Trends in virtual reality technologies for the learning patient

NextMed convened the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 22 (MMVR 22) conference in 2016. Since 1992, the conference has brought together a diverse group of researchers to share creative solutions for the evolving challenge of integrating virtual reality tools into medical education. Virtual reality (VR) and its enabling technologies utilize hardware and software to simulate environments and encounters where users can interact and learn. The MMVR 22 symposium proceedings contain projects that support a variety of learners: medical students, practitioners, soldiers, and patients. This report will contemplate the trends in virtual reality technologies for patients navigating their medical and healthcare learning. The learning patient seeks more than intervention; they seek prevention. From virtual humans and environments to motion sensors and haptic devices, patients are surrounded by increasingly rich and transformative data-driven tools. Applied data enables VR applications to simulate experience, predict health outcomes, and motivate new behavior. The MMVR 22 presents investigations into the usability of wearable devices, the efficacy of avatar inclusion, and the viability of multi-player gaming. With increasing need for individualized and scalable programming, only committed open source efforts will align instructional designers, technology integrators, trainers, and clinicians. Curriculum and InstructionCurriculum and Instructio

Hackathons as a means of accelerating scientific discoveries and knowledge transfer

International audienceScientific research plays a key role in the advancement of human knowledge and pursuit of solutions to important societal challenges. Typically, research occurs within specific institutions where data are generated and subsequently analyzed. Although collaborative science bringing together multiple institutions is now common, in such collaborations the analytical processing of the data is often performed by individual researchers within the team, with only limited internal oversight and critical analysis of the workflow prior to publication. Here, we show how hackathons can be a means of enhancing collab-orative science by enabling peer review before results of analyses are published by cross-validating the design of studies or underlying data sets and by driving reproducibility of scientific analyses. Traditionally, in data analysis processes, data generators and bioinformaticians are divided and do not collaborate on analyzing the data. Hackathons are a good strategy to build bridges over the traditional divide and are potentially a great agile extension to the more structured collaborations between multiple investigators and institutions

Ecological interchangeability: supporting team adaptive expertise in moments of disruption

While undesirable, unexpected disruptions offer unique opportunities to enact adaptive expertise. For adaptive expertise to flourish, individuals and teams must embrace both efficiency and adaptation. While some industries do it readily, others continue to struggle with the tension between efficiency and adaptation, particularly when otherwise stable situations are unexpectedly disrupted. For instance, in healthcare settings, the efficiency mandate for strict compliance with scopes of practice can deter teams from using the adaptive strategy of making their members interchangeable. Yet, interchangeability has been hinted as a key capacity of today’ teams that are required to navigate fluid team structures. Because interchangeability – as an adaptive strategy – can generate antagonistic reactions, it has not been well studied in fluid teams. Thus, in this exploratory qualitative study we sought to gain insights into how interchangeability manifests when fluid teams from five different contexts (healthcare, emergency services, orchestras, military, and business) deal with disruptive events. According to our participants, successful interchangeability was possible when people knew how to work within one’s role while being aware of their teammates’ roles. However, interchangeability included more than just role switching. Interchangeability took various forms and was most successful when teams capitalized on the procedural, emotional, and social dimensions of their work. To reflect this added complexity, we refer to interchangeability in fluid teams as Ecological Interchangeability. We suggest that ecological interchangeability may become a desired feature in the training of adaptive expertise in teams, if its underlying properties and enabling mechanisms are more fully understood

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

PROGRAM and PROCEEDINGS THE NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES -- April 22, 2022

Aeronautics & Space Science -- Chairperson(s): Dr. Scott Tarry & Michaela Lucas ANTHROPOLOGY SECTION Chairperson: Dr. Taylor Livingston APPLIED SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SECTION Chairperson: Mary Ettel BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES SECTION Chairperson: Therese McGinn BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES SECTION Chairperson: Annemarie Shibata CHEMISTRY SECTION Chairperson: Nathanael Fackler EARTH SCIENCES SECTION Chairperson: Irina Filina ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SECTION Chairperson: Mark Hammer PHYSICS SECTION Chairperson: Adam Davis FRIENDS OF THE ACADEMY 2022 Maiben Lecturer: Dan Sitzman 2022 FRIEND OF SCIENCE AWARD TO: Julie Sigmon and Chris Schabe

Frontline Healthcare Employees: Perspectives on Learning to Use Emotional Intelligence Strategies to Cope with Workplace Stress

Nonclinical frontline employees (FLE) work in a complex role that provides critical administrative support to healthcare organizations and they are extremely vulnerable to workplace stress. These employees frequently encounter challenging situations and routinely interact and serve many demanding customers. The purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how FLEs have learned the abilities they utilized to cope with workplace stress and how these relate to emotional intelligence. Utilizing a comprehensive survey; comprised of a demographic questionnaire, three assessment instruments (PSS, Brief COPE and SSEIT), a critical incident series and individual interviews, this study sought to understand the learned strategies acquired through personal and professional experiences and how those experiences impacted coping tendencies. FLEs were found to perceive high self efficacy and routinely regulated emotions in an effort to manage stress. Employees also adeptly managed routine conflict and impromptu difficult interactions. Formal, Nonformal and informal learning were pivotal to cultivating the strategies utilized in the workplace. Despite unpredictable stress levels, role ambiguity and the desire for stress management training, FLEs were optimistic, demonstrated the ability to use emotional intelligence and coped relatively well in the workplace

Examining the issues & challenges of email & e-communications. 2nd Northumbria Witness Seminar Conference, 24-25 Oct 2007 Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne.

These proceedings capture the content of the second Witness Seminar hosted by Northumbria University’s School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. It followed the success of the first witness seminar in terms of its format and style but differed in that it focused on one topic - managing email and other electronic communications technologies from a records perspective. As before the witnesses were invited to share their views and opinions on a specific aspect taking as their starting point a pertinent published article(s). Three seminars explored the business, people and technology perspectives of email and e-communications, asking the following questions: What are the records management implications and challenges of doing business electronically? Are people the problem and the solution? Is technology the problem or panacea? The final seminar, 'Futurewatch', focused on moving forward, exploring new ways of working, potential new technologies and what records professionals and others need to keep on their radar screens

The Boston University Photonics Center annual report 2010-2011

This repository item contains an annual report that summarizes activities of the Boston University Photonics Center in the 2010-2011 academic year. The report provides quantitative and descriptive information regarding photonics programs in education, interdisciplinary research, business innovation, and technology development. The Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC) is an interdisciplinary hub for education, research, scholarship, innovation, and technology development associated with practical uses of light.This report summarizes activities of the Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC) during the period July 2010 through June 2011. These activities span the Center’s complementary missions in education, research, technology development, and commercialization. In education, 21BUPC graduate students received Ph.D. diplomas. BUPC faculty taught 20 photonics courses. One graduate student was funded through the Photonics Center Dean’s Fellowship Program. BUPC supported the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Biophotonic Sensors and Systems. In addition to working in the laboratories and heading to Northeastern University for shared seminars, the eight teachers split into two groups to participate in cleanroom activities. The University hosted its annual Science and Engineering Day, where the Photonics Center sponsored the Herbert J. Berman "Future of Light" Prize. Professor Goldberg’s Boston Urban Fellows Project started its sixth year. For more on our education programs, turn to the Education section on page 62. In research, BUPC faculty published journal papers spanning the field of photonics. Eleven patents were awarded to faculty this year for new innovations in the field. A number of awards for outstanding achievement in education and research were presented to BUPC faculty members. These honors include the NSF CAREER Award for Professors Altug, the 2010 R&sD 100 Award for Professor Bifano, and the Dean’s Catalyst Award for Professor Joshi. New external grant funding for the 2010-2010 fiscal year totaled $20.9M. For more information on our research activities, turn to the Research section on page 24. In technology development, this year was the beginning of a transitional period at the Photonics Center as ARL pipeline programs were completed and new research projects were proposed as part of the newly funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Industrial University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) on Biophotonic Sensors and Systems. As researchers finished programs for ARL development, many successfully presented programs at the first annual I/UCRC meeting in April 2011. In the I/UCRC model, industry members of the Center provide the market vision and orient research to solve urgent market needs – in an extension of the successful ARL pipeline model in which the Department of Defense’s urgent needs motivated our research goals. For more information on our technology development pipeline and projects, turn to the Technology Development section on page 49. In commercialization, the business incubator continues to operate at capacity. Its tenants include ten technology companies with a majority having core business interests primarily in photonics and life sciences. It houses several companies founded by current and former BU faculty and students and provides students with an opportunity to assist, observe, and learn from start-up companies. For more information about business incubator activities, turn to the Business Incubation chapter in the Facilities and Equipment section on page 74. In early 2010, the BUPC unveiled a five-year strategic plan as part of the University’s comprehensive review of centers and institutes. The BUPC strategic plan will enhance the Center’s position as an international leader in photonics research. For more information about the strategic plan, turn to the BUPC Strategic Plan section on page 11

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2019-20 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

The State of AI Ethics Report (June 2020)

These past few months have been especially challenging, and the deployment of technology in ways hitherto untested at an unrivalled pace has left the internet and technology watchers aghast. Artificial intelligence has become the byword for technological progress and is being used in everything from helping us combat the COVID-19 pandemic to nudging our attention in different directions as we all spend increasingly larger amounts of time online. It has never been more important that we keep a sharp eye out on the development of this field and how it is shaping our society and interactions with each other. With this inaugural edition of the State of AI Ethics we hope to bring forward the most important developments that caught our attention at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute this past quarter. Our goal is to help you navigate this ever-evolving field swiftly and allow you and your organization to make informed decisions. This pulse-check for the state of discourse, research, and development is geared towards researchers and practitioners alike who are making decisions on behalf of their organizations in considering the societal impacts of AI-enabled solutions. We cover a wide set of areas in this report spanning Agency and Responsibility, Security and Risk, Disinformation, Jobs and Labor, the Future of AI Ethics, and more. Our staff has worked tirelessly over the past quarter surfacing signal from the noise so that you are equipped with the right tools and knowledge to confidently tread this complex yet consequential domain