Social health is an important predictor of overall health. Yet, it is an often neglected area of research. Strikingly, social connectedness is associated with a 50% reduction in risk of early death. While a plethora of research evidence supports the beneficial impact of nature exposure on physical and mental health, literature regarding the beneficial impact of nature exposure on social health is scant. In fact, no research to date has investigated the causal influence of nature exposure on social motivation, a construct comprised here of three measures (State Motivation to Foster Social Connections, State Positive Affect, and State Anxiety). The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine the effects of virtual nature exposure on state social motivation, and 2) to investigate adverse childhood experiences as a moderator of those effects. In this online study, adult participants (N = 444) aged 18 to 58 were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental video conditions (wilderness nature exposure, urban non-nature exposure, indoor non-nature exposure). After watching a 15-minute video, participants completed measures related to state social motivation. Results revealed a significant main effect of nature exposure on state social motivation. However, the effects of nature exposure on state social motivation were not significantly moderated by adverse childhood experiences. Results suggest that nature exposure may have a positive impact on the development and maintenance of social connections and should be explored further as a social health intervention aimed at improving overall health.

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This thesis describes how to build a solution for transmitting data from an           Electroencephalography (EEG) device to a server in real-time while guiding the user through a number of predefined exercises. This solution will be used by Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients suffering from neuropathic pain, in order to understand if it is possible to predict such pain from EEG. The collected data will help clinicians analyze the brain activity data from patients who can submit the data from their home. To accomplish this development task, an application was built that connects to a portable EEG device, gather brain activity data from patients, guides patients through a set of imaginary tasks and sends the data to a server. This project made use of a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Python programming language and a web sockets server written in JavaScript. The application was tested both in terms of usability and end-to-end latency, showing high usability and low latency. The proposed solution will support a clinical trial in Spain with 40 SCI patients.

This labor discusses with the possibilities of using a network connection devices in measurement technology from Agilent. It deals with the theoretical description of the different ways of measuring devices connected to computer networks and their use in laboratory teaching. Practical work is focused on creating automated utilities for selected tasks in the laboratory diagnosis of electrical materials in the software Agilent VEE Pro. The work is a detailed description of the labs in terms of setting and controlling the basic parameters created by the application. Installation and configuration of software and hardware communication tools are summarized in the brochure "How to handle a remote connection of measuring instruments over the Internet."

During the course of human evolution, being a member of a group has been more beneficial for survival than being alone. Food gathering, protection from predators, cooperation, and care for offspring are distributed among group members, increasing the likelihood for survival. It is as if there is an interplay between agent and environment that interprets being socially cooperative as pleasurable and being left out as painful. Studies have been dedicated to examine how our social life is one of the most important aspects of health and well-being, particularly social relationships. Since this link has been demonstrated, it would be interesting to incorporate the field of neuroscience to understand the involvement of the human brain in our social experiences, specifically the experience of social connection. The current state of neuroscience does not allow researchers to examine this kind of subjective experiences, simply because of the lack of proper tools and knowledge. Research in this field has come a long way since the early stages, and studies have indicated on significant results regarding the involved neural regions. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the anterior insula (AI) are active when threats to social connection is experienced. They are also active in situations were survival is threatened. An experience of social connection evokes a feeling of (social) safety, in part because it activates regions of the brain associated with physical safety, such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). In similar fashion, a sense of social closeness ("warmth") activates the ventral striatum (VS), which is associated with physical warmth and studies have shown that social and physical warmth share overlapping neural activity in VS. Finally, Mu-opioids have been shown to be responsible for social bonding; while using an opioid antagonist such as naltrexone, decreases the feeling of social connection. Studies in this field are few; one should take their results with caution. The field continues to grow, and the studies that have been done to date give exciting hints of the influence of social relationships on physical health and mental well-being.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / International research over the past two decades has advanced knowledge in the study of fathers and the protective role they play in the prevention of adolescent risk behaviours. Studies have often investigated parental relationships and their influence on adolescent risk behaviours but rarely the specific role of the adolescents’ relationships with their fathers or father figures in prevention of risk behaviour.Three main hypotheses were investigated: first, that the theoretically aligned dimensions of relationship quality would be nomogically validated; second, that there would be little significance difference in the dimensions of relationship quality across groupings of father residential status; and third, that the quality of the fatherson relationship is a stronger predictor of risk behaviour than father’s residential status (whether the adolescent lived with the father or not), or whether the “father” is a biological father or not. Three samples of adolescents were included: a fatherresident group (biological fathers reside in the adolescents’ homes) (N = 196); a nonresident group (biological fathers live elsewhere) (N = 72); and a father figure group(no contact with biological father) (N = 58). The school-based sample of 331 participants all resided in a low-income area of Cape Town. Risk behaviours were investigated using the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers(POSIT). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) risk behaviour was assessed on a POSIT sub-scale designed specifically for South Africa, the POSIT HIV/STD Risk Subscale. Paternal relationship quality was measured by the Acceptance subscale of the revised Child Report of Parent Behavior Inventory, the Child-Parent Communication Apprehension Scale for Use with Young Adults, and a measure of paternal quality contact time that was developed for this study. After conducting a factor analysis the Paternal Quality Contact Time Scale was found to have three factors: the father’s availability, activities engaged in together, and the motivation of the son to spend time with his father (including the son’s enjoyment of the time spent). This provides an extension to past conceptualizations of father-son contact which commonly assessed only the amount of time and activities engaged in. The dimensions of paternal relationship quality were found to be strongly associated.Linear regressions showed that father-son communication was the stronger predictor of risk behaviours when compared to father residential status. Paternal communication was a predictive factor for mental health risk, negative family relations, educational under-attainment, aggressive and violent behaviour and HIV/STD risk behaviours for adolescent boys. These findings confirm that fathers play an important protective role with regard to the development of adolescent risk behaviours. They also confirm that paternal relationship quality plays a more significant role, specifically the dimension of communication between them, than whether fathers live with their sons or are biologically related to them. The findings suggest a need to address the issues of building relationships between at-risk youth and their fathers (be they biological fathers or father figures) through community and clinical interventions.

People who are homeless tend to suffer from stress, substance abuse and mental health problems. Music therapy with a closed group of homeless adults residing in an American homeless shelter has shown potential benefit. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how open group music therapy sessions designed to facilitate emotional expression, interpersonal connection, stimulation, and self-esteem were experienced by homeless adults not residing in a common shelter. The current study made use of a sample of homeless adults visiting a church feeding scheme in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The sessions were framed as music workshops and the main components used included: drumming, vocal and instrumental improvisation, and known songs. A total of six, weekly, open group music therapy workshops were held at the feeding scheme for a maximum of ten participants per session. Videotaped recordings were made of each music therapy session and one different participant was interviewed after the session each week. From the interpretative phenomenological analysis of the transcripts of individual interviews and the videotaped recordings of sessions, a number of themes emerged. From the findings of this study it was concluded that the open group music therapy sessions offered homeless adults opportunities for: increased self-esteem, meaningful interpersonal connection, constructive use of time, stress relief, meeting emotional needs, and transformation. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lk2014 / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

Background: Today, for firms to engage with customers, it takes more than traditional advertisements, enticing prices and celebrity endorsements. Customers now rely on and expect to become an active rather than passive participant in the firm’s branding and marketing activities. Due to this change in the marketing environment firms have moved towards utilizing social media influencers and brand co-creation activities to drive the level to which customers connect their self-concepts with the brand.      Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the unique ways in which NA-KD uses their influencer marketing strategy and brand co-creation activities to drive the social identities of their customers and to create a model that visualizes this process. Method: An exploratory study has been conducted by the authors to investigate the influencer marketing and brand co-creation activities of the firm as to address the purpose of this paper. A single case study was performed where NA-KD was the primary subject of research. Semi-structured interviews with key employees working within marketing, collaborations and content creation was the primary source of data collection.    Conclusion: The empirical findings demonstrated the processes which employees at NA-KD created to develop their influencer marketing and brand co-creation strategies. The findings showed that the social identities of customers in an influencer-born firm are able to be directed through the activities within influencer marketing and brand co-creation. From these findings a conceptual model representing the process and management of social identity direction and producer-consumer relationship formation. This process includes influencer marketing, brand co-creation and brand experience, managed by methods of CRM and circle mapping to allow for self-brand connections and continued firm growth to occur.

Este proyecto brinda una solución que satisface las necesidades específicas de los desarrolladores que desean implementar videojuegos en el sistema operativo WebOS, ya que el objetivo fundamental es de realizar mejoras a un framework para que se acople adecuadamente a videojuegos que serán desarrollados en los Smart Tv LG. Estas mejoras que se implementaran al framework, están ligadas al performance de la conexión y su disponibilidad. Esta herramienta, mediante el uso de Websocket ofrece la facilidad de la conexión bidireccional entre los dispositivos Android con los dispositivos Smart Tv LG con una latitud menor a la anterior de un 60% de tiempo de espera gracias al uso de la tecnología de los Web Workers. Por otra parte, será capaz de unir a más de un dispositivo Android a la red local, donde así, se podrá implementar juegos multijugador de una forma sencilla y fácil. Por último, para validar estas mejoras, se realizó un videojuego retro multijugador donde se prueba en varias ocasiones las optimizaciones del framework. / This project provides a solution that meets the specific needs of developers who want to implement video games in the WebOS operating system, since the main objective is to make improvements to a framework so that it is properly coupled to video games that will be developed on LG Smart Tv. These improvements that will be implemented to the framework, are linked to the performance of the connection and its availability. This tool, through the use of Websocket, offers the ease of bidirectional connection between Android devices with LG Smart Tv devices with a latitude less than the previous 60% of waiting time thanks to the use of Web Workers technology. On the other hand, it will be able to join more than one Android device to the local network, where it will be possible to implement multiplayer games in a simple and easy way. Finally, to validate these improvements, a retro multiplayer video game was made where the optimizations of the framework are tested on several occasions. / Trabajo de investigación

Social health is an important predictor of overall health. Yet, it is an often neglected area of research. Strikingly, social connectedness is associated with a 50% reduction in risk of early death. While a plethora of research evidence supports the beneficial impact of nature exposure on physical and mental health, literature regarding the beneficial impact of nature exposure on social health is scant. In fact, no research to date has investigated the causal influence of nature exposure on social motivation, a construct comprised here of three measures (State Motivation to Foster Social Connections, State Positive Affect, and State Anxiety). The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine the effects of virtual nature exposure on state social motivation, and 2) to investigate adverse childhood experiences as a moderator of those effects. In this online study, adult participants (N = 444) aged 18 to 58 were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental video conditions (wilderness nature exposure, urban non-nature exposure, indoor non-nature exposure). After watching a 15-minute video, participants completed measures related to state social motivation. Results revealed a significant main effect of nature exposure on state social motivation. However, the effects of nature exposure on state social motivation were not significantly moderated by adverse childhood experiences. Results suggest that nature exposure may have a positive impact on the development and maintenance of social connections and should be explored further as a social health intervention aimed at improving overall health.