Vi har arbetat med lugn inom spel. Vår prototyp är en gameslice där du är en person som villklappa saker och du har en gummiarm som kan resa hur långt du som spelare vill, den kanäven böja sig överallt på skärmen. Målet med spelet är att klappa saker med din gummiarmoch du behöver inte bry dig om saker runt dig då du bara har ett mål vilket är att klappa saker. Syftet med vårt spel är att skapa ett spel som undviker stress genom att inte använda sig avklassiska element som kan uppfattas stressande. Anledningen till att vi valt att undersöka lugninom spel är för att vi vill bredda förståelsen hur vi kan se på spel och hur spel kan användas. Vi har i den här undersökningen fokuserat på det visuella delarna av spelet, då det är en av deviktigaste delarna för att designa med lugn i åtanken. Vi har även jobbat för att se till attspelet ger dig som spelare frihet att spela spelet hur du vill. Ett annat mål med undersökningen har varit att låta spelaren hitta lugn genom att användadetta spel som en distraktion från omvärlden. Spelet visade sig lyckas i den aspekten att personer som spelade hade roligt när de speladespelet. Enligt de personer som testade vårt spel och gav oss verbal feedback som visade sigvara för att spelet gav spelare sådan frihet. / We have worked with calm within games. Our prototype is a gameslice where you play as aperson who wants to pet different things and you have a gummy arm that can get how long asyou want and it can bend everywhere on screen.  The goal of the game is to pet things withyour gummy arm and not really care about anything around you when you only have the goalof petting something. The purpose of the game is to create a game that avoids stress through using classicmechanics that are usually regarded as stressful. The reason we chose to research calm withingames is that we want to widen the view on games and how they can be used. We havefocused on the visual parts of the game making process since that is one of the moreimportant parts of designing with calm in mind. We have also worked to make sure that youcan play the game in whatever way you want. Another goal with this research has been to let the player find calm through the distractionthat our game provides from the rest of the world. The game seems to have been successful in the way that players had fun while playing, andaccording to verbal feedback the main reason was the freedom the game provided the players.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur upplevd stressnivå påverkas av hand mot hudkontakt vid och efter massage hos massageterapeuter. Studien avgränsas till att endast undersöka massage där massageterapeutens händer har kontakt mot klientens hud, av diplomerade massageterapeuter inom svensk klassisk massage. En enkät utformades specifikt för att undersöka massageterapeuternas upplevelse av stressnivå i samband med och efter massagebehandling. Enkäten besvarades av 78 diplomerade massageterapeuter inom svensk klassisk massage från hela Sverige. Resultatet visar att skattning av upplevd stressnivå var lägre i samband med massagebehandling och direkt efter massagebehandling än 12 och 24 timmar efter utförd massagebehandling. En majoritet (73 procent) angav att de upplevde stressreducering och känsla av lugn under och efter utförd massagebehandling. Ett en-vägs ANOVA test visade att desto längre tid som passerade efter massagebehandlingen, desto högre upplevelse av stressnivå rapporterade respondenterna. Skattningen direkt efter massage jämfört med 24 timmar efter massage visade på en signifikant skillnad. Medan skattning under massage och direkt efter massage visade på en mindre signifikant skillnad. Ett tvåsvansat T-test visade att det fanns en statistiskt signifikant skillnad direkt efter massage och 24 timmar efter. Alltså är det mindre än en chans på 1000 att den upplevda stressnivån (upplevt lugn) beror på slumpen. / The aim of this study is to examine how perceived levels of stress are affected by skin on skin contact during and after giving massage. The study is limited to licensed massage therapists within Swedish massage, where the therapists’ hands are in contact with the clients’ skin during the entire massage. A questionnaire was specifically designed to investigate with the objective to measure the experienced levels of stress during and after giving massage. The questionnaire was answered by 78 certified massage therapists across Sweden. The results show that the perceived level of stress was lower during and shortly after having given massage, than after 12 and 24 hours respectively. With more time passing since the massage was administered, the level of stress increased. A majority (73 percent) of the massage therapists stated that they experienced reduced levels of stress and increased level of calmness during and after giving the massage treatment. A one-way ANOVA test showed that the longer time that passed after giving the massage, the higher levels of stress was reported. The reported level of stress directly after giving massage compared to 24 hours later showed significant difference. While the reported level of stress during and directly after giving massage did not show a significant difference. An independent two-tailed T-test demonstrates that there was a statistically significant difference immediately after giving massage and 24 hours after. Meaning that there is a 0,1 percent risk that the perceived levels of stress (sense of calmness) is a result of random factors.

Dans les synapses chimiques, des canaux calciques voltage-dépendants (VDCC) provoquent la fusion des vésicules synaptiques (SV) au niveau de la zone active. L’efficacité et la rapidité de la transmission synaptique dépendent de la distribution relative entre les VDCCs et les SVs prêtes à fusion. Cependant, les modalités d’interaction entre les VDCCs et les SVs ne sont pas connues. Afin de localiser les VDCCs à l’échelle nanométrique j’ai developpé une nouvelle approche chez Caenorhabditis elegans combinant le marquage in vivo des VDCCs, grâce à l’expression d’un épitope extracellulaire, et la microscopie électronique (EM). J’ai généré un transgene GFP::unc-36 qui code la seule sous-unité α2-δ qui s’associe à fois avec les sous-unités formant le pore α1 neuronal (UNC-2) et musculaire (EGL-19) chez C.elegans. J'ai ensuite utilisé des quantum dots conjugués avec l’anticorps anti-GFP, fluorescents et denses au électrons, pour localiser des VDCCs à haute résolution au niveau de la jonction neuromusculaire (NMJ) par EM. En parallèle, j'ai utilisé la technique de CALM (complementation activated light microscopy) pour étudier la dynamique des VDCC dans des vers vivants. Nos résultats montrent que les VDCCs diffusent à l’échelle de nanodomaines sur la membrane musculaire. De plus leur diffusion est modulée en réponse à la tension musculaire. La dystrophine participe au couplage électro-mécanique au niveau du sarcolemme en modulant la taille du domaine de confinement des VDCCs. Enfin, nous avons mis en evidence le rôle de RIM/UNC-10 dans la régulation de la mobilité latérale des VDCCs dans les neurones, probablement via son interaction avec les VDCCs et les SVs. / At chemical synapse voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCC) trigger synaptic vesicles (SV) fusion at the active zone in response to depolarization stimuli. Intracellular Ca2+ influx forms a nanodomain around individual VDCC. Fast and efficient synaptic transmissions appear to be tightly coupled with the relative distribution between the VDCCs and SVs fusion sites. However, the connection between VDCCs and docked SVs at a few nanometer scales remain enigmatic. To localize VDCCs in nanometer resolution I developed a novel approach combining in vivo labeling of VDCCs via genetically-encoded extracellular epitope tags and electron microscopy (EM). I engineered a GFP/split-GFP tag fused at the extracellular N-terminal of UNC-36, the only C. elegans VDCC α2δ subunit associating with both neuronal (UNC-2) and muscular (EGL-19) VDCC pore-forming α1 subunit. I then used quantum dot (QD) conjugated antibodies as both fluorescent and electron dense probes to localize VDCCs at C. elegans neuromuscular junction (NMJ) by in vivo QD-antibodies labeling and EM. In parallel, I applied in vivo complementation activated light microscopy to study VDCC dynamics in live worms. I discovered that VDCCs diffuse within nanodomains at sarcomeric membrane and their nanoscale diffusion behavior is modulated in response to muscle tension. In addition, we found that dystrophin participates in electro-mechanical coupling at the sarcolemma by modulating the confinement size of VDCCs. Meanwhile, we discovered lateral mobility of N-type VDCC at NMJs, and that RIM/UNC-10 seems involved in regulation of VDCC dynamics via its interaction with VDCC and SVs.

Urbanization has been a growing trend in the past fifty years. Cities are now transforming into smart cities, spaces whose infrastructure comprises an embedded digital layer. Hardware collects real-time data in the urban environment and software elaborates it to improve all types of services, from traffic to waste management to well-being. One technology that is expected to use this digital layer to further change the urban environment is the autonomous car. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore what key design attributes future autonomous cars should possess if they have not only to co-exist with and be accepted by people in the landscape of tomorrow’s smart cities, but also what they should not possess in order not to cause any harm. In this sense, the dissertation recognizes calm technology to be necessary in the design of a future autonomous car to support a human-centered, as opposed to a car- or technology-centered, environment. A socio-technical and systemic lens is applied to the phenomenological investigation of nine companies carried out by means of twelve in-depth semi-structured interviews with experts working within the automotive sector, the smart city industry, and calm technology. Eight attributes (safety, on-demand, geo-tracking, sharing, multiple purposes, communication through smart devices, electrical care and IoT/connectedness) are identified as necessary for future autonomous cars to implement in order to take advantage of the smart city infrastructure and provide a human-centered experience. Additionally, six out of the eight calm technology principles recognized in literature are considered necessary when designing future autonomous cars.

No description available.

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a hot topic in the intelligent transport system (ITS) area. The introduction of wireless communications between vehicles will enable many useful applications to enhance road traffic safety as well to increase efficiency. The standardization of IEEE 802.11p, being an amendment to IEEE 802.11 intended for VANETS, faces many challenges. In Europe a 30 MHz spectrum at 5.9 GHz have been dedicated for ITS and this spectrum has to be used to its full potential. For this reason this thesis compares a 20 MHz wide frequency channel with a 10 MHz wide through measurements using 802.11p hardware. The measurements were conducted on a highway with relative speeds of up to 240 km/h. The results from these initial measurements show that a 20 MHz channel does not perform worse than a 10 MHz channel despite the high relative speeds and large metal signs scattering the signals. What enabled this thesis to do the measurements was Halmstad University‟s participation in the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) 2011. In GCDC nine teams mostly from Europe competed in having the vehicle that had the best behaviour in a platoon of vehicles using cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC), the CACC algorithm controlled the vehicles‟ acceleration and breaking autonomously based on in-vehicle sensors and communicated messages between the vehicles in the platoon using 802.11p. This thesis implemented the communication part of Halmstad University‟s vehicle. The challenge was held in Helmond, Holland, May 14-15, 2011. Halmstad University‟s team finished in second place. / CoAct

This thesis research is concerned with the exploration, design, and validation of novel haptic technologies and signals that feel natural and meaningful in a calm and pleasant way. Our ultimate goal is to expand the possibilities of human-machine interaction by developing a single tactile display and a set of signals through a systematic design approach. It is generally a challenge to evoke a broad range of emotions with vibrotactile stimulation, especially at low signal intensities. During the first part of this thesis research, three types of prototypes were developed and explored using novel haptic technologies. The first was a circular array braille display consisting of eight small six-pin braille modules. The forty-eight pins were arranged in a circular shape to deliver circular tactile information such as time and direction. The second was a braille stick consisting of sixteen six-pin braille modules arranged in a row. The entire display could be easily grasped in the hand so that tactile information can be easily accessible. The third was a 3-by-3 electroactive polymer actuator array driven at high voltages that gives a subtle “tapping” feel on the skin. However, each of the three prototypes suffered from a limited range of expression and was not pursued further.<br> After the initial prototyping efforts, a 2-by-2 vibrotactile display, the palmScape, was conceived and developed. Custom-designed stimulation patterns based on natural phenomena that feel calm and pleasant were designed and implemented with the palmScape. We use text labels to set the context for the vibrotactile icons that attempt to capture and expresses natural metaphors through variations in signal amplitude, frequency, duration, rhythm, modulation, spatial extent, as well as slow movements. Fourteen participants evaluated twenty vibrotactile icons by rating the perceived valence and arousal levels. The twenty stimuli included sixteen custom-designed vibrotactile icons from this thesis research and four reference patterns from two published studies. The results show that our custom-designed patterns were rated at higher valence levels than the corresponding reference signals at similar arousal ratings. Five of the sixteen vibrotactile icons from this research occupied the fourth quadrant of the valence-arousal space that corresponds to calm and pleasant signals. These findings support the validity of the palmScape display and our signal design approach for achieving a calm and pleasant experience and the possibility of reaching a broader range of expressiveness with vibrotactile signals.<br> Future studies will continue with the design of signals that can express a broader range of metaphors and emotions through the palmScape, and build an emotional evaluation database that can be combined with other modalities. Our work can be further expanded to support an immersive experience with naturalistic-feeling vibrotactile effects and broaden the expressiveness of human-computer interfaces in media consumption, gaming, and other communicative application domains.

<p>This licentiate thesis work investigates two medium access control (MAC) methods, when used in traffic safety applications over vehicular <em>ad hoc</em> networks (VANETs). The MAC methods are carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), as specified by the leading standard for VANETs IEEE 802.11p, and self-organizing time-division multiple access (STDMA) as used by the leading standard for transponders on ships. All vehicles in traffic safety applications periodically broadcast cooperative awareness messages (CAMs). The CAM based data traffic implies requirements on a predictable, fair and scalable medium access mechanism. The investigated performance measures are <em>channel access delay</em>, <em>number of consecutive packet drops</em> and the <em>distance between concurrently transmitting nodes</em>. Performance is evaluated by computer simulations of a highway scenario in which all vehicles broadcast CAMs with different update rates and packet lengths. The obtained results show that nodes in a CSMA system can experience <em>unbounded channel access delays</em> and further that there is a significant difference between the best case and worst case channel access delay that a node could experience. In addition, with CSMA there is a very high probability that several <em>concurrently transmitting nodes are located close to each other</em>. This occurs when nodes start their listening periods at the same time or when nodes choose the same backoff value, which results in nodes starting to transmit at the same time instant. The CSMA algorithm is therefore both <em>unpredictable</em> and <em>unfair</em> besides the fact that it <em>scales badly</em> for broadcasted CAMs. STDMA, on the other hand, will always grant channel access for all packets before a predetermined time, regardless of the number of competing nodes. Therefore, the STDMA algorithm is <em>predictable</em> and <em>fair</em>. STDMA, using parameter settings that have been adapted to the vehicular environment, is shown to outperform CSMA when considering the performance measure <em>distance between concurrently transmitting nodes</em>. In CSMA the distance between concurrent transmissions is random, whereas STDMA uses the side information from the CAMs to properly schedule concurrent transmissions in space. The price paid for the superior performance of STDMA is the required network synchronization through a global navigation satellite system, e.g., GPS. That aside since STDMA was shown to be scalable, predictable and fair; it is an excellent candidate for use in VANETs when complex communication requirements from traffic safety applications should be met.</p>

Desde al menos Aristóteles, los filósofos han intentado explicar la vida pasional de los seres humanos. El propósito de esta tesis es mostrar la teoría de las pasiones de Hume. Este autor analiza las pasiones como parte de la ciencia del hombre en el Libro II del Tratado de la naturaleza humana y en la posterior Disertación de las pasiones. Hume distingue entre pasiones “serenas” y “violentas”. Él identifica los sentimientos estéticos y morales como ejemplos de pasiones “serenas”, mientras que caracteriza como “violentas” sentimientos tales como “el amor y el odio, la alegría y la tristeza, el orgullo y la humildad”. A continuación, Hume divide las pasiones en “directas”, que surgen inmediatamente del placer o dolor, e “indirectas”, que proceden de los mismos principios, pero en conjunción con otras cualidades. El análisis de las pasiones “indirectas” es original de Hume. Por otro lado, al igual que las teorías epistemológica y moral, la explicación de las pasiones en Hume constituye una teoría crítica. / From at least Aristotle on, philosophers have attempted to explain the pasional life of human beings. The purpose of this paper is to show Hume´s theory of the passions. Hume analyzes passions as part of his science of man in Book 2 of A Treatise of Human Nature and subsequent Dissertation on the Passions. Hume distinguishes between “calm” and “violent” passions. He identifies the aesthetic and moral sentiments as examples of “calm” passions, while characterizing as “violent” sentiments such as “love and hatred, grief and joy, pride and humility”. Next, passions are divided by Hume into “direct”, which arise immediately from pain or pleasure and “indirect”, which proceed from the same principles, but by the conjunction of other qualities. The analysis of “indirect” passions is original. On the other hand, like epistemological and ethical theories, Hume´s account of passions is also a critical theory.

This licentiate thesis work investigates two medium access control (MAC) methods, when used in traffic safety applications over vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The MAC methods are carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), as specified by the leading standard for VANETs IEEE 802.11p, and self-organizing time-division multiple access (STDMA) as used by the leading standard for transponders on ships. All vehicles in traffic safety applications periodically broadcast cooperative awareness messages (CAMs). The CAM based data traffic implies requirements on a predictable, fair and scalable medium access mechanism. The investigated performance measures are channel access delay, number of consecutive packet drops and the distance between concurrently transmitting nodes. Performance is evaluated by computer simulations of a highway scenario in which all vehicles broadcast CAMs with different update rates and packet lengths. The obtained results show that nodes in a CSMA system can experience unbounded channel access delays and further that there is a significant difference between the best case and worst case channel access delay that a node could experience. In addition, with CSMA there is a very high probability that several concurrently transmitting nodes are located close to each other. This occurs when nodes start their listening periods at the same time or when nodes choose the same backoff value, which results in nodes starting to transmit at the same time instant. The CSMA algorithm is therefore both unpredictable and unfair besides the fact that it scales badly for broadcasted CAMs. STDMA, on the other hand, will always grant channel access for all packets before a predetermined time, regardless of the number of competing nodes. Therefore, the STDMA algorithm is predictable and fair. STDMA, using parameter settings that have been adapted to the vehicular environment, is shown to outperform CSMA when considering the performance measure distance between concurrently transmitting nodes. In CSMA the distance between concurrent transmissions is random, whereas STDMA uses the side information from the CAMs to properly schedule concurrent transmissions in space. The price paid for the superior performance of STDMA is the required network synchronization through a global navigation satellite system, e.g., GPS. That aside since STDMA was shown to be scalable, predictable and fair; it is an excellent candidate for use in VANETs when complex communication requirements from traffic safety applications should be met.