A dor é um dos sintomas que mais comprometem a produtividade, o bem estar e a qualidade de vida das pessoas, sobretudo dos idosos. Com o crescimento da utilização de Terapias Complementares para o seu tratamento surge a necessidade da realização de pesquisas que forneçam evidências sobre sua indicação e efetividade. Considerando a ampla utilização do Toque Terapêutico (TT) no tratamento complementar da dor decorrente de diversas condições clínicas e as críticas metodológicas aos resultados encontrados pelos autores, esta pesquisa buscou responder ao seguinte questionamento: Quais os efeitos do Toque Terapêutico sobre a dor inflamatória? Para tanto foi realizado um experimento utilizando o modelo de edema de pata induzido por Adjuvante Completo de Freund (CFA) em camundongos machos. A ação anti-inflamatória do TT foi verificada por meio de variação na dor, edema e migração de neutrófilos, antes e após a intervenção, aplicada durante 15 minutos, uma vez ao dia, por quatro dias. Os resultados apontaram aumento significativo no limiar nociceptivo mecânico e aumento na área do edema nas patas dos animais tratados com TT, no segundo dia de aplicação (p ? 0,05). A redução observada na migração de neutrófilos não foi estatisticamente significativa. Concluímos que a redução na dor corrobora os dados obtidos em estudos com seres humanos, com controle do efeito placebo. O modelo de edema de pata induzido por CFA é adequado à investigação experimental dos efeitos do TT sobre a dor inflamatória. Sugerimos a realização de novos experimentos para a elucidação dos mecanismos fisiológicos de ação envolvidos nos achados, sobretudo em decorrência do aumento do edema no grupo tratado com TT. / Pain is one of the symptoms that most endanger productivity, welfare and life quality of people, especially the elderly. With the increasing use of Complementary Therapies for its treatment there is the need to conduct studies that provide evidence about its indication and effectiveness. Considering the wide use of Therapeutic Touch (TT) in the adjunctive treatment of pain as a result of various clinical conditions and the methodological criticisms of the authors\' results, this research seeks to answer the following question: What are the effects of the Therapeutic Touch on inflammatory pain? For such, it was conducted an experiment using the model of paw edema induced by Freund\'s Complete Adjuvant (FCA) in male mice. The anti-inflammatory action of TT was verified by means of variation in pain, edema and neutrophilic migration, before and after the intervention, it was applied for 15 minutes once a day for four days. The results showed a significant increase in mechanical nociceptive threshold and an increase in the edema area in the paws of animals treated with TT, in the second day of treatment (p < 0.05). The observed reduction of neutrophilic migration was not statistically significant. It was concluded that the reduction in pain corroborates the data obtained in human studies, with control of the placebo effect. The model of paw edema induced by FCA is suitable for experimental investigation of the effects of TT on inflammatory pain. It is suggested further experiments to elucidate the physiological mechanisms of action underlying the findings, mainly due to the increase of edema in the group treated with TT.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / The current study investigated, by means of an experiment, the influence of incidental haptic sensations, encountered when completing self-report questionnaires, on formal ratings of an unestablished consumer brand. In total 128 university students (mean age = 20.16 years, males = 31.3%, females = 68.8%) participated in the study. Initially, all the participants completed a pretest self-report questionnaire on standard weighted paper (80gsm). A week later, the same participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups, where Group 1 (n=64) completed a post-test self-report questionnaire on firm paper, and Group 2 (n=64) completed a post-test self-report questionnaire on flimsy paper. The questionnaire scale comprised 30 sets of bipolar pairs of adjectives related to the language association of rigidity and strength. A robust Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) revealed a statistical difference between groups for scores between 80 and 104 on the pre-test, while no effect was found for scores of 109 and upwards. Further support of the hypothesis was evident in kurtosis across groups (Group 1: kurtosis = 0.73 , Group 2: kurtosis = -0.03), which indicated that more participants in Group 1 ('Firm') had formed stronger judgements of the unestablished consumer brand than those in Group 2 ('Flimsy'). In conclusion, it appeared that a physically grounded mental framework, consistent with embodied cognition, had nonconsciously led participants to form stronger product judgements, of an unestablished consumer brand, when encountering an incidental, tactile experience of strength when completing self-report questionnaires in the consumer context.

Multi-touch technology and digital tabletops have been used in different fields. They provide a natural way of interaction with computers through gestures. In this report, we present a digital desk for power plant control rooms aimed at visualizing the power grid status. The thesis reports about the development of this desk that comprised field studies, use cases and requirements identification, low fidelity prototyping, and software development. A final evaluation of the design indicated that digital tabletops can be valuable for control room operators since they can enhance learning and communication among the collaborating operators. The work was done at ABB Corporate Research in Sweden.

Interactive media in public environments, such as touch screen kiosks, is a strongly growing toolfor offering service, information, advertising and entertainment. In order to achieve goodusability when designing the graphical user interface for a customer terminal, it is important tobe aware of the very specific requirements involved with such application. This master thesiscontributes to a framework for the interaction design of touch screen terminals in stores. The purpose of the thesis was to discover usability problems and solutions to usability problemsin existing touch screen terminal interfaces. Moreover the work aimed at revealing what designpatterns can be used or created in order to meet the observed problems. Usability problems stemfrom underlying use qualities. These can be seen as forces in design patterns. It was found thatthe patterns would be more useful if structured into a pattern catalogue, containing both highand low-level patterns. The study was preformed at Instoremedia, a company that, among other things, develops instore touch screen terminals. The product in focus was an interactive product cataloguedeveloped for Telia. The application was partly studied in situ. The study consisted of five steps:analytical evaluation, stakeholder interview, contextual inquiry, user analysis and design patterndevelopment. The study revealed problems, solutions, needs, goals etc, related to the use of theterminal. The final result is a proposed human computer interaction (HCI) design patterncatalogue for in-store touch screen terminals, which helps prevent the observed problems. Itconsists mostly of already known patterns. Three new patterns have been created. The aim isthat the pattern catalogue should be a helpful tool when making designs-decisions for new touchscreen terminals in the future. / Interaktiv media i publika miljöer, såsom pekskärmsterminaler, är på stark uppgång när detgäller att erbjuda service, information, marknadsföring och underhållning. För att uppnå höganvändbarhet i en kundterminals grafiska gränssnitt är det viktigt att vara medveten om despecifika krav som ställs på en sådan applikation. Detta examensarbete bidrar till ett ramverk fördesignen av pekskärmsterminaler i butiker. Syftet med examensarbetet var att hitta användbarhetsproblem och lösningar till potentiellaanvändbarhetsproblem i existerande gränssnitt för pekskärmsterminaler. Vidare syftade arbetettill att ta reda på vilka designmönster som kan användas eller skapas för att möta de observeradeproblemen. Användbarhetsproblem bottnar i underliggande användarbehov. Dessa kan ses somkrafter i designmönster. Det visade sig att designmönster är mer användbara om de ordnas i enmönsterkatalog, som innehåller både hög- och lågnivå mönster. Studien utfördes på Instoremedia, ett företag som bland annat utvecklar pekskärmsterminalerför butiker. I fokus stod en interaktiv produktkatalog utvecklad för Telia. Applikationenstuderades delvis in situ. Studien bestod av fem steg: analytisk utvärdering, intressentintervju,kontextuell undersökning, användaranalys och designmönsterutveckling. Studien avslöjadeproblem, lösningar, behov, mål etc., relaterade till användandet av terminalen. Det slutgiltigaresultatet är en föreslagen designmönsterkatalog för pekskärmsterminaler i butiker, somerbjuder lösningar till de observerade problemen. Katalogen består till största delen av redankända mönster. Tre nya designmönster har utvecklats. Målet är att mönsterkatalogen ska kunnaanvändas som ett redskap under framtida design.

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether i) affective touch has a role in mediating beneficial social influences on resilience to depression and ii) whether affective touch acts through specific skin CT afferents to enhance central serotonin function. To develop and validate the Touch Experiences and Attitudes Questionnaire (TEAQ), 117 items about experiences and attitudes to touch were completed online by 618 participants. Principal components analysis reduced this to 57 items and 6 factors. Three factors concerned touch experienced; in social situations (CST), in intimate relationships (CIT) and during childhood (ChT) and 3 factors concerned attitude to touch; in intimate relationships (AIT), with unfamiliar people (AUT) and in Skin Care (ASkC). The shortened TEAQ was completed by a second sample of 704 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis found the 6 factor structure to be a good fit of the data, suggesting the TEAQ to be valid and reliable. Participants completed some demographic questions and some questionnaires to determine their current psychiatric symptoms, social circumstances, recent life events, childhood adversity and personality alongside the TEAQ. Currently depressed participants had lower touch scores for all factors compared to healthy controls. Remitted depressed participants had significantly lower touch scores on all factors except CST, ASkC and AIT compared to healthy controls. A multiple regression analysis found neuroticism, satisfaction with social support, recent life events, CIT and childhood adversity (CHA) to be predictive of depression, whereas extraversion, number of social supports, ChT and CST, did not significantly predict depression score. Logistic regression analysis found ChT, CHA and neuroticism to predict vulnerability to depression, but not AIT or AUT. It was concluded that CIT was the most important aspect of affective touch for promoting resilience to depression. The CNS effects of pleasant and unpleasant touch were investigated using fMRI in healthy female volunteers. It has been hypothesised that a novel class of CT afferent fibres in hairy skin encodes affective touch. Therefore, CNS responses to pleasant stroking of the forearm with stroking of the fingers were compared. No differential CNS effects of forearm stroking over finger stroking were seen. Indeed, more brain regions were activated by pleasant brush stroking of the fingers which lack CT afferents. Pleasant brush responses in left inferior frontal gyrus were attenuated by tryptophan depletion. However, the midbrain raphe was activated by unpleasant brush stroking and de-activated by pleasant and this effect was abolished by tryptophan depletion. This study found little evidence that CT afferents in hairy skin have a specific role in affective touch and serotonin cells of the raphe appear engaged by unpleasant stimuli rather than pleasant. In conclusion, the results of the questionnaire study indicated touch (hugs, kisses, stroking) in intimate relationships may promote resilience to depression whereas touch with other social contacts does not, suggesting type of affective touch to be important. It is suggested that future studies of the role of current social support and of early adversity in depression should include assessments of the correlated dimension of affective touch. The fMRI study found little evidence for a specific peripheral touch receptor encoding pleasant affective touch. The median raphe nucleus was inhibited by pleasant touch and this is in keeping with the idea that that aversive stimuli activate serotonin projections to the forebrain but not that this is strengthened by affective touch. Further investigation is required to identify CNS mechanisms of affective touch.

Need for touch--Protection of client and practitioner--Appropriateness--Personal boundaries--Client psychopathology--Sexual and legal issues--Interpretation--Practitioner judgement.

Each primary sensory cortex gets input from corresponding primary and secondary thalamic nuclei. While primary thalamic nuclei are characterized by their sensory responses, the degree to which secondary thalamus encodes sensory and non-sensory signals is unknown. In the whisker system, the primary nucleus is the ventral posterior nucleus (VPM) and the secondary nucleus is the posterior medial nucleus (POm). While VPM sends precise whisker touch signals to cortex, POm responses are not well understood. Unlike VPM, POm is interconnected with many cortical areas, including motor cortex and association areas. POm, as a recipient of both bottom-up whisker signals and top-down cortical signals, might integrate touch with contextual signals such as reward or movement. Using two-photon microscopy through a gradient index (GRIN) lens, I have assessed the POm response to touch with multi-whisker passive deflections of different velocities, to reward with water droplets, and to self-movement by measuring whisking and licking. POm activity had weak touch responses and was dominated by self-generated movements. My results suggest that POm is driven by self-movement or the internal state signals that accompany it, such as arousal. Next, I investigated whether these representations change when mice learn sensory-reward associations. I demonstrate that POm activity continues to be dominated by whisking and licking and does not acquire selectivity for reward-associated sensory stimuli. We propose a model in which the representation of movements within POm may facilitate learning sensory features in cortex by creating a window for plasticity around relevant stimuli.

Tato práce navrhuje dotykové uživatelské rozhraní pro elektromobily. Rozhraní bylo navrženo tak, aby bylo pohodlné na použití pro řidiče a aby bylo snadné z něj vyčíst potřebné informace. Aby bylo možné toto rozhraní integrovat do elektromobilu, tato práce také navrhuje potřebnou softwarovou a systémovou (hardwarovou) architekturu. Nakonec shrnuje co je ještě potřeba udělat, aby bylo možné celý systém integrovat.

<div> <div> <div> <p>This study focused on a physical property of human finger touch: finger contact area (FCA). The value of FCA lies not only in optimizing the interface layout design but also in streamlining the process of sensitivity tuning for capacitive devices. However, from previous research, whether the target size and display position have effects on the FCA is unknown, and the data of FCA in the contexts of touching various appliances had never been explored. A within-subjects experiment was conducted to study the FCA in the context of four target sizes and two display positions. Forty-two participants were recruited, and both their demographic data as well as touch data were collected and analyzed. As a result, both the target size and the display position have significant effects on the FCA size, and users would implement different finger approach angles (FAA) in varying contexts accordingly. In general, larger target size and vertical touch surface would lead to a larger FCA size, but other factors such as finger joint circumference, stature, touch force did not show significant effects in the experiment. Overall, this study contributes to a clearer understanding of FCA data as well as how users behave in the touch interaction on the capacitive touch interface of appliances. Moreover, it pointed out what factors were related or unrelated to the FCA. This knowledge would directly help designers and engineers to develop optimized capacitive buttons with appropriate sizes as well as sensitivity on touch interfaces of appliances and could improve the usability of the capacitive touch interface in the future. </p> </div> </div> </div>

Decerno is a software consultancy company who designs and builds large software information systems. They are interested in more knowledge and insight in the benefits and limitations of touch-enabled interfaces as a means of incorporating these into their own products. The aim of this study is to find advice on how to design touch-enabled functionality that would work in a company’s main computer system to be used by staff on a daily basis in order to fulfill their work tasks.Comparing a touch interface to a conventional mouse interface exposes differences in use that need to be kept in mind when designing for touch interaction usability. With a simple flick of the mouse you are able to dart your mouse-pointer across the screen on your conventional mouse interface, but a touch interface requires you to both lift and extend your arm in order to point your finger at the far corner of the touch screen. Extensive use of large or monotonous movements might cause muscle fatigue, which requires you to adapt your interface design to allow for effective touch-interaction use.The main research question in this study has been to derive guidelines and advice on how to present a set of dynamic information making it possible for the user to effectively find and select a specific target by touch interaction. For this purpose a set of sub questions were identified and a test interface was produced in order to evaluate the users touch interaction and their feedback. The results from these user tests have formed the foundation of the concluding guidelines.This has been evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively in a user study. Measurements was taken on how the users performed, such as number of errors and time to finish the user task. The users were also asked to perform a think-aloud evaluation which collected information on how they used the interface and their thoughts and reactions while doing it. The user tests were concluded with open-ended questions in which the users were asked to reflect on their actions, how user-effective the interface was and to compare different test setups.The results conclude that most users does not like horizontal scrolling. The horizontal movement make the text much harder to follow. Habit also seems to be an important factor as several users expressed the fact that they are much more used to scrolling vertically.Most users preferred the display with both images and text as it made the page more interesting and pleasant to look at, this is in contrast with the fact that most users stated that locating an item is faster and easier without images and only minimal text information, limited to only the search task answer. The aesthetical features of an interface seem to be equally important as the functionality.Another important conclusion is the difference in hand-position when the tablet is placed on the table compared to when it is hand-held. When designing a touch interface, some consideration should be taken to how the user might be working with the interface. The button placement might need to be different depending on if they are likely to be holding the tablet while using it (perhaps in a more informal setting, standing up or moving around) or will they be using it while it is placed on the table.