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Publications

2018

Palestinian doctors' views on patient-centered care in hospitals

Authors
Sultan, WIM; Sultan, MIM; Crispim, J;

Publication
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH

Abstract
BackgroundUnderstanding the perceived importance of Patient-Centered Care (PCC) among Palestinian doctors and how the provider and other clinical characteristics may impact their views on PCC is essential to determine the extent to which PCC can be implemented. This study investigates the provision of PCC among hospital doctors in a developing and unstable country, namely, Palestine.MethodsThis descriptive, cross-sectional research employed self-report survey among 369 Palestinian doctors working in hospitals in 2016. Respondents completed the Provider-Patient Relationship Questionnaire (PPRQ) and were asked to rate the importance of 16 PCC subjects in a context-free manner. Then they scored the existence of eight contextual attributes in their workplace.ResultsAlthough 71.4% of the participants got training in communication, only 45% of the participants knew about PCC. 48.8% of doctors considered the exchange of information with patients most important PCC component. Clustering identified three groups of doctors: 32.4% of doctors reported good perceptions of PCC, 47.5% moderate; and 20.1% poor. Older, married, and specialist doctors and those familiar with PCC are more likely classified in the good cluster. Results revealed a significant difference between doctors' views based on their gender, experience, marital status, previous knowledge about PCC, and type of hospital in favor of males, experienced, married, familiar with PCC, and doctors in private hospital respectively. The level of job interest, nurses' cooperation, the tendency of patients to hide information, and doctor's friendly style were positively related with more perceived importance of PCC.ConclusionWe identified benchmark doctors who perceive the high relative importance of PCC. Our results highlighted knowledge gaps and training weaknesses among doctors in public and private hospitals in respect to their views on PCC. Decision makers may invest in the determined contextual predictors to enhance attitudes towards PCC. This work doesn't address patients' views on PCC.

2018

Project-Based Learning Methodology for Robotics Education

Authors
Santos, VDN; Fonseca Ferreira, NM; Santos, JCB; Santos, FM; Moita, FD; Ferreira, JP; Silva, M;

Publication
Technology and Innovation in Learning, Teaching and Education - First International Conference, TECH-EDU 2018, Thessaloniki, Greece, June 20-22, 2018, Revised Selected Papers

Abstract
This paper describes a project-based learning example used to promote academic success on electrical engineering, BSc and MSc degrees. The project aims to implement an aerial drone devoted to environmental surveillance, through identification and prevention of forest fires, effects of floods, and industrial flammable gases leaks to the atmosphere using an extensive set of gas sensors. The project was carried out using a hexacopter drone platform and combines knowledge of different areas, namely electronics, communications, and instrumentation. The wireless transmission of the acquired data is the main focus of the project. The results obtained from this project-based learning educational experience show that a practical-learning approach usage in conjunction with highly motivating topics promotes academic success and improves the understanding of theoretical concepts. Students increased their knowledge and skills during the problem resolution, and achieved a real solution according to their options. Moreover, this approach provides students an extensive learning experience on current technologies, modules and programming languages. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

2018

A Combined Value Focused Thinking-Soft Systems Methodology Approach to Structure Decision Support for Energy Performance Assessment of School Buildings

Authors
Bernardo, H; Gaspar, A; Antunes, CH;

Publication
SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract
Several technological, social and organizational factors influence energy management in school buildings, resulting in a complex situation away from the usual engineering approach. The selection of evaluation criteria to assess the energy performance of school buildings remains one of the most challenging aspects since these should accommodate the perspectives of the potential key stakeholders. This paper presents a comprehensive problem structuring approach combining Soft Systems Methodology and Value Focused Thinking to elicit and organize the multiple aspects that influence energy efficiency of school buildings. The main aim of this work is structuring the fundamental objectives to develop a criteria tree to be considered in a multi-criteria classification model to be used by management entities for rating overall energy performance of school buildings. This methodological framework helped grasping the main issues at stake for a thorough energy performance assessment of school buildings and the need to define adequate policies for improvement.

2018

Incremental Sparse TFIDF & Incremental Similarity with Bipartite Graphs

Authors
Sarmento, RP; Brazdil, P;

Publication
CoRR

Abstract

2018

Video Dissemination in Untethered Edge-Clouds: A Case Study

Authors
Rodrigues, J; Marques, ERB; Silva, J; Lopes, LMB; Silva, F;

Publication
DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS AND INTEROPERABLE SYSTEMS (DAIS 2018)

Abstract
We describe a case study application for untethered video dissemination using a hybrid edge-cloud architecture featuring Android devices, possibly organised in WiFi-Direct groups, and Raspberry Pi-based cloudlets, structured in a mesh and also working as access points. The application was tested in the real-world scenario of a Portuguese volleyball league game. During the game, users of the application recorded videos and injected them in the edge-cloud. The cloudlet servers continuously synchronised their cached video contents over the mesh network, allowing users on different locations to share their videos, without resorting to any other network infrastructure. An analysis of the logs gathered during the experiment shows that such portable setups can easily disseminate videos to tens of users through the edge-cloud with low latencies. We observe that the edge-cloud may be naturally resilient to faulty cloudlets or devices, taking advantage of video caching within devices and WiFi-Direct groups, and of device churn to opportunistically disseminate videos.

2018

A Safety Monitoring Model for a Faulty Mobile Robot

Authors
Leite, A; Pinto, A; Matos, A;

Publication
ROBOTICS

Abstract
The continued development of mobile robots (MR) must be accompanied by an increase in robotics' safety measures. Not only must MR be capable of detecting and diagnosing faults, they should also be capable of understanding when the dangers of a mission, to themselves and the surrounding environment, warrant the abandonment of their endeavors. Analysis of fault detection and diagnosis techniques helps shed light on the challenges of the robotic field, while also showing a lack of research in autonomous decision-making tools. This paper proposes a new skill-based architecture for mobile robots, together with a novel risk assessment and decision-making model to overcome the difficulties currently felt in autonomous robot design.

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