Simplifying collaboration in co-located virtual environments using the active-passive approach

The design and implementation of co-located immersive virtual environments with equal interaction possibilities for all participants is a complex topic. The main problem, on a fundamental technical level, is the difficulty of providing perspective-correct images for each participant. There is consensus that the lack of a correct perspective view will negatively affect interaction fidelity and therefore also collaboration. Several research approaches focus on providing a correct perspective view to all participants to enable co-located work. However, these approaches are usually either based on custom hardware solutions that limit the number of users with a correct perspective view or software solutions striving to eliminate or mitigate restrictions with custom image-generation approaches. In this paper we investigate an often overlooked approach to enable collaboration for multiple users in an immersive virtual environment designed for a single user. The approach provides one (active) user with a perspective-correct view while other (passive) users receive visual cues that are not perspective-correct. We used this active-passive approach to investigate the limitations posed by assigning the viewpoint to only one user. The findings of our study, though inconclusive, revealed two curiosities. First, our results suggest that the location of target geometry is an important factor to consider for designing interaction, expanding on prior work that has studied only the relation between user positions. Secondly, there seems to be only a low cost involved in accepting the limitation of providing perspective-correct images to a single user, when comparing with a baseline, during a coordinated work approach. These findings advance our understanding of collaboration in co-located virtual environments and suggest an approach to simplify co-located collaboration

Experiências de turismo comunitário na Área Natural Protegida do Nevado de Toluca, México: para a construção de produtos turísticos patrimoniais alternativos

Artículo científico derivado de una estancia de investigación en la Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales ProtegidasA través de una investigación-acción participativa aplicada al área natural protegida del Nevado de Toluca, en México, se llevó a cabo un proceso para desarrollar productos turísticos en diez comunidades ejidales vinculadas a esta área, con los propósitos de reconocer los elementos objetivos y subjetivos que se conjugaron en su construcción y de identificar los significados socioculturales caracterizados por espacios regionales particulares. Se concluyó que el avance en la construcción del producto turístico de cada ejido obedece no solo a su potencialidad y a su capital social, sino a las nociones y prácticas de sus actores y a la sinergia con su espacio regional

El Ecoturismo en Quintana Roo. Análisis de sus Proyectos Comunitarios.

Artículo completoEste trabajo aporta un diagnóstico comparativo por zonas con cierto grado de consolidación de los proyectos ecoturísticos comunitarios en el Estado de Quintana Roo. La tendencia expansiva del turismo en Quintana Roo hacia el interior del estado, hace necesaria la actitud proactiva de las comunidades para insertarse en proyectos turísticos en condiciones favorables para la actividad, y no ser espectadores marginales del desarrollo. Por ello, el análisis de las prácticas de ecoturismo en Quintana Roo que aquí se presenta, se realizó desde la óptica del turismo comunitario generado por las empresas ecoturísticas. La investigación realizada es de enfoque mixto y comparativo, basada en la información obtenida de la encuesta aplicada a 49 distintos casos de estudio. Por tal motivo, se analizó el impulso del ecoturismo como alternativa de desarrollo local para el estado de Quintana Roo, con factores vinculados a los servicios, actividades paralelas, infraestructura básica, equipo especial y actividades, como productos turísticos competitivos. Los principales hallazgos revelaron que los mejores resultados se desarrollaron siempre en todos los aspectos en la zona centro maya de Quintana Roo, en cada uno de los 23 proyectos que realizan actividades de ecoturismo. Destacaron por orden de importancia, para ver el grado de potencialidad de cada uno de ellos en cuanto a prestación de servicios, actividades paralelas, distribución de infraestructura básica, equipamiento especializado en turismo de aventura, ecoturismo, turismo rural, y sobre todo en las actividades a desarrollar destacando el ecoturismo como actividad principal, seguidas del turismo rural y en tercer parámetro el turismo de aventura, haciendo énfasis en el valor que le dan a la parte comunitaria para el desarrollo de proyectos. En lo que respecta a las zonas norte y sur, convergen en darle al ecoturismo su principal herramienta para desarrollar proyectos comunitarios, seguidos del turismo de aventura y muy lejos del desarrollo al turismo rural.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México Universidad del Carib

A Comparative Study of in-Game and out-Game Assessment for Storyline-based Games

Serious games have the potential to complement existing teaching methods by motivating and providing a more enjoyable experience for the players or by simulating events that would be otherwise difficult to reproduce in the classroom. Despite their potential, little is known about how the games could be used not only for teaching but also as assessment tools. This research addresses this gap. We present an in-game assessment method which assesses the learning objectives included in the game without the need for a separate intervention. We evaluate the proposed method and we show that there is no statistically significant difference in participants being assessed through a questionnaire outside the game and the integrated game assessment method. Moreover, we looked at whether the player experience has been affected by the changes needed in the game design and the players' preferences for different types of assessment. Most participants preferred being assessed through the game. They also felt that the assessment has overall improved their game experience

Chemical composition and in vitro gas production of some legume browse species in subtropical areas of Mexico

The objective of the present study was to determine the chemical composition and in vitro gas production of different legume and wild arboreal pods. Seven seeds of legume browse species, Mexican calabash (Crescentia alata), esculent leadtree (Leucaena esculenta), guamuchil (Phitecellobium dulce), bastard cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia), needle bush (Acacia farnesiana), mimosa (Mimosa sp.) and elephant ear tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum). Were evaluated for their chemical composition (g/kg DM) and in vitro gas production pattern. Crude Protein was higher for L. esculenta (220) and lower for G. ulmifolia (70). Neutral and acid detergent fiber were higher for G. ulmifolia (687 and 554) and lower for A. farnesiana (267 and 176). Lignin was higher for Mimosa sp. (219) and lower for P. dulce (81). Total gas production (ml gas/g DM) of P. dulce (187) and E. cyclocarpum (164) were higher (P<0.001) than Mimosa sp. The lowest values were for C. alata (108), G. ulmifolia (102), L. esculenta (99) and A. farnesiana (90). The nutritional characteristics of L. esculenta and A. farnesiana might be used as supplements in ruminant diets, due to their major content in CP and in vitro digestibility, representing an alternative protein supplement during dry season

Óptimos técnicos para la producción de leche y carne en el sistema bovino de doble propósito del trópico mexicano

Se presenta información útil y relevante en términos de economía y producción como herramienta para la toma de desicionesEl objetivo de este estudio fue estimar y analizar los resultados obtenidos de una función de producción de leche y carne en unidades de producción del sistema de doble propósito (DP). Los datos se obtuvieron a través de encuestas mensuales, donde se registró información de producción de leche, carne, ingresos y egresos económicos, durante 12 meses. Las funciones se estimaron por el método indirecto de regresión lineal con datos transformados para una función Cobb-Douglas. La función para leche mostró que los insumos alimento y vacas explican el 91 % de la producción, con coeficientes de elasticidad de 0.34 y 0.5, productos marginales de 0.75 y 892.2 con valores de $4.03 y$4,800.2 respectivamente. Los insumos utilizados para la producción de leche se encuentran en la etapa II de producción con rendimientos marginales decrecientes, mientras que para la producción de carne los insumos alimento y vacas explican el 72 % de la producción, con coeficientes de elasticidades de producción de -0.20 y 1.11 respectivamente; el alimento se ubicó en la etapa III de producción con rendimientos marginales negativos, y el insumo vacas se encontró en la etapa I con rendimientos marginales crecientes. La suma de los coeficientes de ambas funciones que fueron 0.92 y 0.91 por ser menores a uno, tienen rendimientos decrecientes a escala. El nivel óptimo técnico de producción fue de 488.97 L diarios y 10 becerros al año. Los insumos para producción de leche se están utilizando de forma racional, pero se debe evaluar la cantidad de alimento utilizada para producción de carne, ya que refleja que es sobre utilizado

Towards optimal cut-off trough levels of adalimumab and etanercept for a good therapeutic response in rheumatoid arthritis. Results of the INMUNOREMAR study

Article en format correspondènciaWe read with great interest the paper by Chen et al1 analysing the relationship between therapeutic response to adalimumab and etanercept and serum drug trough levels in 70 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). ..

A fast refill of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis? Looking for independent evidence

One of the main competing scenarios proposed for the termination of the Messinian salinity crisis consists of a geologically-rapid refill of the Mediterranean after a km-scale drawdown of the Mediterranean Sea level. The main evidence supporting this Zanclean Flood scenario is a nearly 400 km long and several hundred meters deep erosion channel across the Strait of Gibraltar. This erosion channel extends from the Gulf of Cadiz to the Algerian Basin and implies the excavation of ca. 1000 km3 of Miocene sediment and older bedrock. However, additional evidence supporting this catastrophic flood hypothesis is missing, other than the fast transition from MSC deposits to open-marine facies. Here we test two consequences that an outburst flood of the Mediterranean should imply: First, an excavated channel similar to the one across the Gibraltar Strait should be present in the old sill separating the east and west Mediterranean domains (none has been yet reported). A second smoking gun would be finding the present emplacement of the materials eroded during the Zanclean flood (but quantitative predictions of where to look for them are still missing).peer-reviewe

Engineered rHDL Nanoparticles as a Suitable Platform for Theranostic Applications

Reconstituted high-density lipoproteins (rHDLs) can transport and specifically release drugs and imaging agents, mediated by the Scavenger Receptor Type B1 (SR-B1) present in a wide variety of tumor cells, providing convenient platforms for developing theranostic systems. Usually, phospholipids or Apo-A1 lipoproteins on the particle surfaces are the motifs used to conjugate molecules for the multifunctional purposes of the rHDL nanoparticles. Cholesterol has been less addressed as a region to bind molecules or functional groups to the rHDL surface. To maximize the efficacy and improve the radiolabeling of rHDL theranostic systems, we synthesized compounds with bifunctional agents covalently linked to cholesterol. This strategy means that the radionuclide was bound to the surface, while the therapeutic agent was encapsulated in the lipophilic core. In this research, HYNIC-S-(CH2)3-S-Cholesterol and DOTA-benzene-p-SC-NH-(CH2)2-NH-Cholesterol derivatives were synthesized to prepare nanoparticles (NPs) of HYNIC-rHDL and DOTA-rHDL, which can subsequently be linked to radionuclides for SPECT/PET imaging or targeted radiotherapy. HYNIC is used to complexing 99mTc and DOTA for labeling molecules with 111, 113mIn, 67, 68Ga, 177Lu, 161Tb, 225Ac, and 64Cu, among others. In vitro studies showed that the NPs of HYNIC-rHDL and DOTA-rHDL maintain specific recognition by SR-B1 and the ability to internalize and release, in the cytosol of cancer cells, the molecules carried in their core. The biodistribution in mice showed a similar behavior between rHDL (without surface modification) and HYNIC-rHDL, while DOTArHDL exhibited a different biodistribution pattern due to the significant reduction in the lipophilicity of the modified cholesterol molecule. Both systems demonstrated characteristics for the development of suitable theranostic platforms for personalized cancer treatment.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT, Mexico), through Grant SEP-CONACyT-CB-2016-01-287217. the financing program for female scientists EDOMEX, Grant Number FICDTEM-2021-015

Immune protection against Trypanosoma cruzi induced by TcVac4 in a canine model

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic in southern parts of the American continent. Herein, we have tested the protective efficacy of a DNA-prime/T. rangeli-boost (TcVac4) vaccine in a dog (Canis familiaris) model. Dogs were immunized with two-doses of DNA vaccine (pcDNA3.1 encoding TcG1, TcG2, and TcG4 antigens plus IL-12- and GMCSF- encoding plasmids) followed by two doses of glutaraldehyde-inactivated T. rangeli epimastigotes (TrIE); and challenged with highly pathogenic T. cruzi (SylvioX10/4) isolate. Dogs given TrIE or empty pcDNA3.1 were used as controls. We monitored post-vaccination and post-challenge infection antibody response by an ELISA, parasitemia by blood analysis and xenodiagnosis, and heart function by electrocardiography. Post-mortem anatomic and pathologic evaluation of the heart was conducted. TcVac4 induced a strong IgG response (IgG2>IgG1) that was significantly expanded post-infection, and moved to a nearly balanced IgG2/IgG1 response in chronic phase. In comparison, dogs given TrIE or empty plasmid DNA only developed high IgG titers with IgG2 predominance in response to T. cruzi infection. Blood parasitemia, tissue parasite foci, parasite transmission to triatomines, electrocardiographic abnormalities were significantly lower in TcVac4-vaccinated dogs than was observed in dogs given TrIE or empty plasmid DNA only. Macroscopic and microscopic alterations, the hallmarks of chronic Chagas disease, were significantly decreased in the myocardium of TcVac4-vaccinated dogs.We conclude that TcVac4 induced immunity was beneficial in providing resistance to T. cruzi infection, evidenced by control of chronic pathology of the heart and preservation of cardiac function in dogs. Additionally, TcVac4 vaccination decreased the transmission of parasites from vaccinated/infected animals to triatomines.CONACYT PROY No. 156701 UAEM PROY No. 2381/2006U National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases http://www.niaid.nih.gov/Pages/ default.aspx GRANT NUMBER (AI072538) NJG; American Heart Association http://www.heart.org/ HEARTORG/ GRANT NUMBER (0855059F) to NJG