Intelligent kanban : evaluation of a supply chain MAS application using benchmarking

The real world challenges of incomplete information access and bounded computational resources in supply chain management motivate us to propose a bottom up approach to supply chain intelligence, built over a widely used reactive card-based replenishments system (kanban). The rationale is to use agent technology to improve the performance of the traditional kanban system while maintaining its recognized usability. Instead of optimizing a system utility function, we encode the system goal in desired behaviours of individual agents that reason about their own behaviours in the local context. This paper discusses a rigorous framework for evaluation of the proposal based on the concept of benchmarking. Preliminary results from these simulations show remarkable improvements over the traditional system. Furthermore, use of the benchmarking framework gives confidence that these results translate into real performance gains in practical implementations.

An evaluation of Sea Search as a citizen science programme in Marine Protected Areas

Citizen science involves collaboration between multi-sector agencies and the public to address a natural resource management issue. The Sea Search citizen science programme involves community groups in monitoring and collecting subtidal rocky reef and intertidal rocky shore data in Victorian Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Australia. In this study we compared volunteer and scientifically collected data and the volunteer motivation for participation in the Sea Search programme. Intertidal rocky shore volunteer-collected data was found to be typically comparable to data collected by scientists for species richness and diversity measures. For subtidal monitoring there was also no significant difference for species richness recorded by scientists and volunteers. However, low statistical power suggest only large changes could be detected due to reduced data replication. Generally volunteers recorded lower species diversity for biological groups compared to scientists, albeit not significant. Species abundance measures for algae species were significantly different between volunteers and scientists. These results suggest difficulty in identification and abundance measurements by volunteers and the need for additional training requirements necessary for surveying algae assemblages. The subtidal monitoring results also highlight the difficulties of collecting data in exposed rocky reef habitats with weather conditions and volunteer diver availability constraining sampling effort. The prime motivation for volunteer participation in Sea Search was to assist with scientific research followed closely by wanting to work close to nature. This study revealed two important themes for volunteer engagement in Sea Search: 1) volunteer training and participation and, 2) usability of volunteer collected data for MPA managers. Volunteer-collected data through the Sea Search citizen science programme has the potential to provide useable data to assist in informed management practices of Victoria’s MPAs, but requires the support and commitment from all partners involved.

User-centered design and evaluation of an interactive visual-haptic-auditory interface : a user study on assembly

Utilizing user-centred system design and evaluation method has become an increasingly important tool to foster better usability in the field of virtual environments (VEs). In recent years, although it is still the norm that designers and developers are concerning the technological advancement and striving for designing impressive multimodal multisensory interfaces, more and more awareness are aroused among the development team that in order to produce usable and useful interfaces, it is essential to have users in mind during design and validate a new design from users' perspective. In this paper, we describe a user study carried out to validate a newly developed haptically enabled virtual training system. By taking consideration of the complexity of individual differences on human performance, adoption and acceptance of haptic and audio-visual I/O devices, we address how well users learn, perform, adapt to and perceive object assembly training. We also explore user experience and interaction with the system, and discuss how multisensory feedback affects user performance, perception and acceptance. At last, we discuss how to better design VEs that enhance users perception, their interaction and motor activity.

Mobile phone app aimed at improving iron intake and bioavailability in premenopausal women: a qualitative evaluation

BACKGROUND: Low iron intake can lead to iron deficiency, which can result in impaired health and iron-deficiency anemia. A mobile phone app, combining successful dietary strategies to increase bioavailable iron with strategies for behavior change, such as goal setting, monitoring, feedback, and resources for knowledge acquisition, was developed with the aim to increase bioavailable iron intake in premenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the content, usability, and acceptability of a mobile phone app designed to improve intake of bioavailable dietary iron.

METHODS: Women aged 18-50 years with an Android mobile phone were invited to participate. Over a 2-week period women were asked to interact with the app. Following this period, semistructured focus groups with participants were conducted. Focus groups were audio recorded and analyzed via an inductive open-coding method using the qualitative analysis software NVivo 10. Themes were identified and frequency of code occurrence was calculated.

RESULTS: Four focus groups (n=26) were conducted (age range 19-36 years, mean 24.7, SD 5.2). Two themes about the app's functionality were identified (frequency of occurrence in brackets): interface and design (134) and usability (86). Four themes about the app's components were identified: goal tracker (121), facts (78), photo diary (40), and games (46). A number of suggestions to improve the interface and design of the app were provided and will inform the ongoing development of the app.

CONCLUSIONS: This research indicates that participants are interested in iron and their health and are willing to use an app utilizing behavior change strategies to increase intake of bioavailable iron. The inclusion of information about the link between diet and health, monitoring and tracking of the achievement of dietary goals, and weekly reviews of goals were also seen as valuable components of the app and should be considered in mobile health apps aimed at adult women.

Assessment of the ergonomic design of diagnostic ultrasound transducers through wrist movements and subjective evaluation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Evaluation of reusable cardboard box designs: Biomechanical and perceptual aspects

Reusable cardboard boxes can be ergonomically designed for internal transportation of dry products in industrial settings. In this study we compared the effects of handling a regular commercial box and two cardboard prototypes on upper limb postures through the evaluation of movements, myoelectrical activity, perceived grip acceptability and capacity for reuse. The ergonomic designs provided a more acceptable grip, safer wrist and elbow movements and lower wrist extensors and biceps activity. Biomechanical disadvantages were observed only for one of the prototypes when handling to high surface. The prototypes were durable and suitable for extensive reuse (more than 2000 handlings) in internal industrial transportation. Despite being slightly more expensive than regular cardboard, the prototypes showed good cost-benefit considering their high durability. Relevance to industry: Cardboard boxes can be efficiently redesigned for allowing safer upper limb movements and lower muscle workload in manual materials handling. New designs can also be extensively reused for internal industrial transportation with good cost-benefit. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Online Shopping Websites: An Evaluation of User Experience and Interface Ergonomic Criteria from the Perspective of Older Users

This paper presents a user experience evaluation of two online shopping websites from the perspective of older users (those aged 50 and older). Two online shopping websites were evaluated using methodological procedures established in prior research [1]. The methodology consists of four steps: (1) heuristic interface evaluation using an ergonomic criteria checklist, (2) online identification and experience questionnaire, (3) evaluation of user experience and interface interaction, and (4) satisfaction questionnaire. Results of the study revealed the analyzed websites are not suitable for older users, who find it difficult to interact with these interfaces.

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF SOFTWARE TO VERIFY DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY

This article describes the development and evaluation of software that verifies the accuracy of diagnoses made by nursing students. The software was based on a model that uses fuzzy logic concepts, including PERL, the MySQL database for Internet accessibility, and the NANDA-I 2007-2008 classification system. The software was evaluated in terms of its technical quality and usability through specific instruments. The activity proposed in the software involves four stages in which students establish the relationship values between nursing diagnoses, defining characteristics/risk factors and clinical cases. The relationship values determined by students are compared to those of specialists, generating performance scores for the students. In the evaluation, the software demonstrated satisfactory outcomes regarding the technical quality and, according to the students, helped in their learning and may become an educational tool to teach the process of nursing diagnosis.

Design, development and first evaluation of a client/server system for managing and querying linguistic corpora

This thesis is concerned with the role played by software tools in the analysis and dissemination of linguistic corpora and their contribution to a more widespread adoption of corpora in different fields. Chapter 1 contains an overview of some of the most relevant corpus analysis tools available today, presenting their most interesting features and some of their drawbacks. Chapter 2 begins with an explanation of the reasons why none of the available tools appear to satisfy the requirements of the user community and then continues with technical overview of the current status of the new system developed as part of this work. This presentation is followed by highlights of features that make the system appealing to users and corpus builders (i.e. scholars willing to make their corpora available to the public). The chapter concludes with an indication of future directions for the projects and information on the current availability of the software. Chapter 3 describes the design of an experiment devised to evaluate the usability of the new system in comparison to another corpus tool. Usage of the tool was tested in the context of a documentation task performed on a real assignment during a translation class in a master's degree course. In chapter 4 the findings of the experiment are presented on two levels of analysis: firstly a discussion on how participants interacted with and evaluated the two corpus tools in terms of interface and interaction design, usability and perceived ease of use. Then an analysis follows of how users interacted with corpora to complete the task and what kind of queries they submitted. Finally, some general conclusions are drawn and areas for future work are outlined.

Quality evaluation of the available Internet information regarding pain during orthodontic treatment

OBJECTIVE To investigate the quality of the data disseminated via the Internet regarding pain experienced by orthodontic patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic online search was performed for 'orthodontic pain' and 'braces pain' separately using five search engines. The first 25 results from each search term-engine combination were pooled for analysis. After excluding advertising sites, discussion groups, video feeds, and links to scientific articles, 25 Web pages were evaluated in terms of accuracy, readability, accessibility, usability, and reliability using recommended research methodology; reference textbook material, the Flesch Reading Ease Score; and the LIDA instrument. Author and information details were also recorded. RESULTS Overall, the results indicated a variable quality of the available informational material. Although the readability of the Web sites was generally acceptable, the individual LIDA categories were rated of medium or low quality, with average scores ranging from 16.9% to 86.2%. The orthodontic relevance of the Web sites was not accompanied by the highest assessment results, and vice versa. CONCLUSIONS The quality of the orthodontic pain information cited by Web sources appears to be highly variable. Further structural development of health information technology along with public referral to reliable sources by specialists are recommended.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of a structured reporting web tool for abdominal aortic aneurysms

BACKGROUND The majority of radiological reports are lacking a standard structure. Even within a specialized area of radiology, each report has its individual structure with regards to details and order, often containing too much of non-relevant information the referring physician is not interested in. For gathering relevant clinical key parameters in an efficient way or to support long-term therapy monitoring, structured reporting might be advantageous. OBJECTIVE Despite of new technologies in medical information systems, medical reporting is still not dynamic. To improve the quality of communication in radiology reports, a new structured reporting system was developed for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), intended to enhance professional communication by providing the pertinent clinical information in a predefined standard. METHODS Actual state analysis was performed within the departments of radiology and vascular surgery by developing a Technology Acceptance Model. The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis focused on optimization of the radiology reporting of patients with AAA. Definition of clinical parameters was achieved by interviewing experienced clinicians in radiology and vascular surgery. For evaluation, a focus group (4 radiologists) looked at the reports of 16 patients. The usability and reliability of the method was validated in a real-world test environment in the field of radiology. RESULTS A Web-based application for radiological "structured reporting" (SR) was successfully standardized for AAA. Its organization comprises three main categories: characteristics of pathology and adjacent anatomy, measurements, and additional findings. Using different graphical widgets (eg, drop-down menus) in each category facilitate predefined data entries. Measurement parameters shown in a diagram can be defined for clinical monitoring and be adducted for quick adjudications. Figures for optional use to guide and standardize the reporting are embedded. Analysis of variance shows decreased average time required with SR to obtain a radiological report compared to free-text reporting (P=.0001). Questionnaire responses confirm a high acceptance rate by the user. CONCLUSIONS The new SR system may support efficient radiological reporting for initial diagnosis and follow-up for AAA. Perceived advantages of our SR platform are ease of use, which may lead to more accurate decision support. The new system is open to communicate not only with clinical partners but also with Radiology Information and Hospital Information Systems.

Methodology for GPS Synchronization Evaluation with High Accuracy

Clock synchronization in the order of nanoseconds is one of the critical factors for time-based localization. Currently used time synchronization methods are developed for the more relaxed needs of network operation. Their usability for positioning should be carefully evaluated. In this paper, we are particularly interested in GPS-based time synchronization. To judge its usability for localization we need a method that can evaluate the achieved time synchronization with nanosecond accuracy. Our method to evaluate the synchronization accuracy is inspired by signal processing algorithms and relies on fine grain time information. The method is able to calculate the clock offset and skew between devices with nanosecond accuracy in real time. It was implemented using software defined radio technology. We demonstrate that GPS-based synchronization suffers from remaining clock offset in the range of a few hundred of nanoseconds but the clock skew is negligible. Finally, we determine a corresponding lower bound on the expected positioning error.

Development and Evaluation of a New Tablet Computer Application for the Therapy of Brain-Injured Patients with Aphasia

Introduction Language is the most important mean of communication and plays a central role in our everyday life. Brain damage (e.g. stroke) can lead to acquired disorders of lan- guage affecting the four linguistic modalities (i.e. reading, writing, speech production and comprehension) in different combinations and levels of severity. Every year, more than 5000 people (Aphasie Suisse) are affected by aphasia in Switzerland alone. Since aphasia is highly individual, the level of difficulty and the content of tasks have to be adapted continuously by the speech therapists. Computer-based assignments allow patients to train independently at home and thus increasing the frequency of ther- apy. Recent developments in tablet computers have opened new opportunities to use these devices for rehabilitation purposes. Especially older people, who have no prior experience with computers, can benefit from the new technologies. Methods The aim of this project was to develop an application that enables patients to train language related tasks autonomously and, on the other hand, allows speech therapists to assign exercises to the patients and to track their results online. Seven categories with various types of assignments were implemented. The application has two parts which are separated by a user management system into a patient interface and a therapist interface. Both interfaces were evaluated using the SUS (Subject Usability Scale). The patient interface was tested by 15 healthy controls and 5 patients. For the patients, we also collected tracking data for further analysis. The therapist interface was evaluated by 5 speech therapists. Results The SUS score are xpatients = 98 and xhealthy = 92.7 (median = 95, SD = 7, 95% CI [88.8, 96.6]) in case of the patient interface and xtherapists = 68 in case of the therapist interface. Conclusion Both, the patients and the healthy subjects, attested high SUS scores to the patient interface. These scores are considered as "best imaginable". The therapist interface got a lower SUS score compared to the patient interface, but is still considered as "good" and "usable". The user tracking system and the interviews revealed that there is room for improvements and inspired new ideas for future versions.

Assessing fun in serious games: Formative evaluation of games from two diabetes prevention interventions

Purpose. To determine the usability of two video games to prevent type 2 diabetes and obesity among youth through analysis of data collected during alpha-testing. ^ Subjects. Ten children aged 9 to 12 were selected for three 2-hour alpha testing sessions.^ Methods. "Escape from Diab" and "Nanoswarm" were designed to change dietary and physical inactivity behaviors, based on a theoretical framework of mediating variables obtained from social cognitive theory, self-determination theory, elaboration likelihood model, and behavioral inoculation theory. Thirteen mini-games developed by the software company were divided into 3 groups based on completion date. Children tested 4-5 mini-games in each of three sessions. Observed game play was followed by a scripted interview. Results from observation forms and interview transcripts were tabulated and coded to determine usability. Suggestions for game modifications were delivered to the software design firm, and a follow-up table reports rationale for inclusion or exclusion of such modifications.^ Results. Participants were 50% frequent video game players and 20% non game-players. Most (60%) were female. The mean grade (indicating likeability as a subset of usability) across all games given by children was significantly greater than a neutral grade of 80% (89%, p < 0.01), indicating a positive likeability score. The games on average also received positive ratings for fun, helpfulness of instructions and length compared to neutral values (midpoint on likert scales) (all p < 0.01). Observation notes indicated that participants paid attention to the instructions, did not appear to have much difficulty with the games, and were "not frustrated", "not bored", "very engaged", "not fidgety" and "very calm" (all p < 0.01). The primary issues noted in observations and interviews were unclear instructions and unclear purpose of some games. Player suggestions primarily involved ways to make on screen cues more visible or noticeable, instructions more clear, and games more elaborate or difficult.^ Conclusions. The present study highlights the importance of alpha testing video game components for usability prior to completion to enhance usability and likeability. Results indicate that creating clear instructions, making peripheral screen cues more eye-catching or noticeable, and vigorously stating the purpose of the game to improve understandability are important elements. However, future interventions will each present unique materials and user-interfaces and should therefore also be thoroughly alpha-tested. ^

A comparative review of water disinfection methods appropriate for developing countries and their efficacy, cost-efficiency, and usability

Developing countries are heavily burdened by limited access to safe drinking water and subsequent water-related diseases. Numerous water treatment interventions combat this public health crisis, encompassing both traditional and less-common methods. Of these, water disinfection serves as an important means to provide safe drinking water. Existing literature discusses a wide range of traditional treatment options and encourages the use of multi-barrier approaches including coagulation-flocculation, filtration, and disinfection. Most sources do not delve into approaches specifically appropriate for developing countries, nor do they exclusively examine water disinfection methods.^ The objective of this review is to focus on an extensive range of chemical, physio-chemical, and physical water disinfection techniques to provide a compilation, description and evaluation of options available. Such an objective provides further understanding and knowledge to better inform water treatment interventions and explores alternate means of water disinfection appropriate for developing countries. Appropriateness for developing countries corresponds to the effectiveness of an available, easy to use disinfection technique at providing safe drinking water at a low cost.^ Among chemical disinfectants, SWS sodium hypochlorite solution is preferred over sodium hypochlorite bleach due to consistent concentrations. Tablet forms are highly recommended chemical disinfectants because they are effective and very easy to use, but also because they are stable. Examples include sodium dichloroisocyanurate, calcium hypochlorite, and chlorine dioxide, which vary in cost depending on location and availability. Among physio-chemical disinfection options, electrolysis which produces mixed oxidants (MIOX) provides a highly effective disinfection option with a higher upfront cost but very low cost over the long term. Among physical disinfection options, solar disinfection (SODIS) applications are effective, but they treat only a fixed volume of water at a time. They come with higher initial costs but very low on-going costs. Additional effective disinfection techniques may be suitable depending on the location, availability and cost.^