scholarly journals Connecting virtual reality and ecology: a new tool to run seamless immersive experiments in R

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e544
Author(s):  
Julie Vercelloni ◽  
Jon Peppinck ◽  
Edgar Santos-Fernandez ◽  
Miles McBain ◽  
Grace Heron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Learning Curve ◽  
Programming Languages ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Web Browsers ◽  
Online Database ◽  
High Level ◽  
Diverse Groups ◽  
Virtual Ecosystem

Virtual reality (VR) technology is an emerging tool that is supporting the connection between conservation research and public engagement with environmental issues. The use of VR in ecology consists of interviewing diverse groups of people while they are immersed within a virtual ecosystem to produce better information than more traditional surveys. However, at present, the relatively high level of expertise in specific programming languages and disjoint pathways required to run VR experiments hinder their wider application in ecology and other sciences. We present R2VR, a package for implementing and performing VR experiments in R with the aim of easing the learning curve for applied scientists including ecologists. The package provides functions for rendering VR scenes on web browsers with A-Frame that can be viewed by multiple users on smartphones, laptops, and VR headsets. It also provides instructions on how to retrieve answers from an online database in R. Three published ecological case studies are used to illustrate the R2VR workflow, and show how to run a VR experiments and collect the resulting datasets. By tapping into the popularity of R among ecologists, the R2VR package creates new opportunities to address the complex challenges associated with conservation, improve scientific knowledge, and promote new ways to share better understanding of environmental issues. The package could also be used in other fields outside of ecology.

Method of virtual reality for early comprehensive rehabilitation of patients with acute stroke

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
N. Nozdryukhina ◽  
E. Kabayeva ◽  
E. Kirilyuk ◽  
K. Tushova ◽  
A. Karimov
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Acute Stroke ◽  
Functional Outcome ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Stroke Disability ◽  
Comprehensive Rehabilitation ◽  
High Level

Despite significant advances in the treatment and rehabilitation of stroke, level of post-stroke disability remains at a fairly high level. Recent innovative developments in the rehabilitation of these patients provide good results in terms of functional outcome. One of such developments is method of virtual reality (VR), which affects not only the speed and volume of regaining movement, as well as coordination, but also normalizes the psycho-emotional background, increasing the motivation of patients to improve the recovery process. This article provides a literature review of the use of the VR method in the rehabilitation of post-stroke patients, neurophysiological aspects of recovery of lost functions using this method are considered.

CSim 2

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
David Sanan ◽  
Yongwang Zhao ◽  
Shang-Wei Lin ◽  
Liu Yang
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Concurrent Systems ◽  
Theorem Prover ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Machine Code ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Hol Theorem Prover ◽  
High Level ◽  
High Degree

To make feasible and scalable the verification of large and complex concurrent systems, it is necessary the use of compositional techniques even at the highest abstraction layers. When focusing on the lowest software abstraction layers, such as the implementation or the machine code, the high level of detail of those layers makes the direct verification of properties very difficult and expensive. It is therefore essential to use techniques allowing to simplify the verification on these layers. One technique to tackle this challenge is top-down verification where by means of simulation properties verified on top layers (representing abstract specifications of a system) are propagated down to the lowest layers (that are an implementation of the top layers). There is no need to say that simulation of concurrent systems implies a greater level of complexity, and having compositional techniques to check simulation between layers is also desirable when seeking for both feasibility and scalability of the refinement verification. In this article, we present CSim 2 a (compositional) rely-guarantee-based framework for the top-down verification of complex concurrent systems in the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover. CSim 2 uses CSimpl, a language with a high degree of expressiveness designed for the specification of concurrent programs. Thanks to its expressibility, CSimpl is able to model many of the features found in real world programming languages like exceptions, assertions, and procedures. CSim 2 provides a framework for the verification of rely-guarantee properties to compositionally reason on CSimpl specifications. Focusing on top-down verification, CSim 2 provides a simulation-based framework for the preservation of CSimpl rely-guarantee properties from specifications to implementations. By using the simulation framework, properties proven on the top layers (abstract specifications) are compositionally propagated down to the lowest layers (source or machine code) in each concurrent component of the system. Finally, we show the usability of CSim 2 by running a case study over two CSimpl specifications of an Arinc-653 communication service. In this case study, we prove a complex property on a specification, and we use CSim 2 to preserve the property on lower abstraction layers.

scholarly journals Socio-Educational Factors to Promote Educational Inclusion in Higher Education. A Question of Student Achievement

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Mª del Mar García-Vita ◽  
Marta Medina-García ◽  
Giselle Paola Polo Amashta ◽  
Lina Higueras-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sexual Diversity ◽  
Educational Perspective ◽  
High Level ◽  
Educational Inclusion ◽  
Diverse Groups

Psychosocial factors have a direct impact on the academic achievement of university students, especially when they belong to diverse human groups. This article shows the results of a project developed in a Colombian university with the aim of finding out the identity traits, situations of discrimination, and risk factors faced by students belonging to diverse groups. The research is qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive, approached from a social and educational perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 students. The high level of identification with the group is visible in stufuigureents with affective-sexual diversity, gender identity and ethnic-cultural diversity, considered to be the most discriminated-against populations. Risks in the labor, educational, social, and family spheres are the most frequent.

Application of C Sharp and MATLAB Mixed Programming Based on .Net Assembly in Blind Source Separation

2014 ◽  
Vol 599-601 ◽  
pp. 1407-1410
Author(s):  
Xu Liang ◽  
Ke Ming Wang ◽  
Gui Yu Xin
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Calculation ◽  
Programming Languages ◽  
Blind Source Separation ◽  
Source Separation ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Signal Processing System ◽  
Blind Signal Processing ◽  
Blind Signal ◽  
Mixed Programming ◽  
High Level

Comparing with other High-level programming languages, C Sharp (C#) is more efficient in software development. While MATLAB language provides a series of powerful functions of numerical calculation that facilitate adoption of algorithms, which are widely applied in blind source separation (BSS). Combining the advantages of the two languages, this paper presents an implementation of mixed programming and the development of a simplified blind signal processing system. Application results show the system developed by mixed programming is successful.

NENOK — A SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR GENERIC INFERENCE

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 65-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARC POULY
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Software Library ◽  
Inference Process ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Open Problems ◽  
Constraint Systems ◽  
Fast Prototyping ◽  
Inference Algorithms ◽  
Key Competences ◽  
High Level

Computing inference from a given knowledgebase is one of the key competences of computer science. Therefore, numerous formalisms and specialized inference routines have been introduced and implemented for this task. Typical examples are Bayesian networks, constraint systems or different kinds of logic. It is known today that these formalisms can be unified under a common algebraic roof called valuation algebra. Based on this system, generic inference algorithms for the processing of arbitrary valuation algebras can be defined. Researchers benefit from this high level of abstraction to address open problems independently of the underlying formalism. It is therefore all the more astonishing that this theory did not find its way into concrete software projects. Indeed, all modern programming languages for example provide generic sorting procedures, but generic inference algorithms are still mythical creatures. NENOK breaks a new ground and offers an extensive library of generic inference tools based on the valuation algebra framework. All methods are implemented as distributed algorithms that process local and remote knowledgebases in a transparent manner. Besides its main purpose as software library, NENOK also provides a sophisticated graphical user interface to inspect the inference process and the involved graphical structures. This can be used for educational purposes but also as a fast prototyping architecture for inference formalisms.

Puzzles Unpuzzled

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (CHI PLAY) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Andrey Krekhov ◽  
Katharina Emmerich ◽  
Ronja Rotthaler ◽  
Jens Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Design Framework ◽  
Emotional Challenges ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Current State ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
High Level

Escape rooms exist in various forms, including real-life facilities, board games, and digital implementations. The underlying idea is always the same: players have to solve many diverse puzzles to (virtually) escape from a locked room. Within the last decade, we witnessed a rapidly increasing popularity of such games, which also amplified the amount of related research. However, the respective academic landscape is mostly fragmented in its current state, lacking a common model and vocabulary that would withstand these games' variety. This manuscript aims to establish such a foundation for the analysis and construction of escape rooms. In a first step, we derive a high-level design framework from prior literature. Then, as our main contribution, we establish an atomic puzzle taxonomy that closes the gap between the analog and digital domains. The taxonomy is developed in multiple steps: we compose a basic structure based on previous literature and systematically refine it by analyzing 39 analog and digital escape room games, including recent virtual reality representatives. The final taxonomy consists of mental, physical, and emotional challenges, thereby providing a robust and approachable basis for future works across all application domains that deal with escape rooms or puzzles in general.

Virtual reality in Education. Broken promises or new hope?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. McGee ◽  
Lisa Jacka
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Technology Changes ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
High Level ◽  
K 12

Virtual reality in one form or another has been around for over 50 years, most notably in entertainment and business environments. Technology-focused teachers have been leading the way with attempts at utilising and integrating virtual reality into K-12 and Higher Education. However, as quickly as technology changes so does the enthusiasm for the use in educational contexts. Much of this is due to the high-level cost (time and money) with no evidence-based educational return. In 2020 the global pandemic forced the education sector to innovate to provide authentic learning environments for students. The time is right for virtual reality to take centre stage. Over 171 million people worldwide currently use virtual reality, and the market in education is expected to grow by 42% over the next five years. This paper focuses on a range of virtual reality literature encompassing work across the spectrum of software and hardware, identifying where more educational implementation and research needs to be done and providing a perspective on future possibilities focusing on current affordances.

Immersion, interactivity and three-dimensionality: virtual reality documentation of media art installations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Media Art ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Art Installation ◽  
High Level

This research paper explores the possibilities for virtual reality (VR) documentation of media art installations. Based on an analysis of the characteristics of media art, and a survey of current documentation strategies, this paper investigates the viability of three-dimensional documentation. Four cross-disciplinary case studies are presented and analysed to demonstrate that VR documentation provides an immersive and richer reconstruction of a media art installation in three dimensions. In addition, the interactive components can be simulated within the VR environment, offering the possibility for curators and visitors to virtually re-experience the artwork. The case studies show that, although the creation of VR documentation can be costly and time-consuming, and currently requires a high-level of expertise, it can be a useful addition to established documentation strategies by providing essential information about the visual aspects of the artwork, its environment and the user’s multi-sensory experience.

scholarly journals High-Level Synthesis Design for Stencil Computations on FPGA with High Bandwidth Memory

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1275
Author(s):  
Changdao Du ◽  
Yoshiki Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
High Level Synthesis ◽  
Stencil Computations ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
High Bandwidth ◽  
Promising Solution ◽  
High Level

Due to performance and energy requirements, FPGA-based accelerators have become a promising solution for high-performance computations. Meanwhile, with the help of high-level synthesis (HLS) compilers, FPGA can be programmed using common programming languages such as C, C++, or OpenCL, thereby improving design efficiency and portability. Stencil computations are significant kernels in various scientific applications. In this paper, we introduce an architecture design for implementing stencil kernels on state-of-the-art FPGA with high bandwidth memory (HBM). Traditional FPGAs are usually equipped with external memory, e.g., DDR3 or DDR4, which limits the design space exploration in the spatial domain of stencil kernels. Therefore, many previous studies mainly relied on exploiting parallelism in the temporal domain to eliminate the bandwidth limitations. In our approach, we scale-up the design performance by considering both the spatial and temporal parallelism of the stencil kernel equally. We also discuss the design portability among different HLS compilers. We use typical stencil kernels to evaluate our design on a Xilinx U280 FPGA board and compare the results with other existing studies. By adopting our method, developers can take broad parallelization strategies based on specific FPGA resources to improve performance.

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