This thesis takes its point of departure in the research field of intergenerational touch in Physical Education (PE). Previous research in the field have mainly been conducted from a teacher’s perspective and has shown that teachers of PE have become more cautious about using physical contact in recent years. The reasons for this more cautious attitude concerning physical contact is above all, the risk f being falsely suspected of sexual harassment. Previous research has, in a general way, also shown that physical contact in PE is a gendered issue with heteronormative points of departure The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate intergenerational touch in PE from a student perspective. More specifically the aims are to investigate physical contact between teachers and students in PE from a student perspective (paper I), and to investigate which discursive resources students draw on to conceptualize physical contact between teacher and student in PE in relation to heteronormativity (paper II). Six focus group interviews using photo elicitation have been conducted with students at an upper secondary school in Sweden. In paper I it is the concept of the didactic contract that is the theoretical starting point. The results show that, generally, the students support physical contact as a pedagogical tool if the physical contact has a good purpose according to the students. An implicit didactic contract is formed when student and teacher agree on when, how or why physical contact is used as a pedagogical tool. In paper II, the theoretical inspiration comes from Foucault and his work with discourses. The results show that the students’ talk is colored by the heteronormative discourse in society. This is especially expressed when young female students talk about male PE teachers. Heteronormativity is taken for granted and is not really challenged. Students generally support physical contact as a pedagogical tool in PE, however it is a very complex issue and puts high demands on PE teachers’ professionalism.

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Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe and complex psychiatric disorder characterized by significantly low body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image. Despite otherwise successful treatments, body image distortions are often persistent and are considered a critical factor in the persistence, development, and relapse of AN. The present review outlines the current literature on tactile distance processing in AN to investigate and discuss its proposed role in the persistence and development of a distorted body image. The discussion of literature further discusses its implications for cognitive neuroscience since AN patients display similar symptoms as patients diagnosed with body image-related neuropsychiatric disorders with damage to the parietal lobe. The evidence suggests that individuals with AN have poorer tactile distance estimation than controls but do not differ regarding tactile detection. This review outlines the current literature, identifies gaps within the methodology, and proposes novel directions for future research.

Background: Customers find great psychological satisfaction and pleasure when shopping. Customer satisfaction is crucial for a business's success, and increasing it will strengthenfinancial performance and competitiveness. Offline shopping still dominates the customersindustry, although customers are increasingly choosing online shopping as a result offast-growing technological developments in society. However, physical experiences shouldnot be left behind due to customer’s satisfaction from the instant gratification they desire. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how customer perceived value, customerexpectations, and touch experience have an impact on customer satisfaction in an offlineshopping context. Methodology: This research is conducted through a deductive and quantitative approach,which has an explanatory aim. Three hypotheses have been deducted from theoreticalconcepts found from previous research. The data collection method was collected through aninternet-based, self-completion questionnaire, to see if the hypotheses were supported or not.A total of 105 respondents participated in the study. Findings: The findings indicate that customer perceived value H1, which explains a positiveimpact on customer satisfaction in the context of offline shopping, cannot be supported due tostatistical insignificance. Customer expectation, as presented through H2, and touchexperience, as presented through H3, were found to have a statistically significant andpositive impact on customer satisfaction. The conceptual model was revised in this studybased on the new findings, retaining the acceptable assumptions as the new model. Conclusion: In offline shopping, the positive impact of customer expectation on customersatisfaction is the most obvious, followed by the touch experience. Customer perceived valuehas no positive impact on customer satisfaction, and the reason for this situation may be thatthe perceived value of customers differs among different consumption levels.

<div>Touch event detection investigates the interaction between two people from video recordings. We are interested in a particular type of interaction which occurs between a caregiver and an infant, as touch is a key social and emotional signal used by caregivers when interacting with their children. We propose an automatic touch event detection and recognition method to determine the potential timing when the caregiver touches the infant, and classify the event into six touch types based on which body part of the infant has been touched. We leverage deep learning based human pose estimation and person segmentation to analyze the spatial relationship between the caregivers’ hands and the infant. We demonstrate promising performance on touch event detection and classification, showing great potential for reducing human effort when generating groundtruth annotation.</div><div><br></div><div>Recently, artificial intelligence powered techniques have shown great potential to increase the efficiency of video compression. In this thesis, we describe a texture analysis pre-processing method that leverages deep learning based scene understanding to extract semantic areas for the improvement of subsequent video coder. Our proposed method generates a pixel-level texture mask by combining the semantic segmentation with simple post-processing strategy. Our approach is integrated into a switchable texture-based video coding method. We demonstrate that for many standard and user generated test sequences, the proposed method achieves significant data rate reduction without noticeable visual artifacts.</div>

Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality trait characterized by deficits in recognizing and verbalizing one’s emotions. It has been shown that alexithymia is related to an impaired perception of external emotional stimuli, but previous research focused on emotion perception from faces and voices. Since sensory modalities represent rather distinct input channels it is important to know whether alexithymia also affects emotion perception in other modalities and expressive domains. The objective of our review was to summarize and systematically assess the literature on the impact of alexithymia on the perception of emotional (or hedonic) stimuli in music, odor, taste, and touch. Eleven relevant studies were identified. On the basis of the reviewed research, it can be preliminary concluded that alexithymia might be associated with deficits in the perception of primarily negative but also positive emotions in music and a reduced perception of aversive taste. The data available on olfaction and touch are inconsistent or ambiguous and do not allow to draw conclusions. Future investigations would benefit from a multimethod assessment of alexithymia and control of negative affect. Multimodal research seems necessary to advance our understanding of emotion perception deficits in alexithymia and clarify the contribution of modality-specific and supramodal processing impairments.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur svenska förskollärare tänker kring och arbetar med beröring mellan vuxna och barn i förskolan. Uppsatsens problem bottnar i ett spänningsfält mellan beröringens positiva effekter för människans välmående och relationer, omsorgens idag lägre status i relation till lärandet och det riskperspektiv som finns gällande beröring internationellt sett. Den teoretiska referensramen består av beröring ur ett biologiskt perspektiv- närhetsmodellen, ur ett psykologiskt perspektiv- anknytningsteorin samt ur ett filosofiskt perspektiv- omsorgsetiken. Studien är kvalitativ med intervjuer som metod. Underlaget grundar sig på intervjuer med fem förskollärare. Då vi även var intresserade av att undersöka förändringar över tid, har fyra av de fem intervjupersonerna 36 års arbetslivserfarenhet eller mer. Resultatet av studien visar att beröring finns med som ett naturligt inslag i intervjupersonernas yrkesutövning och att man svarar på barnens behov av beröring i enlighet med omsorgsetikens tanke om den naturliga omsorgen. Resultatet visar att beröring generellt sett inte är något man pratar specifikt kring samt att det saknas kunskap härom. Vidare visar studien på samband mellan utbildning kring beröring och ökat metodiskt arbete i praktiken. Ytterligare ett resultat visar att riskperspektivet inte verkar förekomma i alls samma utsträckning hos de förskollärare vi intervjuat som i de anglosaxiska länder där “no-touch”-zoner utvecklats på vissa håll.

When people multi-task with inputs that demand attention, processing, andencoding, sensory interference is possible at almost any level. Multiple Resource Theory (MRT) suggests that such interference may be avoided by drawing from separate pools of resources available when using different sensory channels, memory processes, and even different response modes. Thus, there should be advantages in dividing tasks among different sensory channels to tap independent pools of attentional resources. For example, people are better with two tasks using the eye and ear, than when using two auditory or two visual inputs. The majority of the research on MRT involves visual to auditory comparisons, i.e., the prime distance senses. The unstated implication is that the theory can be easily applied to other sensory systems, such as touch, but this is untested. This overlooks the fact that each sensory system has different characteristics that can influence how information processing is allocated in a multiple-task environment. For example, vision requires a directed gaze that is not required for sound or touch. Testing MRT with touch, not only eliminates competing theories, but helps establish its robustness across the senses. Three experiments compared the senses of touch and hearing to determine if the characteristics of those sensory modalities alter the allocation of processing resources. Specifically, it was hypothesized that differences in sensory characteristics would affect performance on a simple targeting task. All three experiments used auditory shadowing as the dual task load. In the first and third experiments a target was placed to the left or right of the participant and the targeting cue (either tactile, auditory, or combined) used to locate the target originated from the side on which the target was located. The only difference between experiments 1 and 3 was that in experiment 1 the auditory targeting cue was delivered by headphones, while in experiment 3 it was delivered by speakers. Experiment 2 was more difficult both in auditory perception and in processing. In this study the targeting cues came from in front of or behind the participant. Cues coming from in front of the participant meant the target was to the left, and conversely if the cue came from behind it meant that the target was to the right. The results of experiments 1 and 3 showed that when the signals originated from the sides, there was no difference in performance between the auditory and tactile targeting cues, whether by proximal or distal stimulation. However, in experiment 2, the participants were significantly slower to locate the target when using the auditory targeting cue than when using the tactile targeting cue, with nearly twice the losses when dual-tasking. No significant differences were found on performance of the shadowing task across the three experiments. The overall findings support the hypothesis that the characteristics of the sensory system itself influence the allocation of processing resources. For example, the differences in experiment 2 are likely due to front-back reversal, a common problem found with auditory stimuli located in front of or behind, but not with tactile stimuli.

We present SetPad, a new application prototype that lets computer science students explore discrete math problems by sketching set expressions using pen-based input. Students can manipulate the expressions interactively with the tool via pen or multi-touch interface. Likewise, discrete mathematics instructors can use SetPad to display and work through set problems via a projector to better demonstrate the solutions to the students. We discuss the implementation and feature set of the application, as well as results from both an informal perceived usefulness evaluation for students taking a computer science foundation exam in addition to a formal user study measuring the effectiveness of the tool when solving set proof problems. The results indicate that SetPad was well received, allows for efficient solutions to proof problems, and has the potential to have a positive impact when used as as an individual student application or an instructional tool.

Den fysiska beröringen sker dagligen i det pedagogiska arbetet i fritidshemmet utan att vi pratar om det. Det sker närsomhelst i olika situationer såsom tröstning, uppmuntran eller konflikt. I samhället finns det en diskurs kring fysisk beröring överlag, om den är lämplig inom det pedagogiska arbetet eller hur läraren ska förhålla sig till den. Denna studie undersöker hur lärare i fritidshemmet uppfattar och förhåller sig till fysisk beröring. Frågeställningar är, hur uppfattar läraren den fysiska beröringen i fritidshemmet samt hur förhåller sig lärare till den fysiska beröringen i fritidshemmet mellan lärare och elev. Syftet och frågeställningarna kopplas till teorin fenomenologi. Kännetecknande för denna teori är upplevelsen av ett fenomen ur olika perspektiv. Fenomenet i denna studie är fysisk beröring. I syfte att synliggöra fenomenet används en kvalitativ studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. I studien deltar nio legitimerade lärare i fritidshem vilka är fördelade på olika arbetsplatser i Hallands län. Det empiriska materialet transkriberas och analyseras genom Gills metod. Resultatet visar på hur lärare använder pedagogiska strategier för att skapa relationer med eleverna. Dock är strategierna påverkade av den rädsla många lärare, framför allt de manliga, känner inför den fysiska beröringen. Rädslan bygger på hur andra vuxna i omgivningen uppfattar den fysiska beröringen. Detta leder till att läraren inte tar hänsyn till elevens pedagogiska behov, utan fokuserar på samhällets normer. På detta sätt skapas olika förhållningssätt till den fysiska beröringen. / The physical touch takes place daily in the educational work in the leisure center without us talking about it. It happens at any time in different situations such as comfort, encouragement or conflict. In society there is a discourse around physical touch in general, if it is appropriate within it the pedagogical work or how the teacher should relate to it. This study examines how teachers in the leisure center perceives and relates to physical touch. Questions are, how perceive the teacher the physical touch in the after-school center and how teachers relate to the physical the touch in the leisure center between teacher and student. The purpose and questions are linked to the theory of phenomenology. Characteristic of this theory is the experience of a phenomenon from different perspectives. The phenomenon in this study is physical touch. In order to make the phenomenon visible, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews is used. In the study, nine certified teachers in leisure centers who are distributed in different workplaces participate in the study Halland County. The empirical material is transcribed and analyzed using Gill's method. The results show how teachers use pedagogical strategies to create relationships with the students. However, the strategies are influenced by the fear many teachers, especially the male ones, feel before the physical touch. The fear is based on how other adults in the environment perceives the physical touch. This leads to the teacher not taking the student's into account educational needs, but focuses on society's norms. In this way, different are created approach to the physical touch.