Usage Of Electronic Devices Research Articles

Detection of eye strain due to usage of electronic devices

The development of ICT has led to a mobile revolution. Mobile phones, internet, social networking, emails, video conferencing and much more has changed the way we work, learn and communicate (Bian M, 2015). Technology brings with itself certain challenges with respect to the harmful impact of prolonged usage of digital devices on the users’ health. People who excessively use electronic devices develop musculoskeletal syndromes. Eyes, shoulder and neck muscles, arm, and wrist are most affected with prolonged usage of digital devices. The aim of this research is to study and list the problems associated with eyes due to the prolonged usage of electronic gadgets with screen. For this purpose, 350 people (170 females, 180 males) from different ages and jobs were asked about eye health with the help of a questionnaire. The factors to detect eye strain and fatigue were collected from literature as well as through a set of interviews. The factors act as the variables for the factor analysis and random forest method has been used for classification. The results of this study implicates the factors that can be used to detect eye strain and fatigue in the users of digital devices.

Social Media and the Pandemic: Consumption Habits of the Spanish Population before and during the COVID-19 Lockdown

The confinement of the Spanish population due to the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a change in patterns of electronic device usage, leading to an increase in internet traffic. This study sought to evaluate the use of social media by the Spanish population before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. An extensive ad hoc questionnaire was prepared and distributed to a total of 397 people of different ages from different Spanish provinces. The questionnaire was previously validated and was found to be reliable. The results showed that during the lockdown, the most frequently used social networks were WhatsApp and Facebook, although others, such as Telegram and TikTok, also experienced a significant increase in user registrations. There was also an increase in the number of hours spent per week using social media, especially Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, to share images, videos and audio messages, with a significant increase in document sharing and knowledge acquisition. The final section discusses some of the results and concludes by highlighting the importance of analyzing social behavior in times of crisis in order to design more effective and personalized communication strategies.

Effects of Screen Viewing Time on Sleep Duration and Bedtime in Children Aged 1 and 3 Years: Japan Environment and Children's Study.

This study aimed to clarify the effects of television/digital versatile disc (TV/DVD) viewing time and portable electronic device (PED) usage time on sleep duration and bedtime and the difference between the effects of TV/DVD and PED on sleep. The effect of TV/DVD viewing time or PED usage time on sleep duration and bedtime was analyzed using a multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for covariates. A total of 74,525 participants were included in the analysis, using data from Japan Environment and Children’s Study. TV/DVD viewing was not associated with short sleep duration, but PED usage was associated with short sleep duration. In addition, the risk of short sleep duration increased as PED usage time increased. We also investigated the effects of sleep habits at age 1 year on sleep at age 3 years. This study showed that late bedtime at age 1 year posed a significant risk of late bedtime at age 3 years. In summary, particular caution should be paid to PED use from a child’s health perspective, and sleep habits should be focused on bedtime from the age of 1 year.

Sustainable Natural Bio-Origin Materials for Future Flexible Devices.

Flexible devices serve as important intelligent interfaces in various applications involving health monitoring, biomedical therapies, and human–machine interfacing. To address the concern of electronic waste caused by the increasing usage of electronic devices based on synthetic polymers, bio‐origin materials that possess environmental benignity as well as sustainability offer new opportunities for constructing flexible electronic devices with higher safety and environmental adaptivity. Herein, the bio‐source and unique molecular structures of various types of natural bio‐origin materials are briefly introduced. Their properties and processing technologies are systematically summarized. Then, the recent progress of these materials for constructing emerging intelligent flexible electronic devices including energy harvesters, energy storage devices, and sensors are introduced. Furthermore, the applications of these flexible electronic devices including biomedical implants, artificial e‐skin, and environmental monitoring are summarized. Finally, future challenges and prospects for developing high‐performance bio‐origin material‐based flexible devices are discussed. This review aims to provide a comprehensive and systematic summary of the latest advances in the natural bio‐origin material‐based flexible devices, which is expected to offer inspirations for exploitation of green flexible electronics, bridging the gap in future human–machine–environment interactions.

Impact of Virtual Education Versus Traditional Learning Modalities on the Body Mass Index of Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Western Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: The emergence of the coronavirus disease has forced governments worldwide to implement non-pharmaceutical interventions that imposed strict confinement policies on their populations, including children and adolescents. Subsequently, the education system has shifted from traditional to online classroom settings, introducing physical and lifestyle changes in students. This study aimed to determine the impact of virtual education in comparison with that of traditional education on body weight among school-age students in western Saudi Arabia.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out between March 2020 and May 2021 and assessed pediatric patients at the Pediatric Endocrine Clinic at King Abdulaziz Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A clinical interview was performed to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity levels, and electronic device usage. Body mass index (BMI) was determined using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention standards.Results: In total, 518 participants (262 female and 256 male students) aged six to 18 years were assessed. The BMI significantly increased from a mean of 19.24, before the pandemic, to 20.08, after the commencement of the virtual study modality (p<0.001) that involved the increased use of electronic devices. Moreover, the proportion of physical inactivity significantly increased during weekdays (39%) and weekends (37.5%).Conclusion: Due to the many obesogenic factors influenced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the findings indicate the need for further research and interventions to avoid the incidence of overweight and obesity among students. Many obesogenic factors are influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affect the student's physical activity and lifestyle by increasing the risk of overweight and obesity. Therefore Further research and interventions are needed.

Enhanced current path by circularly and periodically-aligned semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes for logic circuit device

Improving the performance of solution-processed single-walled carbon nanotube thin film transistors (SWCNT TFTs) is essential to their wide usage in next generation large-area electronic devices. However, uncontrollable tube-tube junction and random network formation from conventional solution processes of SWCNTs has limited mobility and on-current level of SWCNT TFTs. Herein, we demonstrate a facile method by switching idea of reducing coffee-ring of the conventionally solution-processed or inkjet-printed thin films. Spontaneous coffee-ring formation of the inkjet-printed droplets is found to enhance directional alignment of SWCNTs in the outer rim of the coffee-rings. The evaporation-driven capillary flow toward the rim inside induces migration of SWCNT and thus forms densely aligned SWCNT rings. Periodic connection of such rings can provide high-current path at a given voltage. Therefore, by additionally forming the periodically connected rings on a pre-established random network of SWCNT in channel area of TFTs, we significantly improved the mobility and I on/I off ratio of SWCNT TFTs without degradations in other electrical parameters such as threshold voltage and subthreshold swing. We also demonstrated all-solution-processed inverters with higher voltage-gain in comparison with conventional ones.

Sleeping through a Lockdown: How Adolescents and Young Adults Struggle with Lifestyle and Sleep Habits Upheaval during a Pandemic

ABSTRACT Objectives The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between chronotype, lifestyle habits during the pandemic, and changes in sleep timing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in youth. Method An online survey of adolescents and young adults (N = 449) was conducted in June 2020. Multivariate hierarchical regressions assessed the contribution of chronotype and changes in lifestyle habits to sleep timing during the COVID-19 pandemic in two age groups (12 to 17 years old and 18 to 25 years old). Results Chronotype was a significant predictor of changes in sleep habits during the pandemic in both age groups. In adolescents, electronic device usage during the pandemic was a significant predictor of bedtimes and wake times on weekdays, and caffeine during the pandemic was a predictor of weekday wake times. The number of hours worked during the pandemic was a significant predictor of weekday wake times in both age groups. In young adults, cannabis consumption during the pandemic was a predictor of weekend bedtimes. A later chronotype, along with higher usage of electronic devices, fewer hours worked, as well as higher caffeine and cannabis consumption during the pandemic were associated with delayed sleep timing during the pandemic in youth. Conclusion These results highlight the importance of assessing lifestyle habits when exploring changes in sleep habits in youth.

Prevalence of screen time use and its relationship with obesity, sleep quality, and parental knowledge of related guidelines: A study on children and adolescents attending Primary Healthcare Centers in the Makkah Region.

BACKGROUND:Since the use of handheld electronic devises is prevalent among people of all ages, health organizations have specified appropriate screen times for the different age groups. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of screen use and its association with sleep quality and obesity.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This cross-sectional study was conducted on people attending three Primary Healthcare Centers in the Makkah region between January and October 2019. The three-part questionnaire filled by parents collected data on sociodemographics, parental knowledge of guidelines, and asleep quality. Data were analyzed using STATA 14.2. For continuous variables, groups were compared using t-test; Pearson Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate, was employed for categorical variables.RESULTS:A total of 450 individuals completed the questionnaire. Children 2–12 years old spent more time and used phones, tablets, and television (TV) more frequently, while those younger than 2 or older than 12 used phones and TVs more than other devices. High body mass index was associated with the daily usage of electronic devices. Fewer hours of sleep, longer time to fall sleep, and longer hours in bed were associated with the usage of all electronic devices. Furthermore, a good knowledge of the maximum time allowed for children and teenagers and content scoring system was associated with hours slept per night, and low knowledge was associated with higher frequency of using electronic devices.CONCLUSION:Children spent long periods using electronic devices, and despite knowing the guidelines, parents still allowed their children to exceed the time acceptable for the use of electronic devices, which could lead to future social problems.

Design Simulation of Improved Power Quality Conditioner System for Enhancement of Power Quality

The increased usage of power-sensitive electronic devices has prompted interest in power conditioning solutions, which is no surprise. As a result, some type of compensation must be supplied if power output remains below the standards' prescribed limitations. The UPQC (Unified Power Quality Controller) is one of numerous AC Transmission System families that can control voltage, impedance, and phase angle among other factors (FACTS). This study focuses on modern UPFC systems that have increased power quality efficiency to help utilities reduce voltage concerns. One of the FACTS controls for lowering stress sales effects is a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC). The quadrature voltage is specified using the UPQC series compensator. As a result, the compensator series never utilizes active power in a continuous scenario. As mentioned in the approach, a low power rating compensator injects voltage to remedy the system's power quality problem. The voltage is decreased and the power factor is raised when the fluid logic controller is used in conjunction with traditional UPQC. Furthermore, the load factor has been improved. The circuit is then imitated in MATLAB / SIMULINK using a fluctuating logo controller.

Parent report of sleep health and attention regulation in a cross-sectional study of infants and preschool-aged children with atopic dermatitis.

Older children with atopic dermatitis (AD) suffer from poor sleep and attention problems. However, until recently, the dearth of developmentally sensitive assessment tools impeded characterization in younger children. We aimed to characterize sleep and attention problems in young children with AD and identify modifiable factors. A cross-sectional study of children with AD aged 1-4years was stratified by disease severity (Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure), age, and racial/ethnic groups. Developmentally sensitive surveys assessed attention (Multidimensional Assessment Profile of Attention Regulation), sleep, and itch (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System). Linear regression models identified predictors of sleep health and attention dysregulation. Parents (n=60) of children aged 2.78±0.98years with severe (n=25), moderate (n=25), or mild (n=10) AD were recruited across the United States. Significantly reduced sleep health (T-score≥60) was reported in 86% of children with moderate/severe disease (n=43), and 50% had ≥5 nights of disturbed sleep per week. A suboptimal sleep environment was identified with 32% of children with too much light, noise, or electronic device usage. With regard to attention regulation, in children with severe AD, 80% had trouble sitting still and 72% of children had trouble paying attention no matter their surroundings. In fully adjusted models, AD severity was a significant predictor of poor sleep health (B=0.79 [0.31-1.28], p<.01) and attention dysregulation (B=1.22 [0.51-1.93], p<.01). More severe AD correlates with poor sleep health and attention dysregulation. In addition to aggressive treatment of AD, clinicians should advise on modifiable sleep hygiene practices and consider screening for attention dysregulation in young children.

Effects of Advertising Through Different Digital Marketing Channels on Consumer Buying Behavior in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Research Project

Advertising today is different from what is used to be before the revelation of digital marketing channels. The ultimate switch from traditional advertising channels to digital marketing channels has seen a vast expansion, expansion that has been observed in the amount of time users spend on digital devices. We can easily say that advertising is everywhere around us today, with the help of increased usage of technology, smartphones and other electronic devices that are constant during the day-to-day basis of people’s lives. Therefore, it becomes very interesting to research and conclude whether this constant exposure of advertisements on different digital marketing channels have an effect on consumer’s buying behavior towards advertisements of products or services. The main aim of this study is to identify and explain whether through different digital marketing channels advertisements can change the attitude of people regarding products or services and there purchasing behavior from a stand point view of consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To achieve this goal, the analysis of data is based on qualitative data derived from a survey as a primary form of data collection. A research model with three independent variables (social media marketing, email marketing, and mobile phone marketing) and one dependent variable (consumer buying behavior) was developed based on the literature review. The outcomes of this research are going to provide insights of what effects through online advertisement can make changes on the consumer buying behavior.

Prevalence and Determining Factors Of Refractive Errors Among Medical Students In FMU, Faisalabad

Aim: Prevalence and determining factors of refractive errors among the medical students in FMU, Faisalabad. Methodology: Cross-sectional quantitative study conducted in Faisalabad Medical University from 01-03-2020 to 15-12-2020 after approval from institutional review committee. All students of MBBS in FMU were included in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the required quantitative information. SPSS version 26 was used for analysis. Results: Prevalence of refractive error is 49%. Females were 59% and males were 41%. More students i.e. 85.2% were suffering from myopia. In our study, usage of electronic devices i.e. mobile phones especially was one of the risk factors in developing refractive errors. 20.6% students having refractive error said that they use mobile phone for 4 hours, 30.2% having refractive error said that they watch TV for one hour, 23.3% having refractive error said that they play video games for one hour. For the correction of the refractive error, 184 students i.e. 97.4% used spectacles whereas only 5 (2.6%) students used contact lenses. It is observed in this study that contact lenses were only used by those students having refractive error &lt;1.5. Conclusion: Refractive errors were a significant cause of visual impairment among medical students. The prolonged use of electronic devices especially mobile phones should be discouraged. Keywords: Refractive errors, myopia, electronic devices, mobile phone

The impact of e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic on students\u2019 body aches in Palestine

Musculoskeletal pain is a major concern in our life due to its negative effects on our ability to perform daily functions. During COVID-19 pandemic, several countries switched their teaching programs into e-learning, where students spend long hour using electronic devices. The use of these devices was associated with several musculoskeletal complains among the students. The aim of this study is to evaluate the different body aches associated with e-learning on university students. The subjects of this study were students from An-Najah University in Palestine. 385 questionnaires were filled using Google forms questionnaire and all the subjects were using e-learning due to COVID-19 pandemic. Our study showed that a large percentage of participants used electronic devices for e-learning during the pandemic. The Duration of these devices use was correlated with duration and degree of pain, and associated with the difficulty in ability to perform several daily activities. Furthermore, most of the students used the sitting position with supine bent forward during the device usage. Thus, the university students that participated in this study had an increase in body aches during the e-learning process, and the aches duration and severity increases if the duration of electronic devices usage increase.

Overview of Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Smart Grid Condition Monitoring

Nowadays, the main grid is facing several challenges related to the integration of renewable energy resources, deployment of grid-level energy storage devices, deployment of new usages such as the electric vehicle, massive usage of power electronic devices at different electric grid stages and the inter-connection with microgrids and prosumers. To deal with these challenges, the concept of a smart, fault-tolerant, and self-healing power grid has emerged in the last few decades to move towards a more resilient and efficient global electrical network. The smart grid concept implies a bi-directional flow of power and information between all key energy players and requires smart information technologies, smart sensors, and low-latency communication devices. Moreover, with the increasing constraints, the power grid is subjected to several disturbances, which can evolve to a fault and, in some rare circumstances, to catastrophic failure. These disturbances include wiring issues, grounding, switching transients, load variations, and harmonics generation. These aspects justify the need for real-time condition monitoring of the power grid and its subsystems and the implementation of predictive maintenance tools. Hence, researchers in industry and academia are developing and implementing power systems monitoring approaches allowing pervasive and effective communication, fault diagnosis, disturbance classification and root cause identification. Specifically, a focus is placed on power quality monitoring using advanced signal processing and machine learning approaches for disturbances characterization. Even though this review paper is not exhaustive, it can be considered as a valuable guide for researchers and engineers who are interested in signal processing approaches and machine learning techniques for power system monitoring and grid-disturbance classification purposes.

Electronic Device Screen Time and Meibomian Gland Morphology in Children.

PurposeTo investigate changes in meibomian gland morphology and impact of electronic device usage time on meibomian glands in pediatric age group.MethodsIn this prospective study, 149 eyes of 149 children were enrolled. The participants also completed the Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) questionnaire and provided information regarding weekly hours spent in front of a digital screen. Meibography was performed in all subjects. Grading of images was evaluated using a previously validated 5-point meiboscale (0–4) for meibomian gland atrophy and a 3-point scale for meibomian gland tortuosity (0–2).ResultsOf the 149 enrolled children, 83 (55.7%) were female and 66 (44.3%) male. The mean age was 13.0 3.0 (range, 5–18) years. The mean loss of meibomian gland area was 20.80 9.32%. The mean meiboscore was 1.20 0.58 for gland atrophy and the mean tortuosity score was 0.99 0.62. The mean screen time was 29.32 16.18 hr/week. There was a weak and significantly positive correlation between loss of meibomian gland area and screen time (r = 0.210, P = 0.010). There was a weak and significantly positive correlation between meiboscore for gland atrophy and screen time (r = 0.188, P = 0.022). We found a weak but significantly positive correlation between meibomian gland tortuosity and screen time (r = 0.142, P = 0.033).ConclusionMeibomian gland morphology may show changes in pediatric age group and excessive screen time may be a factor triggering these changes in gland morphology.

SELF-EFFICACY AMONG STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DURING ONLINE LEARNING SELF-EFFICACY AMONG STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DURING ONLINE LEARNING

Distance learning around the world has set new requirements for educational institutions and particularly for the students. Self-efficacy is one of the essential factors for success. Self-efficacy in an online learning environment is related to the confidence in one's ability to succeed, knowledge and ability to use the technology, and the casualness of success in the new education model, which is evolving rapidly from Education 2.0. to Education 4.0. A survey was conducted among 134 students from higher educational institutions (HEIs). The results of the study demonstrate that self-assessment, emotional responses, motivation for academic success, and self-referential information of students in HEIs regarding the learning content are unstable. A rise in the knowledge and usage of various electronic devices and electronic resources has been reported along with a rise in cognitive load. There is an effect of cognitive distortion on mastering the learning content and setting more challenging goals in terms of the transition from the traditional model of learning to distance learning and on their learning competencies .

Power Quality Improvement by using Dynamic Voltage Restorer

The integration of renewable energy sources, smart grid systems and extensive usage of power electronic devices, micro-controlled based device, variable speed drives etc. causes a number of power quality issues including electrical harmonics, voltage sag, voltage swell and imbalance creates an impact on the efficiency of electrical equipment. the energy maintaining poor power quality will affect consumers and their utility equipment’s. Power quality means quality of the normal voltage supplied to your facility. Voltage provided should be as close as possible to nominal voltage. The waveform must be pure sine wave free from any harmonics and other disturbances. The growing use of microprocessors and electronic equipment has made us to focus on power quality. Equipment and machinery can be damaged or even fail when subjected to power anomalies. Some of the power quality issues are voltage sag, swell, harmonics, flicker, interruption etc. Among these issues voltage sag is an important issue. This paper investigates about the causes of voltage sag, consequences and its mitigation. Many mitigation devices are available and the most economic effective solution is Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR). Simulation has been carried out to evaluate performance. A DVR is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK using synchronous reference frame theory.

Electronic Device Use before Bedtime and Sleep Quality among University Students.

Using electronic devices before bedtime impacts sleep quality and has become a major public health issue. This study aims to investigate the associations between electronic devices (EDs) use before bedtime and sleep quality in Vietnamese university students. A total of 369 university students from three departments were recruited. Participants completed self-report surveys, including demographic characteristics, lifestyle, ED-use behaviors, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. A total of 48.8% of the students experienced poor sleep quality, and 98.1% reported using at least one type of ED every day within two hours before bedtime. Smartphones are the most used devices (92.3%). ED usage within two hours before bedtime (p = 0.031), lack of exercise (p = 0.006), alcohol consumption (p = 0.025), and coffee intake after 4 pm (p = 0.018) were associated with poor sleep quality. ED use near bedtime for a duration longer than 30 min (p = 0.001) and depression (p < 0.001) were associated with poorer sleep quality among university students. ED use near bedtime more than 30 min was significantly associated with poorer sleep quality after adjusting depression status, exercise, and caffeine/alcohol intake in the latter part of the day. This study emphasizes the importance of adequate sleep and restriction of ED use near bedtime, which are necessary for better sleep in university students.

Automatic Table Detection, Structure Recognition and Data Extraction from Document Images

In the recent advancement, the extensive usage of electronic devices to photograph and upload documents, the requirement for extracting the information present in the unstructured document images is becoming progressively intense. The major obstacle to the objective is, these images often contain information in tabular form and extracting the data from table images presents a series of challenges due to the various layouts and encodings of the tables. It includes the accurate detection of the table present in an image and eventually recognizing the internal structure of the table and extracting the information from it. Although some progress has been made in table detection, obtaining the table contents is still a challenge since this involves more fine-grained table structure (rows and columns) recognition. The digitization of critical information has to be carried out automatically since there are millions of documents. Based on the motivation that AI-based solutions are automating many processors, this work comprises three different stages: First, the table detection using Faster R-CNN algorithm. Second, table internal structure recognition process using morphology operation and refine operation and last the table data extraction using contours algorithm. The dataset used in this work was taken from the UNLV dataset.

Investigation of Dry Eye Symptoms in Health Workers of National Medical College and Teaching Hospital following Corona Virus Pandemic

Background: With the outspread of global pandemic Corona virus disease 19. (COVID-19), use of face masks was taken as a vital deed against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. (SARS-CoV-2) The aim of this study was to assess symptoms of mask associated dry eye (MADE) among health workers.&#x0D; Materials and Methods: A total of 169 heath workers meeting the inclusion criteria were selected by simple random sampling from respective department. Data were obtained by providing with questionnaire established by the researcher and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) to the participants from November 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 at National Medical College and Teaching Hospital. The data were evaluated using correlation test.&#x0D; Results: A total of 169 heath workers were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the patient was 31.74±7.34 years (range 19-56).According to OSDI, 27(15.9%) of the participants had mild dry eye symptoms followed by 15 (8.87%) cases of moderate and 44(26.03%) of severe respectively. Duration of mask wearer and electronic devices usage were two variables that were statistically correlated with OSDI (p&lt;0.01). The OSDI was not statistically correlated with age, glass wear and sleep duration.&#x0D; Conclusion: With the emergence of COVID -19, measures to cope against this pandemic are must. With the increasing use of controlling measures, it is prime responsibility of ophthalmic faculty to start awareness regarding proper use of these anti-COVID measures and make sustainable environment in future.