689 research outputs found

    UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024

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    The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp

    Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies

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    Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people — in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation — are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change – and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial

    Advancing ecological validity and clinical utility in virtual reality-based continuous performance test: exploring the effects of task difficulty and environmental distractors

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    IntroductionResearchers have highlighted concerns regarding the limited diagnostic utility and ecological validity of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Recent advancements in VR-based CPTs have attempted to address these concerns by simulating real-life scenarios and enhancing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis; however, certain areas require improvement for obtaining reliable data from both healthy individuals and those with ADHD. To tackle these issues, we developed an enhanced VR-based CPT program featuring four distinct difficulty levels, advancing toward home-based assessment.MethodOur feasibility study involved subjects without ADHD to establish a normative profile for VR-based CPT before extending it to ADHD assessment. Our sample included 20 Korean adults. They received a VR device with the VR-based CPT program installed and were asked to perform 1-2 blocks per day at home. Participants were instructed to complete 12 blocks over the subsequent 2 weeks. Psychological assessments and electroencephalograms (EEGs) were administered before and after the program. Post-study usability measures were also collected.ResultHigher commission errors were notably evident in the “very high” difficulty level which featured complex stimuli and increased distraction. A notable correlation emerged between the overall distraction level and CPT accuracy, along with a significant link between intensity scores and commission errors. No significant differences were found in psychological assessment and there were no significant changes in the Theta-Beta Ratio (TBR) index before and after the program. The usability of our program was fair.DiscussionThe study reveals that the newly designed VR-CPT program, simulating diverse real-life environments and offering varying task difficulty levels, proved acceptable and feasible. The key point of our study was that the adjustment and segmentation of difficulty levels in the VR-based CPT were achieved, and that this effort was validated by examining the impact of different levels of difficulty on CPT measures. Implementing this experimental setup in a home-based environment increased ecological validity, as well as clinical utility. Limitations and suggested directions for further investigation are described in detail

    UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023

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    The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp

    Soundscape in Urban Forests

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    This Special Issue of Forests explores the role of soundscapes in urban forested areas. It is comprised of 11 papers involving soundscape studies conducted in urban forests from Asia and Africa. This collection contains six research fields: (1) the ecological patterns and processes of forest soundscapes; (2) the boundary effects and perceptual topology; (3) natural soundscapes and human health; (4) the experience of multi-sensory interactions; (5) environmental behavior and cognitive disposition; and (6) soundscape resource management in forests

    Seamless Multimodal Biometrics for Continuous Personalised Wellbeing Monitoring

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    Artificially intelligent perception is increasingly present in the lives of every one of us. Vehicles are no exception, (...) In the near future, pattern recognition will have an even stronger role in vehicles, as self-driving cars will require automated ways to understand what is happening around (and within) them and act accordingly. (...) This doctoral work focused on advancing in-vehicle sensing through the research of novel computer vision and pattern recognition methodologies for both biometrics and wellbeing monitoring. The main focus has been on electrocardiogram (ECG) biometrics, a trait well-known for its potential for seamless driver monitoring. Major efforts were devoted to achieving improved performance in identification and identity verification in off-the-person scenarios, well-known for increased noise and variability. Here, end-to-end deep learning ECG biometric solutions were proposed and important topics were addressed such as cross-database and long-term performance, waveform relevance through explainability, and interlead conversion. Face biometrics, a natural complement to the ECG in seamless unconstrained scenarios, was also studied in this work. The open challenges of masked face recognition and interpretability in biometrics were tackled in an effort to evolve towards algorithms that are more transparent, trustworthy, and robust to significant occlusions. Within the topic of wellbeing monitoring, improved solutions to multimodal emotion recognition in groups of people and activity/violence recognition in in-vehicle scenarios were proposed. At last, we also proposed a novel way to learn template security within end-to-end models, dismissing additional separate encryption processes, and a self-supervised learning approach tailored to sequential data, in order to ensure data security and optimal performance. (...)Comment: Doctoral thesis presented and approved on the 21st of December 2022 to the University of Port

    Perceived impact on siblings of having a brother or sister with congenital heart disease

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    Background: Survival rates for children with congenital heart disease have increased. However, many of these children are now living with increased co-morbidities. Contemporary healthcare promotes home care, and this is being provided by children’s families. Siblings of children with congenital heart disease are often unintentionally overlooked in research and family centred care strategies. Having a sibling with congenital heart disease affects siblings too, the extent and perceived impact remain unknown. Aim: To explore perceived impact on children and young people of having a sibling with congenital heart disease. Methods: Guided by a family advisory group and Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological systems theory, a mixed methods sequential exploratory study design was used for this exploratory research and integrated findings are reported. The population was children and young people who had a brother/sister with congenital heart disease, aged 8-17 years old, living in the UK. Phase one involved virtual semi-structured interviews (n=17) exploring experiences. The Pictorial Representation of Self and Illness tool was used to allow visual demonstration of perceived impact. Phase one data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Phase two involved questionnaires (n=52) in which Resilience, Interpersonal perceptions, Intrapersonal relationships, Fear and Communication were measured using two validated scales, the Sibling Perception Questionnaire and Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Results: Five themes were identified from phase one: My life looks different, Always you before me, My role in our family, Effects on me and moving forward and How COVID-19 changed things for me. In phase two high levels of resilience were demonstrated but communication, intrapersonal perception and intrapersonal relationships could be strengthened and level of fear about the illness could be reduced to improve outcomes. Integrated findings suggest relationships, peer support, communication, information, and inclusion of siblings at home and in hospital were vital recommendations for practice. Contribution to knowledge: This is the first study to utilise a mixed methods design and Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological systems theory to gain a holistic view of the perceived impact on siblings of having a brother or sister with congenital heart disease, from a sibling’s perspective. Virtual interviews and online questionnaires helped to gain a broad understanding of the ever-evolving landscape of perceived impact. Whilst findings suggest this population group are generally resilient, interventions focusing on maintaining resilience and supporting positive relationships, communication and inclusion should be developed to support siblings throughout their life course

    Imagining & Sensing: Understanding and Extending the Vocalist-Voice Relationship Through Biosignal Feedback

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    The voice is body and instrument. Third-person interpretation of the voice by listeners, vocal teachers, and digital agents is centred largely around audio feedback. For a vocalist, physical feedback from within the body provides an additional interaction. The vocalist’s understanding of their multi-sensory experiences is through tacit knowledge of the body. This knowledge is difficult to articulate, yet awareness and control of the body are innate. In the ever-increasing emergence of technology which quantifies or interprets physiological processes, we must remain conscious also of embodiment and human perception of these processes. Focusing on the vocalist-voice relationship, this thesis expands knowledge of human interaction and how technology influences our perception of our bodies. To unite these different perspectives in the vocal context, I draw on mixed methods from cog- nitive science, psychology, music information retrieval, and interactive system design. Objective methods such as vocal audio analysis provide a third-person observation. Subjective practices such as micro-phenomenology capture the experiential, first-person perspectives of the vocalists them- selves. Quantitative-qualitative blend provides details not only on novel interaction, but also an understanding of how technology influences existing understanding of the body. I worked with vocalists to understand how they use their voice through abstract representations, use mental imagery to adapt to altered auditory feedback, and teach fundamental practice to others. Vocalists use multi-modal imagery, for instance understanding physical sensations through auditory sensations. The understanding of the voice exists in a pre-linguistic representation which draws on embodied knowledge and lived experience from outside contexts. I developed a novel vocal interaction method which uses measurement of laryngeal muscular activations through surface electromyography. Biofeedback was presented to vocalists through soni- fication. Acting as an indicator of vocal activity for both conscious and unconscious gestures, this feedback allowed vocalists to explore their movement through sound. This formed new perceptions but also questioned existing understanding of the body. The thesis also uncovers ways in which vocalists are in control and controlled by, work with and against their bodies, and feel as a single entity at times and totally separate entities at others. I conclude this thesis by demonstrating a nuanced account of human interaction and perception of the body through vocal practice, as an example of how technological intervention enables exploration and influence over embodied understanding. This further highlights the need for understanding of the human experience in embodied interaction, rather than solely on digital interpretation, when introducing technology into these relationships

    Patient-focused outcomes from cardiac rehabilitation: Influence of service delivery characteristics

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    Repeat acute coronary heart disease (CHD) events are common. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a complex secondary prevention intervention proven to reduce repeat cardiac events. However, the delivery of CR services varies substantially between contexts, influencing important patient outcomes. In this thesis, the influence of CR service delivery characteristics on patient-focused outcomes, particularly exercise capacity, exercise self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life (HRQL), as well as patient experiences was investigated. The 29-item Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Profile Measure version 2.0 (PROMIS-29v2) was also evaluated for use in CR settings. A series of studies were conducted to determine the effects of CR delivery on patient-focused outcomes. Patient-focused outcomes in CR were positive overall. Exercise capacity improved substantially in CR programs in the Australian cross-state audit, where more improvements were demonstrated following shorter wait times regardless of program duration/number of sessions. Multiple aspects of HRQL improved substantially from CR in the meta-analysis and in the multi-site pre-post study, regardless of delivery mode (in-person or remote). The PROMIS-29v2 demonstrated validity, reliability, and sensitivity to HRQL changes occurring in CR. A benefit evident for remote CR delivery was shorter wait times, which is balanced against lower completion rates and less improvements in exercise self-efficacy. This thesis contributes to understanding the complex influences of CR service delivery characteristics to patient-focused outcomes. Consistent improvements in important patient-focused outcomes with CR participation and the influence of CR delivery models and patient characteristics are confirmed in this thesis. A granular, multi-level evaluation of CR components, considering the wider health care and societal systems, is required in designing effective and sustainable future CR delivery models

    Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Caregivers

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    This thesis examines the application and effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for both individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their primary caregivers. Emerging research shows that conventional MBIs can be effective in providing relief from mental health symptoms, such as depression and anxiety. However, questions remain regarding the effectiveness of MBIs across the lifespan of autistic individuals, the perception of MBIs among these individuals and their families, and the most effective way to disseminate MBIs to this population. MBIs are attracting increasing attention in ASD research, partly because they cultivate an awareness and non-judgemental attitude towards difficult thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations: aspects that are challenging for those with ASD, given their difficulties in sensory processing and emotional regulation. Issues with both access and affordability of mental health care have also been noted by this cohort. In this context, eHealth—the use of technology in mental health care—offers promise as a flexible service delivery option. To date, however, little research has explored eHealth as a mental health tool for ASD. This thesis presents three studies, the first being a high-quality meta-analysis of 10 controlled and quasi-experimental studies (Nparticipants = 574) which evaluated mental health and wellbeing outcomes for autistic children and adults and their caregivers following MBI participation. Positive small to large effects (g range = 0.39 to 0.87) were reported by autistic adults and caregivers. The mental health benefits of MBI reported by autistic children were smaller in magnitude (g range = 0.22 to 0.43). These findings were, however, limited by the methodological quality of included studies. The small group of studies, which primarily involved caregivers, also precludes the ability to generalise the findings to the broader ASD population. A second study, a qualitative meta-synthesis of the mindfulness intervention literature for ASD, provides further context to these meta-analytic findings. Based on 10 studies (Nparticipants = 224), key themes focusing on the facilitators and barriers to mindfulness training were identified. Overall, individuals reported improved self-awareness and self-regulation with MBI. The group-based therapy format also provided a supportive environment and motivated participants to practise. However, home practice was seen as a key barrier. Equally problematic was the time commitment required for therapy combined with the demands of managing a child’s ASD behaviours. An intervention study, based on the findings of Studies 1 and 2, was then trialled to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of, a commercially available smartphone application based on mindfulness principles, Smiling Mind, for individuals affected by ASD. Distraction and boredom were key obstacles to app use reported by these children, while caregivers noted competing time commitments as a barrier to ongoing use. Participant interviews did, however, highlight positive attitudes to the use of Smiling Mind. That said, app use tended to be directed towards meeting specific goals, such as helping to promote better sleep for their child rather than the development of mindfulness skills per se. In combination, the findings of these three studies suggest that MBI, particularly when offered via eHealth, has potential as a flexible method for improving the general wellbeing of autistic individuals and their caregivers. Despite an increased interest in mindfulness approaches, however, research on its application with ASD remains preliminary. Ultimately, significant methodological refinements are still needed to develop a robust picture of the application and effectiveness of MBI and its flexible delivery in this population.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202
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