Prevalence and correlates of psychiatric morbidity among caregivers of children and adolescents with neuropsychiatric disorders in Nigeria

Objective: To screen for psychiatric morbidity among caregivers of patients attending a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic. Method: A total of 155 patients and their caregivers were consecutively recruited over a 1 month period. Sociodemographic and clinical information on patients was obtained either from the hospital records or from the caregiver. Scoring on the Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) was done by clinicians. The caregivers were administered a sociodemographic questionnaire, GHQ-12, Zarit Burden interview, and the Columbia Impairment Scale. Results: Most caregivers observed in this study were females (80.5%) with mothers of the patients accounting for 78% of all the caregivers. A higher percentage of the patients were males (52.8%). Among the caregivers, 39.4% had GHQ Scores of 3 and above. Factors associated with psychiatric morbidity among caregivers include the high level of subjective burden of care, low level of functioning, high degree of impairment and low level of education among patients. Conclusion: The study reveals a high level of psychiatric morbidity among the carers of children and adolescents with mental health problems.Keywords: Psychiatric morbidity; Care giver; Children and adolescent

Coordination of Catholic Education Implementation Policies in North Sulawesi

This study focuses on one aspect of management, namely the Coordination of Policies for the Implementation of Catholic Education in North Sulawesi (a multi-site study at the Catholic Education Foundation of the Diocese of Manado, the Brothers Don Bosco Foundation for the Manado Representative and the Yoseph Yeemye Foundation for the North Sulawesi Representative). The formulation of the research problem is: 1. How is the coordination of policies for the implementation of Catholic education. 2. How to coordinate the implementation of Catholic education policies. 3. What are the internal and external obstacles in policy coordination and coordination of policy implementation for Catholic education in North Sulawesi, as well as solutions. 4. What are the results of the coordination of the implementation of Catholic education policies in the three foundations. This study uses a qualitative approach with a multi-site study design. Data collection techniques include interviews, observation. and documentation. Data analysis includes the process of flow of activities that occur simultaneously, namely data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of this study indicate: 1. Coordination of policies for the implementation of Catholic education in the three foundations, carried out in a top-down hierarchy, that all regulations originate from the leadership of the hierarchy or institution, which is then forwarded to the leadership of the institution/unit below it; and then disseminated to all staff of the respective foundation employees. 2. Coordination of the implementation of policies for the implementation of Catholic education in the three foundations, always guided by the universal regulations of the Catholic Church, which are concreted through the vision-mission, statutes, or AD-ART, and the strategic plans of each foundation, all of which become the moral strength, in achieving the goal of a plenary Catholic education. 3. The results of the coordination of the implementation of policies on the implementation of catholic education in the three foundations, are determined and promoted by the KWI Education Commission, through the National Council for Catholic Education, the Catholic Education Council of the Diocese, Congregations/Tarekats, through Catholic educational institutions or foundations, with their vision-mission and spirituality with the Statute , its Articles of Association and Bylaws, are harmonized with various government regulations, through a Christian governance management, evangelization in the field of education. 4. Solutions to overcome external and internal constraints in coordinating the implementation of policies for the implementation of Catholic education at the Catholic Education Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Manado, the Brothers Don Bosco Foundation in Manado, and the Yosep Yeemye Foundation in North Sulawesi. 5. The results of the coordination of the implementation of policies for the implementation of Catholic education at the Catholic Education Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Manado, the Brothers Don Bosco Foundation of Manado, and the Yosep Yeemye Foundation of North Sulawesi. Keywords: Coordination, Policy and Implementation, Implementation of Catholic Education DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-30-06 Publication date:October 31st 202

The visual, the auditory and the haptic – A user study on combining modalities in virtual worlds

Fröhlich J, Wachsmuth I. The visual, the auditory and the haptic – A user study on combining modalities in virtual worlds. In: Shumaker R, ed. Virtual Augmented and Mixed Reality. Designing and Developing Augmented and Virtual Environments. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol 8021. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg; 2013: 159-168.In order to make a step further towards understanding the impact of multi-modal stimuli in Virtual Reality we conducted a user study with 80 participants performing tasks in a virtual pit environment. Participants were divided into four groups, each presented a different combination of multi-sensory stimuli. Those included real-time 3D graphics, audio stimuli (ambient, static and event sounds), and haptics consisting of wind and tactile feedback when touching objects. A presence questionnaire was used to evaluate subjectively reported presence on the one hand, and on the other physiological sensors were used to measure heart rate and skin conductance as an objective measure. Results strongly indicate that an increase of modalities does not automatically result in an increase of presence

From presence to consciousness through virtual reality

Immersive virtual environments can break the deep, everyday connection between where our senses tell us we are and where we are actually located and whom we are with. The concept of 'presence' refers to the phenomenon of behaving and feeling as if we are in the virtual world created by computer displays. In this article, we argue that presence is worthy of study by neuroscientists, and that it might aid the study of perception and consciousness

Design and Evaluation of Three Interaction Models for Manipulating Internet of Things (IoT) Devices in Virtual Reality

More and more things are getting connected to the internet, including lights, speakers, and refrigerators. These connected things are an example of what a smart home system that is part of the Internet of Things (IoT) can incorporate. IoT enables advanced services by interconnecting physical and virtual things. But, building interactive prototypes for smart home systems can be difficult and costly, since it involves a number of different devices and systems with varying technological readiness level. Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that can create computer-generated environments and has been used as a design tool in many different domains, such as architecture, city planning, and industrial design. However, the focus has traditionally been on visualizing design proposals rather than letting the intended users directly interact with them. Recently, we have seen an intensified development of VR headsets such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. These headsets come with relatively well-developed hand controllers, which can be used to interact with the virtual environment. This opens up opportunities to develop and evaluate interactive virtual smart home systems.This paper presents three interaction models developed and evaluated using the new generation of VR technology. The interaction models were then compared in a user study with 18 participants. Some statistically significant differences and subjective preferences could be observed in the quantitative and qualitative data respectively.The main contribution of this paper is to elucidate knowledge about using VR as a prototyping tool to explore IoT interaction. Moreover, this study implies that you can collect and analyze data for statistical analysis using VR