A surgical virtual environment for navigating experience.

A computer generated pre-surgical planning and teaching environment is proposed for training and evaluating novice surgeons. Although this environment is generic and can be put into practice in any medical specialisation where such 3D imaging techniques are in use, in this project we specifically focus on vascular surgery. This environment will be developed as part of the DIME project (Distributed Interactive Medical Exploratory). We are building this Virtual Environment (VE) using a new navigational metaphor, which includes modelling the learning process, rather than the operating room

A Surgical Virtual Learning Environment

A computer based Virtual Learning Environment is proposed for training and evaluating novice surgeons. Although this Virtual Learning Environments is thought to be useful in other learning situations as well, especially where knowledge of different complex procedures and the ability to correctly assess a complex situation is critical, in this project we specifically focus on vascular surgery. This environment will be developed as part of the DIME project (Distributed Interactive Medical Exploratory). We are building this Virtual Learning Environment using a new navigational metaphor, which affords modeling the learning process, rather than focusing solely on modeling the operating room. This 'navigational metaphor' can be thought of as an semi-threedimensional interface to a database containing multimedia fragments and expert annotations of the knowledge domain under study

Correlated multi-streaming in distributed interactive multimedia systems

Distributed Interactive Multimedia Environments (DIMEs) enable geographically distributed people to interact with each other in a joint media-rich virtual environment for a wide range of activities, such as art performance, medical consultation, sport training, etc. The real-time collaboration is made possible by exchanging a set of multi-modal sensory streams over the network in real time. The characterization and evaluation of such multi-stream interactive environments is challenging because the traditional Quality of Service metrics (e.g., delay, jitter) are limited to a per stream basis. In this work, we present a novel ???Bundle of Streams??? concept to de???ne correlated multi-streams in DIMEs and present new cyber-physical, spatio-temporal QoS metrics to measure QoS over bundle of streams. We realize Bundle of Streams concept by presenting a novel paradigm of Bundle Streaming as a Service (SAS). We propose and develop SAS Kernel, a generic, distributed, modular and highly ???exible streaming kernel realizing SAS concept. We validate the Bundle of Streams model by comparing the QoS performance of bundle of streams over different transport protocols in a 3D tele-immersive testbed. Also, further experiments demonstrate that the SAS Kernel incurs low overhead in delay, CPU, and bandwidth demands

Virtual and augmented reality as enablers for improving the service on distributed assets

The evolution of Augment and Virtual Reality is enabling new solutions. This paper addresses creation of applications to support service and maintenance of distributed systems. Indeed this approach could be applied to devices provided as service for industrial and individual use and could introduce new capabilities in terms of training for operators, control and remote service support. The paper presents a case study devoted to lead the introduction of these innovative solutions in industrial and health care system

Collaboration in pharmaceutical research: Exploration of country-level determinants.

In this paper we focus on proximity as one of the main determinants of international collaboration in pharmaceutical research. We use various count data specifications of the gravity model to estimate the intensity of collaboration between pairs of countries as explained by the geographical, cognitive, institutional, social, and cultural dimensions of proximity. Our results suggest that geographical distance has a significant negative relation to the collaboration intensity between countries. The amount of previous collaborations, as a proxy for social proximity, is positively related to the number of cross-country collaborations. We do not find robust significant associations between cognitive proximity or institutional proximity with the intensity of international research collaboration. Moreover, there is no robust and significant relation between the interaction terms of geographical distance with social, cognitive, or institutional proximity, and international research collaboration. Our findings for cultural proximity do not allow of unambiguous conclusions concerning their influence on the collaboration intensity between countries. Linguistic ties among countries are associated with a higher amount of cross-country research collaboration but we find no clear association for historical and colonial linkages.International Cooperation, Pharmaceuticals, Proximity

Innovation: Exploring the knowledge base

New types of knowledge, and new ways of organising the production of it, may emerge as knowledge producers respond to the challenges posed by a changing society. This study will focus on the core knowledge of one such emerging field, namely, innovation studies, i.e. the attempt to understand the social process which enables the continuation of qualitative improvements of products, technologies, and the organisation of economic activities. To explore the knowledge base of innovation, a new data base of references in scholarly surveys of various aspects of innovation, mostly published in “handbooks”, is developed. The paper describes the process that led to the construction of the data base and its exploitation in identifying the core literature on innovation. Furthermore, the characteristics of this literature, the central contributors and the use of the literature (as reflected by references to this core literature in scholarly journals) are analysed. Finally, cluster analysis is used to make inferences about how the field is structured and its links with different disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts.Innovation, cross-disciplinarity, emerging scientific field, social science

Advice from the Field: Youth Employment Programs and Unintended Pregnancy

This report further explores the connection between the fields of pregnancy prevention and youth employment. It provides "advice from the field" from five youth employment providers about their efforts to combat unintended pregnancy and to provide family planning services. In addition, it includes interviews with two experts in the youth employment and teen pregnancy prevention fields, who provide advice and essential information for practitioners. This report is intended to provide "how-to's" for staff in the youth employment field who wish to more innovatively integrate reproductive health education and unintended pregnancy prevention services into their programs