| 1. |
- Graeske, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
-
Hooked By Avatars? Literature Studies in Upper Secondary School—A Simulation Study
- 2022
-
Ingår i: International Education Studies. - : Canadian Center of Science and Education. - 1913-9020 .- 1913-9039. ; 15:3, s. 53-60
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several studies have shown that Swedish students’ reading comprehension and ability to understand fiction are decreasing year by year. Numerous alarming reports point to the unsustainable situation concerning young people’s reading engagement, but the ideas of how it can be remedied are few. This study aims to investigate and evaluate a didactic design that includes avatars as game elements in order to promote students’ reading of fiction. What opportunities and challenges might such a design present? In the study, an action research method and game theory were used, where teachers and researchers collaboratively explored and evaluated the outcome. The results showed that this design offered many opportunities and generated reading engagement. The students co-design their learning by creating an avatar and then entering the fictional world of a short story. Creating an avatar that interacts with the fictional text requires both participation, reading comprehension and meta analytic skills. However, the design also presented challenges, that some students did not link their avatars clearly to the text and instead did their own stories. The design could thus be further developed to provide more room for avatars to interact more with the chosen literary environment.
|
|
| 2. |
- Humble, Mats B., 1952-, et al.
(författare)
-
Rituximab for treatment-resistant schizophrenia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) : functional connectivity and cytokines associated with symptomatic improvements
- 2023
-
Ingår i: European psychiatry. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0924-9338 .- 1778-3585. ; 66:Suppl. 1, s. S629-S629
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Immunological mechanisms may contribute to the causation of mental illness. Autoimmunity is most convincingly shown for anti-NMDA-R encephalitis and Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS); disorders that overlap clinically with schizophrenia and OCD. Altered inflammatory cytokine production, glial activation and auto-antibodies have also been associated with schizophrenia and OCD. In these disorders, however, the treatment results with anti-inflammatory or immunomodulating drugs have hitherto been limited and inconsistent. Yet other targets within the immune system may still be effective and new options are warranted for treatment-resistant patients. Rituximab targets B-lymphocytes and is often used in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and anti-NMDA-R encephalitis.Objectives: We aimed to investigate whether rituximab is clinically effective, safe and tolerable as add-on therapy in markedly ill, treatment-resistant adult psychiatric patients with schizophrenia or OCD. We also wanted to identify putative mediating mechanisms in treatment responders, such as cytokine changes and functional connectivity (FC).Methods: In an open pilot study, adults (18-39 years) with treatment-resistant schizophrenia and/or OCD were included. They received an intravenous infusion of rituximab 1000 mg, once at baseline, in addition to their regular psychiatric medication and were followed for 1 year. The main outcome measures were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) or Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale (CGI-I) and the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP). Treatment response was defined as ≥ 40 % decrease in PANSS or ≥ 35 % decrease in Y-BOCS, and much improved according to CGI-I. Resting-state fMRI was applied at baseline and after 5 months. Plasma cytokines were measured at 0, 3 and 5 months. Cognitive tests and the recently developed PsychoNeuroinflammatory Related Signs and Symptoms Inventory (PNISSI) were used to identify and measure symptoms related to neuro-inflammation and cognitive function.Results: Nineteen patients were treated with rituximab. 3-5 months after treatment, 6/9 patients with schizophrenia and 1/10 with OCD responded. One schizophrenia patient continues with rituximab every 6 months and has reportedly done well for almost 3 years. No severe side effects were reported apart from recurrent abdominal pain in a schizophrenia patient and one case of post-COVID-19 syndrome. Significant changes of FC were detected in responders only and correlated with PSP changes.Conclusions: Aberrant B-cell activities may contribute to treatment-resistant schizophrenia and be amenable to treatment with rituximab. However, the results of this pilot study need confirmation in placebo-controlled trials.
|
|
| 3. |
- Kvernby, Sofia, 1987-
(författare)
-
Myocardial Tissue Characterization Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In cardiovascular disease, which is the most common cause of death in the world, early diagnosis is crucial for disease outcome. Diagnosis of cardiovascular disease can be challenging, though. Quantification of myocardial T1 and T2 relaxation times with MRI has demonstrated to be a promising method for characterizing myocardial tissue, but long measurement times have hampered clinical use. The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to develop, validate and, in patient studies, evaluate a very fast three-dimensional method for simultaneous quantification of myocardial T1 and T2 relaxation times with whole coverage of the left ventricle.The 3D-QALAS method is presented in Paper I of this thesis. It is a method that simultaneous measures both T1 and T2 relaxation times in a three-dimensional volume of the heart. The method requires 15 heartbeats, to produce 13 short-axis slices of the left ventricle with voxelwise information of both T1 and T2 relaxation times. The 3D-QALAS method was validated in phantoms and in 10 healthy volunteers by comparing the method with reference methods and demonstrated good accuracy and robustness both in-vitro and in-vivo.In Paper II, the 3D-QALAS method was carefully validated in-vivo by investigating accuracy and precision in 10 healthy volunteers, while the clinical feasibility of the method was investigated in 23 patients with various cardiac pathologies. Repeated independent and dependent scans together with the intra-scan repeatability, demonstrated all a very good precision for the 3D-QALAS method in healthy volunteers.In Paper III and IV, the 3D-QALAS method was applied and evaluated in patient cohorts where the heart muscle alters over time. In Paper III, patients with severe aortic stenosis underwent MRI examinations with 3D-QALAS before, 3 months after and 12 months after aortic valve surgery. Changes in T1 and T2 were observed, which might be used as markers of myocardial changes with respect to edema and fibrosis, which may develop due to increased workload over a long period of time.In study IV, 3D-QALAS was used to investigate 10 breast cancer patients treated with radiation therapy prior to treatment, 2-3 weeks into treatment, and one and 6 months after completion of treatment, to investigate any changes in T1 and T2 and further if they can be correlated to unwanted irradiation of the heart during radiation therapy.
|
|
| 4. |
- Löfgren, Fredrik, 1992-, et al.
(författare)
-
LetterMoose: A Handwriting Tutor Robot
- 2018
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a simple robotic tutor designed to help raise handwriting competency in school-aged children. "LetterMoose" shows the steps in how a letter is formed by writing on regular piece of paper. The child is invited to imitate LetterMoose and to scan its own letters using LetterMoose in order to get evaluative feedback (both qualitative and quantitative). We propose that LetterMoose might be particularly useful for helping children with autism attain handwriting competency, as children in this group are more likely to suffer from writing difficulties and may uniquely benefit from interacting with robot technology.
|
|
| 5. |
- Pelikan, Hannah, 1994-, et al.
(författare)
-
Gender Studies and Robotics : A Dialogue
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Workshop Gendering Robots: Ongoing (Re)configurations of Gender in Robotics.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sex and gender are becoming more relevant to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence researchers, who, for example, focus more on balancing male and female participants in studies. On the other hand, Gender Studies research engages an intersectional approach, and has gone beyond the binary, including other categories (e.g., class, race, age, ability). How can we take an intersectional approach to human-robot interaction?
|
|
| 6. |
- Thellman, Sam, et al.
(författare)
-
Does Emotional State Affect How People Perceive Robots?
- 2021
-
Ingår i: HRI 21: COMPANION OF THE 2021 ACM/IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION. - New York, NY, USA : ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. - 9781450382908 ; , s. 113-115
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emotions serve important regulatory roles in social interaction. Although recognition, modeling, and expression of emotion have been extensively researched in human-robot interaction and related fields, the role of human emotion in perceptions of and interactions with robots has so far received considerably less attention. We here report inconclusive results from a pilot study employing an affect induction procedure to investigate the effect of people's emotional state on their perceptions of human-likeness and mind in robots, as well as attitudes toward robots. We propose a new study design based on the findings from this study.
|
|
| 7. |
- Thunberg, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
A Wizard of Oz Approach to Robotic Therapy for Older Adults With Depressive Symptoms
- 2021
-
Ingår i: HRI '21 Companion: Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450382908 ; , s. 294-297
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Older adults with late-life depression often suffer from cognitive symptoms, such as dementia. This patient group is not prioritised for psychotherapy and therefore often medicated with antidepressants. However, in the last 20-years, the evidence base for psychotherapy has increased and one promising area is technology-based psychotherapy. Investigations of the possibilities in this area are also motivated by the Covid-19 pandemic, where many older adults are isolated, which makes it impossible for them to meet with a therapist. Therefore, we have developed a Wizard of Oz system allowing a human therapist to control a humanoid robot through a graphical user interface, including natural speech for natural conversations, which enables the robot to be stationed in, for example, a care home. For future research, we will conduct user-centered studies with both therapists and older adults to further develop the system.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Thunberg, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
Are People Ready for Social Robots in Public Spaces?
- 2020
-
Ingår i: HRI20: COMPANION OF THE 2020 ACM/IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION. - New York, NY, USA : ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. - 9781450370578 ; , s. 482-484
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent developments in robotics are potentially changing the nature of service, and research in human-robot interaction has previously shown that humanoid robots could possibly work in public spaces. We conducted an ethnographic study with the humanoid robot Pepper at a central train station. The results indicate that people are not yet accustomed to talking to robots, and people seem to expect that the robot does not talk, that it is a queue ticket machine, or that, one should interact with it by using the tablet on the robots chest.
|
|
| 10. |
- Thunberg, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
Are People Ready for Unexpected Encounters With Social Robots?
- 2020
-
Ingår i: The Forgotten in HRI.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent developments in robotics are potentially changing the nature of service, and research in human-robot interaction has previously shown that humanoid robots could possibly work in public spaces. We conducted a mixed-method study with the humanoid robot Pepper at a central train station. The results indicate that people are not yet accustomed to talking to robots, and people seem to expect that the robot does not talk, that it is a queue ticket machine, or that one should interact with it by using the tablet on the robot's chest.
|
|
