I Am The Passenger: How Visual Motion Cues Can Influence Sickness For In-Car VR

This paper explores the use of VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) in-car and in-motion for the first time. Immersive HMDs are becoming everyday consumer items and, as they offer new possibilities for entertainment and productivity, people will want to use them during travel in, for example, autonomous cars. However, their use is confounded by motion sickness caused in-part by the restricted visual perception of motion conflicting with physically perceived vehicle motion (accelerations/rotations detected by the vestibular system). Whilst VR HMDs restrict visual perception of motion, they could also render it virtually, potentially alleviating sensory conflict. To study this problem, we conducted the first on-road and in motion study to systematically investigate the effects of various visual presentations of the real-world motion of a car on the sickness and immersion of VR HMD wearing passengers. We established new baselines for VR in-car motion sickness, and found that there is no one best presentation with respect to balancing sickness and immersion. Instead, user preferences suggest different solutions are required for differently susceptible users to provide usable VR in-car. This work provides formative insights for VR designers and an entry point for further research into enabling use of VR HMDs, and the rich experiences they offer, when travelling

Two phase aqueous extraction of whey proteins in a polyethylene glycol - arabinogalactan system

The whey protein separation potential of aqueous two-phase systems of arabinogalactan [AG] (Lonza FiberAidTM) and polyethylene glycol [PEG], buffered with 10 mmol/g phosphate or citrate buffer, was studied. 100 mmol/g potassium chloride [KCl] was added as required. Previously-published phase equilibrium results were verified and the absorbance of whey protein isolate [WPI] in an AG-PEG solution was measured. The effect of pH, KCl concentration, initial WPI concentrations and upper to lower phase mass ratios on whey partitioning was studied. The best separation system contained 17.20% (w/w) AG, 7.20% (w/w) PEG, 10 mmol citrate buffer (pH 5.4) and 100 mmol KCl per gram of total system. The upper to lower phase mass and volume ratios were 1:1 and 16:11 respectively. Approximately 12 mg (mainly α-lactalbumin) of the 20 mg WPI added partitioned into the AG-rich upper phase. This system has potential to reduce chromatographic requirements in large scale separation of protein mixtures

Using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to predict and monitor the number of beds occupied during a SARS outbreak in a tertiary hospital in Singapore.

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this study is to apply autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to make real-time predictions on the number of beds occupied in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, during the recent SARS outbreak. METHODS: This is a retrospective study design. Hospital admission and occupancy data for isolation beds was collected from Tan Tock Seng hospital for the period 14th March 2003 to 31st May 2003. The main outcome measure was daily number of isolation beds occupied by SARS patients. Among the covariates considered were daily number of people screened, daily number of people admitted (including observation, suspect and probable cases) and days from the most recent significant event discovery. We utilized the following strategy for the analysis. Firstly, we split the outbreak data into two. Data from 14th March to 21st April 2003 was used for model development. We used structural ARIMA models in an attempt to model the number of beds occupied. Estimation is via the maximum likelihood method using the Kalman filter. For the ARIMA model parameters, we considered the simplest parsimonious lowest order model. RESULTS: We found that the ARIMA (1,0,3) model was able to describe and predict the number of beds occupied during the SARS outbreak well. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for the training set and validation set were 5.7% and 8.6% respectively, which we found was reasonable for use in the hospital setting. Furthermore, the model also provided three-day forecasts of the number of beds required. Total number of admissions and probable cases admitted on the previous day were also found to be independent prognostic factors of bed occupancy. CONCLUSION: ARIMA models provide useful tools for administrators and clinicians in planning for real-time bed capacity during an outbreak of an infectious disease such as SARS. The model could well be used in planning for bed-capacity during outbreaks of other infectious diseases as well

Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework

Computational thinking sits at the heart of the new statutory programme of study for Computing: “A high quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world” (Department for Education, 2013, p. 188). This document aims to support teachers to teach computational thinking. It describes a framework that helps explain what computational thinking is, describes pedagogic approaches for teaching it and gives ways to assess it. Pupil progression with the previous ICT curriculum was often demonstrated through ‘how’ (for example, a software usage skill) or ‘what’ the pupil produced (for example, a poster). This was partly due to the needs of the business world for office skills. Such use of precious curriculum time however has several weaknesses. Firstly, the country’s economy depends on technological innovation not just on use of technology. Secondly, the pace of technology and organisational change is fast in that the ICT skills learnt are out of date before a pupil leaves school. Thirdly, technology invades all aspects of our life and the typically taught office practice is only a small part of technology use today

Chinese Immigrant Women as Home Care Workers: Performing and Disrupting Narratives Through Labor Practices

This article explores how labor practices perpetuate narratives, or stereotypes, which produce various forms of anti-Asian violence. By looking at labor trends of Chinese immigrants in America, specifically on the current increase of Chinese immigrant women home care workers, the author argues that labor trends are guided by narratives surrounding certain demographics while simultaneously reinforcing these narratives. For Chinese immigrant women, the stereotype of the hardworking and subservient worker, paired with their hypersexualization and association with sex work, combine to justify their increased presence in the domestic work or home care industry. These harmful narratives create violence both within and beyond the workplace. Use of collective organizing practices by workers not only leads to better working conditions, but also counters narratives of Chinese immigrant women as submissive and silent. Labor organizing has the immense power to transform stereotypes which guide labor practices and perpetuate violence. Despite its deprioritization in mainstream Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) political organizing spaces, labor organizing should be seen as an essential site for the future of AAPI organizing

Automation and hypermedia technology applications

This paper represents a progress report on HyLite (Hypermedia Library technology): a research and development activity to produce a versatile system as part of NASA's technology thrusts in automation, information sciences, and communications. HyLite can be used as a system or tool to facilitate the creation and maintenance of large distributed electronic libraries. The contents of such a library may be software components, hardware parts or designs, scientific data sets or databases, configuration management information, etc. Proliferation of computer use has made the diversity and quantity of information too large for any single user to sort, process, and utilize effectively. In response to this information deluge, we have created HyLite to enable the user to process relevant information into a more efficient organization for presentation, retrieval, and readability. To accomplish this end, we have incorporated various AI techniques into the HyLite hypermedia engine to facilitate parameters and properties of the system. The proposed techniques include intelligent searching tools for the libraries, intelligent retrievals, and navigational assistance based on user histories. HyLite itself is based on an earlier project, the Encyclopedia of Software Components (ESC) which used hypermedia to facilitate and encourage software reuse

Cost-Effectiveness in Individual Development Accounts

Because resources are limited, the benefits and costs of social-work interventions—like all interventions—must be compared with the benefits and costs of alternatives. Evidence-basedpractice should ask not only “What works?” but also “How well does it work?” and “What does it cost?” Unfortunately, evaluations of social-work practice—like evaluations in any field—rarely can measure all the relevant variables. In particular, benefits are extremely difficult to measure. Costs are simpler to measure, but even so, few evaluations measure costs. In the end, all evaluations are inevitably incomplete and so must make subjective judgments aboutunmeasured factors. The key to evaluation, then, is not certainty nor objectivity but rather explicitness. an evaluation’s usefulness rests not in its (apparent) incontrovertibility but rather in its clarity of assumptions, its explicitness about subjective judgments, and its openness to meaningful review and critique. With these goals in mind, this paper analyzes the provision ofIndividual Development Accounts with a new cost-effectiveness framework meant to help make assumptions and judgments explicit. In the specific IDA program examined, one month of services for one participant cost about $64. The mere existence of a cost figure—regardless of whether it is seen as high or low—has sparked many questions in the IDA community: How can costs be reduced without sacrificing quality? Which features of IDAs are essential? Are IDAs worth it? This sort of healthy questioning is precisely the purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis in social-work practice

Student Philanthropy: Plant It Nurture It Harvest It: A Handbook for College And University Faculty

This handbook for college and university faculty was produced by the Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) as an effort to share what the University has learned about student philanthropy. NKU hopes this handbook leads to the growth of student philanthropy on campuses and in classrooms everywhere

A Note from the Tapestries Editors

Introduction to volume 11 of Macalester College\u27s journal Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities