The Game FAVR: A Framework for the Analysis of Visual Representation in Video Games

This paper lays out a unified framework of the ergodic animage, the rule-based and interactiondriven part of visual representation in video games. It is the end product of a three-year research project conducted by the INTEGRAE team, and is divided into three parts. Part 1 contextualizes the research on graphics and visuality within game studies, notably through the opposition between fiction and rules and the difficulties in finding common vocabulary to discuss key visual concepts such as perspective and point of view. Part 2 discusses a number of visual traditions through which we frame video game graphics (film, animation, art history, graphical projection and technical drawing), highlighting their relevance and shortcomings in addressing the long history of video games and the very different paradigms of 2D and 3D graphics. Part 3 presents the Game FAVR, a model that allows any game’s visual representation to be described and discussed through a common frame and vocabulary. The framework is presented in an accessible manner and is organized as a toolkit, with sample case studies, templates, and a flowchart for using the FAVR provided as an annex, so that researchers and students can immediately start using it

Expression of genes related to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in murine fetal lungs in late gestation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lung maturation is modulated by several factors, including glucocorticoids. Expression of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis-related components, with proposed or described local regulatory systems analogous to the HPA axis, was reported in peripheral tissues. Here, HPA axis-related genes were studied in the mouse developing lung during a period overlapping the surge of surfactant production.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Expression of genes encoding for corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), CRH receptors (CRHR) 1 and 2beta, CRH-binding protein, proopiomelanocortin (POMC), melanocortin receptor 2 (MC2R), and glucocorticoid receptor was quantified by real-time PCR and localized by in situ hydridization in fetal lungs at gestational days (GD) 15.5, 16.5, and 17.5, and was also quantified in primary mesenchymal- and epithelial cell-enriched cultures. In addition, the capability of CRH and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) to stimulate pulmonary expression of enzymes involved in the adrenal pathway of glucocorticoid synthesis was addressed, as well as the glucocorticoid production by fetal lung explants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report that all the studied genes are expressed in fetal lungs according to different patterns. On GD 15.5, Mc2r showed peaks in expression in samples that have previously presented high mRNA levels for glucocorticoid synthesizing enzymes, including 11beta-hydroxylase (Cyp11b1). Crhr1 mRNA co-localized with Pomc mRNA in cells surrounding the proximal epithelium on GD 15.5 and 16.5. A transition in expression sites toward distal epithelial cells was observed between GD 15.5 and 17.5 for all the studied genes. CRH or ACTH stimulation of genes involved in the adrenal pathway of glucocorticoid synthesis was not observed in lung explants on GD 15.5, whereas CRH significantly increased expression of 21-hydroxylase (Cyp21a1) on GD 17.5. A deoxycorticosterone production by fetal lung explants was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Temporal and spatial modulations of expression of HPA axis-related genes in late gestation are consistent with roles for these genes in lung development. Our data are likely to lead to valuable insights in relation to lung diseases originating from lung immaturity.</p

Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective Although adaptive e-learning environments (AEEs) can provide personalised instruction to health professional and students, their efficacy remains unclear. Therefore, this review aimed to identify, appraise and synthesise the evidence regarding the efficacy of AEEs in improving knowledge, skills and clinical behaviour in health professionals and students. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science from the first year of records to February 2019. Eligibility criteria Controlled studies that evaluated the effect of an AEE on knowledge, skills or clinical behaviour in health professionals or students. Screening, data extraction and synthesis Two authors screened studies, extracted data, assessed risk of bias and coded quality of evidence independently. AEEs were reviewed with regard to their topic, theoretical framework and adaptivity process. Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they had a non-adaptive e-learning environment control group and had no missing data. Effect sizes (ES) were pooled using a random effects model. Results From a pool of 10 569 articles, we included 21 eligible studies enrolling 3684 health professionals and students. Clinical topics were mostly related to diagnostic testing, theoretical frameworks were varied and the adaptivity process was characterised by five subdomains: method, goals, timing, factors and types. The pooled ES was 0.70 for knowledge (95% CI −0.08 to 1.49; p.08) and 1.19 for skills (95% CI 0.59 to 1.79; p<0.00001). Risk of bias was generally high. Heterogeneity was large in all analyses. Conclusions AEEs appear particularly effective in improving skills in health professionals and students. The adaptivity process within AEEs may be more beneficial for learning skills rather than factual knowledge, which generates less cognitive load. Future research should report more clearly on the design and adaptivity process of AEEs, and target higher-level outcomes, such as clinical behaviour

Species indicators of ecosystem recovery after reducing large herbivore density: Comparing taxa and testing species combinations

Indicator species have been used successfully for estimating ecosystem integrity, but comparative studies for defining optimal taxonomic group remain scarce. Furthermore, species combinations may constitute more integrative tools than single species indicators, but case studies are needed to test their efficiency. We used Indicator Species Analysis, which statistically determines the association of species to one or several groups of sites, to obtain indicators of ecosystem recovery after various deer density reductions. We used five taxonomic groups: plants, carabid beetles, bees, moths and songbirds. To test whether species combinations could complement single indicator species, we used plants as a model taxon and examined the indicator value of joint occurrence of two or three plant species. Our study relies on experimental controlled browsing enclosures established for six years on Anticosti Island (Quebec). Four levels of deer density (0, 7.5 and 15 deer km−2 and natural densities between 27 and 56 deer km−2) were studied in two vegetation cover types (uncut forests and cut-over areas), in a full factorial design for a total of eight experimental treatments. For all taxa but bees, we tested 54 treatment groups consisting in one specific density or in a sequence of two or more consecutive deer densities in one or both cover types (ten groups for bees, sampled only in cut-over areas). We found 12 plants, 11 moths and one songbird to be single species indicators of ecosystem conditions obtained under 12 different treatment groups. Six treatment groups were indicated by plants and six different ones by moths, of which one group was also identified by a songbird species. Moths were thus worth the extra sampling effort, especially since the groups they indicated were more treatment-specific (mainly one or two deer density treatments). We tested the same 54 treatment groups for plant species combinations represented by two or three co-occurring species. Plant combinations efficiently complemented plant singletons for detecting ecosystem conditions obtained under various deer densities. In fact, although singletons were highly predictive, 17 additional treatment groups were identified exclusively with two- and three-species combinations, some being more treatment-specific. Our findings show that plants and moths provide complementary indicators of ecosystem conditions under various deer densities, and that computing species combinations increases our capacity to monitor ecosystem recovery after reducing herbivore densities.Funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-Produits forestiers Anticosti Industrial Chair to SDC, the Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune du Québec, the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada and an NSERC scholarship to MB and NSERC DG to MP and SP. We are grateful to the Centre de la Science de la Biodiversité du Québec and Centre d’études nordiques for scholarships

Enjeux et solutions pour la sylviculture intensive de plantations dans un contexte d'aménagement écosystémique

Les plantations forestières représentent un outil sylvicole reconnu pour assurer un approvisionnement en matière ligneuse qui répond aux attentes de la société envers l'aménagement durable des forêts. Toutefois, elles font aussi partie du scénario sylvicole qui a le plus grand potentiel d'artificialisation de la forêt naturelle. Les objectifs de la sylviculture intensive de plantations peuvent alors paraître, de prime abord, en contradiction avec ceux de l'aménagement écosystémique. Nous décrivons le processus par lequel nous avons défini et documenté des enjeux associés aux plantations et proposé des pistes de solutions pour que la sylviculture intensive de plantations puisse s'intégrer à l'aménagement écosystémique. Nous avons identifié des enjeux relatifs à l'ampleur, à la localisation et à l'agencement spatial des plantations, aux attributs clés et à la résilience de la forêt naturelle, à l'acceptabilité sociale, ainsi qu’à la productivité et à la rentabilité des plantations. Nous avons également proposé des pistes de solutions qui permettraient de réaliser les plantations dans un contexte d'aménagement écosystémique, telles que la modulation des traitements sylvicoles pour augmenter la naturalité des plantations, la réalisation des traitements de manière à obtenir la production attendue, ainsi qu'un déploiement dans le paysage qui intègre les préoccupations des parties prenantes et qui considère la naturalité de la matrice forestière. Forest plantations are recognized as a silvicultural tool for ensuring a timber supply that meets public expectations regarding sustainable forest management. However, they are also part of the silvicultural scenario that shows the greatest potential for the artificialization of natural forests. From a firsthand perspective, intensive plantation silviculture objectives may appear antagonistic to those of ecosystem management. Here we describe the process through which we defined and documented plantation issues, then propose potential solutions to allow the integration of intensive plantation silviculture into ecosystem management. We identify issues related to the scale, localization and spatial arrangement of plantations, the key attributes and resilience of natural forests, social acceptability, and the productivity and profitability of plantations. We also propose potential solutions likely to help manage plantations within a context of ecosystem management. These include modulating silvicultural treatments to enhance the naturalness of plantations, conducting treatments to obtain expected production rates, and ensuring that plantations are deployed across the landscape in a manner that integrates stakeholder concerns and considers the naturalness of the forest matrix

Misinformation, chiropractic, and the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract: Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization elevated the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic to a pandemic and called for urgent and aggressive action worldwide. Public health experts have communicated clear and emphatic strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Hygiene rules and social distancing practices have been implemented by entire populations, including ‘stay-at-home’ orders in many countries. The long-term health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet known. Main text: During this time of crisis, some chiropractors made claims on social media that chiropractic treatment can prevent or impact COVID-19. The rationale for these claims is that spinal manipulation can impact the nervous system and thus improve immunity. These beliefs often stem from nineteenth-century chiropractic concepts. We are aware of no clinically relevant scientific evidence to support such statements. We explored the internet and social media to collect examples of misinformation from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand regarding the impact of chiropractic treatment on immune function. We discuss the potential harm resulting from these claims and explore the role of chiropractors, teaching institutions, accrediting agencies, and legislative bodies. Conclusions: Members of the chiropractic profession share a collective responsibility to act in the best interests of patients and public health. We hope that all chiropractic stakeholders will view the COVID-19 pandemic as a call to action to eliminate the unethical and potentially dangerous claims made by chiropractors who practise outside the boundaries of scientific evidence

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XX. RedGOLD Background Galaxy Cluster Detections

We build a background cluster candidate catalog from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) using our detection algorithm RedGOLD. The NGVS covers 104 deg^2 of the Virgo cluster in the u*, g, r, i, z-bandpasses to a depth of g ~ 25.7 mag (5σ). Part of the survey was not covered or has shallow observations in the r band. We build two cluster catalogs: one using all bandpasses, for the fields with deep r-band observations (~20 deg^2), and the other using four bandpasses (u*, g, i, z) for the entire NGVS area. Based on our previous Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey W1 studies, we estimate that both of our catalogs are ~100% (~70%) complete and ~80% pure, at z ≤ 0.6 (z ≾1), for galaxy clusters with masses of M ≳ 10^(14) M⊙. We show that when using four bandpasses, though the photometric redshift accuracy is lower, RedGOLD detects massive galaxy clusters up to z ~ 1 with completeness and purity similar to the five-band case. This is achieved when taking into account the bias in the richness estimation, which is ~40% lower at 0.5 ≤ z 1.4 × 10^(14) M⊙ and 0.08 < z < 0.5. Because of our different cluster richness limits and the NGVS depth, our catalogs reach lower masses than the published redMaPPer cluster catalog over the area, and we recover ~90%–100% of its detections

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey - Infrared (NGVS-IR): I. A new Near-UV/Optical/Near-IR Globular Cluster selection tool

The NGVS-IR project (Next Generation Virgo Survey - Infrared) is a contiguous near-infrared imaging survey of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It complements the optical wide-field survey of Virgo (NGVS). The current state of NGVS-IR consists of Ks-band imaging of 4 deg^2 centered on M87, and J and Ks-band imaging of 16 deg^2 covering the region between M49 and M87. In this paper, we present the observations of the central 4 deg^2 centered on Virgo's core region. The data were acquired with WIRCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the total integration time was 41 hours distributed in 34 contiguous tiles. A survey-specific strategy was designed to account for extended galaxies while still measuring accurate sky brightness within the survey area. The average 5\sigma limiting magnitude is Ks=24.4 AB mag and the 50% completeness limit is Ks=23.75 AB mag for point source detections, when using only images with better than 0.7" seeing (median seeing 0.54"). Star clusters are marginally resolved in these image stacks, and Virgo galaxies with \mu_Ks=24.4 AB mag arcsec^-2 are detected. Combining the Ks data with optical and ultraviolet data, we build the uiK color-color diagram which allows a very clean color-based selection of globular clusters in Virgo. This diagnostic plot will provide reliable globular cluster candidates for spectroscopic follow-up campaigns needed to continue the exploration of Virgo's photometric and kinematic sub-structures, and will help the design of future searches for globular clusters in extragalactic systems. Equipped with this powerful new tool, future NGVS-IR investigations based on the uiK diagram will address the mapping and analysis of extended structures and compact stellar systems in and around Virgo galaxies.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ