Concerns have been made about how children's health and psychology could be hurt by the growing number of mobile apps they use. This abstract looks at intervention methods and best practices for getting kids to use mobile apps in a healthy way, find a balance with technology, and build up their resilience. Key points include promoting digital literacy and critical thinking, setting clear boundaries and rules, encouraging digital balance, modeling healthy tech habits, building resilience and coping skills, encouraging face-to-face communication, setting up tech-free times and spaces, monitoring app usage and content, promoting mindfulness and self-reflection, and getting professional help when needed. By using these tactics, parents, teachers, and other caretakers can help kids build a healthy relationship with technology, live a balanced life, and build the resilience they need to handle the challenges of the digital world. The goal of these interventions is to make sure that kids' app use is good for their general health, helps them learn and get along with others, and sets them up for long-term success in the digital age.

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a common medical complication of pregnancy, which is associated with increased risk of future diabetes. mHealth (mobile health, in this paper applica-tions abbreviated to apps) can facilitate health modifications to decrease future risks. This study aims to understand mHealth app use and preferences among women with past GDM and healthcare professionals (HCP) in Australia. An explorative cross-sectional online survey was disseminated via social media, a national diabetes registry, and professional networks. Descrip-tive analyses were conducted on valid responses (women with prior GDM: n=1475; HCP: n=75). One third (33%) of women with prior GDM have used health apps, and a further 80% of non-app users were open to using a health app if recommended by their HCP. Over half (53%) of HCPs supported health information delivery via mHealth, although only 14% had recommended a health app to women post-GDM, and lack of knowledge about mHealth apps was common. Health app users reported that they preferred tracking features, while non-users desired credible health and dietary information and plans. Expanding mHealth app use could facilitate healthy behaviours, but endorsement by HCPs is important to women and currently lacking.

With considerable growth in the Information & Communication Technologies, several smartphone-based mobility platforms have already sprung up and they have the potential of transforming the mobility ecosystem completely. However, mobility-based smartphone app usage pattern across various user groups in Indian cities is unknown, and this knowledge is vital for introducing new consolidated apps-based services. Therefore, using primary data from a survey carried out in Bhopal (India), this article analyses the usage pattern of smartphone apps for trip planning activities and travel outcomes across various user groups at the personal and household level. The research offers empirical indication of relationships between smartphone app usage for trip planning (like departure time, choosing a destination, choosing the mode, se-lecting route, communicating, and coordinating trips, and performing tasks online instead of visiting) and resulting travel outcomes including vehicle kilometers travelled (for purposes like work/education, shopping, and recreation), social gathering, new place visits and group trips. The chi-square test has been used to test and interpret several socioeconomic variables that could in-fluence this relationship, such as gender, age, income, etc. This study's findings provide important behavioral insights that may be useful in policy discussions.

As sonification is supposed to communicate information to users, experimental evaluation of the subjective appropriateness and effectiveness of the sonification design is often desired and sometimes indispensable. Experiments in the laboratory are typically restricted to short-term usage by a small sample size under unnatural conditions. We introduce the multi-platform CURAT Sonification Game that allows us to evaluate our sonification design by a large population during long-term usage. Gamification is used to motivate users to interact with the sonification regularly and conscientiously over a long period of time. In this paper we present the sonification game and some initial analyses of the gathered data. Furthermore, we hope to reach more volunteers to play the CURAT Sonification Game and help us evaluate and optimize our psychoacoustic sonification design and give us valuable feedback on the game and recommendations for future developments.

This work provides an update to the Erasmus Plus TEALEAF project The outcomes of a week-long EU-funded / Irish Government-recognized teacher course in July 2016 is described within the context of a qualitative small scale study investigating teachers' progress in the course. The explicit aim of the teacher course was to equip a diverse group of teachers with the initial tools to work to produce simple digital apps for learning about biodiversity in their respective domains. A community of practice seeks to establish a new concept of the pre-existing generalised collective conscience through triangulated conversation between the generalised and particularised collective and individual consciences. In particular to revise the generalised collective conscience that teachers can program apps for learning about biodiversity. A number of features of teaching and learning were selected in general and their relationship to constructivism delineated. The teachers were prompted for their responses to each day of the course through a self evaluation tool and the responses were ranked according the the rubric. The data was analyzed using multidimensional scaling - ASCAL procedure - in SPSS 23TM and within the repertory grid domain according to the RepSocio tool in Rep 5TM. The plots show a gradual development throughout the week in terms of specific features becoming 'stronger' or exerting more influence towards the middle of the course and fragmenting after that. Analyses were able to show which participants correlated most closely with the hypothetical IDEAL within the community of practice. Concerning this community of practice, one determine the interrelationships within the community are determined using a social mapping exercise moving from the individual consciences to a particularised collective conscience.

This study aimed at assessing the extent to which the Saudi general population has embraced digital health medical applications to meet their health-related needs so that the Saudi Ministry of Health and government can appropriately be guided on scaling up of digital health across the country. As such, this study was guided by the question of to what extent do the Saudi people use digital health mobile-based applications?. This was a cross-sectional study utilizing snowballing sampling approach. Frequencies, Chi-square, and Spearman rank correlation statistics were used to offer descriptive and inferential analysis of the variables. The majority of the participants were economically able to afford smart devices that have medical apps, had at least an app on such devices, and highly regarded the benefits of the apps. Unfortunately, their understanding of how to use such apps was limited and this posed a barrier to embracing digital health alongside difficulty downloading apps, and medical ethical concerns. Although there is a willingness, extra effort is needed from the Saudi Ministry of Health and government to promote the uptake of digital health in Saudi Arabia.

Tinnitus is a complex and heterogeneous psycho-physiological disorder responsible for causing a phantom ringing or buzzing sound albeit the absence of an external sound source. It has a direct influence on affecting the quality of life of its sufferers. Despite being around for a while, there hasn’t been a cure for tinnitus, and the usual course of action for its treatment involves use of tinnitus retaining and sound therapy, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). One positive aspect about these therapies is that they can be administered face-to-face as well as delivered via internet or smartphone. Smartphones are especially helpful as they are highly personalized devices, and offer a well-established ecosystem of apps, accessible via respective marketplaces of differing mobile platforms. Note that current therapeutic treatments such as CBT have shown to be effective in suppressing the tinnitus symptoms when administered face-to-face, their effectiveness when being delivered using smartphones is not known so far. A quick search on the prominent market places of popular mobile platforms (Android and iOS) yielded roughly 250 smartphone apps offering tinnitus-related therapies and tinnitus management. As this number is expected to steadily increase due to high interest in smartphone app development, a contemporary review of such apps is crucial. In this paper, we aim to review scientific studies validating the smartphone apps, particularly to test their effectiveness in tinnitus management and treatment. We use the PRISMA guidelines for systematic identification of studies on major scientific literature sources and delineate the outcomes of identified studies.

New digital interventions have shown potential in managing asthma and improving patients' quality of life compared with conventional interventions. Our objective was to conduct an exhaustive survey of the application of digital health technologies in evaluating, treating, and self-managing psychological and psychopathological elements linked to asthma. We analyzed a compendium of research papers and systematic reviews pertaining to asthma, encompassing themes such as outdoor air pollution, early life wheezing disorders, atopic dermatitis, digital strategies for asthma self-management, psychiatric conditions and asthma, familial impacts on pediatric asthma, and the utilization of mobile health apps for managing asthma. We scrutinized eight chosen studies to evaluate the capacity of digital health technologies to enhance the man-agement and treatment outcomes of psychological factors related to asthma. The studies under review indicate that eHealth interventions, mixed reality instruments, mHealth technolo-gy-augmented nurse-led interventions, and smartphone apps incorporating Bluetooth-enabled sensors for asthma inhalers can markedly enhance self-management of symptoms, quality of life, and mental health outcomes, particularly in children and adolescents with asthma. Nonetheless, additional research is required to ascertain their efficacy and practicability across diverse populations and environments. Customized interventions that cater to the unique needs and preferences of asthma patients and associated psychological elements are vital to ensure the persistent and equitable adoption of these technologies. We underscore the significance of addressing psychological elements in the management and treatment of asthma and advocate for ongoing research and development in this domain.

There are many new land use and land cover (LULC) products emerging yet there is still a lack of in-situ data for training, validation, and change detection purposes. The LUCAS (Land Use Cover Area frame Sample) survey is one of the few authoritative in-situ field campaigns, which takes place every three years in European Union member countries. More recently, a study has considered whether citizen science and crowdsourcing could complement LUCAS survey data, e.g., through the FotoQuest Austria mobile app and crowdsourcing campaign. Although the data obtained from the campaign were promising when compared with authoritative LUCAS survey data, there were classes that were not well classified by the citizens, and the photographs submitted through the app were not always of sufficient quality. For this reason, in the latest FotoQuest Go Europe 2018 campaign, several improvements were made to the app to facilitate interaction with the citizens contributing and to improve their accuracy in LULC identification. In addition to extending the locations from Austria to Europe, a change detection component (comparing land cover in 2018 to the 2015 LUCAS photographs) was added, as well as an improved LC decision tree and a near real-time quality assurance system to provide feedback on the distance to the target location, the LULC classes chosen and the quality of the photographs. Another modification was the implementation of a monetary incentive scheme in which users received between 1 to 3 Euros for each successfully completed quest of sufficient quality. The purpose of this paper is to present these new features and to compare the results obtained by the citizens with authoritative LUCAS data from 2018 in terms of LULC and change in LC. We also compared the results between the FotoQuest campaigns in 2015 and 2018 and found a significant improvement in 2018, i.e., a much higher match of LC between FotoQuest Go Europe and LUCAS. Finally, we present the results from a user survey to discuss challenges encountered during the campaign and what further improvements could be made in the future, including better in-app navigation and offline maps, making FotoQuest a model for enabling the collection of large amounts of land cover data at a low cost.

While the mobile phone is the world’s most popular media device, it is actually not one single medium, but is effectively used as a different medium by different user groups. The article characterizes polymodal differences in mobile apps usage among different user groups, including gender, education, occupation, screen size, and price. We monitored the complete app usage of 10,725 smartphone users for one month each (56 million sessions, recording almost 1 million hours). Our key contribution consists in developing and analyzing a theoretical framework to classify the over 16,000 apps used into five categories. Exploring nine research questions we provide a broad characterization by asking who, with which characteristics, uses which kinds of apps in what extensity and intensity? For example, it is not the young and high occupational grades that use the mobile phone as a human-to-machine computer (including gaming and artificial intelligence tools). Large screen size is related to extensive long sessions, while a small screen size is related to intensive frequent usage. The results go beyond providing ample empirical evidence for the inherently polymodal nature of the mobile phone, but also proposes a framework on how to possibility deal with it analytically.

Background and Objectives: Elders’ needs are rarely examined beforehand, and thus, although technology-based tools can enhance self-management, acceptability rates are still low. This study aimed to examine and compare self-reported needs, priorities, and preferences of elders with heart failure (HF), diabetes mellitus (DM), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) toward technology use to enhance self-management. Materials and Methods: A convenience sample of 473 participants over 60s (60.5% females), diagnosed with HF (N=156), DM (N=164), or COPD (N=153) was recruited. They were administered a questionnaire about the usefulness of technology in general and in specific areas of disease management. Results: Most participants (84.7%) admitted that technology is needed for better disease management. This was equally recognized across the three groups both for the overall and specific areas of disease management (in order of priority: ‘Information’, ‘Communication with Physicians & Caregivers’, and ‘Quality of Life & Wellbeing’). Sociodemographic differences were found. Cell phones and PCs were the devices of preference. The four common features prioritized by all three groups were related to ‘information about disease management’ (i.e., monitoring symptoms, reminders for medication intake, management and prevention of complications), whereas the fifth one was related to ‘communication with physicians and caregivers (i.e., in case of abnormal or critical signs). The top disease-specific feature was also monitoring systems (of respiratory rate or blood sugar or blood pressure, oxygen), whereas other disease-specific features followed (i.e., maintaining normal weight for HF patients, adjusting insulin dose for DM patients, and training on breathing exercises for COPD patients). Conclusions: Elders in these three samples seem receptive to technology in disease management. mHealth tools, incorporating both common and disease-specific features and addressing different chronic patients, and being personalized at the same time, could be cost-saving and useful adjuncts in routine clinical care to improve self-management.

This paper presents Tiltification, a multi modal spirit level application for smartphones. The non-profit app was produced by students in the master project “Sonification Apps” in winter term 2020/21 at the University of Bremen. In the app, psychoacoustic sonification is used to give feedback on the device’s rotation angles in two plane dimensions, allowing users to level furniture or take perfectly horizontal photos. Tiltification supplements the market of spirit level apps with the unique feature of auditory information processing. This provides for additional benefit in comparison to a physical spirit level and for more accessibility for visu- ally and cognitively impaired people. We argue that the distribution of sonification apps through mainstream channels is a contribution to establish sonification in the market and make it better known to users outside the scientific domain. We hope that the auditory display community will support us by using and recommending the app and by providing valuable feedback on the app functionality and design, and on our communication, advertisement and distribution strategy.

Replacement of fee-for-service with capitation arrangements, forces physicians and institutions to minimize health care costs, while maintaining high-quality care. In this report we describe how patients, their families (and caregivers) can work with members of the medical care team to achieve these twin goals of maintaining (and perhaps improving) high-quality care and minimizing costs. We describe how increased self-management enables patients and their families/caregivers to provide electronic patient-reported outcomes (i.e., symptoms, events) (ePROs) as frequently as the patient or the medical care team consider appropriate. These capabilities also allow greater reliance on the use of mobile technologies (mHealth) to provide ongoing assessments of physiologic measurements/phenomena. Remote surveillance of these communications allows longer intervals between (fewer) visits of patients to the medical-care team when this is appropriate and earlier interventions when that is appropriate. Systems are now available that alert medical care providers to situations when interventions might be needed.

Health literacy describes skills and competencies that enable people to gain access to, understand and apply health information to positively influence their own health and the health of those in the social environment. In an increasingly media saturated and digitized world, these skill sets are necessary for accessing and navigating sources of health information and tools, such as television, the Internet, and mobile apps. The concepts of Media Health Literacy (MHL) and eHealth Literacy (eHL) describe the specific competencies such tasks require. This article introduces the two concepts, and then reviews findings on the associations of MHL and eHL with several contextual variables in the social environment such as socio-demographics, social support, and system complexity, as a structural variable. As eHL and MHL are crucial for empowering people to actively engage in their own health, a growing body of literature reports of the potential and the effectiveness of intervention initiatives to positively influence these competencies. From an ethical standpoint, equity is emphasized, stressing the importance of accessible media environments for all - including those at risk of exclusion from (digital) media sources. Alignment of micro and macro contextual spheres will ultimately facilitate both non-digital and digital media to effectively support and promote public health.

There are numerous hazards found on the farms. Most of them are ignored, which might cause the farmer to pay later in terms of his ill health, potential injuries or death. The current article discusses some of the common issues such as dust and air quality concerns; environmental (weather) stressors and psychological stressors; noise and hearing protection; and tractor safety and seatbelt use. And finally, the recommendations to overcome the hazards are discussed.

Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have grown rapidly in recent years in the context of computing with smart mobile phones that typically allows the devices to function in an intelligent manner. Popular AI techniques include machine learning and deep learning methods, natural language processing, as well as knowledge representation and expert systems, can be used to make the target mobile applications intelligent and more effective. In this paper, we present a comprehensive view on mobile data science and intelligent apps in terms of concepts and AI-based modeling that can be used to design and develop intelligent mobile applications for the betterment of human life in their diverse day-to-day situation. This study also includes the concepts and insights of various AI-powered intelligent apps in several application domains, ranging from personalized recommendation to healthcare services, including COVID-19 pandemic management in recent days. Finally, we highlight several research issues and future directions relevant to our analysis in the area of mobile data science and intelligent apps. Overall, this paper aims to serve as a reference point and guidelines for the mobile application developers as well as the researchers in this domain, particularly from the technical point of view.

While current studies have focused on adoption and the relevant content of the app to become a decision support system, very few studies have focused on the farmer's intention and initial decision to adopt. Based on a survey of 394 smallholder farmers this study investigated Mexican farmers’ willingness to adopt an agricultural advice app. A Structural Equation Modelling approach, based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was applied. To understand farmers’ adoption decision, extended constructs were studied (e.g. mastery-approach goals) along with farmers’ age and participation in an innovation hub. Results showed that the intention to adopt the app is predicted by how farmers believe that technical infrastructure exists and by the expectation of the farmers using the app to acquire new knowledge. The multi-group analysis revealed that performance expectancy is a relevant predictor of the intention to adopt, whereas the mastery-approach goal is relevant only for younger and farmers not connected to the innovation hub. The results may well be a baseline to research further suitable non-financial incentives for different farmers’ groups, then encourage initial adoption and enhance uptake. The findings are useful for practitioners and app developers designing digital decision support tools.