9 research outputs found
Robotics 2010
Without a doubt, robotics has made an incredible progress over the last decades. The vision of developing, designing and creating technical systems that help humans to achieve hard and complex tasks, has intelligently led to an incredible variety of solutions. There are barely technical fields that could exhibit more interdisciplinary interconnections like robotics. This fact is generated by highly complex challenges imposed by robotic systems, especially the requirement on intelligent and autonomous operation. This book tries to give an insight into the evolutionary process that takes place in robotics. It provides articles covering a wide range of this exciting area. The progress of technical challenges and concepts may illuminate the relationship between developments that seem to be completely different at first sight. The robotics remains an exciting scientific and engineering field. The community looks optimistically ahead and also looks forward for the future challenges and new development
Exploring perspectives of people with type-1 diabetes on goalsetting strategies within self-management education and care
Background. Collaborative goal-setting strategies are widely recommended for diabetes self-management support within healthcare systems. Creating self-management plans that fit with peoples’ own goals and priorities has been linked with better diabetic control. Consequently, goal-setting has become a core component of many diabetes selfmanagement programmes such as the ‘Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE) programme’. Within DAFNE, people with Type-1 Diabetes (T1D) develop their own goals along with action-plans to stimulate goal-achievement. While widely implemented, limited research has explored how goal-setting strategies are experienced by people with diabetes.Therefore, this study aims to explore the perspectives of people with T1D on theimplementation and value of goal-setting strategies within DAFNE and follow-up diabetes care. Furthermore, views on barriers and facilitators to goal-attainment are explored.Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 people with T1D who attended a DAFNE-programme. Following a longitudinal qualitative research design, interviews took place 1 week, and 6-8 months after completion of DAFNE. A recurrent cross-sectional approach is applied in which themes will be identified at each time-point using thematic analyses.Expected results. Preliminary identified themes surround the difference in value that participants place on goal-setting strategies, and the lack of support for goal-achievement within diabetes care.Current stage. Data collection complete; data-analysis ongoing.Discussion. Goal-setting strategies are increasingly included in guidelines for diabetes support and have become essential parts of many primary care improvement schemes. Therefore, exploring the perspectives of people with T1D on the value and implementation of goal-setting strategies is vital for their optimal application
Investigating the Moment when Solutions emerge in Problem Solving
At some point during a creative action something clicks, suddenly the
prospective problem solver just knows the solution to a problem, and a feeling
of joy and relief arises. This phenomenon, called Eureka experience, insight,
Aha moment, hunch, epiphany, illumination, or serendipity, has been part of
human narrations for thousands of years. It is the moment of a subjective
experience, a surprising, and sometimes a life-changing event. In this thesis,
I narrow down this moment 1. conceptually, 2. experientially, and 3.
temporally. The concept of emerging solutions has a multidisciplinary
background in Cognitive Science, Arts, Design, and Engineering. Through the
discussion of previous terminology and comparative reviews of historical
literature, I identify sources of ambiguity surrounding this phenomenon and
suggest unifying terms as the basis for interdisciplinary exploration. Tracking
the experience based on qualitative data from 11 creative practitioners, I
identify conflicting aspects of existing models of creative production. To
bridge this theoretical and disciplinary divide between iterative design
thinking and sequential models of creativity, I suggest a novel multi-layered
model. Empirical support for this proposal comes from Dira, a computer-based
open-ended experimental paradigm. As part of this thesis I developed the task
and 40 unique sets of stimuli and response items to collect dynamic measures of
the creative process and evade known problems of insightful tasks. Using Dira,
I identify the moment when solutions emerge from the number and duration of
mouse-interactions with the on-screen elements and the 124 participants’
self-reports. I provide an argument for the multi-layered model to explain a
discrepancy between the timing observed in Dira and existing sequential models.
Furthermore, I suggest that Eureka moments can be assessed on more than a
dichotomous scale, as the empirical data from interviews and Dira demonstrates
for this rich human experience. I conclude that the research on insight
benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and suggest Dira as an instrument
for future studies