The 2 studies reported here use observational data from message boards to investigate how adolescents solicit and share information related to self-injurious behavior. Study 1 examines the prevalence and nature of these message boards, their users, and most commonly discussed topics. Study 2 was intended to explore the correlations between content areas raised for discussion. Both studies were ...

Many countries have a rapidly ageing population, placing strain on health services and creating a growing market for assistive technology for older people. We have, through a student-led, 12-week project for 10 students from a variety of science and engineering backgrounds, developed an integrated sensor system to enable older people, or those at risk, to live independently in their own homes f...

In this study we explore how music can entrain human walkers to synchronise to the musical beat without being instructed to do so. For this, we use an interactive music player, called D-Jogger, that senses the user's walking tempo and phase. D-Jogger aligns the music by manipulating the timing difference between beats and footfalls. Experiments are reported that led to the development and optim...

In this paper, we discuss the phenomenon of aging in relation to Hofmann’s three perspectives on disease including disease, illness and sickness role. We further discuss how the introduction of technology supported elderly care changes our perspectives on aging into becoming more disease focused. Especially, in user situations where technology supported care is introduced in order to prevent an...

The literature on the development of assistive robots is dominated by technological papers with little consideration of how such devices might be commercialised for a mass market at a price that is affordable for older people and their families as well as public services and care insurers. This article argues that the focus of technical development in this field is too ambitious, neglecting the...

In a quasi-experimental pre- and postdesign, we examined the effect of rollator use on functional rehabilitation outcome in geriatric patients.From a sample of 458 geriatric inpatients, we matched 30 subjects who were not using assistive devices in their everyday lives but received a wheeled walker at the time of hospital admission (first-time user group) according to their admission scores on ...

1. Objectives: The main objective of the project is to develop assistive technologies to ensure safe, comfortable, active and independent life of persons with disabilities by assisting their abilities to make their own decisions. Those assistive technologies should meet the requirements of persons with cognitive, intellectual, or mental disabilities in addition to the requirements of persons wi...

Monaural spectral features are important for human sound-source localization in sagittal planes, including front-back discrimination and elevation perception. These directional features result from the acoustic filtering of incoming sounds by the listener's morphology and are described by listener-specific head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). This article proposes a probabilistic, functiona...

Throughout Latin America the politics of housing clearly assigns renting an inferior status despite the fact that little is known about household preferences regarding housing tenure or about the strategies households use to get access to ownership. While the literature on self help housing has long emphasized the importance of low income owners in Latin America’s cities, the econometric litera...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to explore the psychosocial impact of standing devices as experienced by users. METHOD This is the second part of a comprehensive survey in five counties in Sweden where all the subjects with standing devices were invited to participate. The impact of standing devices on functional independence, quality of life and wellbeing was assessed using a questionnaire...