Case report: bilateral Mooren ulcer in association with hepatitis C

Background: Mooren ulcer has been considered as an idiopathic autoimmune keratitis. However, it has been in some cases suggested to be associated with hepatitis C, although the evidence is very vague.Case presentation: We present a case of a man who was diagnosed with a primary Mooren ulcer in his right eye. The eye became blind despite of intensive treatment with local medications and extensive surgical procedures. After 10 years, the patient was diagnosed with the same disease, now in his left, previously healthy eye. There was no history that would suggest a secondary Mooren ulcer, but a chronic hepatitis C infection was detected. Treatment was targeted against hepatitis C (ribavirin and interferon) in addition to immunosuppressive medical and surgical treatment which resulted in a full and more than 6 years lasting remission of the disease.Conclusions: Whether the immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive medication against hepatitis C was the key reason for the good results in the treatment of the second eye, remains elusive. The causality of hepatitis C with respect to the pathogenesis of Mooren ulcer on this patient remains open, but should be considered as one of the possible etiological factors of the disease

Design, development, and usability evaluation of a system for adding and editing social media banners in the immersive street-level 3D virtual city

Abstract In this paper, we present design and implementation of a system for adding and visualizing social media content in an immersive street-level 3D virtual city environment. The system enables its users to add banners anywhere in the virtual 3D environment, typically on building façades, walls, or on the ground. The banner’s owner is then able to edit the banner and select the social media platform to load the content from, thereby creating a social media content banner with a specific ID. The system supports four social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Flickr. Users can also customize banners’ position, rotation, and the visual elements such as text, images and colors. To evaluate our system’s usability, we conducted an iterative usability evaluation with 12 participants. Each evaluation round with three participants indicated improvements to the system, which were implemented before next evaluation round. Finally, after the last modifications, system was found to be easy to use by average users and only a little help was needed for non-experienced users. We believe this system could provide added value for the business owners and users by enabling social media content to be add on the 3D virtual city and use it as a marketing platform

Design challenges for social interactions at factory floor

Abstract Industry 4.0, describes the transition of labor into more digitized and automated era. This transition makes it possible to develop a plethora of solutions for factory floor spanning from purely utilitarian to gamification. In this paper we present the initial step in recognizing the design challenges for a project developing social gamified eHealth applications to the factory floor.</P

Between beats:linking player engagement to advertisement frequency and intrusiveness

Abstract Mobile phones are a popular platform for gaming in addition to being the most ubiquitous one. Monetization of free to play games with embedded and interstitial advertisements is one of the main sources of income for mobile game creators. We used a constructive approach in this study. A mobile game developed during the study, Between Beats, was used to survey the influence of interstitial advertisement on selected aspects of player experience. The study was conducted by deploying the game to Google Play and guiding the players, after gameplay, to an online survey. The survey was answered by 51 participants who were divided randomly into four groups based on how much they were subjected to interstitial or rewarded advertisements while playing. Our results show that embedding rewarded advertisements to a situation where there already is interstitial advertisements, resulted in reduction of perceived advertisement intrusiveness and increase in advertisements viewed. Player engagement remained constant in all groups. Our findings comlement earlier findings on the use of rewarded advertisements in mobile games

Context defined aspects of gamification for factory floor

Abstract Modern extensively digitized factories can provide workers interfaces for gamification. The current literature highlights the importance of understanding the context before implementing gamification solution, while there are currently only few such solutions provided for the factory floor. In this study we aim at closing this gap by defining the context defined aspects for gamification at factory floor. We conducted a thorough mapping of current literature proceeded by a qualitative interview study with eight workers and their supervising manager at a manufacturing facility

Stepping out of the classroom:anticipated user experiences of web-based mirror world like virtual campus

Abstract While three-dimensional virtual learning environments have attracted plenty of research interest, mirror-world-like virtual campuses have been used mainly for virtual tours, promotions, or for simulation purposes. In this article, the authors investigate the use of geographically accurate mirror-world-like virtual campus models as an interactive learning environment. The initial prototype of the virtual campus covers about 2,300 m2 of a university campus and contains basic pedagogical, communicational, and content creation functionalities. A qualitative study with 14 participants explored their anticipated user experiences as well as their needs for the services and functionalities of the virtual campus. The findings suggest that a more profound link of reality and virtuality than just mirroring physical spaces in the virtual realm is needed. A hybrid reality approach is required to foster social community building and collaboration, 3D space design, and service integration. Finally, stepping out of the classroom introduces privacy issues that should be considered carefully

Anarchy or order on the streets:review based characterization of location based mobile games

Abstract Location based mobile games have traditionally relied on implicit codes of conduct, legal ordinances, common social norms, or community emergent rules. However, these games are becoming increasingly popular and enforcing these implicit or explicit restrictions has become difficult. In this paper, we present a critical and systematic review of both commercial and non-commercial location based mobile games. We list selected characteristics of the games and highlight their connection to the affordances and restrictions on urban game arenas. We also demonstrate the feasibility of our characterization by applying it to two recent location based mobile games, Pokemon GO [53] and Street Art Gangs [4]

Wired to exit:exploring the effects of wayfinding affordances in underground facilities using Virtual Reality

Abstract Background: Wayfinding has been adopted in several intense evacuation and navigation simulations; however, the use of biometric measurements for characterizing physiological outcomes has been somewhat overlooked and applied only under limited laboratory conditions. Methods: Twenty-four participants took part in a virtual reality (VR) experiment using a wayfinding installation with the Oculus Rift S head-mounted display (HMD). They were immersed in a simulation of a burning underground parking lot and tasked to navigate to the exit. The purpose of this research was to investigate the high-level effect of wayfinding assistive lights on behavioral, physiological, and psychological outcomes. Participants were split into two groups: the control group was exposed to a scene without assistive lights, and the experimental group was exposed to the same scene with assistive lights. Results: Results indicate there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in traveled distance, pauses, turns, or game completion time. Curiously, differences between the two groups in heart rate (HR) outcomes were found to be statistically significant, with subjects in the control group displaying an increasing HR trend during simulation. Conclusions: This finding, in accordance with previous studies that have shown the efficacy of landmarks and wayfinding affordances in reducing cognitive demands, suggests that assistive lights might contribute to improved brain wiring connectivity during the game. We discuss these findings in the context of a rich wayfinding affordances literature

Heuristic evaluation of a mobile game developed to help battle the pandemic

Abstract As the COVID-19 storms the globe, there are many efforts to battle it. This paper looks at the development of one such an effort in a form of a mobile game. The game is a 2D arcade game called Unus Terra. It is intended to be entertaining but aims to influence people to partake in social distancing through several mechanics. An early version of the game is evaluated by five usability and user experience experts using heuristics and a few other selected methods. In this paper, we present the results from these evaluations along with our findings from using this type of evaluation method. The use of heuristics is considered from the perspectives of academics and practitioners

“Nice to see you virtually”:thoughtful design and evaluation of virtual avatar of the other user in AR and VR based telexistence systems

Abstract This paper presents two studies investigating how physically remote telexistence users wish to see other users visualized as virtual avatars in a) augmented reality, and b) immersive virtual reality while conducting a collaborative task. To answer this research question, a telexistence system was designed and implemented with simple avatar designs. After that, visual examples of alternative avatar representations for both use cases were designed by thoughtfully altering the visual parameters of 36 virtual avatar examples. The avatar designs were first evaluated in a user study with 16 participants in conjunction with using an implemented telexistence system. As a follow-up an online survey with 43 respondents was used to record their preferences regarding virtual avatar appearance. The results suggest that users prefer the other user to be represented in a photorealistic full-body human avatar in both augmented reality and virtual reality due to its humanlike representation and affordances for interaction. In augmented reality, the choice for a hologram full body avatar was also popular due to its see-through appearance, which prevents a mix-up with a real person in the physical space