HumanISE - Indexed Articles in Journals

Permanent URI for this collection

http://localhost:4000/handle/123456789/141

Browse

Browsing HumanISE - Indexed Articles in Journals by Title

  • Item
    Accessible software development: a conceptual model proposal
    ( 2019) Ramiro Gonçalves ; José Luís Martins ; Au Yong Oliveira,M ; Pereira,A ; Sousa e Silva,JSE ; Frederico Branco ; 5754 ; 6516 ; 6499
    Equal access to all software and digital content should be a reality in the Digital Era. This argument is something defended both by existing regulations, norms and standards, and also business organizations and governments. Despite this acknowledgement, the reality is still far from the desired equality. For certain groups of disabled or impaired citizens, such as the visually impaired, the existence of e-accessibility compliance represents an opportunity to integrate, in a more simple and straightforward manner, their societies. Despite the existing poor results on e-accessibility compliance, the mentioned citizens insist on using digital devices in their daily lives. Even though, in the last decade, multiple standards and regulations have been published towards indicating how to develop accessible digital user interfaces, there are still two major issues surrounding its implementation: the complexity and disparity of the documents containing the abovementioned norms, and also the lack of e-accessibility know-how by software experts. With this in mind, a proposal for an accessible software development model that encompasses e-accessibility incorporation as one of the development process activities has been presented. This model might represent a very interesting support tool for software development organizations and a novel resource for learning and training institutions to be able to improve their computer science and informatics students' skills on e-accessibility.
  • Item
    Adaptation and Validation of the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) in a Portuguese Sample
    ( 2016) José Vasconcelos Raposo ; Maximino Bessa ; Miguel Correia Melo ; Luis Barbosa ; Rui Pedro Rodrigues ; Teixeira,CM ; Cabral,L ; Augusto Sousa
    The present study aims (a) to translate and adapt the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) to the Portuguese context (semantic equivalence/ conceptual and content validity) and (b) to examine its psychometric properties (reliability and factorial validity). The sample consisted of 478 subjects (285 males and 193 females). The fidelity of the factors varied between 0.53 and 0.83. The confirmatory factor analysis results produced a 14-item version of IPQ-PT, accepting covariance between residual errors of some items of the instrument, as the best structural representation of the data analyzed. The CFA was conducted based on a three-variable model. The fit indexes obtained were X-2/df = 2.647, GFI = .948, CFI = .941, RSMEA = .059, and AIC = 254. These values demonstrate that the proposed Portuguese translation of the IPQ maintains its original validity, demonstrating it to be a robust questionnaire to measure the sense of presence in virtual reality studies. It is therefore recommended for use in presence research when using Portuguese samples.
  • Item
    Adaptation and Validation of the Temple Presence Inventory in a Portuguese Population
    ( 2019) José Vasconcelos Raposo ; Miguel Correia Melo ; Cabral,L ; Teixeira,CM ; Maximino Bessa ; 6565 ; 5095 ; 5408
  • Item
    Ambient radioactivity and atmospheric electric field: A joint study in an urban environment
    ( 2020) Susana Alexandra Barbosa ; 6363
    Ambient radioactivity and atmospheric electricity are inextricably linked phenomena. In order to assess the role of ambient radioactivity in the local variability of the atmospheric electric field at an urban site, simultaneous measurements of radon concentration, gamma radiation, and atmospheric electric field are carried out in the city of Porto, Portugal. Both radon and gamma radiation display an average daily cycle peaking before sunrise, but with considerable variability from day to day, particularly in amplitude. The atmospheric electric field displays a daily cycle with a minimum at dawn and maximum in the early afternoon, as well as a secondary peak in the early morning. The temporal variation of the daily patterns is analysed by means of an empirical orthogonal function analysis, and related to local meteorological parameters. The variability of the local atmospheric electric field is mainly determined by aerosol transport and accumulation close to the surface associated with local meteorological conditions and atmospheric stability rather than by conductivity variations associated with ambient radioactivity. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
  • Item
    Applying an Extended Kernel Density 4-Step Floating Catchment Area Method to Identify Priority Districts to Promote New Publicly Financed Supply of Gastroenterology Exams
    ( 2017) Polzin,P ; José Luís Borges ; António Coelho
    In continental Portugal, the publicly financed supply of gastroenterology exams was limited since the end of the last century, restricted to a fixed set of private providers that was hired by the Portuguese state. This way of contracting created market entry barriers and is inefficient, since prices are administratively set. Besides, it produced access inequalities, because of the way that the supply was geographically distributed. This paper applies the Extended Kernel Density 4-Step Floating Catchment Area (EKD4SFCA) method to identify priority districts for the promotion of new supply by the state, in order to choose the appropriate way of contracting new private supply, as determined by current law, and to reduce access inequalities. The applied method enables the identification of the Portuguese regions with strong competition between health care providers and where patients’ access to publicly financed gastroenterology exams is relatively low. In these regions, the state should promote public bids to stimulate new supply, exploring thereby the potential for setting lower prices and reducing access inequalities.
  • Item
    Assessing arsenic and selenium in a single nail clipping using portable X-ray fluorescence
    ( 2017) Fleming,DEB ; Nader,MN ; Foran,KA ; Groskopf,C ; Reno,MC ; Ware,CS ; Tehrani,M ; Diana Filipa Guimarães ; Parsons,PJ
    The feasibility of measuring arsenic and selenium contents in a single nail clipping was investigated using a small-focus portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrument with monochromatic excitation beams. Nail clipping phantoms supplemented with arsenic and selenium to produce materials with 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mu g/g were used for calibration purposes. In total, 10 different clippings were analyzed at two different measurement positions. Energy spectra were fit with detection peaks for arsenic K-alpha, selenium K-alpha, arsenic K-beta, selenium K-beta, and bromine K-alpha characteristic X-rays. Data analysis was performed under two distinct conditions of fitting constraint. Calibration lines were established from the amplitude of each of the arsenic and selenium peaks as a function of the elemental contents in the clippings. The slopes of the four calibration lines were consistent between the two conditions of analysis. The calculated minimum detection limit (MDL) of the method, when considering the Ka peak only, ranged from 0.210 +/- 0.002 mu g/g selenium under one condition of analysis to 0.777 +/- 0.009 mu g/g selenium under another. Compared with previous portable XRF nail clipping studies, MDLs were substantially improved for both arsenic and selenium. The new measurement technique had the additional benefits of being short in duration (similar to 3 min) and requiring only a single nail clipping. The mass of the individual clipping used did not appear to play a major role in signal strength, but positioning of the clipping is important.
  • Item
    Assessing driver's mental representation of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and its possible effects on behavioural adaptations
    ( 2012) Giulio Piccinini ; Carlos Rodrigues ; Anabela Simões ; Miguel Leitão
    The introduction of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) could be very helpful for making the longitudinal driving task more comfortable for the drivers and, as a consequence, it could have a global beneficial effect on road safety. However, before or during the usage of the device, due to several reasons, drivers might generate in their mind incomplete or flawed mental representations about the fundamental operation principles of ACC; hence, the resulting usage of the device might be improper, negatively affecting the human-machine interaction and cooperation and, in some cases, leading to negative behavioural adaptations to the system that might neutralise the desirable positive effects on road safety. Within this context, this paper will introduce the methodology which has been developed in order to analyse in detail the topic and foresee, in the future, adequate actions for the recovery of inaccurate mental representations of the system.
  • Item
    Assessing presence in virtual environments: adaptation of the psychometric properties of the Presence Questionnaire to the Portuguese populations
    ( 2021) Vasconcelos Raposo,J ; Miguel Correia Melo ; Luis Barbosa ; Teixeira,C ; Cabral,L ; Maximino Bessa ; 5408 ; 6279 ; 5095
  • Item
    Assessing the success behind the use of education management information systems in higher education
    ( 2019) José Luís Martins ; Cruz Jesus,F ; Naranjo Zolotov,M ; Oliveira,T ; Au Yong Oliveira,M ; Ramiro Gonçalves ; Frederico Branco ; 6516 ; 5754 ; 6499
  • Item
    Authoring tools for virtual reality experiences: a systematic review
    ( 2022) Hugo Rafael Mendes ; Pedro Ermida Monteiro ; Guilherme Santos Gonçalves ; Miguel Correia Melo ; Maximino Bessa ; 5095 ; 5408 ; 6871 ; 6927 ; 7622
    Virtual reality (VR) is used in different application fields like health, tourism, or training. Most VR applications for these fields have been built from the ground up without any authoring tool to help the process. This systematic review surveys the existing literature on authoring tools for immersive content and critically analyzes its features and how they are evaluated. It proposes a research agenda with key contribution opportunities for the field. An analysis of the 29 studies that met the eligibility criteria revealed that four records did not present any evaluation regarding the authoring tools' evaluation, and only five records used specialized users to evaluate their authoring tools; all the others used non-specialized users. The most evaluated metrics were usability, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The data collected to evaluate the metrics consisted mainly of Likert scales and reported mean opinion score (MOS). However, few records used well-established questionnaires to evaluate those metrics like System Usability Scale, Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire, After-Scenario Questionnaire and Igroup Presence Questionnaire. Additionally, five of the analyzed records included stimuli other than audiovisual. More research is recommended about the usage of ontologies in authoring tools to comprehend the full potential of its usage since none of them had ontologies.
  • Item
    Automatic detection of bunches of grapes in natural environment from color images
    ( 2012) José Batista ; António Valente ; Salviano Soares ; Olga Contente ; Raul Morais ; Emanuel Peres Correia ; M.J.C.S. Reis ; Carlos Pereira ; José Bulas Cruz ; P.J.S.G. Ferreira
  • Item
    Backward Compatible Object Detection Using HDR Image Content
    ( 2020) Mukherjee,R ; Miguel Correia Melo ; Vitor Manuel Filipe ; Chalmers,A ; Maximino Bessa ; 5095 ; 5408 ; 5843
    Convolution Neural Network (CNN)-based object detection models have achieved unprecedented accuracy in challenging detection tasks. However, existing detection models (detection heads) trained on 8-bits/pixel/channel low dynamic range (LDR) images are unable to detect relevant objects under lighting conditions where a portion of the image is either under-exposed or over-exposed. Although this issue can be addressed by introducing High Dynamic Range (HDR) content and training existing detection heads on HDR content, there are several major challenges, such as the lack of real-life annotated HDR dataset(s) and extensive computational resources required for training and the hyper-parameter search. In this paper, we introduce an alternative backwards-compatible methodology to detect objects in challenging lighting conditions using existing CNN-based detection heads. This approach facilitates the use of HDR imaging without the immediate need for creating annotated HDR datasets and the associated expensive retraining procedure. The proposed approach uses HDR imaging to capture relevant details in high contrast scenarios. Subsequently, the scene dynamic range and wider colour gamut are compressed using HDR to LDR mapping techniques such that the salient highlight, shadow, and chroma details are preserved. The mapped LDR image can then be used by existing pre-trained models to extract relevant features required to detect objects in both the under-exposed and over-exposed regions of a scene. In addition, we also conduct an evaluation to study the feasibility of using existing HDR to LDR mapping techniques with existing detection heads trained on standard detection datasets such as PASCAL VOC and MSCOCO. Results show that the images obtained from the mapping techniques are suitable for object detection, and some of them can significantly outperform traditional LDR images.
  • Item
    Balancing European SME Managers’ Training Contents: Perceived Importance & Training Needs
    ( 2014) Leonel Morgado ; Varajão,J ; Dominguez,C ; Oliveira,I ; Sousa,F
  • Item
  • Item
    A Binary Translation Framework for Automated Hardware Generation
    ( 2021) Nuno Miguel Paulino ; João Bispo ; João Canas Ferreira ; João Paiva Cardoso ; 6527 ; 5550 ; 473 ; 5802
  • Item
    A Bot Spooler Architecture to Integrate Virtual Worlds with E-learning Management Systems for Corporate Training
    ( 2016) Leonel Morgado ; Hugo Paredes ; Benjamim Fonseca ; Paulo Martins ; Almeida,A ; Vilela,A ; Peixinho,F ; Arnaldo Santos
    Joining efforts of academic and corporate teams, we developed an integration architecture - MULTIS - that enables corporate e-learning managers to use a Learning Management System (LMS) for management of educational activities in virtual worlds. This architecture was then implemented for the Formare LMS. In this paper we present this architecture and concretizations of its implementation for the Second Life Grid/OpenSimulator virtual world platforms. Current systems are focused on activities managed by individual trainers, rather than groups of trainers and large numbers of trainees: they focus on providing the LMS with information about educational activities taking place in a virtual world and/or being able to access within the virtual world some of the information stored in the LMS, and disregard the streamlining of activity setup and data collection in multi-trainer contexts, among other administrative issues. This architecture aims to overcome the limitations of existing systems for organizational management of corporate e-learning activities.
  • Item
    Can Presence Improve Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds?
    ( 2014) Cruz,A ; Hugo Paredes ; Benjamim Fonseca ; Leonel Morgado ; Paulo Martins
  • Item
    Can user and task characteristics be used as predictors of success in health information retrieval sessions?
    ( 2018) Carla Lopes ; Sérgio Nunes ; Oroszlanyova,M ; Cristina Ribeiro ; 215 ; 5448 ; 6205
    Introduction. The concept and study of relevance has been a central subject in information science. Although research in information retrieval has been focused on topical relevance, other kinds of relevance are also important and justify further study. Motivational relevance is typically inferred by criteria such as user satisfaction and success. Method. Using an existing dataset composed by an annotated set of health Web documents assessed for relevance and comprehension by a group of users, we build a multivariate prediction model for the motivational relevance of search sessions. Analysis. The analysis was based on lasso variable selection, followed by model selection using multiple logistic regression. Results. We have built two regression models; the full model, which considers all variables of the dataset, has a lower estimated prediction error than the reduced model, which contains the statistically-significant variables from the full model. The higher values of evaluation metrics, including accuracy, specificity and sensitivity in the full model support this finding. The full model has an accuracy of 91.94%, and is better at predicting motivational relevance. Conclusions. Our findings suggest features that can be considered by search engines to estimate motivational relevance, to be used in addition to topical relevance. Among these features, a high level of success in Web search and in health information search on social networks and chats are some of the most influencing user features. This shows that users with higher computer literacy might feel more satisfied and successful after completing the search tasks. In terms of task features, the results suggest that users with clearer goals feel more successful. Moreover, results show that users would benefit from the help of the system in clarifying the retrieved documents.
  • Item
    Collaboration in 3D Virtual Worlds: a protocol for case study research
    ( 2016) Armando Jorge Cruz ; Hugo Paredes ; Benjamim Fonseca ; Paulo Martins ; Leonel Morgado
    NULL
  • Item
    Collaborative immersive authoring tool for real-time creation of multisensory VR experiences
    ( 2019) Hugo Rafael Mendes ; Maximino Bessa ; José Luís Martins ; Miguel Correia Melo ; 6516 ; 5408 ; 5095 ; 7622
    With the appearance of innovative virtual reality (VR) technologies, the need to create immersive content arose. Although there are already some non-immersive solutions to address immersive audio-visual content, there are no solutions that allow the creation of immersive multisensory content. This work proposes a novel architecture for a collaborative immersive tool that allows the creation of multisensory VR experiences in real-time, thus promoting the expeditious development, adoption, and use of immersive systems and enabling the building of custom-solutions that can be used in an intuitive manner to support organizations’ business initiatives. To validate the presented proposal, two approaches for the authoring tools (Desktop interface and Immersive interface) were subjected to a set of tests and evaluations consisting of a usability study that demonstrated not only the participants’ acceptance of the authoring tool but also the importance of using immersive interfaces for the creation of such VR experiences. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.