A Systematic Review of the Probes Method in Research with Children and Families

Since their introduction, there has been wide discussion about how probes are used in human computer interaction (HCI) research. This variation can be problematic for researchers and designers who plan on using probes in the child computer interaction space, as it can be difficult to know which approach is best suited to address their design situation. In this review, we surveyed the ways that HCI researchers have used probes in studies with children and families. Based on 25 articles, we analysed the methodological decisions that researchers have taken in their empirical studies, relating to: a.) the goals for using the probes, b.) the probe itself, c.) participant involvement, and d.) the data and data use. Based on our methodological findings, we highlight four key tensions—including probes as sources of information versus creative input--and consider questions that can guide decision making for developing probes studies with children and families

Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered

What can the language of musicians tell us about music interaction design?

It is difficult to create good interaction designs for music software or to substantially improve existing designs. One reason is that music involves diverse and complex concepts, entities, relationships, processes, terminologies, and notations. An open challenge for interaction designers is to find systematic ways of channeling the tacit, specialized knowledge of musicians into designs for intuitive user interfaces that can capably support musically skilled users, without excluding those with less technical musical knowledge. One promising new approach to this challenge involves the application of research from the theory of image schemas and conceptual metaphors This theory has already been applied with some success to analyzing musical concepts, mathematical concepts, general-purpose user-interface design, and sound-generation interaction designs involving simple musical parameters such as tempo, volume, and pitch. We propose that by identifying the conceptual metaphors and image schemas used by musical experts when analyzing an excerpt of music, and then assessing the extent to which these conceptual metaphors are supported by existing music-interaction designs, it is possible to identify areas where the designs do not match musicians’ understanding of the domain concepts. This process provides a principled basis for identifying points at which designs could be improved to better support musicians’ understanding and tasks, and for the provisional identification of possible improvements. We present the results of an analysis of dialogue between three musicians as they discuss an excerpt of music. A methodology for the systematic identification of image schemas and conceptual metaphors is detailed. We report on the use of the results of the dialogue analysis to illuminate the designs of two contrasting examples of music software. Areas in which the designs might be made more intuitive are identified, and corresponding suggestions for improvements are outlined. The present research appears to be the first to investigate the potential of conceptual metaphor theory for investigating and improving music-interaction designs that deal with complex musical concepts, such as harmonic progressions, modulation, and voice leading

Renegotiation and Relative Performance Evaluation: Why an Informative Signal may be Useless

Although Holmström's informativeness criterion provides a theoretical foundation for the controllability principle and inter firm relative performance evaluation, empirical and field studies provide only weak evidence on such practices. This paper refines the traditional informativeness criterion by abandoning the conventional full-commitment assumption. With the possibility of renegotiation, a signal's usefulness in incentive contracting depends on its information quality, not simply on whether the signal is informative. This paper derives conditions for determining when a signal is useless and when it is useful. In particular, these conditions will be met when the signal's information quality is either sufficiently poor or sufficiently rich

Single Gene Deletions of Orexin, Leptin, Neuropeptide Y, and Ghrelin Do Not Appreciably Alter Food Anticipatory Activity in Mice

Timing activity to match resource availability is a widely conserved ability in nature. Scheduled feeding of a limited amount of food induces increased activity prior to feeding time in animals as diverse as fish and rodents. Typically, food anticipatory activity (FAA) involves temporally restricting unlimited food access (RF) to several hours in the middle of the light cycle, which is a time of day when rodents are not normally active. We compared this model to calorie restriction (CR), giving the mice 60% of their normal daily calorie intake at the same time each day. Measurement of body temperature and home cage behaviors suggests that the RF and CR models are very similar but CR has the advantage of a clearly defined food intake and more stable mean body temperature. Using the CR model, we then attempted to verify the published result that orexin deletion diminishes food anticipatory activity (FAA) but observed little to no diminution in the response to CR and, surprisingly, that orexin KO mice are refractory to body weight loss on a CR diet. Next we tested the orexigenic neuropeptide Y (NPY) and ghrelin and the anorexigenic hormone, leptin, using mouse mutants. NPY deletion did not alter the behavior or physiological response to CR. Leptin deletion impaired FAA in terms of some activity measures, such as walking and rearing, but did not substantially diminish hanging behavior preceding feeding time, suggesting that leptin knockout mice do anticipate daily meal time but do not manifest the full spectrum of activities that typify FAA. Ghrelin knockout mice do not have impaired FAA on a CR diet. Collectively, these results suggest that the individual hormones and neuropepetides tested do not regulate FAA by acting individually but this does not rule out the possibility of their concerted action in mediating FAA

Designing with biosignals: Challenges, opportunities, and future directions for integrating physiological signals in human-computer interaction

Biosensing technologies are a rapidly increasing presence in our daily lives. These sensor-based technologies measure physiological processes including heart rate, breathing, skin conductance, brain activity and more. Researchers are exploring biosensing from perspectives including: engineering, human-computer interaction, medicine, mental health, consumer products, and interactive art. These technologies can enhance our interactions allowing connection to our bodies and others around us across diverse application areas. However, designing with biosignals in Human-Computer Interaction presents new challenges pertaining to User Experience, Input/Output, interpretation of signals, representation, and ethics. There is an urgent need to build a scholarly community that includes the diverse perspectives of researchers, designers, industry practitioners and policymakers. The goal of this workshop is to leverage the knowledge of this community aiming to map out the research landscape of emerging challenges and opportunities, and to build a research agenda for future directions

Global and local concerns: What attitudes and beliefs motivate farmers to mitigate and adapt to climate change?

In response to agriculture\u27s vulnerability and contribution to climate change, many governments are developing initiatives that promote the adoption of mitigation and adaptation practices among farmers. Since most climate policies affecting agriculture rely on voluntary efforts by individual farmers, success requires a sound understanding of the factors that motivate farmers to change practices. Recent evidence suggests that past experience with the effects of climate change and the psychological distance associated with people\u27s concern for global and local impacts can influence environmental behavior. Here we surveyed farmers in a representative rural county in California\u27s Central Valley to examine how their intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation practices is influenced by previous climate experiences and their global and local concerns about climate change. Perceived changes in water availability had significant effects on farmers\u27 intention to adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies, which were mediated through global and local concerns respectively. This suggests that mitigation is largely motivated by psychologically distant concerns and beliefs about climate change, while adaptation is driven by psychologically proximate concerns for local impacts. This match between attitudes and behaviors according to the psychological distance at which they are cognitively construed indicates that policy and outreach initiatives may benefit by framing climate impacts and behavioral goals concordantly; either in a global context for mitigation or a local context for adaptation

HIV Disease Impact on Mothers: What They Miss During Their Children’s Developmental Years

Adjusting to chronic illness is very complicated for families with children, as they are already faced with the challenge of development and childrearing. In this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with HIV positive mothers on a number of issues related to being an HIV positive mother raising young children. One topic of the interview was whether or not they felt that HIV had caused them to miss activities with their children while the children were growing up, what types of activities they had missed, the age of the child for each example, and how HIV had led to missing these activities. Interviews were conducted in 2008 with a random sample of 57 mothers being followed in a longitudinal assessment study. All study participants were English or Spanish speaking. Mean age was 44.1 (SD = 5.6) years; 47% were Latina; 35% African American; 11% White; and 7% other race. About 60% of the mothers disclosed that their HIV status had caused them to miss out on activities with their children while their children were growing up, ranging from daily care activities to major school and extra-curricular activities. Some mothers missed significant amounts of time with their children due to hospitalizations. In some cases mothers felt forced into a choice between mothering ability and their own health, including adherence to medications. Implications for the mothers and the children are discussed

Circadian Cycles of Gene Expression in the Coral, Acropora millepora

Background: Circadian rhythms regulate many physiological, behavioral and reproductive processes. These rhythms are often controlled by light, and daily cycles of solar illumination entrain many clock regulated processes. In scleractinian corals a number of different processes and behaviors are associated with specific periods of solar illumination or nonillumination—for example, skeletal deposition, feeding and both brooding and broadcast spawning. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have undertaken an analysis of diurnal expression of the whole transcriptome and more focused studies on a number of candidate circadian genes in the coral Acropora millepora using deep RNA sequencing and quantitative PCR. Many examples of diurnal cycles of RNA abundance were identified, some of which are light responsive and damped quickly under constant darkness, for example, cryptochrome 1 and timeless, but others that continue to cycle in a robust manner when kept in constant darkness, for example, clock, cryptochrome 2, cycle and eyes absent, indicating that their transcription is regulated by an endogenous clock entrained to the light-dark cycle. Many other biological processes that varied between day and night were also identified by a clustering analysis of gene ontology annotations. Conclusions/Significance: Corals exhibit diurnal patterns of gene expression that may participate in the regulation of circadian biological processes. Rhythmic cycles of gene expression occur under constant darkness in both populations o

Efferent Projections of Prokineticin 2 Expressing Neurons in the Mouse Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus is the predominant circadian clock in mammals. To function as a pacemaker, the intrinsic timing signal from the SCN must be transmitted to different brain regions. Prokineticin 2 (PK2) is one of the candidate output molecules from the SCN. In this study, we investigated the efferent projections of PK2-expressing neurons in the SCN through a transgenic reporter approach. Using a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic mouse line, in which the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) reporter gene expression was driven by the PK2 promoter, we were able to obtain an efferent projections map from the EGFP-expressing neurons in the SCN. Our data revealed that EGFP-expressing neurons in the SCN, hence representing some of the PK2-expressing neurons, projected to many known SCN target areas, including the ventral lateral septum, medial preoptic area, subparaventricular zone, paraventricular nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, lateral hypothalamic area and paraventricular thalamic nucleus. The efferent projections of PK2-expressing neurons supported the role of PK2 as an output molecule of the SCN