Physiological signal-based emotion recognition from wearable devices

The interest in computers recognizing human emotions has been increasing recently. Many studies have been done about recognizing emotions from physical signals such as facial expressions or from written text with good results. However, recognizing emotions from physiological signals such as heart rate, from wearable devices without physical signals have been challenging. Some studies have given good, or at least promising results. The challenge for emotion recognition is to understand how human body actually reacts to different emotional triggers and to find a common factors among people. The aim of this study is to find out whether it is possible to accurately recognize human emotions and stress from physiological signals using supervised machine learning. Further, we consider the question what type of biosignals are most informative for making such predictions. The performance of Support Vector Machines and Random Forest classifiers are experimentally evaluated on the task of separating stress and no-stress signals from three different biosignals: ECG, PPG and EDA. The challenges with these biosginals from acquiring them to pre-processing the signals are addressed and their connection to emotional experience is discussed. In addition, the challenges and problems on experimental setups used in previous studies are addressed and especially the usability problems of the dataset. The models implemented in this thesis were not able to accurately classify emotions using supervised machine learning from the dataset used. The models did not perform remarkably better than just randomly choosing labels. PPG signal however performed slightly better than ECG or EDA for stress detection

Meaningful mastery experiences in working UAS students’ self-efficacy narratives

Tässä tutkimuksessa syvennetään ymmärrystä päätoimisesti työssäkäyvien ammattikorkeakoulu (AMK) -opiskelijoiden opiskelijaminäpystyvyydestä. Minäpystyvyys rajautuu tarkastelemaan opiskelijan työssä ja opinnoissa syntyneitä aiempia kokemuksia, koska niiden on todettu olevan merkittävinminäpystyvyyden lähde. Teemahaastatteluaineisto kerättiin eteläsuomalaisessa ammattikorkeakoulussa syksyllä 2021. Haastateltavat olivat päätoimisesti työssä käyviä, alempaa AMK-tutkintoa verkko- tai monimuoto-opintoina suorittavia opiskelijoita eri tutkinto-ohjelmista. Merkityksellisiksi minäpystyvyyden kokemuksiksi osoitettiin kokemukset opintoihin hakeutumisesta ja opintojen aloittamisesta positiivisena siirtymänä, kokemukset osaamisen syventymisestä teoreettisen ja käytännöllisen tiedon tiiviissä integraatiossa sekä kokemukset ammatillisen osaamisen kehittymisestä. AMK-opiskelunsa aloittavien opiskelijoiden kasvava ikä, monimuoto- ja verkko- opiskelun lisääntyvä suosio sekä korkeakoulutuksen kansalliset lisäämistarpeet heijastuvat opiskelijan oman osaamisensa johtajuuden korostumiseen tulevaisuudessa. Tässä minäpystyvyydellä on merkittävä rooli, ja sen tutkimus perustelee paikkaansa. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää erityisesti ammattikorkeakoulujen ohjaus- ja opetustyössä, mutta myös muissa ammatillisen kasvun ohjausta järjestävissä instituutioissa ja organisaatioissa.The purpose of this research is to deepen the understanding about student self-efficacy of full-time working students at university of applied sciences (UAS). Exploring self-efficacy is limited to the mastery experiences of students formed previously in their work or studies. This outlining is based on previous research demonstrating mastery experiences being the most significant source of self-efficacy. Theme interview data was collected in autumn 2021 in one university of applied sciences located in southern Finland. The interviewees were full-time working students of different bachelor’s degree programmes, studying in blended or online study programmes. Students’ meaningful experiences for self-efficacy related to positive admission process and successful transition to studies, deepened learning in intense integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, and development of professional competence. The growing age of students entering higher education, increasing popularity of blended and online studying and national requirements to raise the number of citizens participating HE all reflect changes that emphasize the significance of student’s self-management in one’s own learning. In this, self-efficacy has essential role, and the research related to it is required. The results of this research benefit career guidance, counseling, and teaching practices implemented specially in universities of applied sciences, but also in other institutions and organizations executing vocational growth-related guidance

Increased Incidence and Clinical Picture of Childhood Narcolepsy following the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Vaccination Campaign in Finland

Peer reviewe

Increased incidence and clinical picture of childhood narcolepsy following the 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccination campaign in Finland. PLoS One 7

Abstract Background: Narcolepsy is a rare neurological sleep disorder especially in children who are younger than 10 years. In the beginning of 2010, an exceptionally large number of Finnish children suffered from an abrupt onset of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and cataplexy. Therefore, we carried out a systematic analysis of the incidence of narcolepsy in Finland between the years 2002-2010

Annual incidence of narcolepsy by age group and year of diagnosis.

<p>Annual incidence of narcolepsy by age group and year of diagnosis.</p

Number of new diagnoses of narcolepsy among adults aged 20 years or more by year of diagnosis.

<p>Number of new diagnoses of narcolepsy among adults aged 20 years or more by year of diagnosis.</p

Clinical findings.

§<p>This table contains information of only those 6 subjects who were aged≤17 years at diagnosis. The other 10 of the 16 subjects reported by Dauvilliers et al.2010³⁴ were older. They were not included to enable comparisons.</p>#<p>We defined weight gain as an increase of body mass index (BMI) >5%. Aran et al⁴⁰ defined it as >4 kg weight gain. NC: narcolepsy and cataplexy; NwC: narcolepsy without cataplexy. N/A: Not applicable; SD: standard deviation; SEM: standard error of mean. Statistically significant differences between our study and other studies are marked as.</p>***<p>for P<0.001,</p>**<p>for P<0.01 and,</p>*<p>for P<0.05. The numbers (N = ) in parenthesis refer to number of subjects with data.</p><p>Comparison of the present study and published studies from literature for children aged≤17 years.</p