Mobile applications (“apps”) are increasingly used in medical education and practice. However, many medical apps are of variable quality, lack supporting evidence and fall outside the remit of regulators. In this thesis, I explore how the quality and credibility of apps for healthcare practitioners could be improved. I argue that interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the app life-cycle is critical and discuss how this can be facilitated. My argument rests on prior work in eHealth and neighbouring disciplines, and on original research in transfusion medicine. Blood transfusion can be a life-saving medical treatment. However, it also carries risks. Failures to provide irradiated and cytomegalovirus-negative blood components according to guidelines are frequently reported in the UK. Such incidents put patients at risk of serious complications. Haemovigilance data indicates that enhancing practitioner knowledge may reduce mistakes. Thus, I worked with medical experts to develop and evaluate the Special Blood Components (SBC) mobile learning app. To facilitate this work, I created two tools: the Web App Editor (WAE) and the Web App Trial (WAT). The former is a collaborative editor for building apps in a web browser and the latter is a system for conducting online randomised controlled app trials. The results are reported in five studies. Studies 1 and 2, based on interviews with seven practitioners, revealed shortcomings in an existing transfusion app and the SBC prototype. Study 3 demonstrated how students using theWAE were able to collaborate on apps, including an app in stroke medicine. Study 4, an evaluation of the revised SBC app with 54 medical students, established the ease of use as acceptable. In study 5, a WAT pilot study with 61 practitioners, the SBC app doubled scores on a knowledge test and was rated more favourably than existing hospital guidelines. In conclusion, creating high quality medical apps that are supported by evidence is a considerable undertaking and depends on a mix of knowledges and skills. It requires that healthcare practitioners, software developers and otherswork together effectively. Hence, the WAE and WAT are key research outcomes. They enabled participants to contribute improvements and assess the usability and efficacy of the SBC app. The results suggest that the SBC app is easy to use and can improve practitioner knowledge. Further work remains to pilot and evaluate the SBC app in a hospital setting.

Mobile health (mHealth) message design strategies for low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have quickly gained acceptance in the field of health education. mHealth initiatives focusing on maternal health are frequently implemented with the aim of providing access to information while improving maternal health practices. Within Ghana, access to relevant health information and hospital care within rural settings remain scarce for the majority of citizens (WHO, 2011). However, with the rapid rate of mobile phone adoption, delivering learning opportunities in conjunction with mobile devices may be promising for many individuals in Ghana. The purpose of this study was to examine message design inputs influencing expecting mothers’ maternal health activity. McGuire’s communication-persuasion theoretical framework informed the mix-methods study. I used participatory rapid appraisal techniques while carrying out the study with research team members. I employed surveys to collect quantitative data. To gather qualitative data I engaged in open-ended survey questions, interviews (one-on-one and focus groups), a journal and team reflections. The findings revealed that participants from two communities in Northern Ghana in rural settings had several inputs in the message design which may influence expecting mothers. These include; information source, design and delivery, power dynamics and personal circumstances, and perceived gains. The findings highlight that for many mHealth projects in LMIC's, there is an urgent need to reexamining the culture attributes of the users' local environment. These findings also address critical aspects of a real world problem with intent to support rural community development in Northern Ghana with goals to alleviate the lack of academic knowledge by providing an insider’s perspectives regarding community insights.

The recent advances in mobile computing devices and wireless networking produced the technical platform for multimedia services over thin mobile devices. Nowadays, we are witnessing an important growth in applications using thin mobile devices, such as social networks, virtual walkthrough, media streaming, and augmented reality (AR), just to mention a few. Most of these applications are based on the client-server architecture, however several studies showed that the client-server architecture suffers from various issues, such as the server bottleneck, latency and the lack of scalability. This led most of the systems to switch to the peer-to-peer (P2P)-like environment for its scalability and potential cost saving. P2P multimedia streaming over thin mobile devices-based classes of applications has known a significant growth during the last years. Although P2P video streaming over thin mobile devices received a great deal of attention, the application of 3D streaming over mobile devices was challenging mainly due to the limited mobile resources and capabilities, as well as the wireless medium limitations. Having 3D streaming over Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) is considered more challenging given that the 3D streaming-based system has to deal with a dynamic environment resulting from nodes mobility, which may lead to route breakages and connection loss. Therefore, one of the major difficulties in 3D streaming over MANET is related to the supplying partner's strategy that aims at determining the most suitable source holding the required 3D data to stream it quickly and efficiently to the requesters. In this thesis, we propose our P2P based 3D streaming system which we refer to as MOSAIC as well as a suite of supplying partner strategy protocols for P2P 3D streaming over thin mobile devices. Our proposed suite of protocols selects the potential sources that have the relevant 3D data, based on a set of criteria such as the source location, the mobile device's available resources as well as its residual energy. We also proposed a multihop supplying partner selection protocol that takes into account the signal strength and the nodes mobility when streaming the relevant 3D data. The performance evaluation obtained to evaluate our MOSAIC system as well as our suite of protocols using an extensive set of NS2 simulation experiments, is then reported.

MCom / Department of Business Management / Mobile technology is progressively being used to support students’ learning, extending learning and educator-student contact beyond class hours. Mobile technology has been identified as a potential solution to the problem of scarcity of computers to access online learning materials in higher education institutions. The University of Venda distributed tablet personal computers to students so that they could use them for facilitating and enhancing their studies. However, the provision of tablet PCs to students may not be a panacea for quality learning, especially to a population that is not familiar with latest information technologies. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of digital mobile devices (tablet personal computers and smartphones) for enhancing teaching and learning at the University of Venda. The research questions focused on determining the current level of use of mobile devices, how they could be used effectively for teaching and learning; and the perceptions of students and lecturers on mobile devices as tools for teaching and learning. Case study research design was considered most suitable for this study as it involves collecting and reporting descriptive information about a specific environment. Mixed methods approach was applied with data being solicited from a convenient sample of 370 students, 8 lecturers and 1 IT technician at the University. Semi-structured questionnaires were distributed to students. The results of the study indicated that many students are active and spending much time on the different internet activities. The study also found that students prefer mobile learning and spend much time on the internet surfing information. Lecturers found it easy to communicate with the students via emails and social media platforms where they send study materials. Students use their smartphones and tablet PCs to download learning materials. However, many lecturers and students are not making use of the Learning Management System, the Blackboard due to lack of training. The results of the study are to be used to explicate, forecast, and advance the integration of the digital mobile devices for promoting learning and teaching accomplishments and standard competencies at the University of Venda. Recommendations were made on how students and lecturers can effectively use digital mobile devices for teaching and learning.

The latest advancements in mobile device technology are putting ever-higher demands for throughput of wireless networks. This is threatening to outpace the ability of service providers to deploy the necessary infrastructure. Fifth-Generation Mobile Network (5G) technology is experiencing rapid adoption as part of the effort to meet demand, and along with it researchers are continuously seeking new metrics and models for use in predicting the limits of current and future network infrastructure. To succeed, it is key that they have access to methods for simple, effective analysis of the wireless propagation channel in any given location. The typical laboratory test environment lacks the unpredictability and uniqueness of real-world conditions. Additionally, it utilizes equipment whose specifications are often far removed from devices that are actually intended to operate on the mobile network, such as smartphones themselves. This work focuses on the nature of contemporary path loss models and their ability to accurately predict signal levels, seeking to validate their use against observed path loss behavior in outdoor line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios, where the number of active devices can vary significantly over short periods of time. These conditions are typical of public spaces such as parks and city streets where a large number of users may all simultaneously be accessing high-throughput services. To test their validity, statistics are provided for sets of data collected on foot in public spaces using a novel software utility developed expressly for this purpose. The models we use for comparing against our measured results include both experiential models that are built on other data sets, along with stastically-based, large-scale path loss models. These are compared as a function of distance from the base station (BS), and any unique characteristics of the local network are considered. Finally, a combination of environmental imagery, coverage maps with signal strength overlays, and the aforementioned model comparison are used to estimate the signal source and predict performance in nearby areas.

I detta projekt studerade vi digitala påminnelser för ungdomar. En serie fältstudier utfördes vilka visade att digitala påminnelser var väldigt användbara för denna demografiska grupp. Vidare, en digital påminnelse-prototyp, RemindMe, föreslogs och implementerades, och dess användbarhet fastställdes i avslutande användartest. / n this project digital reminders for youths were studied. A series of field studies were conducted where digital reminders were shown to be highly useful for this demographic. Also, a digital reminder prototype, RemindMe, was proposed and implemented, and its usefulness shown through concluding field tests.

Smart mobile devices are becoming increasingly essential daily companions. Applications (apps) are the interface through which the consumer can leverage unique capabilities of smart mobile devices to interact with people, other devices and firms via the supporting mobile ecosystem. Smart mobile devices and apps are influencing how competition is defined and changing how firms do business by improving internal processes and increasing flexibility and convenience for customers. Mobile apps and devices enable users to move from a portable and mobile communication and computing environment to that of a ubiquitous communication and computing environment [u-space]. Discussion in terms of ‘mobile marketing’ is therefore too limiting, our understanding should be ‘ubiquitous marketing’. Six papers explore ubiquitous marketing further. The retail sector provides a contextual setting for paper one and finds that mobile marketing increases value for retailers and consumers. Integration of all retailer / consumer interfaces with mobile marketing to maximise exposure and connectivity between both parties is recommended. Paper two investigates the sources for mobile app ideas in companies and finds that apps developed externally or within the firm with some outside help, were perceived to be more effective. Apps that leverage the mobile devices unique features is central to the methodology proposed for developing an app in paper three. The next three papers examine the impact that mobile apps and devices have on business activities and customer relationships. Paper four finds increased operational efficiency in a Dental  Practice, while paper five identified the opportunity for increased firm-customer interaction in a medical context. Paper six determines that rather than five dimensions of SERVQUAL, financial service quality of apps consists of three dimensions: Reliability, personal and visibles; and that service success can be derived from providing less service. This thesis contributes to a fuller understanding of U-commerce theory. It advances understanding in how apps are making significant changes in how information technology is managed and controlled from an organisational perspective, and how these technology advances can influence consumer interaction. / <p>QC 20160516</p>

Mobile computing devices are increasingly being utilized to support learning activities outside the traditional classroom environment. The text input capabilities of these devices represent a limiting factor for effective support of user-based interaction. The ability to perform continuous character selection and input to complete course exercises is becoming increasingly difficult as these devices become miniaturized to a point where traditional input and output methods are becoming less efficient for continuous text input. This study investigated the design and performance of a prototype mobile text entry keyboard (MobileType) based on characteristics of the linguistic frequency of character occurrence and increasing key size to minimize visual search time and distance during character selection. The study was designed to compare efficiency, effectiveness, and learning effects of the MobileType to the QWERTY keyboard layouts while performing fixed phrase and course exercise text entry tasks in two separate evaluation sessions. A custom software application was developed for a tablet device to display the two keyboard interfaces and capture text entry interaction and timing information. The results of this study indicated the QWERTY text entry interface performed faster in terms of efficiency, while the MobileType interface performed better in terms of effectiveness. In addition, there was an observable increase in the efficiency of the MobileType interface between the two task sessions. The results indicated that the MobileType interface was readily learnable relating to learning effect. Future research is recommended to establish if the performance of the MobileType interface could be increased with further participant familiarization after completing multiple sessions, which would validate the design of MobileType as a possible alternative to the QWERTY text entry interface for mobile devices.

Το αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής είναι η μελέτη της διαδικασίας ανάπτυξης εφαρμογών για το λειτουργικό σύστημα Android. Το λειτουργικό σύστημα Android αποτελεί μια τεχνολογία η οποία μέρα με την μέρα κερδίζει μεγαλύτερο μερίδιο στην αγορά των έξυπνων τηλεφώνων. Σήμερα, κατέχει την πρώτη θέση με τετρακόσια εκατομμύρια ενεργές συσκευές. Το γεγονός αυτό καθιστά την αγορά των εφαρμογών Android μία πολλά υποσχόμενη περιοχή για ανάπτυξη επιχειρηματικής δραστηριότητας. Η μελέτη ξεκινά με μία γενική επισκόπηση του κόσμου του Android καθώς και των εργαλεί- ων που είναι απαραίτητα για την ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών σε αυτόν. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται μία σύντο- μη ανάλυση της δομής του λειτουργικού συστήματος και τον τμημάτων που το αποτελούν καθώς και μία παρουσίαση των βασικών αρχών σχεδίασης διεπαφών χρήστη. Τέλος παρουσιάζονται μερι- κές βασικές προγραμματιστικές δομές που είναι απαραίτητες για την συγγραφή εφαρμογών και παρουσιάζεται η διαδικασία υποβολής μίας εφαρμογής στην Google προς πώληση. Για την καλύτερη εξοικείωση του αναγνώστη γίνεται παρουσίαση τεσσάρων απλών εφαρμο- γών που χρησιμοποιούν τις προγραμματιστικές δομές που αναλύονται στο κείμενο. Καλωσορίσα- τε στον κόσμο του ANDROID! / -

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This study examined how health apps influence college students’ health behavior, because about 50 percent of college students do not comply with physical activity recommendations. Because mobile applications (apps) are popular among college students, they hold promise for promoting behavior change in physical activity. This research was conducted through an online questionnaire distributed to a randomized sample of 18-35 year-old Mid-Western university students. Questionnaire data were analyzed from 237 surveys using Pearson’s Product Moment correlation (r) and Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2). This study showed that college students generally perceived health apps to be useful with slightly over half of the participants using health apps (52.3 percent). Bivariate analysis indicated positive attitudes towards health apps and positive attitudes towards physical activity (p < .001). The amount of experience using health apps yielded a positive relationship with attitudes towards physical activity (p = .008). In addition, having strong beliefs towards physical activity indicated a positive correlation with engaging in physical activity (p < .001). This study provides valuable information regarding attitudes towards health apps and the intention to use health apps for physical activity. While health apps do not trigger an intention to do physical activity, having “belief strength” and positive attitudes towards physical activity increases the likelihood for engaging in physical activity. Health communication intervention strategies and health practitioners can use this information to educate individuals about the advantages for their health that can be associated with using health apps.