Helping outdoor workers reduce skin cancer risk

QUT health promotion specialist Dr Marguerite Sendall is reducing skin cancer risk for outdoor workers. Credit: Image courtesy of Queensland University of Technology

Skin cancer is one of the biggest fears for one in two outdoor workers and when the boss and staff work together the sun safe message gets through, a QUT study has found.

The study, which found more than 50 per cent of outdoor workers rated UV radiation exposure at work as one of their biggest concerns, also identified how a workplace intervention could improve workers' behaviours and attitudes towards sun protection to reduce their risk of skin cancer.

QUT in collaboration with Cancer Council Queensland and Curtin University worked with 14 Queensland outdoor workplaces from farming, construction, public service and local government industries to develop personalized sun protection action plans.

After adopting these individualized plans, the number of workers who reported using sun protection increased significantly.

Professor Michael Kimlin and Associate Professor Monika Janda, from QUT's AusSun Research Lab, led the intervention program and the results have been published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine titled "Changes in Outdoor Workers' Sun-Related Attitudes, Beliefs and Behaviours: A Pre-Post Workplace Intervention."

"The message is simple, outdoor workers who see their workplace, supervisors and bosses supporting sun protection measures will follow their lead," Professor Janda said.

"Providing better programs, which take into account the specific workplace tasks and culture can make a difference."

QUT health promotion specialist Dr Marguerite Sendall, who was involved at the grassroots level in implementing the workplace interventions, said the study worked closely with workplaces to develop and implement a tailored sun safety plan, encouraging sun awareness and supporting sun protection practices at work.

"The program was about working together in partnership with workplaces, taking into account their individual circumstances and environment, and developing realistic and sustainable strategies," Dr Sendall said.

"It was this partnership and customized strategies that made this study a success and led to significant improvements in the way workplaces and employees approached sun safety."

Dr Sendall said after the 12 months intervention, the results revealed when a workplace was sun safe there was a significant improvement in the attitudes and behaviours of outdoor workers when it came to sun protection.

"For example, the proportion of workers who checked their skin for early signs of skin cancer increased after the intervention program, with 80 per cent reporting they had conducted a skin check in the previous 12 months," Dr Sendall said.

"Ten per cent more workers also had their skin checked by a doctor.

"The study found after the intervention, 20 per cent more workers said they usually or 

always seek natural shade, 25 per cent more workers wore broad-brimmed hats, 19 per cent more wore long-sleeved collared shirts and 16 per cent wore long trousers," she said.

Dr Sendall said there was also a shift in outdoor worker attitudes.

"The proportion of workers who agreed their workplace enforced sun protection and agreed their supervisors protected themselves increased by 10 per cent to 76 per cent of all workers," she said.

One of the workplaces to take part in the study was Goondiwindi Regional Council and workplace champion Andrew Singh said the tailored intervention had produced tangible results.

"At our council, after introducing the intervention, the road construction crew adopted a number of sun safe initiatives," Mr Singh said.

"For example, the council provided portable shade structures to be used during breaks, vehicle windows were tinted and our staff swapped baseball-style caps for broad-brimmed hats.

"Overall, what we found was workers were keen to follow these sun safe measures as they saw their initiatives were welcomed and keenly supported by the mayor, councillors and management."

Dr Sendall said the study highlighted the importance of a consistent sun safe workplace culture.

"Despite ongoing public health campaigns, outdoor workers remain a difficult to reach group but if we can take care in making the sun protection program really relevant to their personal circumstances and work environment, the potential health benefits are significant."

Source: Queensland University of Technology

Intelligent training with a fitness shirt and an e-bike

The FitnessSHIRT reads out physiological signals like pulse and breath continuously when worn. The interpreted data can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet PC, for example. Credit: © Fraunhofer IIS

Fabric manufacturers are experiencing a revolution at present: if clothing previously offered protection against the cold, rain, and snow, the trend now is toward intelligent, proactive, high-tech textiles like self-cleaning jackets, gloves that recognize toxins, and ski anoraks with integrated navigational devices to make life easier for those wearing them.

Most clever clothing is only at the prototype stage. It is by no means off-the-rack yet. Soon the FitnessSHIRT from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, will be ready for the mass market. It continuously measures physiological signals such as breathing, pulse, and changes in heart rate -- metrics of adaptability and stress load. The intelligent sports shirt is expected to be available sometime in the next year, as an investor is already on-board.

Smart electronics are hidden in the material

Conductive textile electrodes integrated into the shirt's material capture the wearer's cardio activity. In addition, an elastic band around the upper body senses the motion of the chest during breathing. A removable electronic unit attached with snaps digitizes the raw data and calculates additional parameters like pulse rate or breath rate with the help of algorithms. The data are transmitted via radio link to a smartphone or optionally to a PC, where they are evaluated further and can be stored. These parameters form the basis for judging vital functions like stress, performance, exertion, or relaxation.

"The FitnessSHIRT can be employed a number of ways. It offers completely new options for the pursuit of sports, leisure activities, and wellness, as well as options for the medical branch," says Christian Hofmann, an engineer at IIS. For example, it could act as a training partner to provide seniors or rehabilitation patients with feedback on their vital signs during exercises or bicycling, and protect them from overexertion. Athletes will also benefit: for one thing, the SHIRT is more comfortable to wear than a chest strap. For another, the integrated sensors deliver more detailed information. Besides pulse and respiration, accelerometers sense the movement of the user and carry out an analysis. "If the pulse rate is high, for example, while the breath rate and the exercise activity is low, it could be a sign of possible heart problems," according to Hofmann.

The developers of the MENTORbike are also persuaded by the high degree of comfort when worn and the possibilities for performance diagnostics. MENTORbike is a new type of training device consisting of a pedelec, a smartphone, and an intelligent user service site on the internet. The project partners, led by BitifEye Digital Test Solutions, want to use the pedelec in combination with the FitnessSHIRT from IIS in future. The SHIRT will have a wireless connection via smartphone to the pedelec and the user service site on the internet, where the data can be viewed, analyzed, and documented. The smartphone mounted on the bicycle handlebars collects the vital parameters it receives like pulse and breath rate as well as the physical data, for instance the energy expended and the speed, analyzes them, and cuts in the electric motor as needed.

"If the pulse rate exceeds a maximum value of 150, for example, the rider is supported by the motor taking some of the load. If the pulse rate falls below a value of 80 beats per minute, the electric motor is throttled back and the pedal loading increased again. The motor output adapts automatically to the fitness of the cyclist," explains Markus Gratzfeld, an engineer with BitifEye. In this way, users are assured of an optimal level of training at all times, with neither over- nor under-exertion. Rehabilitation patients, especially persons with cardiovascular disease, could monitor their performance limits better, exercise more confidently, and increase their range of movement.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Sensors that improve rail transport safety

Cloud-supported sensor network for the condition-based maintenance of rail vehicles.
Credit: © Fraunhofer IZM

A new kind of human-machine communication is to make it possible to detect damage to rail vehicles before it's too late and service trains only when they need it -- all thanks to a cloud-supported, wireless network of sensors.

A train running on damaged wheels could easily be heading for serious trouble. This is why German national rail corporation Deutsche Bahn continuously monitors the wheelsets of its intercity express trains -- a process that costs a considerable amount of time and money. 

Researchers at the Berlin-based Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM are collaborating with industry partners to develop a solution that ensures a great safety while reducing effort and cost. "We want to root out any damage early on and move away from maintenance at set intervals in favor of condition-based maintenance," explains Dr. Michael Niedermayer, microsystems engineer and head of the IZM's Technology-Oriented Design Methods working group. He is also project coordinator for "Mobile Sensor Systems for Condition-Based Maintenance," or MoSe for short.

Seamless monitoring

It's all based on a cloud-supported, wireless network of sensors. Every axle and undercarriage on a train is fitted with small radio sensors, which collect data on the condition of wearing parts. These data are then transferred to the online maintenance cloud, where the measurement and analysis data are encrypted and stored ready for use. The sensors can detect even the tiniest scratch on a ball bearing. As Niedermayer says, "Here we have sensor nodes that can capture even the slightest variations in vibration. We call this in-depth diagnosis." As a result, repairs can be made before anything works its way loose and causes damage.

"What's remarkable about this approach is that it allows everything to be monitored with the train in service, rather than having to inspect it at the rail yard. And in any case, visual checks are not 100 percent reliable," says Manfred Deutzer from project partner Deutzer Technische Kohle GmbH. Although there are wired sensors out there that can be used to examine rail vehicle chassis for wear and tear, these fail to match the high diagnostic quality standards the MoSe developers are striving for.

Using the new method, it is possible to get precise data on, say, whether an axle bearing will have to be replaced three months down the line, which avoids the need to replace it prematurely just in case. The latter is just as uneconomical as the custom of overhauling wheels at preset intervals with a view to resolving any wheel flats that could damage rails. 

"Wheels can tolerate such repairs no more than three times before they have to be scrapped," Deutzer reports. "It would make more sense and cost less to grind only those wheels we know actually turn poorly. The problem is that there has never been a suitable way of checking for wheel flats." MoSe is to change all that and much more besides.

"Not only do we intend to improve diagnostics, a top priority is also to process the data collected in as detailed and tailored a manner as possible," says Niedermayer. The idea is to provide train drivers with all relevant data (for instance about critical wheel damage), diagnostic technicians with detailed measurement data so they can assess how fast gear damage is progressing, and designers with measurement statistics covering wear to all parts, enabling them to improve the technical design of the next product generation. Making sure everyone involved receives the data they need in a form they can work with right away involves developing some clever diagnostic algorithms. "Yet another advantage is that wireless sensors can be easily retrofitted," adds Niedermayer.

What's also new is that the system can adapt to the different rotational speeds of the parts being examined -- such as the wheels on a train -- and in doing so, deliver incredibly precise data at whatever speed the train happens to be traveling. It used to be that sensors were designed to work at constant rotational speeds. Although this setup may be easier to manage, it means that the diagnostic quality suffers. Thanks to analysis algorithms, this is set to change. But developing these algorithms is a balancing act: "Since the system is intended to work without batteries, the algorithms mustn't drain unnecessary energy by using up excessive computing power," explains Niedermayer. As MoSe uses energy harvesting, it can tap energy from the vibrations and heat generated as the parts rotate.

Over the next couple of years a prototype will be developed that will be tested in a tram run by the German city of Brandenburg an der Havel. The system could then be used for monitoring purposes in suburban or long-distance trains.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Through the Google Glass

WFU Instruction librarian Amanda Foster adjusts Google Glass for a student. Credit: WFU/Ken Bennett

In a class called Accessing Information in the 21st Century, instruction librarian Amanda Foster is using a new technology tool to do just that.

It's Google Glass or just Glass, as the techno giant likes to call it. While it's been widely covered in the media, chances are most people have yet to see it first hand. Foster is interested in examining the possibilities of how Glass or related technologies could be used in the future, particularly in the educational setting for teaching, learning and research.

Glass is a type of wearable computer headset, similar to a pair of sleek glasses and displays information on a mini screen in the upper right corner of the wearer's field of vision. Wearers can communicate with Glass via voice commands to search the Internet, take pictures and video, play games and more.

"We are very curious to see how it's going to work in the classroom. We don't know yet how it's going to impact education, and we don't know if it's even a good thing or what kind of contributions it can make," said Foster, whose class is designed to teach students how to conduct research in the library. "It's kind of an interesting case study in and of itself. But librarians are also really interested in informational literacy -- how we access information in the 21st century and what the future of that is going to look like."

The idea for Foster's class is to have students use Glass as a catalyst to research, discuss, explore and reflect on information-related themes, such as privacy, social responsibility and the future implications of technologies in medicine, business, education and gaming.

"Google Glass brings about a lot of interesting questions related to privacy and our social interactions with other people," she said.

Foster got the green light and funds to experiment with Google Glass from Lynn Sutton, vice provost and ZSR Library dean.

So she jumped in, bought the device and taught herself how to use it. "It was definitely a trial and error process and that's what the classroom experience was like at first, too," she said.

Foster purchased one device because of the expense and had to come up with creative ways for a class of 15 to 20 students to use it. She planned projects for them to work together in small groups of four. They conducted scavenger hunts in the library, taking pictures with Glass to prove their success and used the video function to make tutorials on how to use library databases. Another project had them conduct research on a topic specific to Glass such as privacy and related laws and social interactions. One of the most enjoyable assignments was performing skits about the do's and don'ts of using Google Glass -- demonstrating what is appropriate behavior in public when you're wearing the device, Foster said. "The students are really interested in the social aspect of it, of wearing this thing on your face and how that might enhance or impede social interactions. That is something we've been able to explore."

A student's perspective

Freshman Chris Schafer said he took every opportunity to wear Glass that he could because he wanted to test its capabilities.

"I absolutely loved Glass, mainly because it's so new and rare to the market," he said, adding that he would likely purchase his own device if the price came down.

Schafer was even able to show Foster something new about Glass. "I was able to discover the wink feature for taking a picture that Ms. Foster could not even figure out," he said, "so I had the Glass programmed to my wink only, and as long as I winked hard enough, a picture would be taken."

So far, Foster is the only instructor on campus trying Google Glass though she is aware of university professors elsewhere who are using it and blogging about it.

"ZSR is known across campus as well as in the academic library community for encouraging innovation and taking risks," said Sutton. "I was happy to support Amanda with her creative proposal. Where better to investigate the intersection of technology and privacy than a library classroom with Wake Forest students?"

Foster said the most successful aspect of using Glass in class is how students were really engaged with the content. "While there's room for improvement, I think it has potential to be really successful in higher education," she said. "It's been a wonderful way to bring about discussion on these interesting information-related issues that are at the heart of how we access information and what the future of that is going to look like."

Source: Wake Forest University

The economy of bitcoins: New ways to study social action on markets

ETH's researchers decipher the dynamics behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Credit: © ulchik74 / Fotolia

Anyone who strolls around the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, can't help but notice them -- the small signs on the doors of shops and cafes "Bitcoins accepted." Customers pay for their shirt or their cappuccino with their Smartphone instead of with bank notes or credit cards. The digital currency Bitcoin makes all this possible.

"The image of Bitcoin has changed fundamentally," explains David Garcia, a post-doctoral researcher with the Chair of Systems Design held by Professor Frank Schweitzer. "Bitcoins used to be the reserve of hackers and computer nerds. Today, hipsters pay for drinks with them and they are accepted in the online shops of large companies." Garcia, together with his colleagues Claudio Tessone, Pavlin Mavrodiev and Nicolas Perony, has just published a study on the social dynamics of the Bitcoin economy in the Journal of the Royal Society: Interface.

Internet activity determines exchange rates

For research the success of the digital currency (see box) is a stroke of luck as all data on every transaction carried out in Bitcoin are available in anonymised form on the Internet. Consequently, Garcia and his colleagues are able to study the Bitcoin economy using corresponding algorithms. This idea saw the light of day when they noticed that the 50,000-fold market value increase in the digital currency in just three and a half years went hand in hand with a 10,000 percent increase in Google searches for Bitcoin. The researchers hypothesise that the increase in the value of Bitcoins is markedly accelerated by activities on the Internet, in particular the search for information and interaction in the social media.

To test their hypothesis the researchers examined four different socio-economic parameters: the development of the Bitcoin user base, the price developments of the currency over time, the search for information about Bitcoin on Google and in Wikipedia (more than six million inquiries) and the exchange of information about Bitcoin on Twitter (almost seven million Tweets). In fact, over the past three the researchers established years major correlations between price developments, the number of new Bitcoin users, searches on the Internet and Tweets.

At the same time, they discovered two positive feedback loops which basically reproduced the laws of the "analogous" economy. The growing popularity of Bitcoins on the Internet leads to growing demand which, in turn, encourages activity in the social media. This all results in a higher price for Bitcoins. The second feedback concerns the user base: the more users become part of the Bitcoin transaction network, the higher the price because Bitcoins are not issued in line with demand but in an automated fashion at regular intervals. This means it is possible to calculate the available amount at any time. One negative feedback is, however, surprising. Prior to a major slump in the price of the currency, there was a dramatic increase in Bitcoin activity on the Internet. "Big changes in Internet and social media activities lead to substantial price fluctuations," comments Nicolas Perony, co-author of the article.

Understanding markets and social dynamics

Perony is convinced that the quantitative analysis of social phenomena on the Internet has major potential. "With digital currencies we can observe aspects of the economy that we didn't have access to with cash. This gives us greater understanding of how markets actually function." According to the authors, the methodology described in the article could be applied to other areas in society, too. The Bitcoin mining network, which issues the currency, already harnesses computing power today which is three hundred times bigger than that of the 500 most powerful supercomputers together. "The big question is how such a high-performance system could be used for collaborative activities which go beyond the production of money," comments Perony. One possibility would be, for instance, collaborative research in a global network or the decentralised ownership of specific goods managed by a global network. Bitcoms do not belong to anyone. Buyers merely acquire the right to use a specific amount of them. This study already outlines today the tools for accurately quantifying and analysing the social dynamics of collaborative systems of this kind in the future.

The meteoric rise of Bitcoin

The Bitcoin success story began in 2008 with an article about an alternative, digital currency published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In July 2010 Bitcoins were traded for the first time on the Internet exchange Mt. Gox at a rate of US$ 0.06 for 1 Bitcoin. The total value of all Bitcoins was US$ 277,000. By the end of 2013 the market value of all issued Bitcoins had climbed to more than US$ 14 billion whereby during spikes more than US$ 1,000 were paid for one Bitcoin. Today, over four million people use the digital currency. 

Bitcoins are traded in euros, dollars and in Chinese renminbi. Unlike conventional currencies there is no central bank for Bitcoins which has a monopoly for printing money. New Bitcoins are generated by what is known as mining via a global computer network -- currently at a rate of 25 Bitcoins every ten minutes. Transactions are likewise verified and carried out on this network. Even the bankruptcy of important Bitcoin trading exchanges and negative headlines about money laundering and drug purchases on the Internet were not able to undermine confidence in the currency. A few days ago the PC giant Dell announced that it will henceforth accept Bitcoins as payment for products in its online shop.

Source: ETH Zurich

Don't get hacked! Research shows how much we ignore online warnings

For their study, BYU researchers created this screen to simulate hacking into participants' laptops. Credit: Image courtesy of Brigham Young University

Say you ignored one of those "this website is not trusted" warnings and it led to your computer being hacked. How would you react? Would you:

A. Quickly shut down your computer?

B. Yank out the cables?

C. Scream in cyber terror?

For a group of college students participating in a research experiment, all of the above were true. These gut reactions (and more) happened when a trio of Brigham Young University researchers simulated hacking into study participants' personal laptops.

"A lot of them freaked out -- you could hear them audibly make noises from our observation rooms," said Anthony Vance, assistant professor of Information Systems. "Several rushed in to say something bad had happened."

Fortunately for the students, nothing bad had really happened. What they saw -- a message from an "Algerian hacker" with a laughing skull and crossbones, a 10-second countdown timer and the words "Say goodbye to your computer" -- wasn't real. What was real was that all of the participants got the message by ignoring web security warnings.

Vance and BYU colleagues Bonnie Anderson and Brock Kirwan carried out the experiment to better understand how people deal with online security risks, such as malware. They found that people say they care about keeping their computers secure, but behave otherwise -- in this case, they plowed through malware warnings.

"We see these messages so much that we stop thinking about them," Vance said. "In a sense, we don't even see them anymore, and so we often ignore them and proceed anyway."

For the study, researchers first asked participants how they felt about online security. Then, in a seemingly unrelated task, participants were told to use their own laptops to log on to a website to categorize pictures of Batman as animated or photographed. (Students were told their image classification project was being used to check the accuracy of a computer algorithm to do the same task.)

As participants clicked through the image pages, warning signs would randomly pop up indicating malware issues with the site they were accessing. If they ignored the message enough times, they were "hacked."

"A lot of people don't realize that they are the weakest link in their computer security," said Kirwan, assistant professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at BYU. "The operating systems we use have a lot of built-in security and the way for a hacker to get control of your computer is to get you to do something."

Kirwan's role in the research added another fascinating layer: Using his expertise in neuroscience, Kirwan carried out an additional experiment on subjects using EEG machines to measure brain responses to risk.

While results showed that people say they care about web security but behave like they don't; they do behave in-line with what their brains say. In other words, people's brainwaves better predict how risky they are with online security.

"We learned that brain data is a better predictor of security behavior than a person's own response," Vance said. "With neuroscience, we're trying to understand this weakest link and understand how we can fortify it."

Anderson, an associate professor of Information Systems, echoed the need to do so, quoting security expert Bruce Schneier: "Only amateurs attack machines; professionals target people."

Source: Brigham Young University

Move over smart cities, the Internet of Things is off to the country

Smart sheep

 Lancaster University is about to take the concept of smart cities out of town. Computer scientists at Lancaster University are investigating how the Internet of Things could work in the countryside.

The Internet of Things - which enables object-to-object communication over the internet and real time data monitoring - has typically been associated with urban environments and until now the countryside has been left out in the cold.

Computer scientist Professor Gordon Blair of Lancaster University has won £171,495 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to lead a new project in Conwy, North Wales, which will investigate how the Internet of Things could work in the countryside.

Working with partners at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, The British Geological Survey and Bangor University, the project launched on December 1 and will run for 18 months.

Problems from flooding and agricultural pollution to animal movements and drought could all potentially benefit from smart technology in the sticks.

The Internet of Things, which takes everyday objects and hooks them up to the internet, represents a shift in the way we gather and engage with information. Applying this booming technology to the countryside presents challenges – for example how to build a network when there are mountains and trees in the way – but researchers believe the benefits could be huge.

Sheep with digital collars, sensors on riverbanks, rainfall and river flow monitors could all soon form part of the project.

Professor Blair said: “Cities have been the focus of much of the boom in this type of technology – it has been used to keep traffic flowing on our roads, monitor air pollution and even help us find a parking spot on a busy Saturday afternoon. But the countryside faces challenges of its own, from subtle environmental changes to catastrophic events such as flooding. The possibilities of bringing the Internet of Things to the countryside are limitless. The next step will be to identify exactly what will be of most use in the short term and how we will frame the project.”

Source: Lancaster University

Remote surveillance may increase chance of survival for 'uncontacted' Brazilian tribes

Members of an uncontacted tribe in the Brazilian state of Acre, as seen from satellite images.
Photo courtesy of Government of Brazil.
Credit: Image courtesy of University of Missouri-Columbia

Lowland South America, including the Amazon Basin, harbors most of the last indigenous societies that have limited contact with the outside world. Studying these tribes, located deep within Amazonian rainforests, gives scientists a glimpse at what tribal cultures may have been like before the arrival of Europeans. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have used satellite images to assess the demographic health of one particular village of isolated people on the border between Brazil and Peru. Remote surveillance is the only method to safely track uncontacted indigenous societies and may offer information that can improve their chances for long-term survival.

Rob Walker, an assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Science at MU, collaborated with Marcus Hamilton, postdoctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico. They used Google Earth satellite imagery to estimate the area of the fields and the size of the village belonging to the tribe, as well as the living area of the tribe's temporary housing, and compared that with similar estimates for 71 other Brazilian indigenous communities.

"We found that the estimated population of the village is no more than 40 people," Walker said. "A small, isolated village like this one faces an imminent threat of extinction. However, forced contact from the outside world is ill-advised, so a non-invasive means of monitoring the tribe is recommended. A remote surveillance program using satellite images taken periodically of this group would help track the movements and demographic health of the population without disrupting their lives."

Using information captured from remote surveillance, scientists can help shape policies that mitigate the threats of extinction including deforestation, illegal mining and colonization in these remote areas. Additionally, surveillance also can help locate isolated villages, track patterns of migration over time, and inform and create boundaries or buffer zones that would allow tribes to stay isolated, Walker said.
"Close to 100 uncontacted groups are thought to currently exist in Amazonia," Walker said.

"Deforestation, cattle ranching, illegal mining, and outside colonization threaten their existence. Most of these tribes are swidden horticulturalists and so their slash-and-burn fields are observable in satellite images. But, they do move around, sometimes in response to external threats, and this movement requires constant monitoring if there is to be any hope of preserving their habitat and culture."

The study, "Amazonian societies on the brink of extinction," was published online in The American Journal of Human Biology.

Source: University of Missouri-Columbia.