46 research outputs found
Organisational culture factors and knowledge management practices identified within a proposed Knowledge Management Structural Model from an employee perspective within a Telecommunications Company in Jordan
Nonverbal communication in virtual reality: Nodding as a social signal in virtual interactions
Nonverbal communication is an important part of human communication, including head nodding, eye gaze, proximity and body orientation. Recent research has identified specific patterns of head nodding linked to conversation, namely mimicry of head movements at 600 ms delay and fast nodding when listening. In this paper, we implemented these head nodding behaviour rules in virtual humans, and we tested the impact of these behaviours, and whether they lead to increases in trust and liking towards the virtual humans. We use Virtual Reality technology to simulate a face-to-face conversation, as VR provides a high level of immersiveness and social presence, very similar to face-to-face interaction. We then conducted a study with human-subject participants, where the participants took part in conversations with two virtual humans and then rated the virtual character social characteristics, and completed an evaluation of their implicit trust in the virtual human. Results showed more liking for and more trust in the virtual human whose nodding behaviour was driven by realistic behaviour rules. This supports the psychological models of nodding and advances our ability to build realistic virtual humans
Nonverbal communication in virtual reality: Nodding as a social signal in virtual interactions
Nonverbal communication is an important part of human communication, including head nodding, eye gaze, proximity and body orientation. Recent research has identified specific patterns of head nodding linked to conversation, namely mimicry of head movements at 600 ms delay and fast nodding when listening. In this paper, we implemented these head nodding behaviour rules in virtual humans, and we tested the impact of these behaviours, and whether they lead to increases in trust and liking towards the virtual humans. We use Virtual Reality technology to simulate a face-to-face conversation, as VR provides a high level of immersiveness and social presence, very similar to face-to-face interaction. We then conducted a study with human-subject participants, where the participants took part in conversations with two virtual humans and then rated the virtual character social characteristics, and completed an evaluation of their implicit trust in the virtual human. Results showed more liking for and more trust in the virtual human whose nodding behaviour was driven by realistic behaviour rules. This supports the psychological models of nodding and advances our ability to build realistic virtual humans
The legal system for registering a trademark in accordance with the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks and Related Legislation - A Comparative Study
Many references dealt with the subject of the trademark, its protection and registration, but few of them with the international registration and did not focus on the details of the procedures and research problems. This study aims to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of joining and registering within the Madrid system, whether for the applicant, intellectual property agent, or trademark registrar, with an indication of the trademark registration procedures within the Madrid Protocol. Starting with the submission of the registration application and its details, and then the stage after submitting the registration application. In addition to some problems, such as the case of rejecting and opposition or requesting the extension of protection in the Kingdom and replacing the national registration, as well as correcting errors in the international registration, renewing the registration, and finally making changes in a descriptive and analytical study with an indication of the proposed legal amendments. The research followed the comparative analytical descriptive approach, through which it reached a set of results related to the registration procedures including some recommendations. The amendment of Article 3/ 2 of the Protocol and pay attention to the declaration in Article (8/7/a) of the Protocol, and what is related to the refusal of protection during 18 months. Amending some articles by adding the necessary procedures for the implementation of the international registration stages, and clearly stipulating the adoption of the Nice System for Classification of Trademarks and receiving and sending all documents related to the registration of trademarks electronically
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Exploring Language Pedagogy with Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence
The manuscript and video of the presentation are available online at https://diglib.eg.org/xmlui/handle/10.2312/cgvc20231201Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Virtual Reality (VR) is a highly immersive and interactive experience that renders users to be engrossed in a 3D virtual environment. The recent technological advancements with high-resolution headset display, and accurate tracking of six degrees of freedom paired with controllers allow life-like renditions of real-world scenarios as well as fictional scenarios without potential environmental risks. This paper explores the usage of Virtual Reality in education by incorporating current pedagogical approaches into an interactive 3D virtual environment. The focus of this study revolves around language pedagogy, in specific, the tool developed allows teach users fundamental Mandarin Chinese. This educational VR application enables users to practice their reading and writing skills through a calligraphy lesson and engages users in a listening and speaking lesson through natural conversation. To achieve an organic dialogue, phrases spoken by the user in a lesson are validated immediately through an intuitive phrase recognition system developed using machine learning. The developed prototype has undergone testing to ensure its efficacy. An initial investigation into this prototype found that the majority of participants were supportive of this concept and believe that it would improve the engagement of digital education
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Investigating Trainee Perspectives on Virtual Reality Environments: An In-Depth Examination of Immersive Experiences with Haptic Feedback Vibration
This research investigates trainee reflections on Virithin Reality Environments (VREs) within educational training centers, aiming to understand their experiences, perceptions, and preferences. The study focuses on the impact of haptic feedback vibrations, examining both their general effects during VRE interactions and the specific influence of adaptable vibration configurations triggered by user errors. A convenience sample of 81 participants/trainees, 41 from the computer science and 40 from the aviation engineering departments of a major higher education institution in the U.A.E., was used to run four variations of the same VRE, with two from each field. Results indicate that participants largely embraced the VRE experience, reporting feelings of contentment, joy, and competence. Haptic feedback, particularly in non-adaptable forms, was acknowledged as enhancing the immersive experience. However, the study suggests that further research is needed to explore the nuanced role of adaptable vibration, especially in more complex interactions. Notably, participants expressed a preference for a blended approach, advocating for both VREs and physical labs in their training. The study acknowledges limitations, such as the predominantly single-user focus, and recommends future research extensions into collaborative VRE settings, more intricate interactions, and potential technical issues in multi-user scenarios. Overall, this research sheds light on the evolving landscape of educational training, emphasizing the importance of understanding trainee perspectives to optimize the integration of VREs in learning environment
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Relationship between CO2 emissions, tourism receipt, energy use and international trade in Pakistan
The current study explores the potential impact of economic growth, tourism receipt, energy consumption and trade openness on CO2 in Pakistan over the period of 1980-2017. The study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model to investigate the short and long-run estimates simultaneously. The study further applied Granger causality to find out the direction of causalities. To arrive at long-run robust estimates, the study employed the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) model. Last but not least, the current study also used an innovative accounting approach i.e. Variance decomposition and Impulse production function. The results found that economic growth has a significant impact on CO2 emission and negative and highly significant impact on tourism receipt while emission, energy consumption and international trade are also the main determinants of tourism in Pakistan. The study found unidirectional causality from GDP, tourism receipt, energy consumption and trade openness towards CO2 emission. The outcomes of ARDL model are also supported by the DOLS results. The innovative accounting approach further strengthens the results of the study. In a nutshell, overall results indicate that tourist receipts, CO2 emission, energy consumption, and trade openness are interlinked. The findings of the current study thus suggest that the government should encourage investment in the industry\u27s services sector to enhance its efficiency. In addition, it will also need to ensure that the services sector contributes far more to the GDP than to the manufacturing sector. The results demonstrate investments should be diverted towards the services sector on a broader range as less-polluting services industries (tourism as one of the main sectors) are more feasible than polluting capital industries to invest in
Impact of Industry 4.0 on Environmental Sustainability
Industry 4.0 is a concept that originated from the German industry, and whose essence is the use of technology for efficient production. In business today, the emergence of Industry 4.0 for production, and its related technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems, amongst others, have, however, a negative impact on environmental sustainability as a result of air pollution, the poor discharge of waste, and the intensive use of raw materials, information, and energy. The method used in this study is an analysis of a literature review of manuscripts discussing topics related to Industry 4.0 and environmental sustainability published between 2000 and 2020. There is currently a gap existing between the actual and the desired situation, in that production occurs in a weak sustainability model, and, therefore, this research debates the effects on environmental sustainability and the challenges facing Industry 4.0. Four scenarios are discussed: a deployment scenario, an operation scenario, integration and compliance with sustainable development goals, and a long-run scenario. The results indicate that there is a negative relationship related to the flow of the production process from the inputs to the final product, including raw materials, energy requirements, information, and waste disposal, and their impacts on the environment. However, the integration of Industry 4.0 and the sustainable development goals enhance environmental sustainability to create ecological support that guarantees high environmental performance with a more positive impact than before. This paper will help stakeholders and companies to provide solutions to the existing environmental challenges that can be mediated through adopting new technologies. The novelty of this study is its depiction of Industry 4.0 and its technologies integrated with sustainable development goals to create a sustainable Industry 4.0 combining environmental protection and sustainability
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Combining wearable fNIRS and immersive virtual reality to study preschoolers’ social development: a proof-of-principle study on preschoolers’ social preference
Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Supplementary data is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/oons/article/doi/10.1093/oons/kvad012/7475300?login=false#433457515 .Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. A child’s social world is complex and rich, but has traditionally been assessed with conventional experiments where children are presented with repeated stimuli on a screen. These assessments are impoverished relative to the dynamics of social interactions in real life, and can be challenging to implement with preschoolers, who struggle to comply with strict lab rules. The current work meets the need to develop new platforms to assess preschoolers’ social development, by presenting a unique virtual-reality set-up combined with wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). As a proof-of-principle, we validated this platform by measuring brain activity during self-guided social interaction in 3-to-5-year-olds, which is under-investigated, yet crucial to understand the basis of social interactions in preschoolers. 37 preschoolers chose an interaction partner from one of 4 human-like avatars of different gender and age. We recorded spontaneous brain fluctuations from the frontal and temporoparietal regions (notably engaged in social-categorization and preference) while children played a bubble-popping game with a preferred and an assigned avatar. 60% of the participants chose to play with the same-gender and same-age avatar. However, this result was driven by females (>80% vs. 50% in males). Different fronto-temporoparietal connectivity patterns when playing with the two avatars were observed, especially in females. We showed the feasibility of using a novel set-up to naturalistically assess social preference in preschoolers, which was assessed at the behavioural and functional connectivity level. This work provides a first proof-of-principle for using cutting-edge technologies and naturalistic experiments to study social development, opening new avenues of research.Leverhulme Trust and undertaken at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London. C.B. acknowledges support from the Early Career Fellowship Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2021-174). P.P. acknowledges support from the Wellcome Trust (212979/Z/18/Z). E.J.H.J. acknowledges support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/R009368/1) and from the Medical Research Council (MR/K021389/1; MR/T003057/1
A Comparison between Natural Pozzolana and Fly Ash Replacements on the Mechanical Properties of Concrete
This study investigates the effect of Natural Pozzolana (NP) and Fly Ash (FA) substitutes on concrete's mechanical and microstructural properties. Mixes containing 10 - 50 % cement substitute ratios were prepared and tested for flexure and compressive strength after 28 days of curing. Then, qualitative microstructural analysis was performed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). In terms of compressive strength, the mixes containing only 10 % replacement ratios of both NP and FA showed an improvement of 10 % compared to the plain control mix. On the other hand, all mixes containing FA could attain at least a 25 % development in their flexural strength compared to the control mix. The microstructural analysis illustrated that adding FA and NP enhances cement hydration by improving the formation of dense hydration products such as calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) and calcium hydroxide (C-H), which are mainly responsible for the performance of the improved mechanical properties of concrete