Percorrer por tipo de recurso "conference paper not in proceedings"
A mostrar 1 - 3 de 3
Resultados por página
Opções de ordenação
- AI-driven solutions for enhancing digital accessibility in higher educationPublication . Costa, José Paulo; Nacheva, Radka; Coelho, Ana Sofia; Martins, Oliva M.D.Digital accessibility is essential for ensuring that students with disabilities have equal access to educational materials in higher education. Despite the existence of standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and PDF Universal Access (PDF/UA), many institutions still face challenges in providing accessible digital content. Existing tools can identify accessibility issues but often fall short in automating the remediation process or offering personalized adjustments for individual learners. This paper presents an AI-driven framework designed to automate the detection, remediation, and personalization of digital content to meet accessibility requirements. The proposed framework integrates AI and machine learning to enhance the accessibility of PDFs, HTML content, and multimedia resources, ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 and PDF/UA standards. The study demonstrates that the AI system detects accessibility issues with 92% accuracy and successfully remediates 85% of identified issues. Additionally, the framework offers real-time personalized adjustments, improving user satisfaction for 94% of students with disabilities. The AI system also reduces the time and cost of ensuring accessibility, making it an efficient tool for educational institutions. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research to expand the framework’s capabilities and offers insights for developing inclusive education policies that leverage AI technology.
- Insect-based food: what is Brazilians' perception?Publication . Martins, Oliva M.D.; Bastos, Adriana de Fatima Valente; Beck, Ceres Grehs; Bucea-Manea-Țoniș, RocsanaThe current world population is expected to grow by fifty percent over the next few years. From this perspective, food supply and sustainability will be worldwide challenges. To identify alternative ways of feeding animals and humans, one solution is the introduction of edible insects, which are considered a viable and sustainable option. In recent years, the consumption of insects - or entomophagy - has become of increasing interest amongst scientists and ecologists as a potential and environmental source of animal protein and as a solution to reduce the worldwide problem of malnutrition. Furthermore, insects can be mass-produced with significantly lower use of land, water, fertilizers, pesticides, feed, energy, and other resources. However, in many western countries insects do not belong to traditional diet, and adopting them requires overcoming behavioral and cultural barriers, such as food neophobia and disgusting. Based on the premise that intention precedes behavior and perception significantly impacts intention, this study aimed to evaluate the factors influencing the willingness to try insect-based foods in countries where insects are not traditionally consumed, such as Brazil. The objective is to understand how to help people to change culturally ingrained eating habits, and encourage them to try insect-based foods. Based on an exploratory methodology, an online survey (n=347) was conducted to examine the key factors influencing Brazilian consumers' intention to try insect-based foods. The questionnaire's authenticity, internal consistency, and construct validity were established based on previously validated surveys conducted in Europe and adapted for the Brazilian context. Social beliefs were viewed as social pressure, whereas intention was understood as a committed choice. Several factors influence consumers' perceptions, including visual appeals, available information, familiarity with the food, and food preparation methods. Aiming to evaluate the data collected, a structured modelling equation analysis was applied and set out to assess the importance of perception in decision-making. In essence, visual issues have the biggest impact on perception, as well as the presentation of food aspects are an important indicator. In other words, the results emphasized the importance of consumer’s perception in the willingness to try insect-based foods. However, the main question remains: what strategies can help individuals challenge culturally ingrained eating habits and encourage them to try and even adopt insect-based foods? Among the various results, this research reinforces the perception, which has a huge influence on intention, as well as individual and social beliefs. In this sense, Social Marketing strategies are recommended as an asset for changing behaviours that benefit the individual, society, and the environment.
- Try or not to try? A theoretical proposal to change eating behaviorPublication . Martins, Oliva M.D.; Silva, Natacha Jesus; Costa, José Paulo; Coelho, Ana SofiaConsidering that animal protein production undermines environmental sustainability and that protein-based foods are essential for human survival, it is necessary to reflect on alternatives in view of global population growth, expected to exceed nine billion by 2050, together with the increase in life expectancy. These factors, combined with the environmental impacts of livestock, may result in an insufficient supply of animal protein, raising the question: how can we meet the growing demand for protein? This proposal aims to identify sustainable and accessible options to replace or supplement animal protein. Insect-based food emerges as a promising solution; however, cultural barriers such as neophobia constitute a major challenge. To understand these barriers, we applied the Social Ecological Model [1], structuring them into different dimensions (structural, community, organizational, interpersonal). Additionally, we explored factors influencing eating behavior based on individual and social beliefs [2]. Given the complexity of changing food habits, a sequential qualitative and quantitative approach is proposed [3]. Finally, this research suggests experimental investigation on sensorial perception to identify the main agents and variables that influence eating behavior, leading to the development of an interaction model.