• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.1590-1609
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• 2021

Laughter is one of the most important nonverbal sound that human generates. It is a means for expressing his emotions. The acoustic and contextual features of this specific sound are different from those of speech and many difficulties arise during their modeling process. During this work, we propose an audio laughter generation system based on unsupervised generative models: the autoencoder (AE) and its variants. This procedure is the association of three main sub-process, (1) the analysis which consist of extracting the log magnitude spectrogram from the laughter database, (2) the generative models training, (3) the synthesis stage which incorporate the involvement of an intermediate mechanism: the vocoder. To improve the synthesis quality, we suggest two hybrid models (LSTM-VAE, GRU-VAE and CNN-VAE) that combine the representation learning capacity of variational autoencoder (VAE) with the temporal modelling ability of a long short-term memory RNN (LSTM) and the CNN ability to learn invariant features. To figure out the performance of our proposed audio laughter generation process, objective evaluation (RMSE) and a perceptual audio quality test (listening test) were conducted. According to these evaluation metrics, we can show that the GRU-VAE outperforms the other VAE models.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.197-204
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• 2021

Objective: This study is based on a parallax design before and after a non-equivalent control group to examine the effects of laughter therapy on the anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with cancer admitted to a nursing hospital. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Methods: Data collection was conducted on 34 patients who agreed to participate in the study among patients admitted to E Cancer Hospital from September to November 2018. Laughter treatment interventions were performed three times a week for 50 minutes each and a total of eight times. In this study, a tool developed by Spielberger was used to measure state anxiety, a tool developed by Beck was used to measure depression, and the Perceived Stress Scaled eveloped by Cohen was used to measure stress. Results: Anxiety was significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group (F=10.74, p=0.003). Depression was lower in both the experimental group and the control group that did not participate in the laughter therapy intervention and was not significant (F=0.58, p=0.451). Stress was significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group (F=4.36, p=0.045). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that laughter therapy has a positive effect on reducing anxiety and stress in patients with cancer admitted to nursing hospitals.

• 임상간호연구
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.105-114
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply laughter therapy to clinical practice and investigate its effects on patients' anxiety and depression in order to increase the quality of nursing for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: The study was conducted based on the non-equivalent control group pretestposttest design. The participants include 20 patients with IBD in the control group and 17 in the experiment group. Data was collected from July 10th, 2011 to January 22nd, 2012. Laughter therapy was administered once a day for five consecutive days. Results: The anxiety score was significantly different between the two groups and indicates that laughter therapy is effective for reducing anxiety among patients with IBD. Futhermore, there were differences in the depression scores of the experiment group between the pre-test and post-test, but no significant differences were found between the two groups. Conclusion: The results show that laughter therapy was effective in reducing anxiety among patients with IBD but did not decrease depression directly. Considering that the experiment group had a bigger reduction rate in depression scores than the control group. However, it is expected that laughter therapy will serve as an emotional nursing intervention for patients with IBD.

• 디지털융복합연구
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• 제15권9호
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• pp.511-518
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• 2017

본 연구에서는 웃음치료 프로그램이 성인 여성의 삶의 만족과 정서인식 명확성에 미치는 효과가 어떠한지를 검증하고자 하였다. 연구대상은 B광역시에 소재한 성인 여성이며 실험 참여에 동의한 여성 90명을 선발하여 무작위로 통제집단 45명, 실험집단 45명으로 배치하였다. 실험집단에서는 주 1회 50분씩 15주간 총 15회기에 걸쳐 웃음치료 프로그램을 실시하였고, 통제집단에서는 같은 기간 동안 어떠한 프로그램도 실시하지 않았다. 웃음치료 프로그램 효과성 검증을 위해 SPSS 23 프로그램을 이용하였고, 독립표본 t-검증과 공분산분석(Analysis of Covariance)을 사용하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 웃음치료 프로그램이 성인 여성의 삶의 만족을 통계적으로 유의미하게 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 웃음치료 프로그램이 성인 여성의 정서인식 명확성을 통계적으로 유의미하게 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 본 연구의 의의와 제한점 및 추후 연구과제에 대해 논의하였다.

• 동서간호학연구지
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.47-52
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• 2012

Purpose: The design of this study is a nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized quasi-experimental study. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of laughter therapy on pain and anxiety of patients with postmastectomy. Methods: The participants were 33 patients admitted for mastectomy in a college affiliated hospital (17 patients in experimental group and 16 patients in control group from November, 2008 to March, 2009). The registered nurse who were certified as the 1st degree laughter specialist implemented the intervention once a day for 30 minutes from the 2nd day to the 6th day after surgery when visited them. Date were analyzed using t, Mann-Whitney U test, repeated measures of ANOVA, paired t-test, or ANCOVA. Results: The level of pain was significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group. Since the level of pain in all participants was reduced as time passed, the interaction effect between time and group existed. The level of anxiety was significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion: Based on the results, the laughter therapy may be recommended as an useful intervention to effectively reduce the levels of pain and anxiety among patients with postmastectomy.

• 한국학교보건학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.111-119
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of laughter therapy programs on middle school students' happiness, self-esteem and school life adaptation. Methods: In total, 60 students (Experimental group= 30. Control group=30) were recruited to answer a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of questions about general characteristics, happiness, self-esteem and school life adaptation. The experimental group participated in a 45-minute laughter therapy program once a week for eight weeks, while the control group did not. Results: The scores of happiness(t=-4.68, p<.001), self-esteem(t=-3.38, p=.001), and school life adaptation(t=-3.76, p<.001) in the experimental group got significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion: Based on this study results, laughter therapy programs should be applied to improve happiness, self-esteem, and school life adaptation of middle school students.

• 임상간호연구
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.83-93
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• 2010

Purpose: This study identified effects of laughter therapy administered to mastectomy patients as an adaptive coping mechanism. Methods: The study design was a non-synchronized design with a non-equivalent control group. Participants were 40 patients admitted to S hospital in Busan from July 1 to October 10, 2008. The laughter therapy was provided to the experimental group for 20 minutes, four times per week for 2 weeks in each patient's room. Results: The experimental and control groups showed significant differences in Mood (t=-2.314, p=.032), and Stress (t=-2.535 p=.020). Pain and serum cortisol in the experimental and control groups did not show any significant difference. Conclusion: Based on the findings the laughter therapy has significant effects on mastectomy patients' mood and stress.

• 한국융합학회논문지
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.199-208
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• 2016

본 연구의 목적은 노인에게 10주 동안 주 2회씩 60분간의 웃음치료프로그램을 적용하여 노인의 성공적 노화와 스트레스에 미치는 영향을 알아보는 것이다. 연구대상자는 선정기준에 따라 실험군은 S시 소재의 문화원에서 비교군과 대조군은 S시 소재의 노인정에서 각 그룹당 25명씩 편의 표집하였다. 자료 분석은 SPSS 19.0을 이용하여 공변량 분석을(ANCOVA) 하였다. 10주 동안의 웃음치료프로그램을 실시한 결과, 실험군은 비교군과 대조군보다 노인의 성공적 노화를 향상시키고, 스트레스를 감소시키는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 다양한 노인 문제가 부각되는 현 실정에서 본 연구를 통하여 웃음치료프로그램의 과학적인 근거를 검증하고 적용할 수 있는 근거를 마련하였다.

• 지역사회간호학회지
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.72-80
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of subjective xerostomia and salivary pH in salivary glands stimulated by laughter therapy in frail elderly women. Methods: The research used a one-group pretest-posttest design. Data were collected from July 2, 2015 to September 30, 2015. A sample of 41 frail female elderly patients was recruited at A Nursing Home in K City, Korea. We measured xerostomia and salivary pH using a questionnaire and BCP test paper (pH 5.6~7.2). Laughter therapy was given once a week for four weeks (3 items). Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, paired t-test and Cronbach's using the SPSS 18.0 program. Results: There were significant differences in salivary pH according to oral health (t=-2.06, p<.05). There were significant differences in xerostomia (t=4.41, p<.001) and salivary pH (t=-7.94, p<.001) after salivary glands stimulated by laughter therapy. Conclusion: Salivary glands stimulated by laughter therapy improved xerostomia and salivary pH of the frail elderly. Therefore, salivary glands stimulated by laughter therapy may be useful in promoting and maintaining oral health among the frail elderly in the rapidly increasing population of old people.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.188-198
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of laughter therapy on depression, anxiety, fatigue, and quality of sleep in gastrointestinal cancer survivors. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial. We compared the effect of laughter therapy with usual care only in post chemotherapy gastrointestinal patients. Outcomes included changes in depression and anxiety (according to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), fatigue (according to the Fatigue Severity Scale), and quality of sleep (according to the Verran & Synder-Halpern Sleep Scale). Data was collected July 2015 through January 2016. Seventy nine participants who agreed to participate in this study were randomized to either the experimental group (n= 40) or the control group (n= 39). Therapy included eight sessions (60 minutes each, once weekly). Data were analyzed using the Windows SPSS 22.0 program. Results: Laughter therapy was effective in reducing fatigue (p= .019) and increasing satisfaction of sleep (p= .030). There were no differences between the groups after therapy for depression (p= .129) and anxiety (p= .200). Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that laughter therapy may be an effective nursing intervention for improving the health status of gastrointestinal cancer survivors after chemotherapy.