URSS Event Program Booklet 2017

This event program booklet contains a schedule of the event, list of awards, and student abstracts

Associations among Perceived Stress, Mindfulness, and Concussion-Related Outcomes in Young Adults with Concussion History

Concussion causes neurophysiological changes resulting in clinical deficits and psychological changes - presenting those injured with significant physical and psychosocial burden. Increased perceived stress, which is associated with decreased mental, physical health, and quality of life (QOL), may be heightened post-concussion. Furthermore, research suggests higher mindfulness is associated with decreased perceived stress and increased mental and physical health. Despite these connections, no research has identified the associations among perceived stress, mindfulness, and clinical and psychological concussion outcomes – knowledge necessary to inform effective interventions. This dissertation consisted of two studies: 1) a cross-sectional observational study in 80 young adults with a concussion history in which participants completed a single study visit including measures for demographics, concussion history, mental health history, current mindfulness practice, perceived stress, mindfulness, clinical concussion outcomes (concussion symptoms, balance performance, ANS function, vestibular/ocular function, and exertion tolerance), and psychological concussion outcomes (neurocognitive performance, psychological distress, and QOL); and 2) a single arm mindfulness intervention pilot study where 15 participants completed 10-20 minutes of mindfulness exercises/meditations daily for six weeks and were assessed for adherence, acceptability, feasibility, intervention perceptions, and preliminary efficacy (concussion symptoms, perceived stress, and mindfulness). Cross-sectional results suggest that higher perceived stress was significantly associated with higher concussion symptoms, higher psychological distress, and lower QOL. Additionally, higher mindfulness was significantly associated with lower concussion symptoms, lower psychological distress, and higher QOL. Mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between perceived stress and concussion outcomes. Pilot intervention results suggest positive adherence, acceptability, feasibility, and overall intervention perceptions. Additionally, concussion symptoms significantly decreased pre/post-intervention. Results provide a novel understanding of the association among perceived stress, mindfulness, and clinical and psychological concussion outcomes and the impact of a mindfulness intervention in young adults with a concussion history. This study will inform future interventions aimed to mitigate stress and/or target mindfulness post-concussion.Doctor of Philosoph

The assessment of visual behaviour and depth perception in surgery

Imperial Users onl

Gender Differences in Student Learning: A Review of the Literature from the Neuroscience and Psychology Perspectives

Literature from the fields of psychology and neuroscience were examined to establish what scientifically based information was available regarding gender differences. Myths of the past, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives, gender specific differences for students with genetic and metabolic-based exceptionalities, gender specific changes in behavior through maturation, and the educational implications for gender differences were included. The results indicated that children show developmental differences in expression of emotion, metacognition, and cognition, and the developmental differences are influenced by gender. The implications for educational practices are that curriculum, instruction, and assessment can be aligned to meet the unique need of both male and female students

Visual strategies underpinning social cognition in traumatic brain injury

Impairments in social cognition after traumatic brain injury (TBI) are well documented but poorly understood (McDonald, 2013). Deficits in emotion perception, particularly facial affect recognition, are frequently reported in the literature (Babbage et al., 2011; Knox & Douglas, 2009), as well as mentalizing impairments and difficulty in understanding sincere and sarcastic exchanges (Channon, Pellijeff & Rule, 2005). To fully understand social impairments, both low-level and high-level processes must be explored. Few studies have focused on low-level perceptual processes in regards to facial affect recognition after TBI, and those that do typically use static social stimuli which lack ecological validity (Alves, 2013). This thesis employed eyetracking technology to explore the visual strategies underpinning the processing of contemporary static and dynamic social cognition tasks in a group of 18 TBI participants and 18 age, gender and education matched controls. The group affected by TBI scored significantly lower on the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC; Dziobek, et al., 2006), the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES; van der Schalk, Hawk, Fischer & Doosje, 2009), and The Assessment of Social Inference Test (McDonald et al., 2003). These findings suggest that, across a range of reliable assessments, individuals with TBI displayed significant social cognition deficits, including emotion perception and theory of mind, thus presenting strong evidence that social cognition is altered post-TBI. Impairments were not related to low-level visual processing as measured through eye-tracking metrics. This important insight suggests that social cognition changes post-TBI is likely associated with impairments in higher-level cognitive functioning. Interestingly, the group with TBI did display some aberrant fixation patterns in response to one static and one dynamic task but gaze patterns were similar between the groups on the remaining tasks. These non-uniform results warrant further exploration of low-level alterations post-TBI. Findings are discussed in reference to academic and clinical implications

Parent & Caregiver Education And Support: A Product To Support Families Of Childrn With Senosry Processing Difficulties

Purpose Parent and caregiver collaboration, participation, education, and training has shown to improve therapeutic outcomes for the child receiving therapy services for sensory processing and integration challenges (Lin, Lin, & Yu, 2018; Miller-Kuhaneck & Watling, 2018; Schoen, Miller, & Flanagan, 2018; STAR Institute, 2021). However, parent education and training are often minimally conducted or lacking altogether in the therapeutic process (Gee & Peterson, 2016; Miller-Kuhaneck & Watling, 2018). This product was created with the purpose of enhancing parent and caregiver knowledge about sensory processing difficulties and to increase follow-through of sensory strategies across contexts, such as at home and school, in the therapy clinic, and within the community. Methodology The product was developed following a comprehensive review of literature that emphasized the need for increased parent and caregiver education and support throughout the therapeutic process. Following the review of available literature, an on-site needs assessment was conducted to determine educational topics to include within the product. The product materials were organized based on the Ecology of Human Performance (EHP) Model (Dunn, Brown, & McGuigan, 1994). Results The product includes instructional materials that can be accessible outside of the therapy clinic, such as written hand-outs with pictures and corresponding videos for parents to refer to when implementing sensory strategies. These educational resources are intended to reinforce the one-on-one education/discussions that occur during the individual therapy sessions. All instructional handouts were written to be at or below the eighth grade reading level to promote readability and understandability for the population served. Each educational material includes specific strategies and recommendations for parents and caregivers to try with their child to improve or overcome the challenges associated with sensory processing difficulties. Summary The purpose of this product is to provide an outpatient pediatric clinic with resources and guidance to facilitate individualized parent education and support specific to the population served. Overall, the product should be utilized as both a direct and indirect service approach (AOTA, 2020) to enhance the child’s occupational performance across various contexts

Proceedings of Abstracts Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference 2019

© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For further details please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Note: Keynote: Fluorescence visualisation to evaluate effectiveness of personal protective equipment for infection control is © 2019 Crown copyright and so is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Under this licence users are permitted to copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application. Where you do any of the above you must acknowledge the source of the Information in your product or application by including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/This book is the record of abstracts submitted and accepted for presentation at the Inaugural Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference held 17th April 2019 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK. This conference is a local event aiming at bringing together the research students, staff and eminent external guests to celebrate Engineering and Computer Science Research at the University of Hertfordshire. The ECS Research Conference aims to showcase the broad landscape of research taking place in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The 2019 conference was articulated around three topical cross-disciplinary themes: Make and Preserve the Future; Connect the People and Cities; and Protect and Care