Mindfulness in the classroom: research project summary.

According to Henning et al. (2018) universities in the United Kingdom are experiencing unpresented rises in incidences of reported anxiety and stress in student populations. It is likely that this has been compounded by the current pandemic. Mindfulness courses, such as MBSR, represent one strategy and in themselves require substantial expertise and time for delivery (Broggi et al. 2018). Less well known however is ‘mindfulness as a pedagogical strategy’ for use in classroom teaching. Classroom mindfulness directly targets the development of present moment attention in student onsite face-to-face learning contexts (McIntyre 2018). Such situated mindfulness pedagogy gave rise to a two-part study with first year Health Science and Creative and Cultural Business students at RGU in 2018/2019. The aim was to employ short lecturer led mindfulness strategies for the development of present moment attention in order to establish impact on student wellbeing and resilience. The initial research sought student perceptions around the efficacy and delivery of classroom mindfulness in theory. Student focus group data informed the design and delivery of part 2, a semester long mindfulness intervention. Results indicated a flexible intervention with different strategies, delivered at multiple time points and durations in class. For the intervention, lecturers delivered one to three strategies between 30-seconds and 3-minutes in classes. Part 1 of this research aim was to assess mindfulness, resilience, wellbeing and student perceptions of mindfulness within the higher education classroom. It involved a questionnaire assessment of stage 1 and 2 student mindfulness, resilience and wellbeing, and used focus groups to inductively explore student perceptions of mindfulness in the classroom at Robert Gordon University, in semester 1, 2018. Part 2 research aim involved the design and implementation of a mindfulness intervention across stage 1 courses in the School of Health Sciences and School of Creative and Cultural Business in semester 2, 2019. This presentation will summarise the key findings from the evaluation which took place after the intervention. Staff and students noted that when it comes to mindfulness, one size does not fit all, and that there is no one approach that will work for everyone. Students also suggested that technology could be used to support students to use mindfulness, for example adopting an app that students can use at home or adding new features to Moodle. The need to consider individual preferences was also highlighted by medical students engaging in a mindfulness group with Aherne et al., 2016

Temporal order judgements of dynamic gaze stimuli reveal a postdictive prioritisation of averted over direct shifts

We studied temporal order judgements (TOJs) of gaze shift behaviours and evaluated the impact of gaze direction (direct and averted gaze) and face context information (both eyes set within a single face or each eye within two adjacent hemifaces) on TOJ performance measures. Avatar faces initially gazed leftwards or rightwards (Starting Gaze Direction). This was followed by sequential and independent left and right eye gaze shifts with various amounts of stimulus onset asynchrony. Gaze shifts could be either Matching (both eyes end up pointing direct or averted) or Mismatching (one eye ends up pointing direct, the other averted). Matching shifts revealed an attentional cueing mechanism, where TOJs were biased in favour of the eye lying in the hemispace cued by the avatar’s Starting Gaze Direction. For example, the left eye was more likely to be judged as shifting first when the avatar initially gazed toward the left side of the screen. Mismatching shifts showed biased TOJs in favour of the eye performing the averted shift, but only in the context of two separate hemifaces that does not violate expectations of directional gaze shift congruency. This suggests a postdictive inferential strategy that prioritises eye movements based on the type of gaze shift, independently of where attention is initially allocated. Averted shifts are prioritised over direct, as these might signal the presence of behaviourally relevant information in the environment

Personality Traits Do Not Predict How We Look at Faces

International audienceWhile personality has typically been considered to influence gaze behaviour, literature relating to the topic is mixed. Previously, we found no evidence of self-reported personality traits on preferred gaze duration between a participant and a person looking at them via a video. In this study, 77 of the original participants answered an in-depth follow-up survey containing a more comprehensive assessment of personality traits (Big Five Inventory) than was initially used, to check whether earlier findings were caused by the personality measure being too coarse. In addition to preferred mutual gaze duration, we also examined two other factors linked to personality traits: number of blinks and total fixation duration in the eye region of observed faces. No significant correlations were found between any of these measures and participant personality traits. We suggest that effects previously reported in the literature may stem from contextual differences or modulation of arousal

Evaluation of Prototypes and the Problem of Possible Futures

There is a blind spot in HCI’s evaluation methodology: we rarely consider the implications of the fact that a prototype can never be fully evaluated in a study. A prototype under study exists firmly in the present world, in the circumstances created in the study, but its real context of use is a partially unknown future state of affairs. This present–future gap is implicit in any evaluation of prototypes, be they usability tests, controlled experiments, or field trials. A carelessly designed evaluation may inadvertently evaluate the wrong futures, contexts, or user groups, thereby leading to false conclusions and expensive design failures. The essay analyses evaluation methodology from this perspective, illuminating how to mitigate the present–future gap.Peer reviewe

Quantum well infrared photodetectors hardiness to the non ideality of the energy band profile

We report results on the effect of a non-sharp and disordered potential in Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP). Scanning electronic transmission microscopy is used to measure the alloy profile of the structure which is shown to present a gradient of composition along the growth axis. Those measurements are used as inputs to quantify the effect on the detector performance (peak wavelength, spectral broadening and dark current). The influence of the random positioning of the doping is also studied. Finally we demonstrate that QWIP properties are quite robust with regard to the non ideality of the energy band profile

Exercise therapy for the treatment of tendinopathies: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The aim of the review is to provide a map of exercise interventions and outcomes that have been reported for the treatment of any tendinopathy. Introduction: Tendinopathy is a common condition that affects athletic and non-athletic populations. Exercise is the mainstay of conservative management of tendinopathy, and a range of different exercise types are recommended. There is a significant body of literature on exercise for tendinopathy, but to date no scoping review has provided a clear map of interventions used and outcomes reported in the literature. Inclusion criteria: We will include people of any age or gender with a diagnosis of tendinopathy of any severity or duration at any anatomical location. We will exclude full-thickness/massive tears and plantar fasciitis. The exercise therapy may take place at any location, including hospital, community, or people's homes, and may be supervised or unsupervised. We will include systematic reviews, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies conducted in any developed nation. Methods: We will search MEDLINE, CINAHL, AMED, Embase, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane (controlled trials; systematic reviews), JBI Evidence Synthesis, Epistemonikos, four trial registries, and six gray literature databases. We will use Scopus to search for cited/citing articles from included studies and will perform hand searching where relevant. We will include literature from 1998 to 2020 in any language for which we can access translation. Studies will be screened by two independent reviewers at title/abstract and full-text screening stages; a third reviewer will resolve conflicts. Data will be extracted into a bespoke charting form and will be presented as figure/tables with accompanying narrative

Independent evaluation of ARMED service: final report.

ARMED (HAS Technology, Lichfield, UK) is a falls prevention technology that combines a wrist-worn activity tracker with predictive analytics and machine learning to enable early intervention. Data from the tracker is augmented by weekly grip strength and body composition measurements. ARMED-in-a-box is a streamlined version of ARMED that does not use the grip strength or body composition measures, rolled-out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This independent evaluation was commissioned by the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre and conducted by an interdisciplinary team from Robert Gordon University, the University of Aberdeen, and NHS Grampian. The purpose of the evaluation was to inform the potential for scalability of ARMED within the Scottish digital health and care context, and specifically to analyse and appraise the effectiveness of the current ARMED service and business models, aligning with the national technology enabled care (TEC) programme's existing test of change (TOC) activity

Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: Descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations

Background Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces. Aims To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed. Method Investigation of armed forces personnel presenting to hospital between 1989 and 2003 following self-harm and case-control comparison with people in the general population who had self-harmed. Results One hundred and sixty-six armed forces personnel presented with self-harm during the study period, of whom 72.3% (120) were male. Nearly two-thirds (62.7%) were aged under 25 years. Relationship problems (62.0%), employment problems (43.9%) and alcohol misuse (40.5%) were common. Fewer armed forces personnel than controls had evidence of current or past psychiatric disorders or treatment or a prior history of self-harm, and their suicidal intent was lower (males only). Of 64 people in the armed forces who presented during the first 9 years of the study period, 1 had died (from natural causes) by the end of 2000, compared with 9 (5.1%) of the controls, 6 by probable suicide. Conclusions Self-harm by armed forces personnel may often be a response to interpersonal and employment problems complicated by alcohol misuse, with relatively low suicide intent