Designing a User-Metaverse Interface for the Industrial-Metaverse

The Industrial-Metaverse will create interactions between the physical and virtual worlds to extend operations in the physical industry. This particularity and the demand for increasing immersion in the Metaverse require using XR technologies called User-Metaverse interfaces (UMI). How such a UMI must be designed for the industrial-Metaverse is unknown. This study adopts a design science approach to design a UMI based on social cognitive theory (SCT). According to SCT, creating user-generated Metaverse content is crucial to the UMI design. It empowers users to generate content through their efforts, leading to higher self-efficacy and user engagement. We formulate two theoretically based design principles and instantiate a software artifact, which we evaluate in a laboratory experiment with 57 participants. Our study shows the importance of belief in success in the design of future UMI. Furthermore, our design principles show significant positive outcome expectations of users in their interaction with the software artifact

Drosophila FoxP Mutants Are Deficient in Operant Self-Learning

Intact function of the Forkhead Box P2 (FOXP2) gene is necessary for normal development of speech and language. This important role has recently been extended, first to other forms of vocal learning in animals and then also to other forms of motor learning. The homology in structure and in function among the FoxP gene members raises the possibility that the ancestral FoxP gene may have evolved as a crucial component of the neural circuitry mediating motor learning. Here we report that genetic manipulations of the single Drosophila orthologue, dFoxP, disrupt operant self-learning, a form of motor learning sharing several conceptually analogous features with language acquisition. Structural alterations of the dFoxP locus uncovered the role of dFoxP in operant self-learning and habit formation, as well as the dispensability of dFoxP for operant world-learning, in which no motor learning occurs. These manipulations also led to subtle alterations in the brain anatomy, including a reduced volume of the optic glomeruli. RNAi-mediated interference with dFoxP expression levels copied the behavioral phenotype of the mutant flies, even in the absence of mRNA degradation. Our results provide evidence that motor learning and language acquisition share a common ancestral trait still present in extant invertebrates, manifest in operant self-learning. This ‘deep’ homology probably traces back to before the split between vertebrate and invertebrate animals