Supporting creativity in designing story authoring tools

In this paper we describe our experience in designing an application to support children in producing their stories in a formal setting, a primary school. In particular, we reflect on the implications of our findings on levels of creativity found in the produced stories. Besides, we compare two versions of our application: one is text-based and the other is image-rich. Feedback from teachers and children is presented and discussed in terms of implications for the design. We will then use our experience to revise the existing guidelines to design authoring tools to stimulate creativity

Open issues with collaborative design in schools: what is in it for us?

The focus of our work is on how to design a user experience for children using digital artefacts in an educational environment. Specifically, in the paper we reported the outcomes of a longitudinal study in which teachers and children were involved within a co-design process. We illustrated some opportunities and constraints of designing for and with schools’ stakeholders. Our contribution explores one of the workshop’s challenges concerning the confirmation bias and limited decision making and how this affects children in their CD experiences in formal school contexts

Developing a networked public display system

Engaging stakeholders in the design of networked public display systems is critical for long-term deployments. The authors describe the three-year development and installation of a display network at a university, revealing the fuzziness of stakeholder roles and need for compromise

"Fun place within a serious space”: stimulating community interaction and engagement through situated snapshots In a university setting

Networked public displays can stimulate interaction between members of place-based communities, e.g., through situated snapshots – photos taken through a display attached camera. Previous work pointed the need for deploying networked public display applications in various settings in order to make the findings transferable and generalizable and recommends that findings should be connected with research from community psychology. In this paper we report a 15-week “in the wild” deployment of the Moment Machine 2.0 that allowed taking situated snapshots at a university. The application’s evaluation involved in-depth interviews (n=20), survey (n=119), and log file analysis. We synthesize our findings with prior work and show how certain effects transfer across settings. We show how the application affected community interaction and sense of community as defined by McMillan and Chavis. We provide implications for design of similar experiences. Overall, our work contributes to the general knowledge of common effects produced by public displays

Play Partners: Evaluating the effects of embodied cognition as a learning process for children

"Learning by play" has been demonstrated to be a solid concept to support the design of educational technology. However, the learning systems today are less about en- couraging natural curiosity and more about achievements and benchmarks. Embodied cognition answers this as it predicates that we learn not through our minds alone but with our bodies. Children present the perfect template for embodied cognition. Hence, it is advantageous not just to the child but also for us as a specie to understand and en- courage the natural way children learn. This position paper argues for the need to further understand how sensorimo- tor information affects children’s cognitive development and use that as a source for designing interactive technologies that enable effective learning

IGF1 synthesis after CO2 fractional laser resurfacing (FLR): New insights in the treatment of scalp actinic keratoses

ObjectivesActinic keratosis have a high risk of progression to a squamous cell carcinoma. Insulin-like growth factor 1 and its receptor play a relevant role in restoring repair of ultraviolet-induced cell damage. This pathway is reduced in patients older than 65 years. Ablative fractional laser resurfacing could normalize insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) secretion in elderly by recruiting new fibroblasts. The aim of the study is to evaluate restoration of IGF1 values by PCR in senescent fibroblasts after ablative fractional laser resurfacing. MethodsWe enrolled 30 male patients with multiple actinic keratosis on the scalp, equally divided into two mirror areas of up to 50 cm(2), treating only the right one. We performed one skin biopsy for each area 30 days after treatment. Real-time PCR in fibroblasts was performed to assess the change in IGF1. At baseline and after 6 months, in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy examination was performed in all patients. ResultsIGF1 values were increased in the treated side by about 60%. The right areas had fairly complete resolution of actinic keratosis at the last follow-up visit after 6 months with no appearance of new lesions. The mean number of actinic keratosis in the right area was reduced by more than 75% at four- and six-follow-up visits compared to the left area. The improvement in the right area was also evidenced by lower values of the mean AKASI (actinic keratosis area and severity index) score. Reflectance confocal microscopy showed a reduction of keratinocytic disarray and scales after treatment. DiscussionTaken together, all the clinical, laboratory, and in vivo results of our study allowed us to confirm that ablative fractional laser resurfacing is a valuable tool for the treatment of actinic keratosis and cancerization field, both for the management of clinically evident lesions and for preventing the occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma

Engaging Young Users in Collaborative Design: How Much, How Far and How Deep?

We explore the roles children play in the design and evaluation of technological tools in a formal educational environment. In order to do so, we describe two separate projects set in a formal educational context: primary schools, with children aged 8–10, in Switzerland (called PADS), and with older students, 11–12, in Scotland (called CHIS). In the first case the teacher and pupils were co-designing a novel application to support the creation of multimedia fairy tales, where in the second students and teachers worked towards the definition of new tools to assist them in searching for information. The tasks were different but comparable in terms of complexity and level of interest expressed by children. Researchers followed a similar approach in order to interact with the stakeholders. We here describe the different attitudes and assumptions of the adults involved. In the Scottish study these encouraged students to make choices, propose solutions and work independently. In the Swiss study these aimed at supporting children use of digital media and artefacts for the creation of a digital fairy tale. Our investigation aims at getting a better understanding of the kind of roles and contributions young users could bring to collaborative design and how to better engage and motivate them

Dermoscopic and reflectance confocal microscopy features of two cases of vulvar basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common malignant skin cancer. Its genital localization is rare, and the diagnosis in this site could be challenging. Here, we report two patients with vulvar BCC and describe their clinical, dermoscopic and in vivo and ex vivo reflectance confocal microscopic (RCM) features. Dermoscopy and RCM can be useful tools for helping the clinical diagnosis of vulvar BCC and for identifying the correct surgical margins

Clinical and laboratory characterization of patients with localized scleroderma and response to UVA-1 phototherapy: In vivo and in vitro skin models

Background/Purpose Localized scleroderma (LS) is a rare disease leading to progressive hardening and induration of the skin and subcutaneous tissues. LS is responsive to UVA-1 phototherapy, though its exact mechanism of action dermal fibrosis is yet to be fully elucidated. We aimed to investigate the molecular changes induced by UVA-1 rays in human primary fibroblasts cultures. Methods A total of 16 LS patients were treated with medium-dose UVA-1 phototherapy. At baseline, during and after therapy, Localized Scleroderma Assessment Tool, Dermatology Life Quality Index and lesions' staging and mapping were performed along with high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) examination for dermal thickness assessment. Gene expression analysis for 23 mRNA transcripts, in vitro UVA-1 irradiation and viability tests were realized on lesional fibroblasts' primary cultures, before and 3 months after therapy. Results The dermal thickness, the LoSCAT and the DLQI progressively decreased starting from the last phototherapy session up to the 6 and 9 month follow-ups (-57% and -60%, respectively). Molecular gene analysis (rt-PCR) revealed that UVA-1 phototherapy exerts multiple effects: the activation of specific anti-fibrotic pathways (e.g., overexpression of CTHRC1 and metalloproteases 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, suppression of TIMP-1), the downregulation of peculiar pro-fibrotic pathways (e.g., downregulation of TGF-ss, TGF-ssrII, Grb2, SMAD 2/3, TNRSF12A, CTGF) through a significant overexpression of IL-1ss; the stabilization of collagen synthesis acting on genes COL1A1, COL3A1, COL8A1, COL10A1, COL12A1. Conclusion UVA-1 phototherapy adds significant benefits in local tissue remodeling, rebalancing the alteration between pro-fibrotic and anti-fibrotic pathways; these changes can be well monitored by HFUS. © 2022 The Authors