Networked Families

Presents survey results on the use of the Internet and ownership of cell phones and computers, by household type. Examines how technology ownership affects the frequency, form, purpose, and quality of communications among family members and friends

Creating an Infrastructure for Professional Development and Mentoring in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Short talk presentation slide

Detecting Invasive Insects with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A key aspect to controlling and reducing the effects invasive insect species have on agriculture is to obtain knowledge about the migration patterns of these species. Current state-of-the-art methods of studying these migration patterns involve a mark-release-recapture technique, in which insects are released after being marked and researchers attempt to recapture them later. However, this approach involves a human researcher manually searching for these insects in large fields and results in very low recapture rates. In this paper, we propose an automated system for detecting released insects using an unmanned aerial vehicle. This system utilizes ultraviolet lighting technology, digital cameras, and lightweight computer vision algorithms to more quickly and accurately detect insects compared to the current state of the art. The efficiency and accuracy that this system provides will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of invasive insect species migration patterns. Our experimental results demonstrate that our system can detect real target insects in field conditions with high precision and recall rates.Comment: IEEE ICRA 2019. 7 page

Women’s experiences of transfer from primary maternity unit to tertiary hospital in New Zealand: part of the prospective cohort Evaluating Maternity Units study

BACKGROUND: There is worldwide debate regarding the appropriateness and safety of different birthplaces for well women. The Evaluating Maternity Units (EMU) study’s primary objective was to compare clinical outcomes for well women intending to give birth in either a tertiary level maternity hospital or a freestanding primary level maternity unit. Little is known about how women experience having to change their birthplace plans during the antenatal period or before admission to a primary unit, or transfer following admission. This paper describes and explores women’s experience of these changes-a secondary aim of the EMU study. METHODS: This paper utilised the six week postpartum survey data, from the 174 women from the primary unit cohort affected by birthplace plan change or transfer (response rate 73 %). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The study was undertaken in Christchurch, New Zealand, which has an obstetric-led tertiary maternity hospital and four freestanding midwife-led primary maternity units (2010–2012). The 702 study participants were well, pregnant women booked to give birth in one of these facilities, all of whom received continuity of midwifery care, regardless of their intended or actual birthplace. RESULTS: Of the women who had to change their planned place of birth or transfer the greatest proportion of women rated themselves on a Likert scale as unbothered by the move (38.6 %); 8.8 % were ‘very unhappy’ and 7.6 % ‘very happy’ (quantitative analysis). Four themes were identified, using thematic analysis, from the open ended survey responses of those who experienced transfer: ‘not to plan’, control, communication and ‘my midwife’. An interplay between the themes created a cumulatively positive or negative effect on their experience. Women’s experience of transfer in labour was generally positive, and none expressed stress or trauma with transfer. CONCLUSIONS: The women knew of the potential for change or transfer, although it was not wanted or planned. When they maintained a sense control, experienced effective communication with caregivers, and support and information from their midwife, the transfer did not appear to be experienced negatively. The model of continuity of midwifery care in New Zealand appeared to mitigate the negative aspects of women’s experience of transfer and facilitate positive birth experiences

Adapting the Body Appreciation Scale-2 for Children: A psychometric analysis of the BAS-2C

© 2017 Positive body image among adults is related to numerous indicators of well-being. However, no research has explored body appreciation among children. To facilitate our understanding of children's positive body image, the current study adapts and validates the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015a) for use with children. Three hundred and forty-four children (54.4% girls) aged 9–11 completed the adapted Body Appreciation Scale-2 for Children (BAS-2C) alongside measures of body esteem, media influence, body surveillance, mood, and dieting. A sub-sample of 154 participants (62.3% girls) completed the questionnaire 6-weeks later to examine stability (test-retest) reliability. The BAS-2C displayed a unidimensional factor structure and evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct, criterion-related, and incremental validity. Additionally, the results suggest adaptive properties of body appreciation for body-related and emotional well-being among children. The BAS-2C could serve as an essential component within research to understand and estimate children's positive body image

Personality and Programming

Information systems students continue to struggle to successfully complete computer programming classes. Leaming how to program is difficult, and failure and attrition rates in college level programming classes remain at an unacceptably high rate. Since many IS students take a programming course as part of their program of study, IS educators should better understand why IS students tend to achieve low success rates in programming courses and what can be done to improve success rates. Little research to date has addressed potential reasons for student failure in programming principles courses. Many educators simply assume that high failure rates are acceptable - that computer programming is difficult and some students simply will not succeed. Some researchers have studied personality as a predictor of success in computer programming courses. However, no studies have attempted to gather cognitive profiles and match performance to profile type exhibited. In our study, we identified the primary cognitive profile in a sample of beginning programming students in a southeastern university and matched profile to final average in Programming Principles I. Intuitive thinkers tended to perform better in Programming Principles I than sensor feelers. We found no other differences in performance between profile types. We recommend instructional strategies that may be used to reach fully motivated and intellectually capable sensor feelers, while not detracting from the learning experience of the other profiles

Evaluating the impact of a brief yoga intervention on preadolescents’ body image and mood

Yoga is an embodying activity that promotes body awareness, body connection, body responsiveness, and appreciation of body functionality, and it therefore may be a beneficial school-based intervention for children’s body image. The present study examined the impact of a 4-week yoga intervention on pre-adolescent girls’ and boys’ body image (body appreciation, body esteem, and body surveillance) and mood (positive and negative affect) 1-week post-intervention and at 6-week follow-up. British children (N = 344; 54.4% female) aged 9-11 years were recruited from four schools, two of which were randomly assigned to the yoga intervention and two to a physical education control condition. Unexpectedly, both groups increased body appreciation, body esteem, and positive mood, and decreased body surveillance and negative affect from baseline to post-intervention and/or follow-up. Children in the yoga intervention evaluated the sessions very favourably; the majority desired to participate in more lessons. Potential explanations for these findings are discussed

Tracking the Position of an Ultrasonic Transmitter in a Room

Determination of the position of an acoustic transmitter in a room in three dimensions has multiple applications. We are designing a system that will track the position of a person in a room in two or three dimensions using techniques that could be expandable to multiple rooms. The transmitter emits an acoustic pulse that is detected by four or five receivers in the room. The receiver array sends the analog signal as it is received with noise to a signal conditioner. The signal conditioner consists of an active band-pass filter, an envelope detector and a comparator and its output is a digital signal corresponding to a time-delayed version of the original pulse. The rising edge of each receiver\u27s digital signal will trigger a microcontroller to capture the time of arrival of that signal. One of two location algorithms will be used. Either the initial start time of the emitted pulse and the Time of Arrival (TOA) of each rising edge pulse will yield the Time of Flight (TOF) for each received signal of the TOA of each signal will be used to calculate a series of Time Differences of Arrival (TDOA) of the signals. A matrix-based location algorithm will use wither the TOF or TDOA information to determine the two or three dimensional position of the ultrasonic transmitter in the room