It seems that when I copy and paste from Word into Blogger all my formatting goes West. Why is this?
I spend time formatting the Word Document but for some reason Blogger takes over and it looks like sugarelli.
Anyway that's my excuse.
Saturday 23 April 2011
DHTP Dissertation Proposal Part 3
Please save as a word.doc and change the title to your full name, e.g.: John Smith.doc - do not email the proposal without changing the file name.
Sample template
Student Name & Email | Alan Rae |
Course | |
Supervisor name | Hazel White |
Email address (Supervisor) | H.White@dundee.ac.uk |
Date (update as you go) | 23 April 2011 |
Using the template
Enter your personal details in the box above. The email address will be used by your tutor and others to contact you. You must check this regularly for news on tutorial dates.
Read each heading carefully and type into the text box below.
Email your proposal to your supervisor and load it up on Safe Assignment of the VLE
Total final word count: between 2000-2500 words (excluding bibliography).
Title (max 50 words)
This should give an outline of your research topic. If appropriate use a title and a subtitle. You need to get specific and refine the title to capture your research as best as possible.
Memory Loss and Aids to Create Interaction for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Sufferers (How Caregivers Can Assist Their Charges) |
Summary (1500 words)
Here you should indicate what you already know about the topic. You should already have done some reading around it. Summarise this reading with regards to the research topic and describe the research area. This will provide the basis for a literature review.
Research shows that memory loss can be a very embarrassing situation that one finds oneself in, it happens all the time (Genova, 2009). Alzheimer's Disease is a degenerative one. There are a number of drug treatments available which can slow the process down some, but none will cure the condition (Clive Ballard 2010). Dementia is another condition which affects a person's memory, yet not quite as severe as Alzheimer's, it is still a great problem. Alzheimer’s Disease is a slow erosion disease of the memory from certain parts of the brain for which there is no cure and it is unclear what causes the brain to malfunction in such a manner, “it is like snuffing out the memories like candle flames caught between fingers”. (Connolly 2009) The United States Alzheimer’s Association has produced a 10 point check-list which outlines some of the signs to look out for in people with suspected Alzheimer’s disease. (Alzheimer’s Association 2011). This isn’t to say that just because someone forgets a name, place or appointment that they have Alzheimer’s or Dementia. Everyone has these lapses of memory throughout the years. A person shall forget things during adolescence then through ones’ twenties and thirties into middle age and then old age. When this happens and one is younger it is never considered that they have a memory loss disorder. No, this seems to be a conclusion that middle-aged people jump to about the elderly when they forget something. This is not always the case. If one is close to the person then it is possible that they see the forgetfulness on a regular basis but if one sees an elderly relative or friend only occasionally then nothing is thought about it. The aging population are at most risk of developing some sort of memory loss. Alzheimer's Disease can be detected in individuals aged 65+ although it has materialised in people in their early 50s (Genova, 2009). With new breakthroughs in medical techniques and the creation of enhanced drugs coupled with healthier lifestyles, people are living longer. As the population of the developed world increases so too does the elderly. It is estimated that in the United States of America life expectancy has increased from 49 years to 75 years during the twentieth century. (Brawley 1997). With the population of the world living longer it seems logical that there shall be a huge increase of both male and females who will suffer some form of memory loss. Ms Brawley talks about ‘Wayfinding’ (Brawley 1997) where she refers to what people see and think about and how they navigate from one place to another. The person with memory failure must be able to recognise where they are i.e. in their room, dining room, day room etc. They must know where they are going to (their destination) and which route they must take to get there. This is a considerable task for one suffering these types of illnesses. One way to alleviate the dilemma for the patient is to have ‘Clues and Cues’. These may be colour orientated, whereby the person follows the colour of the walls back to their room. There may be visual images to assist them along the corridors of their residential home. It could even be the lighting or the sound of some recognisable piece of music. A combination of these sensory aids may be used to assist and therefore relieve the stress they may have encountered at becoming disorientated. Cognitive psychology is the study of how people differentiate, remember, speak, think and problem solve. There are two ways to class cognitive disabilities: Clinical disability Functional disability Clinical cognitive disabilities include autism, Down Syndrome, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and dementia. Functional cognitive disabilities include difficulty with: · Memory · Attention · Solving problems · Reading · Visual comprehension · Oral understanding As people age and the onset of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease become more prevalent their function to store immediate and short term memories becomes affected. A person uses their memory for many different reasons but the main use of it is the ability to recall what they have gained knowledge of. Memory may be categorised as having three main parts to it: Immediate memory – where the person is using their senses to store what is happening around them at the moment. Short-term memory – where the persons stores what they think they shall require from the immediate memory area. Long-term memory – where the person stores relative information which me be required in the future. Since all this processing is done in milliseconds or nanoseconds they are never aware of the process which is happening within their brain. The more meaningful the information is to the person then the more likelihood that it shall be transferred to the Functional memory area of the brain. There are a number of electronic aids which are being pioneered in a number of European countries and also in America (Pullin, 2009). They help the sufferer to recall objects, events, faces etc and thus aiding communication between them and the Caregiver, family and friends. Dundee University is currently conducting research into how interactive devices may be used by people with Alzheimer’s disease. They have “Living In the Moment” (LIM) and “Computer Interactive Reminiscence Communication Aid” (CIRCA) programmes running in conjunction with St Andrews University and are currently looking for commercial partners to market CIRCA. (CIRCA) It is my intention to investigate this topic further and hopefully contribute, in some small way, to developing an application for memory loss sufferers. With so much technology around today i.e. computers, ipods, ipads and mobile phones that can do almost everything from photos, videos, text messaging, surfing the internet, social networking to GPS. In some instances they have been known to make telephone calls allowing the users to speak to one another. Will this current generation of electronic mobile device users manage to use the new technologies of tomorrow when they are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? Probably, but with the ease of taking photographs and the amount of images produced will these pictures have the same impact as previous generations when they look at photographs? In the pre-digital age the developed photos were cherished. They were categorised and put into albums where people could look at them, touch them and linger over them and tell you the stories of why, how, where, the occasion and what memories it conjures up about the image in front of them. It seems that nowadays it is ‘let’s see how many we can see before our attention span moves on’. For something to be remembered it must ‘sink in’ i.e. be remembered. For this to happen a person must slow down their memory processing and allow the biological traces to be formed that are the corridors to the memory. So what of the future for the current technophobic generation? This is one of the more difficult questions that needs to be answered. |
Chapter Synopsis (500 words)
Please write a short approx 100 word paragraph at what you imagine each chapter of your final dissertation will be about.
Introduction: The introduction shall inform the reader what the paper is about. Why I am interested in the subject of memory loss. What Alzheimer’s Disease is, what are the tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s the test that specialists carry out to determine whether a person has the disease or not. Appreciate the difficulties of a person who suffers from memory loss. Describe what drugs and treatments are available at the present time to slow down the process. What support is available as regards carers and interaction devices and to ask the question how the generation of today shall manage in 40 to 50 years time when they suffer from memory loss. The conclusion shall pull everything together to give a brief overall view of what has been written. Chapter 1: What is Alzheimer’s Disease? Explain the different types of dementia and what distinguishes then from Alzheimer’s Disease. Give examples of some of the simple tests that GPs and specialists can conduct to ascertain which form of memory loss the person has. Describe some of the tell-tale-signs that may indicate to family and friends that the person may be suffering from a type of memory loss. Who discovered Alzheimer’s Disease and how. Chapter 2: Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease. Talk about what drugs are available at present and the ones that are being trialled. What people can do in their early life to help slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s. Will a cure be found within the next two decades? Will governments allocate more funding for research for a possible cure? Chapter 3: What help and aids already exist? Explain what care is available for the family, friends and trained personnel who have to look after the sufferers of memory loss. Talk about environments which are conducive to the sufferers. Talk about what support is available from all the existing groups and organisations locally, nationally and on the Internet. Mention the CIRCA and LIM research and development of products carried out by Dundee University in conjunction with St Andrews University. Other programmes which help interaction between carer and caree. How other countries care and treat the people with the problem of memory loss. Chapter 4: How will today’s generation cope with Alzheimer’s in 40 or 50 years time? Shall today’s generation retain as much information in their long term memory as previous generations? With all the modern technology of today i.e. touch-screen mobile phones and computers and the constant bombardment of information 24 hours-a-day and the isolation of individuals as they listen to their portable devices when they are walking, jogging or travelling on public transport will it be possible to remember most of it? By becoming isolated with their modern devices and social networking, will they lose the art of proper conversation or the interaction with other human beings? What will their memories be in 40 or 50 years time? Chapter 5: Conclusion. This chapter will briefly sum up all the findings of the main points. It shall also draw a thoughtful conclusion of all the relevant points made in the previous chapters. It will also be relevant to any argument that is made and suggest possible solutions to these points. It shall also briefly outline what the paper is about without going in to too much detail. It should also be kept down to one paragraph and no new information should be introduced at this stage. |
Proposed Timetable
Make a schedule blocking our time from now till the hand in date. Allow time for reading, research, analysis, reflection, editing and final presentation, printing etc. and over that is as realistic as possible.
Dissertation Timeline
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Aims: Why are you doing this? (Max 100 words)
These are a general statement on the intent or direction for the research – why are you doing this? Refer to theoretical aims and practical ones where relevant. For example: How might this improve your design practice? How does it contribute to the discourses within your discipline? Who else might benefit from your research? Is it aimed at an academic or a wider audience? What do you hope your research will achieve? State your aims concisely, perhaps using bullet points.
Members of my family have suffered from memory loss and I am now at an age where it may begin to affect me. I would like to know more about the illnesses which cause memory loss and how to alleviate some of the frustrations the sufferers feel. As a Digital Interactive Design student I would like to produce an Interactive Device which will assist the casualties of Alzheimer’s Disease. I am particularly interested in how the young people of today shall deal with memory deficiency and will they be able to use all the mobile interactive devices that they are accustomed to now. |
Objectives: What will you produce? (Max 100 words)
Objectives are the things you will produce in doing the dissertation, e.g. a review of the relevant literature, a collection and discussion of people’s experiences/opinions, an assessment of a debate or collection of work etc.
Like your aims, these will help your tutor (and you) assess your success. They may change over time but aims and objectives are useful to keep you focussed. Again be concise here – you may want to use bullet points.
Talk to family, friends and carers and produce a comparison document. Observe suffers and record their reactions to questions and motivation (summer placement during the summer 2011). Observe the caregivers and how they interact with the memory loss sufferers Study at the environment the person is subject to Decor Lighting Furnishings Do they have access to a garden Is the garden a safe environment for them to be in? How the present generation shall cope with Memory loss. Discover which products are available that interact between carers and suffer. What and where further Research and Design is taking place. Create an interactive device that they may use. |
Keywords (min 5 and max 10)
This should be a list of key terms that help us see if you are aware of where your research ‘sits’. For example, if you are writing on depictions of women in advertising your list might include ‘gender, feminism, representation, advertising, semiotics. Keywords will help you when doing electronic searched for research materials.
Elderly, memory-loss, stimulus, visual-interaction, audio-interaction, recognition, communication, family, carers, future-development. |
Bibliography
Alm, N. Dr. 2001. CIRCA. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/projects/circa/. [Accessed 27 February 11].
(Not a lot of information here but I have requested a meeting with Dr Norman Alm who is involved with the research of the Group).
Alzheimer's Association. 2011. 10 Signs of Alzheimer's. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_10_signs_of_alzheimers.asp. [Accessed 20 April 11]. (Briefly summarises some of the signs of Alzheimer’s Disease).
Amanda Onion. 2010. Experts: Memory Loss Often a Focus Problem. [ONLINE] Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97592&page=1. [Accessed 21 April 11].
Becky Barrow. 2011. 2011. One in four children will celebrate their 100th birthday. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378245/One-children-celebrate-100th-birthday.html. [Accessed 20 April 11].
Ben Quinn. 2007. Mobile phones 'dumbing down brain power'. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557293/Mobile-phones-dumbing-down-brain-power.html. [Accessed 21 April 11].
Bennett, G. Professor and Jones, M. 2001. The Alzheimer's Handbook. Revised Ed. London: Ebury Press.
Brawley, C.E., 2006. Design innovations For Aging And Alzheimer’s. 1st ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
(Miss Brawley outlines some facts and figures for Alzheimer’s and describes how living conditions may be improved for the sufferers).
Burns, A. 2005. Your Guide To Alzheimer’s Disease. 2nd Ed. London: England: Hodder Headlines.
Carter, R, 2006. Beat Memory Loss. 1st ed. London: England: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.
(Miss Carter discusses how the brain operates, what medications are used in the treatment of memory loss and how it may be helped by the use of some mind exercises).
(Ideas for designing a garden for Alzheimer's suffers including plant types and a safe environment).
Claire Bates. 2011. An intimate portrait of Alzheimer's: How the disease slowly stole my mother away. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1362475/Alzheimers-disease-Portrait-dementias-effect-photographers-mother.html. [Accessed 05 March 11].
(One man’s’ photographs of his Mother and how she has declined over the years with the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease).
Clive Ballard, Director of Research, Alzheimer's Society. 2010. Drug treatments for Alzheimer's disease . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=147. [Accessed 09 November 10].
(Describes the drugs used to treat Alzheimer's and how they work).
Connolly, J, 2009. The Lovers. 1st ed. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.
(Part of the novel where the main character is remembering his grandfather).
DeBaggio, T, 2002. Losing My Mind. 1st ed. New York: Free Press.
(One mans journey to losing his memory).
Dementia Life Ltd.. 2011. Welcome to Dementia Life.... [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dementialife.com/. [Accessed 21 April 11].
Fiona Macrae. 2011. Memory cells killed by Alzheimer's are grown in lab for the first time and could 'repair brain damage'. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1362850/Dementia-Memory-cells-killed-Alzheimers-grown-lab-time.html. [Accessed 05 March 11].
(Scientists have turned ordinary skin cells into brain cells key to the memory loss of Alzheimer’s disease. Grown in a dish in their millions, the cells can be used to test new drugs, hugely speeding up the quest for pills capable of halting the march of the disease.)
Genova, L, 2009. Still Alice. 1st ed. London: Simon & Schuster.
(The story of a Harvard University professor who is diagnosed with the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease).
Gillies, A, 2009. Keeper. 1st ed. England: Short Books.
(Miss Gillies relates the story of her Mother-in-law who is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. The everyday incidents of her Mother-in-law and how it affects their family, friends, carers and the community in the West coast of Scotland where they move to from Edinburgh).
James, O, 2008. Contented Dementia. 1st ed. England: Ebury Publishing.
(Oliver James explains his techniques of dealing with dementia suffers and draws on his wealth of experience to do this).
Kelly, T and Littman, J, 2001. The Art Of Innovation: Success Through Innovation the IDEO Way. 1st ed. London: England: Profile Books Ltd.
(Takes the reader behind the scenes of a very innovative company).
Moggridge, B, 2007. Designing Interactions. 1st ed. London: England: The MIT Press.
(Bill Moggridge explains the interaction between humans and computers with items from more than forty influential designers).
Moggridge, B, 2007. Designing Interactions. 1st ed. Spain: MIT Press.
(Traces the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome).
Plassman, B. 2008. Memexerciser. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cmu.edu/qolt/QoLTFoundry/documents/memexerciser_factsheet.pdf. [Accessed 20 April 11].
(Explains what the MemeXerciser is and what it hopes to achieve with memory loss suffers).
Pullin, G, 2009. Design Meets Disability. 1st ed. London: MIT Press.
(Explores how the topic meets another e.g. fashion meets discretion and design meets disability).
Sacks, O, 1985. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. 1st ed. London: Picador.
(A collection of case studies which describe what can go wrong with a persons' memory).
Smith, D. Dr. 2004. Living with Alzheimer's Disease. 3rd ed. London: Sheldon Press.
(Dr Smith explores parts of the brain that cause Alzheimer's Disease, existing treatments and future medical developments).
Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent. 2011. Up to three-quarters of dementia sufferers undiagnosed. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8353257/Up-to-three-quarters-of-dementia-sufferers-undiagnosed.html#. [Accessed 05 March 11].
(Almost three-quarter of dementia sufferers go undiagnosed because of the lingering shame over the condition. It may be that some GPs believe that not very much can be done when they are diagnosed).
Suchet, J, 2010. My Bonnie: How Dementia Stole The Love Of My Life. 1st ed. London: Harper Collins.
(Living with someone with Dementia. The book is part story/part diary).
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