The transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces is bringing about major changes in many areas. Indirect fire is one capability affected by these changes. Financial savings, a shrinking organization and higher eligibility requirements mean that fewer soldiers will gain access to exclusive high-tech support resources such as the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft and the ARCHER artillery system. This thesis aims to examine whether access to indirect fire capability can be increased through the use of civilian products and communication networks. Technology development in the civilian mobile communications area is exponential and nations such as the USA, facing challenges similar to those of the Swedish Armed Forces, devote substantial resources to research and development. Is the use of mobile phones for military purposes the innovation needed by the Swedish Armed Forces, do the necessary technical conditions exist and is the technology applicable during peace and wartime operations? The results indicate that the military use of commercial technology is too low at the moment, but that the technology itself sets no limits, and that there is a need and a demand to develop military mobile apps. The robustness of commercial networks does not meet Armed Forces’ requirements and the Armed Forces need a clear strategy that states the aims and objectives before procurement and implementation is possible. The results show further that, regardless of the challenges identified, there are good reasons to continue to pursue these issues in order to build up experience and knowledge in this area of technology. The development of civil mobile phone technology for military purposes will mean that there is an economically viable resource to use in the future.

The purpose of this review of literature was to understand the role of mobile device applications in health related conditions and to analyze their effects on health outcomes related to the management of chronic illnesses. Implications for future use of applications in client-centered care and interpretation of the data by health care providers was also explored. Peer-reviewed, English-language research articles published from 2008 to present were included for synthesis. Study results revealed positive outcomes when health-related mobile applications were used in practice and support clinicians' use of mobile applications as a tool for monitoring symptoms and communicating with individuals. The literature indicated nurses play a significant role in providing feedback, which reinforces self-care strategies and adherence, with the potential for improving outcomes. Additional research is needed to evaluate the long-term effects of applications on patient outcomes, nurses' perspectives, and feasibility of implementation into practice.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-08-11T20:18:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 09e.pdf: 16235259 bytes, checksum: f4c7848215dc310dfc2432c167298610 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-11T20:18:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 09e.pdf: 16235259 bytes, checksum: f4c7848215dc310dfc2432c167298610 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-17 / Nenhuma / A presente tese parte do conceito de Metrópole Comunicacional, proposto por Massimo Canevacci, conectando-o aos estudos de Lev Manovich, que explicitam uma crescente influência do software em nossa sociedade. Com estes dois pilares, esta pesquisa objetiva compreender a concepção de uma metrópole comunicacional softwarizada que emerge do uso de aplicativos para dispositivos móveis de comunicação (os smartphones). Essas mídias móveis tornaram-se parte essencial deste trabalho por proporcionarem mobilidade ao usuário que circula pelos espaços físicos, promovendo uma maior interação com o contexto territorial e ocasionando novas dinâmicas de comunicação e convívio. Dados referenciados no interior desta tese nos levam a crer que em pouco tempo praticamente todos os aparelhos de telefonia móvel serão smartphones, fato este que reconfigurará de vez as práticas urbanas estabelecidas. Além das características comunicacionais que carrega, a metrópole observada é também interpretada como um ambiente criativo, projetual, audiovisual e softwarizado, que recebe interferências de outras áreas do conhecimento, como o design. Neste contexto, um conjunto de aplicativos para dispositivos móveis (os apps) que exploram questões urbanas surge como um instrumento contemporâneo que conversa de diferentes formas com esta múltipla metrópole, desde a concepção de suas práticas até as mutações culturais que ocasionam. Para responder aos questionamentos desta pesquisa e identificar as transformações decorridas, fez-se uso do personagem flâneur, de Walter Benjamin, como recurso metodológico que ocasionou a definição e análise de 15 fragmentos contextuais extraídos da metrópole observada nos apps e em suas imagens. O cruzamento destes fragmentos destacou particularidades e dinâmicas que atualizaram o entendimento de Metrópole Comunicacional, interpretando-a como uma combinação entre suas ruas, avenidas e as dinâmicas ocasionadas pelos apps sobre elas, tal como acontece entre selfies e paisagens urbanas, entre check-ins e benefícios ganhos, entre a smarphonização que se instaura e a falta de sinal Wi-Fi predominante, uma mistura entre perder-se e não perder-se jamais, entre a cultura digital e os processos midiáticos, entre modelos, hábitos e experiências vividas, entre criatividade e projeto, entre vozes, meios e mensagens, entre compartilhamentos e dispositivos, ou ainda, uma composição entre os próprios aplicativos móveis e a metrópole comunicacional com que interagem. / This dissertation has as its starting point the concept of Comunicational Metropolis proposed by Massimo Canevacci, establishing a connection with the research of Lev Manovich, which explains an increasing influence of software in our society. Thus, taking these two pillars as a foundation, this research aims to understand the concept of a communicational metropolis that is emerging from the use of applications for mobile communication devices (smartphones). Mobile media has become a key part of this work since they provide mobility to the user who moves around physical spaces, promoting greater interaction with the local context and causing new communication and social dynamics. Data referenced within this thesis indicate that in a short period of time, almost all mobile handsets will be smartphones and will reconfigure once and for all the existing social practices. However, the metropolis observed in this study overcomes the communicational framework proposed, since it is also a creative, projectual, audiovisual and softwarized environment. In this context, a set of mobile applications exploring urban issues arise as a contemporary tool. In different ways, this tool dialogues with the multiple metropolis, from the design practices that daily occur in it, to the cultural transformations generated by this tool. In order to answer the research questions and to identify the changes that happened, Walter Benjamin’s character flâneur was used as a methodological resource that gave rise to the construction and analysis of 15 fragments extracted from a digital communicational metropolis observed through popular apps and its images. The intersection of these fragments highlighted peculiarities and dynamics that updated the understanding of a Communicational Metropolis, structuring it as a combination of its streets, avenues and dynamics caused by the apps. A combination of selfies and urban landscapes; check-ins and earned benefits; the established ‘smarphonization’ and the lack of predominant WiFi signal; getting lost and not ever getting lost; digital culture and media processes; models, habits and experiences; creativity and design; voices, media and messages; shares and devices; that is, a composition of mobile applications themselves and the communicational metropolis which they interact with.