Game On? Smoking Cessation Through the Gamification of mHealth: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Finding ways to increase and sustain engagement with mHealth interventions has become a challenge during application development. While gamification shows promise and has proven effective in many fields, critical questions remain concerning how to use gamification to modify health behavior. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to investigate how the gamification of mHealth interventions leads to a change in health behavior, specifically with respect to smoking cessation. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative longitudinal study using a sample of 16 smokers divided into 2 cohorts (one used a gamified intervention and the other used a nongamified intervention). Each participant underwent 4 semistructured interviews over a period of 5 weeks. Semistructured interviews were also conducted with 4 experts in gamification, mHealth, and smoking cessation. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis undertaken. RESULTS: Results indicated perceived behavioral control and intrinsic motivation acted as positive drivers to game engagement and consequently positive health behavior. Importantly, external social influences exerted a negative effect. We identified 3 critical factors, whose presence was necessary for game engagement: purpose (explicit purpose known by the user), user alignment (congruency of game and user objectives), and functional utility (a well-designed game). We summarize these findings in a framework to guide the future development of gamified mHealth interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Gamification holds the potential for a low-cost, highly effective mHealth solution that may replace or supplement the behavioral support component found in current smoking cessation programs. The framework reported here has been built on evidence specific to smoking cessation, however it can be adapted to health interventions in other disease categories. Future research is required to evaluate the generalizability and effectiveness of the framework, directly against current behavioral support therapy interventions in smoking cessation and beyond

Student voice in work integrated learning scholarship: a review of teacher education and geographical sciences

Work integrated learning is an umbrella term that refers to the opportunities provided to university students to integrate knowledge of theory and practice as part of their degree program. As the role of students in higher education is evolving, we sought to develop our understanding of the role of students in the work integrated learning (WIL) space through exploring current literature on student voice. In this paper, we consider what has been reported about WIL in relation to student voice, how it has been represented, and how this has influenced practice. We undertook a systematic literature review for two different disciplines, one which represented an example of a professionally accredited undergraduate degree program (teacher education), and the other an example of a program with no professional accreditation (geographical sciences). The teacher education literature demonstrated more clearly the use of student voice to inform WIL within curriculum design. However, the geographical sciences literature did include examples of student voice being incorporated within the design of collaborative community-based forms of WIL. A role for students as researchers, who lead research and initiate curriculum change into WIL, was noticeably absent in both disciplinary sets of literature. The lack of evidence of the inclusion of students in the design, conduct, and analysis of WIL provides an invitation for SoTL scholars to redefine the role of students in this space

The Borborema Pegmatite Province, NE-Brazil revisited

Considering the internal structure, mineralogical distribution and geochemical data on K-feldspar, white micas, Nb-Taoxides, tourmalines, garnet and spinel, it becomes clear that the pegmatites classified as "heterogeneous" (Johnston 1945) include examples of several types and subtypes of LCT family, Rare Element Class pegmatites if the modern pegmatite classification models of Černý & Ercit 2005 are applied: at least examples of the beryl-columbite, beryl-columbite-phosphate and complex-spodumene,complex-lepidolite (±gemmologic elbaite)and albite (± cassiterite) pegmatite types and subtypes were ntatively identified. The impossibility to determine a granitelinked zoned regional distribution of these types may be the result of the fact that there is no single central source pluton but several smaller granitic intrusions in the province and the zoning around them may overlap each other

Student voice in work integrated learning scholarship: A review of teacher education and geographical sciences

Work integrated learning is an umbrella term that refers to the opportunities provided to university students to integrate knowledge of theory and practice as part of their degree program. As the role of students in higher education is evolving, we sought to develop our understanding of the role of students in the work integrated learning (WIL) space through exploring current literature on student voice. In this paper, we consider what has been reported about WIL in relation to student voice, how it has been represented, and how this has influenced practice. We undertook a systematic literature review for two different disciplines, one which represented an example of a professionally accredited undergraduate degree program (teacher education), and the other an example of a program with no professional accreditation (geographical sciences). The teacher education literature demonstrated more clearly the use of student voice to inform WIL within curriculum design. However, the geographical sciences literature did include examples of student voice being incorporated within the design of collaborative community-based forms of WIL. A role for students as researchers, who lead research and initiate curriculum change into WIL, was noticeably absent in both disciplinary sets of literature. The lack of evidence of the inclusion of students in the design, conduct, and analysis of WIL provides an invitation for SoTL scholars to redefine the role of students in this space

Light Sneutrino Dark Matter at the LHC

In supersymmetric (SUSY) models with Dirac neutrino masses, a weak-scale trilinear A-term that is not proportional to the small neutrino Yukawa couplings can induce a sizable mixing between left and right-handed sneutrinos. The lighter sneutrino mass eigenstate can hence become the lightest SUSY particle (LSP) and a viable dark matter candidate. In particular, it can be an excellent candidate for light dark matter with mass below ~10 GeV. Such a light mixed sneutrino LSP has a dramatic effect on SUSY signatures at the LHC, as charginos decay dominantly into the light sneutrino plus a charged lepton, and neutralinos decay invisibly to a neutrino plus a sneutrino. We perform a detailed study of the LHC potential to resolve the light sneutrino dark matter scenario by means of three representative benchmark points with different gluino and squark mass hierarchies. We study in particular the determination of the LSP (sneutrino) mass from cascade decays involving charginos, using the mT2 variable. Moreover, we address measurements of additional invisible sparticles, in our case the lightest neutralino, and the question of discrimination against the MSSM.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figure

Loop-induced photon spectral lines from neutralino annihilation in the NMSSM

We have computed the loop-induced processes of neutralino annihilation into two photons and, for the first time, into a photon and a Z boson in the framework of the NMSSM. The photons produced from these radiative modes are monochromatic and possess a clear "smoking gun" experimental signature. This numerical analysis has been done with the help of the SloopS code, initially developed for automatic one-loop calculation in the MSSM. We have computed the rates for different benchmark points coming from SUGRA and GMSB soft SUSY breaking scenarios and compared them with the MSSM. We comment on how this signal can be enhanced, with respect to the MSSM, especially in the low mass region of the neutralino. We also discuss the possibility of this observable to constrain the NMSSM parameter space, taking into account the latest limits from the FERMI collaboration on these two modes.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures. Minor clarifications added in the text. Typing mistakes and references corrected. Matches published versio

Barriers and facilitators to adherence to group exercise in institutionalized older people living with dementia: a systematic review

Objectives Research suggests targeted exercise is important for people living with dementia, especially those living in residential care. The aim of this review was to collect and synthesize evidence on the known barriers and facilitators to adherence to group exercise of institutionalized older people living with dementia. Methods We searched all available electronic databases. Additionally, we searched trial registries (clinicaltrial.gov, and WHO ICTRP) for ongoing studies. We searched for and included papers from January 1990 until September 2017 in any language. We included randomized, non-randomized trials. Studies were not eligible if participants were either healthy older people or people suffering from dementia but not living in an institution. Studies were also excluded if they were not focused on barriers and facilitators to adherence to group exercise. Results Using narrative analysis, we identified the following themes for barriers: bio-medical reasons and mental wellbeing and physical ability, relationships dynamics, and socioeconomic reasons. The facilitators were grouped under the following thematic frames: bio-medical benefits and benefits related to physical ability, feelings and emotions and confidence improvements, therapist and group relationships dynamics and activity related reasons. Conclusions We conclude that institutionalized older people living with dementia, even those who are physically frail, incontinent and/or have mild dementia can demonstrate certain level of exercise adherence, and therefore can respond positively to exercise programs. Tailored, individually-adjusted and supported physical activity, led by a knowledgeable, engaging and well communicating therapist/facilitator improves the adherence to group exercise interventions of institutionalized older people living with dementia

Natural Islands for a 125 GeV Higgs in the scale-invariant NMSSM

We study whether a 125 GeV standard model-like Higgs boson can be accommodated within the scale-invariant NMSSM in a way that is natural in all respects, i.e., not only is the stop mass and hence its loop contribution to Higgs mass of natural size, but we do not allow significant tuning of NMSSM parameters as well. We pursue as much as possible an analytic approach which gives clear insights on various ways to accommodate such a Higgs mass, while conducting complementary numerical analyses. We consider both scenarios with singlet-like state being heavier and lighter than SM-like Higgs. With A-terms being small, we find for the NMSSM to be perturbative up to GUT scale, it is not possible to get 125 GeV Higgs mass, which is true even if we tune parameters of NMSSM. If we allow some of the couplings to become non-perturbative below the GUT scale, then the non-tuned option implies that the singlet self-coupling, kappa, is larger than the singlet-Higgs coupling, lambda, which itself is order 1. This leads to a Landau pole for these couplings close to the weak scale, in particular below ~10^4 TeV. In both the perturbative and non-perturbative NMSSM, allowing large A_lambda, A_kappa gives "more room" to accommodate a 125 GeV Higgs, but a tuning of these A-terms may be needed. In our analysis we also conduct a careful study of the constraints on the parameter space from requiring global stability of the desired vacuum fitting a 125 GeV Higgs, which is complementary to existing literature. In particular, as the singlet-Higgs coupling lambda increases, vacuum stability becomes more serious of an issue.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, references added, minor corrections to text and figures, version to be published in JHE

Higgs production in CP-violating supersymmetric cascade decays: probing the `open hole' at the Large Hadron Collider

A benchmark CP-violating supersymmetric scenario (known as 'CPX-scenario' in the literature) is studied in the context of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is shown that the LHC, with low to moderate accumulated luminosity, will be able to probe the existing `hole' in the $m_{h_1}$-$\tan\beta$ plane, which cannot be ruled out by the LEP data. We explore the parameter space with cascade decay of third generation squarks and gluino with CP-violating decay branching fractions. We propose a multi-channel analysis to probe this parameter space some of which are background free at an integrated luminosity of 5-10 fb$^{-1}$. Specially, multi-lepton final states (3\l,\, 4\l and like sign di-lepton) are almost background free and have $5\sigma$ reach for the corresponding signals with very early data of LHC for both 14 TeV and 7 TeV center of mass energy.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, references added as in the journal versio