This feasibility study reports on the first experimental experiences with the BASt bicycle simulator. Since older cyclists represent an important target group in road safety due to their increased vulnerability, both cyclists aged 65 and over (experimental group: EG) and, by way of comparison, middle-aged test subjects aged 25--50 (cont.rol group: CG) were included in the study. The study aims to gain initial insights into the prerequisites, possibilities and limitations for using the bicycle simulator to observe cycling behaviour. In addition to the actua1 test ride the three preceding pra.ctice rides were also evaluated. A comparable study with older adults has already been conducted with the BASt car simulator.

Flight simulators are a central training method for pilots and with the advances of human-computer interaction, new cutting-edge technology introduces a new type of simulator using extended reality (XR). XR is an umbrella term for many representative forms of realities, where physical reality (PR) and virtual reality (VR) are the endpoints of this spectrum, and any reality in between can be seen as mixed reality (MR). The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the applicabilities of XR and how they can be compared with each other in terms of usability, immersion, presence, and simulator sickness for flight simulators, respectively. To answer these questions, a MR and a VR version was implemented in Unity using the Varjo XR-3 head-mounted display based on the Framework for Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE). To evaluate these aspects, a user study (N = 11) was conducted, focusing on quantitative and qualitative experimental research methods. Interaction with physical interfaces is a core procedure for pilots; thus, three reaction tests were conducted with the goal of pressing a random button that is lit green for a 3 x 3 Latin square layout for a given time to measure the efficiency of interaction for both versions. Reaction tests were conducted in different complexities: Simple (no flight), moderate (easy flight), and advanced (difficult flight). Participants experienced the MR and VR versions, and completed complementary questionnaires on immersion, presence, and simulator sickness while remaining in the simulation. The user study showed that the usability in MR is considerably higher, and more immersive than VR when incorporating interaction. However, excluding the interaction aspects showed that VR was more immersive. Overall, this work demonstrates how to achieve high levels of immersion, and a high elicitation of sense of presence, simultaneously while having minuscule levels of simulator sickness with a relatively realistic experience. / Flygsimulatorer är en central träningsmetod för piloter, och med framsteg inom människa-datorinteraktion introduceras ny, toppmodernt teknik som använder utökad verklighet (XR) för en ny typ av simulator. XR är ett samlingsbeteckning för många olika former av verkligheter, där den fysiska verkligheten (PR) och den virtuell verklighet (VR) är ändpunkterna på detta spektrum, och alla verkligheter däremellan kan ses som blandad verklighet (MR). Syftet med denna avhandling var att undersöka tillämpbarheten av XR och hur de kan jämföras med varandra när det gäller användbarhet, immersion, närvaro och simulatorsjuka för flygsimulatorer. För att besvara dessa frågor implementerades en MR- och en VR-version i Unity med hjälp av Varjo XR-3 huvudmonterad display baserat på ramverket för immersiva virtuella miljöer FIVE. För att utvärdera dessa aspekter genomfördes en användarstudie (N = 11), med fokus på kvantitativa och kvalitativa experimentella forskningsmetoder. Interaktion med fysiska gränssnitt är en kärnprocedur för piloter; Därför genomfördes tre reaktionstester med målet att trycka på en slumpmässig knapp som lyser grönt för en 3 x 3 latinsk kvadrat under en given tid för att mäta interaktionens användbarhet för båda versionerna. Reaktionstesterna genomfördes under olika komplexiteter: Enkel (utan flygning), måttlig (enkel flygning) och avancerad (svår flygning). Deltagarna upplevde MR- och VR-versionerna och fyllde i kompletterande enkäter om immersion, närvaro och simulatorsjuka medan de var kvar i simuleringen. Användarstudien visade att användbarheten i MR är betydligt högre och mer immersiv än i VR när man inkluderar interaktion. Exkluderar man interaktionsaspekter visade det sig att VR var mer immersiv. Sammantaget visar detta arbete hur man kan uppnå höga nivåer av immersion och hög framkallning av sinnesnärvaro samtidigt som man har minimala nivåer av simulatorsjuka med en relativt realistisk upplevelse.

One of the biggest issues facing VR as a platform is the limitation of the user’s physical space. Not everyone has a lab, empty warehouse, or open space in their home or office, and even if they do, the hardware also limits the physical space the user can take advantage of. Fitting the entirety of the environment within few square meters is a strict limitation for many applications. A method of moving the user within a larger space is needed, but current methods come with drawbacks. Developing a new movement method that avoids these drawbacks will help ensure a better experience for the user.

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Patients who suffer from motion-sickness, visual vertigo and other conditions relating to visual hypersensitivity will often feel dizzy when exposed to rapid visual motion or cluttered fields-of-view. Previous studies indicate that attentiveness to these stimuli influence the intensity of discomfort for these individuals, which suggests that mentally ignoring visual stimuli might help make them more tolerable. This thesis project had two goals. The primary goal was the development of a visual biofeedback system for use with a commercial electroencephalographic headset and a personal computer. The secondary goal was to evaluate its usefulness for treating motion-sickness and other related illnesses through regular training sessions. A neurofeedback program was constructed using MATLAB and a Muse 2 Brain Sensing Headband (Muse). The program projected a spinning maze like pattern on a monitor where increase in velocity was proportional to increase in theta wave activity (3.5-6.5 Hz) detected by the Muse. Five test subjects (three men and two women) were given a copy of the program and a Muse, and then instructed to practice reducing their EEG activity (e.g. by calming themselves), which would be reflected in the program as a slower spin velocity of the maze. These practice sessions took place daily for seven days. Neurofeedback proficiency and body sway data was collected before and after. Mean spectral power data from the training regimen shows a 23.7% drop in theta wave activity from first session to last (p = 0.005). Using Pearson’s correlation, no significant results were obtained while comparing training improvements and proficiency test improvements (r = -0.22, p = 0.72) or reduction in body sway (r = 0.78, p = 0.12).

This study aims to ascertain the feasibility of implementing features/effects that can induce cybersickness via the use of auditory means. This will be done via a feasibility study that explores the current landscape of studies relating to auditorily induced cybersickness and also evaluates the potential for these studies to be implemented into a video game environment. The purpose of this study is also to illuminate the need for further research into the topic by laying the groundwork for what cybersickness entails and laying out how the field can be further expanded in the future.

The welfare state is ideally about guaranteeing citizens welfare and social security. This thesis describes how the embodied experience of austerity politics and reforms of national health insurance in Sweden is lived along the links of what I call “the chain of precarity”. In 2008 the duration of the entitlement to sickness benefit was limited to 2.5 years. The majority of people on sick leave and passing the benefit limit were women. Using qualitative in-depth interviews and drawing on feminist phenomenology, theories of recognition and crip perspectives, the analysis shows that the chain of precarity orients women with long-term illness towards increased vulnerability and risk. This (dis)orientation is the result of a lack of recognition and respect within the fields of social insurance, health care, work life, discourse and politics as well as close relations.

While recent publications indicate that employees in human service professions have higher risk of sickness absence and mental ill-health, little is known about the association with other health outcomes and possible mechanisms behind the differential risk. This study investigates differences in burnout, self-rated health and sickness absence between those in human service professions and other professions and examines whether differences in psychosocial and organizational work environment can explain possible variations. Data were derived from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), an approximately representative sample of the Swedish working population (n=4486). Results from binary logistic regressions suggested that those in human service professions had higher odds of burnout and sickness absence those in other professions. Differences in burnout were explained by background variables while differences in sickness absence were explained by psychosocial and organizational work factors. Employees in human service professions had lower odds of suboptimal self-rated health than others in the fully adjusted model. Women were at higher risk of burnout, sickness absence, and all adverse psychosocial and organizational work environment factors except social support. Future studies should investigate the most crucial psychosocial and organizational work factors in human service professions with the objective to improve employee health.

Thesis (MScMedSc)-- Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Diving medical doctors frequently make use of Hyperbaric Facilities without fully realising their legal and ethical responsibilities towards the safety of their patients and their staff. Few have specific training in the technical or operational aspects of these facilities; this deficiency is exacerbated when these are established in remote areas. The potential dangers are real and the results can be devastating. Most current regulatory, manufacturing, safety and operational guidance documents are not flexible enough to be applied universally, nor do they offer practical guidance on the recognition and the mitigation of the unique and relevant hazards at a given facility. The goal of integrated safety is rarely achieved. The Risk Assessment Guide (RAG) was developed by the investigator as a tool to qualify the actual safety status of a hyperbaric facility and to offer guidance on how to improve and maintain it. Although the RAG has been subject to extensive peer review and field implementation over the past 13 years, it has not been subject to scientific validation. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to do so by (1) retrospectively reviewing the most common safety concerns affecting facility status as identified by the RAG; (2) using the data derived from the analysis to produce a predictive model of likely safety status for un-assessed facilities; and (3) consolidating the results in the form of specific recommendations to improve and maintain safety status. Data collected from a consistent application of the RAG over a period of 13 years, covering 105 applicable facilities, was analysed to determine the common safety concerns, particularly those affecting safety status by means of a consolidated Risk Assessment Score (RAS). The RAS values permitted comparisons between the facilities assessed. The various factors associated with a higher RAS were determined by means of a multivariate regression. Thereupon, the most significant determinant factors were built into a predictive model for the likely safety status of an un-assessed facility. Finally, the most common safety concerns were identified and summarised so that medical practitioners are empowered to determine, improve and maintain the safety status of a given facility. The conclusions of this project are that: (1) the RAG is an appropriate tool to assess facilities for risk elements relevant to their safety status while simultaneously filling the knowledge gaps to equip medical practitioners and staff to improve and maintain safety; (2) reliable predictions on unknown facilities can be made to provide medical practitioners with the necessary information on whether a given facility is appropriate for patient referral; and (3) the RAG is a suitable benchmark for determining hyperbaric facility safety; the review of its application has provided objective data that will permit the formulation of future safety guidelines based on empirical rather than arbitrary information. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Duikmediese dokters maak dikwels gebruik van hiperbariese fasiliteite sonder om die wetlike en etiese verantwoordelikhede ten opsigte van die veiligheid van hul pasiënte en personeel te besef. Weinig het spesifieke opleiding in die tegniese of operasionele aspekte van hierdie fasiliteite; hierdie tekort is gewoonlik erger in afgeleë gebiede. Die potensiële gevare is wesenlik en die gevolge kan verwoestend wees. Meeste van die huidige regulatoriese-, vervaardigings-, veiligheids en operasionele leidingsdokumente is nie buigsaam genoeg om in die algemeen toegepas te kan word nie. Hulle bied ook nie praktiese leiding oor die erkenning en die versagting van unieke en relevante gevare by 'n gegewe fasiliteit nie. Die doelwit van geïntegreerde veiligheid word selde bereik. Die “Risk Asssessment Guide” (RAG) is voorheen deur die navorser ontwikkel as 'n instrument om die werklike veiligheidsstatus van 'n hiperbariese fasiliteit te kwantifiseer en leiding te bied oor hoe om dit te verbeter en in stand te hou. Alhoewel die RAG onderhewig was aan uitgebreide eweknie hersiening en praktiese uitvoering oor die afgelope 13 jaar, was dit nie voorheen onderhewig aan wetenskaplike validasie nie. Die doelwit van hierdie tesis is dus om hierdie te bewerkstellig deur (1) die mees algemene veiligheidskommernisse wat fasiliteitstatus beïnvloed, soos deur die RAG geïdentifiseer, retrospektiewelik te hersien; (2) die data wat deur die hersiening verkry is te gebruik om 'n model te ontwikkel vir onbeoordeelde fasiliteite, wat die waarskynlike veiligheidsstatus kan voorspel, en (3) die resultate te konsolideer in die vorm van spesifieke aanbevelings om veiligheidsstatus te verbeter en in stand te hou. Die data wat ingesamel is deur die konsekwente toepassing van die RAG oor 'n tydperk van 13 jaar en wat 105 fasiliteite gedek het, is ontleed om die algemene veiligheidskommernisse, veral die wat die veiligheidsstatus beïnvloed, deur middel van 'n gekonsolideerde Risikoassesserings waarde (RAW) te bepaal. Die duidelike en aangepaste RAW laat toe om vergelykings tussen die fasiliteite te tref. Faktore wat verband hou met 'n hoër RAW was deur middel van 'n meervoudige regressie bepaal. Daarna is die belangrikste determinante in 'n voorspellende model gebou om die waarskynlike veiligheidsstatus van 'n onbeoordeelde fasiliteit te bepaal. Ten slotte was die mees algemene veiligheidskommernisse geïdentifiseer en opgesom om sodoende mediese praktisyns te bemagtig om die veiligheidsstatus van 'n gegewe fasiliteit vas te stel, te verbeter en in stand te hou. Die gevolgtrekkings van hierdie projek is dat: (1) die RAG 'n geskikte instrument is om fasiliteite te evalueer vir risiko-elemente wat relevant is tot hul eie veiligheidsstatus en terselfdertyd die kennisgapings te vul om geneeshere en personeel toe te rus om veiligheid te verbeter en in stand te hou; (2) redelik betroubare voorspellings oor onbekende fasiliteite kan gemaak word om vir mediese praktisyns die nodige inligting te verskaf aangaande die geskiktheid van 'n gegewe fasiliteit vir pasiënt-verwysing, en (3) dat die RAG 'n geskikte maatstaf is vir die bepaling van hiperbariese fasiliteit veiligheid. Die hersiening van die toepassing het objektiewe data voorsien wat die formulering van toekomstige veiligheidsriglyne, geskoei op empiriese eerder as arbitrêre inligting, sal toelaat.