Advancements in medical science and technology, medicine and public health coupled with increased consciousness about nutrition and environmental and personal hygiene have paved the way for the dramatic increase in life expectancy globally in the past several decades. However, increased life expectancy has given rise to an increasing aging population, thus jeopardizing the socio-economic structure of many countries in terms of costs associated with elderly healthcare and wellbeing. In order to cope with the growing need for elderly healthcare services, it is essential to develop affordable, unobtrusive and easy-to-use healthcare solutions. Smart homes, which incorporate environmental and wearable medical sensors, actuators, and modern communication and information technologies, can enable continuous and remote monitoring of elderly health and wellbeing at a low cost. Smart homes may allow the elderly to stay in their comfortable home environments instead of expensive and limited healthcare facilities. Healthcare personnel can also keep track of the overall health condition of the elderly in real-time and provide feedback and support from distant facilities. In this paper, we have presented a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art research and development in smart home based remote healthcare technologies.

Purpose A great number of people use mobile social networks (MSNs) to communicate, entertain, learn, search and get advice. Growth and survival of any community depends on the activities of its members in sharing information and knowledge. The purpose of this study is to assess the influential factors on knowledge sharing behavior in MSNs in different perspectives in a comprehensive manner. Design/methodology/approach A model of factors affecting knowledge sharing behavior in MSNs is proposed by applying the structural equation modeling and path analysis to data collected from a sample of users of a well-known MSN through a questionnaire. Findings This study supports the contributive aspects of trust and enjoying participation in sharing knowledge, while there is no significant correlation between perceived ease of use and knowledge sharing behavior in MSNs. Furthermore, intention to share knowledge can lead to actual behavior in MSNs environments. Practical implications The results obtained here provide a grasp of factors that influence knowledge sharing in mobile communities which would promote enhanced contribution towards their online communities by MSNs administrators. Originality/value A four-dimensional comprehensive model consisting of social, psychological, cultural and technological perspectives in one package is proposed here for knowledge sharing behavior in MSNs. Such a comprehensive perspective is overlooked in the existing literature.

No abstract

A key goal of software engineering research is to improve the environments, tools, languages, and techniques programmers use to efficiently create quality software. Successfully designing these tools and demonstrating their effectiveness involves engaging with tool users — software engineers. Researchers often want to conduct user studies of software engineers to collect direct evidence. However, running user studies can be difficult, and researchers may lack solution strategies to overcome the barriers, so they may avoid user studies. To understand the challenges researchers face when conducting programmer user studies, we interviewed 26 researchers. Based on the analysis of interview data we contribute: (i) a taxonomy of 18 barriers researchers encounter; (ii) 23 solution strategies some researchers use to address 8 of the 18 barriers in their own studies; and (iii) 4 design ideas, which we adapted from the behavioral science community, that may lower 8 additional barriers. To validate the design ideas, we held an in-person all-day focus group with 16 researchers.

No abstract