DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM BETWEEN ASSISTIVE ROBOTS AND THEIR USERS

Assistive robotics will become integral to the everyday lives of a human population that is increasingly mobile, older, urban-centric and networked. The overwhelming demands on healthcare delivery alone will compel the adoption of assistive robotics. How will we communicate with such robots, and how will they communicate with us? This research makes the case for a relatively \u27artificial\u27 mode of nonverbal human-robot communication that is non-disruptive, non-competitive, and non-invasive human-robot communication that we envision will be willingly invited into our private and working lives over time. This research proposes a non-verbal communication (NVC) platform be conveyed by familiar lights and sounds, and elaborated here are experiments with our NVC platform in a rehabilitation hospital. This NVC is embedded into the Assistive Robotic Table (ART), developed within our lab, that supports the well-being of an expanding population of older adults and those with limited mobility. The broader aim of this research is to afford people robot-assistants that exist and interact with them in the recesses, rather than in the foreground, of their intimate and social lives. With support from our larger research team, I designed and evaluated several alternative modes of nonverbal robot communication with the objective of establishing a nonverbal, human-robot communication loop that evolves with users and can be modified by users. The study was conducted with 10-13 clinicians -- doctors and occupational, physical, and speech therapists -- at a local rehabilitation hospital through three iterative design and evaluation phases and a final usability study session. For our test case at a rehabilitation hospital, medical staff iteratively refined our NVC platform, stated a willingness to use our platform, and declared NVC as a desirable research path. In addition, these clinicians provided the requirements for human-robot interaction (HRI) in clinical settings, suggesting great promise for our mode of human-robot communication for this and other applications and environments involving intimate HRI

The Dreams of Wives

A poem

Current themes in educational action research at the University of Tennessee

Action research projects are completed in conjunction with the internship year associated with the pre-service teaching interns. The action research project abstracts are published in the Capstone Conference handbook each year. These abstracts have been categorized from the years 1997 through 2001, within the fields of Grade level, Population, Educational Placement, Research Design, Content Area, and Theme/Intervention. Three raters utilized a database created in Microsoft Access to categorize data extrapolated from the Capstone Conference Handbook. Interrater reliability was established at 90% reliability. The results were clearly identified. The prominent themes identified were Instructional Format, Other, Behavior/Classroom Management, Attitudes, and Academic Achievement. The prominent themes were then utilized as identifiers in an ERIC search to determine the representativeness in the broader professional literature. The similarity of representation between the categorized data and the professional literature was minimal. The results of this study can be utilized by pre-service interning teachers as well as university mentors to shape future action research projects

Bad to the Bone, Librarians in Motion Pictures: Is it an Accurate Portrayal?

In 1992, author Mary Jane Scherdin used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument to survey personality traits of 1,600 librarians. The study resulted in an overwhelming number of librarians displaying personalities consistent with being Introverted / Sensing / Thinking / Judging (I/S/T/J) followed by Introverted / Intuitive / Thinking / Judging (I/I/T/J). She conducted this survey in response to a 1984 survey done by the Center for Applications of Psychological Type which had concluded that librarians were Introverted / Sensing / Feeling / Judging

Black women burdening: the process of unburdening realism in Dennis McIntyre\u27s split second.

Black women who dramatize reality can experience a transference of burdens if realistic plays reflect their lived experiences. Burdens affect truthful character development and impact the mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual well-being of Black actresses. This thesis will use the Fall 2021 University of Louisville production of Dennis McIntyre’s Split Second as a case study. Gender and Race studies along with an auto-ethnographic research approach will be used to examine how my portrayal of Alea in Split Second contributed to Black Woman Burdening, a phrase I created to examine how Black fatigue can negatively and specifically affect Black women who perform realistic theatre. This thesis offers a process for the actor to “unburden” by merging realism with the therapeutic benefits of mind, body, emotional, social, and spiritual awarenes

Incorporating Caring Competencies in the Academic Setting through Simulation

Teaching caring, caring science, and the importance of caring competencies incorporated throughout the academic curriculum is vital in healthcare education. The purpose of this project is to increase the focus and importance of caring through didactic, interactive activities, and simulation experiences to promote the modeling and incorporation of caring competencies throughout the curriculum. Boykin and Schoenhofer\u27s Caring Theory (2001) framework makes the assumption all persons are caring, and notes the caring relationship between the nurse/provider and the patient takes place in both actual practice and the simulated environment. A convenience sample of 32 first year ADN students enrolled in a Fundamentals of Nursing course participated in this study. Qualitative results revealed a new awareness of the importance and focus of caring competencies by students. The Caring Efficacy Scale (CES) was used for quantitative data revealing paired samples t test showing the mean for the pre CES (M = 5.16) implementation was slightly less than the mean for the post CES (M = 5.39). A paired samples t test (t (30) = -8.06,

Using Input from Landlords Participating in the Dothan Housing Authority\u27s Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) to Streamline Operations and Increase Retention

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is a public-private partnership between a landlord, voucher holder, and a Public Housing Authority (PHA). However, this public-private partnership appears to be a two-sided partnership instead of a three-way partnership as the HCVP was designed. Over 110,000 landlords have withdrawn from the HCVP since 2009, which has negatively affected housing choices for voucher holders. This phenomenon of landlords leaving the HCVP is a catastrophe problem for the rental housing crisis that is a part of the larger affordable housing crisis. The perception of institutional bureaucracy for landlords is their reality, and the unintended consequence is the price of bureaucracy. This quantitative research study evaluated landlords’ opinions regarding their feelings toward streamlining the operations of the HCVP through technology and if this will increase their retention. This research study chose the convenience sampling of landlords, who are experiential stakeholders in the HCVP. Each landlord participant of the study had an active Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract with the Dothan Housing Authority (DHA) and had been a landlord for at least one year. The descriptive statistics research study provided an objective analysis of the landlords’ opinions at the DHA through an online closed-ended survey. This dissertation addressed the gap in research to better understand landlords’ important role through their opinions as experiential stakeholders in the HCVP. This dissertation study also added empirical knowledge by addressing the research gap to create recommendations for policy solutions to retain the landlords\u27 participation in the HCVP

Apples to Oranges: Comparing Streaming Video Platforms

Librarians rely on an ever-increasing variety of platforms to deliver streaming video content to our patrons. These two presentations will examine different aspects of video streaming platforms to gain guidance from the comparison of platforms. The first will examine the accessibility compliance of the various video streaming platforms for users with disabilities by examining accessibility features of the platforms. The second will be a comparison of subject usage of two of the larger video streaming platform providers (Alexander Street Press and Kanopy) done at Indiana University Bloomington, a large public university