Hug Machine

"Watch out, here comes The Hug Machine! Whether you are big, or small, or square, or long, or spikey, or soft, no one can resist his unbelievable hugs!"--Back cover.

Do you have an autistic child or know someone who has autism?Do you understand the special needs of an autistic person? Sometimes it is hard to understand that an autistic child is trapped within themselves without the ability to communicate or socially interact with others. While there is no cause or cure yet, autism can be treated and according to the level of severity, many adult autistic people can enjoy a rich, fulfilling life.How do parents cope with a lifetime of caring and nurturing an autistic child? You can scan a thousand websites and read hundreds of books and most people will still not have a completer understanding of autism and how it affects the child... This book gives you the answers you're looking for.

The proceedings gather a selection of refereed papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research 2018 (KEER 2018), which was held in Kuching, Malaysia from 19 to 22 March 2018. The contributions address the latest advances in and innovative applications of Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research. The subjects include: Kansei, Emotion and Games Kansei, Emotion and Computing Kansei, Emotion and Wellbeing / Quality of Life Kansei, Emotion and Design Kansei, Emotion and Health / Ergonomics Kansei, Emotion and Multidisciplinary Fields Kansei, Emotion and Culture Kansei, Emotion and Social computing Kansei, Emotion and Evaluation Kansei, Emotion and User Experience The book offers a valuable resource for all graduate students, experienced researchers and industrial practitioners interested in the fields of user experience/usability, engineering design, human factors, quality management, product development and design.

Touch, taste, smell, hear, and see your way to better self-care and mental well-being. Let's face it: We all feel stress. Deep breathing, meditation, and yoga only go so far, and not being able to sit still and be alone with our thoughts isn't that unusual. The mind is designed to engage with the world around us, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding what calms us because we are so unique in our circumstances, our lifestyles, our finances, and our interests. 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress explores different ways each of our five senses can help bring more calm and less stress into our lives. Whether through touch, sight, taste, smell, or sound, each activity includes research or science-backed studies that support why it offers health and wellness benefits as well as ways you can incorporate them into your own life. The best part—most of the activities are either low or no cost and can be done inside your own home or right outside your door. Activities include: The magic of gardening Losing yourself while doodling Culinary therapy The nostalgic power of perfume Nature therapy Bathing in sound Capturing a memory Slow reading If your brain constantly feels like an internet browser with thirty-five tabs open, or if you want to quiet the noise in your head long enough to think about what matters most in your life, this book is for you.

JPod, Douglas Coupland's most acclaimed novel to date, is a lethal joyride into today's new breed of tech worker. Ethan Jarlewski and five co-workers whose surnames begin with "J" are bureaucratically marooned in jPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver game design company. The jPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a boneheaded marketing staff, who daily torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan's personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people-smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. JPod's universe is amoral, shameless, and dizzyingly fast-paced like our own. Praise for JPod: "JPod is a sleek and necessary device: the finely tuned output of an author whose obsolescence is thankfully years away."-New York Times Book Review"It's to [Coupland's] credit that in JPod he's still nimble enough to take the post-modern man-too young for Boomer nostalgia and too old for youthful idealism-and drown his sorrows in a willful, joyful satire that revels in the same cultural conventions that it sends up."-Rocky Mountain News "It's time to admire [Coupland's] virtuoso tone and how he has refined it over 11 novels. The master ironist just might redefine E. M. Forster's famous dictate 'Only connect' for the Google age."-USA Today "Zeitgeist surfer Douglas Coupland downloads his brain into JPod."-Vanity Fair

During the past decade of working with children with autism, I have found that misconceptions abounds. It is not certain why some people are wired cognitively different, appears and behaves differently, nor is it certain why rainbows arise. The fact remains that these events occur and must be embraced. Working with children who have autism have not always been easy neither has it been difficult. I have felt joy in the little progress made. I have also expressed frustration at my inability to fully understand the condition and thereby have the ability to effect change. Here lies the crux of the matter, the desire to gain information in order to manipulate changes, in effect to change a person to become like everyone else? No one can do that moreover, it is a wrong approach, best to work with what is now; seek not to improve on creation and reinvent a new person. Autism is constant; autism is predictable; autism is unvarying in its behavior, its rigidity and its resistance to change.

This textbook presents the essential research findings on human touch and haptic perception in a concise manner for students and health professionals. Focusing on anatomical, neural and physiological as well as psychological, social and clinical aspects, the scope of this book ranges from the fetus in the womb to the older adult in need of care. The chapters can be read individually or consecutively, and cross-chapter content is indicated by chapter references. Key learning points are highlighted at the end of each section, and figures, illustrations, and references facilitate the learning process. The quality of the presented study results has been critically analyzed and only randomized controlled studies are reported, which gives the reader a critical representation of the current state of knowledge. The textbook also provides valuable suggestions for future research by noting blind spots in existing research, and by pointing to methodological challenges in the implementation of high quality studies. Hence, this textbook is not only a representation of current knowledge, but also an epistemological analysis of the research process. There has been a surge of research about the sense of touch in the past ten years, which is incorporated in this book. This textbook will be an invaluable tool for physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses and other health professionals in everyday professional life.

Firmly grounding this subject in facts while providing advice for those affected by Autism Sprectrum Disorder (ASD)—both directly and indirectly—this book will be of interest to young adults as well as to their family members and friends. As a result, readers will better understand how to interact and work with those with ASD as well as gain a broader acceptance of those who may be different. With helpful advice and a list of resources, Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Ultimate Teen Guide is a much needed book for anyone wanting to know more about Autism Spectrum Disorder.