Background:Children with asthma can decrease the impact of their disease by improving their physical activity (PA). However, health care providers lack interventions for children with asthma that effectively increase their PA levels and achieve behavior change. A technology-supported approach can positively influence PA and physical functioning in children.Objective:The aims of this study were to develop a technology-supported intervention that facilitates health care providers in promoting PA for children (aged 8 to 12 years) with asthma and to systematically describe this developmental process.Methods:Intervention mapping (IM) was applied to develop a blended and technology-supported intervention in cocreation with children with asthma, their parents, and health care providers. In accordance with the IM framework, the following steps were performed: conduct a needs assessment; define the intervention outcome, performance objectives, and change objectives; select theory-based intervention methods and strategies; create components of the intervention and conduct pilot tests; create an implementation plan; and create an evaluation plan.Results:We developed the blended intervention Foxfit that consists of an app with a PA monitor for children (aged 8 to 12 years) with asthma and a web-based dashboard for their health care provider. The intervention focuses on PA in everyday life to improve social participation. Foxfit contains components based on behavior change principles and gamification, including goal setting, rewards, action planning, monitoring, shaping knowledge, a gamified story, personal coaching and feedback, and a tailored approach. An evaluation plan was created to assess the intervention’s usability and feasibility for both children and health care providers.Conclusions:The IM framework was very useful for systematically developing a technology-supported intervention and for describing the translational process from scientific evidence, the needs and wishes of future users, and behavior change principles into this intervention. This has led to the technology-supported intervention Foxfit that facilitates health care providers in promoting PA in children with asthma. The structured description of the development process and functional components shows the way behavior change techniques are incorporated in the intervention.Trial Registration:International Clinical Trial Registry Platform NTR6658; https://tinyurl.com/3rxejksf
Purpose: This is a position paper describing the elements of an international framework for assistive techhnology provision that could guide the development of policies, systems and service delivery procedures across the world. It describes general requirements, quality criteria and possible approaches that may help to enhance the accessibility of affordable and high quality assistive technology solutions. Materials and methods: The paper is based on the experience of the authors, an analysis of the existing literature and the inputs from many colleagues in the field of assistive technology provision. It includes the results of discussions of an earlier version of the paper during an international conference on the topic in August 2017. Results and conclusion: The paper ends with the recommendation to develop an international standard for assistive technology provision. Such a standard can have a major impact on the accessibility of AT for people with disabilities. The paper outlines some the key elements to be included in a standard.
This longitudinal, quantitative study contributes to the debate on technology-based professional development by examining the extent to which a learning (LinkedIn) intervention in a university setting affects an individual’s social media use for professional development, and the extent to which this relates to self-reported employability. In addition, we investigated how this relationship is moderated by an individual’s motivation to communicate through social media (LinkedIn). Based on social capital theory and the conservation of resources theory, we developed a set of hypotheses that were tested based on longitudinal data collected from university employees (N = 101) in middle- and high-level jobs. First, in line with our expectations, social media use for professional development was significantly higher after the learning intervention than before. Second, partially in line with our expectations, social media use for professional development was positively related with the employability dimension anticipation and optimization. Third, contrary to our expectations, motivation to communicate through social media (LinkedIn) did not have a moderating role in this relationship. We concluded that the learning intervention has the potential to foster social media use for professional development, and in turn, can contribute to individuals’ human capital in terms of their employability. Hence, the intervention that forms the core of this empirical research can be a sustainable and promising human resource management (HRM) practice that fits the human capital agenda.
Various companies in diagnostic testing struggle with the same “valley of death” challenge. In order to further develop their sensing application, they rely on the technological readiness of easy and reproducible read-out systems. Photonic chips can be very sensitive sensors and can be made application-specific when coated with a properly chosen bio-functionalized layer. Here the challenge lies in the optical coupling of the active components (light source and detector) to the (disposable) photonic sensor chip. For the technology to be commercially viable, the price of the disposable photonic sensor chip should be as low as possible. The coupling of light from the source to the photonic sensor chip and back to the detectors requires a positioning accuracy of less than 1 micrometer, which is a tremendous challenge. In this research proposal, we want to investigate which of the six degrees of freedom (three translational and three rotational) are the most crucial when aligning photonic sensor chips with the external active components. Knowing these degrees of freedom and their respective range we can develop and test an automated alignment tool which can realize photonic sensor chip alignment reproducibly and fully autonomously. The consortium with expertise and contributions in the value chain of photonics interfacing, system and mechanical engineering will investigate a two-step solution. This solution comprises a passive pre-alignment step (a mechanical stop determines the position), followed by an active alignment step (an algorithm moves the source to the optimal position with respect to the chip). The results will be integrated into a demonstrator that performs an automated procedure that aligns a passive photonic chip with a terminal that contains the active components. The demonstrator is successful if adequate optical coupling of the passive photonic chip with the external active components is realized fully automatically, without the need of operator intervention.
Using technology to improve the adolescents' journey to school by bike in province of Drenthe and Groningen.All unsafe area that children spotted on the map, are because the lack of traffic safety ( lack of visibility, high speed, etc). In general children do not have a positive perception of cycling to school, and their favourite mode of traveling to school is car. What technology based intervention can make adolescents’ cycling to and from school safer and more attractive for them? Also does it help to encourage those who live far from the school (>10 km) to cycle to and from school more often?
-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
