Design trade-offs in self-management technology: the HeartMan case

ABSTRACT

Health self-management technology has the potential to significantly improve the Quality of Life of patients suffering from chronic diseases. However, designing the technology involves numerous highly context-dependent design decisions. In this paper, we analyse a case study of self-monitoring technology in the field of congestive heart failure. We analyse the design process of the technology from the perspective of design trade-offs. Three important trade-offs related to health self-monitoring technology are described in detail, related to patient autonomy, technology appropriation, and patient well-being. For each of the trade-offs, various mediating factors that influence design decisions are described in detail. On a practical level, this analysis can inform future developments in self-management technology. In addition, this design trade-off analysis provides intermediary knowledge that can contribute to a better theoretical understanding of health self-management technology.     

Annual and regional variations of aflatoxin B1 levels seen in grains and feed coming from Croatian dairy farms over a 5-year period

The aim of the study was to investigate annual and regional differences in the level of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) in grains and dairy cattle feed. Maize (n = 972), wheat (n = 201), barley (n = 147), oat (n = 136), grain mixtures (n = 168), and dairy cattle feed (n = 325) were sampled from 2009 to 2013 on different farms and in different farm factories situated in four Croatian regions. The samples were analysed for AFB₁ using the validated ELISA immunoassay. AFB₁ was determined in 16.4% of all investigated samples, among which maize was proven to be the most contaminated, with 21.7% of the samples recovered during 2013 harbouring AFB₁ in concentrations over the permissible ones. Levels higher than permitted were observed in 17.9% and 12.3% of grain mixtures and dairy cattle feed, respectively, whereas concentrations of AFB₁ determined in other crops throughout the investigated period met the stipulated requirements. The results revealed the AFB₁ occurrence to be significantly (p < 0.05) dependent on the cultivation region, with the highest levels generally found in maize harvested in 2013 and consequently in grain mixtures and cattle feed that can most likely be associated with climatic conditions as the most critical factor for mould formation, and thus also AFB₁ production.     

A novel approach to adaptive relational association rule mining

The paper focuses on the adaptive relational association rule mining problem. Relational association rules represent a particular type of association rules which describe frequent relations that occur between the features characterizing the instances within a data set. We aim at re-mining an object set, previously mined, when the feature set characterizing the objects increases. An adaptive relational association rule method, based on the discovery of interesting relational association rules, is proposed. This method, called ARARM (Adaptive Relational Association Rule Mining) adapts the set of rules that was established by mining the data before the feature set changed, preserving the completeness. We aim to reach the result more efficiently than running the mining algorithm again from scratch on the feature-extended object set. Experiments testing the method's performance on several case studies are also reported. The obtained results highlight the efficiency of the ARARM method and confirm the potential of our proposal.     

Similarities and differences between male and female novice designers on color‐concept associations for warnings,action required,and signs and equipment status messages

This research examined the male and female novice designers toward color associations for the concepts used for ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ through a questionnaire‐based study. A total of 178 Hong Kong Chinese final year undergraduate design students (89 males and 89 females) participated in the study. The test used required the participants to indicate their choice of one of nine colors to associations with each of 38 concepts in a color‐concept table, so that any one color could be associated with any one of the concepts. For both male and female groups of novice designers, chi‐square tests revealed a strong color association for each concept tested in this study (P < .05). The results showed males and females agreed on some color‐concept association stereotypes which were therefore gender neutral. The male and female novice designers had the same color associations and similar levels of stereotype strengths for 21 concepts. The nine strongest and therefore most useful color‐concept association stereotypes for both male and female novice designers were: red‐danger, red‐fire, red‐hot, red‐stop, red‐emergency, red‐error, blue‐cold, blue‐male, and green‐exit. However, the male and female novice designers had different color association stereotypes for the standby (green vs. yellow), emergency exit (green vs. red), and toxic (purple vs. black) concepts, and the strengths of the 14 remaining associations for both groups were not at equivalent levels. Overall, it is anticipated that the findings of this study will act as a useful reference for novice designers and other design practitioners to optimize color coding in the design of ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ messages.     

Research on Circular Area Search algorithm of multi-robot service based on SOA cloud platform

Considering autonomous mobile robots with a variety of specific functions as a kind of service, when there are many types and quantities of services and the density of regional services is large, proposing an algorithm of Circular Area Search (CAS) because of the problem of multi-robot service scheduling in various areas. Firstly, Django is used as the web framework to build the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) multi-robot service cloud platform, which is the basic platform for multi-service combination. Then, the service type, the latitude and longitude and the scoring parameters of the service are selected as the service search metrics to design the CAS algorithm that based on the existing service information registered in MySQL and the Gaode Map for screening optimal service, and then providing the service applicant with the best service. Finally, the service applicant applies for the self-driving tour service as an example to perform performance simulation test on the proposed CAS algorithm. The results show that the CAS algorithm of the multi-robot service cloud platform proposed in this paper is practical compared to the global search. And compared with the Greedy Algorithm experiment, the service search time is reduced about 58% compared with the Greedy Algorithm, which verifies the efficiency of CAS algorithm.     

结合RDF实现对XML文档的RBAC

文章提出了一种面向XML文档的基于XMLschema并结合RDF的访问控制模型,它实现了对XML文档的细粒度的安全访问控制,同时提供了对XML文档中associationsecurityobject的安全访问控制。     

利用整合区域特性约束提高孔隙率模拟精度

本文将空间结构变化的要求与动态资料确定的储量共同作为约束,建立了包含两个约束条件的目标函数, 应用模拟退火算法对孔隙率的空间分布进行预测。在实现过程中,通过初始控制参数的给定及目标函数修改提高了运算效率。由于目标函数有效地整合了静、动态信息,从而降低了模拟结果的不确定性．提高了模拟的精度。合成数据及实际数据的模拟试验表明,整合区域特性约束不仅提高了孔隙率模拟精度,而且算法收敛快、稳定性高。     

目标被动式跟踪评述

首先介绍了目标被动跟踪的发展状况，然后按照不同的量测源分别对现有的被动跟踪方法进行讨论，并给出了各种方法的适用范围和各自的优缺点。最后试探性地给出目标被动跟踪的发展趋势，及其需要解决的重点、难点问题。     

低温低渗透砂岩油藏窜流大孔道深部封堵技术研究

所用堵剂为高强度的淀粉接枝聚丙烯酰胺交联凝胶SAMG-1,由<6%淀粉、4.5%-5.5%丙烯酰胺、0.003%-0.006%交联剂组成,35℃成胶时间受淀粉和交联剂用量控制,为18-20小时以上,成胶前黏度-100 mPa.s。该堵剂具有长期稳定性,在储层岩心中注入深度15 cm的堵剂,在35℃候凝48小时后及老化90天后,封堵强度分别为0.61和0.59 MPa/cm,封堵率分别为98.6%和98.1%。该堵剂优先进入高渗层,注入0.5 PV并成胶后,2组双填砂管组成的模型低、高渗管渗透率保留率分别为68.4%、0.7%和69.4%、0.0%。吉林扶余油田西一区+15-8.2区块有水井6口,油井13口,含水率达91.5%,注入水最快在5天内到达油井。报道了该区块整体深部调剖封堵窜流通道的情况,详细叙述了+15-9.2井施工中通过注入压力和井底回压控制注入流量,使堵剂陆续进入原生和次生孔道的工艺作业,该井设计注入堵剂92 m3。6口水井整体调剖后,油井产液量差别减小,产油量增加,有效期已超过了9个月,共增油843 t,含水平均下降3.87%。图7表1参8。     

变差函数在地下水位估值中的应用研究

用数值方法进行地下水水资源评价时 ,需要给出每个节点上的初始地下水位值。本文着重阐述了区域化变量和变差函数及其计算步骤 ,指出变差函数在分析地下水位的空间变异的重要性