near-ubiquitous among the studied Southern African EM registrars. Quintessentially, future context-specific podcast design should cater for mobile device-use, shorter duration podcasts, more video content, context-specific topics, and content optimised for both Just-in-Time learning.

Access to ICT in the Pacific Islands region: a brief report

Abstract Mobile technologies are an essential component necessary for the functioning of contemporary health systems. The advent of digital health represents a logical collaboration between the need for greater efficiencies in health service delivery and systems and the rapid expansion of personal mobile devices. Worldwide mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 8.9bn, smartphone subscriptions 7.2bn and mobile broadband 8.3bn 1. For many countries, mobile subscriptions exceed population numbers; the Pacific Islands region is no different 1. Yet within the region huge diversity in access to information and communication technologies (ICT) contributes to gradual progress in implementing digital health initiatives that could accelerate and extend measures to improve public health.

Remote Ecological Momentary Testing of Learning and Memory in Adults With Serious Mental Illness.

Smartphone-based ecological mobile cognitive tests (EMCTs) can measure cognitive abilities in the real world, complementing traditional neuropsychological assessments. We evaluated the validity of an EMCT of recognition memory designed for use with people with serious mental illness, as well as relevant contextual influences on performance. Participants with schizophrenia (SZ), schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder (BD) completed in-lab assessments of memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, HVLT), other cognitive abilities, functional capacity, and symptoms, followed by 30 days of EMCTs during which they completed our Mobile Variable Difficulty List Memory Test (VLMT) once every other day (3 trials per session). List length on the VLMT altered between 6, 12, and 18 items. On average, participants completed 75.3% of EMCTs. Overall performance on VLMT 12 and 18 items was positively correlated with HVLT (ρ = 0.52, P < .001). People with BD performed better on the VLMT than people with SZ. Intraindividual variability on the VLMT was more specifically associated with HVLT than nonmemory tests and not associated with symptoms. Performance during experienced distraction, low effort, and out of the home location was reduced yet still correlated with the in-lab HVLT. The VLMT converged with in-lab memory assessment, demonstrating variability within person and by different contexts. Ambulatory cognitive testing on participants' personal mobile devices offers more a cost-effective and "ecologically valid" measurement of real-world cognitive performance.

A personal learning environment (PLE) approach to mobile teaching and learning on a short-term study abroad

This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research examines the effectiveness of a personal learning environment (PLE) approach in using mobile technology for experiential learning during a study abroad to China. Thematic qualitative analysis of 21 undergraduate students' written post-trip reflections on their experiences revealed valuable benefits and challenges of the PLE utilizing students' personal mobile devices in real time. Recommendations are offered for program leaders, educators, and trainers with a vested interest in learners’ engagement and experiential learning. Sharing these findings with the teaching community at large makes unique and significant contributions to the SoTL literature.

A country comparison of place-based activity response to COVID-19 policies

The emergence of the novel Coronavirus Disease in late 2019 (COVID-19) and subsequent pandemic led to an immense disruption in the daily lives of almost everyone on the planet. Faced with the consequences of inaction, most national governments responded with policies that restricted the activities conducted by their inhabitants. As schools and businesses shuttered, the mobility of these people decreased. This reduction in mobility, and related activities, was recorded through ubiquitous location-enabled personal mobile devices. Patterns emerged that varied by place-based activity. In this work the differences in these place-based activity patterns are investigated across nations, specifically by focusing on the relationship between government enacted policies and changes in community activity patterns. By addressing five research questions, we show that people's activity response to government action varies widely both across nations as well as regionally within them. Three assessment measures, namely cosine similarity, lag response, and subregional variation, are devised and the results correlate with a number of global indices. We discuss these findings and the relationship between government action and residents' response.

Transforming Health Care through Digital Revolutions.

The Internet, which has spanned several networks in a broad range of domains, is having a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. The next generation of networks will utilize a wide variety of resources with significant sensing capabilities. Such networks will extend beyond physically linked computers to include multimodal-information from biological, cognitive, semantic, and social networks. This paradigm shift will involve symbiotic networks of smart medical devices, and smart phones or mobile personal computing and communication devices. These devices—and the network—will be constantly sensing, monitoring, and interpreting the environment; this is sometimes referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). We are also witnessing considerable interest in the “Omics” paradigm, which can be viewed as the study of a domain in a massive scale, at different levels of abstraction, in an integrative manner. The IoT revolution, combined with the Omics revolution (genomics and socio-omics or social networks) and artificial intelligence resurgence, will have significant implications for the way health care is delivered in the United States. After discussing a vision for health care in the future, we introduce the P9 health care concept, followed by a discussion of a framework for smart health care. Then, we present a case study and research directions, followed by examples of ongoing work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Prescribing in a paediatric emergency: A PERUKI survey of prescribing and resuscitation aids.

The aim was to investigate the use of paper-based and electronic prescribing and resuscitation aids in paediatric emergency care from a departmental and individual physician perspective. A two-stage web-based self-report questionnaire was performed. In stage (i), a lead investigator at PERUKI sites completed a department-level survey; in stage (ii), individual physicians recorded their personal practice. The site survey was completed by 46/54 (85%) of PERUKI sites. 198 physicians completed the individual physicians' survey. Individual physicians selected the use of formulary apps for checking of medication dosages nearly as often as hardcopy formularies. The APLS WETFLAG calculation and hardcopy aids were widely accepted in both surveys. A third of sites accepted and half of the individual physicians selected resuscitation apps on the personal mobile device as paediatric resuscitation aids. Our survey shows a high penetrance of the British National Formulary app, a success of NHS digital policy and strategy. Despite potential advantages, many physicians in our survey do not use resuscitation apps. Reluctance to engage with apps is likely to be multifactorial and includes human factors. These obstacles need to be overcome to create a digital healthcare culture.

A Privacy-Preserving Mobile and Fog Computing Framework to Trace and Prevent COVID-19 Community Transmission.

To slow down the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide are trying to identify infected people, and contain the virus by enforcing isolation, and quarantine. However, it is difficult to trace people who came into contact with an infected person, which causes widespread community transmission, and mass infection. To address this problem, we develop an e-government Privacy-Preserving Mobile, and Fog computing framework entitled PPMF that can trace infected, and suspected cases nationwide. We use personal mobile devices with contact tracing app, and two types of stationary fog nodes, named Automatic Risk Checkers (ARC), and Suspected User Data Uploader Node (SUDUN), to trace community transmission alongside maintaining user data privacy. Each user's mobile device receives a Unique Encrypted Reference Code (UERC) when registering on the central application. The mobile device, and the central application both generate Rotational Unique Encrypted Reference Code (RUERC), which broadcasted using the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. The ARCs are placed at the entry points of buildings, which can immediately detect if there are positive or suspected cases nearby. If any confirmed case is found, the ARCs broadcast pre-cautionary messages to nearby people without revealing the identity of the infected person. The SUDUNs are placed at the health centers that report test results to the central cloud application. The reported data is later used to map between infected, and suspected cases. Therefore, using our proposed PPMF framework, governments can let organizations continue their economic activities without complete lockdown.

Design of a Smart Visiting Service Management System for Personal Information Collection in Order to Integrate Tourism Management into an Isolated Island

Personal information is collected by different smart services and integrated into one big data database, in contemplation of the smart visiting service management on an isolated island. Thereby, the information about a certain person’s activities is possibly managed by one database, and smart services are conveniently provided for the users, at the same time protecting their personal information. In a case study on Huangguan Island, personal information was collected in an urban space by different smart service providers, for various business purposes. The personal information was collected on the isolated island not only via personal mobile devices, but also from smart facilities arranged by the building and transportation means. As opposed to the previous research reports on tourism information services for smart tourism using big data analysis and processing, we proposed a smart visiting service management system in order to integrate tourism services into an isolated island. After reviewing the proposed smart visiting service management system in the case study practice, the principles of personal information collection were defined in this work.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) as reversed IT adoption: Insights into managers’ coping strategies

The adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), initiated by employees, refers to the provision and use of personal mobile devices and applications for both private and business purposes. This bottom-up phenomenon, not initiated by managers, corresponds to a reversed IT adoption logic that simultaneously entails business opportunities and threats. Managers are thus confronted with this unchosen BYOD usage by employees and consequently adopt different coping strategies. This research aims to investigate the adaptation strategies embraced by managers to cope with the BYOD phenomenon. To this end, we operationalized the coping model of user adaptation (CMUA) in the organizational decision-making context to conduct a survey addressing 337 top managers. Our main results indicate that the impact of the CMUA constructs varies according to the period (pre- or post-implementation). The coping strategies differ between those who have already implemented measures to regulate BYOD usage and those who have not. We contribute to theory by integrating the perception of BYOD-related opportunities and threats and by shedding light on the decisional processes in the adoption of coping strategies. The managerial contributions of this research correspond to the improved protection of corporate information and the maximization of BYOD-related benefits.

Bring your own device to work: how serious is the risk?

Purpose Currently, one of the most significant challenges organizations face is that corporate data is being delivered to mobile devices that are not managed by the information technology department. This has security implications regarding knowledge leakage, data theft, and regulatory compliance. With these unmanaged devices, companies have less control and visibility, and fewer mitigation options when protecting against the risks of cyber-attacks. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how millennials' use of personal mobile devices for work contributes to increased exposure to cyber-attacks and, consequently, security and knowledge leakage risks. Design/methodology/approach This research used a mixed-method approach by using survey questionnaires to elicit the views of millennials regarding the cybersecurity risks associated with bring your own device policies and practices. Interviews were done with security personnel. Data analysis consisted of descriptive analysis and open coding. Findings The results indicate that millennials expect to have ready access to technology and social media at all times, irrespective of security and privacy concerns. Companies also need to improve and enforce bring your own device policies and practices to mitigate against knowledge leakage and security risks. Millennials increasingly see the use of personal devices as a right and not a convenience. They are expecting security measures to be more seamless within the full user experience. Originality/value This paper can help organizations and millennials to understand the security risks entering the workforce if the threats of using privately owned devices on the job are ignored and to improve organizational performance.