360 research outputs found
Evaluation of an online educational tool designed to reduce stress and boost well-being for people living with an ileostomy : a framework analysis
Ileostomies, in which the small intestine is re-directed out of a stoma in the stomach so that waste is collected using a bag, are using to treat conditions such as bowel cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Previous research has shown that life with an ileostomy can be challenging. In our own previous work, we piloted an Online Educational Tool (OET) designed to reduce stress and boost well-being in people living with an ileostomy. The current study utilised the qual-itative method framework analysis in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our OET. We asked nine OET users questions about their experience of using the tool and the impact it may have had on their lives. Feedback was generally positive. Participants described facilitators and barriers for remaining engaged, and discussed a wide range of elements which were successful or unsuccessful. Stress levels were generally reduced and well-being boosted; participants gave examples of how this played out for them. Feelings about whether the impact of the tool would last were mixed. There was one participant who felt the tool was not inclusive enough and too repetitive. Findings from this study add weight to previous findings that the OET was successful in its aims
An online educational tool to promote psychological well-being, optimism, and coping self-efficacy among people living with an ileostomy : a pilot study
We assessed an online educational tool designed for people living with an ileostomy. Thirty-nine participants took part in a 10-week online educational tool, which included elements such as happiness profiling, understanding stress and coping, utilising social support, mindfulness skills, and emotional intelligence training. Participants completed questionnaires to assess the effects of the online educational tool on well-being, optimism, and coping self-efficacy at Time 1 (baseline), Time 2 (after the intervention), and Time 3 (three months after completing the online educational tool). Psychological well-being, optimism, use of problem-focused coping self-efficacy, and stop unpleasant emotions and thoughts coping self-efficacy were significantly higher, with large effect sizes, at both Time 2 and Time 3, than Time 1. The online educational tool appears to be a promising time and cost effective method of promoting positive outcomes, although additional testing is required before it could be used in conjunction with existing healthcare treatment
Toward a Phenomenological Pragmatics of Enactive Perception
The enactive approach to perception is generating an extensive amount of interest and debate in the cognitive sciences. One particularly contentious issue has been how best to characterize the perceptual experiences reported by subjects who have mastered the skillful use of a perceptual supplementation (PS) device. This paper argues that this issue cannot be resolved with the use of third-person methodologies alone, but that it requires the development of a phenomenological pragmatics. In particular, it is necessary that the experimenters become skillful in the use of PS devices themselves. The "Enactive Torch" is proposed as an experimental platform which is cheap, non-intrusive and easy to replicate, so as to enable researchers to corroborate reported experiences with their own phenomenology more easily
Naturalistic Robot Arm Trajectory Generation via Representation Learning
The integration of manipulator robots in household environments suggests a
need for more predictable and human-like robot motion. This holds especially
true for wheelchair-mounted assistive robots that can support the independence
of people with paralysis. One method of generating naturalistic motion
trajectories is via the imitation of human demonstrators. This paper explores a
self-supervised imitation learning method using an autoregressive
spatio-temporal graph neural network for an assistive drinking task. We address
learning from diverse human motion trajectory data that were captured via
wearable IMU sensors on a human arm as the action-free task demonstrations.
Observed arm motion data from several participants is used to generate natural
and functional drinking motion trajectories for a UR5e robot arm.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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In the dark â designing navigation for a haptic theatre experience
We describe the ongoing work of a collaborative theatre project, in which blind and sighted members of an interdisciplinary team are working on the creation of an immersive and accessible theatre experience. The theatre experience is set in pitch dark, and uses audio and haptic ubiquitous technologies to guide both blind and sighted members of the audience. During two sessions which explored the use of enactive navigation in the dark space, participants were able to locate areas of interest within the dark, using enactive explorative navigation, and some participants described this as a âdenseâ experience
The psychological challenges of living with an ileostomy: an interpretative phenomenological analysis
Objectives: Ileostomy, in which the small intestine is re-directed out of an abdominal wall so that waste is collected using a bag, is used to treat conditions including Inflammatory Bowel Disease and colorectal cancer. This paper reports an in depth idiographic analysis of the experience of living with an ileostomy. Methods: 21 participants took part in semi-structured interviews about their lives and relationships. Those interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the experiential qualitative methodology Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Two super-ordinate themes arose from the data: Ileostomyâs intra-personal impact; the impact of ileostomy on relationships with others. We found that ileostomy may destabilise the sense of self, disrupt body image, and alter experience of age and sexuality. Other participants were able to employ their illness to positively reframe the self. Disclosure of ileostomy status was difficult for some. Intimate and friend relationships were often challenged by stoma status, whilst other family relationships were largely characterised as supportive. Conclusions: Ileostomy may impact upon both intra and interpersonal aspects of the lives of those who live with it, in both negative and positive ways. Consequently, the sense of self can appear challenged, and relationships with partners, family members and friendships could be causes of distress. On the other hand, some partners were supportive, and children were found to be sources of comfort
First validation of the Haptic Sandwich: a shape changing handheld haptic navigation aid
This paper presents the Haptic Sandwich, a handheld robotic device that designed to provide pedestrian navigation instructions through a novel shape changing modality. The device resembles a cube with an articulated upper half that is able to rotate and translate (extend) relative to the bottom half, which is grounded in the userâs hand when the device is held. The poses assumed by the device simultaneously correspond to heading and proximity to a navigational target. The Haptic Sandwich provides an alternative to screen and/or audio based pedestrian navigation technologies for both visually impaired and sighted users. Unlike other robotic or haptic navigational solutions, the haptic sandwich is discrete in terms of form and sensory stimulus. Due to the novel and unexplored nature of shape changing interfaces, two user studies were undertaken to validate the concept and device. In the first experiment, stationary participants attempted to identify poses assumed by the device, which was hidden from view. In the second experiment, participants attempted to locate a sequence of invisible navigational targets while walking with the device. Of 1080 pose presentations to 10 individuals in experiment one, 80% were correctly identified and 17.5% had the minimal possible error. Multi-DOF errors accounted for only 1.1% of all answers. The role of simultaneous or independent actuator motion on final shape perception was tested with no significant performance difference. The rotation and extension DOF had significantly different perception accuracy. In the second experiment, participants demonstrated good navigational ability with the device after minimal training and were able to locate all
presented targets. Mean motion efficiency of the participants was
between 32%-56%. Participants made use of both DOF
Testing a Shape-Changing Haptic Navigation Device With Vision-Impaired and Sighted Audiences in an Immersive Theater Setting
Flatland was an immersive âin-the-wildâ experimental theater and technology project, undertaken with the goal of developing systems that could assist âreal-worldâ pedestrian navigation for both vision-impaired (VI) and sighted individuals, while also exploring inclusive and equivalent cultural experiences for VI and sighted audiences. A novel shape-changing handheld haptic navigation device, the âAnimotus,â was developed. The device has the ability to modify its form in the user's grasp to communicate heading and proximity to navigational targets. Flatland provided a unique opportunity to comparatively study the use of novel navigation devices with a large group of individuals (79 sighted, 15 VI) who were primarily attending a theater production rather than an experimental study. In this paper, we present our findings on comparing the navigation performance (measured in terms of efficiency, average pace, and time facing targets) and opinions of VI and sighted users of the Animotus as they negotiated the 112 m2 production environment. Differences in navigation performance were nonsignificant across VI and sighted individuals and a similar range of opinions on device function and engagement spanned both groups. We believe more structured device familiarization, particularly for VI users, could improve performance and incorrect technology expectations (such as obstacle avoidance capability), which influenced overall opinion. This paper is intended to aid the development of future inclusive technologies and cultural experiences
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