BACKGROUND: Dementia is a common form of Alzheimer disease which is affecting the quality of older adults' life. Non-drug treatment such as cognitive therapies are more beneficial for such patients. These days, mobile applications are providing tremendous opportunities for aiding the medicinal treatment. OBJECTIVES: This paper presents CareDa mobile application based solution for dementia patients and their caregivers. Unlike, other available mobile applications, CareD provide a single resolution for maximum dementia related complications. The main objective of this application is to improve the quality of life of dementia patients and facilitate their caregivers. CareD also aims at providing native language support i.e. Urdu to the people of Pakistan. METHODS: CareD comprises of various modules including cognitive therapy sessions, patient tracking, reminders, healthy living to aid dementia patients in their everyday activities. Experimental study involving dementia patients and their caregivers has been carried out to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of this application. RESULTS: Twenty patients were included in the study. Results showed that CareD is very effective and helpful in decreasing the disease progression as well as in relieving the burden of caregivers. CONCLUSION: CareD has been found to be a useful and efficient solution for dementia patients. It was observed that utilization of mobile application was progressively successful in reducing the stress of both; patients and their caregivers. The use of native language Urdu made the application more learnable for older adults and improved its acceptance.
Text based passwords are commonly used for authentication in computing environment. Although passwords are considered as the initial line of protection for users but they remain easy to compromise. To improve the security of systems, various password composition polices are adopted. These policies ensure that users are made to choose strong passwords that help prevent online breaches and data leaks. However, it also make passwords difficult to memorize and recall, decreasing the overall usability. In this study we investigated the usability of password policies and users' perceptions of password security. We conducted a user study based on experimental evaluation and online survey. During the experimental evaluation users were asked to set their passwords using four different password polices. We used multiple experiment setups and scenarios to create real life situations. The result highlights the key difficulties faced by the users in recalling complex passwords and their inclination towards setting easy-to-guess passwords. We also studied the impact of age and domain knowledge on choosing passwords. The analysis shows that complex password polices are annoying for users and it takes more time to create such passwords. Similarly, to increase the memorability of passwords majority of users choose family member names and common dictionary words in their passwords. Using same passwords for the multiple accounts was also a common practice noticed during the study. We also evaluated the resistance of passwords created by the users against popular attacks using various password cracking tools.
The outbreak of novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), reported initially in December 2019 by China, has caused disruption all over the world. To control the spreading of this virus all the countries around the world imposed strict lockdown leading to shutting down of all businesses, educational institutions, entertainment centers, etc. Higher Educational Institutions (HEI), across the world, switched to online mode of learning instantly to continue their degree programs. Following the trend, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan encouraged HEIs to begin online classes. Although, online learning seemed to be the best possible solution during indefinite closure of institutes, but the sudden change in teaching and learning paradigm was not well accepted and unprecedented challenges emerged. This study aims at identifying the barriers specific to students and teachers in this abrupt shift. Moreover, it examines the satisfaction level of undergraduate students regarding online education practices during the COVID-19 epidemic. The study employed survey design and carried it out through two distinct questionnaires that are, for students and teachers which were distributed online via social media platforms. A total of 1280 students participated in students’ questionnaire while 112 teachers contributed to filling out teachers’ survey. Content Quality (CQ), Content Availability (CA), Teacher Interaction (TI), and Mode of Lecture Delivery (MLD) were considered as the predictor variables for student satisfaction. Regression and correlation analyses were performed to find out the contribution of the aforementioned variables. The survey results concluded that the lack of interaction among students and teachers is the major hurdle in online learning. Regression results revealed that the overall model with all four predictors was significantly predictive of student satisfaction. The results further revealed that MLD is the strongest and most significant of all. We believe the findings of this study can provide beneficial insights in improving the paradigm shift with greater efficiency in this pandemic.
Blockchain technology (BT) has a wide range of built-in features, such as decentralization, transparency, data provenance, security, immutability, and has moved beyond the hype to practical applications in the healthcare industry. Telehealth turns out to be the most efficient and effective way of dispensing healthcare services even in remote areas. Though telehealth has the proven potential to improve the quality of healthcare, its implementation and adoption remain far from ideal. There is a need for a telehealth system that not only ensures the privacy and security of the users but also provides authentic services that enhance the trust to the highest level. Existing applications are leveraging BT and providing limited telehealth services. These applications are focused on a few services; hence do not cover all aspects of healthcare. To unveil the true potential of telehealth, this paper aims to develop an effective telehealth framework-BlockHeal which integrates all essential healthcare services under one platform and ensures a full-fledged trusted environment. The methodology employed includes survey of existing telehealth system, identifying their weaknesses and critical reasons behind their lack of widespread adoption. The proposed framework addresses the limitations and includes all stakeholders of the healthcare system instigating a consolidated platform to ensure authentic, safe, and timely healthcare facilities. Additionally, as the proposed framework is based on BT, it ensures the provision of secure, fault-tolerant, transparent, and tamper-proof data. Moreover, it offers decentralized storage via hyperledger fabric and a collection of decentralized applications (DApps). Finally, the effectiveness of the BlockHeal framework is validated by demonstrating several use-cases.
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