20,566 research outputs found

    Effect of playing computer games on decision making in people with intellectual disabilities

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    People with intellectual disabilities have difficulty making decisions and this may hinder their independence and inclusion in society. Interactive computer software may give them the opportunity to practice the underlying components of this skill. This study aimed to discover if repeated sessions playing a computer game involving aspects of decision making, such as collecting relevant information and controlling impulsivity, would improve performance in two non-computer based tests of decision making. 12 adults with intellectual disabilities were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or control group. They were all exposed to 10 twice weekly sessions, playing either the intervention game or the control game, which involved simple reaction time only. After repeated sessions, the intervention group showed a significant improvement in game score, with researcher assistance significantly decreasing. At follow up, the intervention group showed a significant decrease from baseline in the number of guesses made before guessing correctly on both of the decision making tests. The decrease observed in the control group failed to reach significance

    User interface evaluation of serious games for students with intellectual disability

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    We have designed and evaluated around 10 serious games under the EU Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Project: Game On Extra Time (GOET) project http://goet-project.eu/. The project supports people with learning disabilities and additional sensory impairments in getting and keeping a job by helping them to learn, via games-based learning; skills that will help them in their working day. These games help students to learn how to prepare themselves for work, dealing with everyday situations at work, including money management, travelling independently etc. This paper is concerned with the potential of serious games as effective and engaging learning resources for people with intellectual disabilities. In this paper we will address questions related to the design and evaluation of such games, and our design solutions to suit the individual learning needs of our target audiences

    Fear of missing out, mental wellbeing, and social connectedness: a seven-day social media abstinence trial

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    Smartphones aid the constant accessibility of social media (SM) applications, and these devices and platforms have become a key part of our everyday lives and needs. Previous research has focused on the psychological impact of social media use (SMU) and SM abstinence has only received limited attention. Therefore, employing a combination of an experimental within-subjects mixed methodology using surveys to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data, this study aimed to compare psychosocial factors of fear of missing out (FoMO), mental wellbeing (MWB), and social connectedness (SC) before and after seven days of SM abstinence. Results revealed that participants (N = 61) experienced a significant increase in MWB and SC, and a significant decrease in FoMO and smartphone use following SM abstinence. There was a significant positive relationship between MWB and SC change scores and a significant negative relationship between SC and FoMO change scores. There were no significant differences in levels of SMU before abstinence or across genders in FoMO, MWB, and SC change scores. Thematic analysis revealed coping, habit, and boredom as motivations for SMU, and notification distractions presenting a challenge for successful abstinence from SM. Participants indicated that abstinence resulted in the perceived need to fill their time with non-SM applications. Finally, thematic analysis revealed mixed experiences of perceived connectivity in the absence of SMU. Findings present implications for the importance of unplugging from SM for temporary periods because scrolling through SM to fill time is a key motivator of SMU, and notifications encourage SMU and trigger FoMO

    Reading the High Court at a Distance: Topic Modelling the Legal Subject Matter And Judicial Activity of the High Court of Australia, 1903–2015

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    In this article we apply the method of quantitative textual analysis known as β€˜topic modelling’ to a significant Australian legal text corpus: that of judgments of the High Court of Australia from 1903 to 2015. The High Court of Australia has been a perennial topic for study and analysis. It is the highest court in the Australian judicial hierarchy and the site of many of the most significant contests of legal doctrine and practice in Australian history. We find that the topic models generated by this research enable the development of a range of unique, novel and robust observations of the High Court’s judicial workload and the shifting make-up of its legal subject matter over time. Moreover, this article reveals the feasibility and value of topic modelling as a method for the study of legal texts and practices that might fruitfully complement other methods of legal scholarship

    Transgenic Overexpression of LARGE Induces alpha-Dystroglycan Hyperglycosylation in Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle

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    Background: LARGE is one of seven putative or demonstrated glycosyltransferase enzymes defective in a common group of muscular dystrophies with reduced glycosylation of alpha-dystroglycan. Overexpression of LARGE induces hyperglycosylation of alpha-dystroglycan in both wild type and in cells from dystroglycanopathy patients, irrespective of their primary gene defect, restoring functional glycosylation. Viral delivery of LARGE to skeletal muscle in animal models of dystroglycanopathy has identical effects in vivo, suggesting that the restoration of functional glycosylation could have therapeutic applications in these disorders. Pharmacological strategies to upregulate Large expression are also being explored.Methodology/Principal Findings: In order to asses the safety and efficacy of long term LARGE over-expression in vivo, we have generated four mouse lines expressing a human LARGE transgene. On observation, LARGE transgenic mice were indistinguishable from the wild type littermates. Tissue analysis from young mice of all four lines showed a variable pattern of transgene expression: highest in skeletal and cardiac muscles, and lower in brain, kidney and liver. Transgene expression in striated muscles correlated with alpha-dystroglycan hyperglycosylation, as determined by immunoreactivity to antibody IIH6 and increased laminin binding on an overlay assay. Other components of the dystroglycan complex and extracellular matrix ligands were normally expressed, and general muscle histology was indistinguishable from wild type controls. Further detailed muscle physiological analysis demonstrated a loss of force in response to eccentric exercise in the older, but not in the younger mice, suggesting this deficit developed over time. However this remained a subclinical feature as no pathology was observed in older mice in any muscles including the diaphragm, which is sensitive to mechanical load-induced damage.Conclusions/Significance: This work shows that potential therapies in the dystroglycanopathies based on LARGE upregulation and alpha-dystroglycan hyperglycosylation in muscle should be safe
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