{"title":"Predicting the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment Using a Semi-Competing Risk Approach.","authors":"Zhaoyi Chen, Yuchen Yang, Dazheng Zhang, Jingchuan Guo, Yi Guo, Xia Hu, Yong Chen, Jiang Bian","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020046","DOIUrl":"10.3390/informatics10020046","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (AD/ADRD) are a group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases. The progression of AD can be conceptualized as a continuum in which patients progress from normal cognition to preclinical AD (i.e., no symptoms but biological changes in the brain) to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (i.e., mild symptoms but not interfere with daily activities), followed by increasing severity of dementia due to AD. Early detection and prediction models for the transition of MCI to AD/ADRD are needed, and efforts have been made to build predictions of MCI conversion to AD/ADRD. However, most existing studies developing such prediction models did not consider the competing risks of death, which may result in biased risk estimates. In this study, we aim to develop a prediction model for AD/ADRD among patients with MCI considering the competing risks of death using a semi-competing risk approach.</p>","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11198980/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43534155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-05-16DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020045
Belén Bermejo, C. Juiz, David Cortés Gómez, J. Oskam, T. Moilanen, Jouko Loijas, Praneschen. Govender, J. Hussey, Alexander Lennart Schmidt, R. Burbach, Daniel King, C. O'Connor, Davin Dunlea
{"title":"AR/VR Teaching-Learning Experiences in Higher Education Institutions (HEI): A Systematic Literature Review","authors":"Belén Bermejo, C. Juiz, David Cortés Gómez, J. Oskam, T. Moilanen, Jouko Loijas, Praneschen. Govender, J. Hussey, Alexander Lennart Schmidt, R. Burbach, Daniel King, C. O'Connor, Davin Dunlea","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020045","url":null,"abstract":"During the last few years, learning techniques have changed, both in basic education and in higher education. This change has been accompanied by new technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (AR). The combination of these technologies in education has allowed a greater immersion, positively affecting the learning and teaching processes. In addition, since the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend has been growing due to the diversity of the different fields of application of these technologies, such as heterogeneity in their combination and their different experiences. It is necessary to review the state of the art to determine the effectiveness of the application of these technologies in the field of university higher education. In the present paper, this aim is achieved by performing a systematic literature review from 2012 to 2022. A total of 129 papers were analyzed. Studies in our review concluded that the application of AR/VR improves learning immersion, especially in hospitality, medicine, and science studies. However, there are also negative effects of using these technologies, such as visual exhaustion and mental fatigue.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44158945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020044
A. C. Situmorang, M. Suryanegara, D. Gunawan, F. Juwono
{"title":"Proposal of the Indonesian Framework for Telecommunications Infrastructure Based on Network and Socioeconomic Indicators","authors":"A. C. Situmorang, M. Suryanegara, D. Gunawan, F. Juwono","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020044","url":null,"abstract":"In Indonesia, there is still a disparity in telecommunications access, with most rural areas experiencing “no signal” or “blank spots.” In contrast, urban areas enjoy modern and societally-beneficial technologies. A comprehensive framework is needed to address the disparity in telecommunications access between “rich” and “poor” groups in urban and rural/remote areas, respectively. This paper proposes a framework, built by the mathematical model, that can be used as a reference for the Indonesian government in constructing the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. The framework categorizes Indonesian administrative regions into four grids: Grid #1: “fostered” districts; Grid #2: “developing” districts; Grid #3: “developed” districts; and Grid #4: “independent-advanced” districts. To determine where each district falls in these grids, we propose a novel statistical approach using 17 indicators involving a telecommunications network and socioeconomic factors. The proposed framework results in a grid visualization of 7232 districts in Indonesia. Finally, as this paper is replete with academic research approaches and mathematical model perspectives, it is expected that the results may be valuable input to the development of the country’s telecommunications policy.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43956269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020043
R. Tamakloe
{"title":"Risk Factors Influencing Fatal Powered Two-Wheeler At-Fault and Not-at-Fault Crashes: An Application of Spatio-Temporal Hotspot and Association Rule Mining Techniques","authors":"R. Tamakloe","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020043","url":null,"abstract":"Studies have explored the factors influencing the safety of PTWs; however, very little has been carried out to comprehensively investigate the factors influencing fatal PTW crashes while considering the fault status of the rider in crash hotspot areas. This study employs spatio-temporal hotspot analysis and association rule mining techniques to discover hidden associations between crash risk factors that lead to fatal PTW crashes considering the fault status of the rider at statistically significant PTW crash hotspots in South Korea from 2012 to 2017. The results indicate the presence of consecutively fatal PTW crash hotspots concentrated within Korea’s densely populated capital, Seoul, and new hotspots near its periphery. According to the results, violations such as over-speeding and red-light running were critical contributory factors influencing PTW crashes at hotspots during summer and at intersections. Interestingly, while reckless riding was the main traffic violation leading to PTW rider at-fault crashes at hotspots, violations such as improper safety distance and red-light running were strongly associated with PTW rider not-at-fault crashes at hotspots. In addition, while PTW rider at-fault crashes are likely to occur during summer, PTW rider not-at-fault crashes mostly occur during spring. The findings could be used for developing targeted policies for improving PTW safety at hotspots.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42709736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-05-11DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020041
M. Daradkeh
{"title":"Exploring the Boundaries of Success: A Literature Review and Research Agenda on Resource, Complementary, and Ecological Boundaries in Digital Platform Business Model Innovation","authors":"M. Daradkeh","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020041","url":null,"abstract":"Digital platform business model innovation is a rapidly evolving field, yet the literature on resource, complementary, and ecological boundaries remains limited, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of the factors that shape the success of these platforms. This paper explores the mechanisms by which digital platforms enable business model innovation, a topic of significant theoretical and practical importance that has yet to be fully examined. Through a review of the existing literature and an examination of the connotations of digital platforms, the design of platform boundaries, and the deployment of boundary resources, the study finds that (1) the uncertainty of complementors and complementary products drives business model innovation in digital platforms; (2) the design of resource, complementary, and ecological system boundaries is crucial to digital platform business models and manages complementor and complementary product uncertainty while promoting value co-creation; and (3) boundary resources establish, manage, and sustain cross-border relationships that impact value creation and capture. Based on these findings, four research propositions are proposed to guide future research on digital platform business model innovation and provide insights for effectively innovating business models and influencing value creation and capture.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45059003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-05-11DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020042
A. L. Duca, Andrea Marchetti, Manuela Moretti, Francesca Diana, Mafalda Toniazzi, Andrea D'Errico
{"title":"Genealogical Data Mining from Historical Archives: The Case of the Jewish Community in Pisa","authors":"A. L. Duca, Andrea Marchetti, Manuela Moretti, Francesca Diana, Mafalda Toniazzi, Andrea D'Errico","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020042","url":null,"abstract":"The Jewish community archive in Pisa owns a vast collection of documents and manuscripts that date back centuries. These documents contain valuable genealogical information, including birth, marriage, and death records. This paper aims to describe the preliminary results of the Archivio Storico della Comunita Ebraica di Pisa (ASCEPI) project, with a focus on the extraction of data from the Nati, Morti e Ballottati (NMB) Registry document in the archive. The NMB Registry contains about 1900 records of births, deaths, and balloted individuals within the Jewish community in Pisa. The study uses a semiautomatic pipeline of digitization, transcription, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to extract personal data such as names, surnames, birth and death dates, and parental names from each record. The extracted data are then used to build a knowledge base and a genealogical tree for a representative family, Supino. This study demonstrates the potential of using NLP and rule-based techniques to extract valuable information from historical documents and to construct genealogical trees.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41537077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-04-28DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020040
Andrei Konstantinov, Lev Utkin, Vladimir Muliukha
{"title":"LARF: Two-Level Attention-Based Random Forests with a Mixture of Contamination Models","authors":"Andrei Konstantinov, Lev Utkin, Vladimir Muliukha","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020040","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides new models of the attention-based random forests called LARF (leaf attention-based random forest). The first idea behind the models is to introduce a two-level attention, where one of the levels is the “leaf” attention, and the attention mechanism is applied to every leaf of trees. The second level is the tree attention depending on the “leaf” attention. The second idea is to replace the softmax operation in the attention with the weighted sum of the softmax operations with different parameters. It is implemented by applying a mixture of Huber’s contamination models and can be regarded as an analog of the multi-head attention, with “heads” defined by selecting a value of the softmax parameter. Attention parameters are simply trained by solving the quadratic optimization problem. To simplify the tuning process of the models, it is proposed to convert the tuning contamination parameters into trainable parameters and to compute them by solving the quadratic optimization problem. Many numerical experiments with real datasets are performed for studying LARFs. The code of the proposed algorithms is available.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136001582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-04-20DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020039
Luke Balcombe, D. Leo
{"title":"The Impact of YouTube on Loneliness and Mental Health","authors":"Luke Balcombe, D. Leo","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020039","url":null,"abstract":"There are positives and negatives of using YouTube in terms of loneliness and mental health. YouTube’s streaming content is an amazing resource, however, there may be bias or errors in its recommendation algorithms. Parasocial relationships can also complicate the impact of YouTube use. Intervention may be necessary when problematic and risky content is associated with unhealthy behaviors and negative impacts on mental health. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Although YouTube might assist in connecting with peers, there are privacy, safety, and quality issues to consider. This paper is an integrative review of the positive and negative impacts of YouTube with the aim to inform the design and development of a technology-based intervention to improve mental health. The impact of YouTube use on loneliness and mental health was explored by synthesizing a purposive selection (n = 32) of the empirical and theoretical literature. Next, we explored human–computer interaction issues and proposed a concept whereby an independent-of-YouTube algorithmic recommendation system steers users toward verified positive mental health content or promotions.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48798495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-04-11DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020038
Alejandro Valencia-Arias, D. Arango-Botero, Sebastián Cardona-Acevedo, S. Delgado, Ada Lucia Gallegos Ruiz
{"title":"Understanding the Spread of Fake News: An Approach from the Perspective of Young People","authors":"Alejandro Valencia-Arias, D. Arango-Botero, Sebastián Cardona-Acevedo, S. Delgado, Ada Lucia Gallegos Ruiz","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020038","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic and the boom of fake news cluttering the internet have revealed the power of social media today. However, young people are not yet aware of their role in the digital age, even though they are the main users of social media. As a result, the belief that older adults are responsible for information is being re-evaluated. In light of this, the present study was aimed at identifying the factors associated with the spread of fake news among young people in Medellín (Colombia). A total of 404 self-administered questionnaires were processed in a sample of people between the ages of 18 and 34 and analyzed using statistical techniques, such as exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results suggest that the instantaneous sharing of fake news is linked to people’s desire to raise awareness among their inner circle, particularly when the messages shared are consistent with their perceptions and beliefs, or to the lack of time to properly verify their accuracy. Finally, passive corrective actions were found to have a less significant impact in the Colombian context than in the context of the original model, which may be explained by cultural factors.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42469929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
InformaticsPub Date : 2023-04-10DOI: 10.3390/informatics10020037
M. Ivanova, Tsvetelina Petrova
{"title":"Towards Independent Students' Activities, Online Environment and Learning Performance: An Investigation through Synthetic Data and Artificial Neural Networks","authors":"M. Ivanova, Tsvetelina Petrova","doi":"10.3390/informatics10020037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics10020037","url":null,"abstract":"During the pandemic, universities were forced to convert their educational process online. Students had to adapt to new educational conditions and the proposed online environment. Now, we are back to the traditional blended learning environment and wish to understand the students’ attitudes and perceptions of online learning, knowing that they are able to compare blended and online modes. The aim of this paper is to present the performed predictive analysis regarding the students’ online learning performance taking into account their opinion. The predictive models are created through a supervised machine learning algorithm based on Artificial Neural Networks and are characterized with high accuracy. The analysis is based on generated synthetic datasets, ensuring a high level of students’ privacy preservation.","PeriodicalId":37100,"journal":{"name":"Informatics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43909850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}