showing 8 related works from this author
Online Positive Interventions to Promote Well-being and Resilience in the Adolescent Population: A Narrative Review
2017
Numerous studies have shown an alarming prevalence of depression, anxiety, and behavior disorders in youth. Thus, prevention of psychological problems in this population becomes crucial. According to the World Health Organization (1), prevention should also include the promotion and development of the individual’s strengths in order to reduce vulnerability to suffering from mental disorders. In addition, other key elements of prevention are the reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of interventions. The information and communication technologies, especially the Internet, have much to offer in terms of the prevention and promotion of positive mental health in adolescents. This pap…
Transforming Experience: The Potential of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Enhancing Personal and Clinical Change
2016
During life, many personal changes occur. These include changing house, school, work, and even friends and partners. However, the daily experience shows clearly that, in some situations, subjects are unable to change even if they want to. The recent advances in psychology and neuroscience are now providing a better view of personal change, the change affecting our assumptive world: (a) the focus of personal change is reducing the distance between self and reality (conflict); (b) this reduction is achieved through (1) an intense focus on the particular experience creating the conflict or (2) an internal or external reorganization of this experience; (c) personal change requires a progression…
An Immersive Motor Protocol for Frailty Rehabilitation
2019
Frailty is a pre-clinical condition that worsens physical health and quality of life. One of the most frequent symptoms of frailty is an increased risk of falling. In order to reduce this risk, we propose an innovative virtual reality motor rehabilitation program based on an immersive tool. All exercises will take place in the CAVE, a four-screen room with a stationary bike. The protocol will include two types of exercises for the improvement of balance: “Positive Bike” and “Avoid the Rocks.” We will choose evaluation scales related to the functional aspects and subjective perception of balance. Our aim is to prove that our innovative motor rehabilitation protocol is as effective as or more…
Rotavirus Genotypes in Sewage Treatment Plants and in Children Hospitalized with Acute Diarrhea in Italy in 2010 and 2011
2014
ABSTRACT Although the molecular surveillance network RotaNet-Italy provides useful nationwide data on rotaviruses causing severe acute gastroenteritis in children in Italy, scarce information is available on rotavirus circulation in the general Italian population, including adults with mild or asymptomatic infection. We investigated the genotypes of rotaviruses present in urban wastewaters and compared them with those of viral strains from clinical pediatric cases. During 2010 and 2011, 285 sewage samples from 4 Italian cities were tested by reverse transcription-PCRs (RT-PCRs) specific for rotavirus VP7 and VP4 genes. Rotavirus was detected in 172 (60.4%) samples, 26 of which contained mul…
Usability issues of clinical and research applications of virtual reality in older people: A systematic review
2020
Aging is a condition that may be characterized by a decline in physical, sensory, and mental capacities, while increased morbidity and multimorbidity may be associated with disability. A wide range of clinical conditions (e.g., frailty, mild cognitive impairment, metabolic syndrome) and age-related diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, cancer, sarcopenia, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases) affect older people. Virtual reality (VR) is a novel and promising tool for assessment and rehabilitation in older people. Usability is a crucial factor that must be considered when designing virtual systems for medicine. We conducted a systematic review with Preferred Reporting Items…
Editorial: Positive Technology: Designing E-experiences for Positive Change
2019
While there is little doubt that our lives are becoming increasingly digital, whether this change is for the better or for the worse is far from being settled. Rather, over the past years concerns about the personal and social impacts of technologies have been growing, fueled by dystopian Orwellian scenarios that almost on daily basis are generously dispensed by major Western media outlets. According to a recent poll involving some 1,150 experts, 47% of respondents predict that individuals’ well-being will bemore helped than harmed by digital life in the next decade, while 32% say people’s well-being will bemore harmed than helped. Only 21% of those surveyed indicated that the impact of tec…
The VEPSY UPDATED Project: Clinical Rationale and Technical Approach.
2003
More than 10 years ago, Tart (1990) described virtual reality (VR) as a technological model of consciousness offering intriguing possibilities for developing diagnostic, inductive, psychotherapeutic, and training techniques that can extend and supplement current ones. To exploit and understand this potential is the overall goal of the "Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environment in Clinical Psychology"--VEPSY UPDATED--a European Community-funded research project (IST-2000-25323, www.cybertherapy.info). Particularly, its specific goal is the development of different PC-based virtual reality modules to be used in clinical assessment and treatment of social phobia, panic disorders, male sexu…
Presence-inducing media for mental health applications
2015
Presence inducing media have recently emerged as a potentially effective way to provide general and specialty mental health services, and they appear poised to enter mainstream clinical delivery. However, to ensure appropriate development and use of these technologies, clinicians must have a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges they will provide to professional practice.