2D to VR with Unity 5 and Google Cardboard

The book provides an up-to-date introduction to the latest version of Unity and its workflow by guiding readers through various prototypes. These range from 2D to 3D game concepts for PC and mobile, will allow readers to get acquainted with several important concepts and allow them to become competent Unity developers able to learn at their own pace. The book starts by introducing Unity and proceeds in building a basic understanding of its main components by developing a first, simple 2D game before proceeding in developing a full casual game to development of a simple but immersive 3D game concept to be tested first on PC before exploring how to port it for mobile VR.using Google Cardboard

The Future of Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia along the Maritime Silk Road

This paper proposes an analysis of the prospects of the cyber security industry and educational ecosystems in four Southeast Asian countries, namely Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which are along the Maritime Silk Road, by using two novel metrics: the "Cybersecurity Education Prospects Index" (CEPI) and the "Cybersecurity Industry Prospects Index" (CIPI). The CEPI evaluates the state of cybersecurity education by assessing the availability and quality of cybersecurity degrees together with their ability to attract new students. On the other hand, the CIPI measures the potential for the cybersecurity industry's growth and development by assessing the talent pool needed to build and sustain its growth. Ultimately, this study emphasizes the vital importance of a healthy cybersecurity ecosystem where education is responsible for supporting the industry to ensure the security and reliability of commercial operations in these countries against a complex and evolving cyber threat landscape.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 8 table

Voice Analysis for Stress Detection and Application in Virtual Reality to Improve Public Speaking in Real-time: A Review

Stress during public speaking is common and adversely affects performance and self-confidence. Extensive research has been carried out to develop various models to recognize emotional states. However, minimal research has been conducted to detect stress during public speaking in real time using voice analysis. In this context, the current review showed that the application of algorithms was not properly explored and helped identify the main obstacles in creating a suitable testing environment while accounting for current complexities and limitations. In this paper, we present our main idea and propose a stress detection computational algorithmic model that could be integrated into a Virtual Reality (VR) application to create an intelligent virtual audience for improving public speaking skills. The developed model, when integrated with VR, will be able to detect excessive stress in real time by analysing voice features correlated to physiological parameters indicative of stress and help users gradually control excessive stress and improve public speaking performanceComment: 41 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

Cybersecurity Workforce Landscape, Education, and Industry Growth Prospects in Southeast Asia

Given the chronic lack of qualified professionals in the cybersecurity industry, the present paper seeks to evaluate the current interest in cybersecurity across Southeast Asia nations and then compare it with the available educational offerings of related degrees in each country to identify eventual gaps in the market. The goal is to assess whether there is a need for additional degree programs in cybersecurity and to evaluate the potential for future growth in the industry by providing a solid educational foundation for aspiring professionals. To estimate current interest from prospective students and profesionals in cybersecurity across each country, leaderboards from the popular TryHackMe gamified cybersecurity training platform are referenced. We further discuss issues by considering the related formal education programmes offered by the top universities in each country, identified by their presence in the QS world university rankings. The data are then used to propose two new metrics: the ‘Cybersecurity Education Prospects Index’ (CEPI) and the ‘Cybersecurity Industry Prospects Index’ (CIPI), which show how most of the eleven countries in Southeast Asia do have an unmet demand for cybersecurity education and only a few of them have already developed an educational infrastructure that is ready to support the growing needs of the local and international industry

Defense: Evolution

Cellular Automata are mathematical models based on a regular grid of cells where each one can assume different states (e.g. on/off) according to specific conditions. They are widely used in many fields of science for modeling a broad range of phenomena, from biology to artificial intelligence and cryptography. The game discussed here offers a smooth introduction to such topics by implementing the "Game of Life" model proposed by John Conway in 1970 (Gardner, 1970). This is one of the most well-known cellular automaton since it is not only relatively simple to understand, making it a perfect learning tool, but it also has plenty of applications across different fields (Adamatzki, 2010)

Ejecución del Presupuesto General del Estado y su incidencia en la sostenibilidad fiscal del Ecuador, periodo 2001 – 2016

La investigación tuvo como objetivo analizar la incidencia de la ejecución de la estructura del Presupuesto General del Estado en la sostenibilidad fiscal del Ecuador para el periodo 2001 – 2016. En base a las series históricas del Ministerio de Finanzas se establecieron las relaciones entre la ejecución de los ingresos y gastos del periodo analizado. En el periodo de estudio los ingresos corrientes y de capital devengados fueron de USD 233.430.330.782,84 que sirvieron para financiar los gastos corrientes, producción, inversión y capital por USD 260.233”™358.425,27. Observándose que existe un déficit presupuestario de USD 26.803”™027.642,43; además, se determinó que por cada dólar de ingresos totales que se obtuvieron se destinaron 56,01 centavos de dólar para el gasto corriente; 25,46 centavos para gastos en personal; 17, 48 centavos para bienes y servicios de consumo; para inversión pública 14,95 centavos y apenas 5,21 centavos de dólar se destinaron para obras públicas; esta distribución genera dificultades   en la sostenibilidad fiscal

Concentración de la producción y el empleo por tipo de empresa en el Sector Manufacturero Ecuatoriano, perí­odo 2003 – 2014

La estructura sectorial dentro de un paí­s es muy importante, tal cual lo aseguran los autores, Kuznets y Murphy, quienes hablan sobre la importancia de una estructura sectorial. Kuznets, menciona en su obra: “El crecimiento económico moderno (1966)”, que: el desarrollo económico implica un aumento sostenido del producto total, así­ como en su per cápita, y los cambios estructurales de un modelo agrí­cola a uno industrializado. Por esto, se hace necesario analizar al sector manufacturero desde varias aristas, y una de ellas es el tema de la concentración de la producción y el empleo dentro de este, en el perí­odo 2003-2014, mediante el número de empresas, el valor de la producción y el personal ocupado

Amazon vs. Walmart: ¿cuál de estas empresas dominará el comercio electrónico?

Cada vez más empresas y personas participan del comercio electrónico que ha crecido fundamentalmente por el desarrollo de las tecnologí­as de información. Este documento realiza un análisis comparativo en lo concerniente al comercio electrónico desarrollado por las empresas Amazon y Walmart, considerando herramientas gerenciales (fuerzas competitivas de Porter, modelo de la cadena de valor y sistemas de información) que permitieron establecer cuál de estas dos empresas presentan mejores condiciones, siendo Amazon el lí­der indiscutible del mercado del comercio electrónico mundial por la mayor experiencia que presenta en este tipo de mercado

Impact of suboptimal APOBEC3G neutralization on the emergence of HIV drug resistance in humanized mice

HIV diversification facilitates immune escape and complicates antiretroviral therapy. In this study, we take advantage of a humanized mouse model to probe the contribution of APOBEC3 mutagenesis to viral evolution. Humanized mice were infected with isogenic HIV molecular clones (HIV-WT, HIV-45G, HIV-ΔSLQ) that differ in their ability to counteract APOBEC3G (A3G). Infected mice remained naïve or were treated with the RT inhibitor lamivudine (3TC). Viremia, emergence of drug resistant variants and quasispecies diversification in the plasma compartment were determined throughout infection. While both HIV-WT and HIV-45G achieved robust infection, over time HIV-45G replication was significantly reduced compared to HIV-WT in the absence of 3TC treatment. In contrast, treatment response differed significantly between HIV-45G and HIV-WT infected mice. Antiretroviral treatment failed in 91% of HIV-45G infected mice while only 36% of HIV-WT infected mice displayed a similar negative outcome. Emergence of 3TC resistant variants and nucleotide diversity were determined by analyzing 155,462 single HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) and 6,985 vif sequences from 33 mice. Prior to treatment, variants with genotypic 3TC resistance (RT-M184I/V) were detected at low levels in over a third of all animals. Upon treatment, the composition of the plasma quasispecies rapidly changed leading to a majority of circulating viral variants encoding RT-184I. Interestingly, increased viral diversity prior to treatment initiation correlated with higher plasma viremia in HIV-45G but not in HIV-WT infected animals. Taken together, HIV variants with suboptimal anti-A3G activity were attenuated in the absence of selection but display a fitness advantage in the presence of antiretroviral treatment.IMPORTANCE Both viral (e.g., reverse transcriptase, RT) and host factors (e.g., APOBEC3G (A3G)) can contribute to HIV sequence diversity. This study shows that suboptimal anti-A3G activity shapes viral fitness and drives viral evolution in the plasma compartment of humanized mice

Resultados tardios do tratamento da paracoccidioidomicose com anfotericina B mais sulfamídicos "versus" anfotericina B isoladamente

Os Autores avaliam tardiamente dois grupos de doentes de paracoccidioidomicose. Ambos foram tratados com anfotericina B, tendo um deles feito tratamento de manutenção com sulfamídicos. Através de análises estatísticas comprovam a maior eficácia do tratamento, quando se faz a manutenção com sulfamídicos.A delayed evaluation of two groups of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis was carried out. Both groups were treated with amphotericin B, "but one of them was submitted to maintenance treatment with sulfonamides. Statistical analysis showed that treatment is more effective when patients are maintained with sulfonamide drugs