“The Lobe Family”: Collaborative Development of a Psychoeducational Resource for Children who have Experienced an Acquired Brain Injury

Background: This thesis describes the collaborative development and preliminary evaluation of a new psychoeducational resource for children and young people (CYP) who have experienced an acquired brain injury (ABI). Despite being acknowledged as a key aspect of neurorehabilitation associated with improved outcomes, the informational needs of CYP and their families are often not met (Danzi, Etter, Andretta & Kitzman, 2012; Forsyth et al., 2017). Whilst a number of informational resources are currently available, these are primarily developed for younger audiences, or those with milder forms of ABI that do not result in enduring neurocognitive impairment such as for concussion. A new psychoeducational resource may have the potential to meet these needs, particularly if grounded in theoretical and therapeutic research and theory, and delivered in a developmentally and pedagogically coherent manner. Methods: Researcher generated ideas derived from a review of the literature were integrated with the views of three CYP who have experienced an ABI via interviews to develop a prototype resource, and acceptability of this was addressed via a bespoke feedback form. Results: After identifying key neuropsychological concepts, the narrative framework was chosen as the therapeutic base for a new resource. This led to the development of a prototype for ‘The Lobe Family’, a new strengths-based psychoeducational resource. It was envisaged that ‘The Lobe Family’ would be presented as books for younger audiences, comics for adolescent audiences, and an interactive and personalisable web-based app. Preliminary evaluation suggests that ‘The Lobe Family’ may be acceptable to CYP, although further validation of this is required. Conclusions: Whilst methodological limitations relating to the sample necessitate further exploration of how best to meet the informational needs of the diverse ABI population, ‘The Lobe Family’ may have the potential to meet the needs of CYP who are not catered for by the existing resources, particularly adolescents experiencing enduring neurocognitive impacts

Hypertext Semiotics in the Commercialized Internet

Die Hypertext Theorie verwendet die selbe Terminologie, welche seit Jahrzehnten in der semiotischen Forschung untersucht wird, wie z.B. Zeichen, Text, Kommunikation, Code, Metapher, Paradigma, Syntax, usw. Aufbauend auf jenen Ergebnissen, welche in der Anwendung semiotischer Prinzipien und Methoden auf die Informatik erfolgreich waren, wie etwa Computer Semiotics, Computational Semiotics und Semiotic Interface Engineering, legt diese Dissertation einen systematischen Ansatz für all jene Forscher dar, die bereit sind, Hypertext aus einer semiotischen Perspektive zu betrachten. Durch die Verknüpfung existierender Hypertext-Modelle mit den Resultaten aus der Semiotik auf allen Sinnesebenen der textuellen, auditiven, visuellen, taktilen und geruchlichen Wahrnehmung skizziert der Autor Prolegomena einer Hypertext-Semiotik-Theorie, anstatt ein völlig neues Hypertext-Modell zu präsentieren. Eine Einführung in die Geschichte der Hypertexte, von ihrer Vorgeschichte bis zum heutigen Entwicklungsstand und den gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen im kommerzialisierten World Wide Web bilden den Rahmen für diesen Ansatz, welcher als Fundierung des Brückenschlages zwischen Mediensemiotik und Computer-Semiotik angesehen werden darf. Während Computer-Semiotiker wissen, dass der Computer eine semiotische Maschine ist und Experten der künstlichen Intelligenz-Forschung die Rolle der Semiotik in der Entwicklung der nächsten Hypertext-Generation betonen, bedient sich diese Arbeit einer breiteren methodologischen Basis. Dementsprechend reichen die Teilgebiete von Hypertextanwendungen, -paradigmen, und -strukturen, über Navigation, Web Design und Web Augmentation zu einem interdisziplinären Spektrum detaillierter Analysen, z.B. des Zeigeinstrumentes der Web Browser, des Klammeraffen-Zeichens und der sogenannten Emoticons. Die Bezeichnung ''Icon'' wird als unpassender Name für jene Bildchen, welche von der graphischen Benutzeroberfläche her bekannt sind und in Hypertexten eingesetzt werden, zurückgewiesen und diese Bildchen durch eine neue Generation mächtiger Graphic Link Markers ersetzt. Diese Ergebnisse werden im Kontext der Kommerzialisierung des Internet betrachtet. Neben der Identifizierung der Hauptprobleme des eCommerce aus der Perspektive der Hypertext Semiotik, widmet sich der Autor den Informationsgütern und den derzeitigen Hindernissen für die New Economy, wie etwa der restriktiven Gesetzeslage in Sachen Copyright und Intellectual Property. Diese anachronistischen Beschränkungen basieren auf der problematischen Annahme, dass auch der Informationswert durch die Knappheit bestimmt wird. Eine semiotische Analyse der iMarketing Techniken, wie z.B. Banner Werbung, Keywords und Link Injektion, sowie Exkurse über den Browser Krieg und den Toywar runden die Dissertation ab

Principled design guidance for the development of computer-based training materials

This study is concerned with the provision of guidance for designers of computer-based training (CBT) materials. Four interrelated principles - immersion, interaction, locative fit, and multiple representations - are discussed. These principles draw upon research into instruction and technology and re-frame and re-interpret established instructional factors in terms of the capabilities of the interactive computer as a training delivery medium. It will be argued that the conjoining of pedagogy and technology in the principles is crucial to the effectiveness of CBT. Furthermore, this study will also argue that the form of the guidance has a direct bearing on its usefulness. The four principles are argued to represent a coherent framework which can raise the awareness of CBT designers on key instructional issues and the ways in which the delivery medium may be used to support them, and provide a resource on which designers may draw.The relevance and effectiveness of the principles (and the issues that they address) are explored through a body of empirical work. This takes the form of two studies: a survey of designers providing comments on the content and expression of the principles and their importance to CBT design; and a series of user trials. The contrasting nature of the studies allows the comments of designers and users to be assessed and compared

A formal agent-based personalised mobile system to support emergency response

Communication may be seen as a process of sending and accepting information among individuals. It is a vital part of emergency response management, sharing the information of situations, victims, family and friends, rescue organisations and others. The obtained contextual information during a disaster event, however, is often dynamic, partial and may be conflicting with each other. Current communication strategies and solutions for emergency response have limitations - in that they are often designed to support information sharing between organisations and not individuals. As a result, they are often not personalisable. They also cannot make use of opportunistic resources, e.g. people nearby the disaster-struck areas that are ready to help but are not a part of any organisation. However, history has told us such people are often the first responders that provide the most immediate and useful help to the victims. On the other hand, the advanced and rich capabilities of mobile smartphones have become one of the most interesting topics in the field of mobile technologies and applied science. It is especially interesting when it can be expanded to become an effective emergency response tool to discover affected people and connect them with the first responders and their families, friends and communities. At present, research on emergency response is ineffective for handling large-scale disasters where professional rescuers could not reach victims in disaster struck-areas immediately. This is because current approaches are often built to support formal emergency response teams and organizations. Individual emergency response efforts, e.g. searching for missing people (inc. families and friends), are often web-based applications that are also not effective. Other works focus on sensory development that lacks integrated search and rescue approaches. In this thesis, I developed a distributed and personalisable Mobile Kit Disaster Assistant (MKA) system that is underpinned by a formal foundation. It aims at gathering emergency response information held by multiple resources before, during and after a large-scale disaster. As a result, contextual and background information based on a formal framework would be readily available, if a disaster indeed strikes. To this end, my core contribution is to provide a structural formal framework to encapsulate important information that is used to support emergency response at a personal level. Several (conceptual) structures were built to allow an individual to express his/her own individual circumstances, inc. relationships with others and health status that will determine how he/she may communicate with others. The communication framework is consisting of several new components: a rich and holistic Emergency Response Communication Framework, a newly developed Communication and Tracking Ontology (CTO), a newly devised Emergency Response Agent Communication Language (ER-ACL) and a brand-new Emergency Response Agent Communication Protocol (ER-ACP). I have framed the emergency response problem as a multi-agent problem where each smartphone would act as an agent for its user; each user would take on a role depending on requirements and/or the tasks at hand and the above framework is aimed to be used within a peer to peer distributed multiagent system (MAS) to assist emergency response efforts. Based on this formal framework, I have developed a mobile application, the MKA system, to capture important features of EM and to demonstrate the practicalities and value of the proposed formal framework. This system was carefully evaluated by both domain experts and potential users of targeted user groups using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The overall results are very encouraging. Evaluators appreciated the importance of the tool and believe such tools are vital in saving lives – that is applicable for large-scale disasters as well as for individual life-critical events

Emotional engineering of artificial representations of sign languages

The fascination and challenge of making an appropriate digital representation of sign language for a highly specialised and culturally rich community such as the Deaf, has brought about the development and production of several digital representations of sign language (DRSL). These range from pictorial depictions of sign language, filmed video recordings to animated avatars (virtual humans). However, issues relating to translating and representing sign language in the digital-domain and the effectiveness of various approaches, has divided the opinion of the target audience. As a result there is still no universally accepted digital representation of sign language. For systems to reach their full potential, researchers have postulated that further investigation is needed into the interaction and representational issues associated with the mapping of sign language into the digital domain. This dissertation contributes a novel approach that investigates the comparative effectiveness of digital representations of sign language within different information delivery contexts. The empirical studies presented have supported the characterisation of the prescribed properties of DRSL's that make it an effective communication system, which when defined by the Deaf community, was often referred to as "emotion". This has led to and supported the developed of the proposed design methodology for the "Emotional Engineering of Artificial Sign Languages", which forms the main contribution of this thesis

Developing a service for the personalisation of running shoes

The aim of this research was to specify and develop a service that is capable of delivering personalisable running shoes with mass appeal. Current sports footwear personalisation services focus primarily on aesthetic design via the internet. Aesthetics do not appear to be the consumers primary interest when purchasing running shoes and a large number are also reluctant to purchase online; preferring to purchase from specialist running stores where they receive the advice needed and can directly interact with the product. After reviewing the literature, it was hypothesised that the implementation of a primarily comfort and performance running shoe personalisation service with an in store fitting element, utilising additive manufacturing as an enabling technology, would give the greatest opportunity for success. Survey methods and store visits were employed that targeted both qualitative and quantitative data, exploring consumer running shoe purchase preferences, running shoe use and opinions of current personalisation services. The findings from these studies supported the previously stated hypothesis and enabled the specification of a suitable service. Subsequently, the focus of this research was the development of a toolkit, a computer-based system that enables the consumer to make their selections, the core of most of the current services. Experts in biomechanics and additive manufacturing were consulted to ensure that a feasible yet innovative solution was delivered. The resultant toolkit prototype (www.yourstep.co.uk) was tested formatively, using multiple methods and summatively with a large sample. Using the toolkit was considered an enjoyable, intuitive experience; a large percentage (69%) of summative testing participants would consider purchasing personalised running shoes using this method. The approach adopted to specify and develop this service provides a framework, based upon empirical research, for those looking to implement a practical running shoe personalisation service that meets their consumers requirements

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2012 Florence

The key aim of this Event is to provide a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology. Participants receive up to date news on new EC and international arts computing & telecommunications initiatives as well as on Projects in the visual arts field, in archaeology and history. Working Groups and new Projects are promoted. Scientific and technical demonstrations are presented

Personalised privacy in pervasive and ubiquitous systems

Our world is edging closer to the realisation of pervasive systems and their integration in our everyday life. While pervasive systems are capable of offering many benefits for everyone, the amount and quality of personal information that becomes available raise concerns about maintaining user privacy and create a real need to reform existing privacy practices and provide appropriate safeguards for the user of pervasive environments. This thesis presents the PERSOnalised Negotiation, Identity Selection and Management (PersoNISM) system; a comprehensive approach to privacy protection in pervasive environments using context aware dynamic personalisation and behaviour learning. The aim of the PersoNISM system is twofold: to provide the user with a comprehensive set of privacy protecting tools and to help them make the best use of these tools according to their privacy needs. The PersoNISM system allows users to: a) configure the terms and conditions of data disclosure through the process of privacy policy negotiation, which addresses the current “take it or leave it” approach; b) use multiple identities to interact with pervasive services to avoid the accumulation of vast amounts of personal information in a single user profile; and c) selectively disclose information based on the type of information, who requests it, under what context, for what purpose and how the information will be treated. The PersoNISM system learns user privacy preferences by monitoring the behaviour of the user and uses them to personalise and/or automate the decision making processes in order to unburden the user from manually controlling these complex mechanisms. The PersoNISM system has been designed, implemented, demonstrated and evaluated during three EU funded projects

Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis - Heterogeneity and Personalized Treatment provides the latest research and clinical evidence for clinicians, scientists and researchers involved in the care of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). This book outlines the burden of the CF microbiome, utilisation of CF registries to impact future care, the sequelae of hepatobiliary complication, the use of upcoming technologies to provide patient-centred care, and provides an overview of cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) modulators. Looking after patients with CF is highly rewarding, allowing those of us to combine our dedication and problem-solving skills to create a personalized approach. This book is invaluable for those involved in the care of CF patients