Editorial

The present IJSG issue hosts a guest section dedicated to selected papers from the Games and Learning Alliance Conference (Gala Conf - conf.seriousgamessociety.org), that was held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in December 2016. The guest editorial processed has been managed by Rosa Bottino, of the Italian National Research Council, Institute for Educational Technologies, and by Johan Jeuring, of the University of Utrecht, who acted as conference chair [1]

special issue on digital games for learning mathematics

Given the huge relevance of mathematics, for both reasoning and applications, it is important to develop more engaging and effective methods that can be used to enhance children's conceptual understanding of mathematics, develop mathematical thinking processes and improve arithmetical skills. Digital games provide interesting possibilities to support these goals and one can easily find great deal of online games and apps targeted for learning mathematics. This spoecial issue is devoted to present leading-edge research and perspectives in the field

Editorial

The third issue of the International Journal of Serious Games (IJSG) introduces a new series of articles about serious game studies. the goal is to develop and support an “engineering” approach, systemizing the studies, allowing comparative analysis and homogeneous data collection. Other scientific and technological articles are also present in the issue

Editorial, Vol. 5, No. 3

IJSG September 2018 Editorial - Vol. 5, No.

Guidelines for the monitoring of Rosalia alpina

Rosalia alpina (Linnaeus, 1758) is a large longhorn beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) which is protected by the Habitats Directive and which typically inhabits beech forests characterised by the presence of mature, dead (or moribund) and sun-exposed trees. A revision of the current knowledge on systematics, ecology and conservation of R. alpina is reported. The research was carried out as part of the LIFE MIPP project which aims to find a standard monitoring method for saproxylic beetles protected in Europe. For monitoring this species, different methods were tested and compared in two areas of the Apennines, utilising wild trees, logs and tripods (artificially built with beech woods), all potentially suitable for the reproduction of the species. Even if all methods succeeded in the survey of the target species, these results showed that the use of wild trees outperformed other methods. Indeed, the use of wild trees allowed more adults to be observed and required less intensive labour. However, monitoring the rosalia longicorn on wild trees has the main disadvantage that they can hardly be considered “standard sampling units”, as each tree may be differently attractive to adults. Our results demonstrated that the most important factors influencing the attraction of single trunks were wood volume, sun-exposure and decay stage. Based on the results obtained during the project LIFE MIPP, as well as on a literature review, a standard monitoring method for R. alpina was developed

Design methodology of analytical games for knowledge acquisition

Analytical games explore a problem or a domain with a research purpose. Considerable research is ongoing to investigate improvements to analytical game design, execution and exploitation. Moreover, the fast-paced technological developments in many fields, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, make it even more compellingto account for the advantages and limitations of these new capabilities. In game design, the use of digital means is often regarded as a mere technical factor that relates to the platform selection, facilitator support and data recording processes. In this work a shift in perspective is proposed, to move from technology-oriented design selection criteria towards a broader assessment of the design choices. In fact, the introductionof technology (i.e., automation and autonomy) will not lead to a substitution of tasks, but will intrinsically change the game environment. This work introduces a framework to provide a structured guidance on the aspects to be factored in the different design phases of an analytical game, including the potential impact of the adoption of automation and autonomy. The proposed approach is based on previous research in the fieldof simulation-based serious gaming, model-driven engineering and human factors engineering. The framework is applied to Knowledge Acquisition Analytical Games as a case study

Serious Games for education and training

Serious Games (SGs) are gaining an ever increasing interest for education and traning. Exploiting the latest simulation and visualization technologies, SGs are able to contextualize the player's experience in challenging, realistic environments, supporting situated cognition. However, we still miss methods and tools for effectively and deeply infusing pedagogy and instruction inside digital games. After presenting an overview of the state of the art of the SG taxonomies, the paper introduces the pedagogical theories and models most relevant to SGs and their implications on SG design. We also present a schema for a proper integration of games in education, supporting different goals in different steps of a formal education process. By analyzing a set of well-established SGs and formats, the paper presents the main mechanics and models that are being used in SG designs, with a particular focus on assessment, feedback and learning analytics. An overview of tools and models for SG design is also presented. Finally, based on the performed analysis, indications for future research in the field are provided

a reliability game for source factors and situational awareness experimentation

Systems to support Situational Awareness take increasingly advantage of data and information fusion techniques. Due to the rise in the variety of information sources (e.g., sensors, open-source, intelligence, historical databases) and their possible lack of veracity those techniques should account for source reliability. Although the appropriate mathematical instruments exist, it still needs to be fully understood what are the factors that contribute to source reliability and what is their relative and total impact on Situation Assessment, which is the process that builds up Situational Awareness. In order to characterise source factors impact on human belief assessment the Reliability Game has been developed. This is a data exchange game in which the players are requested to perform Situational Assessment tasks by mentally processing incoming information and meta-information, abstracted and provided through cards. This paper presents the method, the design choices and shows through a qualitative analysis that the proposed approach is indeed able to capture elements of source factors impact on players' belief changes. Data collected through the game will be further analysed to inform and improve the design of information correction methods in multi-source information fusion systems

Nanoscale Topography and Poroelastic Properties of Model Tissue Breast Gland Basement Membranes

Basement membranes (BMs) are thin layers of condensed extracellular matrix proteins serving as permeability filters, cellular anchoring sites, and barriers against cancer cell invasion. It is believed that their biomechanical properties play a crucial role in determining cellular behavior and response, especially in mechanically active tissues like breast glands. Despite this, so far, relatively little attention has been dedicated to their analysis because of the difficulty of isolating and handling such thin layers of material. Here, we isolated BMs derived from MCF10A spheroids—three-dimensional breast gland model systems mimicking in vitro the most relevant phenotypic characteristics of human breast lobules—and characterized them by atomic force microscopy, enhanced resolution confocal microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. By performing atomic force microscopy height-clamp experiments, we obtained force-relaxation curves that offered the first biomechanical data on isolated breast gland BMs to our knowledge. Based on enhanced resolution confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy imaging data, we modeled the system as a polymer network immersed in liquid and described it as a poroelastic material. Finite-element simulations matching the experimental force-relaxation curves allowed for the first quantification, to our knowledge, of the bulk and shear moduli of the membrane as well as its water permeability. These results represent a first step toward a deeper understanding of the mechanism of tensional homeostasis regulating mammary gland activity as well as its disruption during processes of membrane breaching and metastatic invasion

Assessment of Driver Behavior Based on Machine Learning Approaches in a Social Gaming Scenario

The estimation of user performance analytics in the area of car driver performance was carried out in this paper. The main focus relies on the descriptive analysis with our approaches emphasizing on educational serious games, in order to improvise the driver\u2019s behavior (specifically green driving) in a pleasant and challenging way. We also propose a general Internet of the Things (IoT) social gaming platform (SGP) concept that could be adaptable and deployable to any kind of application domain. The social gaming scenario in this application enables the users to compete with peers based on their physical location. The efficient drivers will be awarded with virtual coins and gained virtual coins can be used in real world applications (such as purchasing travel tickets, reservation of parking lots, etc.). This research work is part of TEAM project co-funded within the EU FP7 ICT research program