Social botnets have become an important phenomenon on social media. There are many ways in which social bots can disrupt or influence online discourse, such as, spam hashtags, scam twitter users, and astroturfing. In this paper we considered one specific social botnet in Twitter to understand how it grows over time, how the content of tweets by the social botnet differ from regular users in the same dataset, and lastly, how the social botnet may have influenced the relevant discussions. Our analysis is based on a qualitative coding for approximately 3000 tweets in Arabic and English from the Syrian social bot that was active for 35 weeks on Twitter before it was shutdown. We find that the growth, behavior and content of this particular botnet did not specifically align with common conceptions of botnets. Further we identify interesting aspects of the botnet that distinguish it from regular users.
Background: Smart home technologies provide a valuable resource to unobtrusively monitor health and wellness within an older adult population. However, the breadth and density of data available along with aging associated decreases in working memory, prospective memory, spatial cognition, and processing speed can make it challenging to comprehend for older adults. We developed visualizations of smart home health data integrated into a framework of wellness. We evaluated the visualizations through focus groups with older adults and identified recommendations to guide the future development of visualizations. Materials and Methods: We conducted four focus groups with older adult participants (n = 31) at an independent retirement community. Participants were presented with three different visualizations from a wellness pilot study. A qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted to identify thematic content. Results: We identified three themes related to processing and application of visualizations: (1) values of visualizations for wellness assessment, (2) cognitive processing approaches to visualizations, and (3) integration of health data for visualization. In addition, the focus groups highlighted key design considerations of visualizations important towards supporting decision-making and evaluation assessments within integrated health displays. Conclusions: Participants found inherent value in having visualizations available to proactively engage with their healthcare provider. Integrating the visualizations into a wellness framework helped reduce the complexity of raw smart home data. There has been limited work on health visualizations from a consumer perspective, in particular for an older adult population. Creating appropriately designed visualizations is valuable towards promoting consumer involvement within the shared decision-making process of care.
We developed a Web-based patient empowerment platform that combined acceptance and commitment therapy-based educational modules and tailored coaching sessions with longitudinal tracking of treatments and patient-reported outcomes, named PTSM. Pilot controlled trial results provide preliminary support for its efficacy in improving pain self-efficacy, activity engagement, pain intensity and interference, and satisfaction with pain treatment.
Extensive interviews with riders of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bus system revealed that, as the top priority, riders wanted to know the actual arrival time of buses. Following a universal design approach, a system called Tiramisu was created to foster a greater sense of community between riders and transit bus service providers. The design focused on acquisition of crowdsourced information for bus location and bus fullness. On the basis of that input, the system predicted the arrival time of buses and provided a convenient platform for reporting problems and positive experiences within the transit system. The intention was to create a community of riders that materially participated in the delivery of the transit service. Tiramisu also supported specific information and reporting needs for riders with disabilities and thereby provided greater independent mobility around the community. An early field trial of Tiramisu suggested that the approach was both feasible and potentially viable.
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