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I am interested in researching the growth of Anopheles mosquitoes at a village level. Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for transmission of malaria by carrying malaria parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum and vivax.
I am trying to understand the impact of local temperature on the growth of Anopheles vector (egg, larva, pupae, and adult). Temperature is one of the parameters that influences the growth of mosquito in their life stages. Research question would be: ‘What is the impact of local temperature on the growth of Anopheles population?’
Understanding the impact of local temperature on the growth can be useful in predicting the high-risk and low-risk areas, which in turn can be used by policymakers in tailored intervention and control strategies. This is currently my research topic for my independent study (more focus on applying the model rather than formulating the whole model from scratch).
I understand that the modeling the temperature dependent population growth could be complex. So, please feel free to share your comments and suggestions. -
I have faced similar issues when running the code. So, the issue mostly is some of the library used in the codes are archived. So, I need to install those packages from elsewhere. I think there are two or three packages that cannot be installed easily. Mostly I solved it by searching those packages in CRAN repositories and tried to install them. It worked for me.
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1. The author stated that there has been an increase in the number of suicides in Thailand, higher than 6 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Additionally, Thailand is different from other countries in terms of economic and social factors. Besides, there is a lack of study using macro-level data on this topic.
2. One potential risk factor is the prevalence of drinking. In the study, the rate of suicide increases with the increase in the prevalence of drinking. The author stated that alcohol reduces self-control and encourages people with severe mental health problems like depression to commit suicide. I agree with his discussion. Alcohol reduces one’s ability to think clearly and, most of the time, even motivates one to perform harmful actions.
3. Statistical modeling quantifies the relationship between social, economic, and other relevant factors and the rate of suicide using provincial data. Without the use of statistical method, one would assume that the economic hardship and lower income would lead to higher suicide rate. However, the result of the study using statistical model shows that it is not true by providing the estimate of coefficients and its direction.
Additionally, using regression, the author clearly demonstrated the spatial aspects of Thai suicide problem. For example, provinces with higher rate of divorce can tend to increase the suicide rate if other variables are held constant. It can assist in allocating necessary resources and policies according to the predicted rate of each province. -
1. There are many established public health studies on the comparison between time and person. However, the comparison between small-scale location study have not been incorporated as much as other components. The reasons are due to the availability and quality of data, lack of advanced software to visualize and analyze spatial data, the complexities of analytical framework, and the privacy and confidentiality issues.
1. Spatial epidemiology can be considered as an interdisciplinary science because it incorporates principles and concepts from other fields to have a better understanding of the distribution and patterns of public health concern across different locations. For example, it incorporates with the fields of statistics, environmental science, social science.
2. The place where we live and work can be regarded as a potential disease determinant because we are exposed to the things that are attached to those places for a significant portion of our life. For example, the places we work might be an area where the pollution is significantly higher than other places, resulting in higher morbidity rate. Additionally, the places we live might be near to vegetation and grasses, leading to higher rate of vector-borne diseases. -
1. What are the user ratings for different vaccination apps?
According to the study, most apps included in this systematic review has a user rating of 4-5. It means that users are mostly satisfied with such vaccination related apps.
3. What factors influence user satisfaction with vaccination apps?
Content, functionality, experience, privacy, and service attitude are the five main areas that are related to the user satisfaction with vaccination apps. Among them, users were dissatisfied with the privacy issues. Additionally, users experience on independence apps were better due to the nature of strict review of such apps and the information being updated regularly.
4. What role does privacy play in user evaluations?
Privacy plays an important role in user evaluations because in health applications, users are usually required to put some personal health information such as their vaccination records, or vital signs or so on. So, it is paramount important that their health data are handled in accordance with confidentiality and privacy. In the study, privacy is the most dissatisfied area in user evaluation. It highlights the need to improvement in privacy aspects of vaccination apps.
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1. Intercountry disease transmission and inclusion of broader population characteristics in tracking mobility should be potential follow-up studies according to the article.
2. Government restrictions during COVID-19 in Thailand have shown to be effective in restricting the mobility of people in the villages near the border. Before any restriction, people in those villages make more long trips to the neighboring country, compared to short trips. After restriction, people make more short trips than long trips. Additionally, curfews are also proved to be effective in restricting the mobility. RoG value decreased significantly after imposing the nighttime curfew.
3. After restrictions eased, the mobility pattern reaches almost back to normal, highlighting the need of caution in relaxing the restriction so as to deter second wave or another potential episode.
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1. According to the provided article, usability, and the type of notification platform are the two important factors influencing the participant engagement.
2. For mobile app uses, there are additional complexities compared to web-app users. For example, after installing the mobile app, the user are required to register CANImmunize account, which adds extra barrier. Another barrier is the smaller font in the mobile application which makes it harder for older populations.
3. Web-based platform received more responses in both vaccine safety survey and user experience surveys compared to mobile application counterpart. Web-based platform is more user-friendly and adapted for target populations compared to mobile counterpart which has several barriers for target population such as complex registration, having extra steps like installing an app, and so on.
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1. It felt a little bit different. Even though we can interact like opening camera, talking via microphone, it does not feel real, I felt sense of the loss of human-to-human interaction. Secondly, I felt disoriented after a few strolls around the gallery, but I believe it will get better and smoother if more people are invested in VR setting.
2. I think virtual gallery spaces can be a useful alternative of in-person academic conferences. Firstly, we do not have to be physically present, so it can save time. Secondly, it is easily accessible, we can access it anytime and anywhere we want. Thirdly, we can add extra tools like magnifying glass which I love a lot, as it would be difficult to place a magnifying glass near the discussion board in a conference. However, we need to think of a way so that some elders with little or no IT knowledge can easily access it as well, as it would lead to unequal presentation in conferences. So, I would try to arrange hybrid conference, people who can join in-person can attend the in-person, for those who cannot join can access the presentation in VR gallery.
3. My avatar is archaic: please enjoy!
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1. Usability and acceptability scores were the only significant benefits reported by the systematic review. Additionally, the reviewers believed that mobile apps have potential to promote vaccination uptake, even though the results on the improvement of vaccination uptake after apps usage in this study are not consistent yet.
2. Reminders, education, and management of records are the features that could effect vaccination uptake. However, only 4 out of 9 studies that assessed the vaccination uptake reported a significant increase in the vaccination uptake after vs before implementation of the app. So, it is hard to draw any consistent conclusion on the vaccine uptake.
3. The decision making is based on the parent’s subjective perception on the outcome of vaccination. 4 out of 8 studies that assessed the impact of apps on decision making reported a significant improvement in the intent to vaccination after vs before. However, some articles reported that it can also discourage the intent to vaccination, so we should be careful of what content to promote.
4. User perceptions of vaccination varies on the content and purpose of the applications. Like mentioned in the decision-making part, the content of the apps can also dissuade parents and end-users for vaccination.
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My Personal Experience
1.1. I tried Google Cardboard app, VR roller coaster, VR Jurassic, and VR videos from YouTube with my headset.
1.2. I really love the museum VR in google cardboard the most. Even though I cannot interact with anything in the display, the samples of dinosaurs are so real and visually appealing. I like VR roller coaster videos as well, but after two minutes, those videos make me dizzy, maybe because I am moving my head along with the headset.
1.3. The setup of VR headset is straightforward; however, VR cardboard does not fit my phone well. I had to use extra rubber band to keep it in place. The space is too small and when I put some pressure while strapping, it pressed my home button and closes the screen. Additionally, even though, like I mentioned about, some videos are visually immersive, they need to improve their audio spatial movement to be more realistic. Since magnetic switch does not do anything on my iPhone, I need to touch my screen between the VR eyepiece so that I can choose the scene I like.
Connecting to the Concepts from the Lecture
2.1. Yes, I experienced stereoscopic vision because of the biconvex lens in VR set, the way the images are displayed in the application, and the integration of those images in my brain. The application displays slightly different images and which are passed through biconvex lens in the VR. That lens then refracts those images on the retina allowing the brain to process those slightly different images to feel the perception of depth.
2.2. I felt strong sense of immersion and sense of presence. The images are visually engaging, and whenever I move my head, it follows my head smoothly. After one minute, I really felt that I was there in person. However, the sense of realism is limited due to the facts that I cannot interact, and some images are blurry.
2.3. I tried five applications and only of a few of them allows interaction. But I like most is the head-tilt navigation in the Google Cardboard application. It does not need extra buttons or tools. However, for more complex navigation and interaction, I would love to have controls that track the movement of my limbs and allows some movements as an interaction tool.
Here is my VR headset:
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1. Visualization & Experimentation
2. Challenges & Solutions
The main challenge that I encountered during setup is ‘searching port’, during coding is ‘inputting wrong Wi-Fi GHz’, and during data logging is ‘having some delays in the first try’.
I resolved the first issue by identifying the names of ports and check again which names are missing after unplugging USB port.
I resolved the second issue by switching from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz.
For the third issue, I deleted the first web script deployment and created a new script without changing the Google Sheet. After that, it works perfectly.
3. Ideas for Improvement & Application
If I could make one modification, I would make it ‘waterproof’ so that I could measure real-time temperature outside my house.
And I would use this outside room temperature to determine if there is any relation between low temperature and high humidity, and happiness of the inside dwellers of the house as cloudiness usually makes you feel blue.
PS: Enjoy my setup
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Dear Than Soe Oo, thank you for sharing your discussion. As you have mentioned, the limited number of study in the Thailand context is one of the main reason why this research was conducted. Additionally, I agree with you that spatial analysis can assist policy makers in identifying high risk areas and implementing targeted interventions as well as allocation of necessary resources in much needed provinces.
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Dear Wannisa, thank you for sharing your discussion. I agree with you that statistical analysis such as regression models are powerful in their ability to identify the direction of the relationship between predictors and outcome variables. This in turn can be beneficial in deciding intervention measures.
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Hello Thinzar, these are the packages that I needed to install on top of the provided codes.
install.packages(“maptools”, repos = “https://packagemanager.posit.co/cran/2023-10-13”😉 (please verify the url again whether it is still there)
library(maptools)
install.packages(“fmesher”)
install.packages(“lattice”)
library(lattice)
After installing these packages, it worked for me. (I am not sure that it would work for you)
I loaded tidyverse in my workspace before, so I needed to clear my workspace again as tidyverse has some conflicts with lattice.
So, I think updating your program to latest version as suggested by Wannisa could be a great idea. Then, clear your workspace if you have any, and install and load the needed packages. -
Hello Wannisa, thank you for sharing your insights on this week’s discussion. Yes, I agree with you that it requires both skills and knowledge in order to comprehend and analyze spatial data in relation to health and disorders. Additionally, like you mentioned, the availability of database and accessible software poses as significant barriers in the past in the field of spatial epidemiology.
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Hello, thank you for sharing your discussion. I believe that the availability of quality public health data that can be linked to specific locations are still limited in many countries around the world. Even though some software and advanced statistical tests have been developed and accessible, the availability will still be one of the most challenging aspect in spatial analysis.
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Hello Chanapong, I agree with you that altering medical records (including vaccination) without any notification to the users can lead to health related consequences. Additionally, most apps are rated very low in the privacy aspect that highlights the need to ensure users that those apps follow their privacy policy or agreements. Thank you for sharing your discussion.
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Hello Cing, thank you for sharing your insights. I agree with you that receiving glitchy SMS notifications can sometimes be acceptable if the frequency is not more than one. Repeatedly receiving glitchy SMS can lead to user’s dissatisfaction, like in this study. For the third issue, alteration of designated vaccination locations can be acceptable if the change is notified in advance (reasonable interval between notification and next dose date). If not, it would be hard to trust the provider who changes things without the user’s knowledge.
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Hello Sirithep, thank you for sharing your insights. Yes, it is interesting how the movement pattern rebounds after relaxing the restriction of mobility. It makes me think that easing the restriction step by step would have been a better strategy so that we could still manage to contain the outbreaks if the second or another wave hits.
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Hello Phyo, thank you for sharing your answers. I agree with you that follow-up studies on the records of hospitalization or visit to a clinic would further provide additional insights regarding to disease transmission in relation with the patterns of mobility. I think the researcher could pin point the location of known clinics and hospitals in those areas and study how frequently the study participants visited those areas.
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Hello Cing, I agree with you that restriction from government reduces the mobility across the border as well as near the border villages. Additionally, nighttime curfews are effective as well. Since the study population included both host and neighboring countries. These results are significant in studying mobility across the border in my opinion.
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Hello Chanapong, yes, I agree with you that usability is the major impact factor in terms of user engagement. Web-based platforms are more user-friendly than mobile-based counterparts, which makes web-based platforms receive more feedbacks and submission. Additionally, factors like the need to install and register are negative in user engagement. Thank you for sharing your insights.
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Hello Sirithep, thank you for sharing your answers with us. I agree with you that complexity and failure to tailor to the needs of the target audience are the negative factors in completion. Additionally, I believe the need to install an application makes it more harder to complete it as some might find it hard to install an app on their mobile for a survey.
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Hello Cing, yes, I agree with you on the facts that the complexity in the design and the involvement of multiple steps are the major hinderance influencing on the design of mobile-based applications. Additionally, like you mentioned, digital literacy also plays an important role. As mobile apps tend to capture more detailed information, people with poor digital literacy felt discomfort using it.
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Hello Chanapong, I agree with your response that the content of the information provided in the vaccination app can persuade as well as dissuade a person in terms of vaccine uptake. So, we should be careful how we present our content in those applications using facts outline pros and cons. However, the decision to take the vaccine will be on the user himself.
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Hello Sirithep PI, thank you for your discussion. I agree with you that prior experience with technology have a relative impact on user perception. Additionally, I think the content of the apps can also have an impact on user perception. In the article, they mentioned that some contents dissuade people from taking vaccines.
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Hello Siriluk, thank you for sharing your VR experience. The drawings are creative as well as the handsome cat looks curious to the VR headset. I agree with you on the limitations of current VR HMD on realism. For example, in the cardboard museum scene, I cannot look anything under my feet due to spatial boundaries. Additionally, though head-tilt navigation worked, gaze control would be a better option like you suggested.
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Hello Chanapong, thank you for sharing your VR experience, we faced similar experiences like feeling dizzy and HMD being unfit to our phone. Additionally, you made a good point on what VR on HMD is lacking like the feeling of wind and the spatial sound. I think cave VR can improve those aspects but we need to take consideration of cyber-sickness and convenience of those tools as well.
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Hello Pacharapol, thank you for sharing your detailed VR experience with us. I experienced the same discomfort regarding some apps not being clickable and my phone being too large for the headset. And the ads that are not in the VR while you are on the headset is really annoying to me. I asked a friend of mine who wears glasses to try the VR headset, and he felt dis-oriented after one or two minutes, so I think it would be better if there are headsets that are customizable for people with eye glasses.
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Hello Cing, I totally agree with you on motion sickness, I felt the same. It needs smoother transition to alleviate the cybersickness. Unlike your phone, my phone is only a bit bigger than the cardboard space, not allowing extra space for touchscreen but just enough not to be able to close it properly. Thank you for sharing your experience.
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Hello Ajarn, it is an electric kettle and when the water in it boiled, I opened the lid and put it near the opening so a lot of steam passes through it. I did not put it in the pot, only above the opening, that is why maybe the temperature did not change a lot while the sensor detects steam passing through.
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Hello Pacharapol, thank you for sharing your thoughts and visuals. I like your suggestion of ‘having portable power supply’. Even when I was testing this sensor, it is not very easy to move it as it is connected to my laptop (its source of power). So, it would be better if they use power from portable supply so that I cannot move it around and use it for places where wall power is not easily accessible.
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Hello Cing, thank you for sharing step-up with us. The sharp climb in humidity is clearly visible in your chart after closing your widows and turning the AC on. I faced similar challenge like you as I did not change the baud and the output message is not readable. I did not know that the ESP8266 was using the current time from Wi-Fi and thanks for sharing for that. In that case, like your suggestion, having an internal clock could make a huge difference where we cannot directly use Wi-Fi connection like rural and low-resource setting.
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Hello Phyo, it is good to hear that you did not face any major challenges when following the instructions provided by Ajarn. Yes, I also believe that it would be a great idea to incorporate the sensors with more features like email alerts so that it can operate like ‘smart’ IoT. For example, like in a cold chain or vaccines storage facilities in a low resource setting could benefit by using this inexpensive and easy-to-step-up IoT sensors.
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Hello Siriluk, I think it is a great initiative done by Chang et al by studying a framework for a remote patient monitoring by integrating multiple remote sensors and communication protocols for elderly populations. I think one of the challenges would be the cost of the step-up, since it utilizes multiple sensors including vital signs, environmental sensors, and other behavior tracking sensors. However, if the step up is used in a elderly care facilities or shared housing, it could reduce some portions of costs, but then again we need to consider again the privacy and confidentiality of these data transmission.
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Hello Chanapong, yes, if we could integrate with other home devices like Google Home or Apple environment, it could enhance interoperability and smooth integration. Thank you for sharing your suggestions. Additionally, using these concepts in medical devices could change how we monitor vital conditions of a patient.
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