Usability of the SAFEWAY@SCHOOL system in children with cognitive disabilities

PurposeSAFEWAY2SCHOOL is a programme based on several systems for the enhancement of school transportation safety for children. The aim of the study was to explore whether children with cognitive disabilities will notice, realise, understand, trust and accept the SAFEWAY2SCHOOL system and act in accordance with its instructions. Methods Fourteen children with cognitive disabilities and a control group of 23 children were shown five videos of scenarios involving journeys to and from school. During the first viewing visual scanning patterns were recorded with an eye tracking device. After a second viewing the participant was asked ten questions per scenario. Five questions addressed what the children saw on the video, and the remaining five what they would need to know and/or do within the scenario. Additional ratings of trust, likability, acceptability and usability were also collected. Results Very few differences were found in the visual scanning patterns of children with disabilities compared to children who participated in the control group. Of the 50 questions regarding what children saw or needed to know and/or do, only one significant difference between groups was found. No significant differences were found regarding self-reported ratings of trust, acceptability or usability of the system. Despite some significant differences across five of the 11 likability aspects, ratings were consistently high for both groups. Conclusions Children with cognitive disabilities proved that the SAFEWAY2SCHOOL system is as useful for them as it was for children in the control group. However, a valid estimation of the full utility of SAFEWAY2SCHOOL requires in situ testing of the system with these children

Quality of Life, Coping Styles, Stress Levels, and Time Use in Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Comparing Single Versus Coupled Households

This study aimed to examine the influence of differences in household status on the parental stress, coping, time use and quality of life (QoL) among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders. Forty-three single and 164 coupled mothers completed the survey. Data were analysed using multivariate logistic regression. We found that single mothers were 1.05 times more likely to report lower levels of environmental QoL. Whilst they were 1.73 times more likely to use acceptance coping style, this association did not persist after adjusting for total number of children, household income and employment status. There was no difference in time use and stress between these mothers. Possible environmental issues for single mothers and implications for future research are discussed. © 2017 Springer Science+Business Media, LL

Effects of Motion Sickness on Encoding and Retrieval Performance and on Psychophysiological Responses

Background: Motion sickness has previously been found to deteriorate performance. In complex working environments, sustained ability to perform despite motion sickness is crucial. This study focuses on effects of motion sickness on encoding and retrieval of words. In addition, the temporal development of psychophysiological responses and their relationship with perceived motion sickness were investigated. Methods: Forty healthy participants (20 male and 20 female, age 19-51) performed an encoding and retrieval task during exposure to an optokinetic drum and were compared with 20 controls (8 male and 12 female, age 21-47) not exposed to motion sickness. Measurements of heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, blood volume pulse, respiration rate, and skin temperature were made throughout optokinetic drum exposure. Results: Moderate levels of motion sickness did not affect the ability to encode or retrieve words. Perceived motion sickness was positively related to heart rate, blood volume pulse and skin temperature and negatively related to respiration rate. Conclusions: The psychophysiological measurements did not show consistent patterns of sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal, as could be expected. Subjective reports of progressing symptoms are still likely to be the most reliable way of assessing motion sickness

Support Systems Designed for Older Drivers to Achieve Safe and Comfortable Driving

Background: The number of older people is increasing. Many of them expect to maintain a rich social life and to continue driving at an older age. Objective: The present study investigates the mechanisms behind self-regulation and driving cessation in order to suggest development of support systems to prolong older drivers’ safe mobility. Method: Three focus groups were conducted with 19 older active drivers aged 65+ who were divided according to annual mileage driven. Results: A content analysis revealed broad self-regulatory behaviour as already reported in the literature, e.g., avoiding driving at rush hour and at night. The participants also reported difficulty in finding the way to their final destination and an increasing need to plan their travelling. Co-piloting was a behaviour applied by couples to cope with difficulties encountered in traffic. A large part of the discussion was focused on emerging feelings of stress, anxiety and fear when driving in recent years, a feeling induced by external factors e.g., other road users’ behaviour, traffic density or high speed. Apart from health problems, high levels of stress could explain driving cessation, especially for women. An increased feeling of safety and comfort could be achieved by an increased use of support systems specifically designed to respond to older drivers’ needs. Conclusion: Support systems for older drivers should increase comfort and decrease their stress levels. New systems, such as co-pilot function and more developed Global Positioning System (GPS) supporting of the entire travel from door to door, should be developed to respond to the market needs

The Trainer Project: A New Simulator-Based Driver Training Curriculum

The purpose of the EU funded TRAINER project is to develop a new cost-effective Pan-European driver training curriculum, includingcomputer-based interactive multimedia and simulator technology. Thecurriculum will pay significant attention to higher order skills including riskawareness. For this purpose a number of scenarios were developed thataddresses the most important needs of learner drivers. These scenarios are usedin a PC-based interactive multimedia tool as well as in a driving simulator. Theinteractive multimedia tool allows training and assessment of higher cognitiveskills (i.e., strategic and manoeuvring tasks), familiarisation of novice driverswith the basic principles of driving, and contributing to a better understandingof (potential) risks. A low cost stationary driving simulator is used for acquiringskills in vehicle handling and negotiating common traffic situations (i.e.,manoeuvring and control tasks). In addition, a mean cost semi-dynamic drivingsimulator is developed for supporting the needs of specific driver cohorts, suchas novice drivers with enhanced knowledge problems and drivers in high-riskgroups. Application of such an advanced computer-based curriculum alsoimplies development of criteria to allow driving instructors to determinetraining progress. These criteria are based on a database of normative driverbehaviour. This paper mainly focuses on the description of the technical (softandhardware) requirements for both low-cost and mean-cost simulators

Is it reliable to assess visual attention of drivers affected by Parkinson's disease from the backseat?—a simulator study

BACKGROUND: Current methods of determining licence retainment or cancellation is through on-road driving tests. Previous research has shown that occupational therapists frequently assess drivers' visual attention while sitting in the back seat on the opposite side of the driver. Since the eyes of the driver are not always visible, assessment by eye contact becomes problematic. Such procedural drawbacks may challenge validity and reliability of the visual attention assessments. In terms of correctly classified attention, the aim of the study was to establish the accuracy and the inter-rater reliability of driving assessments of visual attention from the back seat. Furthermore, by establishing eye contact between the assessor and the driver through an additional mirror on the wind screen, the present study aimed to establish how much such an intervention would enhance the accuracy of the visual attention assessment. METHODS: Two drivers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and six control drivers drove a fixed route in a driving simulator while wearing a head mounted eye tracker. The eye tracker data showed where the foveal visual attention actually was directed. These data were time stamped and compared with the simultaneous manual scoring of the visual attention of the drivers. In four of the drivers, one with Parkinson's disease, a mirror on the windscreen was set up to arrange for eye contact between the driver and the assessor. Inter-rater reliability was performed with one of the Parkinson drivers driving, but without the mirror. RESULTS: Without mirror, the overall accuracy was 56% when assessing the three control drivers and with mirror 83%. However, for the PD driver without mirror the accuracy was 94%, whereas for the PD driver with a mirror the accuracy was 90%. With respect to the inter-rater reliability, a 73% agreement was found. CONCLUSION: If the final outcome of a driving assessment is dependent on the subcategory of a protocol assessing visual attention, we suggest the use of an additional mirror to establish eye contact between the assessor and the driver. The clinicians' observations on-road should not be a standalone assessment in driving assessments. Instead, eye trackers should be employed for further analyses and correlation in cases where there is doubt about a driver's attention

The Experiences of Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Managing Family Routines and Mothers' Health and Wellbeing

Background/aim Families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use family routines to provide predictability and structure to support occupational engagement of their family members. Mothers assume the major role to orchestrate occupations in constructing family routines, which may impact their health and wellbeing. However, the experiences of mothers in managing family routines and their health and wellbeing have not been the main focus in previous research. Thus, this study explored the experiences of mothers of children with ASD in managing family routines and their perceptions of the impact of family routines on their health and wellbeing. Methods An interpretive phenomenological approach was used. Twenty mothers of children with ASD, aged between 28 and 56 years, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were transcribed verbatim and each transcript was analysed. Results Five themes that summarise mothers' perceptions towards health and wellbeing when managing family routines emerged: (i) Keeping on track keeping healthy; (ii) My life is busy, because I do everything for everyone else; (iii) Keeping on track all the time is tiring or frustrating; (iv) Looking after my family by looking after myself; and (v) I am not perfect and it is OK. Conclusion This study highlighted the substantial efforts required in constructing family routines that may be at the cost of mothers' health and wellbeing. However, mothers may be able to cope with everyday demands in managing family routines by changing their perspectives. By integrating 'me-time' activities in family routines, mothers may be able to support their own health and wellbeing. Mothers' values and needs are reflected in family routines; hence, thorough understanding of family routines may be a key to support mothers' occupational engagement

Single-trial event-related potential extraction through one-unit ICA-with-reference.

Objective: In recent years, ICA has been one of the more popular methods for extracting event-related potential (ERP) at the single-trial level. It is a blind source separation technique that allows the extraction of an ERP without making strong assumptions on the temporal and spatial characteristics of an ERP. However, the problem with traditional ICA is that the extraction is not direct and is time-consuming due to the need for source selection processing. In this paper, the application of an one-unit ICA-with-Reference (ICA-R), a constrained ICA method, is proposed. Approach: In cases where the time-region of the desired ERP is known a priori, this time information is utilized to generate a reference signal, which is then used for guiding the one-unit ICA-R to extract the source signal of the desired ERP directly. Main results: Our results showed that, as compared to traditional ICA, ICA-R is a more effective method for analysing ERP because it avoids manual source selection and it requires less computation thus resulting in faster ERP extraction. Significance: In addition to that, since the method is automated, it reduces the risks of any subjective bias in the ERP analysis. It is also a potential tool for extracting the ERP in online application