Possibilities of human healing through music: the Igbo experience

There are numerous instabilities in virtually all aspects of human life. In this present era, people suffer from many illnesses that affect man emotionally, physically, mentally and even socially such as mental disorder, autism, hypertension, heart attack among others. Studies have shown that some of these illnesses could be handled with appropriate music type but the problem is that most people are ignorant of the power of music in maintaining good health. Some people in the profession are also ignorant of the power of what they have or how to apply it where necessary. This paper aimed at revealing the possibilities of maintaining good health through music with particular reference to the Igbo people of Nigeria. It centred on the ability of music to improve the mental, physical, emotional, social, aesthetic and spiritual health of patients. It employed a multidimensional approach involving musicological, sociological, historical and anthropological tools which included participant observation, bibliographical disco graphic and interview of informants. This paper revealed that music has always been an indispensable art in human existence. It has many effects on human health. It improves brain function, repairs brain damage, boost immune system, reduce stress levels, and aid stroke recovery. It therefore recommends among others that serious awareness should be created in different institutions, markets, and churches of the power of music in healing. More hospitals should engage the services of music therapists to help their patients to experience fast healing through music. There should be formation of music therapy guild which should incorporate as many musicians as possible who are going to be more engaged in human healing through music. This paper will be beneficial and useful to scholars, hospitals and individuals who come across it. It will be an eye opener for lots of people who are ignorant of the power of music in human healing.Keywords: Human, Healing, Music, Problem, Possibilitie

Walking in Another's Virtual Shoes: Do 360-Degree Video News Stories Generate Empathy in Viewers?

Does immersion yield empathy? The aim of this report is to address the question of whether news media—in this instance, short-form journalistic stories—presented in a 360-degree video format affects a user’s empathetic response to the material. If so, what might the advantage of such a response be, and could it include improvement in a viewer’s ability to recall the content over time or a resulting behavioral change? Naturally, part of the study will deconstruct what we mean by such a nebulous term as “empathetic” and how exactly it can be measured. The study both investigates if particular audiences are likely to respond empathetically to certain narratives and analyzes the component parts of immersive experiences—comfort level, interactivity, and perceived amount of user agency—that contribute to producing an empathetic response. It also aims to answer whether the virtual reality (VR) format is better suited to particular stories or audiences, as well as the potential for unintended, antithetical effects in this embryonic medium such as a user’s perception of personal space invasion or the feeling that they are not looking in the right direction. Results from our study of 180 people viewing five-minute treatments comprised of either 360-degree video or text articles monitored user reactions and their sense of immersion on the day of their first exposure to the narrative treatment, as well as two and five weeks later

The Montclarion March 31, 2022

Student Newspaper of Montclair State Universityhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/montclarion/2561/thumbnail.jp

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Ficino, Avicenna and the Occult Powers of the Rational Soul

Argues that the received account of Ficino's magic, that it is a gentle, natural or spiritus-based magic, are inadequate and that in some little-read passages of his Platonic Theology Ficino revealed his belief in the possibility of a higher and more powerful "angelic" magic based in the rational soul.Histor

A Survey on Deep Multi-modal Learning for Body Language Recognition and Generation

Body language (BL) refers to the non-verbal communication expressed through physical movements, gestures, facial expressions, and postures. It is a form of communication that conveys information, emotions, attitudes, and intentions without the use of spoken or written words. It plays a crucial role in interpersonal interactions and can complement or even override verbal communication. Deep multi-modal learning techniques have shown promise in understanding and analyzing these diverse aspects of BL. The survey emphasizes their applications to BL generation and recognition. Several common BLs are considered i.e., Sign Language (SL), Cued Speech (CS), Co-speech (CoS), and Talking Head (TH), and we have conducted an analysis and established the connections among these four BL for the first time. Their generation and recognition often involve multi-modal approaches. Benchmark datasets for BL research are well collected and organized, along with the evaluation of SOTA methods on these datasets. The survey highlights challenges such as limited labeled data, multi-modal learning, and the need for domain adaptation to generalize models to unseen speakers or languages. Future research directions are presented, including exploring self-supervised learning techniques, integrating contextual information from other modalities, and exploiting large-scale pre-trained multi-modal models. In summary, this survey paper provides a comprehensive understanding of deep multi-modal learning for various BL generations and recognitions for the first time. By analyzing advancements, challenges, and future directions, it serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in advancing this field. n addition, we maintain a continuously updated paper list for deep multi-modal learning for BL recognition and generation: https://github.com/wentaoL86/awesome-body-language

The Handheld Image: Art, History and Embodiment

This thesis investigates how images become present through movement and bodily performance. Inspiring this investigation are the contemporary practices of viewers engaging with still and moving images of people on their handheld screen devices. These practices are not only central to contemporary visuality, they also provide a focus for two wider themes relating to images of people: first, the dynamic tension between image control and circulation; and second, the mutual contestation of the physical and the virtual. To explore the struggle between image control and circulation, this thesis compares the dissemination of the twenty-first-century digital image with two historical instances of the handheld image: the sixteenth-century portrait miniature and the nineteenth-century carte de visite photographic portrait. While the physical control of the portrait miniature was paramount, the carte de visite, as the first form of mass-produced photograph, betrays the social benefits and perils of the shift from control to circulation. These historical forms are augmented through a consideration of contemporary moving-image portraiture that reveals the portrait as an interface for the interrelated demands and desires of artists, portrait subjects, and viewers. Having tracked handheld images through the sixteenth-century bedchamber and the nineteenth-century parlour, this thesis then follows handheld devices into the twenty-first-century bed to witness the contest between the somatic and the virtual: between the vulnerable, fatigued body and the seductions of online screen engagement. This thesis challenges the view that an image becomes more powerful through unfettered circulation. Rather it proposes that the potency of an image is powered by the contestation of meaning and memory, through the struggle between circulation and control. It is through these moments of struggle, and the unstable fluctuations between the actual and the virtual, that the image becomes present

Augmented Reality and Robotics: A Survey and Taxonomy for AR-enhanced Human-Robot Interaction and Robotic Interfaces

This paper contributes to a taxonomy of augmented reality and robotics based on a survey of 460 research papers. Augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) have emerged as a new way to enhance human-robot interaction (HRI) and robotic interfaces (e.g., actuated and shape-changing interfaces). Recently, an increasing number of studies in HCI, HRI, and robotics have demonstrated how AR enables better interactions between people and robots. However, often research remains focused on individual explorations and key design strategies, and research questions are rarely analyzed systematically. In this paper, we synthesize and categorize this research field in the following dimensions: 1) approaches to augmenting reality; 2) characteristics of robots; 3) purposes and benefits; 4) classification of presented information; 5) design components and strategies for visual augmentation; 6) interaction techniques and modalities; 7) application domains; and 8) evaluation strategies. We formulate key challenges and opportunities to guide and inform future research in AR and robotics

Popular Education and Community Food Security: Contemplating Spaces for Food Systems Change

There are many problems that result from the contemporary industrial food system, vested as it is in capitalist interests, the scientific paradigm, and continual expansion and progress (Handy and Fehr, 2010). One such problem largely created from this system, is food insecurity, which particularly affects vulnerable and low-income communities McIntyre, 2003). Due to cuts in social provision and welfare, the effects of food insecurity have become exacerbated, while food banks and other charitable solutions have taken on the responsibility of addressing it (Riches, 2002). However, these initiatives have failed to substantially reduce food insecurity and have largely depoliticized issues of hunger while helping to marginalize and stigmatize people who cannot afford food. With the understanding that there are immense limitations and shortcomings within food security policy in Canada, and Toronto more specifically, this paper is dedicated to better understanding the community organizing realm, particularly what community food centres (CFCs), and community food organizations are doing in response to food insecurity in Toronto. As the community sphere has responded to food insecurity, this topic is worth researching in order that we can optimize these spaces. This paper explores the role of current spaces for food security on the community organizing level, while endeavouring to understand what makes these spaces meaningful, and envisioning how these community spaces might become more ideal. Within this paper, the concept of meaningful or ideal is distinguished based on three main categories from existing literature: food security, popular education, and community organizing and social movements. Lastly, I look at some of the challenges that community organizations currently face, and may face in moving toward more meaningful or ideal work. The methodologies employed are semi-structured interviews with employees of CFCs in Toronto, as well as an arts-based workshop with community members from the Riverdale Food Working Group’s (RFWG) three good food markets (GFMs), designed to better situate their personal experiences within spaces for food-getting. It is through these primary explorations that I better distinguish what is considered meaningful and ideal in the context of community work for food security. My primary data, in conjunction with the literature, suggest that scales of local and global, and inside-outside organizing related to food security, are fluid and flexible concepts, and CFCs are able to operate in and outside of these “categories” in order to get their work done. Conversely, the primary data and literature suggest the concept of process is prioritized above outcome-based instances of food-getting in relation to process-based organizing and participatory foodgetting. Thus, this criterion is integral to the orchestration of CFC spaces. It is important to note that this paper is inherently process-based, and thus, hearing the voices of those who are involved in community food work, as well as those who may be marginalized and excluded from dominant narratives and systems of food-getting, was as important as any findings. Lastly, this paper is structured as popular education praxis: theory, action, and reflection, and it is my hope that it will continue a cycle of dialogue, critical awareness, and further action

Popular Education and Community Food Security: Contemplating Spaces for Food Systems Change

There are many problems that result from the contemporary industrial food system, vested as it is in capitalist interests, the scientific paradigm, and continual expansion and progress (Handy and Fehr, 2010). One such problem largely created from this system, is food insecurity, which particularly affects vulnerable and low-income communities McIntyre, 2003). Due to cuts in social provision and welfare, the effects of food insecurity have become exacerbated, while food banks and other charitable solutions have taken on the responsibility of addressing it (Riches, 2002). However, these initiatives have failed to substantially reduce food insecurity and have largely depoliticized issues of hunger while helping to marginalize and stigmatize people who cannot afford food. With the understanding that there are immense limitations and shortcomings within food security policy in Canada, and Toronto more specifically, this paper is dedicated to better understanding the community organizing realm, particularly what community food centres (CFCs), and community food organizations are doing in response to food insecurity in Toronto. As the community sphere has responded to food insecurity, this topic is worth researching in order that we can optimize these spaces. This paper explores the role of current spaces for food security on the community organizing level, while endeavouring to understand what makes these spaces meaningful, and envisioning how these community spaces might become more ideal. Within this paper, the concept of meaningful or ideal is distinguished based on three main categories from existing literature: food security, popular education, and community organizing and social movements. Lastly, I look at some of the challenges that community organizations currently face, and may face in moving toward more meaningful or ideal work. The methodologies employed are semi-structured interviews with employees of CFCs in Toronto, as well as an arts-based workshop with community members from the Riverdale Food Working Group’s (RFWG) three good food markets (GFMs), designed to better situate their personal experiences within spaces for food-getting. It is through these primary explorations that I better distinguish what is considered meaningful and ideal in the context of community work for food security. My primary data, in conjunction with the literature, suggest that scales of local and global, and inside-outside organizing related to food security, are fluid and flexible concepts, and CFCs are able to operate in and outside of these “categories” in order to get their work done. Conversely, the primary data and literature suggest the concept of process is prioritized above outcome-based instances of food-getting in relation to process-based organizing and participatory foodgetting. Thus, this criterion is integral to the orchestration of CFC spaces. It is important to note that this paper is inherently process-based, and thus, hearing the voices of those who are involved in community food work, as well as those who may be marginalized and excluded from dominant narratives and systems of food-getting, was as important as any findings. Lastly, this paper is structured as popular education praxis: theory, action, and reflection, and it is my hope that it will continue a cycle of dialogue, critical awareness, and further action