Functional Movement Disorders: Attention, Agency and Beliefs

This work centers around three aspects of the likely pathophysiology of functional movement disorders: attention, agency and beliefs. The most characteristic, yet intriguing feature of functional neurological disorders is that symptoms typically manifest with attention and improve or disappear with distraction. In an attempt to elucidate what the abnormal attentional focus is, it was manipulated onto different aspects of a reaching movement. Attention in functional tremor seems to be misdirected to the ongoing visual feedback of the movement and this seems to partly contribute to the symptoms. Furthermore, the attention network test indicates that the executive network is impaired. Functional movement disorders share many characteristics with voluntary movements, raising the question whether it is in fact the sense of agency that is the primary abnormality in this disorder. The sense of agency was measured in the context of different attentional foci and with subliminal and supraliminal priming. No abnormalities were detected, although this might have been linked to methodological difficulties. Subliminal priming confirmed that implicit motor control is normal in patients with functional movement disorders. Functional neurological disorders sometimes appear to follow lay beliefs. In order to evaluate if their beliefs about their symptoms are abnormal, functional tremor patients’ perception of their tremor was evaluated in real time and in retrospect. It was found to be accurate and not dissimilar to organic tremor patients’ perception. Attempting to change their beliefs, by modifying the visual feedback they were given did not have any lasting effect on functional nor organic tremor. Dramatic placebo effects are occasionally observed in functional neurological disorders, having led to the conclusion that patients with these disorders are suggestible. A classic placebo analgesia experiment did not show stronger placebo responses in patients with functional neurological disorders than healthy controls, suggesting that the notion of suggestibility is mistaken

Indoor outdoor detection

Abstract. This thesis shows a viable machine learning model that detects Indoor or Outdoor on smartphones. The model was designed as a classification problem and it was trained with data collected from several smartphone sensors by participants of a field trial conducted. The data collected was labeled manually either indoor or outdoor by the participants themselves. The model was then iterated over to lower the energy consumption by utilizing feature selection techniques and subsampling techniques. The model which uses all of the data achieved a 99 % prediction accuracy, while the energy efficient model achieved 92.91 %. This work provides the tools for researchers to quantify environmental exposure using smartphones

Technical Workshop: Advanced Helicopter Cockpit Design

Information processing demands on both civilian and military aircrews have increased enormously as rotorcraft have come to be used for adverse weather, day/night, and remote area missions. Applied psychology, engineering, or operational research for future helicopter cockpit design criteria were identified. Three areas were addressed: (1) operational requirements, (2) advanced avionics, and (3) man-system integration

Helios

“Helios” is an advertisement for a futuristic electric vehicle that utilizes revolutionary materials and upcoming technologies to address some of the current shortcomings of electric vehicles both aesthetically and technologically. This project explores how to create an effective advertisement for an automobile. Factors affecting consumer behavior, barriers and motivations for purchase, brand strategy, and aesthetics as well as the design of the car itself were all considered. The process for creating and assessing the advertisement will be summarized and evaluate

Basic Vision Research with Clinical Applications and Science Education Assessments

Visual Acuity (VA) examinations are one of the most commonly conducted medical assessment throughout the world. Recent advances in computer technology allows for new forms of visual assessment to be conducted. In Part I of this thesis I demonstrate the capability of an automated computer program named VISION to assess human visual acuities. Different color combinations of an object against a background emitted from a computer screen are used to examine a variety of human color vision acuities. Results indicated a large difference in acuity scores between human subjects tested with these different color combinations. A single human subject exhibits differences in their visual acuities obtained from different combinations of emitted colors that is almost unique to that specific subject. In Part II of this thesis, I assess the characteristics and effectiveness of incorporating these VISION programmed studies in satisfying the Capstone course requirement at the University of Maine using the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) assessment and interviews. In doing so, I propose a new theoretical set of guidelines for assessing all science-related Capstone experiences at any school and college

Television Production : Managing the Technology

The idea to write the thesis about television production came into my mind a long time ago. I knew that this area of media technology was the most interesting for me. I had an internship in Aito Media Oy television production company in 2009, and I studied TV Production at Ferris State University, USA for one academic year 2010-2011. The main objective for my thesis is to research, compare and describe all steps in production of a television show from the developing an idea through planning, budgeting, shooting and editing to the final release of the TV show on the screen. Also I would like to observe the technologies used nowadays and determine the role of a producer in the TV production. To reach my objective, I read several books and electronical materials on different topics about phases of the production, equipment and techniques, communication and documentation. Furthermore, I use knowledge from my own experience, which I got while studying and making practical tasks at Television and Digital Media Production program at Ferris State University. I learned the professional skills required in all aspects of different phases of television production, including studio workflow, camera operation, field equipment, multicamera directing and the responsibilities and organ-izational expertise of the producer. At the same time, I explored the latest production techniques and technology, such as audio and lighting work-stations, non-linear editing, high-definition television and 3D television.Ajatus tehdä opinnäytetyöni televisiotuotannosta tuli jo kauan sitten, koska tiesin, että se on henkilökohtaisesti mielenkiintoisin alue mediatekniikassa. Olin työharjoittelussa Aito Media Oy tv-tuotantoyhtiössä vuonna 2009, ja lukuvuodessa 2010-2011 opiskelin Ferris State University:n TV-tuotanto ja Digimedian koulutusohjelmassa, Yhdysvaltoissa. Työn päätavoitteena on tutkia, vertailla ja kuvata kaikki tv-ohjelman tuotannon vaiheet alkaen idean kehittämisestä, sekä suunnittelun, budjetoinnin, kuvausten ja editoinnin kautta lopullisen tv-ohjelman version julkaistamiseen. Myöskin haluan havainnoida nykyaikaisia tekniikoita ja määrittää tuottajan roolin tv-tuotannossa. Tavoiteeni saavuttakseni olen lukenut useita kirjoja ja elektronisia lähteitä erilaisilla aiheilla, kuten tv tuotannon vaiheet, laitteisto ja tekniikat, viestintä ja dokumentointi. Lisäksi käytän tietoja omasta kokemuksestani, mitkä sain kun opiskelin Ferris State University:ssa ja tein erilaisia tv tuotannon liittyviä tehtäviä. Olen oppinut tarvittavaa ammattitaitoa kaikilla tv-tuotannon vaiheilla, kuten työnkulku studiossa, cameran operointi, tuotantolaitteiden käyttö kentällä, monicameroiden ohjaus sekä tuottajan vastuut ja järjestelytaidot. Samalla tutkin viimeisimpiä tuotantomenetelmiä ja tekniikkaa, kuten ääni- ja valaistustyöasemien käyttöä, käytössä olevia editointiohjelmistoja ja teräväpiirtotelevision ja 3D television ominaisuuksia

Photovoltaic module segmentation and thermal analysis tool from thermal images

The growing interest in the use of clean energy has led to the construction of increasingly large photovoltaic systems. Consequently, monitoring the proper functioning of these systems has become a highly relevant issue.In this paper, automatic detection, and analysis of photovoltaic modules are proposed. To perform the analysis, a module identification step, based on a digital image processing algorithm, is first carried out. This algorithm consists of image enhancement (contrast enhancement, noise reduction, etc.), followed by segmentation of the photovoltaic module. Subsequently, a statistical analysis based on the temperature values of the segmented module is performed.Besides, a graphical user interface has been designed as a potential tool that provides relevant information of the photovoltaic modules.Comment: 7 pages, 12 Figure