Increasing user motivation of neurological occupational therapy in virtual reality using gamification

Abstract. Neurological rehabilitation is a long process which requires a lot of work and motivation from the patient to be effective. Though patients might be motivated to partake in rehabilitation just to improve their own ability to live a more fulfilling life, it is beneficial for all parties involved to enhance patient motivation by other means as well. Gamification aims to increase user motivation with the introduction of game-like elements in a non-game context. In this study, the effectiveness of gamification techniques, common in fields such as education and life-style applications, are investigated on a virtual reality-based neurological rehabilitation software. In this study a user study was conducted to evaluate the motivational aspect of gamification. Ten test subjects (six male and four female) aged 22–34 participated in two settings in a random predetermined order: a gamified environment and a simplified environment. After each play session, the participants filled a questionnaire and partook in a short semi-structured interview relating to the experience. Mixed methods analysis was conducted, meaning results were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. In quantitative analysis, the results showed that participants’ intrinsic motivation was greater during the gamified play session as opposed to the simplified one. Additionally, participant amotivation was somewhat higher in the simplified version. Qualitative analysis showed that the aesthetic elements combined with scoring system increased interest and motivation in the gamified environment. Though which independent elements contributed how much remained inconclusive. Follow-up studies with larger sample sizes could confirm the findings in this study and even go as far as to compare different gamification methods to further improve the usefulness of gamification in rehabilitation context.Pelillistämisen hyödyntäminen motivaation kasvattamisessa virtuaalitodellisuudessa järjestettävässä neurologisessa kuntoutuksessa. Tiivistelmä. Neurologinen kuntoutus on pitkä prosessi, joka vaatii paljon työtä ja motivaatiota potilaalta vaikuttaakseen tehokkaasti. Vaikka potilaat voivat olla motivoituneita kuntoututumaan parantaakseen elämänlaatuaan ja toimintakykyään, on hyödyllistä tukea motivaatiota myös toisin keinoin. Tässä tutkimuksessa tutkittiin pelillistämisen, jota on käytetty muun muassa koulutusja elämäntapasovelluksissa, hyötyjä virtuaalitodellisuudessa järjestettävässä neurologisessa kuntoutussovelluksessa. Kymmenen koehenkilöä (kuusi miestä ja neljä naista) iältään 22–34 ottivat osaa tutkimukseen, jossa he kokeilivat kahta satunnaisessa järjestyksessä valittua virtuaalitodellisuusympäristöä: pelillistettyä, sekä yksinkertaistettua. Molemman pelisession jälkeen osallistujat täyttivät kyselylomakkeen ja osallistuivat lyhyeen haastatteluun. Tulokset analysoitiin monimenetelmä analyysillä, tarkoittaen että tulokset analysoitiin kvantitatiivisesti ja kvalitatiivisesti. Kvantitatiivisessa analyysissä tulokset osoittivat osallistujien kokeneen enemmän sisäistä motivaatiota pelillistetyssä ympäristössä kuin yksinkertaistetussa. Lisäksi koehenkilöt kokivat jokseenkin enemmän motivaation puutetta yksinkertaisessa versiossa ympäristöstä. Kvalitatiivinen analyysi osoitti, että esteettiset elementit sekä pisteiden lasku lisäsivät kiinnostusta ja motivaatiota pelillistettyyn version. Kuitenkin epäselväksi jäi, kuinka paljon yksittäiset elementit vaikuttivat tähän tuntemukseen. Jatkotutkimukset suuremmalla osallistujamäärällä voisivat vahvistaa tämän tutkimuksen löytöjä. Lisäksi olisi mahdollista vertailla eri pelillistämismenetelmiä ja niiden hyötyjä neurologisessa kuntoutuksessa

Virtuaalitodellisuuden hyödyntäminen neglect-oireyhtymän hoidossa ja diagnoosissa

Tiivistelmä. Työn tarkoituksena on selvittää virtuaalitodellisuuden hyötyjä neglect-oireyhtymän hoidossa ja diagnoosissa tämänhetkisenä ja tulevaisuuden työkaluna. Menetelminä käytettiin Peili Vision Oy:n ohjelmistoa, jonka tutkimusmenetelmän keskeisimpänä osana neglect-oireyhtymälle suunniteltu harjoite Shoot Targets. Terveen koehenkilön osumatarkkuus minuutin mittaisessa testissä oli täydet 100 %. Neglect-potilaan dataa ei voitu tämän työn aikana kerätä työn laajuuden ja potilastietojen aiheuttamien rajoitteiden vuoksi. Virtuaaliympäristön mukanaan tuoma monipuolisuus ja teknologian nopeasti edistyvä kehitys ja helppokäyttöisyys luovat pohjan uusille hoitokeinoille ja diagnosointimenetelmille neglect-oireyhtymälle. Peili Visionin suunnittelema Shoot Targets -harjoite soveltuu hyvin neglect-potilaille avaruudellisen hahmottamisen kuntoutukseen ja testin helppous sekä datan selkeys helpottavat tekemään itsenäisiä harjoitteita, sekä seuraamaan kehitystä harjoitteiden välillä. Varsinaisen neglect-potilaan datan puute lopputyöstä jättää tilaa jatkotutkimuksille niin harjoitusmuodon tehokkuuden arviointiin, kuin diagnosointimenetelmän potentiaalin arviointiin.Virtual reality usage in the rehabilitation and diagnosis of neglect disorder. Abstract. Objective of the study is to evaluate virtual reality as a tool for treating and diagnosing neglect disorder now and in the future. Peili Vision’s product for neurological rehabilitation was used to evaluate and gather data for the study. Shoot Targets exercise, which is designed for Neglect disorder, was used to gather data from a healthy test subject. Healthy test subject got a perfect score of 100%. Because of the limitations of the thesis and patient record’s confidentiality I was unable to gather data from a neglect patient. Current and future advancements in virtual reality technology brings a lot of possibilities for the rehabilitation and diagnosis of neglect disorder. Peili Vision’s Shoot Targets exercise is a good tool for evaluation and rehabilitation of neglect disorder because of its simplicity and easy to analyse data. The lack of a real patient data prevented further analysis of the effects of the rehabilitation technique and left an opening for further studies in the same field focusing on the aspects of the quality of rehabilitation and the possibilities in the diagnosis of neglect disorder

Impact of hemicelluloses and crystal size on X-ray scattering from atomistic models of cellulose microfibrils

X-ray scattering methods allow efficient characterization of cellulosic materials, but interpreting their results is challenging. By creating molecular dynamics models of cellulose microfibrils and calculating the scattering from them, we investigated how different properties of the structures affect their scattering intensities. We studied the effects of hemicelluloses and crystal size on small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, WAXS). Microfibril models with and without surface-bound hemicelluloses were built based on the chemical composition of spruce secondary cell walls. The effect of fibril size was investigated by comparing the scattering from fibrils with 14 to 40 cellulose chains. The hemicelluloses appeared in the SAXS region as an increase in the fibril radius and as a clear contribution of a shell around the fibril. The hemicelluloses also increased the crystal size as determined from the broadening of the 200 diffraction peak of cellulose I β . The SAXS and WAXS analysis provided consistent estimates for the size of the microfibrils, and their special features and challenges were discussed. In particular, the results of 18-chain microfibrils were consistent with prior experimental results. Carrying out the simulations in wet and dry environments had the most pronounced effect on fibrils with a hemicellulose coating. Twisting of the fibril had very little impact on most properties, except for a minor effect on the WAXS peaks. The results allow for more correct interpretation of experimental scattering results, leading to more accurate descriptions of microfibril structures in natural and processed cellulosic materials.</p

Deswelling of microfibril bundles in drying wood studied by small-angle neutron scattering and molecular dynamics

Funding Information: Open access funding provided by Aalto University. This work received funding from the Academy of Finland (Grant No. 315768) and FinnCERES Flagship Programme of the Academy of Finland (Projects No. 318890 and 318891). Funding Information: This work was a part of the Academy of Finland’s Flagship Programme, under Projects No. 318890 and 318891 (Competence Center for Materials Bioeconomy, FinnCERES). P.A.P. thanks the Academy of Finland for funding (Grant No. 315768). Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) (instrument D11, proposal DIR-175) is thanked for provision of facilities and technical assistance. The authors wish to acknowledge CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources. Dr. Ralf Schweins is thanked for assistance with the neutron experiments. Dr. Jukka Ketoja is thanked for valuable discussions. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).Structural changes of cellulose microfibrils and microfibril bundles in unmodified spruce cell wall due to drying in air were investigated using time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The scattering analysis was supported with dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) measurements to quantify the macroscopic drying kinetics. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out to aid in understanding the molecular-level wood-water interactions during drying. Both SANS experiments and simulations support the notion that individual cellulose microfibrils remain relatively unaffected by drying. There is, however, a significant decrease in fibril-to-fibril distances in microfibril bundles. Both scattering and DVS experiments showed two distinct drying regions: constant-rate drying and falling-rate drying. This was also supported by the MD simulation results. The shrinking of the fibril bundles starts at the boundary of these two regions, which is accompanied by a strong decrease in the diffusivity of water in between the microfibrils.Peer reviewe

Nanoscale Mechanism of Moisture-Induced Swelling in Wood Microfibril Bundles

This work was a part of the Academy of Finland’s Flagship Programme under Project Nos. 318890 and 318891 (Competence Center for Materials Bioeconomy, FinnCERES). P.A.P. thanks the Academy of Finland for funding (Grant 315768). The authors wish to acknowledge CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources. This work made use of Aalto University Bioeconomy Facilities and OtaNano–Nanomicroscopy Center Facilities and used services of the University of Helsinki X-ray Micro-CT Laboratory. Thanks is given to Dr. Heikki Suhonen for conducting the X-ray microtomography experiments, Suvi Kyyrö for helping with sample preparation, Atte Mikkelson for compositional analysis, and Dr. Daniela Altgen for the illustration of a wood trunk.Understanding nanoscale moisture interactions is fundamental to most applications of wood, including cellulosic nanomaterials with tailored properties. By combining X-ray scattering experiments with molecular simulations and taking advantage of computed scattering, we studied the moisture-induced changes in cellulose microfibril bundles of softwood secondary cell walls. Our models reproduced the most important experimentally observed changes in diffraction peak locations and widths and gave new insights into their interpretation. We found that changes in the packing of microfibrils dominate at moisture contents above 10–15 whereas deformations in cellulose crystallites take place closer to the dry state. Fibrillar aggregation is a significant source of drying-related changes in the interior of the microfibrils. Our results corroborate the fundamental role of nanoscale phenomena in the swelling behavior and properties of wood-based materials and promote their utilization in nanomaterials development. Simulation-assisted scattering analysis proved an efficient tool for advancing the nanoscale characterization of cellulosic materials.Peer reviewe