Social Virtual Reality as a Mental Health Tool: How People Use VRChat to Support Social Connectedness and Wellbeing

Social virtual reality (VR) platforms have increased in popularity with many people turning to these platforms to experience social connection, including a rapid influx of users during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is limited understanding of how people appropriate and use emerging social VR applications to actively support their mental health and wellbeing in daily life. Through an online questionnaire and exploratory interviews conducted within the social VR app VRChat during the COVID-19 pandemic, we document how social VR is being used explicitly as a mental health support tool. Participants reported positive wellbeing benefits, mostly attributed to the anonymity provided by avatars and perceived safety within digital worlds and communities of practice. We also report how people use social VR to practice social interaction, reduce negative thoughts and form strong social bonds and connections with others

Characteristics of Strong Ground Motions in the 30 October 2020, MW6.9 Aegean Sea Earthquake

The eastern parts of the Aegean Sea were struck by a destructive MW 6.9 earthquake on 30 October 2020 at 11:51:27 UTC. The earthquake ruptured an East-West trending normal fault in the Aegean Sea between the northern coast of Samos Island and the southern coast of İzmir and also triggered a medium level tsunami and thousands of aftershocks across the region. 119 fatalities, 1,051 injuries, and many collapsed buildings were reported due to the earthquake in the affected region. The most catastrophic consequences of the earthquake were registered in the Bayraklı and Bornova districts, which are built on a deep alluvial Basin approximately 60–70 km away from the epicentre of the mainshock. This paper explains the damage with an extensive dataset of ground motion records of the mainshock and aftershocks, which are provided by both Greek and Turkish networks. A set of ground motion parameters such as peak ordinates, spectral quantities, intensity measures and duration parameters are calculated and analysed. The closest softer soil station in Samos Island produces the highest peak ground acceleration and velocity. The ground motion models employed commonly for the region overestimate the observed data beyond 60–70 km of Joyner-Boore distance except for the recently published local ground motion model, which utilises local earthquakes in the derivation of the model. Contrary to expectations, stiff soil recordings exhibit considerable spectral accelerations in the long period region, similar to those in soft soils. The calculated ground motion parameters are correlated with the results of the hybrid reconnaissance mission, organized by the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT). Although the peak values and regarded intensity measures clearly highlight the variability in soil conditions in the most damaged area (Bayraklı and Bornova), velocity-based ground motion parameters seem to be the more responsive damage indicators. The spectral shapes of the normalised response spectra in the İzmir Basin are not compatible with the 2018 Turkish seismic code spectrum whereas their response spectra are below the 475-years return period design spectra provided in outdated and current Turkish seismic codes

The Shifting Sands of Labour: Changes in Shared Care Work with a Smart Home Health System

Whilst the use of smart home systems has shown promise in recent years supporting older people's activities at home, there is more evidence needed to understand how these systems impact the type and the amount of shared care in the home. It is important to understand care recipients and caregivers' labour is changed with the introduction of a smart home system to efficiently and effectively support an increasingly aging population with technology. Five older households (8 participants) were interviewed before, immediately after and three months after receiving a Smart Home Health System (SHHS). We provide an identification and documentation of critical incidents and barriers that increased inter-household care work and prevented the SHHS from being successfully accepted within homes. Findings are framed within the growing body of work on smart homes for health and care, and we provide implications for designing future systems for shared home care needs

Digital Mental Health and Social Connectedness

A detailed understanding of the mental health needs of people from refugee backgrounds is crucial for the design of inclusive mental health technologies. We present a qualitative account of the digital mental health experiences of women from refugee backgrounds. Working with community members and community workers of a charitable organisation for refugee women in the UK, we identify social and structural challenges, including loneliness and access to mental health technologies. Participants' accounts document their collective agency in addressing these challenges and supporting social connectedness and personal wellbeing in daily life: participants reported taking part in community activities as volunteers, sharing technological expertise, and using a wide range of non-mental health-focused technologies to support their mental health, from playing games to supporting religious practices. Our findings suggest that, rather than focusing only on individual self-care, research also needs to leverage community-driven approaches to foster social mental health experiences, from altruism to connectedness and belonging

Explanation before Adoption: Supporting Informed Consent for Complex Machine Learning and IoT Health Platforms

Explaining health technology platforms to non-technical members of the public is an important part of the process of informed consent. Complex technology platforms that deal with safety-critical areas are particularly challenging, often operating within private domains (e.g. health services within the home) and used by individuals with various understandings of hardware, software, and algorithmic design. Through two studies, the first an interview and the second an observational study, we questioned how experts (e.g. those who designed, built, and installed a technology platform) supported provision of informed consent by participants. We identify a wide range of tools, techniques, and adaptations used by experts to explain the complex SPHERE sensor-based home health platform, provide implications for the design of tools to aid explanations, suggest opportunities for interactive explanations, present the range of information needed, and indicate future research possibilities in communicating technology platforms