Eye Blink Classification for Assisting Disability to Communicate Using Bagging and Boosting

Disability is a physical or mental impairment. People with disability have more barriers to do certain activity than those without disability. Moreover, several conditions make them having difficulty to communicate with other people. Currently, researchers have helped people with disabilities by developing brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, which uses artifact on electroencephalograph (EEG) as a communication tool using blinks. Research on eye blinks has only focused on the threshold and peak amplitude, while the difference in how many blinks can be detected using peak amplitude has not been the focus yet. This study used primary data taken using a Muse headband on 15 subjects. This data was used as a dataset classified using bagging (random forest) and boosting (XGBoost) methods with python; 80% of the data was allocated for learning and 20% was for testing. The classified data was divided into ten times of testing, which were then averaged. The number of eye blinks’ classification results showed that the accuracy value using random forest was 77.55%, and the accuracy result with the XGBoost method was 90.39%. The result suggests that the experimental model is successful and can be used as a reference for making applications that help people to communicate by differentiating the number of eye blinks. This research focused on developing the number of eye blinks. However, in this study, only three blinking were used so that further research could increase these number.

Cartesian Dualism, Real and Literary Madness in the Regency, and the Mind and Madness in Austen’s Novels

Austen’s ability to represent psychologically plausible characters poses the question of what she would have known about the mind and its disorders. An answer requires insight into the ways the mentally afflicted were treated during the Regency and mind and madness understood by some of Austen’s literary influences (William Shakespeare, James Boswell, and Elizabeth Hamilton). Austen’s depiction of mind and madness in her novels contrasts with what she knew and wrote about medicine and medical practices for physical illnesses and injuries. The tenor of the times and the circumspect treatment of mind and madness in her novels, in turn, suggest that whatever firsthand knowledge she would have had from witnessing mental impairment in two family members was scrupulously hidden.

Growing Enlightenment: Sentencing Offenders with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Australia

The number of defendants raising an Autism Spectrum Disorder (‘ASD’) diagnosis in criminal proceedings is increasing. Australian courts treat this neurodevelopmental disorder as a mental impairment that they may take into account in sentencing. A few studies nonetheless exposed deficiencies in judicial officers’ understanding of ASD symptoms and their potential forensic relevance. Courts’ willingness to rely on expert evidence did not always lead to them sentencing offenders with ASD in a consistent or enlightened manner. Building on those investigations and drawing on research into ASD, this article examines sentencing decisions involving eight offenders with ASD in various Australian jurisdictions between 2014 and 2020. This analysis demonstrates that judicial officers’ knowledge about ASD and appreciation of its possible relevance to sentencing considerations are growing, but there remain gaps in both respects. The article speculates on possible reasons for this and proposes reforms to improve courts’ approaches to sentencing offenders with ASD.

Oro-Dental Manifestations in a Pediatric Patient Affected by Helsmoortel-Van der Aa Syndrome

Aim: Aim of this case report is to describe oro-facial abnormalities in a patient affected by Helsmoortel-Van der Aa syndrome, a rare autism syndrome, with not well described dental and cranial malformations. Case Report: Helsmoortel-Van der Aa Syndrome is a rare autosomal genetic syndrome causing mental impairment and autism, craniofacial dysmorphism, chest deformity and multiple organs dysfunction. Oro-facial involvement in Helsmoortel-Van der Aa syndrome has not been thoroughly described yet. The present article reports a case of a 9 years old male patient affected by Helsmoortel-Van der Aa Syndrome, presenting with oral breathing typical facies, high arched palate, II class and dental crowding. The patient teething was adequate to his age. The enamel of incisors and molars showed demineralization areas and dark spots, a clinical picture consistent with molar incisor hypomineralization syndrome. These hypo-mineralized areas are more susceptible to cavities, in fact the patient’s 4.6 tooth was decayed. The child was brought to our attention due to a mucocele on the lower lip, confirmed by histopathologic examination. Available data on oro-dental manifestation of this syndrome are rather poor and inconsistent, also due to the rarity of the disease. The finding of enamel abnormalities in the presented case could suggest a potential genetic etiopathogenesis linked to the same genes causing Helsmoortel-Van der Aa syndrome.

Morally excused but socially excluded: Denying agency through the defense of mental impairment

Defendants can deny they have agency, and thus responsibility, for a crime by using a defense of mental impairment. We argue that although this strategy may help defendants evade blame, it may carry longer-term social costs, as lay people’s perceptions of a person’s agency might determine some of the moral rights they grant them. In this registered report protocol, we seek to expand upon preliminary findings from two pilot studies to examine how and why those using the defense of mental impairment are seen as less deserving of certain rights. The proposed study uses a hypothetical vignette design, varying the type of mental impairment, type of crime, and type of sentence. Our design for the registered study improves on various aspects of our pilot studies and aims to rigorously test the reliability and credibility of our model. The findings have implications for defendants claiming reduced agency through legal defenses, as well as for the broader study of moral rights and mind perception.

The Case for the Abolition of Mental Health Law

Chapter 3 traces the history of opposition to mental health law including anti-psychiatry and the emergence of the disability rights movement explaining where the call for the abolition of mental health law has come from and why it has emerged in international human rights law now. It argues that the call for abolition is more than just a reaction to historically poor treatment, but is a qualitatively different basis for understanding mental impairment. It explains the Abolition with Support model and sets out the key arguments for the abolition of mental health law being that mental health law is a form of social control of non-conformists, that it is discriminatory and a denial of legal capacity, that free and informed consent is integral to the right to health, that it is an unjustified interference with liberty, that it is an unjustified interference with the integrity of the person, that it is a form of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and punishment, that it is inconsistent with the right to independent living, that it is ineffective and un-therapeutic, that there are better non-coercive alternatives, that it undermines the ‘dignity of risk’ of persons with mental impairment, and that mental health law is too ‘easy’ and creates a culture of coercion throughout the entire mental health system. While I ultimately argue against the abolition of mental health law in favour of substantial reform, I argue that it is important to listen to and properly understand abolitionists’ concerns in order to improve mental health law and include persons with mental impairment in the policy-making and health-care decision-making process.

Application of Inherent Dignity to the Abolition with Support Model

This chapter argues that inherent dignity is more than an abstract concept and must be understood within its social and political context. It applies the concept of inherent dignity in the disability context and to the Abolition with Support model. I argue that dignity is relevant to mental health in two ways. First, it relates to the loss of dignity that persons with mental impairment may experience by reason of their impairment itself and secondly by the way in which persons with mental impairment have historically been treated by the mental health system and society more generally. I consider the meaning of autonomy and the tensions between the concepts of dignity and autonomy. I argue that the meaning of dignity is wider than the legal recognition of autonomy. On a balanced and holistic reading of the CRPD which gives effect to all human rights, dignity may at times be given priority over autonomy, which could provide a human rights justification for limited detention and psychiatric treatment, rather than the abolition of mental health law. Nonetheless, the loss of dignity that is caused by the mental health system must also be addressed and provides a strong basis for significant systemic and legal reform.

Beauplaisir as a Disabled Libertine in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze

This paper aims to explore Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1725) in order to understand how “disability” was conceptualized by eighteenth-century authors. Beauplaisir is a libertine obsessed with pursuits of sexual pleasure with various women. In those sexual adventures, Beauplaisir constructs his abled libertine identity through his observation skills. In fact, Beauplaisir’s observation skills also render him disabled. Haywood’s portrayal of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity offers another way to examine meanings of disability in eighteenth-century literary works. As I will contend, the definition of “disability” was not limited to a person’s physical or mental impairment in the eighteenth century. Instead, an eighteenth-century person could become disabled when s/he lost certain qualifications for becoming a member of a particular group. The word “disabled” or “disability” was used in this way by eighteenth-century writers such as Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Swift. As I will show, Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity is a result of his being excluded from the abled libertine group. This exclusion results from a trick imposed on him by Fantomina. Thus, examinations of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity will point out another side of “disability.”

The Prevalence and Determinants of Being Offered and Accepting Operational Management Services—A Cohort Study

In Germany, employers are obliged to offer “operational integration management” (OIM) services to employees returning from long-term sick leave. OIM aims to improve employees’ workability and to prevent future sick leave or early retirement. This study examined (i) to what extent OIM services are offered to eligible employees, (ii) to what extent offers are accepted and (iii) the determinants of both outcomes. We used data from a cohort of employees eligible for OIM. Thirty-four potential determinants were assessed in 2013 (i.e., the baseline) using participant reports. In 2015 (i.e., the follow-up), participants were asked (a) whether they had ever been offered OIM services by their employer, and (b) whether they had accepted that offer (i.e., the outcomes). We estimated relative risks by multivariable binomial regression to identify predictors based on backward elimination. In total, 36.0% of the participants were offered OIM services and 77.2% of them accepted that offer. The likelihood of an OIM offer at follow-up was elevated in participants with mental impairment, cancer or long-term absenteeism and increased with organizational justice, neuroticism, and company size. The likelihood of accepting that OIM offer was positively associated with mental impairment and decreased with increasing company size.