Danube University Krems

About: Danube University Krems is a education organization based out in Krems, Niederösterreich, Austria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Stroke & Population. The organization has 498 authors who have published 1572 publications receiving 68797 citations.

Efficient Processing of Geospatial mHealth Data Using a Scalable Crowdsensing Platform

Abstract: Smart sensors and smartphones are becoming increasingly prevalent Both can be used to gather environmental data (eg, noise) Importantly, these devices can be connected to each other as well as to the Internet to collect large amounts of sensor data, which leads to many new opportunities In particular, mobile crowdsensing techniques can be used to capture phenomena of common interest Especially valuable insights can be gained if the collected data are additionally related to the time and place of the measurements However, many technical solutions still use monolithic backends that are not capable of processing crowdsensing data in a flexible, efficient, and scalable manner In this work, an architectural design was conceived with the goal to manage geospatial data in challenging crowdsensing healthcare scenarios It will be shown how the proposed approach can be used to provide users with an interactive map of environmental noise, allowing tinnitus patients and other health-conscious people to avoid locations with harmful sound levels Technically, the shown approach combines cloud-native applications with Big Data and stream processing concepts In general, the presented architectural design shall serve as a foundation to implement practical and scalable crowdsensing platforms for various healthcare scenarios beyond the addressed use case

Many roads lead to Rome: mapping users' problem solving strategies

Abstract: Especially in ill-defined problems like complex, real-world tasks more than one way leads to a solution. Until now, the evaluation of information visualizations was often restricted to measuring outcomes only (time and error) or insights into the data set. A more detailed look into the processes which lead to or hinder task completion is provided by analyzing users' problem solving strategies. A study illustrates how they can be assessed and how this knowledge can be used in participatory design to improve a visual analytics tool. In order to provide the users a tool which functions as a real scaffold, it should allow them to choose their own path to Rome. We discuss how evaluation of problem solving strategies can shed more light on the users' "exploratory minds".

eParticipation for Adolescent Citizens (in Austria)

Abstract: In Austria, two recent eParticipation projects focused on adolescent citizens. The first project, "mitmachen.at --- move your future" was to provide initial experiences with an eParticipation tool. The second project, "Jugend2help", applied the lessons learned from the "mitmachen.at" project to improve the Austrian public administration web portal for adolescent citizens. In both projects, the results indicate that web portals and eParticpation seems to suit the adolescents' information and communication needs. Involving the users is central to the development of an eParticipation process or platform so that the users' specific characteristics (age, skills), needs and interests are included appropriately. The target users' characteristics are also important for developing a marketing strategy which is able to reach them. Other issues which must also be considered in eParticipation are accessibility, inclusion and possibly gender.

A Mental Models Perspective on Designing Information Visualizations for Political Communication

Abstract: Information visualizations (InfoVis) in the context of political communication are designed to convey a broad understanding of socio-political data and their multitude of intricately connected variables to the public. A cognitive framework to explain and empirically study how users acquire and organize their internal representations gained from InfoVis systems with multiple perspectives is still missing. In this paper we discuss the theory of mental models and its consequences for the design and research of InfoVis interfaces. Especially for multidimensional data, it is a challenge to design accessible and conceptually consistent InfoVis interfaces to support the local and global coherence of the recipients’ mental models. In this paper we exemplarily show how specific design features, i.e. advance organizers, narrative visualizations, seamless transitions, and multiple coordinated views can accomplish this in the field of political communication and its complex data.