Terms Of Presence Research Articles

Haptic Feedback, Performance and Arousal: A Comparison Study in an Immersive VR Motor Skill Training Task.

This article investigates the relationship between fine motor skill training in VR, haptic feedback, and physiological arousal. To do so, we present the design and development of a motor skill task (buzzwire), along with a custom vibrotactile feedback attachment for the Geomagic Touch haptic device. A controlled experiment following a between-subjects design was conducted with 73 participants, studying the role of three feedback conditions - visual/kinesthetic, visual/vibrotactile and visual only - on the learning and performance of the considered task and the arousal levels of the participants. Results indicate that performance improved in all three feedback conditions after the considered training session. However, participants reported no change in self-efficacy and in terms of presence and task load (NASA-TLX). All three feedback conditions also showed similar arousal levels. Further analysis revealed that positive changes in performance were linked to higher arousal levels. These results suggest the potential of haptic feedback to affect arousal levels and encourage further research into using this relationship to improve motor skill training in VR.

Synovial Tissue Insights into Heterogeneity of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most common rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. While it can affect many different organ systems, RA primarily involves inflammation in the synovium, the tissue that lines joints. Patients with RA exhibit significant clinical heterogeneity in terms of presence or absence of autoantibodies, degree of permanent deformities, and most importantly, treatment response. These clinical characteristics point to heterogeneity in the cellular and molecular pathogenesis of RA, an area that several recent studies have begun to address. Single-cell RNA-sequencing initiatives and deeper focused studies have revealed several RA-associated cell populations in synovial tissues, including peripheral helper T cells, autoimmunity-associated B cells (ABCs), and NOTCH3+ sublining fibroblasts. Recent large transcriptional studies and translational clinical trials present frameworks to capture cellular and molecular heterogeneity in RA synovium. Technological developments, such as spatial transcriptomics and machine learning, promise to further elucidate the different types of RA synovitis and the biological mechanisms that characterize them, key elements of precision medicine to optimize patient care and outcomes in RA. This review recaps the findings of those recent studies and puts our current knowledge and future challenges into scientific and clinical perspective.

The Immunoarchitecture of Human Extraocular Muscles.

The purpose of this study was to describe the immunoarchitecture of normal extraocular muscles (EOMs) in terms of presence, distribution, and organization of various immune cells. We performed unilateral orbital exenterations in six fresh human cadavers from elderly patients, followed by dissection of the medial, lateral, superior and inferior rectus, superior and inferior oblique, and superior palpebral levator muscle in their entirety. We further cross sectioned each EOM in an anterior, central, and posterior third. After immunohistochemical staining for CD3, CD8, CD20, CD138, CD68, and podoplanin, quantitative analysis was performed. We found all EOMs (rectus, oblique, and levator muscles) to harbor both T- and B-lymphocytes, with a B-lymphocyte dominance and an absence of plasma cells. The highest prevalence of immune cells was seen in the muscle bellies, with, on average, 488 ± 63 CD3+ T-lymphocytes and 44 ± 110 CD20+ B-lymphocytes per mm2, and significant differences from the anterior (T-lymphocytes) and posterior (T- and B-lymphocytes) thirds. T- and B-lymphocytes were primarily organized in hotspots in the vicinity of blood vessels. In addition, a small resident population of macrophages scattered throughout the specimens was detected. No lymphatic vessels were found in any of the EOMs. These findings can serve as a reference dataset in the assessment of EOM biopsies in the diagnostic process of inflammatory orbital and systemic disorders. Moreover, from a regenerative perspective, our results highlight the importance of taking into account the presence of a resident immune cell population when studying the host immune response on transplanted tissues or engineered constructs.

Technological Immersion and Delegation to Virtual Agents

Interacting with virtual agents in immersive settings is becoming increasingly common thanks to the proliferation of dedicated media devices, such as consumer-grade virtual and augmented reality headsets. These technologies offer many advantages, e.g., in terms of presence and engagement, and can impact user behavior and attitudes toward virtual agents. Recognizing and understanding these effects is essential, especially in critical contexts involving the delegation of high-stake decisions to virtual agents. This article presents two experiments that explore users’ delegatory behavior toward virtual agents experienced via different media devices that vary in their technological immersion, i.e., a device’s technical capacity to deliver immersive experiences. The experiments’ results suggest that technological immersion is not a significant factor in users’ delegation decisions. Thus, for virtual agents designed to carry out critical tasks, developers may focus on other relevant factors, such as agents’ trustworthiness or performance.

Abstract 11740: Redefining Cardiac Involvement in Systemic Immunoglobulin Light Chain Amyloidosis and Treatment Implications

Introduction: Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is the key determinant of survival in systemic AL amyloidosis. Hypothesis: To assess (i) the differences between serum biomarkers, echocardiography and CMR with ECV mapping in characterising cardiac involvement, (ii) their independent prognostic role, and (iii) the role of ECV mapping to guide treatment strategies. Methods: Consecutive patients newly diagnosed with systemic AL amyloidosis between 2015-2021 who underwent echocardiography, cardiac biomarkers, and CMR with ECV mapping at the time of diagnosis were included. Haematological response (HR) at 1 and 6 months was defined according to validated criteria. The primary outcome was mortality. Results: Five-hundred sixty AL patients were included. The different approaches produced different results in terms of presence and severity of cardiac infiltration (CA present from 48.2% to 93%). Over 40.5 months [IQR 9-58], only ECV was independently associated with mortality (p< 0.001). In the landmark analysis at 1 month, patients with ECV < 0.30 and with ECV 0.31-0.40 had an excellent long-term survival regardless of the achieved HR (p=0.92 and p=0.08, respectively), whilst in patients with ECV > 0.40 survival was dependent on the depth of the HR (p< 0.001). In the landmark analysis at 6 months, patients with ECV < 0.30 had excellent survival regardless of the achieved HR and patients with ECV 0.31-0.40 had excellent survival if achieving at least a PR (inter-group p=0.006 in NR vs PR). In ECV 0.41-0.50 and ECV > 0.50, long-term survival was excellent only among patients achieving CR (inter-group p< 0.05 in CR vs VGPR). Reaching a deep HR at 1 month vs 6 months was associated with better survival in ECV > 0.40 (p< 0.05), but not in ECV < 0.40. Conclusions: ECV mapping in systemic AL amyloidosis is the only independent predictor of prognosis. ECV mapping can define optimal depth and rapidity of the HR for each patient and inform treatment strategies.

GFMxP: A novel Ghost Fluid Method to solve the variable coefficient Poisson equation

The solution of a variable coefficient Poisson equation, where the same coefficient, the unknown function and its spatial derivatives may be discontinuous, is an interesting and challenging problem, whose solution plays a fundamental role in the simulation of many physical phenomena and, in particular, of an incompressible multiphase flow. On the other hand, the Ghost Fluid Method (GFM) represents an effective numerical technique to manage derivative terms in presence of an interface (that is, a discontinuity) and to preserve its own sharp nature. Then, the method is a natural candidate to deal with the above mentioned problem. The equation, however, may be characterized by a significant jump of the coefficient across the interface, a condition which still leaves room for open questions and in which the original GFM-based approach seems not to work properly. The paper provides a comprehensive answer to these questions and proposes a novel, simpler implementation of the method (named GFMxP), testing its efficiency and robustness by a lot of well-known numerical examples.

Trust and distrust in science: Embedding the interplay among scientists, mass media and public in Italy during the SARS-Cov-2 outbreak

COVID-19 pandemic has once again raised the long-standing problem of trust in science and scientists. However, many approaches tend, on one hand, to analyze science as if it were an entirely autonomous entity – and thus to attribute the causes of the decline in trust to factors external to it; on the other hand, these approaches address the question of trust in a dichotomous manner, in terms of presence or absence of it. Rather than assuming a causal and linear direction that proceeds from one domain (‘the outside’ of science) to the other (science), we will draw on those perspectives that investigate the ways in which science interacts with other subsystems. This article aims to propose a more nuanced approach that can contribute to overcoming binary categorizations such as the one that distinguishes between processes internal to the scientific community and factors external to it; such categorizations are somehow implicit in the widespread use of concepts like ‘infodemic’, ‘disinformation’ or ‘pseudoscience’. To this end, two research directions were followed: first, two conflicts between experts that animated the public debate in Italy during the Sars-Cov-2 outbreak and forced scientists to interact following different social subsystems logics were analyzed. Second, in order to go beyond a binary view of trust and to further reveal attitudes toward science and scientists, we conducted a pilot study on a sample of online readers of two Italian newspapers. Overall, a more nuanced view of the issue of trust toward scientists emerges, which is expressed in five different attitudes toward them, and which takes into consideration both the way in which scientists communicate and the philosophy of science they implicitly express in media interactions.

Planet Anima: a virtual graduation experience in the metaverse

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present Planet Anima, a virtual environment designed for hosting virtual graduation events in the metaverse. Through this digital space, we successfully organized an online event under the COVID-19 circumstance, including a graduation ceremony and a student art exhibition. Our user study analyzes the Planet Anima experience with a focus on collaborative engagement and creative expression. Furthermore, we explore the impact of platform choice (headset VR vs. desktop VR) on metaverse user experience. Our findings demonstrate that Planet Anima can facilitate the co-experiences that foster creativity. Notably, the results indicate that headset VR outperforms desktop VR in terms of presence, social presence, and emotional involvement. This study also highlights the gaps between virtual and physical experiences, identifying the challenge of cybersickness associated with headset VR. These insights contribute to enhancing the user experience within the metaverse.

Ureteropelvic junction obstruction in children by polar vessels: histological examination result.

In children, ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is mostly caused by intrinsic factors (IUPJO) such as abnormal amounts of muscle and collagen deposition; extrinsic UPJO are rare and often due to crossing vessels (CVs). What is not clear is whether there is also intrinsic UPJ pathology in patients with CV. The aim of our study was to compare the histology of the two types of obstruction and to determine whether these histologic features are distinguishable enough to enable to identify the cause of obstruction based on histologic appearance alone. We retrospectively reviewed pathology reports of 38 children with UPJO that underwent surgery in our hospital from 2008 to 2022. The intrinsic and extrinsic groups consisted of 18 and 20 patients, respectively. After ematoxylin-eosin and Gomori's trichrome staining the specimens were scored for fibrosis and muscular hypertrophy in histhopatology, and CD117 antibody were used to detect interstitial Cajal-like cells. In our study, histological analyses revealed no differences between the CV and IUPJO specimens in terms of presence and degree of fibrosis and muscular hypertrophy; likewise, for presence of interstitial Cajal-like cells.

Full body video-based self-avatars for mixed reality: from E2E system to user study

In this work, we explore the creation of self-avatars through video pass-through in mixed reality (MR) applications. We present our end-to-end system, including custom MR video pass-through implementation on a commercial head-mounted display (HMD), our deep learning-based real-time egocentric body segmentation algorithm, and our optimized offloading architecture, to communicate the segmentation server with the HMD. To validate this technology, we designed an immersive VR experience where the user has to walk through a narrow tile path over an active volcano crater. The study was performed under three-body representation conditions: virtual hands, video pass-through with color-based full-body segmentation, and video pass-through with deep learning full-body segmentation. This immersive experience was carried out by 30 women and 28 men. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first user study focused on evaluating video-based self-avatars to represent the user in a MR scene. Results showed no significant differences between the different body representations in terms of presence, with moderate improvements in some Embodiment components between the virtual hands and full-body representations. Visual Quality results showed better results from the deep-learning algorithms in terms of the whole body perception and overall segmentation quality. In this study, we provide some discussion regarding the use of video-based self-avatars and some reflections on the evaluation methodology. The proposed E2E solution is in the boundary of the state-of-the-art, so there is still room for improvement before it reaches maturity. However, this solution serves as a crucial starting point for MR applications where users can feel immersed and interact with their own bodies.

Emotion processing in maltreated boys and girls: Evidence for latent vulnerability

Evidence of alterations in emotion processing in maltreated youth has been hypothesized to reflect latent vulnerability for psychopathology. However, previous studies have not systematically examined the influence of psychopathology on the results. Here, we examined emotion recognition and learning in youth who differed in terms of presence vs. absence of maltreatment and psychopathology and tested for potential sex effects. Maltreatment and psychopathology were assessed in 828 youth (514 females) aged 9–18 years using diagnostic interviews and self- and parent-report questionnaires. Emotion recognition was assessed via identification of morphed facial expressions of six universal emotions. For emotion learning, reward and punishment values were assigned to novel stimuli and participants had to learn to correctly respond/withhold response to stimuli to maximize points. A three-way interaction of maltreatment by psychopathology by emotion indicated that when psychopathology was low, maltreated youth were less accurate than non-maltreated youth for happy, fear and disgust. A three-way interaction of sex, maltreatment and emotion indicated that maltreated girls and boys were impaired for fear, but girls showed an impairment for happy, while boys for disgust. There were no effects of maltreatment, psychopathology, or sex on reward learning. However, a two-way interaction between sex and maltreatment showed that maltreated girls were worse at learning from punishment relative to non-maltreated girls, while maltreated boys were better than non-maltreated boys. The study provides the first clear evidence of latent-vulnerability in emotion recognition in maltreated youth and suggests that girls and boys might be characterized by distinct profiles of emotion recognition and learning following maltreatment.

Immersive Learning and Participatory Engagement

Guided by constructivist theory, this study examines health professions student learning and engagement in the virtual classroom (VC) setting. Students (N=52) participated in a one-week VC prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. After participation, students were surveyed to discern their impressions of the experience, including the administration of a presence questionnaire, a key indicator of virtual environment (VE) efficacy. High student presence scores were significantly correlated with the perception that the VC facilitated learning (r = .573, p = .001). Conversely, students who perceived the course content as challenging were less likely to recommend the VC as a viable alternative learning platform. Furthermore, in terms of presence, undergraduate and graduate students were not significantly different. In summary, health professions students view immersive technologies favorably and may benefit from using such platforms as alternative or supplemental learning tools regardless of their academic level.

One Voice Is Good, But More Is Better: Symptom and Toxicity Reporting in Pediatric Oncology.

One Voice Is Good, But More Is Better: Symptom and Toxicity Reporting in Pediatric Oncology.

Disease Risk Levels of Drinking Water Sources in Some Rural Communities in Kwara State, Nigeria

Human health, which can be affected by access to safe drinking water, or lack of it, is an area of common interest to the sustainable development goals (SDG, 6 target 1) and One health Initiative. Hence, this study examined the disease risk associated with drinking water sources in some rural agrarian communities in Kwara State, North-central Nigeria. Water from commonly used drinking water sources in the selected communities were tested for physicochemical properties (pH, Turbidity and Total dissolved solids content), and bacteriological quality. The health risks of the water sources were assessed in terms of presence and count of E. coli. Groundwater sources (wells and boreholes) were the predominant sources of drinking water in the communities. Only three (motorized boreholes) among the twenty-five water sources examined were free of coliforms. E. coli was found in thirteen water sources (a pond and twelves wells); with E. coli counts ranging from 2- 15 cfu/mL. The study revealed the need for urgent interventions to ensure the communities have access to safe water. The rural communities still depend heavily on groundwater as sources of drinking water, most of where portend had high level of disease risk.

Assessment of Perceived Performance of Solar-Powered Borehole Projects in Nigeria

This study aimed at the assessment of the perspective of the people of Kano-south senatorial district, Nigeria on solar powered borehole projects. This research sought to establish the performance of solar-powered boreholes in terms of presence, their importance, their performance, and maintenance culture as well as provide solutions to possible problems that the senatorial district may be encountering in the usage of these amenities to ensure good sustainability. The survey research method was adopted for this study, and data were collected from 400 people who represented the sample size. The analysis of the data collected showed that 88.6% of the respondents affirmed the presence of solar-powered boreholes in the study area, which is in line with the hypothesis analysis. Similarly, the result showed that although the solar-powered borehole projects have positive impacts on the standard of living of the populace, most of these amenities are not functional due to the low regularity of borehole maintenance. Based on the views of the end-users, it was recommended that the involvement of community leaders and other end-users, proper training of the end-users, provision of channels of reporting damages, the building of more solar-powered boreholes and adequate provision for maintenance are some of the ways to ensure better sustainability of solar-powered boreholes projects in the senatorial district.

Bcl-2 and p53 immunophenotypes in colorectal adenocarcinoma in type 2 diabetes mellitus versus non-diabetic patients.

We aimed to investigate immunohistochemical expression of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, and the B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) apoptotic protein in colorectal adenocarcinoma patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Tissue sections from 95 paraffin-embedded colorectal adenocarcinomas, originating from 52 T2DM and 43 non-diabetic patients, were immunostained for p53 [Ventana mouse monoclonal primary antibody (mAb) in vitro diagnostic (IVD) anti-p53, clone Bp53-11] and Bcl-2 (Ventana mAb IVD anti-Bcl-2, clone Bcl-2/124). Immunohistochemistry analysis did not find statistically significant differences between the two groups, but analysis on subgroups of patients in terms of presence or absence of obesity identified overexpression of p53 (>70% of cells) in the T2DM obese patients compared to non-diabetics. Overexpression of p53 was present in 80% of tumor cells coming from T2DM obese patients compared to 37.2% of tumor cells coming from non-diabetics obese and non-obese, and in 36.6% of tumor cells coming from non-diabetic non-obese patients (p=0.024). There was a single non-diabetic obese patient with p53 overexpression. Most cancer cells of T2DM obese patients presented more frequently p53 overexpression by comparison with cancer cells of the T2DM non-obese patients (80% vs 40.5%, p=0.028). Bcl-2/p53 co-expression was an infrequent event in T2DM patients' group. The results of this study suggest that patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma that associate T2DM and obesity exhibit higher p53 protein expression in malignant cells. In conclusion, our research highlights that obesity is a potential key factor in the relationship between T2DM and colorectal cancer.

Antibiotics in Groundwater and River Water of Białka—A Pristine Mountain River

Antibiotics are emerging pollutants of great concern, due to detrimental effects of their sublethal concentrations on microbial communities. Monitoring of antibiotics’ presence and concentrations in the aquatic environment is of fundamental importance to the management of water resources. This study was aimed at filling the knowledge gap in terms of presence and concentration of antibiotics in surface water and groundwater in one of the mountain regions in southern Poland. The detailed aims included the assessment of whether there are spatial and/or temporal trends in antibiotic occurrence in water and the investigation of causes behind the changes in antibiotic concentrations. The study was conducted in seven sites (two groundwater and five river water) along the Białka river valley. Antibiotics were subjected to solid-phase extraction, followed by UHPLC/MS detection. Clindamycin, erythromycin, ofloxacin and trimethoprim were the most frequently detected, while the highest concentrations were observed for oxytetracycline and clindamycin. No antibiotics were detected in only one of the groundwater sites. Sewage treatment plant effluent was the hotspot of antibiotic contamination of the river downstream. The detection rates of antibiotics in the examined region seem to be driven mainly by the stability of antibiotics in the environment.

Persistent organic pollutants influence the marine benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in surface sediments of Nayband National Park and Bay, Northern Persian Gulf, Iran.

Macroinvertebrate communities have been influenced by chemical substances, originated from petrochemical developments, that caused many problems in the marine biota. This study investigated the surface sediments of Nayband National Park and Bay (northern Persian Gulf) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in terms of their distribution, source, and impacts on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages. To this end, a total of 180 surface sediment samples from 20 stations were collected using Van-Veen grab sampler during winter 2018. The concentration of PAHs, TPHs, total organic carbon (TOC). and total organic matter (TOM) were evaluated, and grain size measurements were conducted on sediment samples in this study. Benthic macroinvertebrates were then identified in terms of presence and distribution. The results indicated that coarse granulometric fractions of sands were prevalence in all samples stations. The total concentration of PAHs ranged from 47.57 to 657.68ng/g and TPHs 5.72 to 42.16µg/g dw. The risk of ΣPAHs and TPHs in the sediments was relatively low to moderate according to the sediment quality guidelines. Analysis of the results revealed a significant negative correlation between ΣPAHs (R-value = - 0.917; P < 0.01), TPHs (R-value = - 0.849; P < 0.01) and macrofaunal abundance. Findings demonstrated that the species richness and abundance were at the lowest levels in stations where concentrations of PAHs, TPHs, TOC, and TOM were in the highest values, suggesting that these contaminants could negatively influence the benthic organisms in Nayband National Park and Bay. The results of correspondence analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) analysis showed that sedimentary habitats in Nayband National Park and Bay are being negatively affected by PAHs and TPHs, released from Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ). Moreover, the marine biotic index (AMBI) and Shannon-Weiner Diversity (H') results suggest that Nayband National Park and Bay can be classified as slightly to moderate polluted area. In conclusion, Northern Persian Gulf is significantly affected by oil industry developments and petrochemical activities. The unique ecosystem like Nayband National Park and Bay has been in a cautious status in terms of the PSEEZ pollutants and the levels of PAHs and TPHs concentration, warning that urgent environmental programs should be considered to protect the diversity and ecology of this valuable marine systems.

The changing landscape of action learning research and practice

ABSTRACT Action-oriented approaches to HRD are rooted in practices, theory, and research that preceded its emergence – among these is action learning. An important element of many organisational practices today, action learning has been researched widely and consistently over several decades. The purpose of this study was to elaborate upon the changing landscape of action learning research and practice through a systematic literature review. Employing selection criteria to control for the quality of the articles, we identified 65 empirical action learning studies published 2008–2021. Five key themes were identified to be most prominent in terms of presence and quality: action learning in higher education, action learning research, entrepreneurial action learning, critical action learning, and virtual action learning. In an analysis of the five key themes, we used Coghlan and Coughlan’s four quality criteria for research on action learning: engagement with problems, collaboration with organisational members and stakeholders, reflection on the iterative cycles of an action learning process, and actionable outcomes. This systematic review presents the changing landscape of action learning research and practice manifested in five themes and provides an informed outlook, with expanded scopes and possibilities, to envision the future.

Characterizing pandemic waves: A latent class analysis of COVID-19 spread across US counties.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is observed to follow the shape of “waves” (i.e., the rise and fall of population-adjusted daily new infection cases with time). Different geographic regions of the world have experienced different position and span of these waves over time. The presence and strength of these waves broadly characterize the dynamics of the pandemic spread in a given area, so their characterization is important to draw meaningful intervention and mitigation plans tailored for that area. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to represent the trend of COVID-19 spread as a sequence of a fixed-length text string defined on three symbols: R (rise), S (Steady), and F (fall). These strings, termed as trend strings, enabled us searching for specific patterns in them (such as for waves). After analyzing county-level infection data, we observe that, US counties—despite their wide variation in trend strings—can be grouped into a number of heterogeneous classes each of which might have a representative COVID spread pattern over time (in terms of presence and propensity of waves). To this end, we conduct a latent class analysis to cluster 3142 US counties into four distinct classes based on their wave characteristics for one year pandemic data (January 2020 to January 2021). We observe that counties in each class have distinct socio-demographics, location, and human mobility characteristics. In short summary, counties have differing number of waves (class 1 counties have only one wave and class 3 counties have three) and their positions also vary (class 1 had the wave later in the year whereas class 3 had waves throughout the year). We believe that this way of characterizing pandemic waves would provide better insights in understanding the complex dynamics of COVID-19 spread and its future evolution, and would, therefore, help in taking class-specific policy interventions.