Presenting in Virtual Worlds: Towards an Architecture for a 3D Presenter explaining 2D-Presented Information

Entertainment, education and training are changing because of multi-party interaction technology. In the past we have seen the introduction of embodied agents and robots that take the role of a museum guide, a news presenter, a teacher, a receptionist, or someone who is trying to sell you insurances, houses or tickets. In all these cases the embodied agent needs to explain and describe. In this paper we contribute the design of a 3D virtual presenter that uses different output channels to present and explain. Speech and animation (posture, pointing and involuntary movements) are among these channels. The behavior is scripted and synchronized with the display of a 2D presentation with associated text and regions that can be pointed at (sheets, drawings, and paintings). In this paper the emphasis is on the interaction between 3D presenter and the 2D presentation

Visual function and serous retinal detachment in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion and macular edema: a case series

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The influence of serous retinal detachment (SRD) on retinal sensitivity in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and macular edema remains unclear. This is despite the frequent co-existence of SRD and cystoid macular edema (CME) in BRVO patients on optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the fact that CME is the most common form of macular edema secondary to BRVO. We investigated visual function (visual acuity and macular sensitivity), macular thickness, and macular volume in patients with BRVO and macular edema.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty-three consecutive BRVO patients (26 women and 27 men) were divided into two groups based on optical coherence tomography findings. Macular function was documented by microperimetry, while macular thickness and volume were measured by OCT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 15 patients with SRD and 38 patients with CME. Fourteen of the 15 patients with SRD also had CME. Visual acuity was significantly worse in the SRD group than in the CME group (P = 0.049). Also, macular thickness and macular volume within the central 4°, 10°, and 20° fields were significantly greater in the SRD group (P = 0.008, and P = 0.007, P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, and P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). However, macular sensitivity within the central 4°, 10°, and 20° fields was not significantly worse in the SRD group than in the CME group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>SRD itself may decrease visual acuity together with CME, because nearly all SRD patients also had CME. SRD does not seem to influence macular function on microperimetry.</p

Multicentred surgical site infection surveillance using partitioning analysis

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is an ongoing major public health problem throughout the world that increases healthcare costs. Utilizing a methodology that can help clinicians to continuously collect data about SSIs, analyse it and implement the feedback into routine hospital practice has been identified as a top national priority in Japan. Aim: To conduct an intervention study through 'operations research' using partitioning at multiple facilities, and to reduce the incidence and consequences of SSI. Methods: The Setouchi SSI Surveillance Group, which consists of seven institutes, started SSI surveillance in 2006. Until May of 2008, there were four surveillance periods (A-D). In all, 3089 patients underwent gastrointestinal surgery and were followed up for 30 days after their operations. Twenty-six factors that have been reported to be related to SSI were evaluated for all patients. The top three factors from each surveillance period were determined and then actual practice improvements were planned for each subsequent period. Findings: The total SSI occurrence was 6.9% for period A, 6.3% for period B, 6.4% for period C and 3.9% for period D. Comparing periods A and D, there was a statistical significance in the decrease of SSI occurrence (P = 0.012). Conclusion: Using the results and partitioning analysis of active SSI surveillance to contribute to action plans for improving clinical practice was effective in significantly reducing SSIs

What does touch tell us about emotions in touchscreen-based gameplay?

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ACM. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution.Nowadays, more and more people play games on touch-screen mobile phones. This phenomenon raises a very interesting question: does touch behaviour reflect the player’s emotional state? If possible, this would not only be a valuable evaluation indicator for game designers, but also for real-time personalization of the game experience. Psychology studies on acted touch behaviour show the existence of discriminative affective profiles. In this paper, finger-stroke features during gameplay on an iPod were extracted and their discriminative power analysed. Based on touch-behaviour, machine learning algorithms were used to build systems for automatically discriminating between four emotional states (Excited, Relaxed, Frustrated, Bored), two levels of arousal and two levels of valence. The results were very interesting reaching between 69% and 77% of correct discrimination between the four emotional states. Higher results (~89%) were obtained for discriminating between two levels of arousal and two levels of valence

Healthy Campus Trial: A multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) fully factorial trial to optimize the smartphone cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) app for mental health promotion among university students: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.After the publication of the primary findings, the de-identified and completely anonymized individual participant-level dataset will be posted on the UMIN-ICDR website (http://www.umin.ac.jp/icdr/index-j.html) so that it can be accessed by qualified researchers.Background: Youth in general and college life in particular are characterized by new educational, vocational, and interpersonal challenges, opportunities, and substantial stress. It is estimated that 30-50% of university students meet criteria for some mental disorder, especially depression, in any given year. The university has traditionally provided many channels to promote students' mental health, but until now only a minority have sought such help, possibly owing to lack of time and/or to stigma related to mental illness. Smartphone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) shows promise for its accessibility and effectiveness. However, its most effective components and for whom it is more (or less) effective are not known. Methods/design: Based on the multiphase optimization strategy framework, this study is a parallel-group, multicenter, open, fully factorial trial examining five smartphone-delivered CBT components (self-monitoring, cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation, assertion training, and problem solving) among university students with elevated distress, defined as scoring 5 or more on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The primary outcome is change in PHQ-9 scores from baseline to week 8. We will estimate specific efficacy of the five components and their interactions through the mixed-effects repeated-measures analysis and propose the most effective and efficacious combinations of components. Effect modification by selected baseline characteristics will be examined in exploratory analyses. Discussion: The highly efficient experimental design will allow identification of the most effective components and the most efficient combinations thereof among the five components of smartphone CBT for university students. Pragmatically, the findings will help make the most efficacious CBT package accessible to a large number of distressed university students at reduced cost; theoretically, they will shed light on the underlying mechanisms of CBT and help further advance CBT for depression

Genome-Wide Studies of Histone Demethylation Catalysed by the Fission Yeast Homologues of Mammalian LSD1

In order to gain a more global view of the activity of histone demethylases, we report here genome-wide studies of the fission yeast SWIRM and polyamine oxidase (PAO) domain homologues of mammalian LSD1. Consistent with previous work we find that the two S. pombe proteins, which we name Swm1 and Swm2 (after SWIRM1 and SWIRM2), associate together in a complex. However, we find that this complex specifically demethylates lysine 9 in histone H3 (H3K9) and both up- and down-regulates expression of different groups of genes. Using chromatin-immunoprecipitation, to isolate fragments of chromatin containing either H3K4me2 or H3K9me2, and DNA microarray analysis (ChIP-chip), we have studied genome-wide changes in patterns of histone methylation, and their correlation with gene expression, upon deletion of the swm1+ gene. Using hyper-geometric probability comparisons we uncover genetic links between lysine-specific demethylases, the histone deacetylase Clr6, and the chromatin remodeller Hrp1. The data presented here demonstrate that in fission yeast the SWIRM/PAO domain proteins Swm1 and Swm2 are associated in complexes that can remove methyl groups from lysine 9 methylated histone H3. In vitro, we show that bacterially expressed Swm1 also possesses lysine 9 demethylase activity. In vivo, loss of Swm1 increases the global levels of both H3K9me2 and H3K4me2. A significant accumulation of H3K4me2 is observed at genes that are up-regulated in a swm1 deletion strain. In addition, H3K9me2 accumulates at some genes known to be direct Swm1/2 targets that are down-regulated in the swm1¿ strain. The in vivo data indicate that Swm1 acts in concert with the HDAC Clr6 and the chromatin remodeller Hrp1 to repress gene expression. In addition, our in vitro analyses suggest that the H3K9 demethylase activity requires an unidentified post-translational modification to allow it to act. Thus, our results highlight complex interactions between histone demethylase, deacetylase and chromatin remodelling activities in the regulation of gene expression

SQCD: A Geometric Apercu

We take new algebraic and geometric perspectives on the old subject of SQCD. We count chiral gauge invariant operators using generating functions, or Hilbert series, derived from the plethystic programme and the Molien-Weyl formula. Using the character expansion technique, we also see how the global symmetries are encoded in the generating functions. Equipped with these methods and techniques of algorithmic algebraic geometry, we obtain the character expansions for theories with arbitrary numbers of colours and flavours. Moreover, computational algebraic geometry allows us to systematically study the classical vacuum moduli space of SQCD and investigate such structures as its irreducible components, degree and syzygies. We find the vacuum manifolds of SQCD to be affine Calabi-Yau cones over weighted projective varieties.Comment: 49 pages, 1 figur

Baryonic Generating Functions

We show how it is possible to use the plethystic program in order to compute baryonic generating functions that count BPS operators in the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on the world volume of D branes probing a non compact CY manifold. Special attention is given to the conifold theory and the orbifold C^2/Z_2 times C, where exact expressions for generating functions are given in detail. This paper solves a long standing problem for the combinatorics of quiver gauge theories with baryonic moduli spaces. It opens the way to a statistical analysis of quiver theories on baryonic branches. Surprisingly, the baryonic charge turns out to be the quantized Kahler modulus of the geometry.Comment: 44 pages, 7 figures; fonts change

Counting Chiral Operators in Quiver Gauge Theories

We discuss in detail the problem of counting BPS gauge invariant operators in the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on D-branes probing generic toric CY singularities. The computation of generating functions that include counting of baryonic operators is based on a relation between the baryonic charges in field theory and the Kaehler moduli of the CY singularities. A study of the interplay between gauge theory and geometry shows that given geometrical sectors appear more than once in the field theory, leading to a notion of "multiplicities". We explain in detail how to decompose the generating function for one D-brane into different sectors and how to compute their relevant multiplicities by introducing geometric and anomalous baryonic charges. The Plethystic Exponential remains a major tool for passing from one D-brane to arbitrary number of D-branes. Explicit formulae are given for few examples, including C^3/Z_3, F_0, and dP_1.Comment: 75 pages, 22 figure

Histone H3 K36 Methylation Is Associated with Transcription Elongation in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Set2 methylation of histone H3 at lysine 36 (K36) has recently been shown to be associated with RNA polymerase II (Pol II) elongation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, whether this modification is conserved and associated with transcription elongation in other organisms is not known. Here we report the identification and characterization of the Set2 ortholog responsible for K36 methylation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We find that similar to the budding yeast enzyme, S. pombe Set2 is also a robust nucleosome-selective H3 methyltransferase that is specific for K36. Deletion of the S. pombe set2+ gene results in complete abolishment of K36 methylation as well as a slow-growth phenotype on plates containing synthetic medium. These results indicate that Set2 is the sole enzyme responsible for this modification in fission yeast and is important for cell growth under stressed conditions. Using the chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, we demonstrate that K36 methylation in S. pombe is associated with the transcribed regions of Pol II-regulated genes and is devoid in regions that are not transcribed by Pol II. Consistent with a role for Set2 in transcription elongation, we find that S. pombe Set2 associates with the hyperphosphorylated form of Pol II and can fully rescue K36 methylation and Pol II interaction in budding yeast cells deleted for Set2. These results, along with our finding that K36 methylation is highly conserved among eukaryotes, imply a conserved role for this modification in the transcription elongation process