Definition and implementation of a SAML-XACML profile for authorization interoperability across grid middleware in OSG and EGEE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garzoglio, Gabriele; Alderman, Ian; Altunay, Mine; Anathakrishnan, Rachana; Bester, Joe; Chadwick, Keith; Ciaschini, Vincenzo; Demchenko, Yuri; Ferraro, Andrea; Forti, Alberto; Groep, David; /Fermilab /NIKHEF, Amsterdam /Brookhaven /Amsterdam U. /SWITCH, Zurich /Bergen U. /INFN, CNAF /Argonne /Wisconsin U., Madison

2009-04-01

In order to ensure interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures used in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects, an Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006. The interoperability goal was met in two phases: first, agreeing on a common authorization query interface and protocol with an associated profile that ensures standardized use of attributes and obligations; and second, implementing, testing, and deploying, on OSG and EGEE, middleware that supports the interoperability protocol and profile. The activity has involved people from OSG, EGEE, the Globus Toolkit project, and the Condor project. This paper presents a summary of the agreed-upon protocol, profile and the software components involved.

Monitoring the EGEE/WLCG grid services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duarte, A; Nyczyk, P; Retico, A; Vicinanza, D

2008-01-01

Grids have the potential to revolutionise computing by providing ubiquitous, on demand access to computational services and resources. They promise to allow for on demand access and composition of computational services provided by multiple independent sources. Grids can also provide unprecedented levels of parallelism for high-performance applications. On the other hand, grid characteristics, such as high heterogeneity, complexity and distribution create many new technical challenges. Among these technical challenges, failure management is a key area that demands much progress. A recent survey revealed that fault diagnosis is still a major problem for grid users. When a failure appears at the user screen, it becomes very difficult for the user to identify whether the problem is in the application, somewhere in the grid middleware, or even lower in the fabric that comprises the grid. In this paper we present a tool able to check if a given grid service works as expected for a given set of users (Virtual Organisation) on the different resources available on a grid. Our solution deals with grid services as single components that should produce an expected output to a pre-defined input, what is quite similar to unit testing. The tool, called Service Availability Monitoring or SAM, is being currently used by several different Virtual Organizations to monitor more than 300 grid sites belonging to the largest grids available today. We also discuss how this tool is being used by some of those VOs and how it is helping in the operation of the EGEE/WLCG grid

Data management in WLCG and EGEE

CERN Document Server

Donno, Flavia; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

2008-01-01

This work is a contribution to a book on Scientific Data Management by CRC Press/Taylor and Francis Books. Data Management and Storage Access experience in WLCG is described together with the major use cases. Furthermore, some considerations about the EGEE requirements are also reported.

Using EGEE against avian flu

CERN Multimedia

2006-01-01

During April 2006 avian flu was spreading across the world with the potential of turning into a pandemic, a drug to treat the deadly H5N1 strain was needed. Such a task required the huge processing power provided by EGEE, which analysed 300 000 possible drug components for their suitability. This map shows the network of computer centres and their activity during this time.

Atlas event production on the EGEE infrastructure

CERN Document Server

Espinal, X; Perini, L; Rod, W

2007-01-01

ATLAS is one of the four LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiments at CERN, is devoted to study proton-proton and ion-ion collisions at 14TeV. ATLAS collaboration is composed of about 2000 scientists spread around the world. The activity of the experiment requirements for next year is of about 300TB of storage and a CPU power of about 13 Mski2sk, and is relying on GRID philosophy and EGEE infrastructure. Simulated events are distributed over EGEE by the Atlas production system. Data has to be processed and must be accessible by a huge number of scientists for analysis. The throughput of data for Atlas experiment is expected to be of 320 MB/s with an integrated amount of data per year of ~10Pb. The processing and storage need a distributed share of resources, spread worldwide and interconnected with GRID technologies as the requirements are so demanding for the LHC. In that sense event production is the way to produce, process and store data for analysis before the experiment startup, and is performed in a distr...

Encrypted Data Storage in EGEE

CERN Document Server

Frohner, Ákos

2006-01-01

The medical community is routinely using clinical images and associated medical data for diagnosis, intervention planning and therapy follow-up. Medical imaging is producing an increasing number of digital images for which computerized archiving, processing and analysis are needed. Grids are promising infrastructures for managing and analyzing the huge medical databases. Given the sensitive nature of medical images, practiotionners are often reluctant to use distributed systems though. Security if often implemented by isolating the imaging network from the outside world inside hospitals. Given the wide scale distribution of grid infrastructures and their multiple administrative entities, the level of security for manipulating medical data should be particularly high. In this presentation we describe the architecture of a solution, the gLite Encrypted Data Storage (EDS), which was developed in the framework of Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE), a project of the European Commission (contract number INFSO--508...

HANARO user support

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jeong Soo; Kim, Y. J.; Seong B.S. [and others

2003-06-01

The purpose of this project is to support external user for the promotion of HANARO common utilization effectively. To do this, external manpower was recruited and trained. Also, in order to find out and cultivate HANARO user, practice-oriented education was done. The total number of project selected as the promotion of HANARO common utilization was 31 in this year. These composed of four fields such as neutron beam utilization, materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production. In each field, the numbers of project were 17, 7, 4 and 3 respectively. At first, from a selected project of view, supporting ratio by external manpower was reached to the 58%, that is, 18 out of 31 project was supported. In each field, it was 82% for neutron beam utilization and 100% for neutron activation analysis. Also, from the utilization time point of view, supporting ratio of external manpower was reached to 30% for neutron beam utilization and 59% for neutron activation analysis. Otherwise, supporting ratio by manpower in KAERI was reached to 97%, that is, 30 out of 31 project was supported. Also, from the utilization time point of view, total supporting ratio was reached to 15%. In each field, it was 20% for neutron beam utilization, 18% for materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, 20% for neutron activation analysis and 6% for radioisotope production. In order to contribute finding and cultivating of HANARO potential user and increase utilization ratio of HANARO experimental facility, practice-oriented HANARO user education has been done. At first, 32 participants from industries, universities, institutes were educated and practiced on HRPD/SANS instrument in the field of neutron beam utilization. Otherwise, in order to support external user effectively, external manpower were trained. Also, more effective support for external user could be possible through the grasping difficulty and problem on the performance of project

HANARO user support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jeong Soo; Kim, Y. J.; Seong B.S.

2003-06-01

The purpose of this project is to support external user for the promotion of HANARO common utilization effectively. To do this, external manpower was recruited and trained. Also, in order to find out and cultivate HANARO user, practice-oriented education was done. The total number of project selected as the promotion of HANARO common utilization was 31 in this year. These composed of four fields such as neutron beam utilization, materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production. In each field, the numbers of project were 17, 7, 4 and 3 respectively. At first, from a selected project of view, supporting ratio by external manpower was reached to the 58%, that is, 18 out of 31 project was supported. In each field, it was 82% for neutron beam utilization and 100% for neutron activation analysis. Also, from the utilization time point of view, supporting ratio of external manpower was reached to 30% for neutron beam utilization and 59% for neutron activation analysis. Otherwise, supporting ratio by manpower in KAERI was reached to 97%, that is, 30 out of 31 project was supported. Also, from the utilization time point of view, total supporting ratio was reached to 15%. In each field, it was 20% for neutron beam utilization, 18% for materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, 20% for neutron activation analysis and 6% for radioisotope production. In order to contribute finding and cultivating of HANARO potential user and increase utilization ratio of HANARO experimental facility, practice-oriented HANARO user education has been done. At first, 32 participants from industries, universities, institutes were educated and practiced on HRPD/SANS instrument in the field of neutron beam utilization. Otherwise, in order to support external user effectively, external manpower were trained. Also, more effective support for external user could be possible through the grasping difficulty and problem on the performance of project

Experiences with the GLUE information schema in the LCG/EGEE production grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, S; Andreozzi, S; Field, L

2008-01-01

A common information schema for the description of Grid resources and services is an essential requirement for interoperating Grid infrastructures, and its implementation interacts with every Grid component. In this context, the GLUE information schema was originally defined in 2002 as a joint project between the European DataGrid and DataTAG projects and the US iVDGL. The schema has major components to describe Computing and Storage Elements, and also generic Service and Site information. It has been used extensively in the LCG/EGEE Grid, for job submission, data management, service discovery and monitoring. In this paper we present the experience gained over the last five years, highlighting both successes and problems. In particular, we consider the importance of having a clear definition of schema attributes; the construction of standard information providers and difficulties encountered in mapping an abstract schema to diverse real systems; the configuration of publication in a way which suits system managers and the varying characteristics of Grid sites; the validation of published information; the ways in which information can be used (and misused) by Grid services and users; and issues related to managing schema upgrades in a large distributed system

"EGEE'06 - Capitalising on e-infrastructure" 25-29 September 2006, International Conference Centre (CICG) Geneva Switzerland

CERN Multimedia

2006-01-01

EGEE'06 is the key Grid event of 2006, bringing together researchers, politicians, members of industry and the international community to discuss how to capitalise on past investments and plan for a sustainable future for Grid technology.

Migration to the GLUE 2.0 information schema in the LCG/EGEE/EGI production Grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, Stephen; Field, Laurence; Horat, David

2011-01-01

The GLUE information schema has been in use in the LCG/EGEE production Grid since the first version was released in 2002. In 2008 a major redesign of GLUE, version 2.0, was defined in the context of the Open Grid Forum. The implementation of the publication and use of the new schema is a complex process which needs to be carefully managed to avoid any disruption to the production service, especially in the light of the end of the EGEE project and the transition to the new middleware and operational structures in EGI. In this paper we discuss the LDAP rendering of the schema, the upgrading of the Grid information system to allow both schemas to be used in parallel, the design and rollout of information providers, and the plans for migrating client software which uses the schema information. In particular we consider the implications for the specific requirements of the LCG project, especially regarding storage systems, accounting and monitoring.

User interface support

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Clayton; Wilde, Nick

1989-01-01

Space construction will require heavy investment in the development of a wide variety of user interfaces for the computer-based tools that will be involved at every stage of construction operations. Using today's technology, user interface development is very expensive for two reasons: (1) specialized and scarce programming skills are required to implement the necessary graphical representations and complex control regimes for high-quality interfaces; (2) iteration on prototypes is required to meet user and task requirements, since these are difficult to anticipate with current (and foreseeable) design knowledge. We are attacking this problem by building a user interface development tool based on extensions to the spreadsheet model of computation. The tool provides high-level support for graphical user interfaces and permits dynamic modification of interfaces, without requiring conventional programming concepts and skills.

Structural Biology in the context of EGEE

CERN Document Server

García, D; Carazo, J M; Valverde, J R; Moscicki, J; Muraru, A

2007-01-01

Electron microscopy (EM) is a crucial technique, which allows Structural Biology researchers to characterize macromolecular assemblies in distinct functional states. Image processing in three dimensional EM (3D-EM) is used by a flourishing community (exemplarized by the EU funded 3D-EM NoE) and is characterized by voluminous data and large computing requirements, making this a problem well suited for Grid computing and the EGEE infrastructure. There are various steps in the 3D-EM refinement process that may benefit from Grid computing. To start with, large numbers of experimental images need to be averaged. Nowadays, typically tens of thousands of images are used, while future studies may routinely employ millions of images. Our group has been developing Xmipp, a package for single-particle 3D-EM image processing. Using Xmipp, the classification of 91,000 ribosome projections into 4 classes took more than 2500 CPU hours using the resources of the MareNostrum supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centr...

HANARO user support and training

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Eun Joo; Kim, K. Y.; Kim, B. K.

2009-06-01

This project is aimed to support external users for the effective use of HANARO. The total number of projects selected as the beneficiary of the supporting program by MEST was 21 including this project in this year. We supported 1,850 hr measurements for the 24 requests of the 16 projects selected on the field of neutron beam utilization. In the field of materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test the 2 projects were selected and supported for 108 samples. In the fields of neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production the number of selected and supported projects was 1 respectively. In order to broaden potential user base, maximize instrument utilization, and enhance cooperation with industries, universities and institutes, practice-oriented HANARO user training courses were held for neutron beam utilization and materials and nuclear fuel irradiation fields. The online neutron beam time allocation system was developed and applied successfully for the HRPD in this year. We are planing to apply this system to other neutron beam instruments in the near future. This project is a kind of the user-based supporting program for the maximize of HANARO utilization. The development products and the ideas and suggestions of users obtained through this projects will be collected and applied to the development of next new facilities. Also, by using the 'HANARO utilization and research information management system(HANARO4U)' we construct the research network among users at industries, universities and institutes. This network is expected to increase HANARO utilization and enhance productivity of the facilities

Blueprint and First Experiences Bridging Hardware Virtualization and Global Grids for Advanced Scientific Computing: Designing and Building a Global Edge Services Framework (ESF) for OSG, EGEE, and LCG

CERN Document Server

Rana, A S; Vaniachine, A; Wurthwein, F; Foster, I; Sotomayor, B; Freeman, T

2006-01-01

We report on first experiences with building and operating an edge services framework (ESF) based on Xen virtual machines instantiated via the workspace service in Globus toolkit, and developed as a joint project between EGEE, LCG, and OSG. Many computing facilities are architected with their compute and storage clusters behind firewalls. Edge services (ES) are instantiated on a small set of gateways to provide access to these clusters via standard grid interfaces. Experience on EGEE, LCG, and OSG has shown that at least two issues are of critical importance when designing an infrastructure in support of ES. The first concerns ES configuration. It is impractical to assume that each virtual organization (VO) using a facility will employ the same ES configuration, or that different configurations will coexist easily. Even within a VO, it should be possible to run different versions of the same ES simultaneously. The second issue concerns resource allocation: it is essential that an ESF be able to effectively gu...

HANARO user support and training

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Shin Ae; Kim, K. Y.; Kim, B. K. (and others)

2008-06-15

This project is aimed to support external users for the effective use of HANARO. The total number of projects selected as the beneficiary of the supporting program by MEST was 21 including this project in this year. We supported 2,339 hr measurements for the 31 requests of the 14 projects selected on the field of neutron beam utilization. In the field of materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test the 3 projects were selected and supported for 80 samples. In the fields of neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production the number of selected and supported projects were 1 and 2 respectively. In order to broaden potential user base, maximize instrument utilization, and enhance cooperation with industries, universities and institutes, practice-oriented HANARO user training courses were held for neutron beam utilization and materials and nuclear fuel irradiation fields. In the fields of neutron activation analysis 3 times training courses were held for the university students. The online neutron beam time allocation system was developed and applied successfully for the HRPD in this year. We are planing to apply this system to other neutron beam instruments in the near future. This project is a kind of the user-based supporting program for the maximize of HANARO utilization. The development products and the ideas and suggestions of users obtained through this projects will be collected and applied to the development of next new facilities. Also, by using the 'HANARO utilization and research information management system(HANARO4U)' we construct the research network among users at industries, universities and institutes. This network is expected to increase HANARO utilization and enhance productivity of the facilities.

EGE BÖLGESİNDEKİ İLLERDE PENCERELER İÇİN OPTİMUM HAVA TABAKASI KALINLIĞININ ARAŞTIRILMASI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Keçebaş

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Bu çalışmada Ege Bölgesi’ndeki sekiz (Manisa, İzmir, Kütahya, Uşak, Afyon, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla il için düşey konumda iki cam plaka arasındaki hava tabakası 1 mm’den başlayıp 280 mm’ye kadar hava boşluğunun penceredeki yalıtıma etkileri araştırılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre; Ege Bölgesi’ndeki iller için pencerelerde optimum hava boşluğu yaklaşımı getirilmiştir. Bu yaklaşımla İzmir’de 14 mm, Denizli’de 13 mm, Uşak’ta 12,5 mm ve dış hava sıcaklığı aynı olan üç ilde (Aydın, Manisa, Muğla 13,4 mm ve iki ilde (Afyon, Kütahya 12,2 mm olarak optimum hava tabakası kalınlığı hesaplanmıştır. Bu çalışma ile literatüre Ege Bölgesi’ndeki her il için optimum hava tabakası kalınlığı yaklaşımı getirilmiştir.

Parallel execution of chemical software on EGEE Grid

CERN Document Server

Sterzel, Mariusz

2008-01-01

Constant interest among chemical community to study larger and larger molecules forces the parallelization of existing computational methods in chemistry and development of new ones. These are main reasons of frequent port updates and requests from the community for the Grid ports of new packages to satisfy their computational demands. Unfortunately some parallelization schemes used by chemical packages cannot be directly used in Grid environment. Here we present a solution for Gaussian package. The current state of development of Grid middleware allows easy parallel execution in case of software using any of MPI flavour. Unfortunately many chemical packages do not use MPI for parallelization therefore special treatment is needed. Gaussian can be executed in parallel on SMP architecture or via Linda. These require reservation of certain number of processors/cores on a given WN and the equal number of processors/cores on each WN, respectively. The current implementation of EGEE middleware does not offer such f...

Supporting Active User Involvment in Prototyping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grønbæk, Kaj

1990-01-01

The term prototyping has in recent years become a buzzword in both research and practice of system design due to a number of claimed advantages of prototyping techniques over traditional specification techniques. In particular it is often stated that prototyping facilitates the users' involvement...... in the development process. But prototyping does not automatically imply active user involvement! Thus a cooperative prototyping approach aiming at involving users actively and creatively in system design is proposed in this paper. The key point of the approach is to involve users in activities that closely couple...... development of prototypes to early evaluation of prototypes in envisioned use situations. Having users involved in such activities creates new requirements for tool support. Tools that support direct manipulation of prototypes and simulation of behaviour have shown promise for cooperative prototyping...

A Worldwide Production Grid Service Built on EGEE and OSG Infrastructures Lessons Learnt and Long-term Requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiers, J.; Dimou, M.; Mendez Lorenzo, P.

2007-01-01

Using the Grid Infrastructures provided by EGEE, OSG and others, a worldwide production service has been built that provides the computing and storage needs for the 4 main physics collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The large number of users, their geographical distribution and the very high service availability requirements make this experience of Grid usage worth studying for the sake of a solid and scalable future operation. This service must cater for the needs of thousands of physicists in hundreds of institutes in tens of countries. A 24x7 service with availability of up to 99% is required with major service responsibilities at each of some ten T ier1 a nd of the order of one hundred T ier2 s ites. Such a service - which has been operating for some 2 years and will be required for at least an additional decade - has required significant manpower and resource investments from all concerned and is considered a major achievement in the field of Grid computing. We describe the main lessons learned in offering a production service across heterogeneous Grids as well as the requirements for long-term operation and sustainability. (Author)

User`s manual of a support system for human reliability analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yokobayashi, Masao [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment; Tamura, Kazuo

1995-10-01

Many kinds of human reliability analysis (HRA) methods have been developed. However, users are required to be skillful so as to use them, and also required complicated works such as drawing event tree (ET) and calculation of uncertainty bounds. Moreover, each method is not so complete that only one method of them is not enough to evaluate human reliability. Therefore, a personal computer (PC) based support system for HRA has been developed to execute HRA practically and efficiently. The system consists of two methods, namely, simple method and detailed one. The former uses ASEP that is a simplified THERP-technique, and combined method of OAT and HRA-ET/DeBDA is used for the latter. Users can select a suitable method for their purpose. Human error probability (HEP) data were collected and a database of them was built to use for the support system. This paper describes outline of the HRA methods, support functions and user`s guide of the system. (author).

HANARO user support and training

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seong, Baek Seok; Lee, J. S.; Sim, C. M. [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2007-10-15

The purpose of this project is to support external users to promote shared-use of HANARO effectively. To this end, external manpower was recruited and trained. Also, in order to broaden HANARO user-base, practice-oriented training was given. The total number of projects selected as a part of this program was 20 this year. These composed of four broad fields: neutron beam utilization, materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test, neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production. In each field, the number of projects was 11, 1, 3 and 2 respectively. In addition, considering the time spent on support, total supporting ratio has reached to an average of 14% over three fields. It was 23% for neutron beam utilization, 11% for materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, and 8% for neutron activation analysis. In order to broaden HANARO's potential user-base and increase the utilization of the HANARO experimental facility, practice-oriented HANARO user training was given. All participants from industry, academia, and national labs trained on working instruments of various fields such as neutron beam applications, materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test, and neutron activation analysis. 'HANARO (utilization and research) information management system' has been developed in an effort to create a single database. By having it available on the net, it will serve as HANARO's important 'Information Platform' along with HANARO web site

Analýza výrobního sortimentu firmy KEB-EGE spol.s r. o.

OpenAIRE

Chuová, Trang

2011-01-01

My diploma thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the product assortment of the KEB-EGE ltd. company that concentrates on producing autodiagnostics and steel constructions. The theoretical part involves basic marketing terms and the practical part introduces the company itself, its customers, competition and suppliers, the analysis of the company macro environment and the analysis of the marketing mix as for its four tools, which is product, price, distribution and marketing communication.

A Worldwide Production Grid Service Built on EGEE and OSG Infrastructures – Lessons Learnt and Long-term Requirements

CERN Document Server

Shiers, J; Dimou, M; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

2007-01-01

Using the Grid Infrastructures provided by EGEE, OSG and others, a worldwide production service has been built that provides the computing and storage needs for the 4 main physics collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The large number of users, their geographical distribution and the very high service availability requirements make this experience of Grid usage worth studying for the sake of a solid and scalable future operation. This service must cater for the needs of thousands of physicists in hundreds of institutes in tens of countries. A 24x7 service with availability of up to 99% is required with major service responsibilities at each of some ten "Tier1" and of the order of one hundred "Tier2" sites. Such a service - which has been operating for some 2 years and will be required for at least an additional decade - has required significant manpower and resource investments from all concerned and is considered a major achievement in the field of Grid computing. We describe the main lessons...

Grid: From EGEE to EGI and from INFN-Grid to IGI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giselli, A.; Mazzuccato, M.

2009-01-01

In the last fifteen years the approach of the computational Grid has changed the way to use computing resources. Grid computing has raised interest worldwide in academia, industry, and government with fast development cycles. Great efforts, huge funding and resources have been made available through national, regional and international initiatives aiming at providing Grid infrastructures, Grid core technologies, Grid middle ware and Grid applications. The Grid software layers reflect the architecture of the services developed so far by the most important European and international projects. In this paper Grid e-Infrastructure story is given, detailing European, Italian and international projects such as EGEE, INFN-Grid and NAREGI. In addition the sustainability issue in the long-term perspective is described providing plans by European and Italian communities with EGI and IGI.

Increased Productivity for Emerging Grid Applications the Application Support System

CERN Document Server

Maier, Andrew; Mendez Lorenzo, Patricia; Moscicki, Jakub; Lamanna, Massimo; Muraru, Adrian

2008-01-01

Recently a growing number of various applications have been quickly and successfully enabled on the Grid by the CERN Grid application support team. This allowed the applications to achieve and publish large-scale results in a short time which otherwise would not be possible. We present the general infrastructure, support procedures and tools that have been developed. We discuss the general patterns observed in supporting new applications and porting them to the EGEE environment. The CERN Grid application support team has been working with the following real-life applications: medical and particle physics simulation (Geant4, Garfield), satellite imaging and geographic information for humanitarian relief operations (UNOSAT), telecommunications (ITU), theoretical physics (Lattice QCD, Feynman-loop evaluation), Bio-informatics (Avian Flu Data Challenge), commercial imaging processing and classification (Imense Ltd.) and physics experiments (ATLAS, LHCb, HARP). Using the EGEE Grid we created a standard infrastruct...

ETICS User feedback and Usability Workshop

CERN Document Server

Begin, Marc-Elian

2007-01-01

As ETICS is gaining momentum, its user community is growing. We now have over 15 projects (mainly Grid related) from different grid user communities; for example: gLite developers and integrators, high-level services developers (e.g. GridWay and DILIGENT). This workshop will provide an opportunity for exchange between the growing ETICS user community and ETICS developers. ETICS is powered by Grid middleware, via the NMI/Condor that ‘We're using the Grid to build the Grid’. This is why ETICS can claim The Grid allows ETICS users to transparently build and test complex software on a wide range of architecture, operating system and environments, in turn accelerating the ability for software to properly execute in heterogeneous environment like Grids. We are not yet able to run on the EGEE infrastructure, since we're missing an important element: virtualisation. As soon as we are able to ship with a build and test job a VM of the environment required for the job, we'll be able to exploit the full power of the...

Support for Quality Assurance in End-User Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Klepper, Robert; McKenna, Edward G.

1989-01-01

Suggests an approach that organizations can take to provide centralized support services for quality assurance in end-user information systems, based on the experiences of a support group at Citicorp Mortgage, Inc. The functions of the support group include user education, software selection, and assistance in testing, implementation, and support…

HANARO user support and training

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seong, Baek Seok; Lee, J. S.; Sim, C. M. [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2006-10-15

The purpose of this project is to support external users to promote shared-use of HANARO effectively. To this end, external manpower was recruited and trained. Also, in order to broaden HANARO user-base, practice-oriented training was given. The total number of projects selected as a part of this program was 36 this year. These composed of four broad fields: neutron beam utilization, materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test, neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production. In each field, the number of projects was 22, 4, 6 and 4 respectively. The HANARO user supports used for these projects were carried out 40 events with 355 samples for neutron beam utilization, 16 events with 1,404 hr for materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test, 8 events with 369 samples and 4 events for radioisotope production. In order to broaden HANARO's potential user-base and increase the utilization of the HANARO experimental facility, practice-oriented HANARO user training was given. All participants from industry, academia, and national labs trained on working instruments of various fields such as neutron beam applications, materials and nuclear fuel irradiation test, and neutron activation analysis. 'HANARO (utilization and research) information management system' has been developed in an effort to create a single database. By having it available on the net, it will serve as HANARO's important 'Information Platform' along with HANARO web site

Adoption of a SAML-XACML Profile for Authorization Interoperability across Grid Middleware in OSG and EGEE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garzoglio, G; Chadwick, K; Dykstra, D; Hesselroth, T; Levshina, T; Sharma, N; Timm, S; Bester, J; Martin, S; Groep, D; Koeroo, O; Salle, M; Verstegen, A; Gu, J; Sim, A

2011-01-01

The Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006 to foster interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures deployed in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects. This activity delivered a common authorization protocol and a set of libraries that implement that protocol. In addition, a set of the most common Grid gateways, or Policy Enforcement Points (Globus Toolkit v4 Gatekeeper, GridFTP, dCache, etc.) and site authorization services, or Policy Decision Points (LCAS/LCMAPS, SCAS, GUMS, etc.) have been integrated with these libraries. At this time, various software providers, including the Globus Toolkit v5, BeStMan, and the Site AuthoriZation service (SAZ), are integrating the authorization interoperability protocol with their products. In addition, as more and more software supports the same protocol, the community is converging on LCMAPS as a common module for identity attribute parsing and authorization call-out. This paper presents this effort, discusses the status of adoption of the common protocol and projects the community work on authorization in the near future.

Adoption of a SAML-XACML profile for authorization interoperability across grid middleware in OSG and EGEE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garzoglio, G. [Fermilab; Bester, J. [Argonne; Chadwick, K. [Fermilab; Dykstra, D. [Fermilab; Groep, D. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Gu, J. [LBL, Berkeley; Hesselroth, T. [Fermilab; Koeroo, O. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Levshina, T. [Fermilab; Martin, S. [Argonne; Salle, M. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam; Sharma, N. [Fermilab; Sim, A. [LBL, Berkeley; Timm, S. [Fermilab; Verstegen, A. [NIKHEF, Amsterdam

2011-01-01

The Authorization Interoperability activity was initiated in 2006 to foster interoperability between middleware and authorization infrastructures deployed in the Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) projects. This activity delivered a common authorization protocol and a set of libraries that implement that protocol. In addition, a set of the most common Grid gateways, or Policy Enforcement Points (Globus Toolkit v4 Gatekeeper, GridFTP, dCache, etc.) and site authorization services, or Policy Decision Points (LCAS/LCMAPS, SCAS, GUMS, etc.) have been integrated with these libraries. At this time, various software providers, including the Globus Toolkit v5, BeStMan, and the Site AuthoriZation service (SAZ), are integrating the authorization interoperability protocol with their products. In addition, as more and more software supports the same protocol, the community is converging on LCMAPS as a common module for identity attribute parsing and authorization call-out. This paper presents this effort, discusses the status of adoption of the common protocol and projects the community work on authorization in the near future.

AI User Support System for SAP ERP

Science.gov (United States)

Vlasov, Vladimir; Chebotareva, Victoria; Rakhimov, Marat; Kruglikov, Sergey

2017-10-01

An intelligent system for SAP ERP user support is proposed in this paper. It enables automatic replies on users’ requests for support, saving time for problem analysis and resolution and improving responsiveness for end users. The system is based on an ensemble of machine learning algorithms of multiclass text classification, providing efficient question understanding, and a special framework for evidence retrieval, providing the best answer derivation.

User Support of Electron Irradiation Facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, S. H.; Cha, H. K.; Lee, B. C.

2007-06-01

The KAERI (Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute) high-power electron beam irradiation facility, operating at the energies between 0.3 MeV and 10 MeV,has provided irradiation services to users in industries, universities, and institutes via 'Project of utilization and cooperation of users of a large research facility' since 2004. A great attraction of many researchers, almost 750 persons so far according to surveys, to e-beam irradiation technology as well as the growth of participants on Workshop on Electron Beam Applications from 121 to 176 indicate the increase of demands of irradiation service. Comparing to the cases of advanced nations in this area, such as America, Japan, China, and Russia, Korea is relatively much behind in radiation technology. It is mainly due to the lack of governmental supports and investments. Active support and investment on construction and operation of electron beam user facilities would be principal factors on developments of advanced technologies. In this project, we would like to satisfy users' requests by developing the effective managing and operating system for prompt services, processes, and QA and to ultimately assist users to create additional new results, by maximizing the utilization of all available resources and activating the developments of technologies of electron beam processing

Users' Support as a Social Resource in Educational Services: Construct Validity and Measurement Invariance of the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS).

Science.gov (United States)

Loera, Barbara; Martini, Mara; Viotti, Sara; Converso, Daniela

2016-01-01

Social support is an important resource for reducing the risks of stress and burnout at work. It seems to be particularly helpful for educational and social professionals. The constant and intense relationships with users that characterize this kind of service can be very demanding, increasing stress and leading to burnout. While significant attention has been paid to supervisors and colleagues in the literature, users have rarely been considered as possible sources of social support. The only exception is the Zimmermann et al.'s (2011) research, focused on customer support as a resource for workers' well-being. This paper proposes the validation of the customer-initiated support scale developed by Zimmermann et al. (2011), translated into Italian and focused on educational services users (children's parents), to measure the user support perceived by workers: the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS). In Study 1 (105 teachers), which specifically involved educators and kindergarten teachers, the items and scale properties were preliminarily examined using descriptive analyses and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 2 (304 teachers), the construct and criterion validity and scale dimensionality were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In Study 3 (304 teachers from Study 2 and 296 educators), measurement invariance (MI) was tested. The EFA results from Study 1 showed a one-factor solution (explained variance, 67.2%). The scale showed good internal coherence (alpha = 0.88). The CFA in Study 2 validated the one-factor solution (comparative fit index = 0.987; standardized root mean square residual = 0.054). Bivariate correlations confirmed construct validity; the UISS was positively associated (convergent) with user gratitude, and not associated (divergent) with disproportionate customer expectations. Regarding the criterion validity test, the UISS was strongly correlated with burnout and job satisfaction. The analysis of MI performed on the Study 3

Evaluation of User Support: Factors That Affect User Satisfaction With Helpdesks and Helplines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Velsen, Lex Stefan; Steehouder, M.F.; de Jong, Menno D.T.

2007-01-01

In addition to technical documentation, face-to-face helpdesks and telephonic helplines are a powerful means for supporting users of technical products and services. This study investigates the factors that determine user satisfaction with helpdesks and helplines. A survey, based on the SERVQUAL

Advantages of pre-production WLCG/EGEE services for VOs and users

CERN Document Server

Thackray, N; Fernandez Sanchez, C; Freire Garcia, E; Simon Garcia, A; Lopez Cacheiro, J

2008-01-01

The benefits that the Pre-Production Service (PPS) can offer to VOs and new users will be shown. Current PPS processes will be described so they have a better understanding of the PPS environment. PPS offers a proper place where VOs can test their applications and check their compatibility with upcoming middleware releases. PPS could help VOs improve their applications and at the same time, VOs would be helping PPS to produce better tested middleware releases that would go into Production (PROD) Currently a well-defined set of procedures is followed in PPS, beginning with the pre-deployment activity and finishing with the approval of a new middleware release that can go into PROD. The PPS Coordination Team takes care of supervising all these steps, mainly trying to spot possible bugs in the middleware before it goes into PROD. Unfortunately, VO contribution in this part of the deployment is currently very limited and the PPS team does not have a full feedback from these important groups. One of the problems i...

Supporting National User Communities at NERSC and NCAR

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Killeen, Timothy L.; Simon, Horst D.

2006-05-16

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center(NERSC) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are twocomputing centers that have traditionally supported large national usercommunities. Both centers have developed responsive approaches to supportthese user communities and their changing needs, providing end-to-endcomputing solutions. In this report we provide a short overview of thestrategies used at our centers in supporting our scientific users, withan emphasis on some examples of effective programs and futureneeds.

Storytelling tools in support of user experience design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peng, Qiong

2017-01-01

Storytelling has been proposed as an intuitive way to support communication in user experience design. With story-based thinking, designers can gain a better understanding of the potential user experience, developing and discussing design ideas within an (imagined) context. This proposal introduces

Requirements for user interaction support in future CACE environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ravn, Ole; Szymkat, M.

1994-01-01

Based on a review of user interaction modes and the specific needs of the CACE domain the paper describes requirements for user interaction in future CACE environments. Taking another look at the design process in CACE key areas in need of more user interaction support are pointed out. Three...

Tool-Supported User-Centred Prototyping of Mobile Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leichtenstern, Karin; André, Elisabeth; Rehm, Matthias

2011-01-01

the process both cost-effective and time-effective. In this paper we cover that problem and provide insights in so-called user-centered prototyping (UCP) tools which support the production of prototypes as well as their evaluation with end-users. In particular, we introduce our UCP tool called Mo...

WFIRST: User and mission support at ISOC - IPAC Science Operations Center

Science.gov (United States)

Akeson, Rachel; Armus, Lee; Bennett, Lee; Colbert, James; Helou, George; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Laine, Seppo; Meshkat, Tiffany; Paladini, Roberta; Ramirez, Solange; Wang, Yun; Xie, Joan; Yan, Lin

2018-01-01

The science center for WFIRST is distributed between the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). The main functions of the IPAC Science Operations Center (ISOC) are:* Conduct the GO, archival and theory proposal submission and evaluation process* Support the coronagraph instrument, including observation planning, calibration and data processing pipeline, generation of data products, and user support* Microlensing survey data processing pipeline, generation of data products, and user support* Community engagement including conferences, workshops and general support of the WFIRST exoplanet communityWe will describe the components planned to support these functions and the community of WFIRST users.

Mobile Context-Aware Support for Public Transportation Users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

von Buchwald, Esben; Larsen, Jakob Eg; Murray-Smith, Roderick

2012-01-01

compass bearing, in addition to a distance range chosen by a physical gesture. The main application tested in this paper is a system to support public transport users in Copenhagen. Users can point at any bus-stop or train station and be given timetables, next departure times, and buy a ticket via SMS...

User-centered design to improve clinical decision support in primary care.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, Julian; Chuang, Emmeline; Goldzweig, Caroline; Cain, Cindy L; Sugar, Catherine; Yano, Elizabeth M

2017-08-01

A growing literature has demonstrated the ability of user-centered design to make clinical decision support systems more effective and easier to use. However, studies of user-centered design have rarely examined more than a handful of sites at a time, and have frequently neglected the implementation climate and organizational resources that influence clinical decision support. The inclusion of such factors was identified by a systematic review as "the most important improvement that can be made in health IT evaluations." (1) Identify the prevalence of four user-centered design practices at United States Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care clinics and assess the perceived utility of clinical decision support at those clinics; (2) Evaluate the association between those user-centered design practices and the perceived utility of clinical decision support. We analyzed clinic-level survey data collected in 2006-2007 from 170 VA primary care clinics. We examined four user-centered design practices: 1) pilot testing, 2) provider satisfaction assessment, 3) formal usability assessment, and 4) analysis of impact on performance improvement. We used a regression model to evaluate the association between user-centered design practices and the perceived utility of clinical decision support, while accounting for other important factors at those clinics, including implementation climate, available resources, and structural characteristics. We also examined associations separately at community-based clinics and at hospital-based clinics. User-centered design practices for clinical decision support varied across clinics: 74% conducted pilot testing, 62% conducted provider satisfaction assessment, 36% conducted a formal usability assessment, and 79% conducted an analysis of impact on performance improvement. Overall perceived utility of clinical decision support was high, with a mean rating of 4.17 (±.67) out of 5 on a composite measure. "Analysis of impact on performance

Development of output user interface software to support analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wahanani, Nursinta Adi, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id; Natsir, Khairina, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id; Hartini, Entin, E-mail: sintaadi@batan.go.id [Center for Development of Nuclear Informatics - National Nuclear Energy Agency, PUSPIPTEK, Serpong, Tangerang, Banten (Indonesia)

2014-09-30

Data processing software packages such as VSOP and MCNPX are softwares that has been scientifically proven and complete. The result of VSOP and MCNPX are huge and complex text files. In the analyze process, user need additional processing like Microsoft Excel to show informative result. This research develop an user interface software for output of VSOP and MCNPX. VSOP program output is used to support neutronic analysis and MCNPX program output is used to support burn-up analysis. Software development using iterative development methods which allow for revision and addition of features according to user needs. Processing time with this software 500 times faster than with conventional methods using Microsoft Excel. PYTHON is used as a programming language, because Python is available for all major operating systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, among others. Values that support neutronic analysis are k-eff, burn-up and mass Pu{sup 239} and Pu{sup 241}. Burn-up analysis used the mass inventory values of actinide (Thorium, Plutonium, Neptunium and Uranium). Values are visualized in graphical shape to support analysis.

Development of output user interface software to support analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wahanani, Nursinta Adi; Natsir, Khairina; Hartini, Entin

2014-01-01

Data processing software packages such as VSOP and MCNPX are softwares that has been scientifically proven and complete. The result of VSOP and MCNPX are huge and complex text files. In the analyze process, user need additional processing like Microsoft Excel to show informative result. This research develop an user interface software for output of VSOP and MCNPX. VSOP program output is used to support neutronic analysis and MCNPX program output is used to support burn-up analysis. Software development using iterative development methods which allow for revision and addition of features according to user needs. Processing time with this software 500 times faster than with conventional methods using Microsoft Excel. PYTHON is used as a programming language, because Python is available for all major operating systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, among others. Values that support neutronic analysis are k-eff, burn-up and mass Pu 239 and Pu 241 . Burn-up analysis used the mass inventory values of actinide (Thorium, Plutonium, Neptunium and Uranium). Values are visualized in graphical shape to support analysis

Support Services for Remote Users of Online Public Access Catalogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Sally W.

1991-01-01

Discusses the needs of remote users of online public access catalogs (OPACs). User expectations are discussed; problems encountered by remote-access users are examined, including technical problems and searching problems; support services are described, including instruction, print guides, and online help; and differences from the needs of…

Decision support tools in conservation: a workshop to improve user-centred design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Rose

2017-09-01

Full Text Available A workshop held at the University of Cambridge in May 2017 brought developers, researchers, knowledge brokers, and users together to discuss user-centred design of decision support tools. Decision support tools are designed to take users through logical decision steps towards an evidence-informed final decision. Although they may exist in different forms, including on paper, decision support tools are generally considered to be computer- (online, software or app-based. Studies have illustrated the potential value of decision support tools for conservation, and there are several papers describing the design of individual tools. Rather less attention, however, has been placed on the desirable characteristics for use, and even less on whether tools are actually being used in practice. This is concerning because if tools are not used by their intended end user, for example a policy-maker or practitioner, then its design will have wasted resources. Based on an analysis of papers on tool use in conservation, there is a lack of social science research on improving design, and relatively few examples where users have been incorporated into the design process. Evidence from other disciplines, particularly human-computer interaction research, illustrates that involving users throughout the design of decision support tools increases the relevance, usability, and impact of systems. User-centred design of tools is, however, seldom mentioned in the conservation literature. The workshop started the necessary process of bringing together developers and users to share knowledge about how to conduct good user-centred design of decision support tools. This will help to ensure that tools are usable and make an impact in conservation policy and practice.

User recruitment, training, and support at NOAO Data Lab

Science.gov (United States)

Nikutta, Robert; Fitzpatrick, Michael J.; NOAO Data Lab

2018-06-01

The NOAO Data Lab (datalab.noao.edu) is a fully-fledged science data & analysis platform. However, simply building a science platform is notenough to declare it a success. Like any such system built for users, it needs actual users who see enough value in it to be willing toovercome the inertia of registering an account, studying the documentation, working through examples, and ultimately attempting tosolve their own science problems using the platform. The NOAO Data Lab has been open to users since June 2016. In this past year we haveregistered hundreds of users and improved the system, not least through the interaction with and feedback from our users. The posterwill delineate our efforts to recruit new users through conference presentations, platform demos and user workshops, and what we do toassure that users experience their first steps and their learning process with Data Lab as easy, competent, and inspiring. It will alsopresent our efforts in user retention and user support, from a human-staffed helpdesk, to one-on-one sessions, to regular"bring-your-own-problem (BYOP)" in-house sessions with interested users.

Towards sustainability: An interoperability outline for a Regional ARC based infrastructure in the WLCG and EGEE infrastructures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Field, L; Gronager, M; Johansson, D; Kleist, J

2010-01-01

Interoperability of grid infrastructures is becoming increasingly important in the emergence of large scale grid infrastructures based on national and regional initiatives. To achieve interoperability of grid infrastructures adaptions and bridging of many different systems and services needs to be tackled. A grid infrastructure offers services for authentication, authorization, accounting, monitoring, operation besides from the services for handling and data and computations. This paper presents an outline of the work done to integrate the Nordic Tier-1 and 2s, which for the compute part is based on the ARC middleware, into the WLCG grid infrastructure co-operated by the EGEE project. Especially, a throughout description of integration of the compute services is presented.

Designing Tools for Supporting User Decision-Making in e-Commerce

Science.gov (United States)

Sutcliffe, Alistair; Al-Qaed, Faisal

The paper describes a set of tools designed to support a variety of user decision-making strategies. The tools are complemented by an online advisor so they can be adapted to different domains and users can be guided to adopt appropriate tools for different choices in e-commerce, e.g. purchasing high-value products, exploring product fit to users’ needs, or selecting products which satisfy requirements. The tools range from simple recommenders to decision support by interactive querying and comparison matrices. They were evaluated in a scenario-based experiment which varied the users’ task and motivation, with and without an advisor agent. The results show the tools and advisor were effective in supporting users and agreed with the predictions of ADM (adaptive decision making) theory, on which the design of the tools was based.

Key European Grid event to take place in Geneva

CERN Multimedia

2006-01-01

EGEE'06 is the main conference of the EGEE project, which is co-funded by the European Union and hosted by CERN. More than 90 partners all over Europe and beyond are working together in EGEE to provide researchers in both academia and industry with access to major computing resources, independent of their geographic location. The largest user community of the EGEE Grid is the High-Energy Physics community and in particular the LHC experiments, which are already making heavy use of the infrastructure to prepare for data taking. However, with the many new challenges faced by EGEE in its second phase that started in April this year, an even broader audience than at previous EGEE conferences is expected. In particular, a large number of related Grid projects will feature prominently in both plenary and parallel sessions during the 5 days of this event. Industry will also be well represented, highlighting the EGEE project's commitment to technology transfer to industry. CERN is the host of the conference, which i...

Software support: Pre-empting the quick question. [User's support group at Fermilab

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loebel, L.

1987-09-01

High energy physicists, researchers and graduate students, from universities all around the world come to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to do their experiments. They use our computer facilities to perform all phases of their data-analysis and presentation. We have a large turnover of users and a rather small support group, in a multi-vendor environment. We strive to make our users self-sufficient through the use of well-publicized maintenance procedures, documentation systems, and product support standards. By these pre-emptive measures we attempt to have quick answers at hand for the truly quick questions, leaving us time for the interesting problems.

Professionals' views on mental health service users' education: challenges and support.

Science.gov (United States)

Nieminen, I; Kaunonen, M

2017-02-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Mental health service users (MHSUs) may experience disruptions in their education. However, education has been shown to have a positive influence on their recovery, potentially offering them broader employment opportunities. The literature suggests that providing support for MHSUs in their educational efforts may be beneficial and is wished for by the service users themselves. However, there is a lack of mental health professionals' views on the topic in the setting of a community mental health centre. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD TO THE EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: In the perception of mental health professionals, the predominance of disease in the life of MHSUs and their marginalization may form barriers to their success in education. Professionals can support MHSUs in their educational efforts by strengthening the MHSUs' internal resources and creating a supportive environment with professional expertise available. A service user-centred education might further help MHSUs to achieve their educational goals. Our findings confirm previous knowledge of a recovery-oriented approach to supporting MHSUs' education. This study explored the topic from the professionals' perspective in the context of community mental health centres, which is a fresh view in the research literature. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: The findings suggest which types of support professionals perceive to be required for MHSUs to advance their studies. Knowledge of adequate forms of support can be applied in the mental health nursing practice to develop support measures for service users to advance in their studies. All levels of the community mental health centres should be aware of and adopt a recovery-oriented approach. MHSUs and professionals need to have a shared opinion on the definition of recovery orientation. This requires mutual discussion and the more active involvement of MHSUs in the design of their own rehabilitation process. Introduction Studies show

User's manual of a support system for human reliability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yokobayashi, Masao; Tamura, Kazuo.

1995-10-01

Many kinds of human reliability analysis (HRA) methods have been developed. However, users are required to be skillful so as to use them, and also required complicated works such as drawing event tree (ET) and calculation of uncertainty bounds. Moreover, each method is not so complete that only one method of them is not enough to evaluate human reliability. Therefore, a personal computer (PC) based support system for HRA has been developed to execute HRA practically and efficiently. The system consists of two methods, namely, simple method and detailed one. The former uses ASEP that is a simplified THERP-technique, and combined method of OAT and HRA-ET/DeBDA is used for the latter. Users can select a suitable method for their purpose. Human error probability (HEP) data were collected and a database of them was built to use for the support system. This paper describes outline of the HRA methods, support functions and user's guide of the system. (author)

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SUPPORT CONTRACT USER SURVEY

CERN Multimedia

2001-01-01

IT Division operates a Distributed Computing Support Service, which offers support to owners and users of all variety of desktops throughout CERN as well as more dedicated services for certain groups, divisions and experiments. It also provides the staff who operate the central and satellite Computing Helpdesks, it supports printers throughout the site and it provides the installation activities of the IT Division PC Service. We have published a questionnaire which seeks to gather your feedback on how the services are seen, how they are progressing and how they can be improved. Please take a few minutes to fill in this questionnaire. Replies will be treated in confidence if desired although you may also request an opportunity to be contacted by CERN's service management directly. Please tell us if you met problems but also if you had a successful conclusion to your request for assistance. You will find the questionnaire at the web site http://wwwinfo/support/survey/desktop-contract There will also be a link ...

DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SUPPORT SERVICE USER SURVEY

CERN Multimedia

2001-01-01

IT Division operates a Distributed Computing Support Service, which offers support to owners and users of all variety of desktops throughout CERN as well as more dedicated services for certain groups, divisions and experiments. It also provides the staff who operate the central and satellite Computing Helpdesks, it supports printers throughout the site and it provides the installation activities of the IT Division PC Service. We have published a questionnaire, which seeks to gather your feedback on how the services are seen, how they are progressing and how they can be improved. Please take a few minutes to fill in this questionnaire. Replies will be treated in confidence if desired although you may also request an opportunity to be contacted by CERN's service management directly. Please tell us if you met problems but also if you had a successful conclusion to your request for assistance. You will find the questionnaire at the web site http://wwwinfo/support/survey/desktop-contract There will also be a link...

Investigating User Search Tactic Patterns and System Support in Using Digital Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Joo, Soohyung

2013-01-01

This study aims to investigate users' search tactic application and system support in using digital libraries. A user study was conducted with sixty digital library users. The study was designed to answer three research questions: 1) How do users engage in a search process by applying different types of search tactics while conducting different…

Ecological user interface for emergency management decision support systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, V.

2003-01-01

The user interface for decision support systems is normally structured for presenting relevant data for the skilled user in order to allow fast assessment and action of the hazardous situation, or for more complex situations to present the relevant rules and procedures to be followed in order to ...... of this paper is to discuss the possibility of using the same principles for emergency management with the aim of improved performance in complex and unanticipated situations....

Screening of some biological activities of Alyssum fulvescens var. fulvescens known as ege madwort.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozay, Cennet; Mammadov, Ramazan

2017-09-01

In this research, the phenolic composition, antioxidant, antibacterial and cytotoxic activities of the methanolic extracts obtained from Alyssum fulvescens var. fulvescens aerial parts known as Ege kuduzotu in western Turkey, were firstly investigated. The antioxidant activity of the extract was determined by DPPH, metal chelating, phosphomolybdenum, β-carotene/linoleic acid and ferric reducing power assays. Moreover, total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the extract were investigated. The brine shrimp (Artemia salina L.) lethality test was used to investigate for the possible cytotoxic activity of the extract. Microdilution broth method was used to study antibacterial potency of extract against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The extract exhibited good biological activities. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the extract were significantly correlated with antioxidant potentials. HPLC analysis showed that chlorogenic acid was the major phenolic in extract tested. The results indicated that the extract of A. fulvescens var. fulvescens may be considered as a potential source of biological agents and in vivo investigations are needed to test the biological effects of A. fulvescens var. fulvescens.

An outlook of the user support model to educate the users community at the CMS Experiment

CERN Document Server

Malik, Sudhir

2011-01-01

The CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment is one of the two large general-purpose particle physics detectors built at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The diverse collaboration combined with a highly distributed computing environment and Petabytes/year of data being collected makes CMS unlike any other High Energy Physics collaborations before. This presents new challenges to educate and bring users, coming from different cultural, linguistics and social backgrounds, up to speed to contribute to the physics analysis. CMS has been able to deal with this new paradigm by deploying a user support structure model that uses collaborative tools to educate about software, computing an physics tools specific to CMS. To carry out the user support mission worldwide, an LHC Physics Centre (LPC) was created few years back at Fermilab as a hub for US physicists. The LPC serves as a "brick and mortar" location for physics excellence for the CMS physicists where graduate and postgraduate scien...

Support for User Interfaces for Distributed Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Eychaner, Glenn; Niessner, Albert

2005-01-01

An extensible Java(TradeMark) software framework supports the construction and operation of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for distributed computing systems typified by ground control systems that send commands to, and receive telemetric data from, spacecraft. Heretofore, such GUIs have been custom built for each new system at considerable expense. In contrast, the present framework affords generic capabilities that can be shared by different distributed systems. Dynamic class loading, reflection, and other run-time capabilities of the Java language and JavaBeans component architecture enable the creation of a GUI for each new distributed computing system with a minimum of custom effort. By use of this framework, GUI components in control panels and menus can send commands to a particular distributed system with a minimum of system-specific code. The framework receives, decodes, processes, and displays telemetry data; custom telemetry data handling can be added for a particular system. The framework supports saving and later restoration of users configurations of control panels and telemetry displays with a minimum of effort in writing system-specific code. GUIs constructed within this framework can be deployed in any operating system with a Java run-time environment, without recompilation or code changes.

Public Key Encryption Supporting Plaintext Equality Test and User-Specified Authorization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tang, Qiang

2011-01-01

In this paper we investigate a category of public key encryption schemes which supports plaintext equality test and user-specified authorization. With this new primitive, two users, who possess their own public/private key pairs, can issue token(s) to a proxy to authorize it to perform plaintext

Dynamic Use of Digital Library Material - Supporting Users with Typed Links in Open Hypermedia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grønbæk, Kaj; Hansen, Klaus Marius; Yndigegn, Christian

1999-01-01

This paper introduces a novel approach to supporting digital library users in organising and annotating material. We have extended the concept of open hypermedia by introducing typed links, which support: addition of (user-defined) semantics to hypertexts, user navigation, and machine supported...... analysis and synthesis of hypermedia structures. The Webvise open hypermedia system is integrated with the World Wide Web, and has been augmented with a type system. We illustrate the potential use in the context of digital libraries with a scenario of teachers jointly preparing a course based on digital...... library material....

Processing moldable tasks on the grid: Late job binding with lightweight user-level overlay

CERN Document Server

Moscicki, J T; Sloot, P M A; Lamanna, M

2011-01-01

Independent observations and everyday user experience indicate that performance and reliability of large grid infrastructures may suffer from large and unpredictable variations. In this paper we study the impact of the job queuing time on processing of moldable tasks which are commonly found in large-scale production grids. We use the mean value and variance of makespan as the quality of service indicators. We develop a general task processing model to provide a quantitative comparison between two models: early and late job binding in a user-level overlay applied to the EGEE Grid infrastructure. We find that the late-binding model effectively defines a transformation of the distribution of makespan according to the Central Limit Theorem. As demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulations using real job traces, this transformation allows to substantially reduce the mean value and variance of makespan. For certain classes of applications task granularity may be adjusted such that a speedup of an order of magnitude or m...

Supporting professional spreadsheet users by generating leveled dataflow diagrams

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hermans, F.; Pinzger, M.; Van Deursen, A.

2010-01-01

Thanks to their flexibility and intuitive programming model, spreadsheets are widely used in industry, often for businesscritical applications. Similar to software developers, professional spreadsheet users demand support for maintaining and transferring their spreadsheets. In this paper, we first

Development of Beam Utilization Technologies and Support for Users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Kyeryung; Jung, Myunghwan; Noh, Yongoh; Lee, Sooyeon; Kim, Hyukwook; Kil, Jaekeun; Lee, Nayoung; Ra, Sekin; Lee, Miejeen; Kim, Sora

2013-02-01

The Final goals are to achieve the 2nd goals of the Proton Engineering Frontier Project, development of proton beam utilization technologies, to incubate the potential users, and to develop fundamental technologies. Based on these achievements, we are going to enhance the accelerator utilization and maximize contribution to the local society after accelerator construction completion. For the these goals, we were operating user program reflecting the results of 3rd step planning. We support 38 small projects during 2 years. As results of activation of beam utilization, we acquired 768 users at the end of 2012. We survey proton beam technology proposals, individuals and institutions participation letter of intent through the research of 'Planning of a support program for both basic research by using accelerator and manpower cultivation'. And inaugurated KOPUA (Korea Proton Accelerator User Association) on March 28, 2012 with 152 members. We secured experimental conditions at TR23 and TR103 and reflected in the target room design and operation scenarios via investigate the requirements. Through these requirements, we make a remote sample transfer system, beam regulating system, hot cell and sample transport container. Moreover, we develop proton beam technologies such as in-vivo proton beam irradiation system, comparison of the biological effects for pulse beam and continuous beam, basic experiments for the metal nanopaticle synthesis, research for radioactivatied samples and devices, conceptual design and calculation for neutron source target and calculation of the isotope production yield. Proton accelerator can be utilized in a variety of field, including NT, BT, IT, ST, ET, Nuclear, medical, and some of the user facilities required were constructed through this project, Experience for the construction and operation of these facilities can be reflected to the construction of the rest 8 target room of proton accelerator center

Information support model and its impact on utility, satisfaction and loyalty of users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sead Šadić

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In today’s modern age, information systems are of vital importance for successful performance of any organization. The most important role of any information system is its information support. This paper develops an information support model and presents the results of the survey examining the effects of such model. The survey was performed among the employees of Brčko District Government and comprised three phases. The first phase assesses the influence of the quality of information support and information on information support when making decisions. The second phase examines the impact of information support when making decisions on the perceived availability and user satisfaction with information support. The third phase examines the effects of perceived usefulness as well as information support satisfaction on user loyalty. The model is presented using six hypotheses, which were tested by means of a multivariate regression analysis. The demonstrated model shows that the quality of information support and information is of vital importance in the decision-making process. The perceived usefulness and customer satisfaction are of vital importance for continuous usage of information support. The model is universal, and if slightly modified, it can be used in any sphere of life where satisfaction is measured for clients and users of some service.

Towards Sustainability in Viral Marketing with User Engaging Supporting Campaigns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jarosław Jankowski

2017-12-01

Full Text Available While viral marketing has captured substantial academic and professional interest, the processes that underpin successful viral marketing campaigns remain poorly understood. High competition and pressure for successful campaigns lead to strategies based on persuasion, unsolicited messages, and other techniques that negatively affect brand perception. The need for more sustainable strategies with a limited negative impact on web users is observed. Therefore, the current study examines the effectiveness of viral marketing and a supporting campaign, where the main goal was to increase user engagement and overall campaign performance. Supporting campaigns were evaluated, to determine whether they enhanced viral activity, but without the need for high persuasion or intrusive techniques. Results showed that supporting actions could be integrated with lower performing campaigns to increase their effectiveness. Apart from the main scientific goal that is presented, the study demonstrates how virtual worlds can provide a laboratory-like environment for identifying the processes that underpin viral marketing.

Cognitive Support using BDI Agent and Adaptive User Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hossain, Shabbir

2012-01-01

-known framework to measure the individual health status and functioning level. The third goal is to develop an approach for supporting for users with irrational behaviour due to cognitive impairment. To deal with this challenge, a Belief, Desire and Intention (BDI) agent based approach is proposed due to its...... mentalistic characteristics, such as autonomy, adaptivity, extensibility, and human like reasoning capability. Although, BDI is unable to reason about plans, which is important for generating plans based on the current situation to handle the irrational behaviour of the user. An integration of Partially...... Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) in the BDI agent is proposed in this thesis to handle the irrational behaviour of the user. The fourth goal represents the implementation of the research approaches and performs validation of the system through experiments. The empirical results of the experiments...

Improving user-friendliness by using visually supported speech recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waals, J.A.J.S.; Kooi, F.L.; Kriekaard, J.J.

2002-01-01

While speech recognition in principle may be one of the most natural interfaces, in practice it is not due to the lack of user-friendliness. Words are regularly interpreted wrong, and subjects tend to articulate in an exaggerated manner. We explored the potential of visually supported error

VOMS/VOMRS utilization patterns and convergence plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ceccanti, A.; Ciaschini, V.; Dimou, M.; Garzoglio, G.; Levshina, T.; Traylen, S.; Venturi, V.

2010-01-01

The Grid community uses two well-established registration services, which allow users to be authenticated under the auspices of Virtual Organizations (VOs). The Virtual Organization Membership Service (VOMS), developed in the context of the Enabling Grid for E-sciencE (EGEE) project, is an Attribute Authority service that issues attributes expressing membership information of a subject within a VO. VOMS allows to partition users in groups, assign them roles and free-form attributes which are then used to drive authorization decisions. The VOMS administrative application, VOMS-Admin, manages and populates the VOMS database with membership information. The Virtual Organization Management Registration Service (VOMRS), developed at Fermilab, extends the basic registration and management functionalities present in VOMS-Admin. It implements a registration workflow that requires VO usage policy acceptance and membership approval by administrators. VOMRS supports management of multiple grid certificates, and handling users' request for group and role assignments, and membership status. VOMRS is capable of interfacing to local systems with personnel information (e.g. the CERN Human Resource Database) and of pulling relevant member information from them. VOMRS synchronizes the relevant subset of information with VOMS. The recent development of new features in VOMS-Admin raises the possibility of rationalizing the support and converging on a single solution by continuing and extending existing collaborations between EGEE and OSG. Such strategy is supported by WLCG, OSG, US CMS, US Atlas, and other stakeholders worldwide. In this paper, we will analyze features in use by major experiments and the use cases for registration addressed by the mature single solution.

Users’ support as a social resource in educational services: construct validity and measurement invariance of the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbara Loera

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Social support is an important resource for reducing the risks of stress and burnout at work. It seems to be particularly helpful for educational and social professionals. The constant and intense relationships with users that characterize this kind of service can be very demanding, increasing stress and leading to burnout. While significant attention has been paid to supervisors and colleagues in the literature, users have rarely been considered as possible sources of social support. The only exception is the Zimmermann et al.’ (2011 research, focused on customer support as a resource for workers’ well-being. This paper proposes the validation of the customer-initiated support scale developed by Zimmermann et al. (2011, translated into Italian and focused on educational services users (children’s parents, to measure the user support perceived by workers: the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS. In Study 1 (105 teachers, which specifically involved educators and kindergarten teachers, the items and scale properties were preliminarily examined using descriptive analyses and exploratory factor analysis (EFA. In Study 2 (304 teachers, the construct and criterion validity and scale dimensionality were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA. In Study 3 (304 teachers from Study 2 and 296 educators, measurement invariance was tested. The EFA results from Study 1 showed a one-factor solution (explained variance, 67.2%. The scale showed good internal coherence (alpha = .88. The CFA in Study 2 validated the one-factor solution (CFI = .987; SRMR = .054. Bivariate correlations confirmed construct validity; the UISS was positively associated (convergent with user gratitude, and not associated (divergent with disproportionate customer expectations. Regarding the criterion validity test, the UISS was strongly correlated with burnout and job satisfaction. The analysis of measurement invariance performed on the Study 3 data confirmed the equality

Users’ Support as a Social Resource in Educational Services: Construct Validity and Measurement Invariance of the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS)

Science.gov (United States)

Loera, Barbara; Martini, Mara; Viotti, Sara; Converso, Daniela

2016-01-01

Social support is an important resource for reducing the risks of stress and burnout at work. It seems to be particularly helpful for educational and social professionals. The constant and intense relationships with users that characterize this kind of service can be very demanding, increasing stress and leading to burnout. While significant attention has been paid to supervisors and colleagues in the literature, users have rarely been considered as possible sources of social support. The only exception is the Zimmermann et al.’s (2011) research, focused on customer support as a resource for workers’ well-being. This paper proposes the validation of the customer-initiated support scale developed by Zimmermann et al. (2011), translated into Italian and focused on educational services users (children’s parents), to measure the user support perceived by workers: the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS). In Study 1 (105 teachers), which specifically involved educators and kindergarten teachers, the items and scale properties were preliminarily examined using descriptive analyses and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 2 (304 teachers), the construct and criterion validity and scale dimensionality were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In Study 3 (304 teachers from Study 2 and 296 educators), measurement invariance (MI) was tested. The EFA results from Study 1 showed a one-factor solution (explained variance, 67.2%). The scale showed good internal coherence (alpha = 0.88). The CFA in Study 2 validated the one-factor solution (comparative fit index = 0.987; standardized root mean square residual = 0.054). Bivariate correlations confirmed construct validity; the UISS was positively associated (convergent) with user gratitude, and not associated (divergent) with disproportionate customer expectations. Regarding the criterion validity test, the UISS was strongly correlated with burnout and job satisfaction. The analysis of MI performed on the

Simultaneous communication supports learning in noise by cochlear implant users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blom, H.C.; Marschark, M.; Machmer, E.

2017-01-01

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the potential of using spoken language and signing together (simultaneous communication, SimCom, sign-supported speech) as a means of improving speech recognition, comprehension, and learning by cochlear implant (CI) users in noisy contexts.Methods: Forty

Support for significant evolutions of the user data model in ROOT files

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Canal, Ph; Russo, P; Brun, R; Janyst, L; Fine, V; Lauret, J

2010-01-01

One of the main strengths of ROOT input and output (I/O) is its inherent support for schema evolution. Two distinct modes are supported, one manual via a hand coded streamer function and one fully automatic via the ROOT StreamerInfo. One draw back of the streamer functions is that they are not usable by TTree objects in split mode. Until now, the user could not customize the automatic schema evolution mechanism and the only mechanism to go beyond the default rules was to revert to using the streamer function. In ROOT 5.22/00, we introduced a new mechanism which allows user provided extensions of the automatic schema evolution that can be used in object-wise, member-wise and split modes. This paper will describe the many possibilities ranging from the simple assignment of transient members to the complex reorganization of the user's object model.

Online emotional support delivered by trained volunteers: users' satisfaction and their perception of the service compared to psychotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumel, Amit

2015-01-01

Technology could answer the substantial need in human resources available for supporting those who suffer from mental illness, by providing scalable methods to train and engage non-professionals to those who need their support. 7 Cups of Tea (7COT) platform was chosen for this study, because it provides a good case study for examining this kind of solution. The aim of this paper was to provide empirical findings regarding users' satisfaction with online emotional support provided by trained volunteers and how it is perceived in comparison to psychotherapy. An online survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 7COT users. The findings showed high user satisfaction with the support provided by 7COT listeners and, on average, users who indicated to receive psychotherapy in their past marked the listeners' support to be as helpful as psychotherapy. Relating to psychotherapy and online emotional support advantages, different advantages were found. The findings suggest that receiving support from volunteers makes users feel that the support is more genuine. The paper provides preliminary evidence that people in emotional distress may find non-professionals support delivered through the use of technology to be helpful. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Interface support of fault diagnosis strategies : a user-driven approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schaaf, van der T.W.; Brinkman, J.A.

1993-01-01

In this paper an overview is presented of a research program to provide interface designers with guidelines to support process control- and fault diagnosis tasks by control-room operators. Different methods of eliciting information needs of end-users had to be developed, as explained by an

VERA-CS User Support Activities for PoR 14

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kochunas, Brendan [Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2017-11-01

The purpose of this milestone is to document the user support activities that took place between 10/1/2016 and 3/31/2017 (PoR 14). In the normal PHI workflow, that also extends to several activities within RTM, a Kanban process is followed. This involves creating tickets for specific work items and track the progress to complete these specific work items.

Supporting User Generated Content for Mobile News Services: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christos K. Georgiadis

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Web 2.0 applications encourage users to contribute to the production of richer content. In this context, our work mainly focuses on providing mobile users the ability to share content and to support user generated content production. Specifically, in our case study, features both for a mobile Web and for a mobile native application are implemented, capable of providing news services enriched with indicative social networking elements. The results of our work are largely related to the understanding of the required proper solutions, based on the investigation of serious technical challenges: the XML‐RPC library for the Android platform is exploited, as well as a specific Backend Joomla! component is built (Rsstoa to handle consistently external content sources, such as feeds and multipart emails.

Software-Supported USER Cloning Strategies for Site-Directed Mutagenesis and DNA Assembly

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Genee, Hans Jasper; Bonde, Mads Tvillinggaard; Bagger, Frederik Otzen

2015-01-01

USER cloning is a fast and versatile method for engineering of plasmid DNA. We have developed a user friendly Web server tool that automates the design of optimal PCR primers for several distinct USER cloning-based applications. Our Web server, named AMUSER (Automated DNA Modifications with USER...... cloning), facilitates DNA assembly and introduction of virtually any type of site-directed mutagenesis by designing optimal PCR primers for the desired genetic changes. To demonstrate the utility, we designed primers for a simultaneous two-position site-directed mutagenesis of green fluorescent protein...... (GFP) to yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), which in a single step reaction resulted in a 94% cloning efficiency. AMUSER also supports degenerate nucleotide primers, single insert combinatorial assembly, and flexible parameters for PCR amplification. AMUSER is freely available online at ....

Quantitative Decision Support Requires Quantitative User Guidance

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, L. A.

2009-12-01

Is it conceivable that models run on 2007 computer hardware could provide robust and credible probabilistic information for decision support and user guidance at the ZIP code level for sub-daily meteorological events in 2060? In 2090? Retrospectively, how informative would output from today’s models have proven in 2003? or the 1930’s? Consultancies in the United Kingdom, including the Met Office, are offering services to “future-proof” their customers from climate change. How is a US or European based user or policy maker to determine the extent to which exciting new Bayesian methods are relevant here? or when a commercial supplier is vastly overselling the insights of today’s climate science? How are policy makers and academic economists to make the closely related decisions facing them? How can we communicate deep uncertainty in the future at small length-scales without undermining the firm foundation established by climate science regarding global trends? Three distinct aspects of the communication of the uses of climate model output targeting users and policy makers, as well as other specialist adaptation scientists, are discussed. First, a brief scientific evaluation of the length and time scales at which climate model output is likely to become uninformative is provided, including a note on the applicability the latest Bayesian methodology to current state-of-the-art general circulation models output. Second, a critical evaluation of the language often employed in communication of climate model output, a language which accurately states that models are “better”, have “improved” and now “include” and “simulate” relevant meteorological processed, without clearly identifying where the current information is thought to be uninformative and misleads, both for the current climate and as a function of the state of the (each) climate simulation. And thirdly, a general approach for evaluating the relevance of quantitative climate model output

A one-year longitudinal qualitative study of peer support services in a non-Western context: The perspectives of peer support workers, service users, and co-workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Tse, Samson; Mak, Winnie W S; Lo, Iris W K; Liu, Lucia L; Yuen, Winnie W Y; Yau, Sania; Ho, Kimmy; Chan, Sau-Kam; Wong, Stephen

2017-09-01

This study explored the changing views of key stakeholders (peer support workers, their co-workers, and service users) about peer support services in a non-Western community, using a longitudinal qualitative approach. Five trainee peer support workers (PSWs), 15 service users, and 14 co-workers were interviewed over a 12-month period, under the auspices of the Peer Support Workers Project (also known as the Mindset project) in Hong Kong. A total of 77 interviews were transcribed and thematic analyses were conducted across the participant groups at three different time points (training, work placements, and employment). During the initial implementation of the services, uncertainty about the role of the PSWs were reported. However, trusting and beneficial relationships with service users were gradually built, showing growing resilience and confidence over time. The participants realized that PSWs' experiences of mental illnesses were a unique asset that could help service users to alleviate their own somatic symptoms and improve their connections with others. Our findings highlight that the perceptions of peer support services changed from confusion to viewing PSWs as an asset, to an awareness of the importance of family support, and to the belief that implementing such a program will benefit both service users and PSWs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An evaluation of an employment pilot to support forensic mental health service users into work and vocational activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Samele, Chiara; Forrester, Andrew; Bertram, Mark

2018-02-01

Few employment programmes exist to support forensic service users with severe mental health problems and a criminal history. Little is known about how best to achieve this. The Employment and Social Inclusion Project (ESIP) was developed and piloted to support forensic service users into employment and vocational activities. This pilot service evaluation aimed to assess the number of service users who secured employment/vocational activities and explored services users' and staff experiences. Quantitative data were collected to record the characteristics of participating service users and how many secured employment and engaged in vocational activities. Eighteen qualitative interviews were conducted with service users and staff. Fifty-seven service users engaged with the project, most were men (93.0%) and previously employed (82.5%). Four service users (7.0%) secured paid competitive employment. Eight (14.0%) gained other paid employment. Tailored one-to-one support to increase skills and build confidence was an important feature of the project. Creation of a painting and decorating programme offered training and paid/flexible work. This exploratory project achieved some success in assisting forensic service users into paid employment. Further research to identify what works well for this important group will be of great value.

ICT-Supported end User Participation in Creative and Innovative Building Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansson, Per; Dybro, U.; Svidt, Kjeld

2010-01-01

engineering and architectural companies. Experiences from design of the two companies’ new headquarters were used as input to method development and they have as well provided cases for method evaluations. The method supports user involvement in every phase of the design and construction process...

End-user support for a primary care electronic medical record: a qualitative case study of a vendor’s perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aviv Shachak

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Background In primary care settings, users often rely on vendors to provide support for health information technology (HIT. Yet, little is known about the vendors’ perspectives on the support they provide, how support personnel perceive their roles, the challenges they face and the ways they deal with them.Objective To provide in-depth insight into an electronic-medical record (EMR vendor’s perspective on end-user support.Methods As part of a larger case study research, we conducted nine semi-structured interviews with help desk staff, trainers and service managers of an EMR vendor, and observed two training sessions of a new client.Results With a growing client base, the vendor faced challenges of support staff shortage and high variance in users’ technical knowledge. Additionally, users sometimes needed assistance with infrastructure, and not just software problems. These challenges sometimes hindered the provision of timely support and required supporters to possess good interpersonal skills and adapt to diverse client population.Conclusion This study highlights the complexity of providing end-user support for HIT. With increased adoption, other vendors are likely to face similar challenges. To deal with these issues, supporters need not only strong technical knowledge of the systems, but also good interpersonal communication skills. Some responsibilities may be delegated to super-users. Users may find it useful to hire local IT staff, at least on an on-call basis, to provide assistance with infrastructure problems, which are not supported by the software vendor. Vendors may consider expanding their service packages to cover these elements.

User profiles of a smartphone application to support drug adherence--experiences from the iNephro project.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Becker

Full Text Available PURPOSE: One of the key problems in the drug therapy of patients with chronic conditions is drug adherence. In 2010 the initiative iNephro was launched (www.inephro.de. A software to support regular and correct drug intake was developed for a smartphone platform (iOS. The study investigated whether and how smartphone users deployed such an application. METHODS: Together with cooperating partners the mobile application "Medikamentenplan" ("Medication Plan" was developed. Users are able to keep and alter a list of their regular medication. A memory function supports regular intake. The application can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store™ by Apple™. After individual consent of users from December 2010 to April 2012 2042338 actions were recorded and analysed from the downloaded applications. Demographic data were collected from 2279 users with a questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall the application was used by 11688 smartphone users. 29% (3406/11688 used it at least once a week for at least four weeks. 27% (3209/11688 used the application for at least 84 days. 68% (1554/2279 of users surveyed were male, the stated age of all users was between 6-87 years (mean 44. 74% of individuals (1697 declared to be suffering from cardiovascular disease, 13% (292 had a previous history of transplantation, 9% (205 were suffering from cancer, 7% (168 reported an impaired renal function and 7% (161 suffered from diabetes mellitus. 69% (1568 of users were on <6 different medications, 9% (201 on 6 - 10 and 1% (26 on more than 10. CONCLUSION: A new smartphone application, which supports drug adherence, was used regularly by chronically ill users with a wide range of diseases over a longer period of time. The majority of users so far were middle-aged and male.

Graphical User Interface Development and Design to Support Airport Runway Configuration Management

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Debra G.; Lenox, Michelle; Onal, Emrah; Latorella, Kara A.; Lohr, Gary W.; Le Vie, Lisa

2015-01-01

The objective of this effort was to develop a graphical user interface (GUI) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) System Oriented Runway Management (SORM) decision support tool to support runway management. This tool is expected to be used by traffic flow managers and supervisors in the Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities.

Supporting Shared Resource Usage for a Diverse User Community: the OSG Experience and Lessons Learned

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garzoglio, Gabriele; Levshina, Tanya; Sehgal, Chander; Slyz, Marko; Rynge, Mats

2012-01-01

The Open Science Grid (OSG) supports a diverse community of new and existing users in adopting and making effective use of the Distributed High Throughput Computing (DHTC) model. The LHC user community has deep local support within the experiments. For other smaller communities and individual users the OSG provides consulting and technical services through the User Support area. We describe these sometimes successful and sometimes not so successful experiences and analyze lessons learned that are helping us improve our services. The services offered include forums to enable shared learning and mutual support, tutorials and documentation for new technology, and troubleshooting of problematic or systemic failure modes. For new communities and users, we bootstrap their use of the distributed high throughput computing technologies and resources available on the OSG by following a phased approach. We first adapt the application and run a small production campaign on a subset of “friendly” sites. Only then do we move the user to run full production campaigns across the many remote sites on the OSG, adding to the community resources up to hundreds of thousands of CPU hours per day. This scaling up generates new challenges – like no determinism in the time to job completion, and diverse errors due to the heterogeneity of the configurations and environments – so some attention is needed to get good results. We cover recent experiences with image simulation for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), small-file large volume data movement for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), civil engineering simulation with the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), and accelerator modeling with the Electron Ion Collider group at BNL. We will categorize and analyze the use cases and describe how our processes are evolving based on lessons learned.

TESTAR : Tool Support for Test Automation at the User Interface Level

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vos, Tanja E.J.; Kruse, Peter M.; Condori Fernandez, Nelly; Bauersfeld, Sebastian; Wegener, Joachim

2015-01-01

Testing applications with a graphical user interface (GUI) is an important, though challenging and time consuming task. The state of the art in the industry are still capture and replay tools, which may simplify the recording and execution of input sequences, but do not support the tester in finding

Usability Evaluation for Business Intelligence Applications: A User Support Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrisna Jooste

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Business Intelligence (BI applications provide business information to drive decision support. Usability is one of the factors determining the optimal use and eventual benefit derived from BI applications. The documented need for more BI usability research together with the practical necessity for BI evaluation guidelines in the mining industry provides the rationale for this study. The purpose of the study was to investigate the usability evaluation of BI applications in the context of a coal mining organization. The research is guided by the question: How can existing usability criteria be customized to evaluate the usability of BI applications. The research design included user observation, heuristic evaluation and a survey. Based on observations made during user support on a BI application used at a coal mining organization a log of usability issues was compiled. The usability issues extracted from this log was compared and contrasted with general usability criteria from literature to synthesize an initial set of BI usability evaluation criteria. These criteria were used as the basis for a heuristic evaluation of the BI application used at the coal mining organization. The same BI application was also evaluated using the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI standardized questionnaire. The results from the two evaluations were triangulated and then compared with the BI user issues again to contextualize the findings and synthesize a validated and refined set of criteria. The main contribution of the study is the usability evaluation criteria for BI applications presented as guidelines. These guidelines deviate from existing evaluation guidelines in the emphasis on information architecture, learnability and operability.

[The characteristics of and social support for pathological gamblers among "pachinko" or "slot" users in Japan].

Science.gov (United States)

Kumagami, Takashi

2014-01-01

In Japan, there are one to two million people suspected of being pathological gamblers according to the definition in DSM-IV-TR. Almost all of them use "pachinko" or "slot," which are gambling stores, throughout Japan, that number 12,000 in total. However, the characteristics and ratio of pathological "pachinko" and "slot" gamblers have not been investigated. The author aimed to determine the characteristics, ratio, and social support available for these users. The author administered an internet survey for users of "pachinko" or "slot." Two hundred and fifty users visited "pachinko" or "slot" stores more than twice a week, and 250 users visited once a week or once a month. The Japanese version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen was administered, and gamblers were asked about their awareness of pathological gambling and the condition of their social support. The author observed that 70.2% of "pachinko" or "slot" users were suspected pathological gamblers and 28.6% of "pachinko" or "slot" users were severe gamblers. A total of 39.3% of them were aware of their pathological gambling, and 6.5% of users who had awareness of pathological gambling had social support. However, most of their social support consisted of family and friends, and almost none of them attended psychiatric clinics, community health centers, or self-help groups like gamblers anonymous. Almost all "pachinko" or "slot" users were suspected of being pathological or severe gamblers. However, they did not approach psychiatric facilities or self-help groups. The author strongly recommends the need for educational programs in junior or high school to prevent future pathological gambling, and create awareness of the dangers of pathological gambling through TV commercials and "pachinko" or "slot" stores. Pathological gambling is a disease that afflicts many people; hence, psychiatric and social welfare professionals should continue to stress the dangers of and offer prevention programs for "pachinko" or

Winning end users active support to demand side response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Osorio, Jose [Rede Electrica Nacional, S.A., Lisbon (Portugal); Estanqueiro, Ana [Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), Lisbon (Portugal)

2012-07-01

While objectives proposed for Smart Grids and Smart metering may seem to be able to win easily end user's supports, a considerable amount of studies on social behavior concerning energy efficiency and sustainability show the gap between the values people would like to fulfill and their real life performance. As TSOs envision here a source of System Ancillary Services, measures to make the source really dependable, so that an adequate market design may really work are pointed out. (orig.)

Migration of Monte Carlo simulation of high energy atmospheric showers to GRID infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vazquez, Adolfo; Contreras, Jose Luis [Grupo de Altas EnergIas Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear Universidad Complutense de Madrid Avenida Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid - Spain (Spain); Calle, Ignacio de la; Ibarra, Aitor; Tapiador, Daniel, E-mail: avazquez@gae.ucm.e [INSA. IngenierIa y Servicios Aeroespaciales S.A. Paseo Pintor Rosales 34, 28008 Madrid - Spain (Spain)

2010-04-01

A system to run Monte Carlo simulations on a Grid environment is presented. The architectural design proposed uses the current resources of the MAGIC Virtual Organization on EGEE and can be easily generalized to support the simulation of any similar experiment, such as that of the future European planned project, the Cherenkov Telescope Array. The proposed system is based on a Client/Server architecture, and provides the user with a single access point to the simulation environment through a remote graphical user interface, the Client. The Client can be accessed via web browser, using web service technology, with no additional software installation on the user side required. The Server processes the user request and uses a database for both data catalogue and job management inside the Grid. The design, first production tests and lessons learned from the system will be discussed here.

Migration of Monte Carlo simulation of high energy atmospheric showers to GRID infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vazquez, Adolfo; Contreras, Jose Luis; Calle, Ignacio de la; Ibarra, Aitor; Tapiador, Daniel

2010-01-01

A system to run Monte Carlo simulations on a Grid environment is presented. The architectural design proposed uses the current resources of the MAGIC Virtual Organization on EGEE and can be easily generalized to support the simulation of any similar experiment, such as that of the future European planned project, the Cherenkov Telescope Array. The proposed system is based on a Client/Server architecture, and provides the user with a single access point to the simulation environment through a remote graphical user interface, the Client. The Client can be accessed via web browser, using web service technology, with no additional software installation on the user side required. The Server processes the user request and uses a database for both data catalogue and job management inside the Grid. The design, first production tests and lessons learned from the system will be discussed here.

A multi VO Grid infrastructure at DESY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gellrich, Andreas

2010-01-01

As a centre for research with particle accelerators and synchrotron light, DESY operates a Grid infrastructure in the context of the EU-project EGEE and the national Grid initiative D-GRID. All computing and storage resources are located in one Grid infrastructure which supports a number of Virtual Organizations of different disciplines, including non-HEP groups such as the Photon Science community. Resource distribution is based on fair share methods without dedicating hardware to user groups. Production quality of the infrastructure is guaranteed by embedding it into the DESY computer centre.

Service user experiences of specialist mental health supported accommodation: A systematic review of qualitative studies and narrative synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Krotofil, Joanna; McPherson, Peter; Killaspy, Helen

2018-04-02

Specialist supported accommodation services have become a key component of most community-based mental healthcare systems. While mental health policies highlight the importance of service user involvement in service development and care planning, there are no comprehensive literature reviews synthesising services users' perspectives on, or experiences of, supported accommodation services. This systematic review was undertaken to fill this gap. We searched electronic databases (January 2015, updated June 2017), conducted hand searches and used forward-backward snowballing to identify 13,678 papers. We inspected the full-text of 110 papers and included 50 of these in the final review. Data extraction and quality assessments were conducted. We used narrative synthesis to develop a conceptual model of service users' experiences that included structural, process, relational and contextual factors, such as the characteristics of the service, relationships with staff and other service users, the intensity and nature of support, the physical environment, and social and community integration. The review highlights the complex interplay of individual, service-level and community factors in shaping the lived experience of service users and their impact on personal identity and recovery. Our approach addressed some of the widely reported limitations of the quantitative research in this field, providing a conceptual model relevant to service user experiences across supported accommodation service types, population groups and countries. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Simultaneous communication supports learning in noise by cochlear implant users.

Science.gov (United States)

Blom, Helen; Marschark, Marc; Machmer, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

This study sought to evaluate the potential of using spoken language and signing together (simultaneous communication, SimCom, sign-supported speech) as a means of improving speech recognition, comprehension, and learning by cochlear implant (CI) users in noisy contexts. Forty eight college students who were active CI users, watched videos of three short presentations, the text versions of which were standardized at the 8 th -grade reading level. One passage was presented in spoken language only, one was presented in spoken language with multi-talker babble background noise, and one was presented via simultaneous communication with the same background noise. Following each passage, participants responded to 10 (standardized) open-ended questions designed to assess comprehension. Indicators of participants' spoken language and sign language skills were obtained via self-reports and objective assessments. When spoken materials were accompanied by signs, scores were significantly higher than when materials were spoken in noise without signs. Participants' receptive spoken language skills significantly predicted scores in all three conditions; neither their receptive sign skills nor age of implantation predicted performance. Students who are CI users typically rely solely on spoken language in the classroom. The present results, however, suggest that there are potential benefits of simultaneous communication for such learners in noisy settings. For those CI users who know sign language, the redundancy of speech and signs potentially can offset the reduced fidelity of spoken language in noise. Accompanying spoken language with signs can benefit learners who are CI users in noisy situations such as classroom settings. Factors associated with such benefits, such as receptive skills in signed and spoken modalities, classroom acoustics, and material difficulty need to be empirically examined.

Ege Bölgesi Zeytinyağlarının Fenolik Bileşenleri

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Hüseyin Kara

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Bu çalışmada, Türkiye’de başlıca zeytin yetiştiriciliği yapan Ege bölgesinin bazı illerinden (Muğla, Aydın, İzmir ve Manisa 2 hasat dönemi (2007-2008 ve 2008-2009 süresince yerli zeytin çeşitlerinin (Gemlik, Memecik, Ayvalık, Uslu ve Domat yağı incelenmiştir. Bu yağların toplam fenolik madde ve fenolik bileşimi belirlenmiştir. Yağların toplam fenolik madde içeriği, 2007-2008 hasat dönemi örneklerinde 23,69-153,64 mg kafeik asit/kg, 2008-2009 hasat dönemi örneklerinde 16,18-136,22 mg kafeik asit/kg aralığında belirlenmiştir. Tüm zeytinyağı örneklerinde tespit edilen fenolik maddeler; tirozol, oleuropein, 4-hidroksifenil asetik asit, luteolin, vanilik asit, hidroksitirozol, rutin, sinnamik asit, verbaskozit, hidroksi fenilkarboksilik asit, sirinjik asit, 3,4-dihidroksibenzoik asit, kafeik asit, ferulik asit, p-kumarik asit, taksifolin ve apigenindir. Tirozol ve oleuropeinin, 2007-2008 hasat döneminde 1,80-13,39 mg/kg, 1,26-19,50 mg/kg ve 2008-2009 hasat döneminde ise 1,76-11,66 mg/kg, 0,20-13,12 mg/kg aralığında en fazla miktarda değişen bileşenler olduğu saptanmıştır.

ROBIN, a Telepresence Robot to Support Older Users Monitoring and Social Inclusion: Development and Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cortellessa, Gabriella; Fracasso, Francesca; Sorrentino, Alessandra; Orlandini, Andrea; Bernardi, Giulio; Coraci, Luca; De Benedictis, Riccardo; Cesta, Amedeo

2018-02-01

This article describes an enhanced telepresence robot named ROBIN, part of a telecare system derived from the GIRAFFPLUS project for supporting and monitoring older adults at home. ROBIN is integrated in a sensor-rich environment that aims to continuously monitor physical and psychological wellbeing of older persons living alone. The caregivers (formal/informal) can communicate through it with their assisted persons. Long-term trials in real houses highlighted several user requirements that inspired improvements on the robotic platform. The enhanced telepresence robot was assessed by users to test its suitability to support social interaction and provide motivational feedback on health-related aspects. Twenty-five users (n = 25) assessed the new multimodal interaction capabilities and new communication services. A psychophysiological approach was adopted to investigate aspects like engagement, usability, and affective impact, as well as the possible role of individual differences on the quality of human-robot interaction. ROBIN was overall judged usable, the interaction with/through it resulted pleasant and the required workload was limited, thus supporting the idea of using it as a central component for remote assistance and social participation. Open-minded users tended to have a more positive interaction with it. This work describes an enabling technology for remote assistance and social communication. It highlights the importance of being compliant with users' needs to develop solutions easy to use and able to foster their social connections. The role of personality appeared to be relevant for the interaction, underscoring a clear role of the service personalization.

Activity Monitors as Support for Older Persons' Physical Activity in Daily Life: Qualitative Study of the Users' Experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehn, Maria; Eriksson, Lennie Carlén; Åkerberg, Nina; Johansson, Ann-Christin

2018-02-01

Falls are a major threat to the health and independence of seniors. Regular physical activity (PA) can prevent 40% of all fall injuries. The challenge is to motivate and support seniors to be physically active. Persuasive systems can constitute valuable support for persons aiming at establishing and maintaining healthy habits. However, these systems need to support effective behavior change techniques (BCTs) for increasing older adults' PA and meet the senior users' requirements and preferences. Therefore, involving users as codesigners of new systems can be fruitful. Prestudies of the user's experience with similar solutions can facilitate future user-centered design of novel persuasive systems. The aim of this study was to investigate how seniors experience using activity monitors (AMs) as support for PA in daily life. The addressed research questions are as follows: (1) What are the overall experiences of senior persons, of different age and balance function, in using wearable AMs in daily life?; (2) Which aspects did the users perceive relevant to make the measurements as meaningful and useful in the long-term perspective?; and (3) What needs and requirements did the users perceive as more relevant for the activity monitors to be useful in a long-term perspective? This qualitative interview study included 8 community-dwelling older adults (median age: 83 years). The participants' experiences in using two commercial AMs together with tablet-based apps for 9 days were investigated. Activity diaries during the usage and interviews after the usage were exploited to gather user experience. Comments in diaries were summarized, and interviews were analyzed by inductive content analysis. The users (n=8) perceived that, by using the AMs, their awareness of own PA had increased. However, the AMs' impact on the users' motivation for PA and activity behavior varied between participants. The diaries showed that self-estimated physical effort varied between participants and

Impact on Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults with Eosinophilic Gastritis and Gastroenteritis: A Qualitative Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Bedell, Alyse; Taft, Tiffany; Craven, Meredith R; Guadagnoli, Livia; Hirano, Ikuo; Gonsalves, Nirmala

2018-05-01

Eosinophilic gastritis (EG) and eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EGE) are chronic immune-mediated conditions of the digestive tract, which affect the stomach only, or the stomach and small intestines, respectively. Though these disorders are uncommon, they are being increasingly recognized and diagnosed. While health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been evaluated in other eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases, this study is the first to describe HRQOL impacts unique to EG/EGE. This study aims to qualitatively describe experiences of adults diagnosed with EG and EGE. We aim to identify impacts on HRQOL in this population in order to inform clinical care and assessment. Seven patients diagnosed with EG or EGE participated in semi-structured interviews assessing common domains of HRQOL. Four distinct themes emerged from qualitative analyses, which represent impacts to HRQOL: the psychological impact of the diagnosis, impact on social relationships, financial impact, and impact on the body. These generally improved over time and with effective treatment. This study demonstrated that patients with EG/EGE experience impacts to HRQOL, some of which differ from HRQOL of other eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases. These results support the development of a disease-specific measure, or adaptation of an existing measure, to assess HRQOL in EG/EGE.

Performance Support Systems: Integrating AI, Hypermedia, and CBT to Enhance User Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

McGraw, Karen L.

1994-01-01

Examines the use of a performance support system (PSS) to enhance user performance on an operational system. Highlights include background information that describes the stimulus for PSS development; discussion of the major PSS components and the technology they require; and discussion of the design of a PSS for a complex database system.…

StreetWise: developing a serious game to support forensic mental health service users' preparation for discharge: a feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Reynolds, L M; Davies, J P; Mann, B; Tulloch, S; Nidsjo, A; Hodge, P; Maiden, N; Simpson, A

2017-05-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Serious gaming can support learning and development. The use of serious games for skills development and the rehearsal of the management of events that cannot be replicated in real life is well established. Few serious games have been used in mental health services, and none in forensic mental health care. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: How a serious game may be coproduced by forensic mental health service users and game developers The acceptability of the therapeutic use of serious gaming by forensic mental health service users and providers. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Computer games may be used by practitioners in their therapeutic work with forensic mental health service users. Mental health nurses to use serious games to creatively and safely bridge the gap for service users between receiving care in controlled environments and living more independent in the community. Introduction Assessment of users' skills and confidence to safely respond to risky community-based situations underpins discharge planning. Serious games have been used for skills development, and this study trialled their use in forensic mental health services. Aim The aim was to develop and test the acceptability and usability of an innovative serious game to support forensic mental health service users' preparation for discharge. Method A prototype serious game was developed by service users and researchers. Acceptability and usability testing was undertaken and service providers interviewed about the acceptability of serious gaming for forensic mental health services. Result A prototype game was produced and successfully trialled by service users. However, both service users and providers identified that work needed to be done to develop and test a game with greater complexity. Discussion The acceptability and usability of using serious games to support service users to develop skills needed for successful discharge was demonstrated

"Recovery" in bipolar disorder: how can service users be supported through a self-management intervention? A qualitative focus group study.

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, Nicholas J; Jones, Steven H; Lobban, Fiona A

2012-04-01

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and recurrent affective disorder. Recovery is defined as the process by which people can live fulfilling lives despite experiencing symptoms. To explore how an opportunistically recruited group of service users with BD experience recovery and self-management to understand more about how a service users' recovery may be supported. Twelve service users with BD took part in a series of focus groups. Service users' responses to questions about their personal experiences of self-management and recovery were analysed. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis ([ Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101]) was employed to identify common themes in the data. Four key themes were identified: (1) Recovery is not about being symptom free; (2) Recovery requires taking responsibility for your own wellness; (3) Self-management: building on existing techniques; (4) Overcoming barriers to recovery: negativity, stigma and taboo. Service users with BD have provided further support for the concept of recovery and have suggested a number of ways recovery can be supported. A self-management approach informed by the recovery literature has been proposed as a way to support service users' recovery.

Supporting workers with mental health problems to retain employment: users' experiences of a UK job retention project.

Science.gov (United States)

Cameron, Josh; Walker, Carl; Hart, Angie; Sadlo, Gaynor; Haslam, Imogen; Retain Support Group

2012-01-01

To understand experiences and perspectives of job retention project users in relation to challenges faced and support received; to develop explanatory insight into effective interventions. 14 employed users of a United Kingdom job retention project, with a range of mental health problems. Semi-structured individual interviews which were collaboratively designed with service users. Data analysis involved deductive & inductive thematic analysis, constant comparative analysis, and service user collaboration. Participants' feelings of guilt and self blame were a major obstacle to job retention. The project helped them address these by supporting a reappraisal of their situation. This assisted identification of job accommodations and adjustments and confidence in self advocacy. Thus an important basis for improved dialogue with their employer was established. A peer support group provided an important adjunct to individual project worker interventions. 10 participants retained employment; three of those who did not were helped to retain work aspirations. The project effectively used a multi-faceted approach involving a person - environment-occupation focus on the worker, their work, and workplace. Such complex interventions may offer more promise than those interventions (such as cognitive behavioural therapy) which have a primary focus on the individual worker.

A new service support tool for COSMO-SkyMed: civil user coordination service and civil request management optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Daraio, M. G.; Battagliere, M. L.; Sacco, P.; Fasano, L.; Coletta, A.

2015-10-01

COSMO-SkyMed is a dual-use program for both civilian and defense provides user community (institutional and commercial) with SAR data in several environmental applications. In the context of COSMO-SkyMed data and User management, one of the aspects carefully monitored is the user satisfaction level, it is links to satisfaction of submitted user requests. The operational experience of the first years of operational phase, and the consequent lessons learnt by the COSMO-SkyMed data and user management, have demonstrated that a lot of acquisition rejections are due to conflicts (time conflicts or system conflicts) among two or more civilian user requests, and they can be managed and solved implementing an improved coordination of users and their requests on a daily basis. With this aim a new Service Support Tool (SST) has been designed and developed to support the operators in the User Request coordination. The Tool allow to analyze conflicts among Acquisition Requests (ARs) before the National Rankization phase and to elaborate proposals for conflict resolution. In this paper the most common causes of the occurred rejections will be showed, for example as the impossibility to aggregate different orders, and the SST functionalities will be described, in particular how it works to remove or minimize the conflicts among different orders.

A Proposal of Product Development Collaboration Method Using User Support Information and its Experimental Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Mitsuru; Kataoka, Masatoshi; Koizumi, Hisao

As the market changes more rapidly and new products continue to get more complex and multifunctional, product development collaboration with competent partners and leading users is getting more important to come up with new products that are successful in the market in a timely manner. ECM (engineering chain management) and SCM (supply chain management) are supply-side approaches toward this collaboration. In this paper, we propose a demand-side approach toward product development collaboration with users based on the information gathered through user support interactions. The approach and methodology proposed here was applied to a real data set, and its effectiveness was verified.

SURFACE DISTRIBUTION MODELLING FOR PRECIPITATION IN THE EGE REGION EGE BÖLGESİ’NDE YAĞIŞIN YÜZEYSEL DAĞILIM MODELLEMESİ

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammet BAHADIR

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The scope of this study was the surface distribution modeling of precipitation in Anatolia and the Aegean Region which covers the western part of our country. The precipitation was handled in terms of 10 year segments and applied with Interactive 3D Analysis, Geographically Intensive Regression, Radial Basis Function and Quadratic Trend Analysis after which a precipitation dispersion map was established. It was concluded that planetary factors had a primary impact on the dispersion and change of precipitation in the region. On the other hand, topographical characteristics were determining for local precipitation changes, it was particularly evident that the northern parts of the mountains subject to exposure received more precipitation. The temporal changes in the precipitation of the region has shown a general declining trend from 1975 up to 2010. Although the declined amount is more pronounced on the coastal parts, the situation is more critical in the inland parts with less precipitation. According to trend analysis results targeting the future, indications pertaining to the continuation of the declining precipitatıon trend have been observed Bu çalışmada Anadolu’nun ve ülkemizin batı kesimini kapsayan Ege Bölgesi’nde yağışın yüzeysel dağılım modellemesi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yağışa 10’ar yıllık dönemler halinde Etkileşimli 3D Analizi, Coğrafi Ağırlıklı Regresyon, Radial Basis Function ve Quadratic Trend Analizleri uygulanmış ve yağış dağılış haritaları oluşturulmuştur. Bölgede yağışın dağılışı ve değişimi üzerinde plenater faktörlerin birinci derecede etkili olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Yağışın lokal değişimleri üzerinde ise topoğrafik özellikler belirleyici olmuş, özellikle dağların kuzey kesimleri bakıya bağlı olarak daha fazla yağış aldığı tespit edilmiştir. Bölgede yağışın zamansal değişiminde, 1975’den 2010 yılına kadar genel anlamda

HANARO user support and development of data base for HANARO utilization information and knowledge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seong, Baek Seok; Lee, J. S.; Sim, C. M. [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2004-06-15

The purpose of this project is to support external user for the promotion of HANARO common utilization effectively. To do this, external manpower was recruited and trained. Also, in order to find out and cultivate HANARO user, practice-oriented education was done. The total number of project selected as the promotion of HANARO common utilization was 44 in this year. These composed of four fields such as neutron beam utilization, materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, neutron activation analysis and radioisotope production. In each field, the numbers of project were 27, 9, 5 and 3 respectively. Also, from the utilization time point of view, total supporting ratio was reached to average 15% over four fields. In each field, it was 33% for neutron beam utilization, 24% for materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, 70% for neutron activation analysis and 12% for radioisotope production. In order to contribute finding and cultivating of HANARO potential user and increase utilization ratio of HANARO experimental facility, practice-oriented HANARO user education has been done. All participants from industries, universities, institutes were educated and practiced on instrument in the various fields such as neutron beam applications, materials/nuclear materials irradiation test, and neutron activation analysis. 'HANARO (utilization and research)information management system' has been developed in an effort to create a single database. By having it available on the net, it will serve as HANARO's important 'Information Platform' along with HANARO web site

Personalization for Specific Users : Designing Decision Support Systems to Support Stimulating Learning Environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maruster, Laura; Faber, Niels R.; van Haren, Rob J.; Salvendy, G; Smith, MJ

2009-01-01

Creating adaptive systems becomes increasingly attractive in the context of specific groups of users, such as agricultural users. This group of users seems to differ with respect to information processing, knowledge management and learning styles. In this work we aim to offer directions toward

A Qualitative Evaluation of Contact Centre Dietitian Support and Electronic Motivational Messaging for eaTracker My Goals Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieffers, Jessica R L; Haresign, Helen; Mehling, Christine; Arocha, Jose F; Hanning, Rhona M

2018-06-01

To conduct a qualitative evaluation of adjunct supports (brief motivational messaging regarding goals delivered by email/website, contact centre dietitian assistance) offered by EatRight Ontario (ERO) for users of a website-based nutrition/activity goal setting/tracking feature (eaTracker "My Goals"). One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with My Goals users in Ontario (n = 18) and Alberta (n = 5) recruited via the eaTracker website and ERO contact centre dietitians (n = 5). Interview transcripts were analyzed using content analysis. Participants had mixed experiences and perspectives with ERO motivational messaging. Messages targeted towards specific goals (e.g., tips, recipes) were generally well-liked, and generic messages (e.g., eaTracker login reminders) were less useful. No interviewed users had contacted ERO dietitians regarding goals, and dietitians reported encountering few callers asking for assistance while using My Goals. Limited user knowledge was one explanation for this finding. Participants provided suggestions to enhance these supports. Electronic motivational messaging and contact centre dietitian assistance have the potential to support achievement of goals set with website-based features. When considering using electronic messaging, researchers and practitioners should consider message content and delivery tailoring. Marketing that focuses on how contact centre dietitians can assist website users with their goals is needed when services are used in naturalistic settings.

BASINs 4.0 Climate Assessment Tool (CAT): Supporting Documentation and User's Manual (Final Report)

Science.gov (United States)

EPA announced the availability of the report, BASINS 4.0 Climate Assessment Tool (CAT): Supporting Documentation and User's Manual. This report was prepared by the EPA's Global Change Research Program (GCRP), an assessment-oriented program, that sits within the Office of R...

Use of a design challenge to develop postural support devices for intermediate wheelchair users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brenda N. Onguti

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The provision of an appropriate wheelchair, one that provides proper fit and postural support, promotes wheelchair users’ physical health and quality of life. Many wheelchair users have postural difficulties, requiring supplemental postural support devices for added trunk support. However, in many low- and middle-income settings, postural support devices are inaccessible, inappropriate or unaffordable. This article describes the use of the design challenge model, informed by a design thinking approach, to catalyse the development of an affordable, simple and robust postural support device for low- and middle-income countries. The article also illustrates how not-for-profit organisations can utilise design thinking and, in particular, the design challenge model to successfully support the development of innovative solutions to product or process challenges.

Development of a Common User Interface for the Launch Decision Support System

Science.gov (United States)

Scholtz, Jean C.

1991-01-01

The Launch Decision Support System (LDSS) is software to be used by the NASA Test Director (NTD) in the firing room during countdown. This software is designed to assist the NTD with time management, that is, when to resume from a hold condition. This software will assist the NTD in making and evaluating alternate plans and will keep him advised of the existing situation. As such, the interface to this software must be designed to provide the maximum amount of information in the clearest fashion and in a timely manner. This research involves applying user interface guidelines to a mature prototype of LDSS and developing displays that will enable the users to easily and efficiently obtain information from the LDSS displays. This research also extends previous work on organizing and prioritizing human-computer interaction knowledge.

MOIRA Software Framework - Integrated User-friendly Shell for The Environmental Decision Support Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hofman, Dmitry; Nordlinder, Sture

2003-01-01

MOIRA DSS is a model-based computerised system for the identification of optimal remedial strategies to restore radionuclide contaminated fresh water environment The examples of the questions which decision-maker could address to the system are 'Is lake liming effective in reducing the radiocesium uptake by fish?', C an control of catchment run-off be an effective measure against further redistribution of radionuclides by river?', 'Is sediment removal worthwhile to reduce further contamination of the aquatic environment?'. The MOIRA system could help decision-maker to avoid implementation of inappropriate and expensive countermeasures. MOIRA gives the possibility to predict effeas of implementation of different types of the countermeasures and evaluate both 'ecological' and 'social' effect of the countermeasures. Decision support process using MOIRA DSS can be subdivided to the following steps: Definition of the site-specific environmental and socio-economic parameters using GIS-based data. Unknown site-specific data could be estimated using GIS-based models, default data for the socio-economic parameters, data directly provided by user. Providing data about fallout of the radionuclides. Definition of the time interval for which prognosis will be made. Definition of the alternative strategies of the countermeasures. Evaluation of the sequences of the implementation of the user-defined strategies and 'no actions' strategy using predictive models. Ranking strategies using Multi-Attribute Analysis Module (MAA) Preparation of the recommendations in the form of report. This process requires usage of several computerised tools such as predictive models, multi-attribute analysis software, geographical information system, data base. MOIRA software framework could be used as the basis for the creation of the wide range of the user-friendly and easy-to-learn decision support systems. It can also provide the advanced graphical user interface and data checking system for the

From an expert-driven paper guideline to a user-centred decision support system: a usability comparison study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kilsdonk, Ellen; Peute, Linda W.; Riezebos, Rinke J.; Kremer, Leontien C.; Jaspers, Monique W. M.

2013-01-01

To assess whether a user-centred prototype clinical decision support system (CDSS) providing patient-specific advice better supports healthcare practitioners in terms of (a) types of usability problems detected and (b) effective and efficient retrieval of childhood cancer survivor's follow-up

Service users' expectations of treatment and support at the Community Mental Health Centre in their recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Biringer, Eva; Davidson, Larry; Sundfør, Bengt; Ruud, Torleif; Borg, Marit

2017-09-01

Focus on service users' needs, coping and empowerment, user involvement, and comprehensiveness are supposed to be key elements of the Community Mental Health Centres in Norway. Taking a user-oriented approach means acknowledging the individual's own expectations, aims and hopes. However, studies that have investigated service users' expectations of treatment and support at Community Mental Health Centres are hard to find. The aim of the study was therefore to explore service users' expectations at the start of treatment at a Community Mental Health Centre. Within a collaborative framework, taking a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, ten service users participated in in-depth interviews about their expectations, hopes and aims for treatment and recovery. The participants sought help due to various mental health issues that had interfered with their lives and created disability and suffering. A data-driven stepwise approach in line with thematic analysis was used. The study was approved by the Norwegian Social Science Data Services. The following four main themes representing participants' expectations at the start of treatment were elicited: hope for recovery, developing understanding, finding tools for coping and receiving counselling and practical assistance. Participants' expectations about treatment were tightly interwoven with their personal aims and hopes for their future life, and expectations were often related to practical and financial problems, the solution of which being deemed necessary to gain a safe basis for recovery in the long run. The transferability of the results may be limited by the small number of participants. The study emphasises how important it is that service users' personal aims and expectations guide the collaborative treatment process. In addition to providing treatment aimed at improving symptoms, Community Mental Health Centres should take a more comprehensive approach than today by providing more support with family issues

Can existing mobile apps support healthier food purchasing behaviour? Content analysis of nutrition content, behaviour change theory and user quality integration.

Science.gov (United States)

Flaherty, Sarah-Jane; McCarthy, Mary; Collins, Alan; McAuliffe, Fionnuala

2018-02-01

To assess the quality of nutrition content and the integration of user quality components and behaviour change theory relevant to food purchasing behaviour in a sample of existing mobile apps. Descriptive comparative analysis of eleven mobile apps comprising an assessment of their alignment with existing evidence on nutrition, behaviour change and user quality, and their potential ability to support healthier food purchasing behaviour. Mobile apps freely available for public use in GoogePlay were assessed and scored according to agreed criteria to assess nutrition content quality and integration of behaviour change theory and user quality components. A sample of eleven mobile apps that met predefined inclusion criteria to ensure relevance and good quality. The quality of the nutrition content varied. Improvements to the accuracy and appropriateness of nutrition content are needed to ensure mobile apps support a healthy behaviour change process and are accessible to a wider population. There appears to be a narrow focus towards behaviour change with an overemphasis on behavioural outcomes and a small number of behaviour change techniques, which may limit effectiveness. A significant effort from the user was required to use the mobile apps appropriately which may negatively influence user acceptability and subsequent utilisation. Existing mobile apps may offer a potentially effective approach to supporting healthier food purchasing behaviour but improvements in mobile app design are required to maximise their potential effectiveness. Engagement of mobile app users and nutrition professionals is recommended to support effective design.

User interface issues in supporting human-computer integrated scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Lynne P.; Biefeld, Eric W.

1991-01-01

The topics are presented in view graph form and include the following: characteristics of Operations Mission Planner (OMP) schedule domain; OMP architecture; definition of a schedule; user interface dimensions; functional distribution; types of users; interpreting user interaction; dynamic overlays; reactive scheduling; and transitioning the interface.

Shining examples of grid applications

CERN Multimedia

Hammerle, Hannelore

2006-01-01

Users in more than 150 virtual organisations from fields as diverse as biomedicine, earth Sciences and high-energy physics are now using the distributed computing infrastructure of the enabling grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) project, which shows the wide adoption and versatiblity of this new technology (1 page)

HEPLIB '91: International users meeting on the support and environments of high energy physics computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnstad, H.

1991-01-01

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the current and future HEP computing support and environments from the perspective of new horizons in accelerator, physics, and computing technologies. Topics of interest to the Meeting include (but are limited to): the forming of the HEPLIB world user group for High Energy Physic computing; mandate, desirables, coordination, organization, funding; user experience, international collaboration; the roles of national labs, universities, and industry; range of software, Monte Carlo, mathematics, physics, interactive analysis, text processors, editors, graphics, data base systems, code management tools; program libraries, frequency of updates, distribution; distributed and interactive computing, data base systems, user interface, UNIX operating systems, networking, compilers, Xlib, X-Graphics; documentation, updates, availability, distribution; code management in large collaborations, keeping track of program versions; and quality assurance, testing, conventions, standards

Decision Support Model for User Submission Approval Energy Partners Candidate Using Profile Matching Method and Analytical Hierarchy Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moedjiono Moedjiono

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In the field of services, customer satisfaction is a very important factor and determine the success of an enterprise. In the field of outsourcing, customer satisfaction indicator is the labor required delivery in a timely manner and has a level of quality in accordance with the terms proposed by the customer. To provide the best talent to customers, team recruitment and selection must perform a series of tests with a variety of methods to match the criteria of office given by the user with the criteria owned candidates and in order to support growth in graduation rates force a partner at the stage of user approval. For this purpose, the authors conducted a study with the method of observation, interviews, document reviews the candidate recruitment process, so as to provide recommendations for candidates with the highest quality delivery to the user at the stage of approval. The author put forward a model of decision support that is supported by the method of profile matching and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP in problem solving. The final results of this study can be used to support a decision in order to improve the effectiveness of the delivery of quality candidates, increase customer satisfaction, lower costs and improve gross operational margin of the company.

QDD: a user-friendly program to select microsatellite markers and design primers from large sequencing projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Meglécz, Emese; Costedoat, Caroline; Dubut, Vincent; Gilles, André; Malausa, Thibaut; Pech, Nicolas; Martin, Jean-François

2010-02-01

QDD is an open access program providing a user-friendly tool for microsatellite detection and primer design from large sets of DNA sequences. The program is designed to deal with all steps of treatment of raw sequences obtained from pyrosequencing of enriched DNA libraries, but it is also applicable to data obtained through other sequencing methods, using FASTA files as input. The following tasks are completed by QDD: tag sorting, adapter/vector removal, elimination of redundant sequences, detection of possible genomic multicopies (duplicated loci or transposable elements), stringent selection of target microsatellites and customizable primer design. It can treat up to one million sequences of a few hundred base pairs in the tag-sorting step, and up to 50,000 sequences in a single input file for the steps involving estimation of sequence similarity. QDD is freely available under the GPL licence for Windows and Linux from the following web site: http://www.univ-provence.fr/gsite/Local/egee/dir/meglecz/QDD.html. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Designing Privacy Notices: Supporting User Understanding and Control

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, Patrick Gage

2013-01-01

Users are increasingly expected to manage complex privacy settings in their normal online interactions. From shopping to social networks, users make decisions about sharing their personal information with corporations and contacts, frequently with little assistance. Current solutions require consumers to read long documents or go out of their way…

Standards for the user interface - Developing a user consensus. [for Space Station Information System

Science.gov (United States)

Moe, Karen L.; Perkins, Dorothy C.; Szczur, Martha R.

1987-01-01

The user support environment (USE) which is a set of software tools for a flexible standard interactive user interface to the Space Station systems, platforms, and payloads is described in detail. Included in the USE concept are a user interface language, a run time environment and user interface management system, support tools, and standards for human interaction methods. The goals and challenges of the USE are discussed as well as a methodology based on prototype demonstrations for involving users in the process of validating the USE concepts. By prototyping the key concepts and salient features of the proposed user interface standards, the user's ability to respond is greatly enhanced.

Perspectives of self-direction: a systematic review of key areas contributing to service users' engagement and choice-making in self-directed disability services and supports.

Science.gov (United States)

Lakhani, Ali; McDonald, Donna; Zeeman, Heidi

2018-05-01

Self-directed disability support policies aim to encourage greater choice and control for service users in terms of the health and social care they receive. The proliferation of self-directed disability support policies throughout the developed world has resulted in a growing amount of research exploring the outcomes for service users, and their families and carers. Our understanding of the issues faced by people with disabilities, particularly how they make health and social care decisions and the key areas that determine their engagement with service providers within a self-directed environment is limited. A synthesis of research is timely and can provide knowledge for service users and health and social care support providers to ensure their successful participation. A systematic review guided by the PRISMA approach explored (i) the key areas determining service users' engagement with self-directed disability services and supports, and (ii) how service users make informed decisions about providers. In October 2014 and April 2016, three databases - MEDLINE, CINAHL and Web of Science - were searched for research and review articles. Eighteen sources met the search criteria. Findings were mapped into either: key areas determining service user engagement, or service users' informed decision-making. Findings concerning key areas determining engagement fell into three themes - personal responsibility for budgeting, personalised approaches, and a cultural shift in practice and delivery among service providers. Findings about decision-making yielded two themes - supporting informed decision-making and inhibiting informed decision-making. Literature suggests that self-directed models of care may provide service users with increased control over the services that they receive. Increased control for some service users and their families requires independent external decision-making support, particularly around the domains of budgeting, planning and hiring. Future research

A student-facilitated community-based support group initiative for Mental Health Care users in a Primary Health Care setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leana Meiring

2017-12-01

Methods: Qualitative research methods were applied. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a collage-making and storytelling method. Thematic analysis highlighted the main themes representing the meaning the five participants ascribed to the group. Results: The findings suggest that the group offered the participants a sense of belonging and a means of social and emotional support. The group also created opportunity for learning, encouraged mental and physical mobilisation and stimulation, and served as an additional link to professional services. Conclusion: The findings suggest that student-facilitated support groups could offer a viable supplement for offering support to service users in PHC settings. The group assisted MHC users to cope with symptoms, social integration, and participating in meaningful activities as part of rehabilitation services.

Characteristics of a self-management support programme applicable in primary health care: a qualitative study of users' and health professionals' perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Solberg, Hilde Strøm; Steinsbekk, Aslak; Solbjør, Marit; Granbo, Randi; Garåsen, Helge

2014-11-08

Development of more self-management support programmes in primary health care has been one option used to enhance positive outcomes in chronic disease management. At present, research results provide no consensus on what would be the best way to develop support programmes into new settings. The aim of the present study was therefore to explore users' and health professionals' perceptions of what would be the vital elements in a self - management support programme applicable in primary health care, how to account for them, and why. Four qualitative, semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted in Central Norway. The informants possessed experience in development, provision, or participation in a self-management support programme. Data was analysed by the Systematic Text Condensation method. The results showed an overall positive expectation to the potential benefits of development of a self-management support programme in primary health care. Despite somewhat different arguments and perspectives, the users and the health professionals had a joint agreement on core characteristics; a self-management support programme in primary health care should therefore be generic, not disease specific, and delivered in a group- based format. A special focus should be on the everyday- life of the participants. The most challenging aspect was a present lack of competence and experience among health professionals to moderate self-management support programmes. The development and design of a relevant and applicable self-management support programme in primary health care should balance the interests of the users with the possibilities and constraints within each municipality. It would be vital to benefit from the closeness of the patients' every-day life situations. The user informants' perception of a self-management support programme as a supplement to regular medical treatment represented an expanded understanding of the self-management support concept. An exploring

the present situation of smoking among col ege students and its inlfuencing factors%某高校大学生吸烟状况及影响因素分析

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

严锐

2014-01-01

目的：了解大学生吸烟现状及其影响因素，为大学生控烟提供科学依据。方法：自行设计问卷，采用分层整群抽样的方法，选择贵州某高校600例大学生为调查对象，描述大学生吸烟现状，采用logistic回归分析发现影响大学生吸烟行为的因素。结果：大学生尝试吸烟率为45.70%，吸烟率为17.53%。经logistic多因素回归分析发现吸烟行为受好友劝烟（OR=5.251，95%CI：2.943-9.369，P<0.05）、饮酒（OR=2.137，95%CI：1.162-3.929，P=0.0146）、对烟草危害认识度（OR=1.367，95%CI：1.0808-1.730，P=0.0092）、对烟草有害成分认知（OR=6.125，95%CI：2.314-16.216，P<0.05）、是否认为不接受别人递烟不礼貌（OR=3.147，95%CI：1.635-6.056，P<0.05）五个因素的影响。结论：应该改变大学生关于交际的认识，创造良好的氛围，同时对大学生饮酒进行控制，以引导大学生戒烟，促进大学生身心健康。%Objective:to investigation the present situation of smoking among col ege students and its inlfuencing factors, and to provide the scientiifc basis for col ege students’ smoking control. Methods:We adopt stratiifed cluster sampling method, choosing the hubei university of science and technology for 600 cases of college students as investigate object, describes the present situation of smoking col ege students, Finding the inlfuencing factors by logistic regression. Results:college students try-smoking was 45.70%, smoking was 17.53%. The logistic regression analysis found that smoking behavior inlfuenced by best friends advised smoke(OR=5.251, 95%CI:2.943-9.369,P<0.05), drinking alcohol (OR=2.137, 95%CI:1.162-3.929,P=0.0146), tobacco hazard to know whether degree(OR=1.367,95%CI:1.0808-1.730,P=0.0092), thinking that not accept others cigaret e is not polite factors (OR=3.147, 95%CI=1.635-6.056, P<0.05) Conclusion:We should change the understanding of college students’ communication, to create

Enterprise grid and the future of IT

CERN Multimedia

2007-01-01

Interview with Rolf Kubli, a fellow of EDS, a Switzerland-based technology services company and CERN openlab contributors, previews his presentation at this week's OGF20/EGEE User Forum event and shares his thoughts on its theme" "Beliefs about the future of IT and how they relate to the enterprise grid vision. (2,5 pages)

Reliability and Maintainability Model (RAM): User and Maintenance Manual. Part 2; Improved Supportability Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ebeling, Charles E.

1996-01-01

This report documents the procedures for utilizing and maintaining the Reliability & Maintainability Model (RAM) developed by the University of Dayton for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC). The purpose of the grant is to provide support to NASA in establishing operational and support parameters and costs of proposed space systems. As part of this research objective, the model described here was developed. This Manual updates and supersedes the 1995 RAM User and Maintenance Manual. Changes and enhancements from the 1995 version of the model are primarily a result of the addition of more recent aircraft and shuttle R&M data.

How to Develop a User Interface That Your Real Users Will Love

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Donald

2012-01-01

A "user interface" is the part of an interactive system that bridges the user and the underlying functionality of the system. But people sometimes forget that the best interfaces will provide a platform to optimize the users' interactions so that they support and extend the users' activities in effective, useful, and usable ways. To look at it…

User's manual (UM) for the enhanced logistics intratheater support tool (ELIST) database utility segment version 8.1.0.0 for solaris 7.; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dritz, K.

2002-01-01

This document is the User's Manual (UM) for the Enhanced Logistics Intratheater Support Tool (ELIST) Database Utility Segment. It tells how to use its features to administer ELIST database user accounts

In vitro pollen quantity, viability and germination tests in quince ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) cvs. Ekmek, Esme, Limon, Ege 2, Ege 22, Ege 25 and Quince-A rootstock pollens were collected in April from the unopened pink balloon-stage flowers on mature trees. The pollen amount was between 20063 pollen/flower ('Ege 25') and 11906 pollen/flower ('Limon') with hemacytometer.

Perceived effectiveness of environmental decision support systems in participatory planning: Evidence from small groups of end-users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Inman, D.; Blind, M.; Ribarova, I.; Krause, A.; Roosenschoon, O.R.; Kassahun, A.; Scholten, H.; Arampatzis, G.; Abrami, G.; McIntosh, B.S.; Jeffrey, P.

2011-01-01

The challenges associated with evaluating the effectiveness of environmental decision support systems (EDSS) based on the perceptions of only a small sample of end-users are well understood. Although methods adopted from Management Information Systems (MISs) evaluation research have benefited from

Development and usability testing of a web-based decision support for users and health professionals in psychiatric services.

Science.gov (United States)

Grim, Katarina; Rosenberg, David; Svedberg, Petra; Schön, Ulla-Karin

2017-09-01

Shared decision making (SMD) related to treatment and rehabilitation is considered a central component in recovery-oriented practice. Although decision aids are regarded as an essential component for successfully implementing SDM, these aids are often lacking within psychiatric services. The aim of this study was to use a participatory design to facilitate the development of a user-generated, web-based decision aid for individuals receiving psychiatric services. The results of this effort as well as the lessons learned during the development and usability processes are reported. The participatory design included 4 iterative cycles of development. Various qualitative methods for data collection were used with potential end users participating as informants in focus group and individual interviews and as usability and pilot testers. Interviewing and testing identified usability problems that then led to refinements and making the subsequent prototypes increasingly user-friendly and relevant. In each phase of the process, feedback from potential end-users provided guidance in developing the formation of the web-based decision aid that strengthens the position of users by integrating access to information regarding alternative supports, interactivity between staff and users, and user preferences as a continual focus in the tool. This web-based decision aid has the potential to strengthen service users' experience of self-efficacy and control as well as provide staff access to user knowledge and preferences. Studies employing participatory models focusing on usability have potential to significantly contribute to the development and implementation of tools that reflect user perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Advanced Displays and Natural User Interfaces to Support Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-SanJose, Juan-Fernando; Juan, M. -Carmen; Mollá, Ramón; Vivó, Roberto

2017-01-01

Advanced displays and natural user interfaces (NUI) are a very suitable combination for developing systems to provide an enhanced and richer user experience. This combination can be appropriate in several fields and has not been extensively exploited. One of the fields that this combination is especially suitable for is education. Nowadays,…

gLExec and MyProxy integration in the ATLAS/OSG PanDA workload management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caballero, J; Hover, J; Maeno, T; Potekhin, M; Wenaus, T; Zhao, X; Litmaath, M; Nilsson, P

2010-01-01

Worker nodes on the grid exhibit great diversity, making it difficult to offer uniform processing resources. A pilot job architecture, which probes the environment on the remote worker node before pulling down a payload job, can help. Pilot jobs become smart wrappers, preparing an appropriate environment for job execution and providing logging and monitoring capabilities. PanDA (Production and Distributed Analysis), an ATLAS and OSG workload management system, follows this design. However, in the simplest (and most efficient) pilot submission approach of identical pilots carrying the same identifying grid proxy, end-user accounting by the site can only be done with application-level information (PanDA maintains its own end-user accounting), and end-user jobs run with the identity and privileges of the proxy carried by the pilots, which may be seen as a security risk. To address these issues, we have enabled PanDA to use gLExec, a tool provided by EGEE which runs payload jobs under an end-user's identity. End-user proxies are pre-staged in a credential caching service, MyProxy, and the information needed by the pilots to access them is stored in the PanDA DB. gLExec then extracts from the user's proxy the proper identity under which to run. We describe the deployment, installation, and configuration of gLExec, and how PanDA components have been augmented to use it. We describe how difficulties were overcome, and how security risks have been mitigated. Results are presented from OSG and EGEE Grid environments performing ATLAS analysis using PanDA and gLExec.

Demographic and health related data of users of a mobile application to support drug adherence is associated with usage duration and intensity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Becker

Full Text Available A wealth of mobile applications are designed to support users in their drug intake. When developing software for patients, it is important to understand the differences between individuals who have, who will or who might never adopt mobile interventions. This study analyzes demographic and health-related factors associated with real-life "longer usage" and the "usage-intensity per day" of the mobile application "Medication Plan".Between 2010-2012, the mobile application "Medication Plan" could be downloaded free of charge from the Apple-App-Store. It was aimed at supporting the regular and correct intake of medication. Demographic and health-related data were collected via an online questionnaire. This study analyzed captured data.App-related activities of 1799 users (1708 complete data sets were recorded. 69% (1183/1708 applied "Medication Plan" for more than a day. 74% were male (872/1183, the median age 45 years. Variance analysis showed a significant effect of the users' age with respect to duration of usage (p = 0.025. While the mean duration of use was only 23.3 days for users younger than 21 years, for older users, there was a substantial increase over all age cohorts up to users of 60 years and above (103.9 days. Sex and educational status had no effect. "Daily usage intensity" was directly associated with an increasing number of prescribed medications and increased from an average of 1.87 uses per day and 1 drug per day to on average 3.71 uses per day for users stating to be taking more than 7 different drugs a day (p<0.001. Demographic predictors (sex, age and educational attainment did not affect usage intensity.Users aged 60+ as well as those with complicated therapeutic drug regimens relied on the service we provided for more than three months on average. Mobile applications may be a promising approach to support the treatment of patients with chronic conditions.

Supportive Mental Health Self-Monitoring among Smartphone Users with Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Fully Mobile Randomized Controlled Trial

OpenAIRE

Till Beiwinkel; Stefan Hey; Olaf Bock; Wulf Rössler; Wulf Rössler; Wulf Rössler

2017-01-01

Mobile health (mHealth) could be widely used in the population to improve access to psychological treatment. In this paper, we describe the development of a mHealth intervention on the basis of supportive self-monitoring and describe the protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness among smartphone users with psychological distress. Based on power analysis, a representative quota sample of N = 186 smartphone users will be recruited, with an over-sampling of persons...

Ecological information systems and support of learning: Coupling work domain information to user characteristics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pejtersen, Annelise Mark; Rasmussen, Jens

1997-01-01

This chapter presents a framework for design of work support systems for a modern, dynamic work environment in which stable work procedures are replaced with discretionary tasks and the request of continuous learning and adaptation to change. In this situation, classic task analysis is less effec...... in a dynamic environment is therefore a human-work interface directed towards a transparent presentation of the action possibilities and functional/intentional boundaries and constraints of the work domain relevant for typical task situations and user categories....

Duty of Care and Autonomy: How Support Workers Managed the Tension between Protecting Service Users from Risk and Promoting Their Independence in a Specialist Group Home

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, R.; Redley, M.; Holland, A. J.

2011-01-01

Background: In the UK those paid to support adults with intellectual disabilities must manage two potentially conflicting duties that are set out in policy documents as being vital to their role: protecting service users (their duty of care) and recognising service users' autonomy. This study focuses specifically on the support of people with the…

Supporting the Loewenstein occupational therapy cognitive assessment using distributed user interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Tesoriero, Ricardo; Gallud Lazaro, Jose A; Altalhi, Abdulrahman H

2017-02-01

Improve the quantity and quality of information obtained from traditional Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment Battery systems to monitor the evolution of patients' rehabilitation process as well as to compare different rehabilitation therapies. The system replaces traditional artefacts with virtual versions of them to take advantage of cutting edge interaction technology. The system is defined as a Distributed User Interface (DUI) supported by a display ecosystem, including mobile devices as well as multi-touch surfaces. Due to the heterogeneity of the devices involved in the system, the software technology is based on a client-server architecture using the Web as the software platform. The system provides therapists with information that is not available (or it is very difficult to gather) using traditional technologies (i.e. response time measurements, object tracking, information storage and retrieval facilities, etc.). The use of DUIs allows therapists to gather information that is unavailable using traditional assessment methods as well as adapt the system to patients' profile to increase the range of patients that are able to take this assessment. Implications for Rehabilitation Using a Distributed User Interface environment to carry out LOTCAs improves the quality of the information gathered during the rehabilitation assessment. This system captures physical data regarding patient's interaction during the assessment to improve the rehabilitation process analysis. Allows professionals to adapt the assessment procedure to create different versions according to patients' profile. Improves the availability of patients' profile information to therapists to adapt the assessment procedure.

Harnessing Facebook for Smoking Reduction and Cessation Interventions: Facebook User Engagement and Social Support Predict Smoking Reduction

Science.gov (United States)

Marsch, Lisa A; Brunette, Mary F; Dallery, Jesse

2017-01-01

Background Social media technologies offer a novel opportunity for scalable health interventions that can facilitate user engagement and social support, which in turn may reinforce positive processes for behavior change. Objective By using principles from health communication and social support literature, we implemented a Facebook group–based intervention that targeted smoking reduction and cessation. This study hypothesized that participants’ engagement with and perceived social support from our Facebook group intervention would predict smoking reduction. Methods We recruited 16 regular smokers who live in the United States and who were motivated in quitting smoking at screening. We promoted message exposure as well as engagement and social support systems throughout the intervention. For message exposure, we posted prevalidated, antismoking messages (such as national antismoking campaigns) on our smoking reduction and cessation Facebook group. For engagement and social support systems, we delivered a high degree of engagement and social support systems during the second and third week of the intervention and a low degree of engagement and social support systems during the first and fourth week. A total of six surveys were conducted via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) at baseline on a weekly basis and at a 2-week follow-up. Results Of the total 16 participants, most were female (n=13, 81%), white (n=15, 94%), and between 25 and 50 years of age (mean 34.75, SD 8.15). There was no study attrition throughout the 6-time-point baseline, weekly, and follow-up surveys. We generated Facebook engagement and social support composite scores (mean 19.19, SD 24.35) by combining the number of likes each participant received and the number of comments or wall posts each participant posted on our smoking reduction and cessation Facebook group during the intervention period. The primary outcome was smoking reduction in the past 7 days measured at baseline and at the two

NSI customer service representatives and user support office: NASA Science Internet

Science.gov (United States)

1991-01-01

The NASA Science Internet, (NSI) was established in 1987 to provide NASA's Offices of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) missions with transparent wide-area data connectivity to NASA's researchers, computational resources, and databases. The NSI Office at NASA/Ames Research Center has the lead responsibility for implementing a total, open networking program to serve the OSSA community. NSI is a full-service communications provider whose services include science network planning, network engineering, applications development, network operations, and network information center/user support services. NSI's mission is to provide reliable high-speed communications to the NASA science community. To this end, the NSI Office manages and operates the NASA Science Internet, a multiprotocol network currently supporting both DECnet and TCP/IP protocols. NSI utilizes state-of-the-art network technology to meet its customers' requirements. THe NASA Science Internet interconnects with other national networks including the National Science Foundation's NSFNET, the Department of Energy's ESnet, and the Department of Defense's MILNET. NSI also has international connections to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and several European countries. NSI cooperates with other government agencies as well as academic and commercial organizations to implement networking technologies which foster interoperability, improve reliability and performance, increase security and control, and expedite migration to the OSI protocols.

Metadata requirements for results of diagnostic imaging procedures: a BIIF profile to support user applications

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Nicholas J.; Lloyd, David S.; Reynolds, Melvin I.; Plummer, David L.

2002-05-01

A visible digital image is rendered from a set of digital image data. Medical digital image data can be stored as either: (a) pre-rendered format, corresponding to a photographic print, or (b) un-rendered format, corresponding to a photographic negative. The appropriate image data storage format and associated header data (metadata) required by a user of the results of a diagnostic procedure recorded electronically depends on the task(s) to be performed. The DICOM standard provides a rich set of metadata that supports the needs of complex applications. Many end user applications, such as simple report text viewing and display of a selected image, are not so demanding and generic image formats such as JPEG are sometimes used. However, these are lacking some basic identification requirements. In this paper we make specific proposals for minimal extensions to generic image metadata of value in various domains, which enable safe use in the case of two simple healthcare end user scenarios: (a) viewing of text and a selected JPEG image activated by a hyperlink and (b) viewing of one or more JPEG images together with superimposed text and graphics annotation using a file specified by a profile of the ISO/IEC Basic Image Interchange Format (BIIF).

User acceptance of mobile notifications

CERN Document Server

Westermann, Tilo

2017-01-01

This book presents an alternative approach to studying smartphone-app user notifications. It starts with insights into user acceptance of mobile notifications in order to provide tools to support users in managing these. It extends previous research by investigating factors that influence users’ perception of notifications and proposes tools addressing the shortcomings of current systems. It presents a technical framework and testbed as an approach for evaluating the usage of mobile applications and notifications, and then discusses a series of studies based on this framework that investigate factors influencing users’ perceptions of mobile notifications. Lastly, a set of design guidelines for the usage of mobile notifications is derived that can be employed to support users in handling notifications on smartphones.

Solar research with ALMA: Czech node of European ARC as your user-support infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Bárta, M.; Skokić, I.; Brajša, R.; Czech ARC Node Team

2017-08-01

ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array) is by far the largest project of current ground-based observational facilities in astronomy and astrophysics. It is built and operated in the world-wide cooperation (ESO, NRAO, NAOJ) at altitude of 5000m in the desert of Atacama, Chile. Because of its unprecedented capabilities, ALMA is considered as a cutting-edge research device in astrophysics with potential for many breakthrough discoveries in the next decade and beyond. In spite it is not exclusively solar-research dedicated instrument, science observations of the Sun are now possible and has recently started in the observing Cycle 4 (2016-2017). In order to facilitate user access to this top-class, but at the same moment very complicated device to researchers lacking technical expertise, a network of three ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs) has been formed in Europe, North America, and East Asia as a user-support infrastructure and interface between the observatory and users community. After short introduction to ALMA the roles of ARCs and hint how to utilize their services will be presented, with emphasis to the specific (and in Europe unique) mission of the Czech ARC node in solar research with ALMA. Finally, peculiarities of solar observations that demanded the development of the specific Solar ALMA Observing Modes will be discussed and the results of Commissioning and Science Verification observing campaigns (solar ALMA maps) will be shown.

Reconstructed Living Lab: supporting drug users and families ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

based organisations are discussed. Data on relatives of drug users using the system are included. Conclusion: The use of mobile phone technology has advantages for community-based organisations acting as a first point of contact to drug ...

Outcomes of adult heroin users v. abstinent users four years after presenting for heroin detoxification treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zureida Khan

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Background. There are no studies in South Africa (SA on the outcomes following detoxification and psychosocial rehabilitation of heroin-dependent patients. Objective. To compare the demographic, clinical, forensic and treatment data of active heroin users v. users who were abstinent at the time of interview 4 years after attending the Opioid Detoxification Unit at Stikland Hospital in the Western Cape Province, SA.  Method. Participants included patients above the age of 16 years who had been admitted to the Opioid Detoxification Unit at Stikland Hospital for heroin detoxification between July 2006 and June 2007. Participants were individually interviewed (either in person or tele­phonically using a structured self-report questionnaire to collect demographic, clinical, forensic and treatment data 4 years following heroin detoxification treatment at this unit.  Results. Of the participants, 60% were abstinent and a large portion (34% attributed this to social support. Furthermore, there was a significant (p=0.04 difference in the longest period of abstinence between the past user group and active users, with more participants in the past user group being abstinent for 18 months or longer (n=24, 57% than in the active users group (n=8, 29%. Active users (n=18, 64% had significantly (p=0.03 more legal problems than abstinent users (n=14, 33%. Most participants (n=38, 54% relapsed within 3 months after index detoxification and rehabilitation.  Conclusion. Active users had more legal problems than abstinent users, with social support structures playing a pivotal role in abstinence. Future research should assess the impact of interventions such as post-discharge social support programmes on criminality and heroin use in those that relapse following treatment.

Harnessing Facebook for Smoking Reduction and Cessation Interventions: Facebook User Engagement and Social Support Predict Smoking Reduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sunny Jung; Marsch, Lisa A; Brunette, Mary F; Dallery, Jesse

2017-05-23

Social media technologies offer a novel opportunity for scalable health interventions that can facilitate user engagement and social support, which in turn may reinforce positive processes for behavior change. By using principles from health communication and social support literature, we implemented a Facebook group-based intervention that targeted smoking reduction and cessation. This study hypothesized that participants' engagement with and perceived social support from our Facebook group intervention would predict smoking reduction. We recruited 16 regular smokers who live in the United States and who were motivated in quitting smoking at screening. We promoted message exposure as well as engagement and social support systems throughout the intervention. For message exposure, we posted prevalidated, antismoking messages (such as national antismoking campaigns) on our smoking reduction and cessation Facebook group. For engagement and social support systems, we delivered a high degree of engagement and social support systems during the second and third week of the intervention and a low degree of engagement and social support systems during the first and fourth week. A total of six surveys were conducted via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) at baseline on a weekly basis and at a 2-week follow-up. Of the total 16 participants, most were female (n=13, 81%), white (n=15, 94%), and between 25 and 50 years of age (mean 34.75, SD 8.15). There was no study attrition throughout the 6-time-point baseline, weekly, and follow-up surveys. We generated Facebook engagement and social support composite scores (mean 19.19, SD 24.35) by combining the number of likes each participant received and the number of comments or wall posts each participant posted on our smoking reduction and cessation Facebook group during the intervention period. The primary outcome was smoking reduction in the past 7 days measured at baseline and at the two-week follow-up. Compared with the baseline

A Web-Based Treatment Decision Support Tool for Patients With Advanced Knee Arthritis: Evaluation of User Interface and Content Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hua; Rosal, Milagros C; Li, Wenjun; Borg, Amy; Yang, Wenyun; Ayers, David C; Franklin, Patricia D

2018-04-30

Data-driven surgical decisions will ensure proper use and timing of surgical care. We developed a Web-based patient-centered treatment decision and assessment tool to guide treatment decisions among patients with advanced knee osteoarthritis who are considering total knee replacement surgery. The aim of this study was to examine user experience and acceptance of the Web-based treatment decision support tool among older adults. User-centered formative and summative evaluations were conducted for the tool. A sample of 28 patients who were considering total knee replacement participated in the study. Participants' responses to the user interface design, the clarity of information, as well as usefulness, satisfaction, and acceptance of the tool were collected through qualitative (ie, individual patient interviews) and quantitative (ie, standardized Computer System Usability Questionnaire) methods. Participants were older adults with a mean age of 63 (SD 11) years. Three-quarters of them had no technical questions using the tool. User interface design recommendations included larger fonts, bigger buttons, less colors, simpler navigation without extra "next page" click, less mouse movement, and clearer illustrations with simple graphs. Color-coded bar charts and outcome-specific graphs with positive action were easiest for them to understand the outcomes data. Questionnaire data revealed high satisfaction with the tool usefulness and interface quality, and also showed ease of use of the tool, regardless of age or educational status. We evaluated the usability of a patient-centered decision support tool designed for advanced knee arthritis patients to facilitate their knee osteoarthritis treatment decision making. The lessons learned can inform other decision support tools to improve interface and content design for older patients' use. ©Hua Zheng, Milagros C Rosal, Wenjun Li, Amy Borg, Wenyun Yang, David C Ayers, Patricia D Franklin. Originally published in JMIR Human

User involvement and supporting tools in business-to-business service innovations: Insights from Facility Management services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nardelli, Giulia

is the generalizability of the findings to other business-to-business service sectors. More research conducted both in FM services and other service sectors would help to shed light on the generalizability of these findings. Originality/value – The study contributes with new and detailed insights into the complexity......Purpose – This article investigates and conceptualizes user involvement in business-to-business service innovations as well as the tools that are used to support interactions in such a service innovation process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative research approach to answer...... the research question. By following Miles and Huberman (1984)’s this study started with a literature review of studies investigating service innovation, service innovations models, user roles and tools in service innovation in general, to conduct an empirical investigation in facility management (FM) services...

Image-based fall detection and classification of a user with a walking support system

Science.gov (United States)

Taghvaei, Sajjad; Kosuge, Kazuhiro

2017-10-01

The classification of visual human action is important in the development of systems that interact with humans. This study investigates an image-based classification of the human state while using a walking support system to improve the safety and dependability of these systems.We categorize the possible human behavior while utilizing a walker robot into eight states (i.e., sitting, standing, walking, and five falling types), and propose two different methods, namely, normal distribution and hidden Markov models (HMMs), to detect and recognize these states. The visual feature for the state classification is the centroid position of the upper body, which is extracted from the user's depth images. The first method shows that the centroid position follows a normal distribution while walking, which can be adopted to detect any non-walking state. The second method implements HMMs to detect and recognize these states. We then measure and compare the performance of both methods. The classification results are employed to control the motion of a passive-type walker (called "RT Walker") by activating its brakes in non-walking states. Thus, the system can be used for sit/stand support and fall prevention. The experiments are performed with four subjects, including an experienced physiotherapist. Results show that the algorithm can be adapted to the new user's motion pattern within 40 s, with a fall detection rate of 96.25% and state classification rate of 81.0%. The proposed method can be implemented to other abnormality detection/classification applications that employ depth image-sensing devices.

User Experience of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Apps for Depression: An Analysis of App Functionality and User Reviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Stawarz, Katarzyna; Preist, Chris; Tallon, Debbie; Wiles, Nicola; Coyle, David

2018-06-06

Hundreds of mental health apps are available to the general public. With increasing pressures on health care systems, they offer a potential way for people to support their mental health and well-being. However, although many are highly rated by users, few are evidence-based. Equally, our understanding of what makes apps engaging and valuable to users is limited. The aim of this paper was to analyze functionality and user opinions of mobile apps purporting to support cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and to explore key factors that have an impact on user experience and support engagement. We systematically identified apps described as being based on cognitive behavioral therapy for depression. We then conducted 2 studies. In the first, we analyzed the therapeutic functionality of apps. This corroborated existing work on apps' fidelity to cognitive behavioral therapy theory, but we also extended prior work by examining features designed to support user engagement. Engagement features found in cognitive behavioral therapy apps for depression were compared with those found in a larger group of apps that support mental well-being in a more general sense. Our second study involved a more detailed examination of user experience, through a thematic analysis of publicly available user reviews of cognitive behavioral therapy apps for depression. We identified 31 apps that purport to be based on cognitive behavioral therapy for depression. Functionality analysis (study 1) showed that they offered an eclectic mix of features, including many not based on cognitive behavioral therapy practice. Cognitive behavioral therapy apps used less varied engagement features compared with 253 other mental well-being apps. The analysis of 1287 user reviews of cognitive behavioral therapy apps for depression (study 2) showed that apps are used in a wide range of contexts, both replacing and augmenting therapy, and allowing users to play an active role in supporting their mental

Social media as a space for support: Young adults' perspectives on producing and consuming user-generated content about diabetes and mental health.

Science.gov (United States)

Fergie, Gillian; Hunt, Kate; Hilton, Shona

2016-12-01

Social media offer opportunities to both produce and consume content related to health experiences. However, people's social media practices are likely to be influenced by a range of individual, social and environmental factors. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how engagement with user-generated content can support people with long-term health conditions, and what limits users' adoption of these technologies in the everyday experience of their health condition. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adults, aged between 18 and 30 years, with experience of diabetes or a common mental health disorder (CMHD). We found that the online activities of these young adults were diverse; they ranged from regular production and consumption ('prosumption') of health-related user-generated content to no engagement with such content. Our analysis suggested three main types of users: 'prosumers'; 'tacit consumers' and 'non-engagers'. A key determinant of participants' engagement with resources related to diabetes and CMHDs in the online environment was their offline experiences of support. Barriers to young adults' participation in online interaction, and sharing of content related to their health experiences, included concerns about compromising their presentation of identity and adherence to conventions about what content is most appropriate for specific social media spaces. Based on our analysis, we suggest that social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content and the generation of supportive networks. Rather, producing and consuming user-generated content is an activity embedded within individuals' specific health experiences and is impacted by offline contexts, as well as their daily engagement with, and expectations, of different social media platforms. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Electronic surveillance systems in infection prevention: organizational support, program characteristics, and user satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Grota, Patti G; Stone, Patricia W; Jordan, Sarah; Pogorzelska, Monika; Larson, Elaine

2010-09-01

The use of electronic surveillance systems (ESSs) is gradually increasing in infection prevention and control programs. Little is known about the characteristics of hospitals that have a ESS, user satisfaction with ESSs, and organizational support for implementation of ESSs. A total of 350 acute care hospitals in California were invited to participate in a Web-based survey; 207 hospitals (59%) agreed to participate. The survey included a description of infection prevention and control department staff, where and how they spent their time, a measure of organizational support for infection prevention and control, and reported experience with ESSs. Only 23% (44/192) of responding infection prevention and control departments had an ESS. No statistically significant difference was seen in how and where infection preventionists (IPs) who used an ESS and those who did not spend their time. The 2 significant predictors of whether an ESS was present were score on the Organizational Support Scale (odds ratio [OR], 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.18) and hospital bed size (OR, 1.004; 95% CI, 1.00-1.007). Organizational support also was positively correlated with IP satisfaction with the ESS, as measured on the Computer Usability Scale (P = .02). Despite evidence that such systems may improve efficiency of data collection and potentially improve patient outcomes, ESSs remain relatively uncommon in infection prevention and control programs. Based on our findings, organizational support appears to be a major predictor of the presence, use, and satisfaction with ESSs in infection prevention and control programs.

Electronic surveillance systems in infection prevention: Organizational support, program characteristics, and user satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Grota, Patti G.; Stone, Patricia W.; Jordan, Sarah; Pogorzelska, Monika; Larson, Elaine

2012-01-01

Background The use of electronic surveillance systems (ESSs) is gradually increasing in infection prevention and control programs. Little is known about the characteristics of hospitals that have a ESS, user satisfaction with ESSs, and organizational support for implementation of ESSs. Methods A total of 350 acute care hospitals in California were invited to participate in a Web-based survey; 207 hospitals (59%) agreed to participate. The survey included a description of infection prevention and control department staff, where and how they spent their time, a measure of organizational support for infection prevention and control, and reported experience with ESSs. Results Only 23% (44/192) of responding infection prevention and control departments had an ESS. No statistically significant difference was seen in how and where infection preventionists (IPs) who used an ESS and those who did not spend their time. The 2 significant predictors of whether an ESS was present were score on the Organizational Support Scale (odds ratio [OR], 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.18) and hospital bed size (OR, 1.004; 95% CI, 1.00-1.007). Organizational support also was positively correlated with IP satisfaction with the ESS, as measured on the Computer Usability Scale (P = .02). Conclusion Despite evidence that such systems may improve efficiency of data collection and potentially improve patient outcomes, ESSs remain relatively uncommon in infection prevention and control programs. Based on our findings, organizational support appears to be a major predictor of the presence, use, and satisfaction with ESSs in infection prevention and control programs. PMID:20176411

User analysis of LHCb data with Ganga

CERN Document Server

Maier, A; Cowan, G; Egede, U; Elmsheuser, J; Gaidioz, B; Harrison, K; Lee, H -C; Liko, D; Moscicki, J; Muraru, A; Pajchel, K; Reece, W; Samset, B; Slater, M; Soroko, A; van der Ster, D; Williams, M; Tan, C L

2010-01-01

GANGA (http://cern.ch/ganga) is a job-management tool that offers a simple, efficient and consistent user analysis tool in a variety of heterogeneous environments: from local clusters to global Grid systems. Experiment specific plug-ins allow GANGA to be customised for each experiment. For LHCb users GANGA is the officially supported and advertised tool for job submission to the Grid. The LHCb specific plug-ins allow support for end-to-end analysis helping the user to perform his complete analysis with the help of GANGA. This starts with the support for data selection, where a user can select data sets from the LHCb Bookkeeping system. Next comes the set up for large analysis jobs: with tailored plug-ins for the LHCb core software, jobs can be managed by the splitting of these analysis jobs with the subsequent merging of the resulting files. Furthermore, GANGA offers support for Toy Monte-Carlos to help the user tune their analysis. In addition to describing the GANGA architecture, typical usage patterns with...

User analysis of LHCb data with Ganga

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maier, Andrew; Gaidioz, Benjamin; Moscicki, Jakub; Muraru, Adrian; Ster, Daniel van der; Brochu, Frederic; Cowan, Greg; Egede, Ulrik; Reece, Will; Williams, Mike; Elmsheuser, Johannes; Harrison, Karl; Slater, Mark; Tan, Chun Lik; Lee, Hurng-Chun; Liko, Dietrich; Pajchel, Katarina; Samset, Bjoern; Soroko, Alexander

2010-01-01

GANGA (http://cern.ch/ganga) is a job-management tool that offers a simple, efficient and consistent user analysis tool in a variety of heterogeneous environments: from local clusters to global Grid systems. Experiment specific plug-ins allow GANGA to be customised for each experiment. For LHCb users GANGA is the officially supported and advertised tool for job submission to the Grid. The LHCb specific plug-ins allow support for end-to-end analysis helping the user to perform his complete analysis with the help of GANGA. This starts with the support for data selection, where a user can select data sets from the LHCb Bookkeeping system. Next comes the set up for large analysis jobs: with tailored plug-ins for the LHCb core software, jobs can be managed by the splitting of these analysis jobs with the subsequent merging of the resulting files. Furthermore, GANGA offers support for Toy Monte-Carlos to help the user tune their analysis. In addition to describing the GANGA architecture, typical usage patterns within LHCb and experience with the updated LHCb DIRAC workload management system are presented.

User Modeling for Activity Recognition and Support in Ambient Assisted Living

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hossain, Shabbir; Valente, Pedro Ricardo da Nova; Hallenborg, Kasper

Current research work shows that progress on AI and wireless sensor networks, made it possible to improve the quality of life of the people with disabilities using recent technologies [1]. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is one of the well-known research areas that has a goal to use ambient...... on user modeling to be more efficient to adapt the changes of user capabilities and preferences which is strongly correlated with the prime challenges of AAL. In this paper, a user model has been proposed that tends to be used in the autonomous and reliable recognition....

GStat 2.0: Grid Information System Status Monitoring

OpenAIRE

Field, L; Huang, J; Tsai, M

2009-01-01

Grid Information Systems are mission-critical components in today's production grid infrastructures. They enable users, applications and services to discover which services exist in the infrastructure and further information about the service structure and state. It is therefore important that the information system components themselves are functioning correctly and that the information content is reliable. Grid Status (GStat) is a tool that monitors the structural integrity of the EGEE info...

The impact of an online Facebook support group for people with multiple sclerosis on non-active users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacqui Steadman

2014-11-01

Objectives: This study therefore aimed to explore the experiences of non-active users of an online Facebook support group for PwMS. Emphasis was placed on the facilitators and the barriers that were associated with membership to this group. Method: An exploratory qualitative research design was implemented, whereby thematic analysis was utilised to examine the ten semi-structured interviews that were conducted. Results: Several facilitators were acquired through the online support group; namely emotional support (constant source of support, exposure to negative aspects of the disease,informational support (group as a source of knowledge, quality of information and social companionship (place of belonging. Some barriers were also identified; namely emotional support (emotions lost online, response to messages, exposure to negative aspects of the disease, informational support (information posted on the group, misuse of group and social companionship (non-active status. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that the non-active members of the online support group for PwMS have valid reasons for their non-active membership status. More important,the findings suggest that the online Facebook support group provided the group members with an important support network in the form of emotional support, informational support and social companionship, despite their non-active membership status or the barriers that have been identified.

Student-Centered Modules to Support Active Learning in Hydrology: Development Experiences and Users' Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Tarboton, D. G.; Habib, E. H.; Deshotel, M.; Merck, M. F.; Lall, U.; Farnham, D. J.

2016-12-01

Traditional approaches to undergraduate hydrology and water resource education are textbook based, adopt unit processes and rely on idealized examples of specific applications, rather than examining the contextual relations in the processes and the dynamics connecting climate and ecosystems. The overarching goal of this project is to address the needed paradigm shift in undergraduate education of engineering hydrology and water resources education to reflect parallel advances in hydrologic research and technology, mainly in the areas of new observational settings, data and modeling resources and web-based technologies. This study presents efforts to develop a set of learning modules that are case-based, data and simulation driven and delivered via a web user interface. The modules are based on real-world case studies from three regional hydrologic settings: Coastal Louisiana, Utah Rocky Mountains and Florida Everglades. These three systems provide unique learning opportunities on topics such as: regional-scale budget analysis, hydrologic effects of human and natural changes, flashflood protection, climate-hydrology teleconnections and water resource management scenarios. The technical design and contents of the modules aim to support students' ability for transforming their learning outcomes and skills to hydrologic systems other than those used by the specific activity. To promote active learning, the modules take students through a set of highly engaging learning activities that are based on analysis of hydrologic data and model simulations. The modules include user support in the form of feedback and self-assessment mechanisms that are integrated within the online modules. Module effectiveness is assessed through an improvement-focused evaluation model using a mixed-method research approach guiding collection and analysis of evaluation data. Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected through student learning data, product analysis, and staff interviews

Internet-based peer support for Ménière's disease: a summary of web-based data collection, impact evaluation, and user evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pyykkő, Ilmari; Manchaiah, Vinaya; Levo, Hilla; Kentala, Erna; Juhola, Martti

2017-07-01

This paper presents a summary of web-based data collection, impact evaluation, and user evaluations of an Internet-based peer support program for Ménière's disease (MD). The program is written in html-form. The data are stored in a MySQL database and uses machine learning in the diagnosis of MD. The program works interactively with the user and assesses the participant's disorder profile in various dimensions (i.e., symptoms, impact, personal traits, and positive attitude). The inference engine uses a database to compare the impact with 50 referents, and provides regular feedback to the user. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The impact evaluation was based on 740 cases and the user evaluation on a sample of 75 cases of MD respectively. The web-based system was useful in data collection and impact evaluation of people with MD. Among those with a recent onset of MD, 78% rated the program as useful or very useful, whereas those with chronic MD rated the program 55%. We suggest that a web-based data collection and impact evaluation for peer support can be helpful while formulating the rehabilitation goals of building the self-confidence needed for coping and increasing social participation.

Indirect effect of management support on users' compliance behaviour towards information security policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Humaidi, Norshima; Balakrishnan, Vimala

2018-01-01

Health information systems are innovative products designed to improve the delivery of effective healthcare, but they are also vulnerable to breaches of information security, including unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction, and duplication of passwords. Greater openness and multi-connectedness between heterogeneous stakeholders within health networks increase the security risk. The focus of this research was on the indirect effects of management support (MS) on user compliance behaviour (UCB) towards information security policies (ISPs) among health professionals in selected Malaysian public hospitals. The aim was to identify significant factors and provide a clearer understanding of the nature of compliance behaviour in the health sector environment. Using a survey design and stratified random sampling method, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 454 healthcare professionals in three hospitals. Drawing on theories of planned behaviour, perceived behavioural control (self-efficacy (SE) and MS components) and the trust factor, an information system security policies compliance model was developed to test three related constructs (MS, SE and perceived trust (PT)) and their relationship to UCB towards ISPs. Results showed a 52.8% variation in UCB through significant factors. Partial least squares structural equation modelling demonstrated that all factors were significant and that MS had an indirect effect on UCB through both PT and SE among respondents to this study. The research model based on the theory of planned behaviour in combination with other human and organisational factors has made a useful contribution towards explaining compliance behaviour in relation to organisational ISPs, with trust being the most significant factor. In adopting a multidimensional approach to management-user interactions via multidisciplinary concepts and theories to evaluate the association between the integrated management-user

Users in Persistant Action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, John K.; Gasparin, Marta; Varnes, Claus J.

2012-01-01

of the hybrid collective to include the press and distribution channels to want it back. All actors in collective actions can become lead users when supported by establishing alliances. This perspective is different from Von Hippel (1986) who is claiming that the trend needs to be defined before the lead users...

Quick start users guide for the PATH/AWARE decision support system.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knowlton, Robert G.; Melton, Brad J; Einfeld, Wayne; Tucker, Mark D; Franco, David Oliver; Yang, Lynn I.

2013-06-01

The Prioritization Analysis Tool for All-Hazards/Analyzer for Wide Area Restoration Effectiveness (PATH/AWARE) software system, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, is a comprehensive decision support tool designed to analyze situational awareness, as well as response and recovery actions, following a wide-area release of chemical, biological or radiological materials. The system provides capability to prioritize critical infrastructure assets and services for restoration. It also provides a capability to assess resource needs (e.g., number of sampling teams, laboratory capacity, decontamination units, etc.), timelines for consequence management activities, and costs. PATH/AWARE is a very comprehensive tool set with a considerable amount of database information managed through a Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language) database engine, a Geographical Information System (GIS) engine that provides comprehensive mapping capabilities, as well as comprehensive decision logic to carry out the functional aspects of the tool set. This document covers the basic installation and operation of the PATH/AWARE tool in order to give the user enough information to start using the tool. A companion users manual is under development with greater specificity of the PATH/AWARE functionality.

Evaluation of user interface and workflow design of a bedside nursing clinical decision support system.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Michael Juntao; Finley, George Mike; Long, Ju; Mills, Christy; Johnson, Ron Kim

2013-01-31

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are important tools to improve health care outcomes and reduce preventable medical adverse events. However, the effectiveness and success of CDSS depend on their implementation context and usability in complex health care settings. As a result, usability design and validation, especially in real world clinical settings, are crucial aspects of successful CDSS implementations. Our objective was to develop a novel CDSS to help frontline nurses better manage critical symptom changes in hospitalized patients, hence reducing preventable failure to rescue cases. A robust user interface and implementation strategy that fit into existing workflows was key for the success of the CDSS. Guided by a formal usability evaluation framework, UFuRT (user, function, representation, and task analysis), we developed a high-level specification of the product that captures key usability requirements and is flexible to implement. We interviewed users of the proposed CDSS to identify requirements, listed functions, and operations the system must perform. We then designed visual and workflow representations of the product to perform the operations. The user interface and workflow design were evaluated via heuristic and end user performance evaluation. The heuristic evaluation was done after the first prototype, and its results were incorporated into the product before the end user evaluation was conducted. First, we recruited 4 evaluators with strong domain expertise to study the initial prototype. Heuristic violations were coded and rated for severity. Second, after development of the system, we assembled a panel of nurses, consisting of 3 licensed vocational nurses and 7 registered nurses, to evaluate the user interface and workflow via simulated use cases. We recorded whether each session was successfully completed and its completion time. Each nurse was asked to use the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index to self

Is Patient Support Program Participation Associated with Longer Persistence and Improved Adherence Among New Users of Adalimumab? A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Srulovici, Einav; Garg, Vishvas; Ghilai, Adi; Feldman, Becca; Hoshen, Moshe; Balicer, Ran D; Skup, Martha; Leventer-Roberts, Maya

2018-05-10

Adalimumab (ADA) is a medication used in the treatment of several autoimmune diseases. Despite the beneficial effects of ADA, its adherence and persistence rates are low. Patients treated with ADA from Clalit Health Services (CHS) can enroll in AbbVie's patient support program (PSP), which aims to improve ADA adherence and persistence. Therefore, we examine whether PSP participation is associated with a longer persistence and/or an improved adherence to ADA. A real-world retrospective cohort study of all new ADA users from CHS, comparing those enrolled in the offered PSP to those not enrolled. The data regarding PSP users can be tracked using CHS's data warehouse. The index date was defined as the date of the patients' first purchase of ADA occurring between August 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014. The follow-up data were collected at 12, 24, and 36 months. Persistence was assessed using survival analyses of time until discontinuation, and adherence was assessed using medication possession ratio (MPR). There were 1520 patients in the study, 755 (49.7%) of whom were PSP users. PSP users were 54.3% female vs. 51.9% among non-PSP users (p = 0.355) and they were significantly younger than non-PSP users (mean age 42.3 vs. 45.0 years, p = 0.002) The PSP and non-PSP users' persistence was 673 and 574 days, respectively (p users were more likely than the non-PSP users to be persistently taking medication at the 12-month follow-up (57.5% vs. 45.6%, p users compared to the non-PSP users (94.1% vs. 92.9%, p = 0.026). The AbbVie PSP provided to CHS patients was associated with a longer persistence among new users of ADA. It was also associated with significantly higher adherence rate within the first 12 months. AbbVie Inc.

User Environment Tracking and Problem Detection with XALT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agrawal, Kapil [ORNL; Fahey, Mark R [ORNL; McLay, Robert [Texas Advanced Computing Center; James, Doug [Texas Advanced Computing Center

2014-01-01

This work improves our understanding of individual users software needs, then leverages that understanding to help stakeholders conduct business in a more efficient, effective, and systematic way. The product, XALT, builds on work that is already improving the user experience and enhancing support programs for thousands of users on twelve supercomputers across the United States and Europe. XALT will instrument individual jobs on high-end computers to generate a picture of the compilers, libraries, and other software that users need to run their jobs successfully. It will highlight the products our researchers need and do not need, and alert users and support staff to the root causes of software configuration issues as soon as the problems occur. A key objective of this work is generating the information needed to improve efficiency and effectiveness for an extensive community of stakeholders including users, sponsoring institutions, support organizations, and development teams. Efficiency, effectiveness, and responsible stewardship each require a clear picture of users needs. XALT is an important step in the quest to achieve that clarity.

Multi-user data acquisition environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Storch, N.A.

1983-01-01

The typical data acquisition environment involves data collection and monitoring by a single user. However, in order to support experiments on the Mars facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we have had to create a multi-user data acquisition environment where any user can control the data acquisition and several users can monitor and analyze data being collected in real time. This paper describes how we accomplished this on an HP A600 computer. It focuses on the overall system description and user communication with the tasks within the system. Our current implementation is one phase of a long-term software development project

Persuasive user experiences of a health Behavior Change Support System: A 12-month study for prevention of metabolic syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Karppinen, Pasi; Oinas-Kukkonen, Harri; Alahäivälä, Tuomas; Jokelainen, Terhi; Keränen, Anna-Maria; Salonurmi, Tuire; Savolainen, Markku

2016-12-01

Obesity has become a severe health problem in the world. Even a moderate 5% weight loss can significantly reduce the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, which can be vital for preventing comorbidities caused by the obesity. Health Behavior Change Support Systems (hBCSS) emphasize an autogenous approach, where an individual uses the system to influence one's own attitude or behavior to achieve his or her own goal. Regardless of promising results, such health interventions technology has often been considered merely as a tool for delivering content that has no effect or value of its own. More research on actual system features is required. The objective of this study is to describe how users perceive persuasive software features designed and implemented into a support system. The research medium in this study is a web-based information system designed as a lifestyle intervention for participants who are at risk of developing a metabolic syndrome or who are already suffering from it. The system was designed closely following the principles of the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model and the Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSS) framework. A total of 43 system users were interviewed for this study during and after a 52 week intervention period. In addition, the system's login data and subjects' Body Mass Index (BMI) measures were used to interpret the results. This study explains in detail how the users perceived using the system and its persuasive features. Self-monitoring, reminders, and tunneling were perceived as especially beneficial persuasive features. The need for social support appeared to grow along the duration of the intervention. Unobtrusiveness was found to be very important in all stages of the intervention rather than only at the beginning. Persuasive software features have power to affect individuals' health behaviors. Through their systematicity the PSD model and the BCSS framework provide effective support for the design and development of

Expert Consensus Survey on Digital Health Tools for Patients With Serious Mental Illness: Optimizing for User Characteristics and User Support.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatch, Ainslie; Hoffman, Julia E; Ross, Ruth; Docherty, John P

2018-06-12

Digital technology is increasingly being used to enhance health care in various areas of medicine. In the area of serious mental illness, it is important to understand the special characteristics of target users that may influence motivation and competence to use digital health tools, as well as the resources and training necessary for these patients to facilitate the use of this technology. The aim of this study was to conduct a quantitative expert consensus survey to identify key characteristics of target users (patients and health care professionals), barriers and facilitators for appropriate use, and resources needed to optimize the use of digital health tools in patients with serious mental illness. A panel of 40 experts in digital behavioral health who met the participation criteria completed a 19-question survey, rating predefined responses on a 9-point Likert scale. Consensus was determined using a chi-square test of score distributions across three ranges (1-3, 4-6, 7-9). Categorical ratings of first, second, or third line were designated based on the lowest category into which the CI of the mean ratings fell, with a boundary >6.5 for first line. Here, we report experts' responses to nine questions (265 options) that focused on (1) user characteristics that would promote or hinder the use of digital health tools, (2) potential benefits or motivators and barriers or unintended consequences of digital health tool use, and (3) support and training for patients and health care professionals. Among patient characteristics most likely to promote use of digital health tools, experts endorsed interest in using state-of-the-art technology, availability of necessary resources, good occupational functioning, and perception of the tool as beneficial. Certain disease-associated signs and symptoms (eg, more severe symptoms, substance abuse problems, and a chaotic living situation) were considered likely to make it difficult for patients to use digital health tools

Influence of a new generation of operations support systems on current spacecraft operations philosophy: The users feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Darroy, Jean Michel

1993-01-01

Current trends in the spacecraft mission operations area (spacecraft & mission complexity, project duration, required flexibility are requiring a breakthrough for what concerns philosophy, organization, and support tools. A major evolution is related to space operations 'informationalization', i.e adding to existing operations support & data processing systems a new generation of tools based on advanced information technologies (object-oriented programming, artificial intelligence, data bases, hypertext) that automate, at least partially, operations tasks that used be performed manually (mission & project planning/scheduling, operations procedures elaboration & execution, data analysis & failure diagnosis). All the major facets of this 'informationalization' are addressed at MATRA MARCONI SPACE, operational applications were fielded and generic products are becoming available. These various applications have generated a significant feedback from the users (at ESA, CNES, ARIANESPACE, MATRA MARCONI SPACE), which is now allowing us to precisely measure how the deployment of this new generation of tools, that we called OPSWARE, can 'reengineer' current spacecraft mission operations philosophy, how it can make space operations faster, better, and cheaper. This paper can be considered as an update of the keynote address 'Knowledge-Based Systems for Spacecraft Control' presented during the first 'Ground Data Systems for Spacecraft Control' conference in Darmstadt, June 1990, with a special emphasis on these last two years users feedback.

Generating User Interfaces with the FUSE-System

OpenAIRE

Frank Lonczewski; Siegfried Schreiber

2017-01-01

With the FUSE(Formal User interface Specification Environment)-System we present a methodology and a set of integrated tools for the automatic generation of graphical user interfaces. FUSE provides tool-based support for all phases (task-, user-, problem domain analysis, design of the logical user interface, design of user interface in a particular layout style) of the user interface development process. Based on a formal specification of dialogue- and layout guidelines, FUSE allows the autom...

Electrical network capacity support from demand side response: Techno-economic assessment of potential business cases for small commercial and residential end-users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martínez Ceseña, Eduardo A.; Good, Nicholas; Mancarella, Pierluigi

2015-01-01

Demand Side Response (DSR) is recognised for its potential to bring economic benefits to various electricity sector actors, such as energy retailers, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution Network Operators (DNOs). However, most DSR is provided by large industrial and commercial consumers, and little research has been directed to the quantification of the value that small (below 100 kW) commercial and residential end-users could accrue by providing DSR services. In particular, suitable models and studies are needed to quantify potential business cases for DSR from small commercial and residential end-users. Such models and studies should consider the technical and physical characteristics of the power system and demand resources, together with the economic conditions of the power market. In addition, the majority of research focuses on provision of energy arbitrage or ancillary services, with very little attention to DSR services for network capacity support. Accordingly, this paper presents comprehensive techno-economic methodologies for the quantification of three capacity-based business cases for DSR from small commercial and residential end-users. Case study results applied to a UK context indicate that, if the appropriate regulatory framework is put in place, services for capacity support to both DNOs and TSOs can result into potentially attractive business cases for DSR from small end-users with minimum impact on their comfort level. -- Highlights: •We present three business cases for DSR from domestic and commercial end-users. •A comprehensive techno-economic methodology is proposed for the quantification of each DSR business cases. •The regulatory implications associated with each business case are discussed

Experience with the gLite workload management system in ATLAS Monte Carlo production on LCG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campana, S; Sciaba, A; Rebatto, D

2008-01-01

The ATLAS experiment has been running continuous simulated events production since more than two years. A considerable fraction of the jobs is daily submitted and handled via the gLite Workload Management System, which overcomes several limitations of the previous LCG Resource Broker. The gLite WMS has been tested very intensively for the LHC experiments use cases for more than six months, both in terms of performance and reliability. The tests were carried out by the LCG Experiment Integration Support team (in close contact with the experiments) together with the EGEE integration and certification team and the gLite middleware developers. A pragmatic iterative and interactive approach allowed a very quick rollout of fixes and their rapid deployment, together with new functionalities, for the ATLAS production activities. The same approach is being adopted for other middleware components like the gLite and CREAM Computing Elements. In this contribution we will summarize the learning from the gLite WMS testing activity, pointing out the most important achievements and the open issues. In addition, we will present the current situation of the ATLAS simulated event production activity on the EGEE infrastructure based on the gLite WMS, showing the main improvements and benefits from the new middleware. Finally, the gLite WMS is being used by many other VOs, including the LHC experiments. In particular, some statistics will be shown on the CMS experience running WMS user analysis via the WMS

User Experience, Actual Use, and Effectiveness of an Information Communication Technology-Supported Home Exercise Program for Pre-Frail Older Adults

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dekker-van Weering, Marit; Jansen-Kosterink, Stephanie; Frazer, Sanne; Vollenbroek-Hutten, Miriam

2017-01-01

Objective: The main objective of this study was to investigate the use and user experience of an Information Communication Technology-supported home exercise program when offered for independent use to pre-frail older adults. Our secondary aim was to explore whether the program improved quality of

Supporting NPD teams in innovation : Structuring user data on the foundations of empathy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alkaya, M.; Sleeswijk Visser, F.; de Lille, C.S.H.

2012-01-01

Gathering and analyzing user data in new product development (NPD), both qualitative and quantitative, can be a strong driver for innovation in companies. While ideally user data should be obtained through direct interactions between NPD departments and targeted users, time and cost restrictions

A collaborative design method to support integrated care. An ICT development method containing continuous user validation improves the entire care process and the individual work situation

Science.gov (United States)

Scandurra, Isabella; Hägglund, Maria

2009-01-01

Introduction Integrated care involves different professionals, belonging to different care provider organizations and requires immediate and ubiquitous access to patient-oriented information, supporting an integrated view on the care process [1]. Purpose To present a method for development of usable and work process-oriented information and communication technology (ICT) systems for integrated care. Theory and method Based on Human-computer Interaction Science and in particular Participatory Design [2], we present a new collaborative design method in the context of health information systems (HIS) development [3]. This method implies a thorough analysis of the entire interdisciplinary cooperative work and a transformation of the results into technical specifications, via user validated scenarios, prototypes and use cases, ultimately leading to the development of appropriate ICT for the variety of occurring work situations for different user groups, or professions, in integrated care. Results and conclusions Application of the method in homecare of the elderly resulted in an HIS that was well adapted to the intended user groups. Conducted in multi-disciplinary seminars, the method captured and validated user needs and system requirements for different professionals, work situations, and environments not only for current work; it also aimed to improve collaboration in future (ICT supported) work processes. A holistic view of the entire care process was obtained and supported through different views of the HIS for different user groups, resulting in improved work in the entire care process as well as for each collaborating profession [4].

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables - An Exploratory Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Brailovskaia, Julia; Margraf, Jürgen

2016-01-01

Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users) were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally) significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people.

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables - An Exploratory Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Brailovskaia

Full Text Available Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people.

User Manuals for a Primary Care Electronic Medical Record System: A Mixed Methods Study of User- and Vendor-Generated Documents.

Science.gov (United States)

Shachak, Aviv; Dow, Rustam; Barnsley, Jan; Tu, Karen; Domb, Sharon; Jadad, Alejandro R; Lemieux-Charles, Louise

2013-06-04

Tutorials and user manuals are important forms of impersonal support for using software applications including electronic medical records (EMRs). Differences between user- and vendor documentation may indicate support needs, which are not sufficiently addressed by the official documentation, and reveal new elements that may inform the design of tutorials and user manuals. What are the differences between user-generated tutorials and manuals for an EMR and the official user manual from the software vendor? Effective design of tutorials and user manuals requires careful packaging of information, balance between declarative and procedural texts, an action and task-oriented approach, support for error recognition and recovery, and effective use of visual elements. No previous research compared these elements between formal and informal documents. We conducted an mixed methods study. Seven tutorials and two manuals for an EMR were collected from three family health teams and compared with the official user manual from the software vendor. Documents were qualitatively analyzed using a framework analysis approach in relation to the principles of technical documentation described above. Subsets of the data were quantitatively analyzed using cross-tabulation to compare the types of error information and visual cues in screen captures between user- and vendor-generated manuals. The user-developed tutorials and manuals differed from the vendor-developed manual in that they contained mostly procedural and not declarative information; were customized to the specific workflow, user roles, and patient characteristics; contained more error information related to work processes than to software usage; and used explicit visual cues on screen captures to help users identify window elements. These findings imply that to support EMR implementation, tutorials and manuals need to be customized and adapted to specific organizational contexts and workflows. The main limitation of the study

User Manuals for a Primary Care Electronic Medical Record System: A Mixed Methods Study of User- and Vendor-Generated Documents

Science.gov (United States)

Dow, Rustam; Barnsley, Jan; Tu, Karen; Domb, Sharon; Jadad, Alejandro R.; Lemieux-Charles, Louise

2015-01-01

Research problem Tutorials and user manuals are important forms of impersonal support for using software applications including electronic medical records (EMRs). Differences between user- and vendor documentation may indicate support needs, which are not sufficiently addressed by the official documentation, and reveal new elements that may inform the design of tutorials and user manuals. Research question What are the differences between user-generated tutorials and manuals for an EMR and the official user manual from the software vendor? Literature review Effective design of tutorials and user manuals requires careful packaging of information, balance between declarative and procedural texts, an action and task-oriented approach, support for error recognition and recovery, and effective use of visual elements. No previous research compared these elements between formal and informal documents. Methodology We conducted an mixed methods study. Seven tutorials and two manuals for an EMR were collected from three family health teams and compared with the official user manual from the software vendor. Documents were qualitatively analyzed using a framework analysis approach in relation to the principles of technical documentation described above. Subsets of the data were quantitatively analyzed using cross-tabulation to compare the types of error information and visual cues in screen captures between user- and vendor-generated manuals. Results and discussion The user-developed tutorials and manuals differed from the vendor-developed manual in that they contained mostly procedural and not declarative information; were customized to the specific workflow, user roles, and patient characteristics; contained more error information related to work processes than to software usage; and used explicit visual cues on screen captures to help users identify window elements. These findings imply that to support EMR implementation, tutorials and manuals need to be customized and

The impact of an online Facebook support group for people with multiple sclerosis on non-active users.

Science.gov (United States)

Steadman, Jacqui; Pretorius, Chrisma

2014-01-01

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease and there is little research on support networks for people with MS (PwMS). More specifically, most studies on online support groups focus on those who actively participate in the group, whereas the majority of those who utilise online support groups do so in a passive way. This study therefore aimed to explore the experiences of non-active users of an online Facebook support group for PwMS. Emphasis was placed on the facilitators and the barriers that were associated with membership to this group. An exploratory qualitative research design was implemented, whereby thematic analysis was utilised to examine the ten semi-structured interviews that were conducted. Several facilitators were acquired through the online support group; namely emotional support (constant source of support, exposure to negative aspects of the disease), informational support (group as a source of knowledge, quality of information) and social companionship (place of belonging). Some barriers were also identified; namely emotional support (emotions lost online, response to messages, exposure to negative aspects of the disease), informational support (information posted on the group, misuse of group) and social companionship (non-active status). These findings demonstrate that the non-active members of the online support group for PwMS have valid reasons for their non-active membership status. More important, the findings suggest that the online Facebook support group provided the group members with an important support network in the form of emotional support, informational support and social companionship, despite their non-active membership status or the barriers that have been identified.

Supportive Mental Health Self-Monitoring among Smartphone Users with Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Fully Mobile Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Beiwinkel, Till; Hey, Stefan; Bock, Olaf; Rössler, Wulf

2017-01-01

Mobile health (mHealth) could be widely used in the population to improve access to psychological treatment. In this paper, we describe the development of a mHealth intervention on the basis of supportive self-monitoring and describe the protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness among smartphone users with psychological distress. Based on power analysis, a representative quota sample of N  = 186 smartphone users will be recruited, with an over-sampling of persons with moderate to high distress. Over a 4-week period, the intervention will be compared to a self-monitoring without intervention group and a passive control group. Telephone interviews will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 12-week follow-up to assess study outcomes. The primary outcome will be improvement of mental health. Secondary outcomes will include well-being, intentions toward help-seeking and help-seeking behavior, user activation, attitudes toward mental-health services, perceived stigmatization, smartphone app quality, user satisfaction, engagement, and adherence with the intervention. Additionally, data from the user's daily life as collected during self-monitoring will be used to investigate risk and protective factors of mental health in real-world settings. Therefore, this study will allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of a smartphone application as a widely accessible and low-cost intervention to improve mental health on a population level. It also allows to identify new assessment approaches in the field of psychiatric epidemiology.

Four Principles for User Interface Design of Computerised Clinical Decision Support Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kanstrup, Anne Marie; Christiansen, Marion Berg; Nøhr, Christian

2011-01-01

emphasises a focus on how users interact with the system, a focus on how information is provided by the system, and four principles of interaction. The four principles for design of user interfaces for CDSS are summarised as four A’s: All in one, At a glance, At hand and Attention. It is recommended that all...... four interaction principles are integrated in the design of user interfaces for CDSS, i.e. the model is an integrated model which we suggest as a guide for interaction design when working with preventing medication errors....

University multi-user facility survey-2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Riley, Melissa B

2011-12-01

Multi-user facilities serve as a resource for many universities. In 2010, a survey was conducted investigating possible changes and successful characteristics of multi-user facilities, as well as identifying problems in facilities. Over 300 surveys were e-mailed to persons identified from university websites as being involved with multi-user facilities. Complete responses were received from 36 facilities with an average of 20 years of operation. Facilities were associated with specific departments (22%), colleges (22%), and university research centers (8.3%) or were not affiliated with any department or college within the university (47%). The five most important factors to succeed as a multi-user facility were: 1) maintaining an experienced, professional staff in an open atmosphere; 2) university-level support providing partial funding; 3) broad client base; 4) instrument training programs; and 5) an effective leader and engaged strategic advisory group. The most significant problems were: 1) inadequate university financial support and commitment; 2) problems recovering full service costs from university subsidies and user fees; 3) availability of funds to repair and upgrade equipment; 4) inability to retain highly qualified staff; and 5) unqualified users dirtying/damaging equipment. Further information related to these issues and to fee structure was solicited. Overall, there appeared to be a decline in university support for facilities and more emphasis on securing income by serving clients outside of the institution and by obtaining grants from entities outside of the university.

Utilization Possibilities of Area Definition in User Space for User-Centric Pervasive-Adaptive Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Krejcar, Ondrej

The ability to let a mobile device determine its location in an indoor environment supports the creation of a new range of mobile information system applications. The goal of my project is to complement the data networking capabilities of RF wireless LANs with accurate user location and tracking capabilities for user needed data prebuffering. I created a location based system enhancement for locating and tracking users of indoor information system. User position is used for data prebuffering and pushing information from a server to his mobile client. All server data is saved as artifacts (together) with its indoor position information. The area definition for artifacts selecting is described for current and predicted user position along with valuating options for artifacts ranging. Future trends are also discussed.

Comparing Facebook Users and Facebook Non-Users: Relationship between Personality Traits and Mental Health Variables – An Exploratory Study

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Over one billion people use Facebook as a platform for social interaction and self-presentation making it one of the most popular online sites. The aim of the present study was to investigate differences in various personality traits and mental health variables between Facebook users and people who do not use this platform. The data of 945 participants (790 Facebook users, 155 Facebook non-users) were collected. Results indicate that Facebook users score significantly higher on narcissism, self-esteem and extraversion than Facebook non-users. Furthermore, they have significantly higher values of social support, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. Facebook non-users have (marginally) significantly higher values of depression symptoms than Facebook users. In both groups, extraversion, self-esteem, happiness, life satisfaction, resilience and social support, on the one hand, and depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, on the other hand, are negatively correlated. Neuroticism is positively associated with depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. However, significant differences exist between Facebook users and Facebook non-users regarding some associations of personality traits and mental health variables. Compared to Facebook non-users, the present results indicate that Facebook users have higher values of certain personality traits and positive variables protecting mental health. These findings are of particular interest considering the high importance of social online-platforms in the daily life of many people. PMID:27907020

The PANTHER User Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coram, Jamie L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Morrow, James D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Perkins, David Nikolaus [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-09-01

This document describes the PANTHER R&D Application, a proof-of-concept user interface application developed under the PANTHER Grand Challenge LDRD. The purpose of the application is to explore interaction models for graph analytics, drive algorithmic improvements from an end-user point of view, and support demonstration of PANTHER technologies to potential customers. The R&D Application implements a graph-centric interaction model that exposes analysts to the algorithms contained within the GeoGraphy graph analytics library. Users define geospatial-temporal semantic graph queries by constructing search templates based on nodes, edges, and the constraints among them. Users then analyze the results of the queries using both geo-spatial and temporal visualizations. Development of this application has made user experience an explicit driver for project and algorithmic level decisions that will affect how analysts one day make use of PANTHER technologies.

AIMSsim Version 2.3.4 - User Manual

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Schoenborn, Oliver; Lachance, Patrick; Bahramifarid, Nima

2008-01-01

This user manual provides an overview of the software functionality developed to support the empirical investigation of a simulated user interface for an Advanced Integrated Multi-sensor Surveillance (AIMS) system...

Simion 3D Version 6.0 User`s Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dahl, D.A.

1995-11-01

The original SIMION was an electrostatic lens analysis and design program developed by D.C. McGilvery at Latrobe University, Bundoora Victoria, Australia, 1977. SIMION for the PC, developed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, shares little more than its name with the original McGilvery version. INEL`s fifth major SIMION release, version 6.0, represents a quantum improvement over previous versions. This C based program can model complex problems using an ion optics workbench that can hold up to 200 2D and/or 3D electrostatic/magnetic potential arrays. Arrays can have up to 10,000,000 points. SIMION 3D`s 32 bit virtual Graphics User Interface provides a highly interactive advanced user environment. All potential arrays are visualized as 3D objects that the user can cut away to inspect ion trajectories and potential energy surfaces. User programs have been greatly extended in versatility and power. A new geometry file option supports the definition of highly complex array geometry. Extensive algorithm modifications have dramatically improved this version`s computational speed and accuracy.

A mobile design lab for user-driven innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Ellen; Kanstrup, Anne Marie

2007-01-01

The paper presents the history and conceptual foundation for the Mobile Design Lab, ment to support both designers and users in the acts of user-driven innovation. The Mobile Design Lab is based on Vygotsky's theory of tool- and language-mediation, and was created in 2004 to support research...... and teaching of user driven innovation. Being itself an example of user-driven innovation it has taken shape of HCI design research projekcts, in which we have been involved since 2004. The first challenge was to get 'out of the lab', the next to get 'out of the head', and finally we are currently working...

ProMot: a decision support tool for electric motor users; ProMot: ein Werkzeug zur Entscheidungsfindung fuer Motorenbetreiber

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tanner, T

2006-07-01

Being supported by an international collaboration the project ProMot has developed and disseminated in the European Union a decision support tool for electric motor users helping them to choose energy efficient motor systems. During the first phase all necessary components to build the decision support tool have been selected, developed or improved and adapted. At the beginning it was assumed that the contribution of the author's company, Semafor would be the integration of the company's OPAL software components developed for pumps and variable speed drives (VSD) into the EuroDEEM package. In view of the deficiencies of EuroDEEM it was soon agreed to abandon this approach. Instead, the package IMSSA (International Motor Selection and Saving Analysis), developed at the Washington State University on the basis of MotorMaster was selected. IMSSA - which has been renamed to EuroDEEM International - and the pump and VSD module can now be used as standalone applications. The second phase integrated all collected and developed material into a comprehensive and user-friendly web site that was then demonstrated to key actors in the participating countries. Several requirements had to be considered. The platform had to allow the publication of the web pages in several languages and to enable the team members to place and modify their content without disturbing ongoing operation. It was therefore decided to evaluate a suitable Web Content Management System (CMS) which lead to Plone, a powerful and adaptable open-source system already in use at many web sites. The pages have then been created and published with this system. With some support from Semafor, German and French translations were created. Also a hardcopy brochure that gives an overview of the web site has been produced and distributed in the participating countries. (author)

ProMot: a decision support tool for electric motor users; ProMot: ein Werkzeug zur Entscheidungsfindung fuer Motorenbetreiber

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tanner, T.

2006-07-01

Being supported by an international collaboration the project ProMot has developed and disseminated in the European Union a decision support tool for electric motor users helping them to choose energy efficient motor systems. During the first phase all necessary components to build the decision support tool have been selected, developed or improved and adapted. At the beginning it was assumed that the contribution of the author's company, Semafor would be the integration of the company's OPAL software components developed for pumps and variable speed drives (VSD) into the EuroDEEM package. In view of the deficiencies of EuroDEEM it was soon agreed to abandon this approach. Instead, the package IMSSA (International Motor Selection and Saving Analysis), developed at the Washington State University on the basis of MotorMaster was selected. IMSSA - which has been renamed to EuroDEEM International - and the pump and VSD module can now be used as standalone applications. The second phase integrated all collected and developed material into a comprehensive and user-friendly web site that was then demonstrated to key actors in the participating countries. Several requirements had to be considered. The platform had to allow the publication of the web pages in several languages and to enable the team members to place and modify their content without disturbing ongoing operation. It was therefore decided to evaluate a suitable Web Content Management System (CMS) which lead to Plone, a powerful and adaptable open-source system already in use at many web sites. The pages have then been created and published with this system. With some support from Semafor, German and French translations were created. Also a hardcopy brochure that gives an overview of the web site has been produced and distributed in the participating countries. (author)

Improving Requirements Generation Thoroughness in User-Centered Workshops: The Role of Prompting and Shared User Stories

Science.gov (United States)

Read, Aaron

2013-01-01

The rise of stakeholder centered software development has led to organizations engaging users early in the development process to help define system requirements. To facilitate user involvement in the requirements elicitation process, companies can use Group Support Systems (GSS) to conduct requirements elicitation workshops. The effectiveness of…

ASIST SIG/CR Classification Workshop 2000: Classification for User Support and Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Soergel, Dagobert

2001-01-01

Reports on papers presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of ASIST (American Society for Information Science and Technology) for the Special Interest Group in Classification Research (SIG/CR). Topics include types of knowledge; developing user-oriented classifications, including domain analysis; classification in the user interface; and automatic…

User modeling techniques as support in the clinical decision-making process.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferri, F

1995-01-01

This paper describes research work on the design and creation of a medical folder management system capable of establishing co-operative dialogue with users who have access to the information contained therein. The research work has addressed the problem of integrating into the system knowledge about the medical domain and that about users, both necessary to activate co-operative dialogue. The CADMIO [2] prototype has been developed since the study was made. The last version of the CADMIO system stores information about users for the use in recognizing and interpreting their behavior, providing help, and in acquiring and returning further information. Depending on this information the system retrieves and shows the data of the medical folder in an intelligent way by highlighting links between data. It simplifies and increases the speed of the interaction by focusing on the data useful to the decisional activity of the physician.

AIMSsim Version 2.2.1, User Manual

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Schoenborn, Oliver

2007-01-01

This user manual provides an overview of how to use the software developed to support the empirical investigation of a simulated user interface for an Advanced Integrated Multi sensor Surveillance (AIMS) system...

User's manual (UM) for the enhanced logistics intratheater support tool (ELIST) software segment version 8.1.0.0 for solaris 7.; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dritz, K.

2002-01-01

This document is the User's Manual (UM) for the Enhanced Logistics Intratheater Support Tool (ELIST) Software Segment. It tells how to use the end-user and administrative features of the segment. The instructions in Sections 4.2.1, 5.3.1, and 5.3.2 for the end-user features (Run ELIST and Run ETEdit) only cover the launching of those features in the DII COE environment; full details on the operation of ELIST and ETEdit in any environment can be found in the documents listed in Section 2.1.3 and referenced elsewhere in this document. On the other hand, complete instructions for the administrative features (Add Map Data and Delete Map Data) are presented in Sections 4.2.2, 5.3.3, and 5.3.4 of this document

Telephone helplines as a source of support for eating disorders: Service user, carer, and health professional perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Prior, Amie-Louise; Woodward, Debbie; Hoefkens, Toni; Clayton, Debbie; Thirlaway, Katie; Limbert, Caroline

2018-01-01

Access to care for eating disorders can be problematic for numerous reasons including lack of understanding and delays with treatment referrals. Previous research has highlighted the benefits of telephone helplines as an accessible source of support for those who may not wish to access face-to-face support or to fill a gap for those waiting for treatment. This study aimed to gain an insight into the perspectives of those who may use or refer others to a telephone helpline in order to identify the requirements of such a service. Triangulation of service user, carer and health professionals' perspectives resulted in identification of themes relating to the type of support, delivery and practicalities of a helpline. The findings indicated that telephone helplines may offer numerous benefits for individuals with an eating disorder, whether accessed as a first step, alongside treatment or as an extension of this support when in recovery. Additionally helplines may provide an opportunity for carers to access information and discuss their own experiences, while supporting their loved one. Raising awareness of these services is important to encourage those affected by an eating disorder to access and make the most of this type of support. These findings offer an insight into the key requirements for new and existing service development with regard to both the type of support and the method of communication required by individuals with eating disorders.

Geosensors to Support Crop Production: Current Applications and User Requirements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lammert Kooistra

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Sensor technology, which benefits from high temporal measuring resolution, real-time data transfer and high spatial resolution of sensor data that shows in-field variations, has the potential to provide added value for crop production. The present paper explores how sensors and sensor networks have been utilised in the crop production process and what their added-value and the main bottlenecks are from the perspective of users. The focus is on sensor based applications and on requirements that users pose for them. Literature and two use cases were reviewed and applications were classified according to the crop production process: sensing of growth conditions, fertilising, irrigation, plant protection, harvesting and fleet control. The potential of sensor technology was widely acknowledged along the crop production chain. Users of the sensors require easy-to-use and reliable applications that are actionable in crop production at reasonable costs. The challenges are to develop sensor technology, data interoperability and management tools as well as data and measurement services in a way that requirements can be met, and potential benefits and added value can be realized in the farms in terms of higher yields, improved quality of yields, decreased input costs and production risks, and less work time and load.

Vote to link: Recovering from misbehaving anonymous users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lueks, W.; Everts, M.H.; Hoepman, J.H.

2016-01-01

Service providers are often reluctant to support anonymous access, because this makes it hard to deal with misbehaving users. Anonymous blacklisting and reputation systems can help prevent misbehaving users from causing more damage. However, by the time the user is blocked or has lost reputation,

Using social media for support and feedback by mental health service users: thematic analysis of a twitter conversation.

Science.gov (United States)

Shepherd, Andrew; Sanders, Caroline; Doyle, Michael; Shaw, Jenny

2015-02-19

Internet based social media websites represent a growing space for interpersonal interaction. Research has been conducted in relation to the potential role of social media in the support of individuals with physical health conditions. However, limited research exists exploring such utilisation by individuals with experience of mental health problems. It could be proposed that access to wider support networks and knowledge could be beneficial for all users, although this positive interpretation has been challenged. The present study focusses on a specific discussion as a case study to assess the role of the website www.twitter.com as a medium for interpersonal communication by individuals with experience of mental disorder and possible source of feedback to mental health service providers. An electronic search was performed to identify material contributing to an online conversation entitled #dearmentalhealthprofessionals. Output from the search strategy was combined in such a way that repeated material was eliminated and all individual material anonymised. The remaining textual material was reviewed and combined in a thematic analysis to identify common themes of discussion. 515 unique communications were identified relating to the specified conversation. The majority of the material related to four overarching thematic headings: The impact of diagnosis on personal identity and as a facilitator for accessing care; Balance of power between professional and service user; Therapeutic relationship and developing professional communication; and Support provision through medication, crisis planning, service provision and the wider society. Remaining material was identified as being direct expression of thanks, self-referential in its content relating to the on-going conversation or providing a link to external resources and further discussion. The present study demonstrates the utility of online social media as both a discursive space in which individuals with experience

On user-friendly interface construction for CACSD packages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ravn, Ole

1989-01-01

Some ideas that are used in the development of user-friendly interface for a computer-aided control system design (CACSD) package are presented. The concepts presented are integration and extensibility through the use of object-oriented programming, man-machine interface and user support using...... direct manipulation, and multiple views and multiple actions on objects in different domains. The use of multiple views and actions in combination with graphics enhances the user's ability to get an overview of the system to be designed. Good support for iteration is provided, and the short time between...... action and presentation allows the user to evaluate actions quickly. Object-oriented programming has been used to provide modularity and encapsulation...

Interfaces for End-User Information Seeking.

Science.gov (United States)

Marchionini, Gary

1992-01-01

Discusses essential features of interfaces to support end-user information seeking. Highlights include cognitive engineering; task models and task analysis; the problem-solving nature of information seeking; examples of systems for end-users, including online public access catalogs (OPACs), hypertext, and help systems; and suggested research…

Artificial intelligence techniques for modeling database user behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Tanner, Steve; Graves, Sara J.

1990-01-01

The design and development of the adaptive modeling system is described. This system models how a user accesses a relational database management system in order to improve its performance by discovering use access patterns. In the current system, these patterns are used to improve the user interface and may be used to speed data retrieval, support query optimization and support a more flexible data representation. The system models both syntactic and semantic information about the user's access and employs both procedural and rule-based logic to manipulate the model.

User-Centered Data Management

CERN Document Server

Catarci, Tiziana; Kimani, Stephen

2010-01-01

This lecture covers several core issues in user-centered data management, including how to design usable interfaces that suitably support database tasks, and relevant approaches to visual querying, information visualization, and visual data mining. Novel interaction paradigms, e.g., mobile and interfaces that go beyond the visual dimension, are also discussed. Table of Contents: Why User-Centered / The Early Days: Visual Query Systems / Beyond Querying / More Advanced Applications / Non-Visual Interfaces / Conclusions

VIERS- User Preference Service

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Veterans Affairs — The Preferences service provides a means to store, retrieve, and manage user preferences. The service supports definition of enterprise wide preferences, as well as...

User's manual for the upper Delaware River riverine environmental flow decision support system (REFDSS), Version 1.1.2

Science.gov (United States)

Talbert, Colin; Maloney, Kelly O.; Holmquist-Johnson, Chris; Hanson, Leanne

2014-01-01

Between 2002 and 2006, the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted field surveys, organized workshops, and performed analysis of habitat for trout and shad in the Upper Delaware River Basin. This work culminated in the development of decision support system software (the Delaware River DSS–DRDSS, Bovee and others, 2007) that works in conjunction with the Delaware River Basin Commission’s reservoir operations model, OASIS, to facilitate comparison of the habitat and water-delivery effects of alternative operating scenarios for the Basin. This original DRDSS application was developed in Microsoft Excel and is available to all interested parties through the FORT web site (http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Products/Software/DRDSS/). Initial user feedback on the original Excel-based DSS highlighted the need for a more user-friendly and powerful interface to effectively deliver the complex data and analyses encapsulated in the DSS. In order to meet this need, the USGS FORT and Northern Appalachian Research Branch (NARB) developed an entirely new graphical user interface (GUI) application. Support for this research was through the DOI WaterSmart program (http://www.doi.gov/watersmart/html/index.php) of which the USGS component is the National Water Census (http://water.usgs.gov/watercensus/WaterSMART.html). The content and methodology of the new GUI interface emulates those of the original DSS with a few exceptions listed below. Refer to Bovee and others (2007) for the original information. Significant alterations to the original DSS include: • We moved from Excel-based data storage and processing to a more powerful database back end powered by SQLite. The most notable effect of this is that the previous maximum temporal extent of 10 years has been replaced by a dynamic extent that can now cover the entire period of record for which we have data (1928–2000). • We incorporated interactive geographic information system (GIS

Friendship and money: A qualitative study of service users' experiences of participating in a supported socialisation programme.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheridan, Ann; O'Keeffe, Donal; Coughlan, Barbara; Frazer, Kate; Drennan, Johnathan; Kemple, Mary

2018-06-01

Social opportunities can be limited in the lives of people with enduring mental illness (EMI) due to psychiatric stigma, restricted home environments and employment barriers. Supported socialisation programmes have the potential to redress the impact of social isolation. To explore the experiences of service users with EMI taking part in a supported socialisation programme, using written diary entries. This article reports on the qualitative component of a randomised controlled trial of supported socialisation for people with EMI (published previously in this journal). Trial participation involved (1) being matched with a volunteer partner and engaging in social/leisure activities while receiving a stipend of €20 or (2) receiving this stipend only and engaging in self-driven socialisation. Participants completed written diaries documenting their perspectives on their experiences of supported socialisation. Data were analysed using Thematic Analysis. Experiences of participation were characterised by involvement 'normalising' life, fostering a sense of connectedness, improving physical health, and facilitating engagement with culture. Taking part helped participants integrate socialising into their identity, enhanced their perceived capacity to be social, and cemented/expanded social networks. Participants also experienced significant obstacles to socialisation. Supported socialisation can increase confidence, social competence and self-agency; buffer against psychiatric stigma; build social capital; and afford opportunities to enhance social integration, inclusion and belonging.

DSSNET, a network of users and developers of decision support systems for emergency response in Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salfeld, H.C.; Raskob, W.

2002-01-01

Following the Chernobyl accident, computerised systems for off-site management and response in case of a nuclear accident were developed and installed in many European countries. Some of the systems are in use in only one country, whereas other systems have found broader application in Europe. Examples of these systems are IMIS (D), ARGOS (DK), running in Denmark, Lithuania and Poland and RODOS, a real-time on-line decision support system for nuclear emergency management in Europe, which is now installed for operational or test-operational use in many European countries. During the development and installation phases of these decision support systems the necessity emerged, that there is a need for an intensive feedback between developers and users. Therefore, under the 5. Framework Programme of the European Commission a network has been installed to intensify the communication and increase the understanding between the operational community and the many and diverse disciplines involved in RD for improvement, extension and integration of operational decision support systems for nuclear emergency management, called DSSNET. This poster demonstrates how the network is organised, namely with different work groups, exercises and meetings. Each working group addresses one of seven work packages: - Preparation and conduct of exercises (WP1), - User interfaces, results and interaction with decision makers (WP2), - Exchange of data information relevant for decision-making (WP3), System functions, networks and processing of on-line data (WP4), European database (WP5), Coordination of the network (WP6), Hydrological modelling (WP7). Main focus is given to WP4, in which information of on-line monitoring from more than 10 European counties is collected. Information was collated with the help of questionnaires which are send out on a regular basis. The evaluation of the various questionnaires summarises the different systems in use for stack monitoring, retrieving on

GrEMBOSS: EMBOSS over the EELA GRID

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonavides-Martinez, C.; Murrieta-Leon, E.; Verleyen, J.; Zayas-Lagunas, R.; Hernandez-Alvarez, A.; Rodriguez-Bahena, R.; Valverde, J. R.; Branger, P. A.; Sarachu, M.

2007-01-01

With the growth of genome databases and the implied complexity for processing such information within bioinformatics research, there is a need for computing power and massive storage facilities which can be provided by Grid infrastructures. EMBOSS is a free Open Source sequence analysis package specially developed for the needs of the bioinformatics and molecular biology user community. This work describes the deployment of EMBOSS over the EELA and EGEE Grids, both gLite middle ware-based infrastructures. This work is focused on rewriting the I/O EMBOSS libraries (AJAX) to use the GFAL from the LCG/EGEE middle ware. This library allows the use of files registered on the catalog service which are contained in the storage elements of a Grid. Submitting a job into a Grid is not an intuitive task. This work also describes an ad hoc mechanism to allow bioinformaticians to concentrate on the EMBOSS command, instead of acquiring advanced knowledge about Grid usage. The results obtained so far demonstrate the functionality of GrEMBOSS, and represent an efficient and viable alternative for gridifying other bioinformatics applications. (Author)

GrEMBOSS: EMBOSS over the EELA GRID

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bonavides-Martinez, C.; Murrieta-Leon, E.; Verleyen, J.; Zayas-Lagunas, R.; Hernandez-Alvarez, A.; Rodriguez-Bahena, R.; Valverde, J. R.; Branger, P. A.; Sarachu, M.

2007-07-01

With the growth of genome databases and the implied complexity for processing such information within bioinformatics research, there is a need for computing power and massive storage facilities which can be provided by Grid infrastructures. EMBOSS is a free Open Source sequence analysis package specially developed for the needs of the bioinformatics and molecular biology user community. This work describes the deployment of EMBOSS over the EELA and EGEE Grids, both gLite middle ware-based infrastructures. This work is focused on rewriting the I/O EMBOSS libraries (AJAX) to use the GFAL from the LCG/EGEE middle ware. This library allows the use of files registered on the catalog service which are contained in the storage elements of a Grid. Submitting a job into a Grid is not an intuitive task. This work also describes an ad hoc mechanism to allow bioinformaticians to concentrate on the EMBOSS command, instead of acquiring advanced knowledge about Grid usage. The results obtained so far demonstrate the functionality of GrEMBOSS, and represent an efficient and viable alternative for gridifying other bioinformatics applications. (Author)

Users as innovators:exploring the limitations of user-driven innovation

OpenAIRE

Trott, Paul; Duin, Patrick Van Der; Hartmann, Dap

2013-01-01

Considering users as innovators has gained considerable support over the past 30 years. Eric von Hippel’s work in this area forms a significant part of the theoretical underpinning and evidence behind this concept. Many further studies have been undertaken to support it. It has contributed to our understanding of innovation management in general and new product development in particular. Even so, Lüthje and Herstatt emphasise that empirical findings are scarce and that the most radical innova...

User recommendation in healthcare social media by assessing user similarity in heterogeneous network.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Ling; Yang, Christopher C

2017-09-01

The rapid growth of online health social websites has captured a vast amount of healthcare information and made the information easy to access for health consumers. E-patients often use these social websites for informational and emotional support. However, health consumers could be easily overwhelmed by the overloaded information. Healthcare information searching can be very difficult for consumers, not to mention most of them are not skilled information searcher. In this work, we investigate the approaches for measuring user similarity in online health social websites. By recommending similar users to consumers, we can help them to seek informational and emotional support in a more efficient way. We propose to represent the healthcare social media data as a heterogeneous healthcare information network and introduce the local and global structural approaches for measuring user similarity in a heterogeneous network. We compare the proposed structural approaches with the content-based approach. Experiments were conducted on a dataset collected from a popular online health social website, and the results showed that content-based approach performed better for inactive users, while structural approaches performed better for active users. Moreover, global structural approach outperformed local structural approach for all user groups. In addition, we conducted experiments on local and global structural approaches using different weight schemas for the edges in the network. Leverage performed the best for both local and global approaches. Finally, we integrated different approaches and demonstrated that hybrid method yielded better performance than the individual approach. The results indicate that content-based methods can effectively capture the similarity of inactive users who usually have focused interests, while structural methods can achieve better performance when rich structural information is available. Local structural approach only considers direct connections

Rooftop Unit Comparison Calculator User Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, James D. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-04-30

This document serves as a user manual for the Packaged rooftop air conditioners and heat pump units comparison calculator (RTUCC) and is an aggregation of the calculator’s website documentation. Content ranges from new-user guide material like the “Quick Start” to the more technical/algorithmic descriptions of the “Methods Pages.” There is also a section listing all the context-help topics that support the features on the “Controls” page. The appendix has a discussion of the EnergyPlus runs that supported the development of the building-response models.

A user's guide to coping with estuarine management bureaucracy: An Estuarine Planning Support System (EPSS) tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Lonsdale, Jemma; Nicholson, Rose; Weston, Keith; Elliott, Michael; Birchenough, Andrew; Sühring, Roxana

2018-02-01

Estuaries are amongst the most socio-economically and ecologically important environments however, due to competing and conflicting demands, management is often challenging with a complex legislative framework managed by multiple agencies. To facilitate the understanding of this legislative framework, we have developed a GISbased Estuarine Planning Support System tool. The tool integrates the requirements of the relevant legislation and provides a basis for assessing the current environmental state of an estuary as well as informing and assessing new plans to ensure a healthy estuarine state. The tool ensures that the information is easily accessible for regulators, managers, developers and the public. The tool is intended to be adaptable, but is assessed using the Humber Estuary, United Kingdom as a case study area. The successful application of the tool for complex socio-economic and environmental systems demonstrates that the tool can efficiently guide users through the complex requirements needed to support sustainable development. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Supportive Mental Health Self-Monitoring among Smartphone Users with Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Fully Mobile Randomized Controlled Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Till Beiwinkel

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Mobile health (mHealth could be widely used in the population to improve access to psychological treatment. In this paper, we describe the development of a mHealth intervention on the basis of supportive self-monitoring and describe the protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness among smartphone users with psychological distress. Based on power analysis, a representative quota sample of N = 186 smartphone users will be recruited, with an over-sampling of persons with moderate to high distress. Over a 4-week period, the intervention will be compared to a self-monitoring without intervention group and a passive control group. Telephone interviews will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks, and 12-week follow-up to assess study outcomes. The primary outcome will be improvement of mental health. Secondary outcomes will include well-being, intentions toward help-seeking and help-seeking behavior, user activation, attitudes toward mental-health services, perceived stigmatization, smartphone app quality, user satisfaction, engagement, and adherence with the intervention. Additionally, data from the user’s daily life as collected during self-monitoring will be used to investigate risk and protective factors of mental health in real-world settings. Therefore, this study will allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of a smartphone application as a widely accessible and low-cost intervention to improve mental health on a population level. It also allows to identify new assessment approaches in the field of psychiatric epidemiology.

Supportive Mental Health Self-Monitoring among Smartphone Users with Psychological Distress: Protocol for a Fully Mobile Randomized Controlled Trial

Science.gov (United States)

Beiwinkel, Till; Hey, Stefan; Bock, Olaf; Rössler, Wulf

2017-01-01

Mobile health (mHealth) could be widely used in the population to improve access to psychological treatment. In this paper, we describe the development of a mHealth intervention on the basis of supportive self-monitoring and describe the protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness among smartphone users with psychological distress. Based on power analysis, a representative quota sample of N = 186 smartphone users will be recruited, with an over-sampling of persons with moderate to high distress. Over a 4-week period, the intervention will be compared to a self-monitoring without intervention group and a passive control group. Telephone interviews will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks), and 12-week follow-up to assess study outcomes. The primary outcome will be improvement of mental health. Secondary outcomes will include well-being, intentions toward help-seeking and help-seeking behavior, user activation, attitudes toward mental-health services, perceived stigmatization, smartphone app quality, user satisfaction, engagement, and adherence with the intervention. Additionally, data from the user’s daily life as collected during self-monitoring will be used to investigate risk and protective factors of mental health in real-world settings. Therefore, this study will allow us to demonstrate the effectiveness of a smartphone application as a widely accessible and low-cost intervention to improve mental health on a population level. It also allows to identify new assessment approaches in the field of psychiatric epidemiology. PMID:28983477

Learning Analytics for Natural User Interfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez-Maldonado, Roberto; Shum, Simon Buckingham; Schneider, Bertrand; Charleer, Sven; Klerkx, Joris; Duval, Erik

2017-01-01

The continuous advancement of natural user interfaces (NUIs) allows for the development\tof novel and creative ways to support collocated collaborative work in a wide range of areas, including teaching and learning. The use of NUIs, such as those based on interactive multi-touch surfaces and tangible user interfaces (TUIs), can offer unique…

The LITERACY-Portal as the Subject of a Case Study on a Human-Centered Design Solution Supporting Users with Special Needs

Science.gov (United States)

Hagelkruys, Dominik; Motschnig, Renate

2017-01-01

Case studies help to reflect and to capture information about complex processes and domains and to make it reusable for future application in related contexts. In the case study reported in this article, we aim to capture and share processes and experience that we gained while designing a web-portal for supporting the specific user group of…

FIRINPC and FIRACPC graphics post-processor support user's guide and programmer's reference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hensel, E.

1992-03-01

FIRIN is a computer program used by DOE fire protection engineers to simulate hypothetical fire accidents in compartments at DOE facilities. The FIRIN code is typically used in conjunction with a ventilation system code such as FIRAC, which models the impact of the fire compartment upon the rest of the system. The code described here, FIRINPC is a PC based implementation of the full mainframe code FIRIN. In addition, FIRINPC contains graphics support for monitoring the progress of the simulation during execution and for reviewing the complete results of the simulation upon completion of the run. This document describes how to install, test, and subsequently use the code FIRINPC, and addresses differences in usage between the PC version of the code and its mainframe predecessor. The PC version contains all of the modeling capabilities of the earlier version, with additional graphics support. This user's guide is a supplement to the original FIRIN report published by the NRC. FIRAC is a computer program used by DOE fire protection engineers to simulate the transient response of complete ventilation system to fire induced transients. FIRAC has the ability to use the FIRIN code as the driving function or source term for the ventilation system response. The current version of FIRAC does not contain interactive graphics capabilities. A third program, called POST, is made available for reviewing the results of a previous FIRIN or FIRAC simulation, without having to recompute the numerical simulation. POST uses the output data files created by FIRINPC and FIRACPC to avoid recomputation

User's manual for the master equipment list. Phase 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sandoval, J.D.

1997-01-01

This manual is intended to provide a user with enough detailed instruction to guide them through the Master Equipment List Phase 1 (MEL Phase 1) application system operations. The MEL Phase 1 application is a database system that stores Equipment Identification Number (EIN) information to support equipment tracking in the 200E and 200W Tank Farms for the Tank Waste Remediation System Division. The MEL Phase 1 application supports both the user application and administrative control functions. The user application functions include: viewing by Folder, reporting, performing queries, and editing specific data. The administrative control functions include: maintaining valid user identifications, passwords, privileges, defining drop-down lists, and review of the change log relating to EIN data entries, additions, deletions, and editing. The scope of this User's Manual is to discuss these functions and is intended to guide users and answer questions regarding the MEL Phase 1 application

IGI (the Italian Grid initiative) and its impact on the Astrophysics community

Science.gov (United States)

Pasian, F.; Vuerli, C.; Taffoni, G.

IGI - the Association for the Italian Grid Infrastructure - has been established as a consortium of 14 different national institutions to provide long term sustainability to the Italian Grid. Its formal predecessor, the Grid.it project, has come to a close in 2006; to extend the benefits of this project, IGI has taken over and acts as the national coordinator for the different sectors of the Italian e-Infrastructure present in EGEE. IGI plans to support activities in a vast range of scientificdisciplines - e.g. Physics, Astrophysics, Biology, Health, Chemistry, Geophysics, Economy, Finance - and any possible extensions to other sectors such as Civil Protection, e-Learning, dissemination in Universities and secondary schools. Among these, the Astrophysics community is active as a user, by porting applications of various kinds, but also as a resource provider in terms of computing power and storage, and as middleware developer.

Data latency and the user community

Science.gov (United States)

Escobar, V. M.; Brown, M. E.; Carroll, M.

2013-12-01

The community using NASA Earth science observations in applications has grown significantly, with increasing sophistication to serve national interests. The National Research Council's Earth Science Decadal Survey report stated that the planning for applied and operational considerations in the missions should accompany the acquisition of new knowledge about Earth (NRC, 2007). This directive has made product applications at NASA an integral part of converting the data collected into actionable knowledge that can be used to inform policy. However, successfully bridging scientific research with operational decision making in different application areas requires looking into user data requirements and operational needs. This study was conducted to determine how users are incorporating NASA data into applications and operational processes. The approach included a review of published materials, direct interviews with mission representatives, and an online professional review, which was distributed to over 6000 individuals. We provide a complete description of the findings with definitions and explanations of what goes into measuring latency as well as how users and applications utilize NASA data products. We identified 3 classes of users: operational (need data in 3 hours or less), near real time (need data within a day of acquisition), and scientific users (need highest quality data, time independent). We also determined that most users with applications are interested in specific types of products that may come from multiple missions. These users will take the observations when they are available, however the observations may have additional applications value if they are available either by a certain time of day or within a period of time after acquisition. NASA has supported the need for access to low latency data on an ad-hoc basis and more substantively in stand-alone systems such as the MODIS Rapid Response system and more recently with LANCE. The increased level

Service on demand for ISS users

Science.gov (United States)

Hüser, Detlev; Berg, Marco; Körtge, Nicole; Mildner, Wolfgang; Salmen, Frank; Strauch, Karsten

2002-07-01

Since the ISS started its operational phase, the need of logistics scenarios and solutions, supporting the utilisation of the station and its facilities, becomes increasingly important. Our contribution to this challenge is a SERVICE On DEMAND for ISS users, which offers a business friendly engineering and logistics support for the resupply of the station. Especially the utilisation by commercial and industrial users is supported and simplified by this service. Our industrial team, consisting of OHB-System and BEOS, provides experience and development support for space dedicated hard- and software elements, their transportation and operation. Furthermore, we operate as the interface between customer and the envisaged space authorities. Due to a variety of tailored service elements and the ongoing servicing, customers can concentrate on their payload content or mission objectives and don't have to deal with space-specific techniques and regulations. The SERVICE On DEMAND includes the following elements: ITR is our in-orbit platform service. ITR is a transport rack, used in the SPACEHAB logistics double module, for active and passive payloads on subrack- and drawer level of different standards. Due to its unique late access and early retrieval capability, ITR increases the flexibility concerning transport capabilities to and from the ISS. RIST is our multi-functional test facility for ISPR-based experiment drawer and locker payloads. The test program concentrates on physical and functional interface and performance testing at the payload developers site prior to the shipment to the integration and launch. The RIST service program comprises consulting, planning and engineering as well. The RIST test suitcase is planned to be available for lease or rent to users, too. AMTSS is an advanced multimedia terminal consulting service for communication with the space station scientific facilities, as part of the user home-base. This unique ISS multimedia kit combines

End-User Development of Information Visualization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pantazos, Kostas; Lauesen, Søren; Vatrapu, Ravi

2013-01-01

such as data manipulation, but no formal training in programming. 18 visualization tools were surveyed from an enduser developer perspective. The results of this survey study show that end-user developers need better tools to create and modify custom visualizations. A closer collaboration between End......This paper investigates End-User Development of Information Visualization. More specifically, we investigated how existing visualization tools allow end-user developers to construct visualizations. End-user developers have some developing or scripting skills to perform relatively advanced tasks......-User Development and Information Visualization researchers could contribute towards the development of better tools to support custom visualizations. In addition, as empirical evaluations of these tools are lacking both research communities should focus more on this aspect. The study serves as a starting point...

Estimating Spoken Dialog System Quality with User Models

CERN Document Server

Engelbrecht, Klaus-Peter

2013-01-01

Spoken dialog systems have the potential to offer highly intuitive user interfaces, as they allow systems to be controlled using natural language. However, the complexity inherent in natural language dialogs means that careful testing of the system must be carried out from the very beginning of the design process.   This book examines how user models can be used to support such early evaluations in two ways:  by running simulations of dialogs, and by estimating the quality judgments of users. First, a design environment supporting the creation of dialog flows, the simulation of dialogs, and the analysis of the simulated data is proposed.  How the quality of user simulations may be quantified with respect to their suitability for both formative and summative evaluation is then discussed. The remainder of the book is dedicated to the problem of predicting quality judgments of users based on interaction data. New modeling approaches are presented, which process the dialogs as sequences, and which allow knowl...

User resistance to information system implementations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Campbell, Robert H.; Grimshaw, Mark

2016-01-01

Users often resist information system implementations and it has been established that this can cause an implementation to fail. In this paper, the user attitudes that can cause resistance are examined using an established attitude change theory from social and cognitive psychology: the Elaboration......-ranging study are presented that, in addition to supporting this argument, identifies and classifies 19 new heuristics and peripheral influences (in addition to the nine already known) that commonly, and adversely, affect user attitudes and responses to new information system implementations....

A User-Centered Framework for Deriving A Conceptual Design From User Experiences: Leveraging Personas and Patterns to Create Usable Designs

Science.gov (United States)

Javahery, Homa; Deichman, Alexander; Seffah, Ahmed; Taleb, Mohamed

Patterns are a design tool to capture best practices, tackling problems that occur in different contexts. A user interface (UI) design pattern spans several levels of design abstraction ranging from high-level navigation to low-level idioms detailing a screen layout. One challenge is to combine a set of patterns to create a conceptual design that reflects user experiences. In this chapter, we detail a user-centered design (UCD) framework that exploits the novel idea of using personas and patterns together. Personas are used initially to collect and model user experiences. UI patterns are selected based on personas pecifications; these patterns are then used as building blocks for constructing conceptual designs. Through the use of a case study, we illustrate how personas and patterns can act as complementary techniques in narrowing the gap between two major steps in UCD: capturing users and their experiences, and building an early design based on that information. As a result of lessons learned from the study and by refining our framework, we define a more systematic process called UX-P (User Experiences to Pattern), with a supporting tool. The process introduces intermediate analytical steps and supports designers in creating usable designs.

Error-information in tutorial documentation: Supporting users' errors to facilitate initial skill learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lazonder, Adrianus W.; van der Meij, Hans

1995-01-01

Novice users make many errors when they first try to learn how to work with a computer program like a spreadsheet or wordprocessor. No matter how user-friendly the software or the training manual, errors can and will occur. The current view on errors is that they can be helpful or disruptive,

Social cognitive determinants of nutrition and physical activity among web-health users enrolling in an online intervention: the influence of social support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson-Bill, Eileen Smith; Winett, Richard A; Wojcik, Janet R

2011-03-17

had good self-efficacy and outcome expectations for health behavior change; however, they perceived little social support for making these changes and engaged in few self-regulatory behaviors. Consistent with SCT, theoretical models provided good fit to Web-users' data (root mean square error of the approximation [RMSEA] social support and use of self-regulatory behaviors were strong predictors of physical activity and nutrition behavior. Web users' self-efficacy was also a good predictor of healthier levels of physical activity and dietary fat but not of fiber, fruits, and vegetables. Social support and self-efficacy indirectly predicted behavior through self-regulation, and social support had indirect effects through self-efficacy. Results suggest Web-health users visiting and ultimately participating in online health interventions may likely be middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class women whose detrimental health behaviors put them at risk of obesity, heart disease, some cancers, and diabetes. The success of Internet physical activity and nutrition interventions may depend on the extent to which they lead users to develop self-efficacy for behavior change, but perhaps as important, the extent to which these interventions help them garner social-support for making changes. Success of these interventions may also depend on the extent to which they provide a platform for setting goals, planning, tracking, and providing feedback on targeted behaviors.

Supporting the planning for the evolution of the EOSDIS through an in-depth understanding of user requirements for NASA's world-class Earth science data system

Science.gov (United States)

Griffin, V. L.; Behnke, J.; Maiden, M.; Fontaine, K.

2004-12-01

NASA is planning for the evolution of the Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), a large, complex data system currently supporting over 18 operational NASA satellite missions including the flagship EOS missions: Terra, Aqua, and Aura. A critical underpinning for the evolution planning is developing thorough knowledge of the EOSDIS users and how they use the EOSDIS products in their research and or applications endeavors. This paper provides charts and tables of results from NASA studies that characterized our users, data and techniques. Using these metrics, other projects can apply NASA's 'lessons learned' to the development and operations of their data systems. In 2004, NASA undertook an intensive study of the users and usage of EOSDIS data. The study considered trends in the types and levels of EOS data products being ordered, the expanding number of users requesting products, and the "domains" of those users. The study showed that increasing numbers of users are using the validated, geophysical products produced from the radiance measurements recorded by the EOS instruments; while there remains a steady demand for the radiance products themselves. In 2003, over 2.1 million individuals contacted EOSDIS (as identified by unique email and/or URL) with just over 10% requesting a product or service. The users came from all sectors including 40% from more than 125 countries outside the U.S. University researchers and students (.edu) received over 40% of the some 29 million data and information products disseminated by EOSDIS. The trend in method of delivery for EOSDIS data has been away from receiving data on hard media (tapes, CD-ROM, etc.) to receiving the data over the network. Over 75% of the EOSDIS data products were disseminated via electronic means in 2003 contrasted with just under 30% in 2000. To plan for system-wide evolution you need to know whether the system is meeting the users' needs and expectations. Thus, in 2004 NASA

The gLite Workload Management System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marco, Cecchi; Fabio, Capannini; Alvise, Dorigo; Antonia, Ghiselli; Alessio, Gianelle; Francesco, Giacomini; Elisabetta, Molinari; Salvatore, Monforte; Alessandro, Maraschini; Luca, Petronzio

2010-01-01

The gLite Workload Management System represents a key entry point to high-end services available on a Grid. Being designed as part of the european Grid within the six years long EU-funded EGEE project, now at its third phase, the WMS is meant to provide reliable and efficient distribution and management of end-user requests. This service basically translates user requirements and preferences into specific operations and decisions - dictated by the general status of all other Grid services - while taking responsibility to bring requests to successful completion. The WMS has become a reference implementation of the 'early binding' approach to meta-scheduling as a neat, Grid-aware solution, able to optimise resource access and to satisfy requests for computation together with data. Several added value features are provided for job submission, different job types are supported from simple batch to a variety of compounds. In this paper we outline what has been achieved to provide adequate workload and management components, suitable to be deployed in a production-quality Grid, while covering the design and development of the gLite WMS and focusing on the most recently achieved results.

User-Defined Clocks in the Real-Time Specification for Java

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wellings, Andy; Schoeberl, Martin

2011-01-01

This paper analyses the new user-defined clock model that is to be supported in Version 1.1 of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ). The model is a compromise between the current position, where there is no support for user-defined clocks, and a fully integrated model. The paper investigat...

Appearance of microvascular obstruction on high resolution first-pass perfusion, early and late gadolinium enhancement CMR in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Redwood Simon

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The presence and extent of microvascular obstruction (MO after acute myocardial infarction can be measured by first-pass gadolinium-enhanced perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR or after gadolinium injection with early or late enhancement (EGE/LGE imaging. The volume of MO measured by these three methods may differ because contrast agent diffusion into the MO reduces its apparent extent over time. Theoretically, first-pass perfusion CMR should be the most accurate method to measure MO, but this technique has been limited by lower spatial resolution than EGE and LGE as well as incomplete cardiac coverage. These limitations of perfusion CMR can be overcome using spatio-temporal undersampling methods. The purpose of this study was to compare the extent of MO by high resolution first-pass k-t SENSE accelerated perfusion, EGE and LGE. Methods 34 patients with acute ST elevation myocardial infarction, treated successfully with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI, underwent CMR within 72 hours of admission. k-t SENSE accelerated first-pass perfusion MR (7 fold acceleration, spatial resolution 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 10 mm, 8 slices acquired over 2 RR intervals, 0.1 mmol/kg Gd-DTPA, EGE (1–4 minutes after injection with a fixed TI of 440 ms and LGE images (10–12 minutes after injection, TI determined by a Look-Locker scout were acquired. MO volume was determined for each technique by manual planimetry and summation of discs methodology. Results k-t SENSE first-pass perfusion detected more cases of MO than EGE and LGE (22 vs. 20 vs. 14, respectively. The extent of MO imaged by first-pass perfusion (median mass 4.7 g, IQR 6.7 was greater than by EGE (median mass 2.3 g, IQR 7.1, p = 0.002 and LGE (median mass 0.2 g, IQR 2.4, p = 0.0003. The correlation coefficient between MO mass measured by first-pass perfusion and EGE was 0.91 (p Conclusion The extent of MO following acute myocardial infarction appears larger on

Users Polarization on Facebook and Youtube.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Bessi

Full Text Available Users online tend to select information that support and adhere their beliefs, and to form polarized groups sharing the same view-e.g. echo chambers. Algorithms for content promotion may favour this phenomenon, by accounting for users preferences and thus limiting the exposure to unsolicited contents. To shade light on this question, we perform a comparative study on how same contents (videos are consumed on different online social media-i.e. Facebook and YouTube-over a sample of 12M of users. Our findings show that content drives the emergence of echo chambers on both platforms. Moreover, we show that the users' commenting patterns are accurate predictors for the formation of echo-chambers.

Environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and their remediation: Twenty years of experience. Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group 'Environment' (EGE). Working material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-08-01

recognised international scientists, including those from the three more affected countries. Within these two groups and their subworking groups the draft documents to support this report were prepared for consideration by the members of the Forum. The EGE was coordinated by the IAEA and the EGH was coordinated by the WHO. In all cases the scientists from the UN organisations, the international community, and the three affected countries have been able to reach consensus in the preparation of their respective draft documents. After approval by the members of the Forum itself and final editing of the draft documents, this report is the result of that process regarding the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident. A similar report on the health effects attributable to radiation exposure arising from the accident has been prepared for Forum consideration and approval by the Expert Group 'Health'

Environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and their remediation: Twenty years of experience. Report of the UN Chernobyl Forum Expert Group 'Environment' (EGE). Working material

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2005-08-01

recognised international scientists, including those from the three more affected countries. Within these two groups and their subworking groups the draft documents to support this report were prepared for consideration by the members of the Forum. The EGE was coordinated by the IAEA and the EGH was coordinated by the WHO. In all cases the scientists from the UN organisations, the international community, and the three affected countries have been able to reach consensus in the preparation of their respective draft documents. After approval by the members of the Forum itself and final editing of the draft documents, this report is the result of that process regarding the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident. A similar report on the health effects attributable to radiation exposure arising from the accident has been prepared for Forum consideration and approval by the Expert Group 'Health'.

Identification of Users for a Smoking Cessation Mobile App : Quantitative Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chevalking, S.K. Leon; Ben Allouch, Soumaya; Brusse-Keizer, Marjolein; Postel, Marloes G.; Pieterse, Marcel E.

2018-01-01

Background: The number of mobile apps that support smoking cessation is growing, indicating the potential of the mobile phone as a means to support cessation. Knowledge about the potential end users for cessation apps results in suggestions to target potential user groups in a dissemination

User Facilities: The Education of New Neutron Users

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez, Yamali; Brown, Craig M.

2009-01-01

Neutron scattering is a particularly useful tool enabling the study of compositional, structural and dynamical properties of materials down to the atomic scale. Due to the complexity of operating an intense source of neutrons, this technique is primarily practiced at large national facilities that cater to the research needs of chemists, biologists, physicists, engineers, and material scientists in general. In particular, these user facilities provide specialized instrumentation along with the scientific and technical support required to efficiently utilize it. Since neutron scattering experiments are performed at central facilities rather than in the home-laboratories of individual investigators, the facilities themselves must play a key role in the education and development of new users. The role of neutron scattering facilities in educating young scientists will be examined using examples from current programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research.

NFC-Based User Interface for Smart Environments

OpenAIRE

Susanna Spinsante; Ennio Gambi

2015-01-01

The physical support of a home automation system, joined with a simplified user-system interaction modality, may allow people affected by motor impairments or limitations, such as elderly and disabled people, to live safely and comfortably at home, by improving their autonomy and facilitating the execution of daily life tasks. The proposed solution takes advantage of the Near Field Communications technology, which is simple and intuitive to use, to enable advanced user interaction. The user c...

A Prototype Graphical User Interface for Co-op: A Group Decision Support System.

Science.gov (United States)

1992-03-01

achieve their potential to communicate. Information-oriented, systematic graphic design is the use of typography , symbols, color, and other static and...apphcuittin by reducig Uber ellurt anid enhuncizig Iliteracti. ’Iliis thesis designs and de% elupht Itrututylle Graphical User Interface iGUl i fui Cu f...ORGANIZATION.... .. .. ............ II. INTERFACE DESIGN PRINCIPLES. .............. 7 A. GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES.............7 1. Design Principles

Reproductive toxicity of the glycol ethers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hardin, B D

1983-06-01

The glycol ethers are an important and widely used class of solvents. Recent studies have demonstrated that ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME), ethylene glycol dimethyl ether (EGdiME), ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGEE), and ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate (EGEEA) are teratogenic. Other studies have demonstrated that testicular atrophy or infertility follow treatment of males with EGME, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (EGMEA), EGEE, EGEEA, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (diEGdiME), and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether (diEGEE). Experimental data are reviewed and structure-activity relationships are speculated upon.

What Video Styles can do for User Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blauhut, Daniela; Buur, Jacob

2009-01-01

Documentary video is regularly used to support user research in user-centred design, and many researchers are familiar with this medium. There is strong research evidence that video can contribute substantially to human-computer interaction and interaction design. But the question what role...

An End User Development Approach for Mobile Web Augmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Bosetti

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The trend towards mobile devices usage has made it possible for the Web to be conceived not only as an information space but also as a ubiquitous platform where users perform all kinds of tasks. In some cases, users access the Web with native mobile applications developed for well-known sites, such as, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These native applications might offer further (e.g., location-based functionalities to their users in comparison with their corresponding Web sites because they were developed with mobile features in mind. However, many Web applications have no native counterpart and users access them using a mobile Web browser. Although the access to context information is not a complex issue nowadays, not all Web applications adapt themselves according to it or diversely improve the user experience by listening to a wide range of sensors. At some point, users might want to add mobile features to these Web sites, even if those features were not originally supported. In this paper, we present a novel approach to allow end users to augment their preferred Web sites with mobile features. We support our claims by presenting a framework for mobile Web augmentation, an authoring tool, and an evaluation with 21 end users.

User habits and multimodal route planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Géza Katona

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The results of route planning researches are monitored by logistic and automotive industries. The economic aspects of the cost saving are in the focus of the attention. An optimal route could cause time or fuel savings. An effective driving or an optimal route is a good basis to achieve an economical aim. Moreover the spread of new automotive solutions especially in case of electric cars the optimisation has particular significance regarding the limited battery storage. Additionally the autonomous car development could not be neglected. As a result the society could expect safer roads, better space usage and effective resource management. Nevertheless the requirements of users are extremely diverse, which is not negligible. Supporting these aims, in this paper the connection between the multimodal route planning and the user requirements are investigated. The examination is focused to a sensitivity analysis and a survey to evaluate the data and support the settings of a user habit effect to the final route.

Supporting Multi-view User Ontology to Understand Company Value Chains

Science.gov (United States)

Zuo, Landong; Salvadores, Manuel; Imtiaz, Sm Hazzaz; Darlington, John; Gibbins, Nicholas; Shadbolt, Nigel R.; Dobree, James

The objective of the Market Blended Insight (MBI) project is to develop web based techniques to improve the performance of UK Business to Business (B2B) marketing activities. The analysis of company value chains is a fundamental task within MBI because it is an important model for understanding the market place and the company interactions within it. The project has aggregated rich data profiles of 3.7 million companies that form the active UK business community. The profiles are augmented by Web extractions from heterogeneous sources to provide unparalleled business insight. Advances by the Semantic Web in knowledge representation and logic reasoning allow flexible integration of data from heterogeneous sources, transformation between different representations and reasoning about their meaning. The MBI project has identified that the market insight and analysis interests of different types of users are difficult to maintain using a single domain ontology. Therefore, the project has developed a technique to undertake a plurality of analyses of value chains by deploying a distributed multi-view ontology to capture different user views over the classification of companies and their various relationships.

Wilmar Planning Tool, user guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Helge V.

2006-01-15

This is a short user guide to the Wilmar Planning Tool developed in the project Wind Power Integration in Liberalised Electricity Markets (WILMAR) supported by EU (Contract No. ENK5-CT-2002-00663). A User Shell implemented in an Excel workbook controls the Wilmar Planning Tool. All data are contained in Access databases that communicate with various sub-models through text files that are exported from or imported to the databases. In the User Shell various scenario variables and control parameters are set, and export of model data from the input database, activation of the models, as well as import of model results to the output database are triggered from the shell. (au)

Wilmar Planning Tool, user guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larsen, Helge V.

2006-01-01

This is a short user guide to the Wilmar Planning Tool developed in the project Wind Power Integration in Liberalised Electricity Markets (WILMAR) supported by EU (Contract No. ENK5-CT-2002-00663). A User Shell implemented in an Excel workbook controls the Wilmar Planning Tool. All data are contained in Access databases that communicate with various sub-models through text files that are exported from or imported to the databases. In the User Shell various scenario variables and control parameters are set, and export of model data from the input database, activation of the models, as well as import of model results to the output database are triggered from the shell. (au)

A Conceptual Model for Increasing Use of Electronic Medical Records by Primary Care Physicians Through End-User Support.

Science.gov (United States)

Randhawa, Gurprit K

2017-01-01

A conceptual model for exploring the relationship between end-user support (EUS) and electronic medical record (EMR) use by primary care physicians is presented. The model was developed following a review of conceptual and theoretical frameworks related to technology adoption/use and EUS. The model includes (a) one core construct (facilitating conditions), (b) four antecedents and one postcedent of facilitating conditions, and (c) four moderators. EMR use behaviour is the key outcome of the model. The proposed conceptual model should be tested. The model may be used to inform planning and decision-making for EMR implementations to increase EMR use for benefits realization.

A bilingual dictionary for a specific user group: Supporting Setswana ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The aim of this article is to discuss the design of a new English to Setswana dictionary for two narrowlydefined target user groups of Setswana learners, i.e. Upper Primary (10 to 12 years old); and JuniorSecondary (13 to 15 years old). The dictionary is intended to be a guide to text and speech productionin the foreign ...

Drug user organizations in the Nordic countries--local, national, and international dimensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Vibeke Asmussen; Anker, Jørgen; Tammi, Tuukka

2012-04-01

The article focuses on drug user organizations that represent and advocate for active "hard drug" users in the Nordic countries. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that these organizations face in their search for legitimacy and political influence. The comparative perspective points at similarities and differences in national contexts that both support and challenges the existence of drug user organizations, including drug policy, social welfare policy, trends in drug use, and organizational conditions. The article also discusses the importance of international network and transnational organizations that support drug user organizations.

Security in a Replicated Metadata Catalogue

CERN Document Server

Koblitz, B

2007-01-01

The gLite-AMGA metadata has been developed by NA4 to provide simple relational metadata access for the EGEE user community. As advanced features, which will be the focus of this presentation, AMGA provides very fine-grained security also in connection with the built-in support for replication and federation of metadata. AMGA is extensively used by the biomedical community to store medical images metadata, digital libraries, in HEP for logging and bookkeeping data and in the climate community. The biomedical community intends to deploy a distributed metadata system for medical images consisting of various sites, which range from hospitals to computing centres. Only safe sharing of the highly sensitive metadata as provided in AMGA makes such a scenario possible. Other scenarios are digital libraries, which federate copyright protected (meta-) data into a common catalogue. The biomedical and digital libraries have been deployed using a centralized structure already for some time. They now intend to decentralize ...

DIRAC - The Distributed MC Production and Analysis for LHCb

CERN Document Server

Tsaregorodtsev, A

2004-01-01

DIRAC is the LHCb distributed computing grid infrastructure for MC production and analysis. Its architecture is based on a set of distributed collaborating services. The service decomposition broadly follows the ARDA project proposal, allowing for the possibility of interchanging the EGEE/ARDA and DIRAC components in the future. Some components developed outside the DIRAC project are already in use as services, for example the File Catalog developed by the AliEn project. An overview of the DIRAC architecture will be given, in particular the recent developments to support user analysis. The main design choices will be presented. One of the main design goals of DIRAC is the simplicity of installation, configuring and operation of various services. This allows all the DIRAC resources to be easily managed by a single Production Manager. The modular design of the DIRAC components allows its functionality to be easily extended to include new computing and storage elements or to handle new tasks. The DIRAC system al...

Designing Privacy for You : A User Centric Approach For Privacy

OpenAIRE

Senarath, Awanthika; Arachchilage, Nalin A. G.; Slay, Jill

2017-01-01

Privacy directly concerns the user as the data owner (data- subject) and hence privacy in systems should be implemented in a manner which concerns the user (user-centered). There are many concepts and guidelines that support development of privacy and embedding privacy into systems. However, none of them approaches privacy in a user- centered manner. Through this research we propose a framework that would enable developers and designers to grasp privacy in a user-centered manner and implement...

File-based replica management

CERN Document Server

Kunszt, Peter Z; Stockinger, Heinz; Stockinger, Kurt

2005-01-01

Data replication is one of the best known strategies to achieve high levels of availability and fault tolerance, as well as minimal access times for large, distributed user communities using a world-wide Data Grid. In certain scientific application domains, the data volume can reach the order of several petabytes; in these domains, data replication and access optimization play an important role in the manageability and usability of the Grid. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a replica management Grid middleware that was developed within the EDG project left bracket European Data Grid Project (EDG), http://www.eu-egee.org right bracket and is designed to be extensible so that user communities can adjust its detailed behavior according to their QoS requirements.

Supporting geoscience with graphical-user-interface Internet tools for the Macintosh

Science.gov (United States)

Robin, Bernard

1995-07-01

This paper describes a suite of Macintosh graphical-user-interface (GUI) software programs that can be used in conjunction with the Internet to support geoscience education. These software programs allow science educators to access and retrieve a large body of resources from an increasing number of network sites, taking advantage of the intuitive, simple-to-use Macintosh operating system. With these tools, educators easily can locate, download, and exchange not only text files but also sound resources, video movie clips, and software application files from their desktop computers. Another major advantage of these software tools is that they are available at no cost and may be distributed freely. The following GUI software tools are described including examples of how they can be used in an educational setting: ∗ Eudora—an e-mail program ∗ NewsWatcher—a newsreader ∗ TurboGopher—a Gopher program ∗ Fetch—a software application for easy File Transfer Protocol (FTP) ∗ NCSA Mosaic—a worldwide hypertext browsing program. An explosive growth of online archives currently is underway as new electronic sites are being added continuously to the Internet. Many of these resources may be of interest to science educators who learn they can share not only ASCII text files, but also graphic image files, sound resources, QuickTime movie clips, and hypermedia projects with colleagues from locations around the world. These powerful, yet simple to learn GUI software tools are providing a revolution in how knowledge can be accessed, retrieved, and shared.

Multiple Interests of Users in Collaborative Tagging Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Au Yeung, Ching-Man; Gibbins, Nicholas; Shadbolt, Nigel

Performance of recommender systems depends on whether the user profiles contain accurate information about the interests of the users, and this in turn relies on whether enough information about their interests can be collected. Collaborative tagging systems allow users to use their own words to describe their favourite resources, resulting in some user-generated categorisation schemes commonly known as folksonomies. Folksonomies thus contain rich information about the interests of the users, which can be used to support various recommender systems. Our analysis of the folksonomy in Delicious reveals that the interests of a single user can be very diverse. Traditional methods for representing interests of users are usually not able to reflect such diversity. We propose a method to construct user profiles of multiple interests from folksonomies based on a network clustering technique. Our evaluation shows that the proposed method is able to generate user profiles which reflect the diversity of user interests and can be used as a basis of providing more focused recommendation to the users.

Inhibition of [gamma]-endorphin generating endopeptidase activity of rat brain by peptides: Structure activity relationship

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lebouille, J.L.M.; Visser, W.H.; Hendriks, R.W.; Nispen, J.W. van; Greven, H.M.; Burbach, J.P.H.

1985-01-01

Gamma-Endorphin generating endopeptidase (gammaEGE) activity is an enzyme activity which converts beta-endorphin into gamma-endorphin and beta-endorphin-(18–31). The inhibitory potency on gammaEGE activity of neuropeptides and analogues or fragments of neuropeptides was tested. Dynorphin-(1–13)

Identifying User Needs and the Participative Design Process

Science.gov (United States)

Meiland, Franka; Dröes, Rose-Marie; Sävenstedt, Stefan; Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta; Andersson, Anna-Lena

As the number of persons with dementia increases and also the demands on care and support at home, additional solutions to support persons with dementia are needed. The COGKNOW project aims to develop an integrated, user-driven cognitive prosthetic device to help persons with dementia. The project focuses on support in the areas of memory, social contact, daily living activities and feelings of safety. The design process is user-participatory and consists of iterative cycles at three test sites across Europe. In the first cycle persons with dementia and their carers (n = 17) actively participated in the developmental process. Based on their priorities of needs and solutions, on their disabilities and after discussion between the team, a top four list of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions was made and now serves as the basis for development: in the area of remembering - day and time orientation support, find mobile service and reminding service, in the area of social contact - telephone support by picture dialling, in the area of daily activities - media control support through a music playback and radio function, and finally, in the area of safety - a warning service to indicate when the front door is open and an emergency contact service to enhance feelings of safety. The results of this first project phase show that, in general, the people with mild dementia as well as their carers were able to express and prioritize their (unmet) needs, and the kind of technological assistance they preferred in the selected areas. In next phases it will be tested if the user-participatory design and multidisciplinary approach employed in the COGKNOW project result in a user-friendly, useful device that positively impacts the autonomy and quality of life of persons with dementia and their carers.

Learning via participation - a user perspective on user involvement in mental health rehabilitation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Kirsten Schultz; Borg, Tove; Hounsgaard, Lise

2012-01-01

The aim of the study is to gain insight into the user’s perspective on user involvement in mental health rehabilitation. The study was designed as a field study lasting 15 months in two supported housing schemes. An ethnographic approach by James Spradley was employed, involving participant...

THE ROLE OF NEOPTERIN AS A POSSIBLE DIAGNOSTIC MARKER PREVALENCE EXTERNAL GENITAL ENDOMETRIOSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ye. I. Novikova

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. Todetermine the diagnostic value of neopterin as a marker of dysfunction of peritoneal immune factors for estimating the severity of external genital endometriosis (EGE.Material and methods. The concentration of neopterin in the peritoneal fluid (PF and venous blood of 16 patients with EGE and 10 patients with benign ovarian cysts were evaluated.Results. There wasn’t significant relationship between the concentration of the neopterin in the venous blood and clinical data. There weren't significant relationship between the concentration of the neopterin in the venous blood and clinical data. There were the significant correlation between the concentration of neopterin in the PF of patients with EGE and pain by the B'n'B scale (r = 0.545, p = 0.044 and pain by NRC scale of (r = 0.362 p = 0.203. There were correlation between the concentration of neopterin in the PF of patients with EGE and the severity of endometriosis by rAFS scale (r = 0.598, p = 0.051, and between the neopterin concentration in PF and adhesions (r = 0.487, p = 0.128.Conclusion. Thus, it is possible to use the the neopterin concentrations in the PF of patients with EGE as a marker of disease severity and as a predictor of recurrence endometriosis.

Power mobility with collision avoidance for older adults: user, caregiver, and prescriber perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Rosalie H; Korotchenko, Alexandra; Hurd Clarke, Laura; Mortenson, W Ben; Mihailidis, Alex

2013-01-01

Collision avoidance technology has the capacity to facilitate safer mobility among older power mobility users with physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments, thus enabling independence for more users. Little is known about consumers' perceptions of collision avoidance. This article draws on interviews (29 users, 5 caregivers, and 10 prescribers) to examine views on design and utilization of this technology. Data analysis identified three themes: "useful situations or contexts," "technology design issues and real-life application," and "appropriateness of collision avoidance technology for a variety of users." Findings support ongoing development of collision avoidance for older adult users. The majority of participants supported the technology and felt that it might benefit current users and users with visual impairments, but might be unsuitable for people with significant cognitive impairments. Some participants voiced concerns regarding the risk for injury with power mobility use and some identified situations where collision avoidance might be beneficial (driving backward, avoiding dynamic obstacles, negotiating outdoor barriers, and learning power mobility use). Design issues include the need for context awareness, reliability, and user interface specifications. User desire to maintain driving autonomy supports development of collaboratively controlled systems. This research lays the groundwork for future development by illustrating consumer requirements for this technology.

Implementation of graphical user interfaces in nuclear applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barmsnes, K.A.; Johnsen, T.; Sundling, C.-V.

1997-01-01

During recent years a demand has formed for systems that support design and implementation of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the control rooms of nuclear power plants. Picasso-3 is a user interface management system supporting object oriented definition of GUIs in a distributed computing environment. The system is currently being used in a number of different application areas within the nuclear industry, such as retrofitting of display systems in simulators and control rooms, education and training applications, etc. Some examples are given of nuclear applications where the Picasso-3 system has been used

Establishment and Operation of User Facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Kye Ryung; Park, B. S.; Lim, Y. K.; Lee, S. K.; Jung, J. P.

2005-08-01

The final goal of this project is to establish the proton beam user facility which can offer the suitable proton beam for the user's demand. In the first phase we developed the key technologies that were required for the establishment of 20MeV and 100MeV proton user facilities. The user's demand survey was also achieved, and the test user facility was established on the results of the demand survey. Using the test facility, the users performed their pilot studies. Now, we have finished the conceptual design for 20MeV proton user facility. During the first phase we performed the user's demand survey and produced many materials related to the proton beam utilizations in domestic or abroad. The survey results were reflected on the establishment of the test user facility and the conceptual design of 20MeV/100MeV proton beam user facilities. We have developed the key technologies which concern to beam energy control, flux control, uniform irradiation, dose and uniformity measurement, proton energy measurement, SOBP(Spread-out Bragg Peak) system using a rotating range modulator, and carried out the conceptual design of 20MeV proton user facility. The test user facility has been constructed and operated for both verifying the developed key technologies and performing the user's preliminary experiments. 45MeV low flux user facility was constructed in 2003 and has performed a lot of irradiation experiments. The development of 1.8MeV test user facility was completed. Also the low energy user facility that KAERI kept was upgraded and used for many users. Therefore, we provided our users with various beams. On the other hand, the following activities were carried out, such as, inviting the oversea researchers, giving support to users to use the beam in domestic and abroad, discussing the beam utilization technologies by visiting the foreign user facilities, etc

An end user evaluation of query formulation and results review tools in three medical meta-search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Leroy, Gondy; Xu, Jennifer; Chung, Wingyan; Eggers, Shauna; Chen, Hsinchun

2007-01-01

Retrieving sufficient relevant information online is difficult for many people because they use too few keywords to search and search engines do not provide many support tools. To further complicate the search, users often ignore support tools when available. Our goal is to evaluate in a realistic setting when users use support tools and how they perceive these tools. We compared three medical search engines with support tools that require more or less effort from users to form a query and evaluate results. We carried out an end user study with 23 users who were asked to find information, i.e., subtopics and supporting abstracts, for a given theme. We used a balanced within-subjects design and report on the effectiveness, efficiency and usability of the support tools from the end user perspective. We found significant differences in efficiency but did not find significant differences in effectiveness between the three search engines. Dynamic user support tools requiring less effort led to higher efficiency. Fewer searches were needed and more documents were found per search when both query reformulation and result review tools dynamically adjust to the user query. The query reformulation tool that provided a long list of keywords, dynamically adjusted to the user query, was used most often and led to more subtopics. As hypothesized, the dynamic result review tools were used more often and led to more subtopics than static ones. These results were corroborated by the usability questionnaires, which showed that support tools that dynamically optimize output were preferred.

User-Aware Location Management of Prosumed Micro-services

OpenAIRE

Klein, Bernhard; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Guggenmos, Christian; Pérez-Velasco, Jorge

2014-01-01

The MUGGES mobile service prosuming platform aims at enabling user-aware service provision and consumption from the very mobile devices in a true peer-to-peer manner, still providing centralized support to user- and location-aware micro-service searching. Thus, users will not only provide contents but also launch and host services from their own mobile devices. Explorative field trials in Spain and Finland assessing the potential of the ‘prosuming concept' were carried out for several weeks w...

Establishment and Operation of User Facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Yong Sub; Kwon, Hyeok Jung; Kim, Kye Ryung

2008-05-01

PEFP(Proton Engineering Frontier Project) has launched on a new enterprise to develop the technologies for the future relating to the proton beam and spin-off technologies in 2002. PEFP planned to supply 20MeV and 100MeV proton beam by the development of the 100MeV, 20mA linear accelerator during ten years from 2002 to 2012. The final goal of this project is establishment of 20MeV and 100MeV user facilities. To do this, we must develop the key technologies for establishing user facilities. Before the main facilities are normally operated, we have established the test user facilities to support various kinds of users' basic experiments and pilot studies. The necessity of this research are as follows; - Domestic achievement of key technologies for the development and design of the user facilities for the several tens to hundreds MeV class high current proton beam - Beam application researches can be revitalized and improved the efficiency by the establishment and operation of user facilities and test facilities. - Ion implantation facilities have contributed to increase Industrial applications - It is more effective in saving money that users use the PEFP's user facility than other country's user facilities. - It is possible to contribute to the local society and commercialize the beam application technologies by the establishment of PEFP's research branch in Kyungju

Users Integrity Constraints in SOLAP Systems. Application in Agroforestry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdallah Bensalloua Charef

2018-06-01

Full Text Available SpatialData Warehouse and Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing are decision support technologies which offer the spatial and multidimensional analysis of data stored in multidimensional structure. They are aimed also at supporting geographic knowledge discovery to help decision-maker in his job related to make the appropriate decision . However, if we don’t consider data quality in the spatial hypercubes and how it is explored, it may provide unreliable results. In this paper, we propose a system for the implementation of user integrity constraints in SOLAP namely “UIC-SOLAP”. It corresponds to a methodology for guaranteeing results quality in an analytical process effectuated by different users exploiting several facts tables within the same hypercube. We integrate users Integrity Constraints (IC by specifying visualization ICs according to their preferences and we define inter-facts ICs in this case. In order to validate our proposition, we propose the multidimensional modeling by UML profile to support constellation schema of a hypercube with several fact tables related to subjects of analysis in forestry management. Then, we propose implementation of some ICs related to users of such a system.

Charliecloud: Unprivileged containers for user-defined software stacks in HPC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Priedhorsky, Reid [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Randles, Timothy C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2016-08-09

Supercomputing centers are seeing increasing demand for user-defined software stacks (UDSS), instead of or in addition to the stack provided by the center. These UDSS support user needs such as complex dependencies or build requirements, externally required configurations, portability, and consistency. The challenge for centers is to provide these services in a usable manner while minimizing the risks: security, support burden, missing functionality, and performance. We present Charliecloud, which uses the Linux user and mount namespaces to run industry-standard Docker containers with no privileged operations or daemons on center resources. Our simple approach avoids most security risks while maintaining access to the performance and functionality already on offer, doing so in less than 500 lines of code. Charliecloud promises to bring an industry-standard UDSS user workflow to existing, minimally altered HPC resources.

How Firms Can Get Ideas from Users for Sustainable Business Innovation

OpenAIRE

Cho, Chanwoo; Lee, Sungjoo

2015-01-01

The importance of user information and user participation for seeking business opportunities has been widely acknowledged in a variety of industries. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a typology for user innovation models as a strategy for sustainable development and to investigate the characteristics of different types user innovation to encourage and support improved utilization of user innovation in firms. For this purpose, we began by collecting 435 relevant papers from the most-cited...

Supporting Dynamic Service Composition at Runtime based on End-user Requirements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goncalves da Silva, Eduardo; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Dustdar, S.; Hauswirth, M.; Hierro, J. J.; Soriano, J.; Urmetzer, F.; Möller, K.; Rivera, I.

2009-01-01

Network-based software application services are receiving a lot of attention in recent years, as observed in developments as Internet of Services, Software as a Service and Cloud Computing. A service-oriented computing ecosystem is being created where the end-user is having an increasingly more

Multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessment of farming systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Passel, Steven, E-mail: Steven.vanpassel@uhasselt.be [Hasselt University, Faculty of Business Economics, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Agoralaan, Building D, 3590, Diepenbeek (Belgium); University of Antwerp, Department Bioscience Engineering, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp (Belgium); Meul, Marijke [University College Ghent, Department of Biosciences and Landscape Architecture, Campus Schoonmeersen, Building C, Schoonmeersstraat 52, 9000, Gent (Belgium)

2012-01-15

Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a smart combination of existing methods with different levels of application can make sustainability assessment more profound, and that it can broaden the insights of different end-user groups. An overview of sustainability assessment tools on different levels and for different end-users shows the complementarities and the opportunities of using different methods. In a case-study, a combination of the sustainable value approach (SVA) and MOTIFS is used to perform a sustainability evaluation of farming systems in Flanders. SVA is used to evaluate sustainability at sector level, and is especially useful to support policy makers, while MOTIFS is used to support and guide farmers towards sustainability at farm level. The combined use of the two methods with complementary goals can widen the insights of both farmers and policy makers, without losing the particularities of the different approaches. To stimulate and support further research and applications, we propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We give an overview of sustainability assessment tools for agricultural systems. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer SVA and MOTIFS are used to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farming in Flanders. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Combination of methods with different levels broadens the insights of different end-user groups. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments.

Multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessment of farming systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Passel, Steven; Meul, Marijke

2012-01-01

Sustainability assessment is needed to build sustainable farming systems. A broad range of sustainability concepts, methodologies and applications already exists. They differ in level, focus, orientation, measurement, scale, presentation and intended end-users. In this paper we illustrate that a smart combination of existing methods with different levels of application can make sustainability assessment more profound, and that it can broaden the insights of different end-user groups. An overview of sustainability assessment tools on different levels and for different end-users shows the complementarities and the opportunities of using different methods. In a case-study, a combination of the sustainable value approach (SVA) and MOTIFS is used to perform a sustainability evaluation of farming systems in Flanders. SVA is used to evaluate sustainability at sector level, and is especially useful to support policy makers, while MOTIFS is used to support and guide farmers towards sustainability at farm level. The combined use of the two methods with complementary goals can widen the insights of both farmers and policy makers, without losing the particularities of the different approaches. To stimulate and support further research and applications, we propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments. - Highlights: ► We give an overview of sustainability assessment tools for agricultural systems. ► SVA and MOTIFS are used to evaluate the sustainability of dairy farming in Flanders. ► Combination of methods with different levels broadens the insights of different end-user groups. ► We propose guidelines for multilevel and multi-user sustainability assessments.

Exploring users motivation in innovation communities

OpenAIRE

Ståhlbröst, Anna; Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta

2011-01-01

A rapid growth of technologies supporting user interaction on the Internet, such as social networking sites and other virtual communities, can be seen today. These virtual communities have been shown to be of great value to companies that want to involve users in their innovation processes. However, in order to guide organisations on how to utilise their innovation intermediary communities, more knowledge is needed regarding who they are and their motivational drivers for participating in a c...

Waste Management Information System (WMIS) User Guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broz, R.E.

2008-01-01

This document provides the user of the Waste Management Information System (WMIS) instructions on how to use the WMIS software. WMIS allows users to initiate, track, and close waste packages. The modular design supports integration and utilization of data through the various stages of waste management. The phases of the waste management work process include generation, designation, packaging, container management, procurement, storage, treatment, transportation, and disposal

Waste Management Information System (WMIS) User Guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

R. E. Broz

2008-12-22

This document provides the user of the Waste Management Information System (WMIS) instructions on how to use the WMIS software. WMIS allows users to initiate, track, and close waste packages. The modular design supports integration and utilization of data throuh the various stages of waste management. The phases of the waste management work process include generation, designation, packaging, container management, procurement, storage, treatment, transportation, and disposal.

Staff views on wellbeing for themselves and for service users.

Science.gov (United States)

Schrank, Beate; Brownell, Tamsin; Riches, Simon; Chevalier, Agnes; Jakaite, Zivile; Larkin, Charley; Lawrence, Vanessa; Slade, Mike

2015-02-01

Wellbeing is an important outcome in the context of recovery from mental illness. The views of mental health professionals on wellbeing may influence their approach to supporting recovery. This study aims to explore views held by mental health staff about factors influencing their own wellbeing and that of service users with psychosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 mental health staff in South London who had worked with people with psychosis. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and comparisons were made between staff views of wellbeing for themselves and service users. Staff participants held similar conceptualisations of wellbeing for themselves and for service users. However, they suggested a differential impact on wellbeing for a number of factors, such as balance, goals and achievement, and work. Staff employed a more deficit-based perspective on wellbeing for service users and a more strengths-based view for themselves. Staff stated a recovery orientation in principle, but struggled to focus on service user strengths in practice. A stronger emphasis in clinical practice on amplifying strengths to foster self-management is indicated, and staff may need support to achieve this emphasis, e.g. through specific interventions and involvement of peer support workers.

Translating research into practice through user-centered design: An application for osteoarthritis healthcare planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Eloise Cj; Babione, Julie N; Marshall, Deborah

2017-08-01

To identify the needs and requirements of the end users, to inform the development of a user-interface to translate an existing evidence-based decision support tool into a practical and usable interface for health service planning for osteoarthritis (OA) care. We used a user-centered design (UCD) approach that emphasized the role of the end-users and is well-suited to knowledge translation (KT). The first phase used a needs assessment focus group (n=8) and interviews (n=5) with target users (health care planners) within a provincial health care organization. The second phase used a participatory design approach, with two small group sessions (n=6) to explore workflow, thought processes, and needs of intended users. The needs assessment identified five design recommendations: ensuring the user-interface supports the target user group, allowing for user-directed data explorations, input parameter flexibility, clear presentation, and provision of relevant definitions. The second phase identified workflow insights from a proposed scenario. Graphs, the need for a visual overview of the data, and interactivity were key considerations to aid in meaningful use of the model and knowledge translation. A UCD approach is well suited to identify health care planners' requirements when using a decision support tool to improve health service planning and management of OA. We believe this is one of the first applications to be used in planning for health service delivery. We identified specific design recommendations that will increase user acceptability and uptake of the user-interface and underlying decision support tool in practice. Our approach demonstrated how UCD can be used to enable knowledge translation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Designing distributed user interfaces for ambient intelligent environments using models and simulations

OpenAIRE

LUYTEN, Kris; VAN DEN BERGH, Jan; VANDERVELPEN, Chris; CONINX, Karin

2006-01-01

There is a growing demand for design support to create interactive systems that are deployed in ambient intelligent environments. Unlike traditional interactive systems, the wide diversity of situations these type of user interfaces need to work in require tool support that is close to the environment of the end-user on the one hand and provide a smooth integration with the application logic on the other hand. This paper shows how the model-based user interface development methodology can be ...

Developer Driven and User Driven Usability Evaluations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Anders

2013-01-01

Usability evaluation provide software development teams with insights on the degree to which a software application enables a user to achieve his/her goals, how fast these goals can be achieved, how easy it is to learn and how satisfactory it is in use Although usability evaluations are crucial...... in the process of developing software systems with a high level of usability, its use is still limited in the context of small software development companies. Several approaches have been proposed to support software development practitioners (SWPs) in conducting usability evaluations, and my thesis explores two...... of these: 1) The first approach is to support SWPs by training them to drive usability evaluations. 2) The second approach to support SWPs involves minimalist training of end users to drive usability evaluations. In related work, a set of five quality criteria for usability evaluations is applied...

Users Polarization on Facebook and Youtube

Science.gov (United States)

Bessi, Alessandro; Zollo, Fabiana; Del Vicario, Michela; Puliga, Michelangelo; Scala, Antonio; Caldarelli, Guido; Uzzi, Brian; Quattrociocchi, Walter

2016-01-01

Users online tend to select information that support and adhere their beliefs, and to form polarized groups sharing the same view—e.g. echo chambers. Algorithms for content promotion may favour this phenomenon, by accounting for users preferences and thus limiting the exposure to unsolicited contents. To shade light on this question, we perform a comparative study on how same contents (videos) are consumed on different online social media—i.e. Facebook and YouTube—over a sample of 12M of users. Our findings show that content drives the emergence of echo chambers on both platforms. Moreover, we show that the users’ commenting patterns are accurate predictors for the formation of echo-chambers. PMID:27551783

Emotion scents: a method of representing user emotions on GUI widgets

Science.gov (United States)

Cernea, Daniel; Weber, Christopher; Ebert, Achim; Kerren, Andreas

2013-01-01

The world of desktop interfaces has been dominated for years by the concept of windows and standardized user interface (UI) components. Still, while supporting the interaction and information exchange between the users and the computer system, graphical user interface (GUI) widgets are rather one-sided, neglecting to capture the subjective facets of the user experience. In this paper, we propose a set of design guidelines for visualizing user emotions on standard GUI widgets (e.g., buttons, check boxes, etc.) in order to enrich the interface with a new dimension of subjective information by adding support for emotion awareness as well as post-task analysis and decision making. We highlight the use of an EEG headset for recording the various emotional states of the user while he/she is interacting with the widgets of the interface. We propose a visualization approach, called emotion scents, that allows users to view emotional reactions corresponding to di erent GUI widgets without in uencing the layout or changing the positioning of these widgets. Our approach does not focus on highlighting the emotional experience during the interaction with an entire system, but on representing the emotional perceptions and reactions generated by the interaction with a particular UI component. Our research is motivated by enabling emotional self-awareness and subjectivity analysis through the proposed emotionenhanced UI components for desktop interfaces. These assumptions are further supported by an evaluation of emotion scents.

Content Analysis and User Characteristics of a Smartphone-Based Online Support Group for People Living with HIV.

Science.gov (United States)

Flickinger, Tabor E; DeBolt, Claire; Wispelwey, Erin; Laurence, Colleen; Plews-Ogan, Erin; Waldman, Ava Lena; Reynolds, George; Cohn, Wendy F; Beach, Mary Catherine; Ingersoll, Karen; Dillingham, Rebecca

2016-09-01

Although there is growing interest in mobile applications and online support groups to enhance chronic disease self-management, little is known about their potential impact for people living with HIV (PLWH). We developed an innovative online support group delivered through a community message board (CMB) within a clinic-affiliated smartphone application Positive Links (PL). We analyzed characteristics of posters and nonposters to the CMB and evaluated content posted to the CMB. For this study, 38 HIV-infected patients received cell phones with the PL application that included the opportunity to interact with other users on a CMB. Logistic regressions investigated associations between participant characteristics and posting. CMB messages were downloaded and analyzed qualitatively. 24 participants posted to the CMB; 14 did not. Participants had lower odds of posting if they were white (p = 0.028) and had private insurance (p = 0.003). Participants had higher odds of posting if they had unsuppressed viral loads (p = 0.034). Of the 840 CMB messages over 8 months, 62% had psychosocial content, followed by community chat (29%), and biomedical content (10%). Psychosocial content was most prevalent on this CMB, in contrast to other online forums dominated by informational content. Participants who posted expressed support for each other, appreciation for the community, and a perception that the app played a positive role in their HIV self-management. This CMB on a clinic-affiliated mobile application may reach vulnerable populations, including racial/ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, and provide psychosocial support to PLWH.

Experimental Facilities Division/User Program Division technical progress report 1999-2000

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

In October 1999, the two divisions of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), the Accelerator Systems Division (ASD) and the Experimental Facilities Division (XFD), were reorganized into four divisions (see high-level APS organizational chart, Fig. 1.1). In addition to ASD and XFD, two new divisions were created, the APS Operations Division (AOD), to oversee APS operations, and the User Program Division (UPD), to serve the APS user community by developing and maintaining the highest quality user technical and administration support. Previous XFD Progress Reports (ANL/APS/TB-30 and ANL/APS/TB-34) covered a much broader base, including APS user administrative support and what was previously XFD operations (front ends, interlocks, etc.) This Progress Report summarizes the main scientific and technical activities of XFD, and the technical support, research and development (R and D) activities of UPD from October 1998 through November 2000. The report is divided into four major sections, (1) Introduction, (2) SRI-CAT Beamlines, Technical Developments, and Scientific Applications, (3) User Technical Support, and (4) Major Plans for the Future. Sections 2 and 3 describe the technical activities and research accomplishments of the XFD and UPD personnel in supporting the synchrotron radiation instrumentation (SRI) collaborative access team (CAT) and the general APS user community. Also included in this report is a comprehensive list of publications (Appendix 1) and presentations (Appendix 2) by XFD and UPD staff during the time period covered by this report. The organization of section 2, SRI CAT Beamlines, Technical Developments, and Scientific Applications has been made along scientific techniques/disciplines and not ''geographical'' boundaries of the sectors in which the work was performed. Therefore items under the subsection X-ray Imaging and Microfocusing could have been (and were) performed on several different beamlines by staff in different divisions. The management of

Designing a Facebook interface for senior users.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomes, Gonçalo; Duarte, Carlos; Coelho, José; Matos, Eduardo

2014-01-01

The adoption of social networks by older adults has increased in recent years. However, many still cannot make use of social networks as these are simply not adapted to them. Through a series of direct observations, interviews, and focus groups, we identified recommendations for the design of social networks targeting seniors. Based on these, we developed a prototype for tablet devices, supporting sharing and viewing Facebook content. We then conducted a user study comparing our prototype with Facebook's native mobile application. We have found that Facebook's native application does not meet senior users concerns, like privacy and family focus, while our prototype, designed in accordance with the collected recommendations, supported relevant use cases in a usable and accessible manner.

Transforming User Needs into Functional Requirements for an Antibiotic Clinical Decision Support System

Science.gov (United States)

Bright, T.J.

2013-01-01

Summary Background Many informatics studies use content analysis to generate functional requirements for system development. Explication of this translational process from qualitative data to functional requirements can strengthen the understanding and scientific rigor when applying content analysis in informatics studies. Objective To describe a user-centered approach transforming emergent themes derived from focus group data into functional requirements for informatics solutions and to illustrate these methods to the development of an antibiotic clinical decision support system (CDS). Methods The approach consisted of five steps: 1) identify unmet therapeutic planning information needs via Focus Group Study-I, 2) develop a coding framework of therapeutic planning themes to refine the domain scope to antibiotic therapeutic planning, 3) identify functional requirements of an antibiotic CDS system via Focus Group Study-II, 4) discover informatics solutions and functional requirements from coded data, and 5) determine the types of information needed to support the antibiotic CDS system and link with the identified informatics solutions and functional requirements. Results The coding framework for Focus Group Study-I revealed unmet therapeutic planning needs. Twelve subthemes emerged and were clustered into four themes; analysis indicated a need for an antibiotic CDS intervention. Focus Group Study-II included five types of information needs. Comments from the Barrier/Challenge to information access and Function/Feature themes produced three informatics solutions and 13 functional requirements of an antibiotic CDS system. Comments from the Patient, Institution, and Domain themes generated required data elements for each informatics solution. Conclusion This study presents one example explicating content analysis of focus group data and the analysis process to functional requirements from narrative data. Illustration of this 5-step method was used to develop an

An information model to support user-centered design of medical devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagedorn, Thomas J; Krishnamurty, Sundar; Grosse, Ian R

2016-08-01

The process of engineering design requires the product development team to balance the needs and limitations of many stakeholders, including those of the user, regulatory organizations, and the designing institution. This is particularly true in medical device design, where additional consideration must be given for a much more complex user-base that can only be accessed on a limited basis. Given this inherent challenge, few projects exist that consider design domain concepts, such as aspects of a detailed design, a detailed view of various stakeholders and their capabilities, along with the user-needs simultaneously. In this paper, we present a novel information model approach that combines a detailed model of design elements with a model of the design itself, customer requirements, and of the capabilities of the customer themselves. The information model is used to facilitate knowledge capture and automated reasoning across domains with a minimal set of rules by adopting a terminology that treats customer and design specific factors identically, thus enabling straightforward assessments. A uniqueness of this approach is that it systematically provides an integrated perspective on the key usability information that drive design decisions towards more universal or effective outcomes with the very design information impacted by the usability information. This can lead to cost-efficient optimal designs based on a direct inclusion of the needs of customers alongside those of business, marketing, and engineering requirements. Two case studies are presented to show the method's potential as a more effective knowledge management tool with built-in automated inferences that provide design insight, as well as its overall effectiveness as a platform to develop and execute medical device design from a holistic perspective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Proceedings of the HEPLIB'92/KEK international users meeting on the support and environments of high energy physics computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miura, Yasuko; Amako, Katsuya

1992-07-01

This is the summary of the agreement, conclusion and consensus which were reached at the third HEPLIB users meeting held at the National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (KEK) on June 1 and 2, 1992. 34 scientists from Europe, Japan and USA met for two days to discuss on the support and environment of high energy physics computing. Tele-video conference was held during this meeting with the members at several HEP laboratories in USA, who were not able to attend the meeting in person. This third meeting concluded the first round of meetings in which various HEPLIB proposals were discussed. This summary represents the common viewpoints presented and concluded at the meeting as far as possible. HEPLIB is the world user group for the enhancement, communication and distribution of software primarily for HEP computing environment. Its activities, steering committee, the facility of information exchange and so on are reported. The issues at this meeting were the status of HEPLIB, HEPLIB consensus document, site reports, the subgroups of library structures, HEPLIB compilation and physics generators. The future meetings and workshops were scheduled. (K.I.)

The WMO RA VI Regional Climate Centre Network - a support to users in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Rösner, S.

2012-04-01

Climate, like weather, has no limits. Therefore the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialized United Nations organization, has established a three-level infrastructure to better serve its member countries. This structure comprises Global Producing Centres for Long-range Forecasts (GPCs), Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) and National Meteorological or Hydrometeorological Services (NMHSs), in most cases representing their countries in WMO governance bodies. The elements of this infrastructure are also part of and contribute to the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) agreed to be established by World Climate Conference 3 (WCC-3) and last year's Sixteenth World Meteorological Congress (WMO Cg-XVI). RCCs are the core element of this infrastructure at the regional level and are being establish in all WMO Regional Associations (RAs), i.e. Africa (RA I); Asia (II); South America (III); North America, Central America and the Caribbean (IV); South-West Pacific (V); Europe (VI). Addressing inter-regional areas of common interest like the Mediterranean or the Polar Regions may require inter-regional RCCs. For each region the RCCs follow a user driven approach with regard to governance and structure as well as products generated for the users in the respective region. However, there are common guidelines all RCCs do have to follow. This is to make sure that services are provided based on best scientific standards, are routinely and reliably generated and made available in an operational mode. These guidelines are being developed within WMO and make use of decade-long experience gained in the business of operational weather forecast. Based on the requirements of the 50 member countries of WMO RA VI it was agreed to establish the WMO RCC as a network of centres of excellence that create regional products including long-range forecasts that support regional and national climate activities, and thereby strengthen the capacity of WMO Members in the region to

A student-facilitated community-based support group initiative for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Leana Meiring

supplement for offering support to service users in PHC settings. The group assisted ... training, as well as psychological and social support focussed on improving ... helping service users cope with their mental illness and improve their quality.

Toward Personalized Vibrotactile Support When Learning Motor Skills

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga C. Santos

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Personal tracking technologies allow sensing of the physical activity carried out by people. Data flows collected with these sensors are calling for big data techniques to support data collection, integration and analysis, aimed to provide personalized support when learning motor skills through varied multisensorial feedback. In particular, this paper focuses on vibrotactile feedback as it can take advantage of the haptic sense when supporting the physical interaction to be learnt. Despite each user having different needs, when providing this vibrotactile support, personalization issues are hardly taken into account, but the same response is delivered to each and every user of the system. The challenge here is how to design vibrotactile user interfaces for adaptive learning of motor skills. TORMES methodology is proposed to facilitate the elicitation of this personalized support. The resulting systems are expected to dynamically adapt to each individual user’s needs by monitoring, comparing and, when appropriate, correcting in a personalized way how the user should move when practicing a predefined movement, for instance, when performing a sport technique or playing a musical instrument.

User-Centered Evaluation of Visual Analytics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scholtz, Jean C.

2017-10-01

Visual analytics systems are becoming very popular. More domains now use interactive visualizations to analyze the ever-increasing amount and heterogeneity of data. More novel visualizations are being developed for more tasks and users. We need to ensure that these systems can be evaluated to determine that they are both useful and usable. A user-centered evaluation for visual analytics needs to be developed for these systems. While many of the typical human-computer interaction (HCI) evaluation methodologies can be applied as is, others will need modification. Additionally, new functionality in visual analytics systems needs new evaluation methodologies. There is a difference between usability evaluations and user-centered evaluations. Usability looks at the efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction of users carrying out tasks with software applications. User-centered evaluation looks more specifically at the utility provided to the users by the software. This is reflected in the evaluations done and in the metrics used. In the visual analytics domain this is very challenging as users are most likely experts in a particular domain, the tasks they do are often not well defined, the software they use needs to support large amounts of different kinds of data, and often the tasks last for months. These difficulties are discussed more in the section on User-centered Evaluation. Our goal is to provide a discussion of user-centered evaluation practices for visual analytics, including existing practices that can be carried out and new methodologies and metrics that need to be developed and agreed upon by the visual analytics community. The material provided here should be of use for both researchers and practitioners in the field of visual analytics. Researchers and practitioners in HCI and interested in visual analytics will find this information useful as well as a discussion on changes that need to be made to current HCI practices to make them more suitable to

Who Uses Earth Observations? User Types in Group on Earth Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Fontaine, K. S.

2011-12-01

How can we communicate concepts in the physical sciences unless we know our audience? The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) User Interface Committee (UIC) has a responsibility within GEO to support and advocate for the user community in the development of Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS) and related work. As part of its efforts, the UIC has been working on developing a taxonomy that can be used to characterize the broad spectrum of users of GEOSS and its data, services, and applications. The user type taxonomy is designed to be broad and flexible but aims at describing the needs of the users GEOSS is going to serve. These user types represent a continuum of users of Earth observations from research through to decision support activities, and it includes organizations that use GEOSS as a tool to provide data and services for customers and consumers of the information. The classification scheme includes factors about skills and capacity for using Earth observations, sophistication level, spatial resolution, latency, and frequency of data. As part of the effort to develop a set of User Types, the GEO UIC foresees that those inside and outside GEO can use the typologies to understand how to engage users at a more effective level. This talk presents the GEOSS User Type taxonomy, explaining the development and highlights of key feedback. The talk will highlight possible ways to use the User Type taxonomy to communicate concepts and promote the use of Earth observations to a wide variety of users.

Supporting the use of user generated content in journalistic practice

OpenAIRE

Tolmie, Peter; Procter, Rob; Rouncefield, Mark; Randall, Dave; Burger, Christian; Wong Sak Hoi, Geraldine; Zubiaga, Arkaitz; Liakata, Maria

2017-01-01

Social media and user-generated content (UGC) are increasingly important features of journalistic work in a number of different ways. However, their use presents major challenges, not least because information posted on social media is not always reliable and therefore its veracity needs to be checked before it can be considered as fit for use in the reporting of news. We report on the results of a series of in-depth ethnographic studies of journalist work practices undertaken as part of the ...

FermiGrid-experience and future plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chadwick, K; Berman, E; Canal, P; Hesselroth, T; Garzoglio, G; Levshina, T; Sergeev, V; Sfiligoi, I; Sharma, N; Timm, S; Yocum, D R

2008-01-01

Fermilab supports a scientific program that includes experiments and scientists located across the globe. In order to better serve this community, Fermilab has placed its production computer resources in a Campus Grid infrastructure called 'FermiGrid'. The FermiGrid infrastructure allows the large experiments at Fermilab to have priority access to their own resources, enables sharing of these resources in an opportunistic fashion, and movement of work (jobs, data) between the Campus Grid and National Grids such as Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid Collaboration (WLCG). FermiGrid resources support multiple Virtual Organizations (VOs), including VOs from the OSG, EGEE, and the WLCG. Fermilab also makes leading contributions to the Open Science Grid in the areas of accounting, batch computing, grid security, job management, resource selection, site infrastructure, storage management, and VO services. Through the FermiGrid interfaces, authenticated and authorized VOs and individuals may access our core grid services, the 10,000+ Fermilab resident CPUs, near-petabyte (including CMS) online disk pools and the multi-petabyte Fermilab Mass Storage System. These core grid services include a site wide Globus gatekeeper, VO management services for several VOs, Fermilab site authorization services, grid user mapping services, as well as job accounting and monitoring, resource selection and data movement services. Access to these services is via standard and well-supported grid interfaces. We will report on the user experience of using the FermiGrid campus infrastructure interfaced to a national cyberinfrastructure - the successes and the problems

FermiGrid—experience and future plans

Science.gov (United States)

Chadwick, K.; Berman, E.; Canal, P.; Hesselroth, T.; Garzoglio, G.; Levshina, T.; Sergeev, V.; Sfiligoi, I.; Sharma, N.; Timm, S.; Yocum, D. R.

2008-07-01

Fermilab supports a scientific program that includes experiments and scientists located across the globe. In order to better serve this community, Fermilab has placed its production computer resources in a Campus Grid infrastructure called 'FermiGrid'. The FermiGrid infrastructure allows the large experiments at Fermilab to have priority access to their own resources, enables sharing of these resources in an opportunistic fashion, and movement of work (jobs, data) between the Campus Grid and National Grids such as Open Science Grid (OSG) and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid Collaboration (WLCG). FermiGrid resources support multiple Virtual Organizations (VOs), including VOs from the OSG, EGEE, and the WLCG. Fermilab also makes leading contributions to the Open Science Grid in the areas of accounting, batch computing, grid security, job management, resource selection, site infrastructure, storage management, and VO services. Through the FermiGrid interfaces, authenticated and authorized VOs and individuals may access our core grid services, the 10,000+ Fermilab resident CPUs, near-petabyte (including CMS) online disk pools and the multi-petabyte Fermilab Mass Storage System. These core grid services include a site wide Globus gatekeeper, VO management services for several VOs, Fermilab site authorization services, grid user mapping services, as well as job accounting and monitoring, resource selection and data movement services. Access to these services is via standard and well-supported grid interfaces. We will report on the user experience of using the FermiGrid campus infrastructure interfaced to a national cyberinfrastructure - the successes and the problems.

FermiGrid - experience and future plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chadwick, K.; Berman, E.; Canal, P.; Hesselroth, T.; Garzoglio, G.; Levshina, T.; Sergeev, V.; Sfiligoi, I.; Timm, S.; Yocum, D.

2007-01-01

Fermilab supports a scientific program that includes experiments and scientists located across the globe. In order to better serve this community, Fermilab has placed its production computer resources in a Campus Grid infrastructure called 'FermiGrid'. The FermiGrid infrastructure allows the large experiments at Fermilab to have priority access to their own resources, enables sharing of these resources in an opportunistic fashion, and movement of work (jobs, data) between the Campus Grid and National Grids such as Open Science Grid and the WLCG. FermiGrid resources support multiple Virtual Organizations (VOs), including VOs from the Open Science Grid (OSG), EGEE and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid Collaboration (WLCG). Fermilab also makes leading contributions to the Open Science Grid in the areas of accounting, batch computing, grid security, job management, resource selection, site infrastructure, storage management, and VO services. Through the FermiGrid interfaces, authenticated and authorized VOs and individuals may access our core grid services, the 10,000+ Fermilab resident CPUs, near-petabyte (including CMS) online disk pools and the multi-petabyte Fermilab Mass Storage System. These core grid services include a site wide Globus gatekeeper, VO management services for several VOs, Fermilab site authorization services, grid user mapping services, as well as job accounting and monitoring, resource selection and data movement services. Access to these services is via standard and well-supported grid interfaces. We will report on the user experience of using the FermiGrid campus infrastructure interfaced to a national cyberinfrastructure--the successes and the problems

An mHealth App for Decision-Making Support in Wound Dressing Selection (WounDS): Protocol for a User-Centered Feasibility Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Scott; McSwiggan, Jane; Parker, Joanne; Halas, Gayle A; Friesen, Marcia

2018-04-24

Primary care health professionals, especially family physicians, see a variety of wounds, and yet-despite the frequency of providing wound care-many family physicians do not feel confident in wound care management. This is partly due to a lack of formal wound education in Family Medicine programs. While there are numerous electronic wound care resources available in the UK and North America, none were identified that address the specific need in supporting clinical decision-making in wound dressing selection. At the same time, healthcare providers are increasingly using technology in personal and professional contexts, and a logical extension is to use technology for knowledge translation strategies. This work developed a prototype mobile health software application named WounDS, designed to support clinical decision-making in selecting wound dressings. This article presents the development and evaluation plan for the WounDS app. WounDS has been developed on the iOS platform. The primary specification included ease of use, in that one of the primary influences in user adoption would be the ability to receive a wound dressing recommendation in under 30 seconds and under 5 taps on the screen. The WounDS app guides users through a series of binary decisions for assessing the wound and provides a wound dressing recommendation. The selection algorithm is based in best practices using the Wound Bed Preparation Paradigm. Current work is underway to examine the implementation needs for WounDS to be most effectively utilized and to pilot test its feasibility and use in clinical care. Data will be collected through user trials, focus groups, and user metadata will be collected within the app. Optimizing these preconditions will enable a subsequent phase of study to determine effects on clinical decision-making and clinical outcomes. WounDS is designed for knowledge translation, use of technology in clinical decision-making, and continuity of care. The benefits of Woun

Advancing User Supports with a Structured How-To Knowledge Base for Earth Science Data

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Suhung; Acker, James G.; Lynnes, Christopher S.; Beaty, Tammy; Lighty, Luther; Kempler, Steven J.

2016-01-01

It is a challenge to access and process fast growing Earth science data from satellites and numerical models, which may be archived in very different data format and structures. NASA data centers, managed by the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), have developed a rich and diverse set of data services and tools with features intended to simplify finding, downloading, and working with these data. Although most data services and tools have user guides, many users still experience difficulties with accessing or reading data due to varying levels of familiarity with data services, tools, and/or formats. A type of structured online document, data recipe, were created in beginning 2013 by Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). A data recipe is the How-To document created by using the fixed template, containing step-by-step instructions with screenshots and examples of accessing and working with real data. The recipes has been found to be very helpful, especially to first-time-users of particular data services, tools, or data products. Online traffic to the data recipe pages is significant to some recipes. In 2014, the NASA Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG) for data recipes was established, aimed to initiate an EOSDIS-wide campaign for leveraging the distributed knowledge within EOSDIS and its user communities regarding their respective services and tools. The ESDSWG data recipe group started with inventory and analysis of existing EOSDIS-wide online help documents, and provided recommendations and guidelines and for writing and grouping data recipes. This presentation will overview activities of creating How-To documents at GES DISC and ESDSWG. We encourage feedback and contribution from users for improving the data How-To knowledge base.

Library Automation Alternatives in 1996 and User Satisfaction Ratings of Library Users by Operating System.

Science.gov (United States)

Cibbarelli, Pamela

1996-01-01

Examines library automation product introductions and conversions to new operating systems. Compares user satisfaction ratings of the following library software packages: DOS/Windows, UNIX, Macintosh, and DEC VAX/VMS. Software is rated according to documentation, service/support, training, product reliability, product capabilities, ease of use,…

Developing adaptive user interfaces using a game-based simulation environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brake, G.M. te; Greef, T.E. de; Lindenberg, J.; Rypkema, J.A.; Smets-Noor, N.J.J.M.

2006-01-01

In dynamic settings, user interfaces can provide more optimal support if they adapt to the context of use. Providing adaptive user interfaces to first responders may therefore be fruitful. A cognitive engineering method that incorporates development iterations in both a simulated and a real-world

Hanford Environmental Information System (HEIS). Volume 1, User`s guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1994-01-14

The Hanford Environmental Information System (HEIS) is a consolidated set of automated resources that effectively manage the data gathered during environmental monitoring and restoration of the Hanford Site. HEIS includes an integrated database that provides consistent and current data to all users and promotes sharing of data by the entire user community. HEIS is an information system with an inclusive database. Although the database is the nucleus of the system, HEIS also provides user access software: query-by-form data entry, extraction, and browsing facilities; menu-driven reporting facilities; an ad hoc query facility; and a geographic information system (GIS). These features, with the exception of the GIS, are described in this manual set. Because HEIS contains data from the entire Hanford Site, many varieties of data are included and have.been divided into subject areas. Related subject areas comprise several volumes of the manual set. The manual set includes a data dictionary that lists all of the fields in the HEIS database, with their definitions and a cross reference of their locations in the database; definitions of data qualifiers for analytical results; and a mapping between the HEIS software functions and the keyboard keys for each of the supported terminals or terminal emulators.

Prediction of users webpage access behaviour using association ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

pages mainly depended on the support and lift measure whereas confidence assumed ... Apriori algorithm; association rules; data mining; MSNBC; web usage .... clustering was used in finding the user access patterns from web access log. .... satisfied the minimum support and confidence of 0.6% and 100% respectively.

StarTrax --- The Next Generation User Interface

Science.gov (United States)

Richmond, Alan; White, Nick

StarTrax is a software package to be distributed to end users for installation on their local computing infrastructure. It will provide access to many services of the HEASARC, i.e. bulletins, catalogs, proposal and analysis tools, initially for the ROSAT MIPS (Mission Information and Planning System), later for the Next Generation Browse. A user activating the GUI will reach all HEASARC capabilities through a uniform view of the system, independent of the local computing environment and of the networking method of accessing StarTrax. Use it if you prefer the point-and-click metaphor of modern GUI technology, to the classical command-line interfaces (CLI). Notable strengths include: easy to use; excellent portability; very robust server support; feedback button on every dialog; painstakingly crafted User Guide. It is designed to support a large number of input devices including terminals, workstations and personal computers. XVT's Portability Toolkit is used to build the GUI in C/C++ to run on: OSF/Motif (UNIX or VMS), OPEN LOOK (UNIX), or Macintosh, or MS-Windows (DOS), or character systems.

Designing a Facebook Interface for Senior Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonçalo Gomes

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The adoption of social networks by older adults has increased in recent years. However, many still cannot make use of social networks as these are simply not adapted to them. Through a series of direct observations, interviews, and focus groups, we identified recommendations for the design of social networks targeting seniors. Based on these, we developed a prototype for tablet devices, supporting sharing and viewing Facebook content. We then conducted a user study comparing our prototype with Facebook's native mobile application. We have found that Facebook's native application does not meet senior users concerns, like privacy and family focus, while our prototype, designed in accordance with the collected recommendations, supported relevant use cases in a usable and accessible manner.

Sea Surface Variability in the Aegean Sea.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Şeniz Uçkaç

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Ege Denizi’nde yüzey suyu değişimleri. Ege Denizi’nde fiziksel parametreler iklimsel değişimler, tatlısu girdileri ve su döngüsü gibi faktörlere bağlı olarak yer ve zamana göre değişim göstermektedir. Farklı su kütleleri, özellikle Çanakkale boğazından gelen soğuk Karadeniz suyu ve güney kısımdan girmekte olan Levanten suyu Ege Denizi su özelliklerinin karmaşık yapısına katkıda bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Ege Denizi yüzey suyu sirkülasyonu ve fiziksel özelliklerinin değişimi yerinde ölçümler kullanılarak 1986-1994 periyodunda incelenmiştir. Yüzey verisi analizleri yüksek tuzluluk ve yoğunluk değerlerinin ilk olarak Kuzey Ege’de oluştuğunu göstermektedir

Early Gadolinium Enhancement for Determination of Area at Risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hammer-Hansen, Sophia; Leung, Steve W; Hsu, Li-Yueh

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether early gadolinium enhancement (EGE) by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in a canine model of reperfused myocardial infarction depicts the area at risk (AAR) as determined by microsphere blood flow analysis. BACKGROUND: It remains controver......OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether early gadolinium enhancement (EGE) by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in a canine model of reperfused myocardial infarction depicts the area at risk (AAR) as determined by microsphere blood flow analysis. BACKGROUND: It remains...... requires pathological validation. METHODS: Eleven dogs underwent 2 h of coronary artery occlusion and 48 h of reperfusion before imaging at 1.5-T. EGE imaging was performed 3 min after contrast administration with coverage of the entire left ventricle. Late gadolinium enhancement imaging was performed...... on native T1 and T2 maps. The size of EGE was significantly greater than the infarct by triphenyltetrazolium chloride (44.1 ± 15.8% vs. 20.7 ± 14.4%; p gadolinium enhancement (44.1 ± 15.8% vs. 23.5 ± 12.7%; p

User Interface Aspects of a Human-Hand Simulation System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beifang Yi

2005-10-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the user interface design for a human-hand simulation system, a virtual environment that produces ground truth data (life-like human hand gestures and animations and provides visualization support for experiments on computer vision-based hand pose estimation and tracking. The system allows users to save time in data generation and easily create any hand gestures. We have designed and implemented this user interface with the consideration of usability goals and software engineering issues.

GOCE User Toolbox and Tutorial

Science.gov (United States)

Knudsen, Per; Benveniste, Jerome

2017-04-01

The GOCE User Toolbox GUT is a compilation of tools for the utilisation and analysis of GOCE Level 2 products.
GUT support applications in Geodesy, Oceanography and Solid Earth Physics. The GUT Tutorial provides information
and guidance in how to use the toolbox for a variety of applications. GUT consists of a series of advanced
computer routines that carry out the required computations. It may be used on Windows PCs, UNIX/Linux Workstations,
and Mac. The toolbox is supported by The GUT Algorithm Description and User Guide and The GUT
Install Guide. A set of a-priori data and models are made available as well. Without any doubt the development
of the GOCE user toolbox have played a major role in paving the way to successful use of the GOCE data for
oceanography. The GUT version 2.2 was released in April 2014 and beside some bug-fixes it adds the capability for the computation of Simple Bouguer Anomaly (Solid-Earth). During this fall a new GUT version 3 has been released. GUTv3 was further developed through a collaborative effort where the scientific communities participate aiming
on an implementation of remaining functionalities facilitating a wider span of research in the fields of Geodesy,
Oceanography and Solid earth studies.
Accordingly, the GUT version 3 has:
 - An attractive and easy to use Graphic User Interface (GUI) for the toolbox,
 - Enhance the toolbox with some further software functionalities such as to facilitate the use of gradients,
anisotropic diffusive filtering and computation of Bouguer and isostatic gravity anomalies.
 - An associated GUT VCM tool for analyzing the GOCE variance covariance matrices.

AXAF user interfaces for heterogeneous analysis environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mandel, Eric; Roll, John; Ackerman, Mark S.

1992-01-01

The AXAF Science Center (ASC) will develop software to support all facets of data center activities and user research for the AXAF X-ray Observatory, scheduled for launch in 1999. The goal is to provide astronomers with the ability to utilize heterogeneous data analysis packages, that is, to allow astronomers to pick the best packages for doing their scientific analysis. For example, ASC software will be based on IRAF, but non-IRAF programs will be incorporated into the data system where appropriate. Additionally, it is desired to allow AXAF users to mix ASC software with their own local software. The need to support heterogeneous analysis environments is not special to the AXAF project, and therefore finding mechanisms for coordinating heterogeneous programs is an important problem for astronomical software today. The approach to solving this problem has been to develop two interfaces that allow the scientific user to run heterogeneous programs together. The first is an IRAF-compatible parameter interface that provides non-IRAF programs with IRAF's parameter handling capabilities. Included in the interface is an application programming interface to manipulate parameters from within programs, and also a set of host programs to manipulate parameters at the command line or from within scripts. The parameter interface has been implemented to support parameter storage formats other than IRAF parameter files, allowing one, for example, to access parameters that are stored in data bases. An X Windows graphical user interface called 'agcl' has been developed, layered on top of the IRAF-compatible parameter interface, that provides a standard graphical mechanism for interacting with IRAF and non-IRAF programs. Users can edit parameters and run programs for both non-IRAF programs and IRAF tasks. The agcl interface allows one to communicate with any command line environment in a transparent manner and without any changes to the original environment. For example, the authors

A Comparative Study of Electronic Performance Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Frank; Klein, James D.; Sullivan, Howard

2005-01-01

Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) deliver relevant support information to users while they are performing tasks. The present study examined the effect of different types of EPSS on user performance, attitudes, system use and time on task. Employees at a manufacturing company were asked to complete a procedural software task and…

Distributed user interfaces for clinical ubiquitous computing applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Bång, Magnus; Larsson, Anders; Berglund, Erik; Eriksson, Henrik

2005-08-01

Ubiquitous computing with multiple interaction devices requires new interface models that support user-specific modifications to applications and facilitate the fast development of active workspaces. We have developed NOSTOS, a computer-augmented work environment for clinical personnel to explore new user interface paradigms for ubiquitous computing. NOSTOS uses several devices such as digital pens, an active desk, and walk-up displays that allow the system to track documents and activities in the workplace. We present the distributed user interface (DUI) model that allows standalone applications to distribute their user interface components to several devices dynamically at run-time. This mechanism permit clinicians to develop their own user interfaces and forms to clinical information systems to match their specific needs. We discuss the underlying technical concepts of DUIs and show how service discovery, component distribution, events and layout management are dealt with in the NOSTOS system. Our results suggest that DUIs--and similar network-based user interfaces--will be a prerequisite of future mobile user interfaces and essential to develop clinical multi-device environments.

A User-Centered Cooperative Information System for Medical Imaging Diagnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gomez, Enrique J.; Quiles, Jose A.; Sanz, Marcos F.; del Pozo, Francisco

1998-01-01

Presents a cooperative information system for remote medical imaging diagnosis. General computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) problems addressed are definition of a procedure for the design of user-centered cooperative systems (conceptual level); and improvement of user feedback and optimization of the communication bandwidth in highly…

User-centric technology design for nonprofit and civic engagements

CERN Document Server

Saeed, Saqib

2014-01-01

Due to the increased global political importance of the nonprofit sector, its technological support and organizational characteristics have become important fields of research. In order to conduct effective work, nonprofits need to communicate and coordinate effectively. However, such settings are generally characterized by a lack of resources, an absence of formal hierarchical structures and differences in languages and culture among the activists. Modern technologies could help nonprofit networks in improving their working. In order to design appropriate technological support for such settings, it is important to understand their work practices, which widely differ from traditional business organizations. This book aims to strengthen the body of knowledge by providing user studies and concepts related to user centered technology design process for nonprofit settings. The examination of ethnographic studies and user centered evaluation of IT artifacts in practice will further the understanding of design requ...

EQUIP training the trainers: an evaluation of a training programme for service users and carers involved in training mental health professionals in user-involved care planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, C; Grundy, A; Meade, O; Callaghan, P; Lovell, K

2017-08-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: UK NHS policy highlights the importance of user and carer involvement in health professional training. We know little about service user and carer motivations and experiences of accessing training courses for delivering training to health professionals and how well such courses prepare them for delivering training to healthcare professionals. 'Involvement' in training has often been tokenistic and too narrowly focused on preregistration courses. There is limited data on how best to prepare and support potential service user and carer trainers. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This study adds to the international literature by highlighting service user and carer motivations for accessing a training course for delivering training to health professionals. Service users and carers wanted to gain new skills and confidence in presentation/facilitation as well as to make a difference to healthcare practice. We also learned that service users desired different levels of involvement in training facilitation - some wanted to take a more active role than others. A one-size-fits-all approach is not always appropriate. Encountering resistance from staff in training was a previously unidentified challenge to service user and carers' experience of delivering training in practice and is a key challenge for trainers to address in future. Professional training involvement can be enhanced via specialist training such as the EQUIP training the trainers programme evaluated here. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: When training service users and carers to deliver training to mental health professionals, it is important that service users are equipped to deal with resistance from staff. It is important that service user and carer roles are negotiated and agreed prior to delivering training to healthcare professionals to accommodate individual preferences and allay anxieties. Training for service users and carers must be offered

Determination of The Adaptation of Some Azolla (Azolla anabaena L) Genotypes to The Mediterranean and Aegean Coastline Ecological Conditions

OpenAIRE

GEVREK, Mithat Nuri

2015-01-01

u çalışmada bazı azolla (Azolla anabaena L.) genotiplerinin Akdeniz-Ege kıyı kuşağına adaptasyonunun belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma 20022003 ve 2003-2004 yıllarında Ege Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi’nin Menemen

Using rapid prototyping to design a smoking cessation website with end-users

OpenAIRE

Ronquillo, C. E.; Currie, L.; Rowsell, D.; Phillips, J. C.

2016-01-01

Rapid prototyping is an iterative approach to design involving cycles of prototype building, review by end-users, and refinement, and can be a valuable tool in user-centered website design. Informed by various user-centered approaches, we used rapid prototyping as a tool to collaborate with users in building a peer-support focused smoking-cessation website for gay men living with HIV. Rapid prototyping was effective in eliciting feedback on the needs of this group of potential end-users\\ud fr...

From top to bottom: end user development motivation, creativity and organisational support

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kierkegaard, P.M.; Markopoulos, P.; Costabile, M.F.; Dittrich, Y.; Piccino, A.

2011-01-01

This paper examines the socio-technical and organisational factors that influence the adoption of End User Development (EUD) technology and practices at the workplace. This research focuses on the rehabilitation industry, where a 64-item paper-based survey was completed by 52 therapists working at

Evolution of user analysis on the grid in ATLAS

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00218990; The ATLAS collaboration; Dewhurst, Alastair

2017-01-01

More than one thousand physicists analyse data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN through 150 computing facilities around the world. Efficient distributed analysis requires optimal resource usage and the interplay of several factors: robust grid and software infrastructures, and system capability to adapt to different workloads. The continuous automatic validation of grid sites and the user support provided by a dedicated team of expert shifters have been proven to provide a solid distributed analysis system for ATLAS users. Typical user workflows on the grid, and their associated metrics, are discussed. Measurements of user job performance and typical requirements are also shown.

User Requirements for Technology to Assist Aging in Place: Qualitative Study of Older People and Their Informal Support Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Elers, Phoebe; Hunter, Inga; Whiddett, Dick; Lockhart, Caroline; Guesgen, Hans; Singh, Amardeep

2018-06-06

Informal support is essential for enabling many older people to age in place. However, there is limited research examining the information needs of older adults' informal support networks and how these could be met through home monitoring and information and communication technologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate how technologies that connect older adults to their informal and formal support networks could assist aging in place and enhance older adults' health and well-being. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 older adults and a total of 31 members of their self-identified informal support networks. They were asked questions about their information needs and how technology could support the older adults to age in place. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed. The analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) the social enablers theme, which outlined how timing, informal support networks, and safety concerns assist the older adults' uptake of technology, (2) the technology concerns theme, which outlined concerns about cost, usability, information security and privacy, and technology superseding face-to-face contact, and (3) the information desired theme, which outlined what information should be collected and transferred and who should make decisions about this. Older adults and their informal support networks may be receptive to technology that monitors older adults within the home if it enables aging in place for longer. However, cost, privacy, security, and usability barriers would need to be considered and the system should be individualizable to older adults' changing needs. The user requirements identified from this study and described in this paper have informed the development of a technology that is currently being prototyped. ©Phoebe Elers, Inga Hunter, Dick Whiddett, Caroline Lockhart, Hans Guesgen, Amardeep Singh. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 06.06.2018.

Comprehensive support for nuclear decommissioning based on 3D simulation and advanced user interface technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szőke, István; Louka, Michael N.; Bryntesen, Tom-Robert; Edvardsen, Svein-Tore; Bratteli, Joachim

2015-01-01

There is an increasing international focus on the need to optimise decommissioning strategies, driven by the anticipation of high costs and major effort for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the coming decades. The goals are to control and mitigate costs and negative impacts on workers, the general public, and the environment. The methods presently employed for many decommissioning tasks do not apply the latest advancements of science and technology. Therefore, there is growing interest in research and development into the adoption of novel techniques for improving safety, reducing costs, and increasing transparency. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the authors' results from investigating how current and emerging technologies can be applied to enhance the international decommissioning strategy, focussing in particular on three-dimensional simulation, virtual reality, advanced user interfaces, mobile and wearable devices, and geographical information systems. Our results demonstrate that emerging technologies have great potential for supporting adoption of new instrumentation, improving data and knowledge management, optimising project plans, briefing and training field operators, and for communication, surveillance, and education in general. (author)

Algorithmic and user study of an autocompletion algorithm on a large medical vocabulary.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevenster, Merlijn; van Ommering, Rob; Qian, Yuechen

2012-02-01

Autocompletion supports human-computer interaction in software applications that let users enter textual data. We will be inspired by the use case in which medical professionals enter ontology concepts, catering the ongoing demand for structured and standardized data in medicine. Goal is to give an algorithmic analysis of one particular autocompletion algorithm, called multi-prefix matching algorithm, which suggests terms whose words' prefixes contain all words in the string typed by the user, e.g., in this sense, opt ner me matches optic nerve meningioma. Second we aim to investigate how well it supports users entering concepts from a large and comprehensive medical vocabulary (snomed ct). We give a concise description of the multi-prefix algorithm, and sketch how it can be optimized to meet required response time. Performance will be compared to a baseline algorithm, which gives suggestions that extend the string typed by the user to the right, e.g. optic nerve m gives optic nerve meningioma, but opt ner me does not. We conduct a user experiment in which 12 participants are invited to complete 40 snomed ct terms with the baseline algorithm and another set of 40 snomed ct terms with the multi-prefix algorithm. Our results show that users need significantly fewer keystrokes when supported by the multi-prefix algorithm than when supported by the baseline algorithm. The proposed algorithm is a competitive candidate for searching and retrieving terms from a large medical ontology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

User driven innovation in mobile technologies?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Casper Schultz; Koch, Christian

2007-01-01

by systems already in function. Stories of prior business successes can be an important tool to ensure further innovative investments since lack of enterprise strategies is often an obstacle for innovation, especially user driven. Both small and large software houses develops dedicated software for coupling...... technology systems relying on the concept of affordance. This paper examines how innovation processes mediate between user orientations and technology offers. There is a great potential for mobile handheld ICT-systems to support numerous work processes in the AEC-industry and this can be substantiated...... site practises, and headquarters - inspired by specific user needs for optimizing work processes. The most important mechanisms evoked for creating the mediating found in the paper are ‘hybrids’ where professionals from AEC establishes a software house, developing ICT-products for specific on...

Reflective Healthcare Systems: micro-Cycle of Self-Reflection to empower users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Jimenez Garcia

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Data collection and reflection are considered an integrated process in Personal Informatics to help users take action towards changing behaviour. Facilitating the collection and visualization of large data sets has been a major technical challenge to guarantee meaningful and effortless information to users. However this focus results in a passive involvement of users in these stages, creating distance between the user and their data, thus hindering proper understanding of people’s current behaviours. Designing for active participation may aid users in forming a closer bond to data. Going beyond the support of visualization of performance data, this paper introduces ESTHER 1.3 as an approach to facilitate active mini cycles of self-reflection (mCR by means of in-situ self-reporting mechanisms. ESTHER 1.3 is presented as an implementation of this mini cycles in the context of physical activity and knowledge workers. A field study evaluation of 23 days with 5 users shows the opportunities of the mini cycles to engage people in deeper reflection and to support them to perform better-informed actions, as well as the challenges in the implementation of mCR elements for a specific context.

Resilient children of injection drug users.

Science.gov (United States)

Pilowsky, Daniel J; Zybert, Patricia A; Vlahov, David

2004-11-01

To examine associations between resilience in children of injection drug users and children's coping strategies, parenting stress, and children's social support. Injection drug-using parents (n=91) and their children aged 6 to 11 (n=117) were recruited in Baltimore (1997-1999). Resilience was defined as scoring in the lowest quartile of the Child Behavior Checklist total psychopathology score. Coping strategies used by resilient and nonresilient children, the extent and types of social support that they received, and the level of parenting stress reported by their parents were compared and contrasted. Rates of depressive, anxiety, and disruptive behavior disorders were 15.4%, 22.2%, and 21.4%, respectively, for the entire sample. Compared with the nonresilient, resilient children were less likely to use two avoidance coping strategies (internalizing [p=.002] and externalizing [p=.017]). The level of actual support received by resilient and nonresilient children did not differ significantly (p=.202). Perceived support was greater among resilient children (as reported by their parents; p parents reported lower parenting stress (p=.042). A significant proportion of children of injection drug users are in need of clinical care. Interventions to help children of substance-abusing parents modify their coping style merit exploration.

What are health-related users tweeting? A qualitative content analysis of health-related users and their messages on twitter.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Joy L; DeCamp, Matthew; Dredze, Mark; Chisolm, Margaret S; Berger, Zackary D

2014-10-15

Twitter is home to many health professionals who send messages about a variety of health-related topics. Amid concerns about physicians posting inappropriate content online, more in-depth knowledge about these messages is needed to understand health professionals' behavior on Twitter. Our goal was to characterize the content of Twitter messages, specifically focusing on health professionals and their tweets relating to health. We performed an in-depth content analysis of 700 tweets. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on tweets by health users on Twitter. The primary objective was to describe the general type of content (ie, health-related versus non-health related) on Twitter authored by health professionals and further to describe health-related tweets on the basis of the type of statement made. Specific attention was given to whether a tweet was personal (as opposed to professional) or made a claim that users would expect to be supported by some level of medical evidence (ie, a "testable" claim). A secondary objective was to compare content types among different users, including patients, physicians, nurses, health care organizations, and others. Health-related users are posting a wide range of content on Twitter. Among health-related tweets, 53.2% (184/346) contained a testable claim. Of health-related tweets by providers, 17.6% (61/346) were personal in nature; 61% (59/96) made testable statements. While organizations and businesses use Twitter to promote their services and products, patient advocates are using this tool to share their personal experiences with health. Twitter users in health-related fields tweet about both testable claims and personal experiences. Future work should assess the relationship between testable tweets and the actual level of evidence supporting them, including how Twitter users-especially patients-interpret the content of tweets posted by health providers.

User Collaboration for Improving Access to Historical Texts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clemens Neudecker

2010-08-01

Full Text Available The paper will describe how web-based collaboration tools can engage users in the building of historical printed text resources created by mass digitisation projects. The drivers for developing such tools will be presented, identifying the benefits that can be derived for both the user community and cultural heritage institutions. The perceived risks, such as new errors introduced by the users, and the limitations of engaging with users in this way will be set out with the lessons that can be learned from existing activities, such as the National Library of Australia's newspaper website which supports collaborative correction of Optical Character Recognition (OCR output. The paper will present the work of the IMPACT (Improving Access to Text project, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission as part of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7. One of the aims of the project is to develop tools that help improve OCR results for historical printed texts, specifically those works published before the industrial production of books from the middle of the 19th century. Technological improvements to image processing and OCR engine technology are vital to improving access to historic text, but engaging the user community also has an important role to play. Utilising the intended user can help achieve the levels of accuracy currently found in born-digital materials. Improving OCR results will allow for better resource discovery and enhance performance by text mining and accessibility tools. The IMPACT project will specifically develop a tool that supports collaborative correction and validation of OCR results and a tool to allow user involvement in building historical dictionaries which can be used to validate word recognition. The technologies use the characteristics of human perception as a basis for error detection.

GOCE user toolbox and tutorial

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Per; Benveniste, Jerome

2011-01-01

consists of a series of advanced computer routines that carry out the required computations. It may be used on Windows PCs, UNIX/Linux Workstations, and Mac. The toolbox is supported by The GUT Algorithm Description and User Guide and The GUT Install Guide. A set of a-priori data and models are made...

Health Information Technology Systems profoundly impact users: a case study in a dental school.

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Heather K; Stewart, Denice C L; Ash, Joan S

2010-04-01

The purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of the impact of Health Information Technology Systems (HITS) on dental school users when the systems are integrated into chair-side patient care. We used qualitative research methods, including interviews, focus groups, and observations, to capture the experiences of HITS users at a single institution. Users included administrators, clinical faculty members, predoctoral students, support staff, and residents. The data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, and nine themes emerged: 1) HITS benefits were disproportionate among users; 2) communicating about the HITS was challenging; 3) users experienced a range of strong emotions; 4) the instructor persona diminished; 5) there were shifts in the school's power structure; 6) allocation of end-users' time shifted; 7) the training and support needs of end-users were significant; 8) perceived lack of HITS usability made documentation cumbersome for clinicians; and 9) clinicians' workflow was disrupted. HITS integration into patient care impacts the work of all system users, especially end-users. The themes highlight areas of potential concern for implementers and users in integrating a HITS into patient care.

Event-based user classification in Weibo media.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Liang; Wang, Wendong; Cheng, Shiduan; Que, Xirong

2014-01-01

Weibo media, known as the real-time microblogging services, has attracted massive attention and support from social network users. Weibo platform offers an opportunity for people to access information and changes the way people acquire and disseminate information significantly. Meanwhile, it enables people to respond to the social events in a more convenient way. Much of the information in Weibo media is related to some events. Users who post different contents, and exert different behavior or attitude may lead to different contribution to the specific event. Therefore, classifying the large amount of uncategorized social circles generated in Weibo media automatically from the perspective of events has been a promising task. Under this circumstance, in order to effectively organize and manage the huge amounts of users, thereby further managing their contents, we address the task of user classification in a more granular, event-based approach in this paper. By analyzing real data collected from Sina Weibo, we investigate the Weibo properties and utilize both content information and social network information to classify the numerous users into four primary groups: celebrities, organizations/media accounts, grassroots stars, and ordinary individuals. The experiments results show that our method identifies the user categories accurately.

A User-Centric View of Intelligent Environments: User Expectations, User Experience and User Role in Building Intelligent Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eija Kaasinen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Our everyday environments are gradually becoming intelligent, facilitated both by technological development and user activities. Although large-scale intelligent environments are still rare in actual everyday use, they have been studied for quite a long time, and several user studies have been carried out. In this paper, we present a user-centric view of intelligent environments based on published research results and our own experiences from user studies with concepts and prototypes. We analyze user acceptance and users’ expectations that affect users’ willingness to start using intelligent environments and to continue using them. We discuss user experience of interacting with intelligent environments where physical and virtual elements are intertwined. Finally, we touch on the role of users in shaping their own intelligent environments instead of just using ready-made environments. People are not merely “using” the intelligent environments but they live in them, and they experience the environments via embedded services and new interaction tools as well as the physical and social environment. Intelligent environments should provide emotional as well as instrumental value to the people who live in them, and the environments should be trustworthy and controllable both by regular users and occasional visitors. Understanding user expectations and user experience in intelligent environments, and providing users with tools to influence the environments can help to shape the vision of intelligent environments into meaningful, acceptable and appealing service entities for all those who live and act in them.

Using Rapid Prototyping to Design a Smoking Cessation Website with End-Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Ronquillo, Charlene; Currie, Leanne; Rowsell, Derek; Phillips, J Craig

2016-01-01

Rapid prototyping is an iterative approach to design involving cycles of prototype building, review by end-users and refinement, and can be a valuable tool in user-centered website design. Informed by various user-centered approaches, we used rapid prototyping as a tool to collaborate with users in building a peer-support focused smoking-cessation website for gay men living with HIV. Rapid prototyping was effective in eliciting feedback on the needs of this group of potential end-users from a smoking cessation website.

PARFUME User's Guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamman, Kurt

2010-01-01

PARFUME, a fuel performance analysis and modeling code, is being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory for evaluating gas reactor coated particle fuel assemblies for prismatic, pebble bed, and plate type fuel geometries. The code is an integrated mechanistic analysis tool that evaluates the thermal, mechanical, and physico-chemical behavior of coated fuel particles (TRISO) and the probability for fuel failure given the particle-to-particle statistical variations in physical dimensions and material properties that arise during the fuel fabrication process. Using a robust finite difference numerical scheme, PARFUME is capable of performing steady state and transient heat transfer and fission product diffusion analyses for the fuel. Written in FORTRAN 90, PARFUME is easy to read, maintain, and modify. Currently, PARFUME is supported only on MS Windows platforms. This document represents the initial version of the PARFUME User Guide, a supplement to the PARFUME Theory and Model Basis Report which describes the theoretical aspects of the code. User information is provided including: (1) code development, (2) capabilities and limitations, (3) installation and execution, (4) user input and output, (5) sample problems, and (6) error messages. In the near future, the INL plans to release a fully benchmarked and validated beta version of PARFUME.

Distributed analysis in ATLAS using GANGA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elmsheuser, Johannes; Brochu, Frederic; Egede, Ulrik; Reece, Will; Williams, Michael; Gaidioz, Benjamin; Maier, Andrew; Moscicki, Jakub; Vanderster, Daniel; Lee, Hurng-Chun; Pajchel, Katarina; Samset, Bjorn; Slater, Mark; Soroko, Alexander; Cowan, Greig

2010-01-01

Distributed data analysis using Grid resources is one of the fundamental applications in high energy physics to be addressed and realized before the start of LHC data taking. The needs to manage the resources are very high. In every experiment up to a thousand physicists will be submitting analysis jobs to the Grid. Appropriate user interfaces and helper applications have to be made available to assure that all users can use the Grid without expertise in Grid technology. These tools enlarge the number of Grid users from a few production administrators to potentially all participating physicists. The GANGA job management system (http://cern.ch/ganga), developed as a common project between the ATLAS and LHCb experiments, provides and integrates these kind of tools. GANGA provides a simple and consistent way of preparing, organizing and executing analysis tasks within the experiment analysis framework, implemented through a plug-in system. It allows trivial switching between running test jobs on a local batch system and running large-scale analyzes on the Grid, hiding Grid technicalities. We will be reporting on the plug-ins and our experiences of distributed data analysis using GANGA within the ATLAS experiment. Support for all Grids presently used by ATLAS, namely the LCG/EGEE, NDGF/NorduGrid, and OSG/PanDA is provided. The integration and interaction with the ATLAS data management system DQ2 into GANGA is a key functionality. An intelligent job brokering is set up by using the job splitting mechanism together with data-set and file location knowledge. The brokering is aided by an automated system that regularly processes test analysis jobs at all ATLAS DQ2 supported sites. Large numbers of analysis jobs can be sent to the locations of data following the ATLAS computing model. GANGA supports amongst other things tasks of user analysis with reconstructed data and small scale production of Monte Carlo data.

User Interface Technology Transfer to NASA's Virtual Wind Tunnel System

Science.gov (United States)

vanDam, Andries

1998-01-01

Funded by NASA grants for four years, the Brown Computer Graphics Group has developed novel 3D user interfaces for desktop and immersive scientific visualization applications. This past grant period supported the design and development of a software library, the 3D Widget Library, which supports the construction and run-time management of 3D widgets. The 3D Widget Library is a mechanism for transferring user interface technology from the Brown Graphics Group to the Virtual Wind Tunnel system at NASA Ames as well as the public domain.

Radwaste Decision Support System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Westrom, G.; Vance, J.N.; Gelhaus, F.E.

1989-01-01

The purpose of the Radwaste Decision Support System (RDSS) is to provide expert advice, analysis results and instructional material relative to the treatment, handling, transport and disposal of low-level radioactive waste produced in nuclear power plants. This functional specification addresses the following topics: Functions of the RDSS, Relationships and interfaces between the function, Development of the decisions and logic tree structures embodied in waste management, Elements of the database and the characteristics required to support the decision-making process, Specific User requirements for the RDSS, Development of the user interface, Basic software architecture, and Concepts for the RDSS usage including updating and maintenance

Verbal learning and memory in adolescent cannabis users, alcohol users and non-users.

Science.gov (United States)

Solowij, Nadia; Jones, Katy A; Rozman, Megan E; Davis, Sasha M; Ciarrochi, Joseph; Heaven, Patrick C L; Lubman, Dan I; Yücel, Murat

2011-07-01

Long-term heavy cannabis use can result in memory impairment. Adolescent users may be especially vulnerable to the adverse neurocognitive effects of cannabis. In a cross-sectional and prospective neuropsychological study of 181 adolescents aged 16-20 (mean 18.3 years), we compared performance indices from one of the most widely used measures of learning and memory--the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test--between cannabis users (n=52; mean 2.4 years of use, 14 days/month, median abstinence 20.3 h), alcohol users (n=67) and non-user controls (n=62) matched for age, education and premorbid intellectual ability (assessed prospectively), and alcohol consumption for cannabis and alcohol users. Cannabis users performed significantly worse than alcohol users and non-users on all performance indices. They recalled significantly fewer words overall (pmemory performance after controlling for extent of exposure to cannabis. Despite relatively brief exposure, adolescent cannabis users relative to their age-matched counterparts demonstrated similar memory deficits to those reported in adult long-term heavy users. The results indicate that cannabis adversely affects the developing brain and reinforce concerns regarding the impact of early exposure.

Distributed Data Analysis in ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Nilsson, P; The ATLAS collaboration

2012-01-01

Data analysis using grid resources is one of the fundamental challenges to be addressed before the start of LHC data taking. The ATLAS detector will produce petabytes of data per year, and roughly one thousand users will need to run physics analyses on this data. Appropriate user interfaces and helper applications have been made available to ensure that the grid resources can be used without requiring expertise in grid technology. These tools enlarge the number of grid users from a few production administrators to potentially all participating physicists. ATLAS makes use of three grid infrastructures for the distributed analysis: the EGEE sites, the Open Science Grid, and NorduGrid. These grids are managed by the gLite workload management system, the PanDA workload management system, and ARC middleware; many sites can be accessed via both the gLite WMS and PanDA. Users can choose between two front-end tools to access the distributed resources. Ganga is a tool co-developed with LHCb to provide a common interfa...

User's guide for remote access of the Performance Assessment Center

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peterson, C.R.; Kostelnik, K.M.

1991-03-01

The Performance Assessment Center (PAC) was established by the Department of Energy's National Low-Level Waste Management Program to provide technical assistance to support the development of low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. This user's manual provides guidance to remote users of the PAC. Information is presented on how remote users may most effectively access and use the systems available at the Performance Assessment Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Access requirements and operating procedures are presented to assist the first-time PAC user. This manual also provides brief descriptions of each code available on the system

Supported Housing and Supported Independent Living in the Netherlands, with a Comparison with England

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Heer-Wunderink, Charlotte; Visser, Ellen; Caro-Nienhuis, Annemarie; Sytema, Sjoerd; Wiersma, Durk

Research into community housing programs for people with severe mental illness is underexposed. The Dutch UTOPIA study describes characteristics of their service users, which may predict their allocation to either supported housing or supported independent living programs. Additionally, a comparison

Collaborative product development in CAD and CAPP, an approach based on communication due to constraint conflicts and user initiative

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salomons, O.W.; Kuipers, J.M.; van de Graaff, J.; van Slooten, F.; van Slooten, F.; van Houten, Frederikus J.A.M.; Kals, H.J.J.

1995-01-01

This paper addresses collaborative product development, focusing on computer support of collaboration between users of CAD systems alone, between users of CAPP systems alone and between users of both CAD and CAPP systems. Computer support of collaborative product development may enhance informal

Serum estrogen and SHBG levels and breast cancer incidence among users and never users of hormone replacement therapy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Würtz, Anne Mette Lund; Tjønneland, Anne; Christensen, Jane

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Levels of endogenous estrogen and SHBG are associated with risk of breast cancer among women who have never used hormone replacement therapy (HRT). We investigated these associations in both never and baseline users of HRT. METHODS: A nested case-control study was conducted within the ...... and baseline HRT users. More studies are needed to support the findings for HRT users and to further investigate estrogen levels in relation to estrogen receptor-specific breast cancer and other histological and molecular subtypes.......OBJECTIVE: Levels of endogenous estrogen and SHBG are associated with risk of breast cancer among women who have never used hormone replacement therapy (HRT). We investigated these associations in both never and baseline users of HRT. METHODS: A nested case-control study was conducted within...... logistic regression yielded incidence rate ratios and 95 % confidence intervals for exposures analyzed continuously and categorically in models adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: Modest direct associations were identified between estrogen levels and breast cancer incidence among both never...

The ARL 2030 Scenarios: A User's Guide for Research Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Association of Research Libraries, 2010

2010-01-01

This user's guide was developed to advance local planning at ARL member libraries. It is written for library leaders writ large and for anyone leading or contributing to research library planning processes. Users do not need advanced facilitation skills to benefit from this guide, but facilitators charged with supporting scenario planning will…

Involving mental health service users in suicide-related research: a qualitative inquiry model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lees, David; Procter, Nicholas; Fassett, Denise; Handley, Christine

2016-03-01

To describe the research model developed and successfully deployed as part of a multi-method qualitative study investigating suicidal service-users' experiences of mental health nursing care. Quality mental health care is essential to limiting the occurrence and burden of suicide, however there is a lack of relevant research informing practice in this context. Research utilising first-person accounts of suicidality is of particular importance to expanding the existing evidence base. However, conducting ethical research to support this imperative is challenging. The model discussed here illustrates specific and more generally applicable principles for qualitative research regarding sensitive topics and involving potentially vulnerable service-users. Researching into mental health service users with first-person experience of suicidality requires stakeholder and institutional support, researcher competency, and participant recruitment, consent, confidentiality, support and protection. Research with service users into their experiences of sensitive issues such as suicidality can result in rich and valuable data, and may also provide positive experiences of collaboration and inclusivity. If challenges are not met, objectification and marginalisation of service-users may be reinforced, and limitations in the evidence base and service provision may be perpetuated.

Predicting the Industry of Users on Social Media

OpenAIRE

Pappas, Konstantinos; Mihalcea, Rada

2016-01-01

Automatic profiling of social media users is an important task for supporting a multitude of downstream applications. While a number of studies have used social media content to extract and study collective social attributes, there is a lack of substantial research that addresses the detection of a user's industry. We frame this task as classification using both feature engineering and ensemble learning. Our industry-detection system uses both posted content and profile information to detect ...

IAC user manual

Science.gov (United States)

Vos, R. G.; Beste, D. L.; Gregg, J.

1984-01-01

The User Manual for the Integrated Analysis Capability (IAC) Level 1 system is presented. The IAC system currently supports the thermal, structures, controls and system dynamics technologies, and its development is influenced by the requirements for design/analysis of large space systems. The system has many features which make it applicable to general problems in engineering, and to management of data and software. Information includes basic IAC operation, executive commands, modules, solution paths, data organization and storage, IAC utilities, and module implementation.

User prototypes as partly unconscious communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glasemann, Marie; Kanstrup, Anne Marie

2010-01-01

In this paper, we introduce user prototypes as a technique that supports users’ articulation of emotions relevant for design: dreams, fears, motivations – their feelings and aspirations. Following Bateson’s writings about communication through art, we consider user prototypes as “partly unconscious...... communication” and propose to analyze them by focusing on the emotional articulations integrated in the users’ design language. We illustrate this with an example from a design research project on designing learning technology for young diabetics. The example shows how young people with diabetes can express...... emotional themes related to youth identity, the burden of being young with a chronic illness, and the need to be connected and feel safe through design of prototypes. The new conceptual space that arises from user prototypes shows potential for addressing emotions when designing for health and for further...

Gas priority users consultation : government response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

This consultation document presents the results of an updated analysis of gas priority users comments on the UK government's proposals for updating the current priority lists, amending the eligibility criteria for priority user status, and simplifying the administration of the scheme. The extension of Category C priority users to include sites where interruption of gas supplies would lead to damage exceeding fifty million pounds to a plant at another site is discussed. It is acknowledged that there is a preference for a reduction of gas demand as opposed to a cessation in the case of an emergency gas supply deficit and details are given of a Task Group set up to examine options for reducing demand rather than cessation for large industrial gas users. The role of the Network Emergency Co-ordinator, support for a more flexible approach, pre-agreed rota interruption, a long-duration emergency, demand reduction, and the establishment of a Government/Industry Gas/Electricity Task Group are discussed, and the raising of the load shedding threshold of 25,000 therms/yr is considered

User Empowerment in the Internet of Things

OpenAIRE

Munjin, Dejan; Morin, Jean-Henry

2011-01-01

This paper focuses on the characteristics of two big triggers that facilitated wide user adoption of the Internet: Web 2.0 and online social networks. We detect brakes for reproduction of these events in Internet of things. To support our hypothesis we first compare the difference between the ways of use of the Internet with the future scenarios of Internet of things. We detect barriers that could slow down apparition of this kind of social events during user adoption of Internet of Things an...

A TOOL FOR EMOTIONAL USER EXPERIENCE ASSESSMENT OF WEB-BASED MEDICAL SERVICES

OpenAIRE

Alexander Nikov; Tramaine Alaina Gumaia

2016-01-01

Emotional User Experience Design (eUXD) has become increasingly important for web-based services. The primary objective of this study is to enable users to use websites that are easy to understand and operate and pleasing to use. A checklist tool for an emotional user experience (eUX) assessment that supports web-based medical services is proposed. This tool measures user moods while using medical services’ websites. The tool allocates emotive design-oriented problems and thus defines relevan...

Capturing User Needs to Improve Processes at EOSDIS Data Centers

Science.gov (United States)

Sofinowski, E. J.; Boquist, C. L.

2009-12-01

Since 2004 the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has conducted an annual comprehensive survey of user satisfaction using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Customer satisfaction ratings for EOSDIS consistently rate better than the overall government ratings. As part of the survey users are asked to submit comments concerning their experiences and interests. These user comments provide valuable insight into the effect of data center processes on users' experiences. Although user satisfaction has remained high, their preferences have changed with the rapid advances in web-based services. This analysis investigates the correlation between user comments, process changes or capability improvements at the individual data centers, and whether the changes at the data centers and web sites show a corresponding increase in user satisfaction. We will evaluate the comments in the areas of Product Search, Product Selection and Order, Delivery, Product Quality and Customer Support.

Action Research in User-Centered Product Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Eva

2004-01-01

Technological development and increased international competition have imposed a significant burden on the product development function of many companies. The growing complexity of products demands a larger product development team with people having various competencies. Simultaneously...... the importance of good quality, usability and customisation of products is growing, and many companies want to involve customers and users directly in the development work. Both the complexity and quality demand new ways of working that support collaboration between people with various competencies, interests...... and responsibilities both inside and outside the company. This paper reports experiences from using action research to introduce new user-centred work practices in two commercial product development projects. The interventions varied. In the first project it was found rewarding to engage customers and users...

Natural contextual reasoning for end users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Metaxas, G.; Markopoulos, P.

2017-01-01

The realization and deployment of the Internet of Things require providing to non-programmers some level of programmatic control for tailoring system behaviour to their context and needs. We introduce a simple context-range semantics (CRS) and a context-range editor (CoRE) that support end users

Information and communication technology and user knowledge-driven innovation in services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Y. Park

2015-12-01

Full Text Available User knowledge has been an important source of novel product development and innovation, but gathering accurate user knowledge has been time consuming and difficult because user knowledge is tacit and globally dispersed. However, information and communication technology can expand the boundaries by making user knowledge easier and less expensive to access. Structures and organizations are emerging to perform the task of user information gathering. This paper examines the nature of user knowledge and the emergence of a new system/structure for user knowledge gathering and user involvement in innovation. Three case studies of business innovation in three different organizations illustrate the ways that the organization matches the type of innovation with the characteristics of user knowledge. User involvement can occur either through direct input or via feedback provided after customers received services. User input can also be either proactive or reactive. User knowledge is often employed to monitor service workers also, which has significantly contributed to recent improvement in service quality. The cases presented support our proposition.

Usability Operations on Touch Mobile Devices for Users with Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Quezada, Angeles; Juárez-Ramírez, Reyes; Jiménez, Samantha; Noriega, Alan Ramírez; Inzunza, Sergio; Garza, Arnulfo Alanis

2017-10-14

The Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a cognitive disorder that affects the cognitive and motor skills; due that, users cannot perform digital and fine motor tasks. It is necessary to create software applications that adapt to the abilities of these users. In recent years has been an increase in the research of the use of technology to support autistic users to develop their communication skills and to improve learning. However, the applications' usability for disable users is not assessed objectively as the existing models do not consider interaction operators for disable users. This article focuses on identifying the operations that can easily be performed by autistic users following the metrics of KML-GOMS, TLM and FLM. In addition, users of typical development were included in order to do a comparison between both types of users. The experiment was carried out using four applications designed for autistic users. Participants were subjects divided in two groups: level 1 and level 2 autistic users, and a group of users of typical development. During the experimentation, users performed a use case for each application; the time needed to perform each task was measured. Results show that the easiest operations for autistic users are K (Keystroke), D (Drag), Initial Act (I) and Tapping (T).

User interface user's guide for HYPGEN

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Ing-Tsau

1992-01-01

The user interface (UI) of HYPGEN is developed using Panel Library to shorten the learning curve for new users and provide easier ways to run HYPGEN for casual users as well as for advanced users. Menus, buttons, sliders, and type-in fields are used extensively in UI to allow users to point and click with a mouse to choose various available options or to change values of parameters. On-line help is provided to give users information on using UI without consulting the manual. Default values are set for most parameters and boundary conditions are determined by UI to further reduce the effort needed to run HYPGEN; however, users are free to make any changes and save it in a file for later use. A hook to PLOT3D is built in to allow graphics manipulation. The viewpoint and min/max box for PLOT3D windows are computed by UI and saved in a PLOT3D journal file. For large grids which take a long time to generate on workstations, the grid generator (HYPGEN) can be run on faster computers such as Crays, while UI stays at the workstation.

Decision support systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, L.N.; Noe, E.; Langvad, A.M.

2007-01-01

system Crop Protection Online is widely used by advisors and as a learning tool for students. Although the system has been validated in many field trials over the years and has shown reliable results, the number of end-users among farmers has been relatively low during the last 10 years (approximately...... 1000 farmers). A sociological investigation of farmers' decision-making styles in the area of crop protection has shown that arable farmers can be divided into three major groups: (a) system-orientated farmers, (b) experience-based farmers and (c) advisory-orientated farmers. The information required...... by these three groups to make their decisions varies and therefore different ways of using decision support systems need to be provided. Decision support systems need to be developed in close dialogue and collaboration with user groups....

Meta-analysis of executive functioning in ecstasy/polydrug users.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, C A; Jones, A; Montgomery, C

2016-06-01

Ecstasy/3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use is proposed to cause damage to serotonergic (5-HT) axons in humans. Therefore, users should show deficits in cognitive processes that rely on serotonin-rich, prefrontal areas of the brain. However, there is inconsistency in findings to support this hypothesis. The aim of the current study was to examine deficits in executive functioning in ecstasy users compared with controls using meta-analysis. We identified k = 39 studies, contributing 89 effect sizes, investigating executive functioning in ecstasy users and polydrug-using controls. We compared function-specific task performance in 1221 current ecstasy users and 1242 drug-using controls, from tasks tapping the executive functions - updating, switching, inhibition and access to long-term memory. The significant main effect demonstrated overall executive dysfunction in ecstasy users [standardized mean difference (SMD) = -0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.26 to -0.11, Z = 5.05, p Ecstasy users showed significant performance deficits in access (SMD = -0.33, 95% CI -0.46 to -0.19, Z = 4.72, p ecstasy users to date and provides a behavioural correlate of potential serotonergic neurotoxicity.

Scenarios, personas and user stories: user-centered evidence-based design representations of communicable disease investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Anne M; Reeder, Blaine; Ramey, Judith

2013-08-01

Despite years of effort and millions of dollars spent to create unified electronic communicable disease reporting systems, the goal remains elusive. A major barrier has been a lack of understanding by system designers of communicable disease (CD) work and the public health workers who perform this work. This study reports on the application of user-centered design representations, traditionally used for improving interface design, to translate the complex CD work identified through ethnographic studies to guide designers and developers of CD systems. The purpose of this work is to: (1) better understand public health practitioners and their information workflow with respect to CD monitoring and control at a local health agency, and (2) to develop evidence-based design representations that model this CD work to inform the design of future disease surveillance systems. We performed extensive onsite semi-structured interviews, targeted work shadowing and a focus group to characterize local health agency CD workflow. Informed by principles of design ethnography and user-centered design we created persona, scenarios and user stories to accurately represent the user to system designers. We sought to convey to designers the key findings from ethnographic studies: (1) public health CD work is mobile and episodic, in contrast to current CD reporting systems, which are stationary and fixed, (2) health agency efforts are focused on CD investigation and response rather than reporting and (3) current CD information systems must conform to public health workflow to ensure their usefulness. In an effort to illustrate our findings to designers, we developed three contemporary design-support representations: persona, scenario, and user story. Through application of user-centered design principles, we were able to create design representations that illustrate complex public health communicable disease workflow and key user characteristics to inform the design of CD information

Quality of antiretroviral therapy in public health facilities in Nigeria and perceptions of end users.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiegil, Robert J; Zungu, Lindiwe I; Jooste, Karien

2014-04-01

This paper describes perceptions of the end users on quality of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in public health facilities in Nigeria. Health care services in Nigeria face challenges of meeting end users' requirements and expectations for quality ART service provision. A qualitative design was followed. Unstructured focus group discussions were conducted with end users (n = 64) in six locations across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The findings indicate that end users were satisfied with uninterrupted antiretroviral drug supplies, courtesy treatment, volunteerism of support group members and quality counselling services. End users expect effective collaboration between healthcare providers and support group members, to enhance the quality of life of people living with HIV. A best practice guideline for the provision of end user focused ART service provision was developed for nurse managers. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Third Annual NASA Science Internet User Working Group Conference

Science.gov (United States)

Lev, Brian S. (Editor); Gary, J. Patrick (Editor)

1993-01-01

The NASA Science Internet (NSI) User Support Office (USO) sponsored the Third Annual NSI User Working Group (NSIUWG) Conference March 30 through April 3, 1992, in Greenbelt, MD. Approximately 130 NSI users attended to learn more about the NSI, hear from projects which use NSI, and receive updates about new networking technologies and services. This report contains material relevant to the conference; copies of the agenda, meeting summaries, presentations, and descriptions of exhibitors. Plenary sessions featured a variety of speakers, including NSI project management, scientists, and NSI user project managers whose projects and applications effectively use NSI, and notable citizens of the larger Internet community. The conference also included exhibits of advanced networking applications; tutorials on internetworking, computer security, and networking technologies; and user subgroup meetings on the future direction of the conference, networking, and user services and applications.

Event-Based User Classification in Weibo Media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liang Guo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Weibo media, known as the real-time microblogging services, has attracted massive attention and support from social network users. Weibo platform offers an opportunity for people to access information and changes the way people acquire and disseminate information significantly. Meanwhile, it enables people to respond to the social events in a more convenient way. Much of the information in Weibo media is related to some events. Users who post different contents, and exert different behavior or attitude may lead to different contribution to the specific event. Therefore, classifying the large amount of uncategorized social circles generated in Weibo media automatically from the perspective of events has been a promising task. Under this circumstance, in order to effectively organize and manage the huge amounts of users, thereby further managing their contents, we address the task of user classification in a more granular, event-based approach in this paper. By analyzing real data collected from Sina Weibo, we investigate the Weibo properties and utilize both content information and social network information to classify the numerous users into four primary groups: celebrities, organizations/media accounts, grassroots stars, and ordinary individuals. The experiments results show that our method identifies the user categories accurately.

Determinants of user acceptance of a specific social platform for older adults: An empirical examination of user interface characteristics and behavioral intention.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsai-Hsuan Tsai

Full Text Available The use of the Internet and social applications has many benefits for the elderly, but numerous investigations have shown that the elderly do not perceive online social networks as a friendly social environment. Therefore, TreeIt, a social application specifically designed for the elderly, was developed for this study. In the TreeIt application, seven mechanisms promoting social interaction were designed to allow older adults to use social networking sites (SNSs to increase social connection, maintain the intensity of social connections and strengthen social experience. This study's main objective was to investigate how user interface design affects older people's intention and attitude related to using SNSs. Fourteen user interface evaluation heuristics proposed by Zhang et al. were adopted as the criteria to assess user interface usability and further grouped into three categories: system support, user interface design and navigation. The technology acceptance model was adopted to assess older people's intention and attitude related to using SNSs. One hundred and one elderly persons were enrolled in this study as subjects, and the results showed that all of the hypotheses proposed in this study were valid: system support and perceived usefulness had a significant effect on behavioral intention; user interface design and perceived ease of use were positively correlated with perceived usefulness; and navigation exerted an influence on perceived ease of use. The results of this study are valuable for the future development of social applications for the elderly.

Determinants of user acceptance of a specific social platform for older adults: An empirical examination of user interface characteristics and behavioral intention.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Tsai-Hsuan; Chang, Hsien-Tsung; Chen, Yan-Jiun; Chang, Yung-Sheng

2017-01-01

The use of the Internet and social applications has many benefits for the elderly, but numerous investigations have shown that the elderly do not perceive online social networks as a friendly social environment. Therefore, TreeIt, a social application specifically designed for the elderly, was developed for this study. In the TreeIt application, seven mechanisms promoting social interaction were designed to allow older adults to use social networking sites (SNSs) to increase social connection, maintain the intensity of social connections and strengthen social experience. This study's main objective was to investigate how user interface design affects older people's intention and attitude related to using SNSs. Fourteen user interface evaluation heuristics proposed by Zhang et al. were adopted as the criteria to assess user interface usability and further grouped into three categories: system support, user interface design and navigation. The technology acceptance model was adopted to assess older people's intention and attitude related to using SNSs. One hundred and one elderly persons were enrolled in this study as subjects, and the results showed that all of the hypotheses proposed in this study were valid: system support and perceived usefulness had a significant effect on behavioral intention; user interface design and perceived ease of use were positively correlated with perceived usefulness; and navigation exerted an influence on perceived ease of use. The results of this study are valuable for the future development of social applications for the elderly.

Determinants of user acceptance of a specific social platform for older adults: An empirical examination of user interface characteristics and behavioral intention

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Hsien-Tsung; Chen, Yan-Jiun; Chang, Yung-Sheng

2017-01-01

The use of the Internet and social applications has many benefits for the elderly, but numerous investigations have shown that the elderly do not perceive online social networks as a friendly social environment. Therefore, TreeIt, a social application specifically designed for the elderly, was developed for this study. In the TreeIt application, seven mechanisms promoting social interaction were designed to allow older adults to use social networking sites (SNSs) to increase social connection, maintain the intensity of social connections and strengthen social experience. This study’s main objective was to investigate how user interface design affects older people’s intention and attitude related to using SNSs. Fourteen user interface evaluation heuristics proposed by Zhang et al. were adopted as the criteria to assess user interface usability and further grouped into three categories: system support, user interface design and navigation. The technology acceptance model was adopted to assess older people’s intention and attitude related to using SNSs. One hundred and one elderly persons were enrolled in this study as subjects, and the results showed that all of the hypotheses proposed in this study were valid: system support and perceived usefulness had a significant effect on behavioral intention; user interface design and perceived ease of use were positively correlated with perceived usefulness; and navigation exerted an influence on perceived ease of use. The results of this study are valuable for the future development of social applications for the elderly. PMID:28837566

Effectiveness of an online SUpport PRogramme (SUPR) for older hearing aid users: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Meijerink, Janine Fj; Pronk, Marieke; Paulissen, Bernadette; Witte, Birgit I; Wouden, Bregje van der; Jansen, Vera; Kramer, Sophia E

2017-06-20

An educational SUpport PRogramme called SUPR has been developed for hearing aid users (HAUs) and their communication partners (CPs) offering care beyond hearing aid fitting. SUPR teaches its users communication strategies, hearing aid handling skills and personal adjustment to hearing impairment. Using a cluster randomised controlled trial design, 70 Dutch hearing aid dispenser practices were randomised into hearing aid fitting (care as usual, 34 practices) and hearing aid fitting including SUPR (36 practices). The aim was to recruit a total of 569 older (aged 50+ years) first-time (n=258) and experienced (n=311) HAUs and their CPs. SUPR consists of a Practical Support Booklet and online material offered via email over a period of 6-7 months. The booklet provides practical information on hearing aids, advice on communication strategies and home exercises. The online material consists of educational videos on hearing aid functionality and usage, communication strategies and peer testimonials. Finally, noncommittal email contact with the dispenser is offered. Every HAU is asked to assign a CP who is advised to be involved intensively. Effect measurements for HAUs and their CPs will occur at baseline and at 6, 12 and 18 months follow-up via online questionnaires. The primary outcomes for HAUs will be the use of communication strategies as measured by the subscales of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired. A process evaluation will be performed. The study was approved by the Dutch Institutional Review Board of the VU Medical University Center Amsterdam. This intervention could contribute to lowering the hearing impairment burden in our ageing society. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and scientific conferences. ISRCTN77340339; Pre-results. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly

Voice-controlled Internet Browsing for Motor-handicapped Users

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brøndsted, Tom; Aaskoven, Erik

2006-01-01

The public-funded project "Indtal" ("Speak-it") has succeeded in developing a Danish voice-controlled utility for internet browsing targeting motor-handicapped users having difficulties using a standard keyboard and/or a standard mouse. The system has been designed and implemented in collaboration...... with an advisory board of motor-handicapped (potential) end-users and underlies a number of a priori defined design criteria: learnability and memorability rather than naturalness, minimal need for maintenance after release, support for "all" web standards (not just HTML conforming to certain "recommendations......"), independency of the language on the websites being browsed, etc. These criteria have lead to a primarily message-driven system interacting with an existing browser on the end users' systems...

Improving Climate Literacy of NOAA Staff and Users

Science.gov (United States)

Timofeyeva, M. M.; Bair, A.; Staudenmaier, M.; Meyers, J. C.; Mayes, B.; Zdrojewski, J.

2010-12-01

Since 2002, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Services Division (CSD) has offered numerous training opportunities to NWS staff. After eight-years of development, the training program offers three instructor-led courses and roughly 25 online (distance learning) modules covering various climate topics, such as: climate data and observations, climate variability and change, and NWS national / local climate products (tools, skill, and interpretation). Leveraging climate information and expertise available at all NOAA line offices and partners allows for the delivery of the most advanced knowledge and is a very critical aspect of the training program. The emerging NOAA Climate Service (NCS) requires a well-trained, climate-literate workforce at the local level capable of delivering NOAA’s climate products and services as well as providing climate-sensitive decision support. NWS Weather Forecast Offices and River Forecast Centers presently serve as local outlets for the NCS climate services. Trained NWS climate service personnel use proactive and reactive approaches and professional education methods in communicating climate variability and change information to local users. Both scientifically-sound messages and amiable communication techniques are important in developing an engaged dialog between the climate service providers and users. Several pilot projects have been conducted by the NWS CSD this past year that apply the program’s training lessons and expertise to specialized external user group training. The technical user groups included natural resources managers, engineers, hydrologists, and planners for transportation infrastructure. Training of professional user groups required tailoring instructions to the potential applications for each group of users. Training technical users identified the following critical issues: (1) knowledge of target audience expectations, initial knowledge status, and potential use of climate information; (2

A user friendly Lidar system based on LabVIEW

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersson, Mats; Weibring, P.

1996-09-01

Mobile differential absorption lidar (DIAL) systems have been used for the last two decades. The lidar group in Lund has performed many DIAL measurements with a mobile lidar system which was first described in 1987. This report describes how that system was updated with the graphical programming language LabVIEW in order to get a user friendly system. The software controls the lidar system and analyses measurement data. The measurement results are shown as maps of species concentration. New electronics to support the new lidar program have also been installed. The report describes how all supporting electronics and the program work. A user manual for the new program is also given. 19 refs, 79 figs, 23 charts

User experience of mobile business support services for rural micro and small enterprises

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Herselman, M

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the power of user experience of mobile phones and technologies and explores how micro and small enterprises use mobile services. The authors also identify the missing gaps and propose a mobi-incubation solution for rural micro...

Risk Issues in Developing Novel User Interfaces for Human-Computer Interaction

KAUST Repository

Klinker, Gudrun; Huber, Manuel; Tö nnis, Marcus

2014-01-01

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland. All rights are reserved. When new user interfaces or information visualization schemes are developed for complex information processing systems, it is not readily clear how much they do, in fact, support and improve users' understanding and use of such systems. Is a new interface better than an older one? In what respect, and in which situations? To provide answers to such questions, user testing schemes are employed. This chapter reports on a range of risks pertaining to the design and implementation of user interfaces in general, and to newly emerging interfaces (3-dimensionally, immersive, mobile) in particular.

Risk Issues in Developing Novel User Interfaces for Human-Computer Interaction

KAUST Repository

Klinker, Gudrun

2014-01-01

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland. All rights are reserved. When new user interfaces or information visualization schemes are developed for complex information processing systems, it is not readily clear how much they do, in fact, support and improve users\\' understanding and use of such systems. Is a new interface better than an older one? In what respect, and in which situations? To provide answers to such questions, user testing schemes are employed. This chapter reports on a range of risks pertaining to the design and implementation of user interfaces in general, and to newly emerging interfaces (3-dimensionally, immersive, mobile) in particular.

IDSE Version 1 User's Manual

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Richard

1988-01-01

The integrated development support environment (IDSE) is a suite of integrated software tools that provide intelligent support for information modelling. These tools assist in function, information, and process modeling. Additional tools exist to assist in gathering and analyzing information to be modeled. This is a user's guide to application of the IDSE. Sections covering the requirements and design of each of the tools are presented. There are currently three integrated computer aided manufacturing definition (IDEF) modeling methodologies: IDEF0, IDEF1, and IDEF2. Also, four appendices exist to describe hardware and software requirements, installation procedures, and basic hardware usage.

Lead users' ideas on core features to support physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis: a first step in the development of an internet service using participatory design.

Science.gov (United States)

Revenäs, Åsa; Opava, Christina H; Åsenlöf, Pernilla

2014-03-22

Despite the growing evidence of the benefits of physical activity (PA) in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the majority is not physically active enough. An innovative strategy is to engage lead users in the development of PA interventions provided over the internet. The aim was to explore lead users' ideas and prioritization of core features in a future internet service targeting adoption and maintenance of healthy PA in people with RA. Six focus group interviews were performed with a purposively selected sample of 26 individuals with RA. Data were analyzed with qualitative content analysis and quantification of participants' prioritization of most important content. Six categories were identified as core features for a future internet service: up-to-date and evidence-based information and instructions, self-regulation tools, social interaction, personalized set-up, attractive design and content, and access to the internet service. The categories represented four themes, or core aspects, important to consider in the design of the future service: (1) content, (2) customized options, (3) user interface and (4) access and implementation. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study involving people with RA in the development of an internet service to support the adoption and maintenance of PA.Participants helped identifying core features and aspects important to consider and further explore during the next phase of development. We hypothesize that involvement of lead users will make transfer from theory to service more adequate and user-friendly and therefore will be an effective mean to facilitate PA behavior change.

Flexible and Transparent User Authentication for Mobile Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Nathan; Karatzouni, Sevasti; Furnell, Steven

The mobile device has become a ubiquitous technology that is capable of supporting an increasingly large array of services, applications and information. Given their increasing importance, it is imperative to ensure that such devices are not misused or abused. Unfortunately, a key enabling control to prevent this, user authentication, has not kept up with the advances in device technology. This paper presents the outcomes of a 2 year study that proposes the use of transparent and continuous biometric authentication of the user: providing more comprehensive identity verification; minimizing user inconvenience; and providing security throughout the period of use. A Non-Intrusive and Continuous Authentication (NICA) system is described that maintains a continuous measure of confidence in the identity of the user, removing access to sensitive services and information with low confidence levels and providing automatic access with higher confidence levels. An evaluation of the framework is undertaken from an end-user perspective via a trial involving 27 participants. Whilst the findings raise concerns over education, privacy and intrusiveness, overall 92% of users felt the system offered a more secure environment when compared to existing forms of authentication.

IT Department User Survey Engineering Tools Usage Report

CERN Document Server

Jones, Pete

2017-01-01

Engineering tools are supports by the IT-CDA-AD section and these include Electronic, Mechanical, Mathematical and Field Solver tools. The survey carried out by IT-CDA during 2016 asked CERN users questions concerning their working environments, habits and preferences and also included several question pertaining to the use of engineering tools. This analysis will help IT-CDA to better understand who is using these tools, the user requirements and their problems and so help us to improve the service.

Active drug users - struggling for rights and recognition in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anker, Jørgen

This paper examines the strategic dilemmas and the self-representation of the Drug Users’ Union in Denmark. The paper explores how a group of drug users on the one hand seeks to struggle for the rights of drug users and one the other hand seeks to gain legitimacy and access to public funding...... and support. It reveals how the organisation attempts to advance a more balanced image of drug users as persons who are able to run an effective organisation while they also claim the right to use drugs....

A SWOT analysis of Planning Support Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vonk, G.; Geertman, S.; Schot, P.P.

2007-01-01

Insight into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of planning support systems (PSS) is fragmented between users and system developers. The lack of combined insights blocks development in the right direction and makes potential users hesitant to apply PSS in planning. This

How Firms Can Get Ideas from Users for Sustainable Business Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chanwoo Cho

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The importance of user information and user participation for seeking business opportunities has been widely acknowledged in a variety of industries. Therefore, this study aims to suggest a typology for user innovation models as a strategy for sustainable development and to investigate the characteristics of different types user innovation to encourage and support improved utilization of user innovation in firms. For this purpose, we began by collecting 435 relevant papers from the most-cited academic journals. Then, we developed a typology of user innovation models, which consist of four types including workshop-based, consortium-based, crowdsourcing-based and platform-based, and we investigated the characteristics of the suggested types in terms of applications and research trends. The analysis results reveal that each type has different characteristics and that there exist some research gaps in the user innovation field. Our results are expected to foster understanding of user innovation for guiding sustainable business development and provide useful information for both researchers and innovation mangers.

GOCE User Toolbox and Tutorial

Science.gov (United States)

Knudsen, P.; Benveniste, J.

2011-07-01

The GOCE User Toolbox GUT is a compilation of tools for the utilisation and analysis of GOCE Level 2 products. GUT support applications in Geodesy, Oceanography and Solid Earth Physics. The GUT Tutorial provides information and guidance in how to use the toolbox for a variety of applications. GUT consists of a series of advanced computer routines that carry out the required computations. It may be used on Windows PCs, UNIX/Linux Workstations, and Mac. The toolbox is supported by The GUT Algorithm Description and User Guide and The GUT Install Guide. A set of a-priori data and models are made available as well. GUT has been developed in a collaboration within the GUT Core Group. The GUT Core Group: S. Dinardo, D. Serpe, B.M. Lucas, R. Floberghagen, A. Horvath (ESA), O. Andersen, M. Herceg (DTU), M.-H. Rio, S. Mulet, G. Larnicol (CLS), J. Johannessen, L.Bertino (NERSC), H. Snaith, P. Challenor (NOC), K. Haines, D. Bretherton (NCEO), C. Hughes (POL), R.J. Bingham (NU), G. Balmino, S. Niemeijer, I. Price, L. Cornejo (S&T), M. Diament, I Panet (IPGP), C.C. Tscherning (KU), D. Stammer, F. Siegismund (UH), T. Gruber (TUM),

Developing A Web-based User Interface for Semantic Information Retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Berrios, Daniel C.; Keller, Richard M.

2003-01-01

While there are now a number of languages and frameworks that enable computer-based systems to search stored data semantically, the optimal design for effective user interfaces for such systems is still uncle ar. Such interfaces should mask unnecessary query detail from users, yet still allow them to build queries of arbitrary complexity without significant restrictions. We developed a user interface supporting s emantic query generation for Semanticorganizer, a tool used by scient ists and engineers at NASA to construct networks of knowledge and dat a. Through this interface users can select node types, node attribute s and node links to build ad-hoc semantic queries for searching the S emanticOrganizer network.

Modeling mutual feedback between users and recommender systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, An; Yeung, Chi Ho; Medo, Matúš; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2015-07-01

Recommender systems daily influence our decisions on the Internet. While considerable attention has been given to issues such as recommendation accuracy and user privacy, the long-term mutual feedback between a recommender system and the decisions of its users has been neglected so far. We propose here a model of network evolution which allows us to study the complex dynamics induced by this feedback, including the hysteresis effect which is typical for systems with non-linear dynamics. Despite the popular belief that recommendation helps users to discover new things, we find that the long-term use of recommendation can contribute to the rise of extremely popular items and thus ultimately narrow the user choice. These results are supported by measurements of the time evolution of item popularity inequality in real systems. We show that this adverse effect of recommendation can be tamed by sacrificing part of short-term recommendation accuracy.

Negative emotions boost user activity at BBC forum

Science.gov (United States)

Chmiel, Anna; Sobkowicz, Pawel; Sienkiewicz, Julian; Paltoglou, Georgios; Buckley, Kevan; Thelwall, Mike; Hołyst, Janusz A.

2011-08-01

We present an empirical study of user activity in online BBC discussion forums, measured by the number of posts written by individual debaters and the average sentiment of these posts. Nearly 2.5 million posts from over 18 thousand users were investigated. Scale-free distributions were observed for activity in individual discussion threads as well as for overall activity. The number of unique users in a thread normalized by the thread length decays with thread length, suggesting that thread life is sustained by mutual discussions rather than by independent comments. Automatic sentiment analysis shows that most posts contain negative emotions and the most active users in individual threads express predominantly negative sentiments. It follows that the average emotion of longer threads is more negative and that threads can be sustained by negative comments. An agent-based computer simulation model has been used to reproduce several essential characteristics of the analyzed system. The model stresses the role of discussions between users, especially emotionally laden quarrels between supporters of opposite opinions, and represents many observed statistics of the forum.

User-Centered Design and Interactive Health Technologies for Patients

Science.gov (United States)

De Vito Dabbs, Annette; Myers, Brad A.; Mc Curry, Kenneth R.; Dunbar-Jacob, Jacqueline; Hawkins, Robert P.; Begey, Alex; Dew, Mary Amanda

2010-01-01

Despite recommendations that patients be involved in the design and testing of health technologies, few reports describe how to involve patients in systematic and meaningful ways to ensure that applications are customized to meet their needs. User-centered design (UCD) is an approach that involves end-users throughout the development process so that technology support tasks, are easy to operate, and are of value to users. In this paper we provide an overview of UCD and use the development of Pocket Personal Assistant for Tracking Health (Pocket PATH), to illustrate how these principles and techniques were applied to involve patients in the development of this interactive health technology. Involving patient-users in the design and testing ensured functionality and usability, therefore increasing the likelihood of promoting the intended health outcomes. PMID:19411947

User Interface Framework for the National Ignition Facility (NIF)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisher, J M; Bowers, G A; Carey, R W; Daveler, S A; Herndon Ford, K B; Ho, J C; Lagin, L J; Lambert, C J; Mauvais, J; Stout, E A; West, S L

2007-01-01

A user interface (UI) framework supports the development of user interfaces to operate the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS). [1] This framework simplifies UI development and ensures consistency for NIF operators. A comprehensive, layered collection of UIs in ICCS provides interaction with system-level processes, shot automation, and subsystem-specific devices. All user interfaces are written in Java, employing CORBA to interact with other ICCS components. ICCS developers use these frameworks to compose two major types of user interfaces: broadviews and control panels. Broadviews provide a visual representation of the NIF beamlines through interactive schematic drawings. Control panels provide status and control at a device level. The UI framework includes a suite of display components to standardize user interaction through data entry behaviors, common connection and threading mechanisms, and a common appearance. With these components, ICCS developers can more efficiently address usability issues in the facility when needed. The ICCS UI framework helps developers create consistent and easy-to-understand user interfaces for NIF operators

Information for the user in design of intelligent systems

Science.gov (United States)

Malin, Jane T.; Schreckenghost, Debra L.

1993-01-01

Recommendations are made for improving intelligent system reliability and usability based on the use of information requirements in system development. Information requirements define the task-relevant messages exchanged between the intelligent system and the user by means of the user interface medium. Thus, these requirements affect the design of both the intelligent system and its user interface. Many difficulties that users have in interacting with intelligent systems are caused by information problems. These information problems result from the following: (1) not providing the right information to support domain tasks; and (2) not recognizing that using an intelligent system introduces new user supervisory tasks that require new types of information. These problems are especially prevalent in intelligent systems used for real-time space operations, where data problems and unexpected situations are common. Information problems can be solved by deriving information requirements from a description of user tasks. Using information requirements embeds human-computer interaction design into intelligent system prototyping, resulting in intelligent systems that are more robust and easier to use.

Cannabis use and neurocognitive functioning in a non-clinical sample of users.

Science.gov (United States)

Thames, April D; Arbid, Natalie; Sayegh, Philip

2014-05-01

With the recent debates over marijuana legalization and increases in use, it is critical to examine its role in cognition. While many studies generally support the adverse acute effects of cannabis on neurocognition, the non-acute effects remain less clear. The current study used a cross-sectional design to examine relationships between recent and past cannabis use on neurocognitive functioning in a non-clinical adult sample. One hundred and fifty-eight participants were recruited through fliers distributed around local college campuses and the community. All participants completed the Brief Drug Use History Form, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, and neurocognitive assessment, and underwent urine toxicology screening. Participants consisted of recent users (n=68), past users (n=41), and non-users (n=49). Recent users demonstrated significantly (pcannabis use in the last 4 weeks was negatively associated with global neurocognitive performance and all individual cognitive domains. Similarly, amount of daily cannabis use was negatively associated with global neurocognitive performance and individual cognitive domains. Our results support the widespread adverse effects of cannabis use on neurocognitive functioning. Although some of these adverse effects appear to attenuate with abstinence, past users' neurocognitive functioning was consistently lower than non-users. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Core Interaction of Platforms: How Startups Connect Users and Producers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heidi M. E. Korhonen

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The platform economy is disrupting innovation while presenting both opportunities and challenges for startups. Platforms support value creation between multiple participant groups, and this operationalization of an ecosystem’s value co-creation represents the “core interaction” of a platform. This article focuses on that core interaction and studies how startups connect producers and users in value-creating core interaction through digital platforms. The study is based on an analysis of 29 cases of platform startups interviewed at a leading European startup event. The studied startups were envisioning even millions of users and hundreds or thousands of producers co-creating value on their platforms. In such platform businesses, our results highlight the importance of attracting a large user pool, providing novel services to those users, offering a new market for producers, supporting the core interaction in various ways, and utilizing elements of the platform canvas – an adaptation of the business model canvas, which we have accommodated for platform-based business models – to accomplish these goals.

Network support for system initiated checkpoints

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Philip

2013-01-29

A system, method and computer program product for supporting system initiated checkpoints in parallel computing systems. The system and method generates selective control signals to perform checkpointing of system related data in presence of messaging activity associated with a user application running at the node. The checkpointing is initiated by the system such that checkpoint data of a plurality of network nodes may be obtained even in the presence of user applications running on highly parallel computers that include ongoing user messaging activity.

Overview of Actuated Arm Support Systems and Their Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E.A. Lomonova

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Arm support systems provide support throughout daily tasks, training or in an industrial environment. During the last decades a large diversity of actuated arm support systems have been developed. To analyze the actuation principles in these systems, an overview of actuated arm support systems is provided. This overview visualizes the current trends on research and development of these support systems and distinguishes three categories. These categories depend mainly on the functional status of the user environment, which defines the specifications. Therefore, the actuated arm support systems are classified according to their user environment, namely: ambulatory, rehabilitation and industrial. Furthermore, three main actuation principles and three mechanical construction principles have been identified.

Advances in the development of a cognitive user interface

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jokisch Oliver

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this contribution, we want to summarize recent development steps of the embedded cognitive user interface UCUI, which enables a user-adaptive scenario in human-machine or even human-robot interactions by considering sophisticated cognitive and semantic modelling. The interface prototype is developed by different German institutes and companies with their steering teams at Fraunhofer IKTS and Brandenburg University of Technology. The interface prototype is able to communicate with users via speech and gesture recognition, speech synthesis and a touch display. The device includes an autarkic semantic processing and beyond a cognitive behavior control, which supports an intuitive interaction to control different kinds of electronic devices, e. g. in a smart home environment or in interactive respectively collaborative robotics. Contrary to available speech assistance systems such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, the introduced cognitive user interface UCUI ensures the user privacy by processing all necessary information without any network access of the interface device.

Automated Transportation Management System (ATMS) user's manual. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, P.D.

1994-01-01

The Automated Transportation Management System (ATMS) Software User Guide (SUG) constitutes the user procedures for the ATMS System. Information in this document will be used by the user to operate the automated system. It is intended to be used as a reference manual to guide and direct the user(s) through the ATMS software product and its environment. The objectives of ATMS are as follows: to better support the Procurement function with freight rate information; to free Transportation Logistics personnel from routine activities such as the auditing and input of freight billing information; to comply with Headquarters Department of Energy-Inspector General (DOE-IG) audit findings to automate transportation management functions; to reduce the keying of data into the Shipment Mobility Accountability Collection (SMAC) database; and to provide automation for the preparing of Bill of Lading, Declaration of Dangerous Goods, Emergency Response Guide and shipping Labels using HM181 Retrieval of hazardous material table text information

Insights Gained From 4 Years of EOSDIS User Surveys

Science.gov (United States)

Behnke, J.; Boquist, C. L.

2007-12-01

The Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is a large, complex data system currently supporting over 18 operational NASA satellite missions including the flagship EOS missions: Terra, Aqua, and Aura. A critical underpinning for management of EOSDIS is developing a thorough knowledge of the EOSDIS user community and how they use the EOSDIS products in their research. It is important to know whether the system is meeting the users' needs and expectations. Thus, in 2004 NASA commissioned a comprehensive survey to determine user satisfaction using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) approach. NASA has continued to survey users yearly since. Users continue to rate EOSDIS systems and services highly as the EOSDIS ACSI score has outperformed both the averages for U.S. companies and for Federal Agencies. In addition, users' comments have provided valuable insight into the effect of data center processes on users' experiences. Although their satisfaction has remained high, their preferences have changed with the rapid advances in web-based services. We now have four years of data on user satisfaction from these surveys. The results of each survey highlight areas that, if improved, could lead to increased user satisfaction, including overall product quality, product documentation, and product selection and ordering processes. This paper will present the survey results and how they compare from year to year.

Toward Predicting Social Support Needs in Online Health Social Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Min-Je; Kim, Sung-Hee; Lee, Sukwon; Kwon, Bum Chul; Yi, Ji Soo; Choo, Jaegul; Huh, Jina

2017-08-02

While online health social networks (OHSNs) serve as an effective platform for patients to fulfill their various social support needs, predicting the needs of users and providing tailored information remains a challenge. The objective of this study was to discriminate important features for identifying users' social support needs based on knowledge gathered from survey data. This study also provides guidelines for a technical framework, which can be used to predict users' social support needs based on raw data collected from OHSNs. We initially conducted a Web-based survey with 184 OHSN users. From this survey data, we extracted 34 features based on 5 categories: (1) demographics, (2) reading behavior, (3) posting behavior, (4) perceived roles in OHSNs, and (5) values sought in OHSNs. Features from the first 4 categories were used as variables for binary classification. For the prediction outcomes, we used features from the last category: the needs for emotional support, experience-based information, unconventional information, and medical facts. We compared 5 binary classifier algorithms: gradient boosting tree, random forest, decision tree, support vector machines, and logistic regression. We then calculated the scores of the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) to understand the comparative effectiveness of the used features. The best performance was AUC scores of 0.89 for predicting users seeking emotional support, 0.86 for experience-based information, 0.80 for unconventional information, and 0.83 for medical facts. With the gradient boosting tree as our best performing model, we analyzed the strength of individual features in predicting one's social support need. Among other discoveries, we found that users seeking emotional support tend to post more in OHSNs compared with others. We developed an initial framework for automatically predicting social support needs in OHSNs using survey data. Future work should involve nonsurvey

"Work is good for me": views of mental health service users seeking work during the UK recession, a qualitative analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Boycott, Naomi; Akhtar, Athfah; Schneider, Justine

2015-04-01

Individual placement and support (IPS) is an effective form of supported employment for people with severe mental illness. Little is known about service users' experiences of these programmes during economic recession. Obtain service users' views of an IPS programme implemented in the UK during recession. Thirty-one service users enrolled in an IPS programme were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol. The questions covered several areas of their experience, including problems faced in seeking work, perceived barriers in returning to work and what they found helpful in employment support. Unsurprisingly, a large number of service users had problems in finding work due to the number of appropriate jobs available. Nevertheless, many service users felt positively about the support they had received (90% were satisfied with IPS), and would advise others in their position to seek employment. Personal and practical support from employment specialists (ES) was the most useful aspect of the service. Despite economic recession, an IPS service was implemented and regarded as satisfactory to service users seeking work. Although many found obtaining employment difficult, they would still advise others that work is worthwhile, suggesting that the context of recession has not discouraged them.

Middleware Support for Media Streaming Establishment Driven by User-oriented QoS Requirements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hesselman, C.E.W.; Widya, I.A.; van Halteren, Aart; Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; Scholten, Johan; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2000-01-01

The requirements for the QoS of distributed applications are traditionally expressed in terms of network oriented or systems oriented parameters. In general, the users of these services are not interested or capable of specifying the QoS of their services in such technical terms. In this paper, we

Operational Based Vision Assessment Automated Vision Test Collection User Guide

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-15

AFRL-SA-WP-SR-2017-0012 Operational Based Vision Assessment Automated Vision Test Collection User Guide Elizabeth Shoda, Alex...June 2015 – May 2017 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Operational Based Vision Assessment Automated Vision Test Collection User Guide 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER... automated vision tests , or AVT. Development of the AVT was required to support threshold-level vision testing capability needed to investigate the

Sustainable user innovation from a policy perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Roed; Reisch, Lucia A.; Thøgersen, John

2016-01-01

these drivers and barriers. Third, the paper suggests how this form of innovation may be ameliorated from a policy perspective. The paper reveals that the literature on end-user innovation within sustainability is both diverse and compartmentalized. Hence, policy mechanisms designed to support this type......Sustainable innovation is typically viewed through the lens of the producer innovator, whereas end-users (or consumers) are perceived to play only a peripheral role in the development of sustainable products and services. A growing literature stream, however, sharply departs from this view...... by suggesting that end-users often play a critical role with regard to sustainable innovation. To further consolidate this field, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper summarizes and synthesizes key insights within the field based on 84 papers published from 1992 to 2015. Second, we offer...

User Interface Program for secure electronic tags

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, Y.; Koehl, E.R.; Carlson, R.D.; Raptis, A.C.

1995-05-01

This report summarizes and documents the efforts of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in developing a secure tag communication user interface program comprising a tag monitor and a communication tool. This program can perform the same functions as the software that was developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), but it is enhanced with a user-friendly screen. It represents the first step in updating the TRANSCOM Tracking System (TRANSCOM) by incorporating a tag communication screen menu into the main menu of the TRANSCOM user program. A working version of TRANSCOM, enhanced with ANL secure-tag graphics, will strongly support the Department of Energy Warhead Dismantlement/Special Nuclear Materials Control initiatives. It will allow commercial satellite tracking of the movements and operational activities of treaty-limited items and transportation vehicles throughout Europe and the former USSR, as well as the continental US

Sustainable user innovation from a policy perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Roed; Reisch, Lucia A.; Thøgersen, John

2016-01-01

Sustainable innovation is typically viewed through the lens of the producer innovator, whereas end-users (or consumers) are perceived to play only a peripheral role in the development of sustainable products and services. A growing literature stream, however, sharply departs from this view...... by suggesting that end-users often play a critical role with regard to sustainable innovation. To further consolidate this field, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper summarizes and synthesizes key insights within the field based on 84 papers published from 1992 to 2015. Second, we offer...... these drivers and barriers. Third, the paper suggests how this form of innovation may be ameliorated from a policy perspective. The paper reveals that the literature on end-user innovation within sustainability is both diverse and compartmentalized. Hence, policy mechanisms designed to support this type...

I and C functional test facility user guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwon, Ki Chun

1996-07-01

The objective of I and C functional test facility (FTF) is to validate newly developed digital control and protection algorithm, alarm reduction algorithm and the function of operator support system and so on. Test facility is divided into three major parts; software, hardware and graphic user interface. Software consists of mathematical modeling which simulates 3 loop pressurizer water reactor, 993 MWe Westinghouse plant and supervisory module which interpret user instructions and data interface program. FTF is implemented in HP747I workstation using FORTRAN77 and ''C'' language under UNIX operating system. This User Guide provides file structure, instructions and program modification method and provides initial data, malfunction list, process variables list and simulation diagram as an appendix to test developed prototype. 12 figs. (Author)

I and C functional test facility user guide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwon, Ki Chun [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1996-07-01

The objective of I and C functional test facility (FTF) is to validate newly developed digital control and protection algorithm, alarm reduction algorithm and the function of operator support system and so on. Test facility is divided into three major parts; software, hardware and graphic user interface. Software consists of mathematical modeling which simulates 3 loop pressurizer water reactor, 993 MWe Westinghouse plant and supervisory module which interpret user instructions and data interface program. FTF is implemented in HP747I workstation using FORTRAN77 and ``C`` language under UNIX operating system. This User Guide provides file structure, instructions and program modification method and provides initial data, malfunction list, process variables list and simulation diagram as an appendix to test developed prototype. 12 figs. (Author).

The crustal dynamics intelligent user interface anthology

Science.gov (United States)

Short, Nicholas M., Jr.; Campbell, William J.; Roelofs, Larry H.; Wattawa, Scott L.

1987-01-01

The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) has initiated an Intelligent Data Management (IDM) research effort which has, as one of its components, the development of an Intelligent User Interface (IUI). The intent of the IUI is to develop a friendly and intelligent user interface service based on expert systems and natural language processing technologies. The purpose of such a service is to support the large number of potential scientific and engineering users that have need of space and land-related research and technical data, but have little or no experience in query languages or understanding of the information content or architecture of the databases of interest. This document presents the design concepts, development approach and evaluation of the performance of a prototype IUI system for the Crustal Dynamics Project Database, which was developed using a microcomputer-based expert system tool (M. 1), the natural language query processor THEMIS, and the graphics software system GSS. The IUI design is based on a multiple view representation of a database from both the user and database perspective, with intelligent processes to translate between the views.

Installed Base as a Facilitator for User-Driven Innovation: How Can User Innovation Challenge Existing Institutional Barriers?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Synnøve Thomassen Andersen

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The paper addresses an ICT-based, user-driven innovation process in the health sector in rural areas in Norway. The empirical base is the introduction of a new model for psychiatric health provision. This model is supported by a technical solution based on mobile phones that is aimed to help the communication between professional health personnel and patients. This innovation was made possible through the use of standard mobile technology rather than more sophisticated systems. The users were heavily involved in the development work. Our analysis shows that by thinking simple and small-scale solutions, including to take the user’s needs and premises as a point of departure rather than focusing on advanced technology, the implementation process was made possible. We show that by combining theory on information infrastructures, user-oriented system development, and innovation in a three-layered analytical framework, we can explain the interrelationship between technical, organizational, and health professional factors that made this innovation a success.

Computational Support for Creative Design

KAUST Repository

Liu, Han

2015-12-09

Supporting user designs of 3D contents remains a challenge in geometric modeling. Various modeling tools have been developed in recent years to facilitate architectural designs and artistic creations. However, these tools require both modeling skills and raw creativity. Instead of creating models from scratch, one of the most popular choices is to extract intrinsic patterns from exemplar inputs (e.g., shape collections and sketches), to produce creative models while preserving the patterns. The mod- eling process contains two main stages, analysis and synthesis. The analysis of input models is usually performed at component level, especially for man-made objects that can be decomposed into several semantic parts, for example, the seat and handles of a bicycle. The synthesis stage recombines parts of shapes to generate new models that usually have topological or geometric variations. In this thesis, we propose three design tools aimed at easing the modeling process. We focus on man-made objects and scenes such as buildings and furniture, as the functionality of such shapes can be analyzed at the component level. A relation graph, which is commonly used in shape analysis, can then be built to represent the input shapes. In our work, the graph nodes denote the elements of a model (i.e., rooms, shape parts, and strokes respectively), while the edges capture the intrinsic relations between connected elements. With the use of graph representations, we extract and present controllable components to users for supporting their designs. The emphasis of our work is on three aspects. Firstly, we propose a framework for supporting interior layout design, which allows users to manipulate the produced floor plans, i.e., changing the scales of rooms and their positions as well. When the user modifies the topology of a layout, the corresponding layout graph is updated and the room geometries are optimized under certain constraints, e.g., user specified scales, the adjacency of

e-Science on Earthquake Disaster Mitigation by EUAsiaGrid

Science.gov (United States)

Yen, Eric; Lin, Simon; Chen, Hsin-Yen; Chao, Li; Huang, Bor-Shoh; Liang, Wen-Tzong

2010-05-01

Although earthquake is not predictable at this moment, with the aid of accurate seismic wave propagation analysis, we could simulate the potential hazards at all distances from possible fault sources by understanding the source rupture process during large earthquakes. With the integration of strong ground-motion sensor network, earthquake data center and seismic wave propagation analysis over gLite e-Science Infrastructure, we could explore much better knowledge on the impact and vulnerability of potential earthquake hazards. On the other hand, this application also demonstrated the e-Science way to investigate unknown earth structure. Regional integration of earthquake sensor networks could aid in fast event reporting and accurate event data collection. Federation of earthquake data center entails consolidation and sharing of seismology and geology knowledge. Capability building of seismic wave propagation analysis implies the predictability of potential hazard impacts. With gLite infrastructure and EUAsiaGrid collaboration framework, earth scientists from Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippine, Thailand are working together to alleviate potential seismic threats by making use of Grid technologies and also to support seismology researches by e-Science. A cross continental e-infrastructure, based on EGEE and EUAsiaGrid, is established for seismic wave forward simulation and risk estimation. Both the computing challenge on seismic wave analysis among 5 European and Asian partners, and the data challenge for data center federation had been exercised and verified. Seismogram-on-Demand service is also developed for the automatic generation of seismogram on any sensor point to a specific epicenter. To ease the access to all the services based on users workflow and retain the maximal flexibility, a Seismology Science Gateway integating data, computation, workflow, services and user communities would be implemented based on typical use cases. In the future, extension of the

Tagging for Subject Access: A Glimpse into Current Practice by Vendors, Libraries, and Users

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Sharon Q.

2012-01-01

The study looked into the 307 Koha libraries listed in Breeding's Library Technology Guides. Since all the tag clouds in Koha are user-contributed, their adoption and usage can shed light on the extent to which libraries are supporting user tagging. The research also revealed that public library users are more actively involved in tagging than…

Model driven development of user interface prototypes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Störrle, Harald

2010-01-01

the whole UI development life cycle, connect all stakeholders involved, and support a wide range of levels of granularity and abstraction. This is achieved by using Window/Event-Diagrams (WEDs), a UI specification notation based on UML 2 state machines. It affords closer collaboration between different user...

Identifying online user reputation in terms of user preference

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Lu; Guo, Qiang; Liu, Xiao-Lu; Liu, Jian-Guo; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2018-03-01

Identifying online user reputation is significant for online social systems. In this paper, taking into account the preference physics of online user collective behaviors, we present an improved group-based rating method for ranking online user reputation based on the user preference (PGR). All the ratings given by each specific user are mapped to the same rating criteria. By grouping users according to their mapped ratings, the online user reputation is calculated based on the corresponding group sizes. Results for MovieLens and Netflix data sets show that the AUC values of the PGR method can reach 0.9842 (0.9493) and 0.9995 (0.9987) for malicious (random) spammers, respectively, outperforming the results generated by the traditional group-based method, which indicates that the online preference plays an important role for measuring user reputation.

Adaptive support for user interface customization : a study in radiology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jorritsma, Wiard; Cnossen, Fokie; van Ooijen, Peter M. A.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of adaptive customization support in a natural work environment: the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in radiology. Methods: Adaptive support was given in the form of customization suggestions, generated based on behavioral

Electronic Commerce user manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1992-04-10

This User Manual supports the Electronic Commerce Standard System. The Electronic Commerce Standard System is being developed for the Department of Defense of the Technology Information Systems Program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the Department of Energy. The Electronic Commerce Standard System, or EC as it is known, provides the capability for organizations to conduct business electronically instead of through paper transactions. Electronic Commerce and Computer Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support, are two major projects under the DoD`s Corporate Information Management program, whose objective is to make DoD business transactions faster and less costly by using computer networks instead of paper forms and postage. EC runs on computers that use the UNIX operating system and provides a standard set of applications and tools that are bound together by a common command and menu system. These applications and tools may vary according to the requirements of the customer or location and may be customized to meet the specific needs of an organization. Local applications can be integrated into the menu system under the Special Databases & Applications option on the EC main menu. These local applications will be documented in the appendices of this manual. This integration capability provides users with a common environment of standard and customized applications.

Electronic Commerce user manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1992-04-10

This User Manual supports the Electronic Commerce Standard System. The Electronic Commerce Standard System is being developed for the Department of Defense of the Technology Information Systems Program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the Department of Energy. The Electronic Commerce Standard System, or EC as it is known, provides the capability for organizations to conduct business electronically instead of through paper transactions. Electronic Commerce and Computer Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support, are two major projects under the DoD's Corporate Information Management program, whose objective is to make DoD business transactions faster and less costly by using computer networks instead of paper forms and postage. EC runs on computers that use the UNIX operating system and provides a standard set of applications and tools that are bound together by a common command and menu system. These applications and tools may vary according to the requirements of the customer or location and may be customized to meet the specific needs of an organization. Local applications can be integrated into the menu system under the Special Databases Applications option on the EC main menu. These local applications will be documented in the appendices of this manual. This integration capability provides users with a common environment of standard and customized applications.

Extending SQL to Support Privacy Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Ghazinour, Kambiz; Pun, Sampson; Majedi, Maryam; Chinaci, Amir H.; Barker, Ken

Increasing concerns over Internet applications that violate user privacy by exploiting (back-end) database vulnerabilities must be addressed to protect both customer privacy and to ensure corporate strategic assets remain trustworthy. This chapter describes an extension onto database catalogues and Structured Query Language (SQL) for supporting privacy in Internet applications, such as in social networks, e-health, e-governmcnt, etc. The idea is to introduce new predicates to SQL commands to capture common privacy requirements, such as purpose, visibility, generalization, and retention for both mandatory and discretionary access control policies. The contribution is that corporations, when creating the underlying databases, will be able to define what their mandatory privacy policies arc with which all application users have to comply. Furthermore, each application user, when providing their own data, will be able to define their own privacy policies with which other users have to comply. The extension is supported with underlying catalogues and algorithms. The experiments demonstrate a very reasonable overhead for the extension. The result is a low-cost mechanism to create new systems that arc privacy aware and also to transform legacy databases to their privacy-preserving equivalents. Although the examples arc from social networks, one can apply the results to data security and user privacy of other enterprises as well.

Optimizing Lighting Design for Hospital Wards by Defining User Zones

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thuesen, Niels; Stidsen, Lone; Kirkegaard, Poul Henning

2011-01-01

of lighting design, so it has the ability to support the different users activity and behavior on the ward. By using RFID tracking and manual observations we have analyzed and evaluated the ward functionality as working environment for the staff. The method creates a higher understanding of the ward...... of lighting design in private and public settings are often not similar. The purpose of this article is therefore present a approach dividing the hospital ward in 3 user zones for patients, staff and visitors. The main user of the zone should be in control of the light scenario and thereby a refining...

Understanding user intents in online health forums.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Thomas; Cho, Jason H D; Zhai, Chengxiang

2015-07-01

Online health forums provide a convenient way for patients to obtain medical information and connect with physicians and peers outside of clinical settings. However, large quantities of unstructured and diversified content generated on these forums make it difficult for users to digest and extract useful information. Understanding user intents would enable forums to find and recommend relevant information to users by filtering out threads that do not match particular intents. In this paper, we derive a taxonomy of intents to capture user information needs in online health forums and propose novel pattern-based features for use with a multiclass support vector machine (SVM) classifier to classify original thread posts according to their underlying intents. Since no dataset existed for this task, we employ three annotators to manually label a dataset of 1192 HealthBoards posts spanning four forum topics. Experimental results show that a SVM using pattern-based features is highly capable of identifying user intents in forum posts, reaching a maximum precision of 75%, and that a SVM-based hierarchical classifier using both pattern and word features outperforms its SVM counterpart that uses only word features. Furthermore, comparable classification performance can be achieved by training and testing on posts from different forum topics.