421 research outputs found

    Researching animal research: What the humanities and social sciences can contribute to laboratory animal science and welfare

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    Every year around 80 million scientific procedures are carried out on animals globally. These experiments have the potential to generate new understandings of biology and clinical treatments. They also give rise to ongoing societal debate.This book demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to understanding what is created through animal procedures - including constitutional forms of research governance, different institutional cultures of care, the professional careers of scientists and veterinarians, collaborations with patients and publics, and research animals, specially bred for experiments or surplus to requirements.Developing the idea of the animal research nexus, this book explores how connections and disconnections are made between these different elements, how these have reshaped each other historically, and how they configure the current practice and policy of UK animal research

    Admissions Magazine Spring 2023

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    Altitude: Soaring Above and Beyond A 100,000-Foot Journey to the Upper Atmosphere. Business is our Business Education of a Higher Altitude: At Embry-Riddle, Daring to Think Big Isn\u27t Just in Our Curriculum - It\u27s a Way of Life Eagles Get Down to Business with Boeing Going for a Spin Detecting Emotion Shifting Gears Sparking Change Helping Athletes With STEM Above and Beyond Turtle Tech Power Lose the Illusion Training Tommorrow\u27s Cyber Warriors Design Build Fly Beyond the Stars and the Classroom Luck of the Eagles Student Becomes Teacher in Zambia Florida Campus Fusion on the Horizon Road Trip, anyone? Awarding Excellence Changing the Game Next Level Fitness Anchor. Belay. Lead. Arizona Campus Eagles Soar Above All Historic Softball Season a Huge Hit To Infinity and Beyond Explore Arizona Online Campus She\u27s Number One (Twice) Rewriting Herstory Investing in Myself Going all in on Aviation Engineered for Success Next Stepshttps://commons.erau.edu/admissions-magazine/1006/thumbnail.jp

    Grounds for a Third Place : The Starbucks Experience, Sirens, and Space

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    My goal in this dissertation is to help demystify or “filter” the “Starbucks Experience” for a post-pandemic world, taking stock of how a multi-national company has long outgrown its humble beginnings as a wholesale coffee bean supplier to become a digitally-integrated and hypermodern cafĂ©. I look at the role Starbucks plays within the larger cultural history of the coffee house and also consider how Starbucks has been idyllically described in corporate discourse as a comfortable and discursive “third place” for informal gathering, a term that also prescribes its own radical ethos as a globally recognized customer service platform. Attempting to square Starbucks’ iconography and rhetoric with a new critical methodology, in a series of interdisciplinary case studies, I examine the role Starbucks’ “third place” philosophy plays within larger conversations about urban space and commodity culture, analyze Starbucks advertising, architecture and art, and trace the mythical rise of the Starbucks Siren (and the reiterations and re-imaginings of the Starbucks Siren in art and media). While in corporate rhetoric Starbucks’ “third place” is depicted as an enthralling adventure, full of play, discovery, authenticity, or “romance,” I draw on critical theory to discuss how it operates today as a space of distraction, isolation, and loss

    Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2022-2023

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    Southern Adventist University\u27s undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2022-2023.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/undergrad_catalog/1121/thumbnail.jp

    Parading through a Circular Area Development with Arts and Sciences

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    In recent years, there has been increased attention toward art-science collaborations. Such collaborations encompass a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from artistic projects informed by technology and scientific research and vice versa, to novel forms of inquiry and communication at the intersection of the arts and sciences, combining diverse forms of knowledge and imagination. While such collaborations are not necessarily new, their recent manifestations allow us to gain insights into how complex societal challenges might be approached through multi-actor and disciplinary partnershi

    Supporting active learning through immersive mixed and virtual reality technologies

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    As the world economies continue to grow, natural resources are being used at such high rates that may negatively affect future generations. One of the issues is that the general population may know some solutions for reducing energy consumption, for example in transportation, but few may know about sustainable food production and sustainability concepts in a wider context. It can be challenging to create learning tools and learning content to suit the learning needs of the general population. This master thesis explores mixed (MR) and virtual (VR) reality technologies as a support tool for learning sustainability concepts through active learning strategies. The research investigates design choices and their effectiveness in creating immersive learning experiences as well as the user’s perceived experiences of presence and motivation to learn. A human-centered design approach is adopted to create a ‘sustainable future city’ use case focusing on learning concepts of sustainable horticulture such as vertical farming, hydroponic-, aeroponic- and aquaponic systems. The research investigates the state-of-the-art of MR and VR technologies, and looks into perceived levels of presence and motivation in an immersive experience that combines MR and VR as one application. Human-centered design activities taken include interviews with five randomly sampled participants to validate requirements, interests in topics, and technology choices. Further on, design and development tasks were carried out to develop a functional prototype running on Meta Quest Pro head mount device. A mixed method approach was taken for the user testing and evaluation of two design iterations. That involved user observation in UiA’s usability laboratory, questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 10 participants. This study’s findings indicate that key design decisions for the immersive experience included guided exploration, realistic visualization, and hand gesture interactions. Further, there were positive outcomes on both observation and feedback from users as high levels of presence, fun, and interest in the topic were distinguished. Some main specific findings were that while most participants were observed to experience presence as expected, one participant indicated that they had a low sense of presence and were distracted by the environment and unfamiliarity with the technology. This suggests that users can feel low levels of presence even when they are fully involved in the virtual environment, because of the cognitive process required to experience presence. Further regarding motivation, all participants stated they preferred the immersive experience over traditional means such as textbooks, as it made learning more fun and interesting in an active way. The study was limited in scope and sample size, nevertheless it was concluded that overall the design decisions made for the use case were at a large extent effective in supporting active learning, and the designed tool can be easily used by the general population

    Optimising digital nature for wellbeing

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    The global burdens of negative psychological states such as stress, anxiety, and burnout represent a growing public health concern. As the incidence of these conditions has risen so too has awareness that natural environments might provide cognitive and affective benefits. Yet unrelenting urbanisation, unprecedented species extinction, and rampant ecological degradation are fostering a creeping extinction of experience, straining the links between people and planet. In an increasingly technologically mediated world, growing emphasis is being placed on how digital forms of nature could impact health. Understanding how simulated contact with the natural world might be optimised for positive wellbeing outcomes is vital if ‘virtual nature’ is to be used as a therapeutic tool. This thesis consists of three original studies – conducted with large samples and as part of national broadcast initiatives – that aimed to address this burgeoning need. We first investigated nuances in the way natural soundscapes are experienced. Through an award-winning collaboration with the BBC Natural History Unit, a novel podcast series and experiment generated responses from 7,596 participants. Results indicated how the composition of nature-based soundscapes can affect their restorative potential, demonstrated the crucial role that memories play in these relationships, and suggested that appraisals of restoration can exert an important mediating effect on pro-environmental behaviour. Next, a similar level of granularity was applied to landscape aesthetics. An online experiment probed how ephemeral features such as sunrise, sunsets, and storms can impact appraisals of virtual environments. Data from 2,509 people supported the familiar urban-nature dichotomy yet revealed substantial momentary and diurnal heterogeneity in measures of beauty and awe. Changes in these metrics also partially mediated participants’ willingness to pay to visit these locations in the ‘real world’. Partnering again with the BBC on a multi-platform broadcast initiative called Soundscapes for Wellbeing, our third experiment assessed how the visual and acoustic elements of a digital nature experience, including music, might influence viewer emotions. Analyses from 7,636 respondents suggested that whilst music could enhance high arousal feelings such as excitement, natural sounds were integral to eliciting restoration, calmness, awe, and nostalgia. Again, these data revealed a substantial moderating effect of memories, underlining the importance of lived experiences in determining outcomes. Taken together, these findings reveal important distinctions in the way natural soundscapes are perceived, demonstrate the potential for both ephemeral features and natural sounds to elicit the complex emotions of awe and nostalgia, and highlight the profound moderating effects of personal memories. Future work might focus on expanding understanding of how awe, nostalgia, and memories could represent a hitherto under-recognised depth to the therapeutic potential of encounters with nature in both virtual and real settings.Wellcome Trus

    Offene-Welt-Strukturen: Architektur, Stadt- und Naturlandschaft im Computerspiel

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    Welche Rolle spielen Algorithmen fĂŒr den Bildbau und die Darstellung von Welt und Wetter in Computerspielen? Wie beeinflusst die Gestaltung der RĂ€ume, Level und Topografien die Entscheidungen und das Verhalten der Spieler_innen? Ist der Brutalismus der erste genuine Architekturstil der Computerspiele? Welche Bedeutung haben LandschaftsgĂ€rten und Nationalparks im Strukturieren von Spielwelten? Wie wird Natur in Zeiten des Klimawandels dargestellt? Insbesondere in den letzten 20 Jahren adaptieren digitale Spielwelten akribischer denn je Merkmale der physisch-realen Welt. Durch aufwĂ€ndige Produktionsverfahren und komplexe Visualisierungsstrategien wird die Angleichung an unsere ĂŒbrige Alltagswelt stets in AbhĂ€ngigkeit von Spielmechanik und Weltlichkeit erzeugt. Wie sich spĂ€testens am Beispiel der Open-World-Spiele zeigt, fĂŒhrt die Übernahme bestimmter Weltbilder und Bildtraditionen zu ideologischen Implikationen, die weit ĂŒber die bisher im Fokus der Forschung stehenden, aus anderen Medienformaten transferierten ErzĂ€hlkonventionen hinausgehen. Mit seiner Theorie der Architektur als medialem Scharnier legt der Autor offen, dass digitale Spielwelten medienspezifische Eigenschaften aufweisen, die bisher nicht zu greifen waren und der Erforschung harrten. Durch VerschrĂ€nken von Konzepten aus u.a. Medienwissenschaft, Game Studies, Philosophie, Architekturtheorie, Humangeografie, Landschaftstheorie und Kunstgeschichte erarbeitet Bonner ein transdisziplinĂ€res Theoriemodell und ermöglicht anhand der daraus entwickelten analytischen Methoden erstmals, die komplexe Struktur heutiger Computerspiele - vom Indie Game bis zur AAA Open World - zu verstehen und zu benennen. Mit "Offene-Welt-Strukturen" wird die Architektonik digitaler Spielwelten umfassend zugĂ€nglich

    EXECUTIVE-FUNCTIONS INNOVATIVE TOOL - EXIT 360: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A NEW 360-VIDEO INSTRUMENT FOR EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

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    Questa tesi offre un'ampia panoramica dello sviluppo di EXecutive-functions Innovative Tool 360° (EXIT 360°), dalla sua progettazione alla validazione come strumento sensibile per la valutazione della funzionalitĂ  esecutiva (FE). Identificare strategie precoci per rilevare i deficit esecutivi appare una prioritĂ , dal momento che la disfunzione esecutiva rappresenta un problema significativo a causa del suo impatto sulle attivitĂ  quotidiane. Pertanto, abbiamo ideato e sviluppato EXIT 360°, un nuovo strumento che sfrutta la tecnologia 360° per una valutazione ecologicamente valida del FE. Si tratta di un nuovo compito fruibile tramite smartphone e visore per la realtĂ  virtuale, in cui i partecipanti devono eseguire sette compiti giornalieri in ambienti domestici. Le tre principali proprietĂ  psicometriche di EXIT 360° —usabilitĂ , validitĂ  convergente e di costrutto— sono state il focus degli studi discussi in questa tesi. Gli studi sull'usabilitĂ  hanno dimostrato che EXIT 360Âș debba essere considerato uno strumento tecnologico semplice, usabile e facile da apprendere. Lo studio di validitĂ  convergente ha mostrato una correlazione tra i punteggi di EXIT 360° e i test standardizzati carta-e-matita per il FE. Infine, lo studio di validitĂ  di costrutto ha mostrato l'efficacia di EXIT 360° nel discriminare il gruppo patologico da quello di controllo, evidenziando una maggiore accuratezza diagnostica rispetto ai test tradizionali. Nel complesso, i risultati offrono una chiara evidenza che EXIT 360° debba essere visto come uno strumento valido e innovativo per una valutazione ecologicamente valida del FE, altamente utilizzabile per una diagnosi tempestiva e l’arruolamento precoce del paziente in una riabilitazione mirata.This thesis offers a broad overview of EXecutive-functions Innovative Tool 360° (EXIT 360°) development from its concept to validation as a sensitive instrument for evaluating executive functionality (EF). Identifying early strategies to detect executive impairments appears a priority since executive dysfunction represents a significant health problem due to its high negative impact on daily activities. Therefore, we conceptualized and developed EXIT 360°, a new 360°-based instrument for an ecologically valid assessment of EF. It consists of a new task delivered via smartphone and a comfortable head-mounted display, where participants must perform seven everyday subtasks in 360° domestic environments. The three main psychometric properties of EXIT 360°—usability, convergent and construct validity—have been the focus of the studies discussed in this thesis. Usability studies involving patients and healthy subjects showed EXIT 360° is a straightforward, usable, and easy-to-learn technological instrument. Convergent validity study displayed a correlation between EXIT 36o° scores and standardized paper-and-pencil tests for EF. Finally, the construct validity study showed the effectiveness of EXIT 360° in discriminating between pathological and control groups with high precision, displaying its higher diagnostic accuracy compared to traditional tests. Overall, findings offer clear evidence that EXIT 360° must be seen as a valuable and innovative instrument for an ecologically valid evaluation of EF, highly usable for prompt diagnosis and early patient enrolment in focused rehabilitation
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