Experience design: video without faces increases engagement but not empathy

Counter to prior claims that empathy is required for higher levels of engagement in human-computer interaction, our team has previously found that, in an analysis of 844 stimulus presentations, empathy is sufficient for high engagement, but is not necessary. Here, we ran a carefully controlled study of human-computer interactions with musical stimuli --- with and without visuals, and with and without recognizable people -- to directly test whether we could design an engaging stimulus that did not elicit empathy, by avoiding human faces or personal interaction. We measured subjective responses by visual analogue scale and found that the faceless stimulus was as engaging as the face-containing stimulus, but much less empathy-provoking. Therefore, we propose that empathy and engagement be considered independently during interaction design, because they are not monotonically related

Proxemics of screen mediation: engagement with reading on screen manifests as diminished variation due to self-control, rather than diminished mean distance from screen

Objective: Burgoon's theory of conversational involvement suggest that when people engage with a person, they will move slightly closer to them, often subtly and subconsciously. However, some studies have failed to extend this to human-computer interaction. Our hypothesis is that during online reading, engagement is associated with an expenditure of effort to hold the head upright, still and centrally. Method: We presented to 27 participants (ages 21.00 ± 2.89, 15 female) seated in front of 47.5x27 cm monitor two reading stimuli in a counterbalanced order, one (interesting) based on a best selling novel and the other (boring) based on European Union banking regulations. The participants were video-recorded during their reading while they wore reflective motion tracking markers. The markers were video-tracked off-line using Kinovea 0.8. Results: Subjective VAS ratings showed that the stimuli elicited the bored and interested states as expected. Video tracking showed that the boring stimulus (compared to the interesting reading) elicited a greater head-to-screen velocity, a greater head-to-screen distance range, a greater head-to-screen distance standard deviation, but not a further away head-to-screen mean distance. Conclusions: The more interesting reading led to efforts to control the head to a more central viewing position while suppressing head fidgeting

The complex relationship between empathy, engagement and boredom

In human computer interactions — especially gaming — the role of empathy has been mooted as a necessary prerequisite for higher levels of engagement and immersion. More recently other forms of engagement, including intellectual/cognitive engagement, have been proposed. In this study we present a carefully controlled dataset of human-computer interactions with a wide range of stimuli that ranged from highly engaging to boring to test these two theories. Analyzing 844 response sets to visual analogue scales (VAS) for empathy, interest, boredom, and engagement, we found that high empathy was sufficient for high engagement but is not necessary, whilst the converse was not true. We also found that empathy and boredom were incompatible with each other, but low levels of either were permissive rather than causal to the other. We conclude that there is no monotonic relationship between increasing empathy and engagement; either empathy is a sufficient (but not necessary) cause of engagement, or engagement is a necessary precursor to high empathy

Struggling for recognition and inclusion—parents' and pupils' experiences of special support measures in school

During the last decade an increasing use of differentiated support measures for pupils with special educational needs, indicative of a discrepancy between educational policies and practices, has been witnessed in Sweden. Another trend has been the increased use of medical diagnoses in school. The aim of this study was to explore the main concern of support given to pupils with special educational needs and how pupils and parents experience and handle this. Interviews were conducted with eight pupils in Grades 7–9—and their parents—at two compulsory schools in a city in northern Sweden. A grounded theory approach was used for analyzing the interview data. A conceptual model was generated illuminating the main concern of special support measures for pupils and parents. The core category of the model, struggling for recognition and inclusion, was related to two categories, which further described how this process was experienced and handled by the participants. These categories were labeled negotiating expertise knowledge within a fragmented support structure and coping with stigma, ambivalence, and special support measures. The developed conceptual model provides a deeper understanding of an ongoing process of struggle for recognition and inclusion in school as described by the pupils and parents

Myocarditis related to Campylobacter jejuni infection: A case report

BACKGROUND: Myocarditis can develop as a complication of various infections and is most commonly linked to enterovirus infections. Myocarditis is rarely associated with bacterial infections; salmonellosis and shigellosis have been the most frequently reported bacterial cause. We report a case of myocarditis related to Campylobacter jejuni enteritis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 30-year-old previously healthy man presented with a history of prolonged chest pain radiating to the jaw and the left arm. Five days prior to the onset of chest pain, he developed bloody diarrhea, fever and chills. Creatine kinase (CK) and CK-MB were elevated to 289 U/L and 28.7 μg/L. Troponin I was 30.2 μg/L. The electrocardiogram (ECG) showed T wave inversion in the lateral and inferior leads. The chest pain resolved within 24 hours of admission. The patient had a completely normal ECG stress test. The patient was initiated on ciprofloxacin 500 mg po bid when Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from the stool. Diarrhea resolved within 48 hours of initiation of ciprofloxacin. The diagnosis of Campylobacter enteritis and related myocarditis was made based on the clinical and laboratory results and the patient was discharged from the hospital in stable condition. CONCLUSION: Myocarditis can be a rare but severe complication of infectious disease and should be considered as a diagnosis in patients presenting with chest pain and elevated cardiac enzymes in the absence of underlying coronary disease. It can lead to cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. There are only a few reported cases of myocarditis associated with Campylobacter infection

Alpha-Synuclein Modulates the Physical Properties of DNA

Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Fundamental research on Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) most often focuses on the ability of α-synuclein (aS) to form oligomers and amyloids, and how such species promote brain cell death. However, there are indications that aS also plays a gene-regulatory role in the cell nucleus. Here, the interaction between monomeric aS and DNA in vitro has been investigated with single-molecule techniques. Using a nanofluidic channel system, it was discovered that aS binds to DNA and by studying the DNA–protein complexes at different confinements we determined that aS binding increases the persistence length of DNA from 70 to 90 nm at high coverage. By atomic force microscopy it was revealed that at low protein-to-DNA ratio, the aS binding occurs as small protein clusters scattered along the DNA; at high protein-to-DNA ratio, the DNA is fully covered by protein. As DNA-aS interactions may play roles in PD, it is of importance to characterize biophysical properties of such complexes in detail

Estimating the Relevance of World Disturbances to Explain Savings, Interference and Long-Term Motor Adaptation Effects

Recent studies suggest that motor adaptation is the result of multiple, perhaps linear processes each with distinct time scales. While these models are consistent with some motor phenomena, they can neither explain the relatively fast re-adaptation after a long washout period, nor savings on a subsequent day. Here we examined if these effects can be explained if we assume that the CNS stores and retrieves movement parameters based on their possible relevance. We formalize this idea with a model that infers not only the sources of potential motor errors, but also their relevance to the current motor circumstances. In our model adaptation is the process of re-estimating parameters that represent the body and the world. The likelihood of a world parameter being relevant is then based on the mismatch between an observed movement and that predicted when not compensating for the estimated world disturbance. As such, adapting to large motor errors in a laboratory setting should alert subjects that disturbances are being imposed on them, even after motor performance has returned to baseline. Estimates of this external disturbance should be relevant both now and in future laboratory settings. Estimated properties of our bodies on the other hand should always be relevant. Our model demonstrates savings, interference, spontaneous rebound and differences between adaptation to sudden and gradual disturbances. We suggest that many issues concerning savings and interference can be understood when adaptation is conditioned on the relevance of parameters