Morten Aagaard

Touching the Future Technology for Autism

Periodontal disease has been recently linked to a variety of systemic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, preterm delivery, and oral cancer. The most common bacteria associated with periodontal disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) has not yet been studied in the malignant gingival tissues. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis in specimens from squamous cell carcinoma patients. We have performed immunohistochemical staining to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis and Streptococcus gordonii (S. gordonii), a non invasive oral bacteria, in paraffin embedded samples of gingival squamous cell carcinoma (n=10) and normal gingiva (n=5). Staining for P. gingivalis revealed the presence of the bacteria in normal gingival tissues and gingival carcinoma, with higher levels (more than 33%, P<0.05) detected in the carcinoma samples. The staining intensity was also significantly enhanced in the malignant tissue by 2 folds (P<0.023) compared to specimens stained for the non-invasive S. gordonii. P. gingivalis is abundantly present in malignant oral epithelium suggesting a potential association of the bacteria with gingival squamous cell carcinoma.

Developing persuasive technology for ASD challenged teenagers

The HANDS project suggests the use of Mobile Persuasion in order to support teenagers with an autism diagnosis and normal or high IQ. The paper offers a description of the HANDS toolset and its potential. The HANDS toolset has been evaluated at four schools for teenagers with autism over a period of 7 months. The paper presents the main conclusions from this evaluation and some perspectives of the use of systems like HANDS are discussed.