Governance of Virtual Communities: A Literature Review and a Conceptual Framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li-Ying, Jason; Salomo, Søren

2011-01-01

of participation architecture, control, open source license, ownership and appropriation of intellectual property, communication patterns, goal setting, decision-making, role of trust, etc. However, research areas in the extant literature on the governance of virtual communities are rather scattered. There has yet...... no systematic approach towards a clear definition of governance in virtual communities and our knowledge on what key governance mechanisms are and how they differ in various types of virtual communities is very much limited to date. A lack of holistic framework on this issue prevents scholars from fully...... understanding the functions of governance in virtual communities, which in turn also rends difficulties to probe the performance of virtual communities. For these reasons, the purposes of this paper is to: (1) propose a working definition of the governance in virtual communities based on the extant literature...

Big data and virtual communities: methodological issues

OpenAIRE

Martínez Torres, María del Rocío; Toral, S. L.; Fornara, Nicoletta

2014-01-01

Virtual communities represent today en emergent phenomenon through which users get together to create ideas, to obtain help from one another, or just to casually engage in discussions. Their increasing popularity as well as their utility as a source of business value and marketing strategies justify the necessity of defi ning some specifi c methodologies for analyzing them. The aim of this paper is providing new insights into virtual communities from a methodological viewpoint, hi...

Intelligent web agents for a 3D virtual community

Science.gov (United States)

Dave, T. M.; Zhang, Yanqing; Owen, G. S. S.; Sunderraman, Rajshekhar

2003-08-01

In this paper, we propose an Avatar-based intelligent agent technique for 3D Web based Virtual Communities based on distributed artificial intelligence, intelligent agent techniques, and databases and knowledge bases in a digital library. One of the goals of this joint NSF (IIS-9980130) and ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee (ASEC) project is to create a virtual community of educators and students who have a common interest in comptuer graphics, visualization, and interactive techniqeus. In this virtual community (ASEC World) Avatars will represent the educators, students, and other visitors to the world. Intelligent agents represented as specially dressed Avatars will be available to assist the visitors to ASEC World. The basic Web client-server architecture of the intelligent knowledge-based avatars is given. Importantly, the intelligent Web agent software system for the 3D virtual community is implemented successfully.

Knowledge management through two virtual communities of practice (Endobloc and Pneumobloc).

Science.gov (United States)

Lara, Beatriz; Cañas, Francesca; Vidal, Antonieta; Nadal, Núria; Rius, Ferran; Paredes, Eugeni; Hernández, Marta; Maravall, Francisco J; Franch-Nadal, Josep; Barbé, Ferran; Mauricio, Dídac

2017-09-01

We developed two virtual communities of practice (Endobloc and Pneumobloc) to increase the interaction between general practitioners and nurses in primary care and hospital endocrinologists and pulmonologists. They were designed and developed using an existing web 2.0-based virtual network belonging to the local National Health System, and we quantitatively assessed the usefulness through the participation and use during the first 24 months after the launch in 2010. A total of 26,372 visits (47% Endobloc's visits) and 2351 contributions (Endobloc's contribution 38.9%) to both virtual communities of practice were registered during the first 24 months. The most popular sections were the e-Blog and the e-Consultations section in both virtual communities of practice, but some differences in the pattern of use in other sections were observed. Activity on the virtual communities of practice occurred throughout the day including weekends and holiday periods. We showed that virtual communities of practice are feasible under real-life clinical practice.

The Model of Tourist Virtual Community Members Engagement Management

OpenAIRE

Stepaniuk, Krzysztof

2015-01-01

Building numerous and active virtual tourist communities involved in the tourist brand, connected with product, attraction or travel destination is a significant challenge for a dynamic and competitive tourist market. The main aim of presented pilot study was the drawing up guidelines for development of users engagement of selected virtual tourist communities on the example of Facebook. For that purpose a ranking of the most popular indicators of thematic areas, around which virtual tourist c...

Investigating the Impact of Virtual Communities on Furtherance of Customers’ Buying Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Fathian

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In recent years, virtual communities have been significantly popular and almost all of them are targeted for business profitability. In our study, the profitability of these communities for businesses has been analyzed from a commercial perspective. The study considers virtual community as a business model which can have a great impact on consumer purchase decision process. With respect to reference groups and word-of-mouth recommendations in virtual communities, contributing factors have been detected and a model of impacts and relationships between these factors has been presented. Hypotheses of the mentioned model are evaluated by making use of a questionnaire completed by 110 members of virtual communities. Using AMOS program and path analysis method, statistical analysis of received responses showed that factors such as virtual community's information quality, trust between people, sense of belonging, virtual community members’ perceived benefit and members’ permeability are effective to different degrees, and there is no significant relationship between social identity of members and their permeability.

A Study of Factors Influencing the Virtual Brand Communities Participation in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Chia, Chin Hwa

2015-01-01

The form of Virtual Community in the space of internet has resulted in a new dimension of communication among people. Virtual communities can be utilized by businesses as a medium to help them in their growth and increase performance levels. Virtual communities have evolved into virtual brand communities where members share the same interest and objective, provide guidance, feedback and comments to the other members. This has become an opportunity for the marketers to build a closer and stabl...

Are gay communities dying or just in transition? Results from an international consultation examining possible structural change in gay communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Simon Rosser, B R; West, William; Weinmeyer, Richard

2008-05-01

This study sought to identify how urban gay communities are undergoing structural change, reasons for that change, and implications for HIV prevention planning. Key informants (N=29) at the AIDS Impact Conference from 17 cities in 14 countries completed surveys and participated in a facilitated structured dialog about if gay communities are changing, and if so, how they are changing. In all cities, the virtual gay community was identified as currently larger than the offline physical community. Most cities identified that while the gay population in their cities appeared stable or growing, the gay community appeared in decline. Measures included greater integration of heterosexuals into historically gay-identified neighborhoods and movement of gay persons into suburbs, decreased number of gay bars/clubs, less attendance at gay events, less volunteerism in gay or HIV/AIDS organizations, and the overall declining visibility of gay communities. Participants attributed structural change to multiple factors including gay neighborhood gentrification, achievement of civil rights, less discrimination, a vibrant virtual community, and changes in drug use. Consistent with social assimilation, gay infrastructure, visibility, and community identification appears to be decreasing across cities. HIV prevention planning, interventions, treatment services, and policies need to be re-conceptualized for MSM in the future. Four recommendations for future HIV prevention and research are detailed.

Engaging the broader community in biodiversity research: the concept of the COMBER pilot project for divers in ViBRANT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christos Arvanitidis

2011-11-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the design and implementation of a citizen science pilot project, COMBER (Citizens’ Network for the Observation of Marine BiodivERsity, http://www.comber.hcmr.gr, which has been initiated under the ViBRANT EU e-infrastructure. It is designed and implemented for divers and snorkelers who are interested in participating in marine biodiversity citizen science projects. It shows the necessity of engaging the broader community in the marine biodiversity monitoring and research projects, networks and initiatives. It analyses the stakeholders, the industry and the relevant markets involved in diving activities and their potential to sustain these activities. The principles, including data policy and rewards for the participating divers through their own data, upon which this project is based are thoroughly discussed. The results of the users analysis and lessons learned so far are presented. Future plans include promotion, links with citizen science web developments, data publishing tools, and development of new scientific hypotheses to be tested by the data collected so far.

Perspectives on the Viable Mobile Virtual Community for Telemedicine

OpenAIRE

van 't Klooster, J.W.J.R.; Pawar, P.; van Beijnum, Bernhard J.F.; Dulawan, Chariz; Hermens, Hermanus J.

2010-01-01

A virtual community is an electronically supported social network: it can be seen as a group of people who have regular social interaction, independent of time and space, because of a common interest such as a problem, task, or feeling exchange (Eysenbach, Powell, Englesakis, Rizo, & Stern, 2004; Rheingold, 1993). When independence of time and space is achieved through the use of mobile devices and wireless communication technologies, such a virtual community is called a Mobile Virtual Commun...

Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gilda E. Sotomayor

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have come under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and related concepts taking place in these communities and serving as a basis for sorting them into three types in particular: communities of educational work of professional practice and scientific knowledge. Virtual communities where the activities undertaken and skills acquired are set as important parts of our personal learning development, wich are necessary to build the Knowledge Society.

Spatial organization and drivers of the virtual water trade: a community-structure analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D’Odorico, Paolo; Carr, Joel; Laio, Francesco; Ridolfi, Luca

2012-01-01

The trade of agricultural commodities can be associated with a virtual transfer of the local freshwater resources used for the production of these goods. Thus, trade of food products virtually transfers large amounts of water from areas of food production to far consumption regions, a process termed the ‘globalization of water’. We consider the (time-varying) community structure of the virtual water network for the years 1986–2008. The communities are groups of countries with dense internal connections, while the connections are sparser among different communities. Between 1986 and 2008, the ratio between virtual water flows within communities and the total global trade of virtual water has continuously increased, indicating the existence of well defined clusters of virtual water transfers. In some cases (e.g. Central and North America and Europe in recent years) the virtual water communities correspond to geographically coherent regions, suggesting the occurrence of an ongoing process of regionalization of water resources. However, most communities also include countries located on different ‘sides’ of the world. As such, geographic proximity only partly explains the community structure of virtual water trade. Similarly, the global distribution of people and wealth, whose effect on the virtual water trade is expressed through simple ‘gravity models’, is unable to explain the strength of virtual water communities observed in the past few decades. A gravity model based on the availability of and demand for virtual water in different countries has higher explanatory power, but the drivers of the virtual water fluxes are yet to be adequately identified. (letter)

Understanding on-line community: the affordances of virtual space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen Ruhleder

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Increasing numbers of on-line venues for learning are emerging as virtual communities become more accessible and commonplace. This paper looks at one particular virtual community, an on-line degree programme at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which offers an M.S. in Library and Information Science (called LEEP. It draws on a framework presented by Mynatt, et al. (1998, which provides a lens for talking about on-line community as a set of affordances. This framework is applied to illustrate the interactions, artefacts, and expectations that shape this community.

Virtual Communities as Commons: Case Study of “Connect”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasmina Božić

2008-06-01

Full Text Available In a world increasingly networked with the help of information technology, where face-to-face communities are more and more supported by computer-mediated communication, and some communities exist solely in virtual space, the perennial social dilemma of cooperation has resurged, intriguing social researchers’ attention with new elements brought about by technological advances, such as software applications enabling simultaneous communication of community members through public and private channels, easy access to a variety of documents, anonymous messaging, forums for potentially unlimited number of members who may join or observe, and a number of other IT-enabled community-building tools. In this paper the authors discuss the cooperation problem in virtual communities through the case-study of “Connect”, an online community of Croatian scientists. Starting point of the analysis is the observation that cooperation in virtual communities may be encouraged by implementing technological solutions that provide users with incentives to cooperate. With this in mind, the authors inspect the compliance of “Connect” to a set of design principles of robust common-pool resource institutions elaborated by Elinor Ostrom. The study demonstrates that the “Connect” satisfies the majority of Ostrom’s principles, with some room for improvement, and fails to satisfy two of them, mainly due to non-existence of technical prerequisites and due to relatively small size of the community. The analysis lays ground for further work aimed at obtaining more prescriptive guidelines that would point to possible improvements in management of common pool resources in virtual communities.

The influence of an online virtual situated environment on a Chinese learning community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuo-En Chang

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This study used an online virtual environment to create and develop a Chinese learning community. The purposes of research were (1 to enhance the Chinese learners’ oral Chinese communication skills and (2 to change the community members’ Chinese speaking and teaching behavior. This is an action research. The research tried to create a community in a virtual environment. The research results showed that (1 a virtual community can enhance learner’s Chinese competence, and (2 future Chinese teachers’ instructional and leading skills can be developed in a virtual community situation.

About virtual communities and Alzheimer's disease - Solidarity, care and information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liliane Maria da Silva Melo Bruno

2013-10-01

Full Text Available From an approach to the environment virtual communities related to Alzheimer’s Disease, this study sought highlighted the scale of this issue in internet and watch how to approach the pathology in fourteen communities specific. The theoretical study focused on the complexities of family care to old guided the course of drafting the research. Through and analysis qualitative community, observed the importance of virtual environment training support networks for caregivers of relatives with Alzheimer’s. Among 5337 shares of virtual users from a same community it was felt content suggesting the formation of social ties-affective quite significant in reference to an exercise of solidarity social and ability to resist adversities of the progression of degenerative disease. Once standing as a tool for information dissemination and exchange of experience, the internet could represent an additional resource potentially able to establish greater approach among caregivers, which in ultimately could contribute to creation of an interactive network of care beyond the virtual environment.

Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: A social exchange theory perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Jinyang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The author tried to identify the knowledge sharing behaviors on the internet, using structural equation modeling methods, proposing a model based on social exchange theory in which share willingness, trust, reciprocity, altruism tended to have impact on people’s knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. Design/methodology/approach: We presented an empirical research which integrated social exchange theory and structural equation modeling methods to analyze several important factors influencing members’ knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. Findings: We analyzed the knowledge sharing behaviors in virtual communities. We found that members’ altruism can not predict knowledge sharing behaviors. We also found that members’ sharing willingness is the most important factor on virtual community knowledge sharing behaviors compared with trust, reciprocity and altruism. Originality/value: From the perspective of social exchange theory, we did empirical test and verified the proposed research model by using structural equation modeling methods. Our finding can help recognize people’s incentive about knowledge sharing.

Copyright, Culture, and Community in Virtual Worlds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan Burk

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Communities that interact on-line through computer games and other virtual worlds are mediated by the audiovisual content of the game interface. Much of this content is subject to copyright law, which confers on the copyright owner the legal right to prevent certain unauthorized uses of the content. Such exclusive rights impose a limiting factor on the development of communities that are situated around the interface content, as the rights, privileges, and exceptions associated with copyright generally tend to disregard the cultural significance of copyrighted content. This limiting effect of copyright is well illustrated by examination of the copying of content by virtual diaspora communities such as that formed around the game Uru: Ages of Myst; thus, the opportunity for on-line communities to legally access the graphical elements on which those communities are built is fraught with potential legal liability. This presents the reciprocal situation from efforts to protect the cultural properties of indigenous communities as traditional knowledge. Reconsideration of current copyright law would be required in order to accommodate the cohesion of on-line communities and related cultural uses of copyrighted content.

Permission and Authorization in Policies for Virtual Communities of Agents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G. Boella (Guido); L.W.N. van der Torre (Leon)

2005-01-01

htmlabstractWe study the design of policies for virtual communities of agents based on peer-to-peer systems or the grid infrastructure. In a virtual community agents can play both the role of resource consumers and the role of resource providers. Moreover, the agents remain in control of their

Hashtag (# as Message Identity in Virtual Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urip Mulyadi

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Computer Mediated Communication or CMC is able to present a virtual community, where the people inside have the same interest to share information related to events, activities, competitions, entertainment, history, event and others in Semarang City for publication. This research attempted to describe that hashtags can be utilized as the identity of a message in a communications network on Facebook Group MIK Semar. The results of this study are hashtags have changed how we build a virtual community, as the use of hashtags in Facebook Group MIK SEMAR as message identity to build better relationship and support communication among its members.

Knowledge translation in eHealth: building a virtual community.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassi, Jesdeep; Lau, Francis; Hagens, Simon; Leaver, Chad; Price, Morgan

2013-01-01

Knowledge can be powerful in eliciting positive change when it is put into action. This is the belief that drives knowledge translation. The University of Victoria (UVic) eHealth Observatory is focused on deriving knowledge from health information system (HIS) evaluation, which needs to be shared with HIS practitioners. Through an application of the Knowledge-to-Action Framework and the concept of a virtual community, we have established the virtual eHealth Benefits Evaluation Knowledge Translation (KT) Community. This paper describes the foundational elements of the KT Community and our overall KT strategy.

Virtual Community Based Destination Marketing with YouTube

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sambhanthan, Arunasalam; Thelijjagoda, Samantha; Good, Alice

2016-01-01

YouTube has now evolved into a powerful medium for social interaction. Utilizing YouTube for enhancing marketing endeavours is a strategy practiced by marketing professionals across several industries. This paper rationalizes on the different strategies of leveraging YouTube-based platforms...... for effective destination marketing by the hospitality industry (hotels) and provides insights on the critical drivers and challenges embedded within YouTube-based community interactions for destination marketing. The comments made by YouTube users have been subjected to a content analysis and the results...... are reported under the five broad clusters of virtual communities. More broadly, the typology of virtual communities is adapted to evaluate the YouTube platform for effective destination marketing....

The internet, virtual communities and threats to confidentiality ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Internet list servers and chat groups gather doctors together in virtual space to exchange views on clinical and professional issues. This paper focuses on the last of these Internet applications, beginning with a description of the 'virtual community' that the list servers and chat groups constitute. It demonstrates how various ...

To Enliven Virtual Communities of Practice through Gamification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Andrade

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Communities of practice are meant to generate knowledge through voluntary interaction between their members. With the expansion of electronic communication means these communities became virtual, in the sense that most of the innercommunication and collaboration are supported by synchronous and asynchronous electronic tools. However, research data shows that most of these virtual communities have great difficulty in reaching and maintaining healthy levels of activity. Gamification proposes to transfer the kind of intrinsic motivation found in games to increase the likeability and engagement in non-game contexts. Therefore it can be an approach to increase the member participation in communities of practice and, therefore, their chance to survive. Nevertheless, although gamification has proven useful in a number of cases, its implementation has to be carefully designed according to the intended audience to be effective.

Bullying in Virtual Learning Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikiforos, Stefanos; Tzanavaris, Spyros; Kermanidis, Katia Lida

2017-01-01

Bullying through the internet has been investigated and analyzed mainly in the field of social media. In this paper, it is attempted to analyze bullying in the Virtual Learning Communities using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, mainly in the context of sociocultural learning theories. Therefore four case studies took place. We aim to apply NLP techniques to speech analysis on communication data of online communities. Emphasis is given on qualitative data, taking into account the subjectivity of the collaborative activity. Finally, this is the first time such type of analysis is attempted on Greek data.

Hazy Boundaries: Virtual Communities and Research Ethics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helena Kantanen

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper examines ethical issues specific to research into virtual communities. Drawing on an empirical case with online forums of education experts, we identify the following key issues: publicity versus privacy of the community; the definition of human subjects research; participant recruitment; informed consent; and ethical questions associated with observing virtual communities, and with reporting and disseminating research results. We maintain that different research cultures in different countries can present challenges when studying global forums. Acknowledging the ephemeral characteristics of Internet contexts, this paper argues that ethical considerations should be more case-based, instead of relying on one model for all solutions. We suggest that local ethics committees or institutional review boards could, with their expert knowledge of ethics, provide valuable support for researchers operating in the complex and dynamic terrain of Internet research, as well as in fields and research settings where an ethical review is not a standard part of the research process.

Establishing a Virtual Community of Practice in Simulation: The Value of Social Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Thoma, Brent; Brazil, Victoria; Spurr, Jesse; Palaganas, Janice; Eppich, Walter; Grant, Vincent; Cheng, Adam

2018-04-01

Professional development opportunities are not readily accessible for most simulation educators, who may only connect with simulation experts at periodic and costly conferences. Virtual communities of practice consist of individuals with a shared passion who communicate via virtual media to advance their own learning and that of others. A nascent virtual community of practice is developing online for healthcare simulation on social media platforms. Simulation educators should consider engaging on these platforms for their own benefit and to help develop healthcare simulation educators around the world. Herein, we describe this developing virtual community of practice and offer guidance to assist educators to engage, learn, and contribute to the growth of the community.

Developing a Measure of Virtual Community Citizenship Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luman Yong

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This study examines the kinds of behaviors that constitute virtual community citizenship behaviors (VCCB and tests three factors that may influence community members’ willingness to engage in VCCB. More specifically, the authors propose a multi-dimensional VCCB construct (altruism, civic virtue, consciousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship and three antecedents of VCCB (affective commitment, structural embeddedness and membership tenure. Four dimensions including altruism, civic virtue, courtesy and loyalty emerged as a result of behavioral examples collection from SMEs using critical incident technique and a VCCB survey with 19 Likert type items reflecting the behavioral examples within each dimension was created. Data was collected from an online discussion forum (The Grad Cafe to address the research questions of this study. Results indicate that affective commitment was a significant predictor of the virtual community citizenship behaviors. A research agenda for studying VCCB is presented.

Looking Similar Promotes Group Stability in a Game-Based Virtual Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Lortie, Catherine L; Guitton, Matthieu J

2012-08-01

Online support groups are popular Web-based resources that provide tailored information and peer support through virtual communities and fulfill the users' needs for empowerment and belonging. However, the therapeutic potential of online support groups is at present limited by the lack of systematic research on the cognitive mechanisms underlying social group cohesion in virtual communities. We might increase the benefits of participation in online support groups if we gain more insight into the factors that promote long-term commitment to peer support. One approach to foster the therapeutic potential of online support groups could be to increase social selection based on visual similarity. We performed a case study using the popular virtual setting of "World of Warcraft" (Blizzard Entertainment, Irvine, CA). We monitored the social dynamics of a virtual community composed of avatars whose appearance was identical during a period of 3 months, biweekly, for a total of 24 measures. We observed that this homogeneous community displayed a very high level of group stability over time in terms of the total number of members, the number of members that stayed the same, and the number of arrivals and departures, despite the fact that belonging to a heterogeneous group typically favors the success of the group with respect to game progression. Our results confirm that appearance can trigger social selection in online virtual communities. Displaying a similar appearance could be one way to strengthen social bonds among peers who share various health and well-being issues. Thus, the therapeutic potential of online support groups could be promoted through visual cohesion.

A model for the development of virtual communities for people with long-term, severe physical disabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C.M. Tilley

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. This paper reports results of an investigation into the needs of persons with disabilities wanting to participate in the use of virtual communities. The aim was to investigate 'how virtual communities for persons with long-term, severe physical disabilities can best be facilitated'? Method. A Grounded Theory approach was adopted to inform the investigation. In- depth interviews were conducted with twelve persons with paraplegia, quadriplegia or other severe, long-term physical or mobility disabilities and six health care professionals, service providers, information personnel and policy advisers who were involved in their well-being. Analysis. Rich explanations were derived about the information and communication technology (ICT usage and the technologies' contributions towards restoration of sense of control over their lives. Results. The primary outcome of the investigation is a theory regarding the character of virtual communities for the disabled. The theory is represented as a Virtual Community Model. The model identifies: the need for 'a sense of control' as the foundation element of virtual communities for the disabled; the key domains in which disabled people participate in virtual communities; and the barriers and enablers to their participation. Conclusion. The model provides a framework which can be used by interest groups and other organizations to facilitate the development of virtual communities for persons with severe physical disabilities. The six key types of community need to be represented in such virtual communities if a full 'sense of control' is to be achieved by disabled persons.

[The application of vibrant sound bridge in microtia whose reconstructive external auditory canal occurred atresia].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shouqin; Gong, Shusheng; Han, Demin; Chen, Shubin; Li, Yi; Ma, Xiaobo; Liu, Haihong

2012-05-01

To investigate the effect of vibrant sound bridge implantation in microtia whose reconstructive external auditory canal occurred atresia. Three cases (2 males and 1 female) of microtia had underwent hearing reconstruction operation (Include the external ear canal reconstructive surgery and tympanoplasty). The age ranged from 15 to 18 years and the average age was 17 years. All the 3 cases suffered from conductive hearing loss with the air-bone gap ranging from 51.6 to 65.0 dB HL and the average value being 56. 3 dB HL. All the 3 cases underwent vibrant sound bridge implantation, including the floating mass transducer implanted in the head of stapes in 2 cases and in the niche of round window in 1 case. The postoperative hearing level improved from 21.6 to 52.5 dB HL with an average of 32.2 dB HL. There were no complications such as vertigo, tinnitus and facial paralysis. Through vibrant sound bridge implantation, the hearing level of microtia whose reconstructive external auditory canal occurred atresia was improved effectively.

Understanding the Role of Trust in Virtual Communities of Practice: Perspectives from Members and Businesses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thu Pho, Hang; Saustrup, Nina; Tambo, Torben

2012-01-01

Trust has different connotations characterized by various aspects such as sociology, psychology and economics. However, the focus of this paper is on trust within virtual context in the field of digital information, where trust reflects human-computer interaction. Virtual communities have extended...... the reach of our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities, forming new kinds of communities based on shared practice (Wenger 2006). On this basis, we emphasize trust in virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) where online groups exchange information, knowledge...... and experience. This paper is qualitative based on literature studies and employs a comparative methodology in studying trust, trust perception and psycho-social relations to VCoPs. This paper investigates three case studies of virtual community providers (VCPs) (Facebook, LinkedIn and Experts-Exchange) grounded...

Brand Meaning and Virtual Brand Community Amongst Teenagers: A Study of the IPod Brand

OpenAIRE

Wiedemann, Katharina

2006-01-01

Research on symbolic brand meaning and brand community has so far been limited to the adult population. No research has been conducted concerning the existence or characteristics of brand community amongst the adolescent population. Moreover, very little is known about virtual communities, and research on virtual brand communities of adolescents remains nonexistent to this day. Given the positive implications of brand meaning and brand community to the marketer, and the increasing economic im...

Demystifying Virtual Communities of Practice: A Case Study of IBM

Science.gov (United States)

Kok, Ayse

2010-01-01

The purpose of this proposed research study is to empirically explore the nature of virtual communities of practice (CoP) in a global organisation within the context of its International Corporate Volunteer (ICV) Program. This study investigates whether and how the use of virtual CoP evolves and becomes embedded within this organization. Following…

Contesting Community Online: Virtual Imagery among Dutch Orthodox Protestant Homosexuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W. de Koster (Willem)

2010-01-01

textabstractAbstract Whereas substantial scholarly attention has been paid to the online presentation of self, symbolic interactionist approaches are largely absent in the literature on virtual communities. Instead, recurrent questions are whether communities can exist online and if specific online

At the Intersection of College & Community

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, Dennis

2016-01-01

By purchasing abandoned facilities and transforming them into vibrant hubs for culture and education, community colleges are fulfilling one of their key missions: revitalizing their communities. But these types of projects can be fraught with challenges as well. Here's how Austin Community College (Texas), Manchester Community College…

An Exploration of Leadership in Virtual Communities of Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Chrisentary, John

2013-01-01

Virtual community of practice (VCoP) teams are becoming a typical function in many knowledge-based organizations. VCoP teams can consist of team members located in various cities, states, and countries. The main characteristic of the VCoP is team members' sense of community that allows individuals to share knowledge. Knowledge sharing in a VCoP…

Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community

Science.gov (United States)

This report highlights nine community-led efforts to create vibrant neighborhoods through density, discusses the connections between smart growth and density, and introduces design principles to ensure that density becomes a community asset.

Analysis of the social network development of a virtual community for Australian intensive care professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolls, Kaye Denise; Hansen, Margaret; Jackson, Debra; Elliott, Doug

2014-11-01

Social media platforms can create virtual communities, enabling healthcare professionals to network with a broad range of colleagues and facilitate knowledge exchange. In 2003, an Australian state health department established an intensive care mailing list to address the professional isolation experienced by senior intensive care nurses. This article describes the social network created within this virtual community by examining how the membership profile evolved from 2003 to 2009. A retrospective descriptive design was used. The data source was a deidentified member database. Since 2003, 1340 healthcare professionals subscribed to the virtual community with 78% of these (n = 1042) still members at the end of 2009. The membership profile has evolved from a single-state nurse-specific network to an Australia-wide multidisciplinary and multiorganizational intensive care network. The uptake and retention of membership by intensive care clinicians indicated that they appeared to value involvement in this virtual community. For healthcare organizations, a virtual community may be a communications option for minimizing professional and organizational barriers and promoting knowledge flow. Further research is, however, required to demonstrate a link between these broader social networks, enabling the exchange of knowledge and improved patient outcomes.

Radiation Emergency Preparedness Tools: Virtual Community Reception Center

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This podcast is an overview of resources from the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) Call: Practical Tools for Radiation Emergency Preparedness. A specialist working with CDC's Radiation Studies Branch describes a web-based training tool known as a Virtual Community Reception Center (vCRC).

Editorial: Creating, Supporting, Sustaining and Evaluating Virtual Learning Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xun Ge

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This special issue is dedicated to creating, building, supporting, sustaining and evaluating virtual learning communities (VLCs using emerging technologies. The contributors from diverse disciplines have come together to share their valuable experiences and findings through their research in the following themes: (a instructional models, strategies, approaches for building, supporting and evaluating VLCs, (b designing effective use of tools to promote discourse and scaffold peer interactions among members, (c iterative processes and models of designing and evaluating VLCs; and (d various variables concerning VLCs, such as virtual community behaviors, cultural factors, adoption patterns of tools. It is hoped that these articles will provide practical guidance and offer valuable experience to both educators and researchers who are interested in designing effective VLCs and examining various aspects of VLCs to advance our understanding of VLCs.

Satisfaction with virtual communities of interest : Effect on members' visit frequency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Valck, Kristine; Langerak, Fred; Verhoef, Peter C.; Verlegh, Peeter W. J.

The authors develop a four-dimensional scale to measure members' satisfaction with virtual communities of interest (VCIs). The dimensions consist of members' satisfaction with member-to-member interactions, organizer-to-member interactions and organizer-to-community interactions, all of which come

Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Sotomayor, Gilda E.

2014-01-01

This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have appeared under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and…

Action Research on the Development of Chinese Communication in a Virtual Community

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Joni Tzuchen; Sung, Yao-Ting; Chang, Kuo-En

2016-01-01

This study was designed to determine if language acquisition can occur in a virtual situation in the absence of explicit instruction. After spending 1 year establishing a virtual community, the authors observed and analyzed interpersonal interactions and the development of Chinese communication competence, communication models, and interaction…

Does Gender Matter? Collaborative Learning in a Virtual Corporate Community of Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Tomcsik, Rachel E.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate how gender identity construction in virtuality and actuality affect collaborative learning in a corporate community of practice. As part of a virtual ethnographic design, participants were employees from a major American corporation who were interested specifically in social networking applications. The…

Virtual community centre for power wheelchair training: Experience of children and clinicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Torkia, Caryne; Ryan, Stephen E; Reid, Denise; Boissy, Patrick; Lemay, Martin; Routhier, François; Contardo, Resi; Woodhouse, Janet; Archambault, Phillipe S

2017-11-02

To: 1) characterize the overall experience in using the McGill immersive wheelchair - community centre (miWe-CC) simulator; and 2) investigate the experience of presence (i.e., sense of being in the virtual rather than in the real, physical environment) while driving a PW in the miWe-CC. A qualitative research design with structured interviews was used. Fifteen clinicians and 11 children were interviewed after driving a power wheelchair (PW) in the miWe-CC simulator. Data were analyzed using the conventional and directed content analysis approaches. Overall, participants enjoyed using the simulator and experienced a sense of presence in the virtual space. They felt a sense of being in the virtual environment, involved and focused on driving the virtual PW rather than on the surroundings of the actual room where they were. Participants reported several similarities between the virtual community centre layout and activities of the miWe-CC and the day-to-day reality of paediatric PW users. The simulator replicated participants' expectations of real-life PW use and promises to have an effect on improving the driving skills of new PW users. Implications for rehabilitation Among young users, the McGill immersive wheelchair (miWe) simulator provides an experience of presence within the virtual environment. This experience of presence is generated by a sense of being in the virtual scene, a sense of being involved, engaged, and focused on interacting within the virtual environment, and by the perception that the virtual environment is consistent with the real world. The miWe is a relevant and accessible approach, complementary to real world power wheelchair training for young users.

Network Analysis of a Virtual Community of Learning of Economics Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Fontainha, Elsa; Martins, Jorge Tiago; Vasconcelos, Ana Cristina

2015-01-01

Introduction: This paper aims at understanding virtual communities of learning in terms of dynamics, types of knowledge shared by participants, and network characteristics such as size, relationships, density, and centrality of participants. It looks at the relationships between these aspects and the evolution of communities of learning. It…

Ontology-Based Empirical Knowledge Verification for Professional Virtual Community

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yuh-Jen

2011-01-01

A professional virtual community provides an interactive platform for enterprise experts to create and share their empirical knowledge cooperatively, and the platform contains a tremendous amount of hidden empirical knowledge that knowledge experts have preserved in the discussion process. Therefore, enterprise knowledge management highly…

Interferência da língua falada na escrita de crianças: processos de apagamento da oclusiva dental /d/ e da vibrante final /r/ Interference of the spoken language on children's writing: cancellation processes of the dental occlusive /d/ and final vibrant /r/

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Socorro Cláudia Tavares de Sousa

2009-01-01

Full Text Available O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar a influência da língua falada na escrita de crianças em relação aos fenômenos do cancelamento da dental /d/ e da vibrante final /r/. Elaboramos e aplicamos um instrumento de pesquisa em alunos do Ensino Fundamental em escolas de Fortaleza. Para a análise dos dados obtidos, utilizamos o software SPSS. Os resultados nos revelaram que o sexo masculino e as palavras polissílabas são fatores que influenciam, de forma parcial, a realização da variável dependente /no/ e que os verbos e o nível de escolaridade são elementos condicionadores para o cancelamento da vibrante final /r/.The present study aims to investigate the influence of the spoken language in children's writing in relation to the phenomena of cancellation of dental /d/ and final vibrant /r/. We elaborated and applied a research instrument to children from primary school in Fortaleza. We used the software SPSS to analyze the data. The results showed that the male sex and the words which have three or more syllable are factors that influence, in part, the realization of the dependent variable /no/ and that verbs and level of education are conditioners elements for the cancellation of the final vibrant /r/.

Perspectives on the Viable Mobile Virtual Community for Telemedicine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van 't Klooster, J.W.J.R.; Pawar, P.; van Beijnum, Bernhard J.F.; Dulawan, Chariz; Hermens, Hermanus J.

2010-01-01

A virtual community is an electronically supported social network: it can be seen as a group of people who have regular social interaction, independent of time and space, because of a common interest such as a problem, task, or feeling exchange (Eysenbach, Powell, Englesakis, Rizo, & Stern, 2004;

How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolls, Kaye; Hansen, Margaret; Jackson, Debra; Elliott, Doug

2016-06-16

Prevailing health care structures and cultures restrict intraprofessional communication, inhibiting knowledge dissemination and impacting the translation of research into practice. Virtual communities may facilitate professional networking and knowledge sharing in and between health care disciplines. This study aimed to review the literature on the use of social media by health care professionals in developing virtual communities that facilitate professional networking, knowledge sharing, and evidence-informed practice. An integrative literature review was conducted to identify research published between 1990 and 2015. Search strategies sourced electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL), snowball references, and tables of contents of 3 journals. Papers that evaluated social media use by health care professionals (unless within an education framework) using any research design (except for research protocols or narrative reviews) were included. Standardized data extraction and quality assessment tools were used. Overall, 72 studies were included: 44 qualitative (including 2 ethnographies, 26 qualitative descriptive, and 1 Q-sort) and 20 mixed-methods studies, and 8 literature reviews. The most common methods of data collection were Web-based observation (n=39), surveys (n=23), interviews (n=11), focus groups (n=2), and diaries (n=1). Study quality was mixed. Social media studied included Listservs (n=22), Twitter (n=18), general social media (n=17), discussion forums (n=7), Web 2.0 (n=3), virtual community of practice (n=3), wiki (n=1), and Facebook (n=1). A range of health care professionals were sampled in the studies, including physicians (n=24), nurses (n=15), allied health professionals (n=14), followed by health care professionals in general (n=8), a multidisciplinary clinical specialty area (n=9), and midwives (n=2). Of 36 virtual communities, 31 were monodiscipline for a discrete clinical specialty. Population uptake by the target group ranged from 1.6% to 29% (n

Professional Learning in Unlikely Spaces: Social Media and Virtual Communities as Professional Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathleen P. King

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In this case study, results demonstrate that an individual’s use of social media as professional learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks, social relationships and learning beyond the scope of the individual’s usual experience. Case study method reveals strategies, extent, and impact of learning providing insight into this phenomenon. The significance of the research includes purposefully facilitating professional learning through informal learning contexts, including social media and online communities beyond technology-centric fields. Discussion and recommendations include using social media and virtual communities as instructional strategies for graduate studies and continued learning beyond formal education.

An Evaluative Methodology for Virtual Communities Using Web Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Phippen, A. D.

2004-01-01

The evaluation of virtual community usage and user behaviour has its roots in social science approaches such as interview, document analysis and survey. Little evaluation is carried out using traffic or protocol analysis. Business approaches to evaluating customer/business web site usage are more advanced, in particular using advanced web…

Exploring engagement in a virtual community of practice in pediatric rehabilitation: who are non-users, lurkers, and posters?

Science.gov (United States)

Hurtubise, Karen; Pratte, Gabrielle; Rivard, Lisa; Berbari, Jade; Héguy, Léa; Camden, Chantal

2017-12-20

Communities of practice are increasingly recognized in rehabilitation as useful knowledge transfer tools; however, little is known about their users. This exploratory study describes the characteristics of participants and non-participants invited to engage in a pediatric rehabilitation virtual community of practice. In addition, we explored virtual community of practice utilization behaviors, engagement predictors, and the impact of strategies designed to foster engagement. Participants' demographics including information-seeking style and organization e-readiness, as well as online platform frequency of use data were collected and analyzed using descriptive, comparative, and predictive statistics. Seventy-four percent of those invited used the virtual community of practice. Users had less years of experience in pediatric rehabilitation than non-users. Among the users, 71% were classified as "lurkers," who engaged through reading content only; while 29% were classified as "posters," editing online content. Predictive factors were not uncovered, however an increased number of forum visits correlated with being a poster, a non-information seeker, an employee of an organization demonstrating e-readiness, and regularly working with children with the virtual community of practice specific condition. User-engagement strategies increased visits to the forum. These findings will assist rehabilitation leaders in leveraging rehabilitation-specific virtual community of practice to improve knowledge transfer and practice in pediatric rehabilitation and disability management. Implications for Rehabilitation Communities of practice are increasingly recognized as useful knowledge transfer tools for rehabilitation professionals and are made more accessible thanks to virtual technologies. Our virtual community of practice was found to be optimized in health care organizations with an electronic culture, when the topic area had daily relevance to its target audience, and was

IBF: An Integrated Business Framework for Virtual Communities

OpenAIRE

Fernando Ferri; Alessia D’Andrea; Patrizia Grifoni

2012-01-01

The paper provides an integrated business framework for Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer and Consumer-to-Consumer Virtual Communities. The framework involves internal and external factors. Internal factors that include: market analysis; products/services promotion; development of trust; social influence and Knowledge sharing, differ from the different orientations of the framework, while the external factors involve competitors and technological aspects that, while differing from th...

Building Virtual Collaborative Research Community Using Knowledge Management Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ju-Ling Shih

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Many online communities nowadays are emphasized more on peer interactions and information sharing among members; very few online communities are built with knowledge management in nature supported by knowledge management system (KMS. This study aims to present a community of practice on how to effectively adopt a knowledge management system (KMS to neutralize a cyber collaborative learning community for a research lab in a higher education setting. A longitudinal case for 7 years was used to analyze the retention and extension of participants‟ community of practice experiences. Interviews were conducted for the comparison between experiences and theories. It was found that the transformations of tacit and explicit knowledge are in accordance with the framework of Nonaka‟s model of knowledge management from which we elicit the strategies and suggestions to the adoption and implementation of virtual collaborative research community supported by KMS.

Vibrant Soundbridge rehabilitation of conductive and mixed hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Lüers, Jan-Christoffer; Hüttenbrink, Karl-Bernd

2014-12-01

The Vibrant Soundbridge is the world's most often implanted active middle ear implant or hearing aid. During the last few years, the device indications have expanded from sensorineural hearing loss to conductive and mixed hearing loss. Titanium couplers have led to improved contact of the floating mass transducer with the middle ear structures. The resulting hearing gain is satisfying for most patients, but so far, there is no clear audiologic advantage over conventional hearing aids. Currently, the indications are mainly related to intolerance of conventional hearing aids (eg, chronic otitis externa), severe mixed hearing loss with a destructed middle ear and certain medical diagnosis (eg, congenital atresia). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Health Care Professionals Use Social Media to Create Virtual Communities: An Integrative Review

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Background Prevailing health care structures and cultures restrict intraprofessional communication, inhibiting knowledge dissemination and impacting the translation of research into practice. Virtual communities may facilitate professional networking and knowledge sharing in and between health care disciplines. Objectives This study aimed to review the literature on the use of social media by health care professionals in developing virtual communities that facilitate professional networking, knowledge sharing, and evidence-informed practice. Methods An integrative literature review was conducted to identify research published between 1990 and 2015. Search strategies sourced electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL), snowball references, and tables of contents of 3 journals. Papers that evaluated social media use by health care professionals (unless within an education framework) using any research design (except for research protocols or narrative reviews) were included. Standardized data extraction and quality assessment tools were used. Results Overall, 72 studies were included: 44 qualitative (including 2 ethnographies, 26 qualitative descriptive, and 1 Q-sort) and 20 mixed-methods studies, and 8 literature reviews. The most common methods of data collection were Web-based observation (n=39), surveys (n=23), interviews (n=11), focus groups (n=2), and diaries (n=1). Study quality was mixed. Social media studied included Listservs (n=22), Twitter (n=18), general social media (n=17), discussion forums (n=7), Web 2.0 (n=3), virtual community of practice (n=3), wiki (n=1), and Facebook (n=1). A range of health care professionals were sampled in the studies, including physicians (n=24), nurses (n=15), allied health professionals (n=14), followed by health care professionals in general (n=8), a multidisciplinary clinical specialty area (n=9), and midwives (n=2). Of 36 virtual communities, 31 were monodiscipline for a discrete clinical specialty. Population uptake by the

A theoretical framework for a virtual diabetes self-management community intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Vorderstrasse, Allison; Shaw, Ryan J; Blascovich, Jim; Johnson, Constance M

2014-10-01

Due to its high prevalence, chronic nature, potential complications, and self-management challenges for patients, diabetes presents significant health education and support issues. We developed and pilot-tested a virtual community for adults with type 2 diabetes to promote self-management education and provide social support. Although digital-based programs such as virtual environments can address significant barriers to reaching patients (i.e., child care, transportation, location), they must be strongly grounded in a theoretical basis to be well-developed and effective. In this article, we discuss how we synthesized behavioral and virtual environment theoretical frameworks to guide the development of SLIDES (Second Life Impacts Diabetes Education and Support). © The Author(s) 2014.

Creating the sustainable conditions for knowledge information sharing in virtual community.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jiangtao; Yang, Jianmei; Chen, Quan; Tsai, Sang-Bing

2016-01-01

Encyclopedias are not a new platform for the distribution of knowledge, but they have recently drawn a great deal of attention in their online iteration. Peer production in particular has emerged as a new mode of providing information with value and offering competitive advantage in information production. Large numbers of volunteers actively share their knowledge by continuously editing articles in Baidu encyclopedias. Most articles in the online communities are the cumulative and integrated products of the contributions of many coauthors. Email-based surveys and objective data mining were here used to collect analytical data. Critical mass theory is here used to analyze the characteristics of these collective actions and to explain the emergence and sustainability of these actions in the Baidu Encyclopedia communities. These results show that, based on the collective action framework, the contributors group satisfied the two key characteristics that ensure the collective action of knowledge contribution will both take place and become self-sustaining. This analysis not only facilitates the identification of collective actions related to individuals sharing knowledge in virtual communities, but also can provide an insight for other similar virtual communities' management and development.

VirRAD - The virtual radiopharmacy - a virtual learning community in radiopharmacy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mather, S.J.

2002-01-01

VirRAD is a new research project funded by the Information Society Technologies programme of the Fifth RTD Framework Programme of the European Union. The aim of VirRAD is to develop an Internet-based virtual learning environment for Radiopharmacy which will facilitate learning and understanding in the speciality at all levels both within and outside the radiopharmaceutical community. The final structure of VirRAD is yet to be decided and will be determined by the needs and desires of its ultimate participants, however it is expected to include multimedia teaching modules for distance learning applications, 3-D simulations of specialised equipment and complex techniques used in radiopharmaceutical preparation and research as well as improved systems of peer-to-peer and student-to-tutor communication and information retrieval. To be as useful and effective as possible VirRAD needs ideas and suggestions from the Nuclear Medicine community. A mechanism for obtaining such input and feedback will be an integral part of the development process

THE INTEGRATION OF CREATIVITY MANAGEMENT MODELS INTO UNIVERSITIES’VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandru STRUNGĂ

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Given the access of an increasingly higher number of individuals to virtual learning networks, the issue of creativity management becomes extremely important, especially for schools and universities. In the specialized literature, participating in virtual learning communities has several advantages, including: permanent access to information, high educational performance and increased creativity, and also better-developed professional identity (North and Kumta, 2014; Boulay and van Raalte, 2014. In the Romanian literature, there are few studies that aim directly at the relationship between the participation in virtual learning networks and creativity and innovation management models, especially in higher education institutions. This paper aims to study the ways in which creativity and innovation management models can be used in virtual learning networks in order to achieve better productivity at both individual and organizational levels, taking into account several best practices from this field and their possible implementation in Romanian educational institutions.

Open Source Meets Virtual Reality--An Instructor's Journey Unearths New Opportunities for Learning, Community, and Academia

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Eileen A.

2015-01-01

Opening with the history, recent advances, and emerging ways to use avatar-based virtual reality, an instructor who has used virtual environments since 2007 shares how these environments bring more options to community building, teaching, and education. With the open-source movement, where the source code for virtual environments was made…

SCIENAR Virtual Community: An Useful Tool to Promote the Synergies Among Artists and Scientists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iole Alfano

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a Virtual Community (VC developed within the framework of the European project SCIENAR (Scientific Scenarios and Art. The SCIENAR project explores the connections between Art and Science and the use of new media and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs for the exploration and representation of these relationships in an innovative and productive way. The main objective of the Virtual Community described herein is to strengthen the role of the “artistic-scientific” community in the production of new science and new art. This objective can be achieved by promoting synergies and collaborations between the different protagonists involved in the large field of research of Art and Science.

Online personal ads: community and sex, virtually.

Science.gov (United States)

Gudelunas, David

2005-01-01

This study samples 200 personal advertisements from the online gay and lesbian global Web portal PlanetOut. This data, along with survey responses completed by advertisers included in the sample, are used to frame a discussion on the use of online gay and lesbian spaces and communities. Despite interacting in a global space, data showed that advertisers remained aware of their local identities. Differences between advertisers were most notable between gender and whether they logged on in a small or large town. Advertisers were interested in interacting locally, eager to move from online to offline communication, often-times not overly concerned with maintaining anonymity, and not interested in toying with multiple identities. Users of PlanetOut personals largely did not consider themselves part of a virtual gay and lesbian community even when they recognized the existence of a local geographically-based gay and lesbian community. However, the dynamic nature of online personal advertisements did allow for a new type of interactive advertisement that does differ from previous print forums.

COURSERA ONLINE COURSE: A PLATFORM FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS’ MEANINGFUL AND VIBRANT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arnis Silvia

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This article reports on English teachers‘ attitudes towards a professional development program run by Coursera (coursera.org. These teachers were participants of Foundation of Teaching for Learning 1: Introduction online course. Using a survey case study, the findings reveal that most of the participants perceive the course as a well-organized and effective platform to engage in professional learning. Coursera is an online learning platform offering various courses for teacher educators which are meaningful (closely related to their daily teaching practice and vibrant (involves active collaboration among peer participants to review and assess their projects. Albeit this nature, another finding shows that the participants lament that their institutions do not provide professional development (PD support. In fact, PD programs are not constrained to face-to-face encounters, since it can be designed using online platforms such as Coursera, a massive open online course (MOOC. Accordingly, the contribution of the article is to show how online platforms make meaningful and vibrant teacher professional development (TPD possible. The implication of the study is that school administrators and policy makers should provide support for their teachers to take online PD programs. This professional learning should contribute to the best teaching practice and student learning attainment.

Understanding interactions in virtual HIV communities: a social network analysis approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Jingyuan; Wang, Xiaohui; Peng, Tai-Quan; Chen, Liang

2017-02-01

This study investigated the driving mechanism of building interaction ties among the people living with HIV/AIDS in one of the largest virtual HIV communities in China using social network analysis. Specifically, we explained the probability of forming interaction ties with homophily and popularity characteristics. The exponential random graph modeling results showed that members in this community tend to form homophilous ties in terms of shared location and interests. Moreover, we found a tendency away from popularity effect. This suggests that in this community, resources and information were not disproportionally received by a few of members, which could be beneficial to the overall community.

The Virtual Communities and Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Maria Arişanu LACULEANU

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The progress made in the information and communication technology builds new communication and connection opportunities of the citizens and organizations leading to an important change of the citizen's behavior and of the functioning way of the organizations. The intelligence, as the only lasting active of a organization, is made up of individual and collective knowledge. As a matter of fact, the citizens feel more often the need of information and communication, the organizations are trying to rebuild the information so that the access to the useful information to become as easy as possible. The virtual communities appeared and are developing as a result of rising the trust grade in the major role that the Internet plays in the informational society. The educational portals, weblogs and the group software infrastructure are becoming necessary instruments in the present educational systems.

Transforming Virtual Teams

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjørn, Pernille

2005-01-01

Investigating virtual team collaboration in industry using grounded theory this paper presents the in-dept analysis of empirical work conducted in a global organization of 100.000 employees where a global virtual team with participants from Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada, and North America were...... studied. The research question investigated is how collaboration is negotiated within virtual teams? This paper presents findings concerning how collaboration is negotiated within a virtual team and elaborate the difficulties due to invisible articulation work and managing multiple communities...... in transforming the virtual team into a community. It is argued that translucence in communication structures within the virtual team and between team and management is essential for engaging in a positive transformation process of trustworthiness supporting the team becoming a community, managing the immanent...

Virtual Presence and the Mind's Eye in 3-D Online Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Beacham, R. C.; Denard, H.; Baker, D.

2011-09-01

Digital technologies have introduced fundamental changes in the forms, content, and media of communication. Indeed, some have suggested we are in the early stages of a seismic shift comparable to that in antiquity with the transition from a primarily oral culture to one based upon writing. The digital transformation is rapidly displacing the long-standing hegemony of text, and restoring in part social, bodily, oral and spatial elements, but in radically reconfigured forms and formats. Contributing to and drawing upon such changes and possibilities, scholars and those responsible for sites preserving or displaying cultural heritage, have undertaken projects to explore the properties and potential of the online communities enabled by "Virtual Worlds" and related platforms for teaching, collaboration, publication, and new modes of disciplinary research. Others, keenly observing and evaluating such work, are poised to contribute to it. It is crucial that leadership be provided to ensure that serious and sustained investigation be undertaken by scholars who have experience, and achievements, in more traditional forms of research, and who perceive the emerging potential of Virtual World work to advance their investigations. The Virtual Museums Transnational Network will seek to engage such scholars and provide leadership in this emerging and immensely attractive new area of cultural heritage exploration and experience. This presentation reviews examples of the current "state of the art" in heritage based Virtual World initiatives, looking at the new modes of social interaction and experience enabled by such online communities, and some of the achievements and future aspirations of this work.

Links between real and virtual networks: a comparative study of online communities in Japan and Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishii, Kenichi; Ogasahara, Morihiro

2007-04-01

The present study explores how online communities affect real-world personal relations based on a cross-cultural survey conducted in Japan and Korea. Findings indicate that the gratifications of online communities moderate the effects of online communities on social participation. Online communities are categorized into a real-group-based community and a virtual-network-based community. The membership of real-group-based online community is positively correlated with social bonding gratification and negatively correlated with information- seeking gratification. Japanese users prefer more virtual-network-based online communities, while their Korean counterparts prefer real-group-based online communities. Korean users are more active in online communities and seek a higher level of socializing gratifications, such as social bonding and making new friends, when compared with their Japanese counterparts. These results indicate that in Korea, personal relations via the online community are closely associated with the real-world personal relations, but this is not the case in Japan. This study suggests that the effects of the Internet are culture-specific and that the online community can serve a different function in different cultural environments.

Analysis of Vibrant Soundbridge placement against the round window membrane in a human cadaveric temporal bone model.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pennings, R.J.E.; Ho, A.; Brown, J.; Wijhe, R.G. van; Bance, M.

2010-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate optimal placement of the Floating Mass Transducer of the Vibrant Soundbridge (Med-El, Innsbruck, Austria) against the round window membrane, particularly the impact of interposed coupling fascia and of covering materials. METHOD: : Six fresh human cadaveric temporal bones were

Systemic Analysis of the Cultural Production of a Virtual Learning Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Germán Alejandro Miranda Díaz

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a systemic analysis from the standpoint of activity theory of the cultural emergence of a virtual learning community as a complex system. Three levels of analysis were employed: data mining, visualization of complex systems and analysis of discursive interactions, with the aim of understanding the emerging phenomena of online learning and in order to have the necessary elements to assist in planning the formation of virtual communities in formal settings. This was carried out using six years of activity from 3,324 people from different documentary sources: 9,871,531 CMS records; 1,371,907 from LMS; 67,828 IRC statements; and 27,798 online forum comments. In the process, we observed how action aimed at socialization and discussion of its object evolve into historical-cultural milestones such as the culture of merit as opposed to certification, the division of labor and the process of transition from free software to free culture.

Radiation Emergency Preparedness Tools: Virtual Community Reception Center

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2011-02-28

This podcast is an overview of resources from the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) Call: Practical Tools for Radiation Emergency Preparedness. A specialist working with CDC's Radiation Studies Branch describes a web-based training tool known as a Virtual Community Reception Center (vCRC).  Created: 2/28/2011 by National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) Radiation Studies Branch and Emergency Risk Communication Branch (ERCB)/Joint Information Center (JIC); Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR).   Date Released: 2/28/2011.

Brazilian Portuguese and German in contact in two virtual communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Layla Cristina Iapechino Souto

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an analysis of code-switching between Brazilian Portuguese and German language in two virtual communities on Facebook: Brasileiros em Berlim and Brasileiros e Brasileiras em Berlim. We have adopted the concepts of durability, permeability and liminality traced by Zinkhahn-Rhobodes (2015 to observe the permeability of the linguistic border between these two languages. 

The Effects of Virtual Communities on Group Identity in Classroom Management

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Tu-Kuang; Lin, Yu-Tzeng

2016-01-01

Group identity is a critical component in developing effective classroom management. While there have been numerous studies on group identity, they have primarily focused on its effects on the physical classroom entity. Advances in information technology, however, have enabled the creation of virtual communities, which have become a vital channel…

Lessons learned from the birth and evolution of the EduFinland virtual community for educators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Holmberg

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Educators around the world are experimenting with the possibilities virtual three dimensional worlds have for education and learning how to use these new environments efficiently. Virtual worlds have the potential to bring some new added value to education and educators can use them to create something that is not possible to do or show in traditional classrooms. Although a lot have been learned about virtual worlds and their potential, a lot more has to be learned before virtual worlds can become an integrated part of education on various levels. The article looks back at the birth and growth of the EduFinland community in the virtual world of Second Life and discusses lessons learned so far during the years of its existence.

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barnett Stephen

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Good General Practice is essential for an effective health system. Good General Practice training is essential to sustain the workforce, however training for General Practice can be hampered by a number of pressures, including professional, structural and social isolation. General Practice trainees may be under more pressure than fully registered General Practitioners, and yet isolation can lead doctors to reduce hours and move away from rural practice. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs in business have been shown to be effective in improving knowledge sharing, thus reducing professional and structural isolation. This literature review will critically examine the current evidence relevant to virtual communities of practice in General Practice training, identify evidence-based principles that might guide their construction and suggest further avenues for research. Methods Major online databases Scopus, Psychlit and Pubmed were searched for the terms “Community of Practice” (CoP AND (Online OR Virtual OR Electronic AND (health OR healthcare OR medicine OR “Allied Health”. Only peer-reviewed journal articles in English were selected. A total of 76 articles were identified, with 23 meeting the inclusion criteria. There were no studies on CoP or VCoP in General Practice training. The review was structured using a framework of six themes for establishing communities of practice, derived from a key study from the business literature. This framework has been used to analyse the literature to determine whether similar themes are present in the health literature and to identify evidence in support of virtual communities of practice for General Practice training. Results The framework developed by Probst is mirrored in the health literature, albeit with some variations. In particular the roles of facilitator or moderator and leader whilst overlapping, are different. VCoPs are usually collaborations between stakeholders

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Stephen; Jones, Sandra C; Bennett, Sue; Iverson, Don; Bonney, Andrew

2012-08-21

Good General Practice is essential for an effective health system. Good General Practice training is essential to sustain the workforce, however training for General Practice can be hampered by a number of pressures, including professional, structural and social isolation. General Practice trainees may be under more pressure than fully registered General Practitioners, and yet isolation can lead doctors to reduce hours and move away from rural practice. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) in business have been shown to be effective in improving knowledge sharing, thus reducing professional and structural isolation. This literature review will critically examine the current evidence relevant to virtual communities of practice in General Practice training, identify evidence-based principles that might guide their construction and suggest further avenues for research. Major online databases Scopus, Psychlit and Pubmed were searched for the terms "Community of Practice" (CoP) AND (Online OR Virtual OR Electronic) AND (health OR healthcare OR medicine OR "Allied Health"). Only peer-reviewed journal articles in English were selected. A total of 76 articles were identified, with 23 meeting the inclusion criteria. There were no studies on CoP or VCoP in General Practice training. The review was structured using a framework of six themes for establishing communities of practice, derived from a key study from the business literature. This framework has been used to analyse the literature to determine whether similar themes are present in the health literature and to identify evidence in support of virtual communities of practice for General Practice training. The framework developed by Probst is mirrored in the health literature, albeit with some variations. In particular the roles of facilitator or moderator and leader whilst overlapping, are different. VCoPs are usually collaborations between stakeholders rather than single company VCoPs. Specific goals are important

Virtual Community For A Creative City

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Przygodzki Zbigniew

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Cities provide conditions for the development of creativity and creative capital; some cities have made it an area of strategic intervention. Surely, there is a strong link between the creativity of a city and the value of social capital in a given territory. Hence, it is vital to answer the following questions: To what extent does investment in human capital determine the value of creative capital? What to invest in? Can one invest efficiently taking advantage of the attractive and popular virtual space? These are the questions explored by the present authors. Their specific goal is to assess the importance of social networks as a modern ICT tool for establishing relations, and of open networks in the dissemination of knowledge and in the development of creative communities.

Evolutionary Approach of Virtual Communities of Practice: A Reflection within a Network of Spanish Rural Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Frossard, Frédérique; Trifonova, Anna; Barajas Frutos, Mario

The isolation of rural communities creates special necessities for teachers and students in rural schools. The present article describes "Rural Virtual School", a Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) in which Spanish teachers of rural schools share learning resources and teaching methodologies through social software applications. The article arrives to an evolutionary model, in which the use of the social software tools evolves together with the needs and the activities of the VCoP through the different stages of its lifetime. Currently, the community has reached a high level of maturity and, in order to keep its momentum, the members intentionally use appropriate technologies specially designed to enhance rich innovative educational approaches, through which they collaboratively generate creative practices.

Engaging Youth in the Curriculum Development Process with Technology: The Nebraska State 4-H Youth Curriculum Committee

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle J. Garwood

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Technology is changing the way youth learn and lead. This paper illustrates a successful case study of a program that actively engaged youth in the decision-making process through the use of an online community and virtual conferencing. Synergy was generated when the youth were mentored (virtually and in-person by members of a parallel adult committee. Utilizing technology resources proved to be the key to building a vibrant, innovative and inclusive program that could overcome the barriers of time and travel constraints.

Are embedded online communities of practice more successful than exclusively virtual ones?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matzat, U.

2008-01-01

Is a deliberate shaping of the mixture of virtual and 'real-life' interaction in online communities a crucial condition for diminishing typical problems of knowledge sharing? Typical problems that increase the risk of failure are: 1. a lack of trust between members, 2. free rider behavior, and 3. a

Educational MOO: Text-Based Virtual Reality for Learning in Community. ERIC Digest.

Science.gov (United States)

Turbee, Lonnie

MOO stands for "Multi-user domain, Object-Oriented." Early multi-user domains, or "MUDs," began as net-based dungeons-and-dragons type games, but MOOs have evolved from these origins to become some of cyberspace's most fascinating and engaging online communities. MOOs are social environments in a text-based virtual reality…

Virtual Learning Communities as a Vehicle for Workforce Development: A Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Allan, Barbara; Lewis, Dina

2006-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and challenges of using a virtual learning community (VLC) as a vehicle for workforce development. This paper argues that VLCs provide a flexible vehicle for workforce development. However, workplace realities may lead to unexpected challenges for participants wanting exploit the…

Google apps for virtual learning communities development: strengthening english language skills in an university environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eder Intriago

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: This action research project aims to strengthen English language reading comprehension and speaking skills in college students through the use of Google Apps and Literature Circles (LCs in virtual communities for learning. Method: The study involved 70 students at a public university in Ecuador. The educational intervention lasted a semester, included the implementation of LCs virtually and in person with a phase of independent reading and another for the discussion. 14 learning communities were organized and students assumed specific roles in order to warranty equality participation. The “Google Apps” were chosen for their ease of access. To monitor the progress of learning English, a pretest and a posttest were applied using the Preliminary English Test (PET by Cambridge University, whose validity and reliability are amply recognized internationally. Results: It showed an improvement of the reading comprehension and speaking skills in English Language in the participants group, who went from A1 to B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL at the end of the process. Conclusion: it is confirmed that the use of “Google Apps” aided in the building of virtual learning communities to support the second language acquisition process (L2 in the university context.

Cloud Communities and Travel Diaries. Virtual Representations of Tourist Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Platania

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Collective construction of descriptions can radically change the image of an area. This uncontrollable process is destined to become one of the main priority research areas also in tourism studies. The spread of Web sites in which telling stories and descriptions of territories has become a significant element in the network society, and the growing use of social networks and cloud communities, often in planning tourism, contributes to social description of touristic landscapes and influence the collective imaginary. In social space, territories are the result of the superposition of different layers, from the real one to the virtual, bound to a constant exchange of information. This phenomenon that could guide tourist attraction, begins to affect the choices of local institutions and residents.The aim of the paper is to give an interpretation on the construction of collective representation, which takes place, after the journey, through the on-line publication of a diary. The research is divided into two parts. In the first, we explain some theoretical aspects related to the representation of the travel, the sharing of information in virtual form and the construction of an imaginary touristic. Subsequently, are taken into account the results obtained in previous studies related to the analysis of the narratives of tourism experiences, shared within virtual spaces freely accessible on the net. These results will be used to develop a model of interpretation on the virtual representation of tourist areas.

Where's the Chicken? Virtual Reality Brings Poultry Science to the Community College

Science.gov (United States)

Kloepper, Marcia Owens; Zweiacher, Ed; Curtis, Pat; Evert, Amanda

2010-01-01

This article highlights how two institutions--Redlands Community College (RCC) and Auburn University--teamed up to create a virtual world called Eagle Island, where learners enter to learn all they need to know about poultry science. Eagle Island, located in Second Life, provides an opportunity to tour a real-life food processing…

VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE MULTIPLE LITERACY COMUNIDADES VIRTUALES PRÁCTICAS DE ALFABETIZACIÓN MÚLTIPLE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Melaré Varros

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Technologies have transformed the way we interact with others. Are expanding the dimensions of the participatory process in digital environments such as educational settings, thanks to social networks for learning. At the present time have created new ways to communicate and learn, a group of social networks that facilitate the participation of all involved, and therefore are also tools of social learning. Communication possibilities expand educational dimensions in digital scenarios. Participation goes from being a chance to become the main source of teaching and learning collaborative. It is necessary to the review of pedagogical approaches and methodologies to create a scenario, which arises in the virtual mode. The challenge now is training and developing literacy skills through providing multiple virtual learning communities.Las tecnologías han transformado nuestra forma de interactuar con los demás. Se están ampliando las dimensiones del proceso participativo en los entornos digitales, como escenarios educativos, gracias a las redes sociales de aprendizaje. En la actualidad se han creado nuevas maneras de comunicarnos y aprender, un colectivo de redes sociales que posibilitan la participación de todos los involucrados, y por tanto también son herramientas de aprendizaje social. Las posibilidades comunicativas amplían las dimensiones educativas en los escenarios digitales. La participación pasa de ser una posibilidad para convertirse en la fuente principal del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje colaborativo. Es necesario la revisión de los enfoques pedagógicos y la creación de metodologías apropiadas al escenario educativo que surge en la modalidad virtual. El desafío actual es la formación y desarrollo de competencias gracias a la alfabetización múltiple que proporcionan las comunidades virtuales de aprendizaje.

Measuring the Effect of Using Simulated Security Awareness Training and Testing on Members of Virtual Communities of Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Craig L. Tidwell

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Information security (Infosec has become a major challenge for all private and public organizations. The protecting of proprietary and secret data and the proper awareness of what is entailed in protecting this data is necessary in all organizations. How does simulation and training influence virtual communities of practice information security awareness over time and with a variety of security scenarios. Can members of a virtual community be significantly changed in how they respond to routine security processes and attempts to breach security or violate the security policy of their organization? How does deterrence play a role in this prevention and education? A study is planned that will train and test users of a virtual community of practice over a 3 month period of time, via a web interface, and using simulated events, to see if the planned security awareness training will be effective in changing their responses to the events and further testing.

Towards a Fourth Cosmology of Doctor-Patient Relationship: A Reflection on the Virtual Patient Community PatientsLikeMe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos Bletsos

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is the study of an online patient community (Patientslikeme and, specifically, of the impact of virtuality in the shaping of the patient-doctor relationship. Drawing from Kozinets’s research paradigm, known as ethnography of the Internet (Netnography, we investigate the patients’ attitudes toward the medical profession. Examining relevant data from the ALS forum, we set up three main axes of analysis: (a the energetic versus passive stance towards doctors, (b the evidence-based scientific knowledge versus alternative forms of knowledge, and (c the positive versus negative attitude towards doctors and medical practices. The underlying theoretical hypothesis, i.e. whether the virtual community empowers patients over against the authority of the medical profession, is verified. Other interesting findings involve the value of evidence-based scientific knowledge, the intermediary role of the online community in building the patient-physician relationship, and the development of an alternative discourse towards the dominant medical discourse. All the above suggest that we have entered an era where the control of the patient is being transferred to another (digital dimension, in which virtual communities play a crucial role.

Knowledge Networking for Family Planning: The Potential for Virtual Communities of Practice to Move Forward the Global Reproductive Health Agenda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan O’Brien

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper highlights experience from five years of using virtual communication tools developed by the World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research (WHO/RHR and its partners in the Implementing Best Practices (IBP in Reproductive Health Initiative to help bridge the knowledge-to-practice gap among family planning and reproductive health professionals. It explores how communities of practice and virtual networks offer a unique low-cost way to convene public health practitioners around the world to share experiences. It offers examples of how communities of practice can contribute to the development and dissemination of evidence-based health information products, and explores the potential for online networking and collaboration to enhance and inform program design and management. The paper is intended to inform the reproductive health community, as well as others working in health and development, of the potential for using virtual communities of practice to work towards achieving common goals and provide some examples of their successful use.

Vibrant Energy Aware Spray and Wait Routing in Delay Tolerant Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viren G. Patel

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Delay tolerant networks (DTN are wireless networks where disconnections arise often due to the mobility of nodes, failures of energy, the low density of nodes, or when the network extends over long distances. In these situations, traditional routing protocols that have been developed for mobile ad hoc networks prove to be unsuccessful to the scope of transmitting messages between nodes. The Spray and Wait routing may achieve low routing and energy efficiency due to the blindness in the spray phase. To deal with this situation, we propose an opportunistic routing with enclosed message copies, called the Vibrant Energy aware Spray and Wait (VESW, which utilizes the information about vibrancy of node and remaining energy to allocate the number of copies between the corresponding pair nodes in the spray phase.

Building a sense of virtual community: the role of the features of social networking sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chi-Wen; Lin, Chiun-Sin

2014-07-01

In recent years, social networking sites have received increased attention because of the potential of this medium to transform business by building virtual communities. However, theoretical and empirical studies investigating how specific features of social networking sites contribute to building a sense of virtual community (SOVC)-an important dimension of a successful virtual community-are rare. Furthermore, SOVC scales have been developed, and research on this issue has been called for, but few studies have heeded this call. On the basis of prior literature, this study proposes that perceptions of the three most salient features of social networking sites-system quality (SQ), information quality (IQ), and social information exchange (SIE)-play a key role in fostering SOVC. In particular, SQ is proposed to increase IQ and SIE, and SIE is proposed to enhance IQ, both of which thereafter build SOVC. The research model was examined in the context of Facebook, one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. We adopted Blanchard's scales to measure SOVC. Data gathered using a Web-based questionnaire, and analyzed with partial least squares, were utilized to test the model. The results demonstrate that SIE, SQ, and IQ are the factors that form SOVC. The findings also suggest that SQ plays a fundamental role in supporting SIE and IQ in social networking sites. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed.

EPA Seeks Public Input for National Plan to Manage PFAS at First Community Engagement Event

Science.gov (United States)

New Englanders know that our part of the country is special. New England boasts vibrant communities, many with histories dating to before the American Revolution. Our environment is also unique and wonderful.

An investigation into possibilities for implementation of a virtual community of practice delivered via a mobile social network for rural community media in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliva Muwanga-Zake

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how a virtual community of practice can be delivered via a mobile social networking framework to support rural community media in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Objectives: The article presents the results of a study conducted to ascertain the possibilities of utilising mobile social networking as a means to provide access to required information and knowledge to rural community media through creation of a virtual community of practice. Improving the operational effectiveness of rural community media as a component of the rural community communication process would serve to improve the entire rural community communication process as well, making them more effective tools for availing relevant news and information to rural communities and reflecting the realities of rural communities to their broader environment. Method: The study was conducted on rural community media small micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study applied an interpretive research philosophy, qualitative research design and multiple–case study approach. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews supported by a questionnaire, with secondary data collected via literature review, observation and documentation analysis. Results: Findings were that rural community media do make use of social media and mobile devices in operating their business, require access to generic and domain specific support services and actively engage their peers and stakeholders in this respect, although no formalised structure existed. The authors’ recommendation is to create a formalised virtual community of practice through the establishment of a mobile social network. Conclusion: Because of the fact that rural community SMMEs already utilise mobile devices and social media to operate their businesses, development of a solution based on a mobile social

Online Social Support for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Thematic Analysis of Messages Posted to a Virtual Support Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masoumeh Abbasi Shavazi

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Currently with the emergence of the Internet, patients have an opportunity to exchange social support online. However, little attention has been devoted to different dimensions of online social support exchanged in virtual support communities for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS. Methods: To provide a rich insight, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore and categorize different dimensions of online social support in messages exchanged in a virtual support community for patients with MS. A total of 548 posted messages created during one year period were selected using purposive sampling to consider the maximum variation sampling. Prior-research-driven thematic analysis was then conducted. In this regard, we used the Cutruna and Suhr’s coding system. The messages that could not be categorized with the used coding system were thematically analyzed to explore new additional social support themes. Results: The results showed that various forms of social support including informational, emotional, network, esteem and tangible support were exchanged. Moreover, new additional social support themes including sharing personal experiences, sharing coping strategies and spiritual support emerged in this virtual support community. Conclusion: The wide range of online social support exchanged in the virtual support community can be regarded as a supplementary source of social support for patients with MS. Future researches can examine online social support more comprehensively considering additional social support themes emerging in the present study.

Inquiry-Based Learning for a Virtual Learning Community to Enhance Problem-Solving Ability of Applied Thai Traditional Medicine Students

Science.gov (United States)

Chanprasitchai, Ong-art; Khlaisang, Jintavee

2016-01-01

The recent growth in collaborative and interactive virtual learning communities integrating innovative digital technologies and contemporary learning frameworks is contributing enormously to the use of e-learning in higher education in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a virtual learning…

Developing Preceptors through Virtual Communities and Networks: Experiences from a Pilot Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Ackman, Margaret L; Romanick, Marcel

2011-11-01

Supporting preceptors is critical to the expansion of experiential learning opportunities for the pharmacy profession. Informal learning opportunities within communities of practitioners are important for hospital preceptors. However, such communities may be limited by geographic separation of preceptors from peers, faculty members, and supports within the pharmacy services department. To use computer-mediated conferencing to create a sense of community among preceptors, specifically by using this medium to provide initial development of and continuing support for preceptors, and to examine preceptors' satisfaction with this approach. Thirty-nine preceptors who had completed a day-long face-to-face preceptor development workshop and who were supervising students in 1 of 2 specific rotation blocks were invited to participate in the study. The pharmacists used computer-mediated conferencing to meet for virtual networking about specific topics. They met once before the student rotation to receive instructions about the technology and to discuss student orientation and scheduling, and 3 times during the student rotation for open discussion of specific topics. Evaluation and feedback were solicited by means of an electronic survey and virtual (i.e., computer-based) feedback sessions with an independent facilitator. The response rate was 66% (26/39) for the electronic survey, but only 15% (6/39) for the virtual feedback sessions. All of the respondents were experienced preceptors, but for 92% (22/24), this was their first experience with computer-mediated conferencing. Overall, the sessions had a positive reception, and participants found it useful to share information and experiences with other preceptors. The main challenges were related to the technology, perceived lack of support for their participation in the sessions, and inconvenience related to the timing of sessions. Computer-mediated conferencing allowed preceptors to learn from and to support each other

Ações participativas em uma comunidade virtual de enfermagem Acciones participativas en una comunidad virtual de enfemería Participating actions in a nursing virtual community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaqueline Santos de Andrade Martins

2009-03-01

entendimiento trae contribuciones para la mejor caracterización de los entornos, personas y su relaciones en la internet.This study is about interaction of nursing on virtual environments and their importance for nursing care and learning this profession. Objectives: To propose a categorization for participating actions in messages produced by virtual identity of the nursing community; and to verify the distribution of the participating actions, to correlate with the process of interaction in a nursing virtual community. Methods: This is an exploratory study of quantitative approach, with descriptive statistics. Held inspectional reading email messages and through the nine categories were proposed for the participating actions. Results: Commentary, questioning and answer were prevalent categories. These actions were named "triad for conversation". We made the test of kappa, obtaining result in a moderate agreement that guided the discussion to two possible hypotheses for future studies. Conclusion: Believed that exist a possibility to take the participating actions as basics elements that indicate interaction and transaction in the systemic perspective applied in nursing. This comprehension contributes for the better characterization of ambient, individual and his connections on the virtual space in the internet.

Examining Community Life "in the Making": Emile Durkheim's "Moral Education"

Science.gov (United States)

Prus, Robert

2011-01-01

Although often overlooked in sociological circles, Emile Durkheim's ("1902-1903") "Moral Education" provides an important cornerstone in the quest to understand community life. Not only does "Moral Education" give a vibrant realism to the sociological venture in ways that Durkheim's earlier works ("1893", "1895", "1897') fail to achieve, but in…

Exchanging health advice in a virtual community: A story of tribalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ioana-Alexandra Rusu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The quest for information by young parents, especially mothers, is on the rise. The production of literature on how to raise children has grown exponentially over the last half century, as has the preoccupation for informing oneself on the subject (Rothbaum et al., 2008. The internet offers an immense quantity of information from sources varying in terms of quality and credibility. In the beginnings of life as a parent, people go through a time full of insecurity. Simultaneously especially new mothers are more or less isolated from their previous social lives and the need arises to compensate for this deficit through online interactions (Madge and O’Connor, 2006. One important concern is health, ranging from topics such as the best choices in pregnancy and birth, to breastfeeding, weaning and medical decisions, such as choosing a pediatrician, giving medication or vaccinating. Based on a netnographic approach, this paper tackles the question of how medical information is created and transferred in a virtual community of parents, how people select the sources they follow, and with what consequences. The main findings are that in virtual communities tribalization is easier to achieve than in real life, as people tend to find likeminded individuals and groups, while shielding themselves from contrary opinions and information, and that conflicting tribes can employ exactly the same arguments against each other.

Realistic Visualization of Virtual Views and Virtual Cinema

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Livatino, Salvatore

2005-01-01

Realistic Virtual View Visualization is a new field of research which has received increasing attention in recent years. It is strictly related to the increased popularity of virtual reality and the spread of its applications, among which virtual photography and cinematography. The use of computer...... generated characters, "virtual actors", in the motion picture production increases every day. While the most known computer graphics techniques have largely been adopted successfully in nowadays fictions, it still remains very challenging to implement virtual actors which would resemble, visually, human...... beings. Interestingly, film directors have been looking at the recent progress achieved by the research community in the field of realistic visualization of virtual views, and they have successfully implemented state of the art research approaches in their productions. An innovative concept...

Enabling virtual communities: Gulliver and Aveiro

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Faisal, K.; Sarfraz, M.

2002-01-01

In this paper we discuss two of our projects on virtual realities. First there is the virtual reality project Gulliver. This project is part of a more comprehensive project conceived by two artists, Matjaž Štuk and Alena Hudcovicová, called “Gulliver’s Museum of Living Art��?. Our part of the

Impacting the Science Community through Teacher Development: Utilizing Virtual Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Boulay, Rachel; van Raalte, Lisa

2014-01-01

Commitment to the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) pipeline is slowly declining despite the need for professionals in the medical field. Addressing this, the John A. Burns School of Medicine developed a summer teacher-training program with a supplemental technology-learning component to improve science teachers' knowledge and skills of Molecular Biology. Subsequently, students' skills, techniques, and application of molecular biology are impacted. Science teachers require training that will prepare them for educating future professionals and foster interest in the medical field. After participation in the program and full access to the virtual material, twelve high school science teachers completed a final written reflective statement to evaluate their experiences. Using thematic analysis, knowledge and classroom application were investigated in this study. Results were two-fold: teachers identified difference areas of gained knowledge from the teacher-training program and teachers' reporting various benefits in relation to curricula development after participating in the program. It is concluded that participation in the program and access to the virtual material will impact the science community by updating teacher knowledge and positively influencing students' experience with science.

Users' Continuance Intention of Virtual Learning Community Services: The Moderating Role of Usage Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Min; Liu, Yupei; Yan, Weiwei; Zhang, Yan

2017-01-01

Users' continuance intention plays a significant role in the process of information system (IS) service, especially virtual learning community (VLC) services. Following the IS success model and IS post-acceptance model, this study explores the determinants of users' intention to continue using VLCs' service from the perspective of quality,…

Virtual Knowledge Brokering: Describing the Roles and Strategies Used by Knowledge Brokers in a Pediatric Physiotherapy Virtual Community of Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurtubise, Karen; Rivard, Lisa; Héguy, Léa; Berbari, Jade; Camden, Chantal

2016-01-01

Knowledge transfer in pediatric rehabilitation is challenging and requires active, multifaceted strategies. The use of knowledge brokers (KBs) is one such strategy noted to promote clinician behavior change. The success of using KBs to transfer knowledge relies on their ability to adapt to ever-changing clinical contexts. In addition, with the rapid growth of online platforms as knowledge transfer forums, KBs must become effective in virtual environments. Although the role of KBs has been studied in various clinical contexts, their emerging role in specific online environments designed to support evidence-based behavior change has not yet been described. Our objective is to describe the roles of, and strategies used by, four KBs involved in a virtual community of practice to guide and inform future online KB interventions. A descriptive design guided this study and a thematic content analysis process was used to analyze online KB postings. The Promoting Action on Research in Health Sciences knowledge transfer framework and online andragogical learning theories assisted in the coding. A thematic map was created illustrating the links between KBs' strategies and emerging roles in the virtual environment. We analyzed 95 posts and identified three roles: 1) context architect: promoting a respectful learning environment, 2) knowledge sharing promoter: building capacity, and 3) linkage creator: connecting research-to-practice. Strategies used by KBs reflected invitational, constructivism, and connectivism approaches, with roles and strategies changing over time. This study increases our understanding of the actions of KBs in virtual contexts to foster uptake of research evidence in pediatric physiotherapy. Our results provide valuable information about the knowledge and skills required by individuals to fulfill this role in virtual environments.

Advocacy participation and brand loyalty in virtual brand communtity

OpenAIRE

Munnukka, Juha; Uusitalo, Outi; Jokinen, Elisa

2014-01-01

Brand owners use virtual communities to strengthen brand loyalty by engaging consumers in active content creation activities. Personal and reciprocal communication and consumers’ participation in virtual brand communities are the main sources through which communities contribute to brand loyalty formation. This research examines the antecedents and consequences of advocacy participation in virtual brand communities. The results show that the VBC members’ advocacy participation ...

Subjective evaluation of restaurant acoustics in a virtual sound environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Nicolaj Østergaard; Marschall, Marton; Santurette, Sébastien

2016-01-01

Many restaurants have smooth rigid surfaces made of wood, steel, glass, and concrete. This often results in a lack of sound absorption. Such restaurants are notorious for high sound noise levels during service that most owners actually desire for representing vibrant eating environments, although...... surveys report that noise complaints are on par with poor service. This study investigated the relation between objective acoustic parameters and subjective evaluation of acoustic comfort at five restaurants in terms of three parameters: noise annoyance, speech intelligibility, and privacy. At each...... location, customers filled out questionnaire surveys, acoustic parameters were measured, and recordings of restaurant acoustic scenes were obtained with a 64-channel spherical array. The acoustic scenes were reproduced in a virtual sound environment (VSE) with 64 loudspeakers placed in an anechoic room...

HACIA LAS COMUNIDADES VIRTUALES DE APRENDIZAJE, APRENDER PARA APROPIARSE DE LOS NUEVOS MEDIOS DIGITALES TOWARDS VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMUNITY, LEARNING TO APPROPIATE THE NEW DIGITAL MEDIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio Jerónimo Montes

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Se presentan los resultados de un análisis de los procesos de formación, considerando las posibilidades de los entornos virtuales para facilitar u obstaculizar la colaboración en Red, y por ende la construcción de comunidades de práctica, con la finalidad de avanzar hacia la construcción de comunidades de aprendizaje, basadas en la colaboración a distancia haciendo uso de un entorno de teleformación. lo anterior para de evaluar de que forma esos sistemas de gestión de los aprendizajes en Red (LMS incorporan elementos de diseño virtual para la metodología que se desea incorporar en los procesos de evaluación cualitativa y cuantitativa, específicamente los espacios virtuales para el trabajo colaborativo y las herramientas de comunicación como son los foros virtuales.The results of an analysis of the processes of formation in the educative modality through Internet a distance, considering the possibilities of the virtual environment to facilitate or to prevent the collaboration in network, and therefore the construction of practice communities; the previous thing with the intention to evaluate of that forms those systems of management of the learning in Net (LMS incorporates elements of virtual design for the methodology that is desired to incorporate in the processes of qualitative and quantitative evaluation, specifically the virtual spaces for the collaborative work and the tools of communication as they are the virtual forums.

Satisfaction with virtual communities in B2B financial services: social dynamics, content and technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chompis, E.; Bons, R.W.H.; van den Hooff, B.J.; Feldberg, J.F.M.; Horn, H.

2014-01-01

This study explores satisfaction with Virtual Communities in a Financial Services setting. Based on Expectancy Value Theory and the concept of Experiential Value we hypothesize that three sources of value drive user satisfaction in a B2B-VC: social ties, content and technology. We propose a

Professional Learning in Unlikely Spaces: Social Media and Virtual Communities as Professional Development

OpenAIRE

Kathleen P. King

2011-01-01

In this case study, results demonstrate that an individual’s use of social media as professional learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks, social relationships and learning beyond the scope of the individual’s usual experience. Case study method reveals strategies, extent, and impact of learning providing insight into this phe...

The Computer Clubhouse Village: A virtual meeting place for an emerging community of learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Diaz

2004-04-01

Full Text Available The Computer Clubhouse Network is an international affiliation of organizations that all have a common purpose: providing opportunities for youth from underserved communities to explore their own ideas and become more capable, creative and confident learners through the use of state-of-the-art technology. Clubhouse community members actively engage in learning-bydesigning in an environment created to promote informal coalescing of groups around common interests. Having grown, with the support of Intel corporation, from a few to close to a hundred Clubhouses, spontaneously formed design teams no longer need to share the same physical space. The Computer Clubhouse Village provides a virtual extension of the Clubhouse and takes to a new level the emerging community of learners. Becoming a virtual community with members from around the world brings new opportunities, as well as new challenges. As of 2004, there are Clubhouses in 20 different countries where more than a dozen languages are spoken. Even though the Network language is English, the Village strives to be a multilingual community where members are welcome to participate in a language they feel comfortable using. As we move to a third phase of development of the intranet, we will facilitate this interchange by providing an interface in languages other than English, whenever it is permitted. Translation is not only time consuming but also complex, considering regional variations in popular languages like Chinese and Spanish, and the lack of terminology in other languages for new technology and ideas. Bilingual members have become crucial to enable communication among those who speak only one language as they spontaneously translate for others, but there is a need for a concerted effort with professional translators as we move forward. Adapting to the local culture and needs while preserving the Clubhouse guiding principles, is both a challenge and an opportunity. The Clubhouse learning

Knowledge Contribution in Virtual Communities: Accounting for Multiple Dimensions of Social Presence through Social Identity

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Kathy Ning; Yu, Angela Yan; Khalifa, Mohamed

2010-01-01

Integrating social presence theory and social identity theory, this study brings system design and social influence aspects together to explain their joint effects on knowledge contribution in virtual communities (VCs). Different from most prior information systems (IS) research that adopts a uni-dimensional approach and restricts social presence…

CASES ON COLLABORATION IN VIRTUAL LEARNIONG ENVIRONMENTS: Processes and Interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reviewed by Yasin OZARSLAN

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Collaboration in Virtual Learning Environment brings meaningful learning interactions between learners in virtual environments. This book collects case studies of collaborative virtual learning environments focusing on the nature of human interactions in virtual spaces and defining the types and qualities of learning processes in these spaces from the perspectives of learners, teachers, designers, and professional and academic developers in various disciplines, learning communities and universities from around the world. This book addresses the research cases on experiences, implementations, and applications of virtual learning environments.The book's broader audience is anyone who is interested in areas such as collaborative virtual learning environments, interactive technologies and virtual communities, social interaction and social competence, distance education and collaborative learning. The book is edited by Donna Russell who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and co-owner of Arete‘ Consulting, LLC. It is consisted of 358 pages covering 19 articles and provides information about context for characteristics and implications of the varied virtual learning environments. Topics covered in this book are argumentative interactions and learning, collaborative learning and work in digital libraries, collaborative virtual learning environments , digital communities to enhance retention, distance education ,interactive technologies and virtual communities, massively multi-user virtual environments, online graduate community, online training programs, social interaction and social competence and virtual story-worlds.

Virtual school teacher's science efficacy beliefs: The effects of community of practice on science-teaching efficacy beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Uzoff, Phuong Pham

The purpose of this study was to examine how much K-12 science teachers working in a virtual school experience a community of practice and how that experience affects personal science-teaching efficacy and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The study was rooted in theoretical frameworks from Lave and Wenger's (1991) community of practice and Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy beliefs. The researcher used three surveys to examine schoolteachers' experiences of a community of practice and science-teaching efficacy beliefs. The instrument combined Mangieri's (2008) virtual teacher demographic survey, Riggs and Enochs (1990) Science-teaching efficacy Beliefs Instrument-A (STEBI-A), and Cadiz, Sawyer, and Griffith's (2009) Experienced Community of Practice (eCoP) instrument. The results showed a significant linear statistical relationship between the science teachers' experiences of community of practice and personal science-teaching efficacy. In addition, the study found that there was also a significant linear statistical relationship between teachers' community of practice experiences and science-teaching outcome expectancy. The results from this study were in line with numerous studies that have found teachers who are involved in a community of practice report higher science-teaching efficacy beliefs (Akerson, Cullen, & Hanson, 2009; Fazio, 2009; Lakshmanan, Heath, Perlmutter, & Elder, 2011; Liu, Lee, & Lin, 2010; Sinclair, Naizer, & Ledbetter, 2010). The researcher concluded that school leaders, policymakers, and researchers should increase professional learning opportunities that are grounded in social constructivist theoretical frameworks in order to increase teachers' science efficacy.

A Virtual Community of Practice Proposal for Business Intelligence Researchers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana TÂRNĂVEANU

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In an economical post-crisis context, the general tendency is to migrate to stronger alliances that offer support. One solution is a virtual community of practice (VCoPs that offers an im-portant knowledge management tool, as it is based on common goals and shared interests on a large period of time, it is capable to develop the social capital, create new knowledge, exploit the existing tacit knowledge, stimulate innovation and disseminate the results. An organization can remain an important competitor in a changing market only optimizing performance, constantly taking advantage of the raisin opportunities, risking and being flexible at new multiple demands.

How NASA is building and sustaining a community of scientist-communicators through virtual technology, graphic facilitation and other community-building tools

Science.gov (United States)

DeWitt, S.; Bovaird, E.; Stewart, N.; Reaves, J.; Tenenbaum, L. F.; Betz, L.; Kuchner, M. J.; Dodson, K. E.; Miller, A.

2013-12-01

In 2013 NASA launched its first agency-wide effort to cultivate and support scientist-communicators. The multiple motivations behind this effort are complex and overlapping, and include a desire to connect the agency's workforce to its mission and to each other in the post-Space Shuttle era; a shift in how the agency and the world communicates about science; the current public perception of science and of NASA, and a desire to share the stories of the real people behind the agency's technical work. Leaders in the NASA science, communications and public outreach communities partnered with the agency's training and leadership development organization to: identify and fully characterize the need for training and development in science communication, experiment with various learning models, and invite early-adopter scientists to evaluate these models for future agency investment. Using virtual collaboration technology, graphic facilitation, and leadership development methods, we set out to create an environment where scientist-communicators can emerge and excel. First, we asked scientists from across the agency to identify their motivations, opportunities, barriers and areas of interest in science communication. Scientists identified a need to go beyond traditional media training, a need for continuous practice and peer feedback, and a need for agency incentives and sustained support for this kind of work. This community-driven approach also uncovered a serious need for communication support in the wake of diminishing resources for travel and conference attendance. As a first step, we offered a series of virtual learning events - highly collaborative working sessions for scientists to practice their communication technique, develop and apply new skills to real-world situations, and gain valuable feedback from external subject matter experts and fellow scientists from across the agency in a supportive environment. Scientists from ten NASA centers and a broad range of

Inscription and interpretation of text: a cultural hermeneutic examination of virtual community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gary Burnett

2003-01-01

Full Text Available People engaging in electronic exchanges can create communities--places with socially constituted norms, values, and expectations. We adopt an anthropological perspective, yoked with a methodology based in hermeneutics, to illustrate how language use both reflects and influences culture in a virtual community. Our study analyses contributions to a Usenet newsgroup. Four elements of our conceptual model--coherence, reference, invention, and intention--provide mechanisms to examine a community's texts as it engages in social interaction and knowledge creation. While information exchange and socializing are intertwined, our model allows a robust understanding of the relationship between the two. Texts are not merely vehicles for communication but serve multiple purposes simultaneously. While they transfer information, texts also provide information within a social context, and create an expanding archive of socially-contextualized information well beyond the capabilities of any individual participant. This allows groups to negotiate reputations, socialize, and define the limits of their knowledge.

Virtual currencies- Real opportunities?

OpenAIRE

Selldahl, Sara

2013-01-01

The European Central Bank defines virtual currencies as ”unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.” (European Central Bank, 2012, p. 5) The interest in virtual currencies has increased immensely over the last few years as they become increasingly prevalent in our society across many different industries. Up until now, the field of virtual currencies has been mainly uncharted ...

A Social Network Analysis of Teaching and Research Collaboration in a Teachers' Virtual Learning Community

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Xiaofan; Hu, Xiaoyong; Hu, Qintai; Liu, Zhichun

2016-01-01

Analysing the structure of a social network can help us understand the key factors influencing interaction and collaboration in a virtual learning community (VLC). Here, we describe the mechanisms used in social network analysis (SNA) to analyse the social network structure of a VLC for teachers and discuss the relationship between face-to-face…

"United We Stand": Framing Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in a Virtual Symbolic Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Lian, Olaug S; Nettleton, Sarah

2015-10-01

In this article, we report on a study that seeks to explore how the contested chronic condition myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), one of the current medical diagnoses for medically unexplained long-term exhaustion, is negotiated within the context of Norwegian internet sites. From an analysis of discussions on 14 internet forums sustained by and for people living with ME, we seek to understand how their online activity sustains a virtual symbolic community (VSC). After exploring the content on these sites, we identified four discursive domains, or fields of conversation, that are demarcated by a discursive frame, or norms, values, and goals that define and reinforce the boundaries of the community. Interpreting discursive domains and their discursive frame provides insight not only to the culture of the ME VSC but also to its role in an international social health movement, including its potential for becoming politically influential. © The Author(s) 2014.

Ethnography in a Virtual World

Science.gov (United States)

Shumar, Wesley; Madison, Nora

2013-01-01

This article situates the discussion of virtual ethnography within the larger political/economic changes of twenty-first century consumer capitalism and suggests that increasingly our entire social world is a virtual world and that there were very particular utopian and dystopian framings of virtual community growing out of that history. The…

Heart Failure Virtual Consultation: bridging the gap of heart failure care in the community - A mixed-methods evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, Joseph; James, Stephanie; Keane, Ciara; Fitzgerald, Annie; Travers, Bronagh; Quigley, Etain; Hecht, Christina; Zhou, Shuaiwei; Watson, Chris; Ledwidge, Mark; McDonald, Kenneth

2017-08-01

We undertook a mixed-methods evaluation of a Web-based conferencing service (virtual consult) between general practitioners (GPs) and cardiologists in managing patients with heart failure in the community to determine its effect on use of specialist heart failure services and acceptability to GPs. All cases from June 2015 to October 2016 were recorded using a standardized recording template, which recorded patient demographics, medical history, medications, and outcome of the virtual consult for each case. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviewing of 17 participating GPs were also undertaken. During this time, 142 cases were discussed-68 relating to a new diagnosis of heart failure, 53 relating to emerging deterioration in a known heart failure patient, and 21 relating to therapeutic issues. Only 17% required review in outpatient department following the virtual consultation. GPs reported increased confidence in heart failure management, a broadening of their knowledge base, and a perception of overall better patient outcomes. These data from an initial experience with Heart Failure Virtual Consultation present a very positive impact of this strategy on the provision of heart failure care in the community and acceptability to users. Further research on the implementation and expansion of this strategy is warranted. © 2017 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

Indicativos e características da aprendizagem em uma comunidade virtual de enfermagem Indicativos y características del aprendizaje en una comunidad virtual de enfermería Evidences and characteristics of the learning in a nursing virtual community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viviane Modesto Ferraz

2010-09-01

y aprender a colaborar entre sí. Este contacto con la diversidad de pensamiento favorecido por el mundo digital puede ser una nueva área de construcción y circulación del conocimiento.The study deals with learning in nursing in a virtual environment of the Internet. PURPOSE: to verify elements of learning into content of text messages, and characterize these elements recorded in e-mail. METHODOLOGY: methodological procedure was the "cross-sectional survey", with a quantitative approach. The material of the study were all valid messages posted in the first phase of the community, 864 e-mails. The study setting was a virtual community of nursing. The analysis was made by an inspectional reading and then was found a set of empirical categories that had been indicative the learning in the community. RESULTS: it was observed that the members of the community learn primarily by questioning and requesting aid. CONCLUSION: It is possible through virtual environments to gain knowledge for life and learning to collaborate with each other. This contact with the diversity of thought favored by the digital world can be a new area of construction and circulation of knowledge.

Design of governance in virtual communities: definition, mechanisms, and variation patterns

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li-Ying, Jason; Salomo, Søren

2013-01-01

A fast-growing stream of literature has shown tremendous interests in the ‘wisdom of crowds’, embedded in various forms of Virtual Communities (VCs). However, it difficult to design an appropriate governance structure for VCs because: (1) it is not clear what governance exactly is in VCs; (2) our...... to underpin the theoretical and practical implications of our research endeavour....... knowledge on how key governance mechanisms differ among various types of VCs is limited to date; (3) the variation patterns of governance mechanisms are far from fully explored to guide the design of governance in VCs. Therefore, this paper seeks to propose a working definition for governance in VCs...

Virtual currencies : Real opportunities?

OpenAIRE

Selldahl, Sara

2013-01-01

AbstractThe European Central Bank defines virtual currencies as ”unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usuallycontrolled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.”(European Central Bank, 2012, p. 5) The interest in virtual currencies has increased immensely over the last fewyears as they become increasingly prevalent in our society across many different industries. Up until now, the field ofvirtual currencies has been mainly uncharte...

How Virtual Community Participation Influences Consumer Loyalty Intentions in Online Shopping Contexts: An Investigation of Mediating Factors

Science.gov (United States)

Pai, Pei-Yu; Tsai, Hsien-Tung

2011-01-01

Extant studies generally recognise that virtual community building is an effective marketing programme for forging deep and enduring affective bonds with consumers. This study extends previous research by proposing and testing a model that investigates key mediating processes (via trust, satisfaction and identification) that underlie the…

Peningkatan Eksistensi Blogger Melalui Komunitas Virtual

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Drina Intyaswati

2017-07-01

Full Text Available As a writer (blogger would be exist with as a member of a virtual community, because it will add who can access his writings. The purpose of this paper is, to know the role of virtual community in the existence of bloggers and how it can improve the productivity of writings. This study used emak2blogger.com website as study material. The method used is descriptive qualitative with interview informans to describe the virtual community Kumpulan Emak Blogger (KEB and also content analysis. The results showed that there is better existence as a blogger for KEB members, since the blogger has a place that is able to express their creativity. By joining the KEB knowledge and ability of writing in a blog be increased, and also the increased blog traffic. Group communication contained in community KEB, in addition, interpersonal communication was used by members of KEB to communicate intensively.

Virtual Community, social network and media environment of Canary Isands regional digital newspapers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr. Francisco Manuel Mateos Rodríguez

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The impact of the new communication and information technologies has favoured the creation of multiple local newspaper websites in the Canary Islands, thus making the regional press emerge as an alternative on the rise. This tendency affects significantly both traditional and new editions of the different regional and local newspapers from the Canaries and motivates a different distribution, positioning and development within the local media environment in which these media share a novel dimension of communication with a specific virtual community and social network within the World Wide Web.

: Virtual Tours in School Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nuno Ribeiro,

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article is based on the importance of using virtual tours in schools as a means to disseminate local cultural heritage, school projects and teaching resources. We want to use virtual tours, involving the school community in its use, through the production of relevant multimedia content as a way to understand and analyze the potential of multimedia resources in schools. With the evolution of new technologies, including the internet, it is up to the schools, as sources of knowledge transmission, to resort to new technologies as a way to encourage students to learn, to promote local heritage and to disclose the work of the school community, using virtual tours in school context as a powerful interdisciplinary technical and educational resource.

Elluminate Article: Affect as a Presence in the Community of Inquiry Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martha Cleveland-Innes

2005-07-01

Full Text Available The publisher of IRRODL, The Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER, is pleased to link here to a series of eight online seminars that took place over Spring 2005, using Elluminate live e-learning and collaborative solutions. These interactive CIDER Sessions disseminate research emanating from Canada's vibrant DE research community, and we feel these archived recordings are highly relevant to many in the international distance education research community. To access these sessions, you must first download FREE software. Visit http://www.elluminate.com/support/ to download this software.

The Rise of Computing Research in East Africa: The Relationship between Funding, Capacity and Research Community in a Nascent Field

Science.gov (United States)

Harsh, Matthew; Bal, Ravtosh; Wetmore, Jameson; Zachary, G. Pascal; Holden, Kerry

2018-01-01

The emergence of vibrant research communities of computer scientists in Kenya and Uganda has occurred in the context of neoliberal privatization, commercialization, and transnational capital flows from donors and corporations. We explore how this funding environment configures research culture and research practices, which are conceptualized as…

Virtual communities, research groups and projects on IMS Learning Design. State of the art, key factors and forthcoming challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burgos, Daniel; Koper, Rob

2005-01-01

Burgos, D., Koper, R. (2005) Virtual communities, research groups and projects on IMS Learning Design. State of the art, key factors and forthcoming challenges. In E-Journal of Educational Research, Assessment and Evaluation, vol. 11, issue 2 [www.uv.es/RELIEVE]. Available at

Virtual communities in a secondary school – Discovering the internal grammar of video games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Méndez

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to show how the creation of an innovative scenario, introducing video games and online communities as educational resources in the classroom, facilitates the development of new literacies in the context of participatory culture. The experience described was carried out during the 2010-2011 academic year in a secondary school located in Madrid. The workshop was organized using a social simulation video game, The Sims 3, and the online community Play and Learn, created specifically for this project. From an ethnographic perspective, the article focuses mainly on analyzing what happened outside the game sessions, when the students became involved in the online community after interacting with the game in the classroom. The fact that they participated in a virtual conversational space (through a forum serves to support the game and encourage reflection from all participants. The results show that social relationships were developed within the online community, where individual contributions proved especially important for group discussion. Participation made it possible for students to become aware of the speech and rules of the game and to improve the acquisition process of new literacies.

VECTR: Virtual Environment Computational Training Resource

Science.gov (United States)

Little, William L.

2018-01-01

The Westridge Middle School Curriculum and Community Night is an annual event designed to introduce students and parents to potential employers in the Central Florida area. NASA participated in the event in 2017, and has been asked to come back for the 2018 event on January 25. We will be demonstrating our Microsoft Hololens Virtual Rovers project, and the Virtual Environment Computational Training Resource (VECTR) virtual reality tool.

Functional results of Vibrant Soundbridge middle ear implants in conductive and mixed hearing losses.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardeschi, Daniele; Hoffman, Caroline; Benchaa, Tarek; Labassi, Samia; Beliaeff, Michel; Sterkers, Olivier; Grayeli, Alexis Bozorg

2011-01-01

Our purpose was to evaluate the results of Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) in conductive or mixed hearing loss. Twenty-five adult patients (29 ears) with a mixed or conductive hearing loss and various etiologies were included in this retrospective study. The preoperative ipsilateral pure tone average was 71 ± 3.0 dB, and the average bone conduction threshold was 42 ± 2.8 dB (n = 29). The transducer was placed on the long apophysis of the incus (n = 16), in the round window (n = 10) or on the stapes (n = 3). No complications were noted. The bone conduction threshold remained unchanged. VSB was activated in all cases. The postoperative pure tone average without VSB was 63 ± 3.9 dB (n = 24) and with VSB in free-field condition 24 ± 2.1 dB (n = 22). VSB is safe and efficacious for auditory rehabilitation in conductive and mixed hearing losses. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Sociomaterial Practices: Challenges in Developing a Virtual Business Community Platform in Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norberto Hoppen

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Virtual business communities (VBC are virtual networks of people who share common interests and comprise online software platforms that enables the fast exchange of information, collaboration and business interactions. From 2011 to 2015, we developed a design science research to create a VBC platform for an agricultural cluster of flower growers in the South of Brazil. The goal of this platform was to help to structure and strengthen this cluster by bringing together buyers and sellers while fostering cooperation to boost cluster competitiveness and economic development in the region. However, a number of challenges surfaced during the process, which led to a failure in the VBC platform’s diffusion. We adopted a sociomaterial perspective based on the mangle of practice concept (Pickering, 1993 to investigate this failure, by analyzing the key challenges involved in developing a VBC platform in an agricultural context. As its main result, this paper reveals the mangling process during the design and application of the VBC platform and details the different instances of tuning between the participants and the technology. We observed resistance and factors that weakened cooperation and resulted in a lack of governance rules, which are key to the success of a VBC platform.

Evolving Capabilities for Virtual Globes

Science.gov (United States)

Glennon, A.

2006-12-01

Though thin-client spatial visualization software like Google Earth and NASA World Wind enjoy widespread popularity, a common criticism is their general lack of analytical functionality. This concern, however, is rapidly being addressed; standard and advanced geographic information system (GIS) capabilities are being developed for virtual globes--though not centralized into a single implementation or software package. The innovation is mostly originating from the user community. Three such capabilities relevant to the earth science, education, and emergency management communities are modeling dynamic spatial phenomena, real-time data collection and visualization, and multi-input collaborative databases. Modeling dynamic spatial phenomena has been facilitated through joining virtual globe geometry definitions--like KML--to relational databases. Real-time data collection uses short scripts to transform user-contributed data into a format usable by virtual globe software. Similarly, collaborative data collection for virtual globes has become possible by dynamically referencing online, multi-person spreadsheets. Examples of these functions include mapping flows within a karst watershed, real-time disaster assessment and visualization, and a collaborative geyser eruption spatial decision support system. Virtual globe applications will continue to evolve further analytical capabilities, more temporal data handling, and from nano to intergalactic scales. This progression opens education and research avenues in all scientific disciplines.

Effects of community-based virtual reality treadmill training on balance ability in patients with chronic stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Nara; Park, YuHyung; Lee, Byoung-Hee

2015-03-01

[Purpose] We aimed to examine the effectiveness of a community-based virtual reality treadmill training (CVRTT) program on static balance abilities in patients with stroke. [Subjects and Methods] Patients (n = 20) who suffered a stroke at least 6 months prior to the study were recruited. All subjects underwent conventional physical therapy for 60 min/day, 5 days/week, for 4 weeks. Additionally, the CVRTT group underwent community-based virtual reality scene exposure combined with treadmill training for 30 min/day, 3 days/week, for 4 weeks, whereas the control group underwent conventional physical therapy, including muscle strengthening, balance training, and indoor and outdoor gait training, for 30 min/day, 3 days/week, for 4 weeks. Outcome measurements included the anteroposterior, mediolateral, and total postural sway path lengths and speed, which were recorded using the Balancia Software on a Wii Fit(™) balance board. [Results] The postural sway speed and anteroposterior and total postural sway path lengths were significantly decreased in the CVRTT group. Overall, the CVRTT group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group. [Conclusions] The present study results can be used to support the use of CVRTT for effectively improving balance in stroke patients. Moreover, we determined that a CVRTT program for stroke patients is both feasible and suitable.

Virtual Reality Training With Three-Dimensional Video Games Improves Postural Balance and Lower Extremity Strength in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yongwoo; Choi, Wonjae; Lee, Kyeongjin; Song, Changho; Lee, Seungwon

2017-10-01

Avatar-based three-dimensional technology is a new approach to improve physical function in older adults. The aim of this study was to use three-dimensional video gaming technology in virtual reality training to improve postural balance and lower extremity strength in a population of community-dwelling older adults. The experimental group participated in the virtual reality training program for 60 min, twice a week, for 6 weeks. Both experimental and control groups were given three times for falls prevention education at the first, third, and fifth weeks. The experimental group showed significant improvements not only in static and dynamic postural balance but also lower extremity strength (p < .05). Furthermore, the experimental group was improved to overall parameters compared with the control group (p < .05). Therefore, three-dimensional video gaming technology might be beneficial for improving postural balance and lower extremity strength in community-dwelling older adults.

Collaboration: the Key to Establishing Community Networks in Regional Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wal Taylor

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Despite the promise of community involvement, cohesion and empowerment offered by local community networks (CN using Internet Technologies, few communities in regional Australia have been able to demonstrate sustainable and vibrant CN which demonstrate increased social, cultural or self-reliance capital. The Faculty of Informatics and Communication at Central Queensland University (CQU and a local council have established a formal alliance to establish the COIN (Community Informatics projects to research issues around this topic. This paper presents the initial findings from this work and draws conclusions for possible comparison with other international experience. The research focuses attention on community understanding and cohesion, local government priorities in a community with relatively low diffusion of the Internet and the competing demands in a regional university between traditional service provision in an increasingly competitive market and the needs of establishing outreach research for altruistic, industry establishment and commercial rationale.

A Case Study of Using Online Communities and Virtual Environment in Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) as a Learning and Teaching Tool for Second Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Kongmee, Isara; Strachan, Rebecca; Pickard, Alison; Montgomery, Catherine

2012-01-01

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) create large virtual communities. Online gaming shows potential not just for entertaining, but also in education. This research investigates the use of commercial MMORPGs to support second language teaching. MMORPGs offer virtual safe spaces in which students can communicate by using their…

The Interplay of Virtual Communities: A Multiple Case Study of E-Retailers in Yahoo E-Auctions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Zhi-Xian Zhao

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This study investigated how businesses operate e-shops in a transaction-oriented virtual community. This research employed a multiple case study approach by observing three cases of e-retailers, as being new e-commerce initiates, operating their businesses on the Yahoo! e-auction website. The results showed that e-shops displaying amusing stories can attract site visitors and “spick and span” e-shop design format can be helpful for converting visitors into buyers.

A Vision for ARES in the Twenty-First Century: The Virtual Community of Real Estate Thought Leaders

OpenAIRE

Stephen E. Roulac

1996-01-01

In the twenty-first century the American Real Estate Society (ARES) is a virtual community of real estate thought leaders, electronically interconnected and linked through the International Real Estate Society to counterpart organizations on all major continents as well as numerous country-specific societies. ARES growth is attributable to its emphasis on rigorous applied microeconomic decisionmaking and an inclusive, open style. The initiatives of the Strategic Planning Task Force, whose rep...

Toward Virtual Campuses: Collaborative Virtual Labs & Personalized Learning Services in a Real-Life Context

OpenAIRE

Tsekeridou, Sofia; Tiropanis, Thanassis; Christou, Ioannis; Vakilzadeh, Haleh

2008-01-01

Virtual campuses are gradually becoming a reality with the advances in e-learning and Web technologies, distributed systems and broadband communication, as well as the emerging needs of remote Universities for collaboration on offering common programs. The advances in grid-based distributed infrastructures have further significantly contributed to this fact providing optimized and real-time system performance and support for virtual communities even under synchronous distributed multi-user us...

Developing a Virtual Book - Material for Virtual Learning Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Karin Larsen

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This article describes the process of, and considerations taken when Virtual Learning Materials were developed for an international study in Comparative Social Work arranged by the VIRCLASS project. The steps taken and the elements included in the Virtual Book – A Guide to Social Work in Europe are presented in details to inform others who are planning to make virtual learning materials. Students from 11 countries in Europe participated, and their reception of this material and learning outcomes from using it are analysed and presented. Furthermore; the article discuss how the learning material contributes to students’ learning, how a common understanding of practice enhances knowledge-building and in what way audio-visual learning material can contribute to good learning in e-learning courses. The results are discussed in relation to theories about composite texts and community of inquiry, and outlines some challenges for e-teachers’ competences.

The ethnography of virtual reality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gavrilović Ljiljana 1

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses possible application of ethnographic research in the realm of virtual reality, especially in the relationship between cultures in virtual communities. This represents an entirely new area of ethnographic research and therefore many adjustments in the research design are needed for example, a development of a specific method of data gathering and tools for their verification. A virtual, cyber space is a version of social space more or less synchronous with it, but without the, "real", that is, physical presence of the people who create it. This virtual reality, defined and bounded by virtual space, is in fact real - and though we are not able to observe real, physical parameters of its existence, we can perceive its consequences. In sum, an innovative ethnographic research method is fully applicable for exploring the realm of virtual reality; in order to do so we need to expand, in addition to the new research design and methods, the field of science itself.

SPASE and the Heliophysics Virtual Observatories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J R Thieman

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE project has developed an information model for interoperable access and retrieval of data within the Heliophysics (also known as space and solar physics science community. The diversity of science data archives within this community has led to the establishment of many virtual observatories to coordinate the data pathways within Heliophysics subdisciplines, such as magnetospheres, waves, radiation belts, etc. The SPASE information model provides a semantic layer and common language for data descriptions so that searches might be made across the whole of the heliophysics data environment, especially through the virtual observatories.

Growing a professional network to over 3000 members in less than 4 years: evaluation of InspireNet, British Columbia's virtual nursing health services research network.

Science.gov (United States)

Frisch, Noreen; Atherton, Pat; Borycki, Elizabeth; Mickelson, Grace; Cordeiro, Jennifer; Novak Lauscher, Helen; Black, Agnes

2014-02-21

conduct their work virtually using the InspireNet platform; 10 topic-based Action Teams meet to address issues of mutual concern. Nursing and other health professionals, even those who rated themselves as computer literate, required significant mentoring and support in their efforts to adopt their practice to a virtual environment. There was a steep learning curve for professionals to learn to work in a virtual environment and to benefit from the available technologies. Virtual professional networks can be positioned to make a significant contribution to ongoing professional practice and to creating environments supportive of information sharing, mentoring, and learning across geographical boundaries. Nonetheless, creation of a Web 2.0 and social media platform is not sufficient, in and of itself, to attract or sustain a vibrant community of professionals interested in improving their practice. Essential support includes instruction in the use of Web-based activities and time management, a biweekly e-Newsletter, regular communication from leaders, and an annual face-to-face conference.

Evaluating a virtual learning environment in the context of its community of practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel Ellaway

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The evaluation of virtual learning environments (VLEs and similar applications has, to date, largely consisted of checklists of system features, phenomenological studies or measures of specific forms of educational efficacy. Although these approaches offer some value, they are unable to capture the complex and holistic nature of a group of individuals using a common system to support the wide range of activities that make up a course or programme of study over time. This paper employs Wenger's theories of ‘communities of practice' to provide a formal structure for looking at how a VLE supports a pre-existing course community. Wenger proposes a Learning Architecture Framework for a learning community of practice, which the authors have taken to provide an evaluation framework. This approach is complementary to both the holistic and complex natures of course environments, in that particular VLE affordances are less important than the activities of the course community in respect of the system. Thus, the VLE's efficacy in its context of use is the prime area of investigation rather than a reductionist analysis of its tools and components. An example of this approach in use is presented, evaluating the VLE that supports the undergraduate medical course at the University of Edinburgh. The paper provides a theoretical grounding, derives an evaluation instrument, analyses the efficacy and validity of the instrument in practice and draws conclusions as to how and where it may best be used.

Crossing Borders Virtual and Real: A Transnational Internet-Based Community of Spaghetti Western Fans Finally Meet Each Other Face to Face on the Wild Plains of Almeria, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Broughton, Lee

2011-01-01

Since the rise of the Internet, the act of border crossing has become a pursuit that must necessarily be conceptualized in both real and virtual terms. By using theories connected to virtual communities, new technologies, fan cultures and tourism, this paper seeks to show that the culturally productive activities of a transnational virtual…

Tool or Toy? Virtual Globes in Landscape Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen R. J. Sheppard

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Virtual globes, i.e., geobrowsers that integrate multi-scale and temporal data from various sources and are based on a globe metaphor, have developed into serious tools that practitioners and various stakeholders in landscape and community planning have started using. Although these tools originate from Geographic Information Systems (GIS, they have become a different, potentially interactive and public tool set, with their own specific limitations and new opportunities. Expectations regarding their utility as planning and community engagement tools are high, but are tempered by both technical limitations and ethical issues [1,2]. Two grassroots campaigns and a collaborative visioning process, the Kimberley Climate Adaptation Project case study (British Columbia, illustrate and broaden our understanding of the potential benefits and limitations associated with the use of virtual globes in participatory planning initiatives. Based on observations, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with stakeholders and community members using an interactive 3D model of regional climate change vulnerabilities, potential impacts, and possible adaptation and mitigation scenarios in Kimberley, the benefits and limitations of virtual globes as a tool for participatory landscape planning are discussed. The findings suggest that virtual globes can facilitate access to geospatial information, raise awareness, and provide a more representative virtual landscape than static visualizations. However, landscape is not equally representative at all scales, and not all types of users seem to benefit equally from the tool. The risks of misinterpretation can be managed by integrating the application and interpretation of virtual globes into face-to-face planning processes.

Factors influencing presence in virtual worlds.

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Meyrick C M

2012-01-01

Virtual worlds are showing potential as an effective platform for a variety of activities, including learning. The concept of presence (the sensation of "being there" in a mediated environment) has received substantial attention from the virtual reality community, and the effectiveness of virtual worlds has often been linked to the feelings of presence reported by their users. The present study examined the effects of attitude and perceived ease of use on sense of presence in Second Life, which is one of the most known and used virtual worlds. Based on data from a survey of 206 nursing students, hypotheses are empirically tested. Findings suggest that users' attitude toward using Second Life and their perceived ease of use of it have a positive effect on their sense of presence in the virtual environment. This study advances our understanding of factors influencing presence in virtual worlds.

Photo-Realistic Image Synthesis and Virtual Cinematography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Livatino, Salvatore

2005-01-01

Realistic Virtual View Synthesis is a new field of research that has received increasing attention in recent years. It is strictly related to the grown popularity of virtual reality and the spread of its applications, among which virtual photography and cinematography. The use of computer generated...... characters, "virtual actors", in the motion picture production increases every day. While the most known computer graphics techniques have largely been adopted successfully in nowadays fictions, it still remains very challenging to implement virtual actors which would resemble, visually, human beings....... Interestingly, film directors have been looking at the recent progress achieved by the research community in the field of realistic visualization of virtual views, and they have successfully implemented state of the art research approaches in their productions. An innovative concept is then gaining consensus...

A Case Study Examining How Students Make Meaning out of Using Facebook as a Virtual Learning Community at a Midwestern University

Science.gov (United States)

Hilscher, Jerome

2013-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how peer mentors make meaning out of using Facebook as a virtual learning community. With the prevalence of Facebook usage by college students, and the introduction of Facebook into academic settings by educators, program facilitators, administrators, and recruiters, researchers have begun…

Using virtual worlds as collaborative environments for innovation and design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ehsani, Ehsan; Chase, Scott Curland

2009-01-01

In this paper we discuss observations and lessons learned in conducting architectural design projects in virtual worlds. By integrating a community of users in virtual worlds into a collaborative architectural design process, organisations can tap the community's creativity and intelligence throu....... Here we propose four modes of collaboration, based on the choices for degree of openness and governance structure, which are illustrated by four case studies....

EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY: AMONG THE REAL AND VIRTUAL CIVIC INITIATIVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasmina Arsenijević

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The new media enable numerous advantages in the strengthening of civic engagement, through removing barriers in space and time and through networking of individuals of the same social, civic or political interests at the global level. Different forms of civic engagement and civic responsibility in the virtual space are ever more present, and internet and mobile technology are its main instruments. Taking into account the findings of previous research in this area, in particular, the findings of a positive correlation between new media literacy and civic engagement in the United States and in Serbia, the objectives of this study were to investigate the differences in civic engagement in relation to media exposure and the differences in civic engagement in relation to digital participation of the Serbian academic and educational community. The survey was conducted in 2013. Questionnaire regarding the presence of respondents’ civic engagement has been taken from the author’s Literat earlier study (2011 and it consists of 5 close ended questions, whose reliability is satisfactory: α = 0.742. The research sample was consisted from the members of Serbian educational community, including those from high school students to university professors. The research results of differences in civic engagement in relation to media exposure showed that the research participants who spend more time reading the print media or using the Internet for the purposes of work or school are more socially engaged, while respondents who watch television program are not. Analysis of civic engagement in relation to digital participation showed that respondents who use online communities, forums and message boards (online activities that require discussion and active participation achieve higher scores on civic engagement, in contrast to respondents who spend more time on entertainment, commercial facilities, such as YouTube and video gaming. The results of this study are

World Wind: NASA's Virtual Globe

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, P.

2007-12-01

infrastructure. The open-source community plays a crucial role in advancing virtual globe technology. This world community identifies, tracks and resolves technical problems, suggests new features and source code modifications, and often provides high-resolution data sets and other types of user-generated content, all while extending the functionality of virtual globe technology. NASA World Wind is one example of open source virtual globe technology that provides the world with the ability to build any desired functionality and make any desired data accessible.

Vibrant Soundbridge and Bone Conduction Hearing Aid in Patients with Bilateral Malformation of External Ear

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mondelli, Maria Fernanda Capoani Garcia

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction Hearing loss is the most common clinical finding in patients with malformation of the external ear canal. Among the possibilities of treatment, there is the adaptation of hearing aids by bone conduction and the adaptation of implantable hearing aids. Objective To assess speech perception with the use of Vibrant Soundbridge (VBS - MED-EL, Innsbruck, Austria associated with additional amplification in patients with bilateral craniofacial malformation. Method We evaluated 11 patients with bilateral malformation over 12 years with mixed hearing loss or bilateral conductive. They were using the Softband (Oticon Medical, Sweden and bone conduction hearing aid in the ear opposite the one with the VSB. We performed the evaluation of speech perception using the Hearing in Noise Test. Results Participants were eight men and three women with a mean of 19.5 years. The signal / noise ratio presented significant results in patients fitted with VSB and bone conduction hearing aid. Conclusion The results of speech perception were significantly better with use of VBS combined with bone conduction hearing aids.

Sanal Marka Topluluklarında Topluluk Üyelerinin Marka ile Özdeşleşme Düzeylerinin Öncülleri ve Sonuçları: Yapısal Bir Model Önerisi(Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Identification in Virtual Brand Communities: A Structural Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keti VENTURA

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the firms’ usage of virtual brand communities are increasing in order to develop and strengthen customer-brand relationships. The present study aims to analyze the effects of social presence and social identity level gained by the members of virtual brand communities on brand identification, brand community commitment and brand-related behaviors. Accordingly, a survey methodology is embraced and a structural model is developed within Altay ‘’19on4 Licensed Products Stores’’ virtual brand community. This community is chosen since the members of this community are constantly in touch with each other, engaging jointly in group activities with shared values and ideals. The structural model reveal that social presence and social identity dimensions are not perceived at the same level and have different impacts on brand identification, brand community commitment and brand-related behaviors. It is emphasized that an improvement should be needed for that virtual brand community and its activities.

Introduction into the Virtual Olympic Games Framework for online communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoilescu, Dorian

2009-06-01

This paper presents the design of the Virtual Olympic Games Framework (VOGF), a computer application designated for athletics, health care, general well-being, nutrition and fitness, which offers multiple benefits for its participants. A special interest in starting the design of the framework was in exploring how people can connect and participate together using existing computer technologies (i.e. gaming consoles, exercise equipment with computer interfaces, devices of measuring health, speed, force and distance and Web 2.0 applications). A stationary bike set-up offering information to users about their individual health and athletic performances has been considered as a starting model. While this model is in the design stage, some preliminary findings are encouraging, suggesting the potential for various fields: sports, medicine, theories of learning, technologies and cybercultural studies. First, this framework would allow participants to perform a variety of sports and improve their health. Second, this would involve creating an online environment able to store health information and sport performances correlated with accessing multi-media data and research about performing sports. Third, participants could share experiences with other athletes, coaches and researchers. Fourth, this framework also provides support for the research community in their future investigations.

Heat transfer education : Keeping it relevant and vibrant.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khounsary, A. M.

1998-08-14

The motivation for a fresh look at heat transfer education, both in content and in methodology, is generated by a number of trends in engineering practice. These include the increasing demand for engineers with interdisciplinary skills, rapid integration of technology, emergence of computerized and interactive problem-solving tools, shortening time of concept-to-market, availability of new technologies, and an increasing number of new or redesigned products and processes in which heat transfer plays a part. Examination of heat transfer education in this context can be aided by considering the changes, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the student, educator, and researcher populations, employment opportunities, in the needs of corporations, government, industry, and universities, and in the relevant technical problems and issues of the day. Such an overview provides the necessary background for charting a response to the difficult question of how to maintain excellence and continuity in heat transfer education in the face of rapid, widespread, and complex changes. The present paper addresses how to make heat transfer education more relevant and stimulating. This paper represents a written summary of a 1996 panel discussion at the 1996 International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exhibition (IMECE) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in Atlanta, Georgia, on ''Heat Transfer Education: Keeping it Relevant and Vibrant,'' with significant expansion and amplification by the authors and the panelists in the 1997-98 period. The consensus of the participants is that the steps necessary to ensure the desired outcome in heat transfer education should include: (1) a better understanding of the interaction between the student, course content, and market needs; (2) an appreciation of the need in multidisciplinary industrial environments for engineers trained with a broad background: (3) a revision of the introductory heat

Virtual Collections: An Earth Science Data Curation Service

Science.gov (United States)

Bugbee, Kaylin; Ramachandran, Rahul; Maskey, Manil; Gatlin, Patrick

2016-01-01

The role of Earth science data centers has traditionally been to maintain central archives that serve openly available Earth observation data. However, in order to ensure data are as useful as possible to a diverse user community, Earth science data centers must move beyond simply serving as an archive to offering innovative data services to user communities. A virtual collection, the end product of a curation activity that searches, selects, and synthesizes diffuse data and information resources around a specific topic or event, is a data curation service that improves the discoverability, accessibility, and usability of Earth science data and also supports the needs of unanticipated users. Virtual collections minimize the amount of the time and effort needed to begin research by maximizing certainty of reward and by providing a trustworthy source of data for unanticipated users. This presentation will define a virtual collection in the context of an Earth science data center and will highlight a virtual collection case study created at the Global Hydrology Resource Center data center.

Virtual Collections: An Earth Science Data Curation Service

Science.gov (United States)

Bugbee, K.; Ramachandran, R.; Maskey, M.; Gatlin, P. N.

2016-12-01

The role of Earth science data centers has traditionally been to maintain central archives that serve openly available Earth observation data. However, in order to ensure data are as useful as possible to a diverse user community, Earth science data centers must move beyond simply serving as an archive to offering innovative data services to user communities. A virtual collection, the end product of a curation activity that searches, selects, and synthesizes diffuse data and information resources around a specific topic or event, is a data curation service that improves the discoverability, accessibility and usability of Earth science data and also supports the needs of unanticipated users. Virtual collections minimize the amount of time and effort needed to begin research by maximizing certainty of reward and by providing a trustworthy source of data for unanticipated users. This presentation will define a virtual collection in the context of an Earth science data center and will highlight a virtual collection case study created at the Global Hydrology Resource Center data center.

O lúdico na comunidade virtual de aprendizagem. Uma visão transdisciplinar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katya dos Santos Garabetti Souza

2008-01-01

Full Text Available How to integrate and create members of a virtual community of learning? This article presents a historical view of playful in education, bringing theoretical assumptions of Piaget, Vygotsky, Huizinga and Kishimoto, using case studies of a cultural virtual game between schools that begun in 2002. We conclude that in this activity, distance was an integrator element of virtual community of learning to promote creative and dynamic interaction of its members, offering cultural diversity as a possibility to practice transdisciplinary, to promote self-esteem of its participants, making them feel capable to perform complex or unknown tasks sharing common feelings of action inability. This activity showed ways of being, acting and growing of the communities, resulting in various ways to feel the life and give its members self-community opportunities.

The Virtual Solar Observatory and the Heliophysics Meta-Virtual Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Gurman, Joseph B.

2007-01-01

The Virtual Solar Observatory (VSO) is now able to search for solar data ranging from the radio to gamma rays, obtained from space and groundbased observatories, from 26 sources at 12 data providers, and from 1915 to the present. The solar physics community can use a Web interface or an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows integrating VSO searches into other software, including other Web services. Over the next few years, this integration will be especially obvious as the NASA Heliophysics division sponsors the development of a heliophysics-wide virtual observatory (VO), based on existing VO's in heliospheric, magnetospheric, and ionospheric physics as well as the VSO. We examine some of the challenges and potential of such a "meta-VO."

Building a Community Memory in Communities of Practice of E-Learning: A Knowledge Engineering Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Sarirete, Akila; Chikh, Azeddine; Noble, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define a community memory for a virtual communities of practice (CoP) based on organizational learning (OL) concept and ontologies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on applying the OL concept to virtual CoP and proposes a framework for building the CoP memory by identifying several layers of…

Sanal Marka Topluluklarında Topluluk Üyelerinin Marka ile Özdeşleşme Düzeylerinin Öncülleri ve Sonuçları: Yapısal Bir Model Önerisi(Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Identification in Virtual Brand Communities: A Structural Model)

OpenAIRE

Keti VENTURA

2012-01-01

Nowadays, the firms’ usage of virtual brand communities are increasing in order to develop and strengthen customer-brand relationships. The present study aims to analyze the effects of social presence and social identity level gained by the members of virtual brand communities on brand identification, brand community commitment and brand-related behaviors. Accordingly, a survey methodology is embraced and a structural model is developed within Altay ‘’19on4 Licensed Products Stores’’ virtual ...

Vibrant power, vibrant subjectivities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Kenneth Mølbjerg

2017-01-01

of power. Portuguese version Este artigo constrói um referencial para estudar o poder, na educação, por meio de histórias. Histórias são apresentadas como modos práticos nos quais subjetividades são produzidas dentro de um dispositivo, que é teorizado como o lugar onde o poder se torna concreto. Histórias...

Virtual reality and planetary exploration

Science.gov (United States)

McGreevy, Michael W.

Exploring planetary environments is central to NASA's missions and goals. A new computing technology called Virtual Reality has much to offer in support of planetary exploration. This technology augments and extends human presence within computer-generated and remote spatial environments. Historically, NASA has been a leader in many of the fundamental concepts and technologies that comprise Virtual Reality. Indeed, Ames Research Center has a central role in the development of this rapidly emerging approach to using computers. This ground breaking work has inspired researchers in academia, industry, and the military. Further, NASA's leadership in this technology has spun off new businesses, has caught the attention of the international business community, and has generated several years of positive international media coverage. In the future, Virtual Reality technology will enable greatly improved human-machine interactions for more productive planetary surface exploration. Perhaps more importantly, Virtual Reality technology will democratize the experience of planetary exploration and thereby broaden understanding of, and support for, this historic enterprise.

Virtual reality and planetary exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Mcgreevy, Michael W.

1992-01-01

Exploring planetary environments is central to NASA's missions and goals. A new computing technology called Virtual Reality has much to offer in support of planetary exploration. This technology augments and extends human presence within computer-generated and remote spatial environments. Historically, NASA has been a leader in many of the fundamental concepts and technologies that comprise Virtual Reality. Indeed, Ames Research Center has a central role in the development of this rapidly emerging approach to using computers. This ground breaking work has inspired researchers in academia, industry, and the military. Further, NASA's leadership in this technology has spun off new businesses, has caught the attention of the international business community, and has generated several years of positive international media coverage. In the future, Virtual Reality technology will enable greatly improved human-machine interactions for more productive planetary surface exploration. Perhaps more importantly, Virtual Reality technology will democratize the experience of planetary exploration and thereby broaden understanding of, and support for, this historic enterprise.

A manufactured past: virtual reality in archaeology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Glyn Goodrick

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Virtual reality and visualisation technologies developed over the past thirty years have been readily accessible to the archaeological community since the mid 1990s. Despite the high profile of virtual archaeology (Reilly 1991 both within the media and professional archaeology it has not been taken on board as a generally useful and standard technique by archaeologists. In this article we wish to discuss the technical and other issues which have resulted in a reluctance to adopt virtual archaeology and, more importantly, discuss ways forward that can enable us routinely to benefit from this technology in the diversity of archaeological practice.

A Logical Approach to Supporting Professional Learning Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ralph Seward

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Collaborative knowledge sharing requires that dialogues successfully cross organizational barriers and information silos. Successful communication in person or in a virtual community involves a willingness to share ideas and consider diverse viewpoints. This research examines a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM content management system called NASATalk, which offers public and private blog posts, file sharing, asynchronous discussion, and live chat services. The service is designed to provide a virtual environment where educators can share ideas, suggestions, successes, and innovations in STEM teaching and learning activities. This study features qualitative data from STEM education groups that helped extend the design of the NASATalk Web 2.0 collaborative tools and features. The analysis shows that the context, e-collaborative tools, integration strategies, and outcomes varied, but also contributed additional space, time, tools, integration strategies, and outcomes through the virtual collaborative learning environment. This study is designed to inform the STEM education community as well as those offering virtual community resources and tools of the added value of using virtual communities to help STEM educators work together in collaborative, virtual environments to discuss ways they can improve their instruction and student performance.

Virtual Prototyping at CERN

Science.gov (United States)

Gennaro, Silvano De

The VENUS (Virtual Environment Navigation in the Underground Sites) project is probably the largest Virtual Reality application to Engineering design in the world. VENUS is just over one year old and offers a fully immersive and stereoscopic "flythru" of the LHC pits for the proposed experiments, including the experimental area equipment and the surface models that are being prepared for a territorial impact study. VENUS' Virtual Prototypes are an ideal replacement for the wooden models traditionally build for the past CERN machines, as they are generated directly from the EUCLID CAD files, therefore they are totally reliable, they can be updated in a matter of minutes, and they allow designers to explore them from inside, in a one-to-one scale. Navigation can be performed on the computer screen, on a stereoscopic large projection screen, or in immersive conditions, with an helmet and 3D mouse. By using specialised collision detection software, the computer can find optimal paths to lower each detector part into the pits and position it to destination, letting us visualize the whole assembly probess. During construction, these paths can be fed to a robot controller, which can operate the bridge cranes and build LHC almost without human intervention. VENUS is currently developing a multiplatform VR browser that will let the whole HEP community access LHC's Virtual Protoypes over the web. Many interesting things took place during the conference on Virtual Reality. For more information please refer to the Virtual Reality section.

A Practical Guide, with Theoretical Underpinnings, for Creating Effective Virtual Reality Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Eileen A.; Domingo, Jelia

2017-01-01

With the advent of open source virtual environments, the associated cost reductions, and the more flexible options, avatar-based virtual reality environments are within reach of educators. By using and repurposing readily available virtual environments, instructors can bring engaging, community-building, and immersive learning opportunities to…

Impact of Status and Meme Content on the Spread of Memes in Virtual Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gideon Mazambani

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We examined the influence of meme consistency (vs. inconsistency and intragroup status on the spread of memes in virtual communities. Prior research suggests that information consistent with the theme of the group is remembered better and that ideas threatening to the group identity are rejected. In addition, previous research shows that low-status group members mimic high-status members and communicate with them to seek information and approval. We analyzed social interactions among members of four online forums from January 1, 2010, to February 21, 2014. Contrary to our prediction, our results show that memes initiated by low-status members spread faster than memes started by high- or moderate-status members. In line with prior research, memes that were consistent with a forum theme were spread more frequently than inconsistent memes.

Grids, virtualization, and clouds at Fermilab

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Timm, S; Chadwick, K; Garzoglio, G; Noh, S

2014-01-01

Fermilab supports a scientific program that includes experiments and scientists located across the globe. To better serve this community, in 2004, the (then) Computing Division undertook the strategy of placing all of the High Throughput Computing (HTC) resources in a Campus Grid known as FermiGrid, supported by common shared services. In 2007, the FermiGrid Services group deployed a service infrastructure that utilized Xen virtualization, LVS network routing and MySQL circular replication to deliver highly available services that offered significant performance, reliability and serviceability improvements. This deployment was further enhanced through the deployment of a distributed redundant network core architecture and the physical distribution of the systems that host the virtual machines across multiple buildings on the Fermilab Campus. In 2010, building on the experience pioneered by FermiGrid in delivering production services in a virtual infrastructure, the Computing Sector commissioned the FermiCloud, General Physics Computing Facility and Virtual Services projects to serve as platforms for support of scientific computing (FermiCloud 6 GPCF) and core computing (Virtual Services). This work will present the evolution of the Fermilab Campus Grid, Virtualization and Cloud Computing infrastructure together with plans for the future.

Grids, virtualization, and clouds at Fermilab

Science.gov (United States)

Timm, S.; Chadwick, K.; Garzoglio, G.; Noh, S.

2014-06-01

Fermilab supports a scientific program that includes experiments and scientists located across the globe. To better serve this community, in 2004, the (then) Computing Division undertook the strategy of placing all of the High Throughput Computing (HTC) resources in a Campus Grid known as FermiGrid, supported by common shared services. In 2007, the FermiGrid Services group deployed a service infrastructure that utilized Xen virtualization, LVS network routing and MySQL circular replication to deliver highly available services that offered significant performance, reliability and serviceability improvements. This deployment was further enhanced through the deployment of a distributed redundant network core architecture and the physical distribution of the systems that host the virtual machines across multiple buildings on the Fermilab Campus. In 2010, building on the experience pioneered by FermiGrid in delivering production services in a virtual infrastructure, the Computing Sector commissioned the FermiCloud, General Physics Computing Facility and Virtual Services projects to serve as platforms for support of scientific computing (FermiCloud 6 GPCF) and core computing (Virtual Services). This work will present the evolution of the Fermilab Campus Grid, Virtualization and Cloud Computing infrastructure together with plans for the future.

The role of perceived interactivity in virtual communities: building trust and increasing stickiness

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hongwei; Meng, Yuan; Wang, Wei

2013-03-01

Although previous research has explored factors affecting trust building in websites, little research has been analysed from the perceived interactivity perspective in virtual communities (VCs). A research model for verifying interactivity antecedents to trust and its impact on member stickiness behaviour is presented. Two social interactivity components and two system interactivity components are, respectively, theorised as process-based antecedents and institution-based antecedents to trust in the model. Data were collected from 310 members of VCs to test the model. The results show that connectedness and reciprocity are important antecedents to trust in members, while responsiveness and active control are important antecedents to trust in systems. The results also indicate that trust has significant influence on the members' duration and retention, which are two dimensions of member stickiness measured in this research. These findings have theoretical implications for online interaction-related literature and critical business implications for practitioners of VCs.

Exploring users motivation in innovation communities

OpenAIRE

Ståhlbröst, Anna; Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta

2011-01-01

A rapid growth of technologies supporting user interaction on the Internet, such as social networking sites and other virtual communities, can be seen today. These virtual communities have been shown to be of great value to companies that want to involve users in their innovation processes. However, in order to guide organisations on how to utilise their innovation intermediary communities, more knowledge is needed regarding who they are and their motivational drivers for participating in a c...

Information literacy experiencies inside virtual learning environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Hernández Salazar

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Objective. Suggest the use of virtual learning environments as an Information Literacy (IL alternative. Method. Analysis of the main elements of web sites. To achieve this purpose the article includes the relationship between IL and the learning virtual environment (by defining both phrases; phases to create virtual IL programs; processes to elaborate didactic media; the applications that may support this plan; and the description of eleven examples of learning virtual environments IL experiences from four countries (Mexico, United States of America, Spain and United Kingdom these examples fulfill the conditions expressed. Results. We obtained four comparative tables examining five elements of each experience: objectives; target community; institution; country; and platform used. Conclusions. Any IL proposal should have a clear definition; IL experiences have to follow a didactic systematic process; described experiences are based on IL definition; the experiences analyzed are similar; virtual learning environments can be used as alternatives of IL.

NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute: Building Collaboration Through International Partnerships

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbs, K. E.; Schmidt, G. K.

2017-01-01

The NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is a virtual institute focused on re-search at the intersection of science and exploration, training the next generation of lunar scientists, and community development. As part of the SSERVI mission, we act as a hub for opportunities that engage the larger scientific and exploration communities in order to form new interdisciplinary, research-focused collaborations. This talk will describe the international partner re-search efforts and how we are engaging the international science and exploration communities through workshops, conferences, online seminars and classes, student exchange programs and internships.

Building Productivity in Virtual Project Teams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bill Hamersly

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The steady increase in project failure rates is leaving businesses searching for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations may have positive impacts on communities across geographical boundaries and resource constraints. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore, via the experiences of successful project management practitioners, best practice strategies for integrating virtual project teams through data analysis. The conceptual framework included von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, decomposition model of business process and project management frameworks, and the recomposition approach. Twenty-two senior project managers with more than 5 years of experience managing virtual project environments participated in semistructured telephone interviews. The van Kaam process employing normalization and bracketing approaches in data analysis resulted in the emergence of 34 thematic categories. The 10 most common themes culminated in the identification of strategies relevant for virtual project teams. The major themes pertained to 3 broad areas: (a structure that accommodates skills and technology for virtual team success, (b governance leading to efficient virtual project team management, and (c collaboration practices across diverse environments. This study involved the exploration of the experiences of the participants. Using the van Kaam method for normalization of the data and clustering like experiences into thematic statements, the study provided a plethora of new information concentrated on 10 themes that emerged.

Integration of virtualized worker nodes in standard batch systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buege, Volker; Kunze, Marcel; Oberst, Oliver; Quast, Guenter; Scheurer, Armin; Hessling, Hermann; Kemp, Yves; Synge, Owen

2010-01-01

Current experiments in HEP only use a limited number of operating system flavours. Their software might only be validated on one single OS platform. Resource providers might have other operating systems of choice for the installation of the batch infrastructure. This is especially the case if a cluster is shared with other communities, or communities that have stricter security requirements. One solution would be to statically divide the cluster into separated sub-clusters. In such a scenario, no opportunistic distribution of the load can be achieved, resulting in a poor overall utilization efficiency. Another approach is to make the batch system aware of virtualization, and to provide each community with its favoured operating system in a virtual machine. Here, the scheduler has full flexibility, resulting in a better overall efficiency of the resources. In our contribution, we present a lightweight concept for the integration of virtual worker nodes into standard batch systems. The virtual machines are started on the worker nodes just before jobs are executed there. No meta-scheduling is introduced. We demonstrate two prototype implementations, one based on the Sun Grid Engine (SGE), the other using Maui/Torque as a batch system. Both solutions support local job as well as Grid job submission. The hypervisors currently used are Xen and KVM, a port to another system is easily envisageable. To better handle different virtual machines on the physical host, the management solution VmImageManager is developed. We will present first experience from running the two prototype implementations. In a last part, we will show the potential future use of this lightweight concept when integrated into high-level (i.e. Grid) work-flows.

Dynamic Extension of a Virtualized Cluster by using Cloud Resources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oberst, Oliver; Hauth, Thomas; Kernert, David; Riedel, Stephan; Quast, Günter

2012-01-01

The specific requirements concerning the software environment within the HEP community constrain the choice of resource providers for the outsourcing of computing infrastructure. The use of virtualization in HPC clusters and in the context of cloud resources is therefore a subject of recent developments in scientific computing. The dynamic virtualization of worker nodes in common batch systems provided by ViBatch serves each user with a dynamically virtualized subset of worker nodes on a local cluster. Now it can be transparently extended by the use of common open source cloud interfaces like OpenNebula or Eucalyptus, launching a subset of the virtual worker nodes within the cloud. This paper demonstrates how a dynamically virtualized computing cluster is combined with cloud resources by attaching remotely started virtual worker nodes to the local batch system.

Secrets Portraits. Figurations of Identity in the Virtual Space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lic. Silvia Tabachnik

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Unlived experiences of the body, languages, space, and time lead us to restate questions regarding the operations involved in the processes of constituting and transforming subjectivity in the virtual domain, beyond the logic of identity. While it guarantees certain conditions of anonymity, the virtual regime favors suspension of the identity established for "civil life" and propitiates various semiotic processes of identity reconfiguration. This work discusses these processes by making an analytical approximation of the procedures of "presenting oneself" that govern the entry of subjects to virtual communities.

Knowledge sharing at the World Bank

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denning, S.

2004-01-01

The World Bank is thus one of many organizations that have recognized that knowledge sharing is a central driver of the 21st century economy. The World Bank experience replicates what has been learned in many organizations that have attempted to implement an organization-wide program over the last eight years. Here are ten main features of that experience. 1. Knowledge sharing requires seven basic elements: strategy of knowledge management; organizing for knowledge management; budget of knowledge management; incentives for knowledge management; communities of practice; technology of knowledge management; measurement of KM strategy. 2. Communities of practice are the key to knowledge sharing. 3. Virtual community members also need physical interactions. 4. Passion is the driving force behind communities of practice. 5. Tacit knowledge can be at least partially captured. 6. Knowledge sharing has an inside-out and outside-in dynamic. 7. Storytelling is needed to ignite knowledge sharing. 8. Knowledge sharing is at some point confused with IT. 9. Vibrant communities of practice attract new talents. 10. Organizations are in different stages of knowledge sharing

Surfing for Knowledge: Virtual Libraries and Books on the Web

Science.gov (United States)

Wicks, Pamela

2011-01-01

Virtual environments such as Second Life (SL) may provide a way to connect with today's digital native and increase the readership of the community college student, both in virtual and real world libraries. Many colleges and universities already have a presence in SL. Books and services typically found in a "brick and mortar" library can…

The EVER-EST portal as support for the Sea Monitoring Virtual Research Community, through the sharing of resources, enabling dynamic collaboration and promoting community engagement

Science.gov (United States)

Foglini, Federica; Grande, Valentina; De Leo, Francesco; Mantovani, Simone; Ferraresi, Sergio

2017-04-01

EVER-EST offers a framework based on advanced services delivered both at the e-infrastructure and domain-specific level, with the objective of supporting each phase of the Earth Science Research and Information Lifecycle. It provides innovative e-research services to Earth Science user communities for communication, cross-validation and the sharing of knowledge and science outputs. The project follows a user-centric approach: real use cases taken from pre-selected Virtual Research Communities (VRC) covering different Earth Science research scenarios drive the implementation of the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) services and capabilities. The Sea Monitoring community is involved in the evaluation of the EVER-EST infrastructure. The community of potential users is wide and heterogeneous including both multi-disciplinary scientists and national/international agencies and authorities (e.g. MPAs directors, technicians from regional agencies like ARPA in Italy, the technicians working for the Ministry of the Environment) dealing with the adoption of a better way of measuring the quality of the environment. The scientific community has the main role of assessing the best criteria and indicators for defining the Good Environmental Status (GES) in their own sub regions, and implementing methods, protocols and tools for monitoring the GES descriptors. According to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the environmental status of marine waters is defined by 11 descriptors, and forms a proposed set of 29 associated criteria and 56 different indicators. The objective of the Sea Monitoring VRC is to provide useful and applicable contributions to the evaluation of the descriptors: D1.Biodiversity, D2.Non-indigenous species and D6.Seafloor Integrity (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/marine/good-environmental-status/index_en.htm). The main challenges for the community members are: 1. discovery of existing data and products distributed among different infrastructures; 2

Consumo de medicamentos e internet: análise crítica de uma comunidade virtual Medicine consumption and the internet: critical evaluation of a virtual community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Fábio R. de Souza

2008-06-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Discute-se a promoção do uso de medicamentos na mídia a partir da análise dos diálogos de uma comunidade virtual, cujos participantes utilizam a substância benzidamina em altas dosagens, em busca de seus efeitos adversos. MÉTODOS: Privilegiou-se uma abordagem qualitativa em que, através da técnica de análise de conteúdo, os comentários de um grupo reunido em um Serviço de Rede Social (SRS, disponível na rede mundial de computadores (internet, foram analisados. Dados de 385 participantes foram reunidos e utilizados para a identificação do perfil dos indivíduos. RESULTADOS: O perfil encontrado foi de jovens entre 18 e 20 anos, predominantemente do sexo masculino e com escolaridade média. Verificou-se a partir da análise dos comentários, uma tendência ao consumo de 16 a 20 drágeas do medicamento, acompanhadas ou não de álcool, com o predomínio dos seguintes efeitos: alucinações visuais, insônia e distúrbios gastrointestinais. Pôde-se identificar nos diálogos, duas correntes: uma, que incentiva seu uso não-terapêutico e outra, que o desaconselha. CONCLUSÃO: Uma comunidade virtual organizada em torno da discussão de uso não-terapêutico de um medicamento pode contribuir para a sua promoção, principalmente em jovens. Tal fato reforça a necessidade de maiores campanhas de alerta sobre a automedicação e o cumprimento das leis sanitárias pelas farmácias e drogarias.OBJECTIVE: Discuss the promotion of medicines in the media by the analysis of dialogs from a virtual community, whose members use benzydamine in high doses seeking the collateral effects. METHODS: Opinions from a group in a Social Network Service (SNS available in the internet were evaluated by the Analysis of Content Technique, whereas data from 385 members from this group were used to identify a profile of the individuals. RESULTS: The profile found was male, age between 18 and 20 years and in high school. Analysis of opinions revealed the

Virtually teaching virtual leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Thomas Duus; Nielsen, Rikke Kristine; Børgesen, Kenneth

2017-01-01

This paper seeks to investigate the challenges to virtual collaboration and leadership on basis of findings from a virtual course on collaboration and leadership. The course used for this experiment was designed as a practical approach, which allowed participants to experience curriculum phenomena....... This experimental course provided insights into the challenges involved in virtual processes, and those experiences where used for addressing the challenges that virtual leadership is confronted with. Emphasis was placed on the reduction of undesired virtual distance and its consequences through affinity building....... We found that student scepticism appeared when a breakdown resulted in increasing virtual distance, and raises questions on how leaders might translate or upgrade their understandings of leadership to handling such increased distance through affinity building....

How Knowledge Is Constructed and Exchanged in Virtual Communities of Physicians: Qualitative Study of Mindlines Online.

Science.gov (United States)

Wieringa, Sietse; Engebretsen, Eivind; Heggen, Kristin; Greenhalgh, Trisha

2018-02-02

As a response to the criticisms evidence-based practice currently faces, groups of health care researchers and guideline makers have started to call for the appraisal and inclusion of different kinds of knowledge in guideline production (other than randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) to better link with the informal knowledge used in clinical practice. In an ethnographic study, Gabbay and Le May showed that clinicians in everyday practice situations do not explicitly or consciously use guidelines. Instead, they use mindlines: collectively shared, mostly tacit knowledge that is shaped by many sources, including accumulated personal experiences, education (formal and informal), guidance, and the narratives about patients that are shared among colleagues. In this study on informal knowledge, we consider virtual networks of clinicians as representative of the mindlines in the wider medical community, as holders of knowledge, as well as catalysts of knowing. The aim of this study was to explore how informal knowledge and its creation in communities of clinicians can be characterized as opposed to the more structured knowledge produced in guideline development. This study included a qualitative study of postings on three large virtual networks for physicians in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway, taking the topic of statins as a case study and covering more than 1400 posts. Data were analyzed thematically with reference to theories of collaborative knowledge construction and communities of practice. The dataset showed very few postings referring to, or seeking to adhere to, explicit guidance and recommendations. Participants presented many instances of individual case narratives that highlighted quantitative test results and clinical examination findings. There was an emphasis on outliers and the material, regulatory, and practical constraints on knowledge use by clinicians. Participants conveyed not-so-explicit knowledge as tacit and practical knowledge

How Knowledge Is Constructed and Exchanged in Virtual Communities of Physicians: Qualitative Study of Mindlines Online

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Background As a response to the criticisms evidence-based practice currently faces, groups of health care researchers and guideline makers have started to call for the appraisal and inclusion of different kinds of knowledge in guideline production (other than randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) to better link with the informal knowledge used in clinical practice. In an ethnographic study, Gabbay and Le May showed that clinicians in everyday practice situations do not explicitly or consciously use guidelines. Instead, they use mindlines: collectively shared, mostly tacit knowledge that is shaped by many sources, including accumulated personal experiences, education (formal and informal), guidance, and the narratives about patients that are shared among colleagues. In this study on informal knowledge, we consider virtual networks of clinicians as representative of the mindlines in the wider medical community, as holders of knowledge, as well as catalysts of knowing. Objective The aim of this study was to explore how informal knowledge and its creation in communities of clinicians can be characterized as opposed to the more structured knowledge produced in guideline development. Methods This study included a qualitative study of postings on three large virtual networks for physicians in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway, taking the topic of statins as a case study and covering more than 1400 posts. Data were analyzed thematically with reference to theories of collaborative knowledge construction and communities of practice. Results The dataset showed very few postings referring to, or seeking to adhere to, explicit guidance and recommendations. Participants presented many instances of individual case narratives that highlighted quantitative test results and clinical examination findings. There was an emphasis on outliers and the material, regulatory, and practical constraints on knowledge use by clinicians. Participants conveyed not

On Weighted Regions and Social Crowds : Autonomous-agent Navigation in Virtual Worlds

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jaklin, N.S.

2016-01-01

Virtual environments have gained in importance in many aspects of the world we live in today. Immersive virtual worlds are ubiquitous in modern movies, video games, and online communities. They are also important in non-entertainment applications such as training and education software, simulations

The Virtual Enterprise – Citizen of the European Union

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreea Davidescu (Vasile

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The Virtual Enterprise is a rather young and unclear concept in the business world. A virtual enterprise is a temporary network of companies that share their different resources in order to reach a given goal (the creation of a new product, or the entry on a new market and is a powerful tool in the hands of the business community. The question this article raises is whether European Union's businesses are able to take advantage of this opportunity within the European Union. We discuss several obstacles towards the creation of virtual enterprises: regulatory uncertainties, operational management that dismisses the advantage of an excellent infrastructure, the orientation of innovation creators towards theoretical research and the European business culture. The article also looks at research on the virtual enterprise in the European Union, the legal framework and technologies for virtualization.

Developing a virtual community for health sciences library book selection: Doody's Core Titles.

Science.gov (United States)

Shedlock, James; Walton, Linda J

2006-01-01

The purpose of this article is to describe Doody's Core Titles in the Health Sciences as a new selection guide and a virtual community based on an effective use of online systems and to describe its potential impact on library collection development. The setting is the availability of health sciences selection guides. Participants include Doody Enterprise staff, Doody's Library Board of Advisors, content specialists, and library selectors. Resources include the online system used to create Doody's Core Titles along with references to complementary databases. Doody's Core Titles is described and discussed in relation to the literature of selection guides, especially in comparison to the Brandon/Hill selected lists that were published from 1965 to 2003. Doody's Core Titles seeks to fill the vacuum created when the Brandon/Hill lists ceased publication. Doody's Core Titles is a unique selection guide based on its method of creating an online community of experts to identify and score a core list of titles in 119 health sciences specialties and disciplines. The result is a new selection guide, now available annually, that will aid health sciences librarians in identifying core titles for local collections. Doody's Core Titles organizes the evaluation of core titles that are identified and recommended by content specialists associated with Doody's Book Review Service and library selectors. A scoring mechanism is used to create the selection of core titles, similar to the star rating system employed in other Doody Enterprise products and services.

Agent and user inhabited virtual communities: A case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Howlett, R.J.; Jain, L.C.

2000-01-01

We report about ongoing research in a virtual reality environment where visitors can interact with agents that help them to obtain information, to perform certain transactions and to collaborate with them in order to get some tasks done. This environment is a laboratory for research and experiments

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology

OpenAIRE

Stroud, James T.; Bush, Michael R.; Ladd, Mark C.; Nowicki, Robert J.; Shantz, Andrew A.; Sweatman, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Abstract Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et?al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; ?community,? ?assemblage,? ?guild,? and ?ensemble?. We revisit Fauth et?al.'s conclusion and discuss how the use of these terms has changed over time since their review. An update...

Material matters for learning in virtual networks: a case study of a professional learning programme hosted in a Google+ online community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aileen Ackland

2015-08-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we draw on Actor–Network Theories (ANT to explore how material components functioned to create gateways and barriers to a virtual learning network in the context of a professional development module in higher education. Students were practitioners engaged in family learning in different professional roles and contexts. The data comprised postings in the Google+ community, email correspondence, meeting notes, feedback submitted at the final workshop and post-module evaluation forms. Our analysis revealed a complex set of interactions, and suggests multiple ways human actors story their encounters with non-human components and the effects these have on the learning experience. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the components and dynamics of social learning networks in the virtual world and consider the implications for the design of online learning for continuous professional development (CPD.

Virtual World Currency Value Fluctuation Prediction System Based on User Sentiment Analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young Bin Kim

Full Text Available In this paper, we present a method for predicting the value of virtual currencies used in virtual gaming environments that support multiple users, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs. Predicting virtual currency values in a virtual gaming environment has rarely been explored; it is difficult to apply real-world methods for predicting fluctuating currency values or shares to the virtual gaming world on account of differences in domains between the two worlds. To address this issue, we herein predict virtual currency value fluctuations by collecting user opinion data from a virtual community and analyzing user sentiments or emotions from the opinion data. The proposed method is straightforward and applicable to predicting virtual currencies as well as to gaming environments, including MMORPGs. We test the proposed method using large-scale MMORPGs and demonstrate that virtual currencies can be effectively and efficiently predicted with it.

Virtual World Currency Value Fluctuation Prediction System Based on User Sentiment Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Young Bin; Lee, Sang Hyeok; Kang, Shin Jin; Choi, Myung Jin; Lee, Jung; Kim, Chang Hun

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present a method for predicting the value of virtual currencies used in virtual gaming environments that support multiple users, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Predicting virtual currency values in a virtual gaming environment has rarely been explored; it is difficult to apply real-world methods for predicting fluctuating currency values or shares to the virtual gaming world on account of differences in domains between the two worlds. To address this issue, we herein predict virtual currency value fluctuations by collecting user opinion data from a virtual community and analyzing user sentiments or emotions from the opinion data. The proposed method is straightforward and applicable to predicting virtual currencies as well as to gaming environments, including MMORPGs. We test the proposed method using large-scale MMORPGs and demonstrate that virtual currencies can be effectively and efficiently predicted with it. PMID:26241496

Study of cognitive and technological prerequisites for virtual laboratories and collaborative virtual environments for radiopharmacy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melo, Roberto Correia de

2009-01-01

This academic work explains a general view of virtual laboratories (VL) and collaborative virtual environments (CVE) (called, together, a VL/CVE set), focusing their technological features and analyzing the common cognitive features of their users. Also is presented a detailed description of VL/CVE VirRAD (Virtual Radiopharmacy), created specially to connect and support the international radiopharmacy community around the world, and is explained an analysis of their users' cognitive profile, under the perspective of two of the most important cognitive theories of the 20th century: multiple intelligences, by Howard Gardner, and mindful learning, by Ellen Langer. Conclusions from this study has been incorporated, as feature enhancements, to a software prototype created based upon VirRAD software solution, and the hardcopy of their screens is exposed at the end of this work. It is also an essential idea that the conclusions of this work are relevant to any VL/CVE environment. (author)

Open source community organization

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Molefe, Onkgopotse M

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Open Source communities (OSCs), sometimes referred to as virtual or online communities play a significant role in terms of the contribution they continue to make in producing user-friendly Open Source Software (OSS) solutions. Many projects have...

3D Interactions between Virtual Worlds and Real Life in an E-Learning Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulrike Lucke

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Virtual worlds became an appealing and fascinating component of today's internet. In particular, the number of educational providers that see a potential for E-Learning in such new platforms increases. Unfortunately, most of the environments and processes implemented up to now do not exceed a virtual modelling of real-world scenarios. In particular, this paper shows that Second Life can be more than just another learning platform. A flexible and bidirectional link between the reality and the virtual world enables synchronous and seamless interaction between users and devices across both worlds. The primary advantages of this interconnection are a spatial extension of face-to-face and online learning scenarios and a closer relationship between virtual learners and the real world.

The Development Of Virtual Educational Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ken STEVENS

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The introduction of inter-school electronic networks has added a new dimension to education in Canada that has many implications for students who attend schools in rural communities. Collaborative internet-based teaching and learning and the creation of virtual classes within regional intranets now complement traditional on-site instruction in many schools that are located beyond major centres of population. Five stages in the advent of virtual educational environments can be identified starting with the introduction of computers in schools as a foundation for the development of collaborative teaching and learning environments. Inter-school collaboration in rural Canada and the extension of curriculum options for senior students has, in turn, provided a basis for the integration of virtual classes and traditional face to face instruction. Instruction in classes that are electronically-linked to other classes requires different skills from traditional face to face teaching and the development of new strategies and protocols. The implications of open and flexible teaching and learning for the future organization of classes, the preparation of teachers, articulation with higher education and in particular, regional economic development are now significant educational policy issues. The linking of virtual and face to face classes through cybercells is a possible next step in the development of virtual educational environments.

Educational Community: Among the Real and Virtual Civic Initiative

Science.gov (United States)

Arsenijevic, Jasmina; Andevski, Milica

2016-01-01

The new media enable numerous advantages in the strengthening of civic engagement, through removing barriers in space and time and through networking of individuals of the same social, civic or political interests at the global level. Different forms of civic engagement and civic responsibility in the virtual space are ever more present, and…

Virtual communities as educational potential of collaborative learning through ICT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.ª Ángeles REBOLLO CATALÁN

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents some results of an educational innovation based on the use of ICT as a learning environment. The main aim of this study is to describe an experience based collaborative learning in virtual communities of learning and reciprocal teaching and assessing students’ knowledge. For that, we design an educational proposal with three didactic units, which includes a kit of tasks and resources for learning. This study adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology, applying attitudes scales, interviews and analysis of messages from online discussion forums. The study involved 56 students in first year of Pedagogy. We apply a Likert scale and a semantic differential about the learning experience and the methodology used. Also we conducted semi-structured group interviews to understand the perceptions and students’ evaluations about the methodology. The results show a very positive assessment about the learning experience and the methodology used. Peer interaction is focused on resolving technical queries, although there are also other forms of collaboration focused on joint interpretation and understanding of learning activities and assessment of the learning process. The results show that the intervention centers on teacher feedback and monitoring of learning tasks, reinforcing positive actions of the students and guiding the learning process. Finally, as to the benefits received by students, the results show that not only is development of social and communication skills, but also conceptual and emotional changes related to the subject.

Optimized R functions for analysis of ecological community data using the R virtual laboratory (RvLab).

Science.gov (United States)

Varsos, Constantinos; Patkos, Theodore; Oulas, Anastasis; Pavloudi, Christina; Gougousis, Alexandros; Ijaz, Umer Zeeshan; Filiopoulou, Irene; Pattakos, Nikolaos; Vanden Berghe, Edward; Fernández-Guerra, Antonio; Faulwetter, Sarah; Chatzinikolaou, Eva; Pafilis, Evangelos; Bekiari, Chryssoula; Doerr, Martin; Arvanitidis, Christos

2016-01-01

Parallel data manipulation using R has previously been addressed by members of the R community, however most of these studies produce ad hoc solutions that are not readily available to the average R user. Our targeted users, ranging from the expert ecologist/microbiologists to computational biologists, often experience difficulties in finding optimal ways to exploit the full capacity of their computational resources. In addition, improving performance of commonly used R scripts becomes increasingly difficult especially with large datasets. Furthermore, the implementations described here can be of significant interest to expert bioinformaticians or R developers. Therefore, our goals can be summarized as: (i) description of a complete methodology for the analysis of large datasets by combining capabilities of diverse R packages, (ii) presentation of their application through a virtual R laboratory (RvLab) that makes execution of complex functions and visualization of results easy and readily available to the end-user. In this paper, the novelty stems from implementations of parallel methodologies which rely on the processing of data on different levels of abstraction and the availability of these processes through an integrated portal. Parallel implementation R packages, such as the pbdMPI (Programming with Big Data - Interface to MPI) package, are used to implement Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) parallelization on primitive mathematical operations, allowing for interplay with functions of the vegan package. The dplyr and RPostgreSQL R packages are further integrated offering connections to dataframe like objects (databases) as secondary storage solutions whenever memory demands exceed available RAM resources. The RvLab is running on a PC cluster, using version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31) on a x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit) platform, and offers an intuitive virtual environmet interface enabling users to perform analysis of ecological and microbial communities based on

Making it Work 2: using a virtual community to focus on rural health issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Godden, David J; Aaraas, Ivar J

2006-01-01

Between 21 and 23 September 2005, over 200 delegates from eight countries gathered in Tromsö, within the Arctic Circle, to discuss challenges and solutions to rural health issues. This conference was a sequel to a previous event entitled 'Making it Work', held in Scotland in 2003, in which it was identified that service delivery in remote and rural areas needed to be innovative to ensure equity. A major aim of this event was to move the debate forward to describe specific examples of practice that could be adopted in participating countries. The delegates included clinicians, managers and administrators, senior policymakers and educationalists, elected local and national politicians, patients and their representatives. In order to focus debate, the organisers provided an outline of a virtual remote community ('Hope'), including some geographic and demographic information, together with four case studies of individual health problems faced by residents of the community. During the introductory session, a short film was shown featuring the 'residents' of this community, introducing delegates to the specific problems they faced. Throughout the conference, delegates were asked to reflect back to how any recommendations made might apply to the citizens of Hope. The clinical scenarios presented included: (1) a 37 year old pregnant woman in labour during adverse weather conditions; (2) a 17 year old island resident with acute psychosis who attempts suicide; (3) an 80 year old woman living alone who suffers a stroke; and (4) a family of four with a complex range of chronic health issues including smoking, alcoholism, diabetes, teenage pregnancy, asthma and depression on a background of deprivation and unemployment. Parallel discussions and workshops focussed on a number of key themes linked to the examples highlighted in the 'Hope' scenario. These included: maternity services; mental health; chronic disease management; health improvement and illness prevention; supporting

Cambridge community Optometry Glaucoma Scheme.

Science.gov (United States)

Keenan, Jonathan; Shahid, Humma; Bourne, Rupert R; White, Andrew J; Martin, Keith R

2015-04-01

With a higher life expectancy, there is an increased demand for hospital glaucoma services in the United Kingdom. The Cambridge community Optometry Glaucoma Scheme (COGS) was initiated in 2010, where new referrals for suspected glaucoma are evaluated by community optometrists with a special interest in glaucoma, with virtual electronic review and validation by a consultant ophthalmologist with special interest in glaucoma. 1733 patients were evaluated by this scheme between 2010 and 2013. Clinical assessment is performed by the optometrist at a remote site. Goldmann applanation tonometry, pachymetry, monoscopic colour optic disc photographs and automated Humphrey visual field testing are performed. A clinical decision is made as to whether a patient has glaucoma or is a suspect, and referred on or discharged as a false positive referral. The clinical findings, optic disc photographs and visual field test results are transmitted electronically for virtual review by a consultant ophthalmologist. The number of false positive referrals from initial referral into the scheme. Of the patients, 46.6% were discharged at assessment and a further 5.7% were discharged following virtual review. Of the patients initially discharged, 2.8% were recalled following virtual review. Following assessment at the hospital, a further 10.5% were discharged after a single visit. The COGS community-based glaucoma screening programme is a safe and effective way of evaluating glaucoma referrals in the community and reducing false-positive referrals for glaucoma into the hospital system. © 2014 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Virtual goods recommendations in virtual worlds.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Kuan-Yu; Liao, Hsiu-Yu; Chen, Jyun-Hung; Liu, Duen-Ren

2015-01-01

Virtual worlds (VWs) are computer-simulated environments which allow users to create their own virtual character as an avatar. With the rapidly growing user volume in VWs, platform providers launch virtual goods in haste and stampede users to increase sales revenue. However, the rapidity of development incurs virtual unrelated items which will be difficult to remarket. It not only wastes virtual global companies' intelligence resources, but also makes it difficult for users to find suitable virtual goods fit for their virtual home in daily virtual life. In the VWs, users decorate their houses, visit others' homes, create families, host parties, and so forth. Users establish their social life circles through these activities. This research proposes a novel virtual goods recommendation method based on these social interactions. The contact strength and contact influence result from interactions with social neighbors and influence users' buying intention. Our research highlights the importance of social interactions in virtual goods recommendation. The experiment's data were retrieved from an online VW platform, and the results show that the proposed method, considering social interactions and social life circle, has better performance than existing recommendation methods.

Designing virtual science labs for the Islamic Academy of Delaware

Science.gov (United States)

AlZahrani, Nada Saeed

Science education is a basic part of the curriculum in modern day classrooms. Instructional approaches to science education can take many forms but hands-on application of theory via science laboratory activities for the learner is common. Not all schools have the resources to provide the laboratory environment necessary for hands-on application of science theory. Some settings rely on technology to provide a virtual laboratory experience instead. The Islamic Academy of Delaware (IAD), a typical community-based organization, was formed to support and meet the essential needs of the Muslim community of Delaware. IAD provides science education as part of the overall curriculum, but cannot provide laboratory activities as part of the science program. Virtual science labs may be a successful model for students at IAD. This study was conducted to investigate the potential of implementing virtual science labs at IAD and to develop an implementation plan for integrating the virtual labs. The literature has shown us that the lab experience is a valuable part of the science curriculum (NBPTS, 2013, Wolf, 2010, National Research Council, 1997 & 2012). The National Research Council (2012) stressed the inclusion of laboratory investigations in the science curriculum. The literature also supports the use of virtual labs as an effective substitute for classroom labs (Babateen, 2011; National Science Teachers Association, 2008). Pyatt and Simms (2011) found evidence that virtual labs were as good, if not better than physical lab experiences in some respects. Although not identical in experience to a live lab, the virtual lab has been shown to provide the student with an effective laboratory experience in situations where the live lab is not possible. The results of the IAD teacher interviews indicate that the teachers are well-prepared for, and supportive of, the implementation of virtual labs to improve the science education curriculum. The investigator believes that with the

Cooking up an Online Community

Science.gov (United States)

Valone, Lauren

2011-01-01

As museum professionals conceptualize community building, they must now consider the virtual realm. Websites in and of themselves will not generate a community, as it takes sustained communication and interaction by staff to encourage growth. Online communities are complex forces that bring about systematic dualities that in turn stimulate…

Uniqueness of Experience and Virtual Playworlds: Playing Is Not Just for Fun

Science.gov (United States)

Talamo, Alessandra; Pozzi, Simone; Mellini, Barbara

2010-01-01

Social interactions within virtual communities are often described solely as being online experiences. Such descriptions are limited, for they fail to reference life external to the screen. The terms "virtual" and "real" have a negative connotation for many people and can even be interpreted to mean that something is "false" or "inauthentic."…

Exploring Virtual Enterprises Using Activity Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald Beckett

2004-11-01

Full Text Available From joint Industry – University research into the key success factors that sustain Virtual Enterprises (VE’s, it has been observed that conditions for the establishment of a VE do not necessarily sustain it. Transactions that are valued by the participants, a balance between similarity and complementarity attributes of the participants and effective utilisation of time are seen as important sustaining factors. Different communication and ICT tools are utilised in different circumstances, and successful collaborations develop formal or informal “rules” underlying their operation. Considering such attributes helps us understand what happens within a successful VE, but not necessarily how. Two case studies describing long-standing collaborations – one relating to a manufacturing network, and the other to a professional virtual community are presented. A third case study relating to the development of ICT tools to be used in a VE is also presented. Activity Theory is used as a framework for discussion of the organisational attributes associated with these cases and how they operate. It is suggested that exploration of the nature of tools, communities etc is helpful in understanding VE operations, and applied at multiple levels, Activity Theory is also useful in understanding the evolution of those tools, communities etc.

Usage of a learning virtual environment with interactive virtual reality for helping in reactor engineering teaching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miguel, Lucas de Castro

2017-01-01

In the last few decades, several studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality as a teaching tool. New and complex IT tools (Information and Communication Technologies) have also been developed. One such tool, is the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). VLEs are internet media that use cyberspace to convey didactic content and can complement the orthodox teaching method, allowing students a new way of understanding complex content through digital interaction. This work aims to teach the operation of the first and second cycles of a pressurized water nuclear reactor through the development and use of a VLE. The VLE will use interactive virtual reality to demonstrate to the student the 'anatomy' of a generating nuclear power plant. There are several possibilities for future work using this VLE. One is the use as a data repository and 'virtual exhibition room' of each component of the nuclear reactor that researchers are modelling and developing. With these virtual objects allocated in a category, teachers could use this VLE in the classroom as a teaching tool while researchers could use the platform as a quick and practical way of viewing their online work and sharing it with other researchers. Thus, this VLE will be an effective tool for spreading knowledge of nuclear power more easily within, as well as outside of the research community. (author)

Developing virtual REU cohorts: Reflections from the IRIS Undergraduate Internship Program

Science.gov (United States)

Hubenthal, M.; Taber, J.; Aster, R.; Frassetto, A.

2007-12-01

Beginning in 2006, the IRIS Education and Outreach program received funding from the National Science Foundation (EAR-0453427) to explore a novel approach to the traditional Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) model. This model blends the spirit of an REU program, which traditionally hosts participants in one location with successful prior IRIS experience hosting students at widely separated institutions to participate in summer research. A unique feature the IRIS Undergraduate Internship Program is that throughout the summer, interns form and sustain a virtual community, offering assistance, sharing ideas, asking questions, and relaying life experiences while conducting their research at diverse institutions. Key to IRIS's REU model is a combination of: one-on-one mentoring by researchers at IRIS institutions across the US, developing a strong unity among interns through both face-to-face and on-line interactions, participation of an IRIS REU alumni mentor to provide both group and intern-specific guidance developing interns' abilities to self-evaluate and work independently, through carefully designed web-based tools, and increasing interns' awareness of the IRIS and broader Earth Science community; demonstrating the role they will play in this larger community. Virtual interaction is facilitated by 1) bringing students together for face-to-face contact, through a week long orientation held annually at the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center on the campus of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and 2) the community enabling web infrastructure at http://www.iris.edu/internship/. During the orientation students engage in classes in geophysics basics, career preparation, as well as training to communicate virtually. Our experiences and evaluations from the 2006 and 2007 field seasons have:shown the increasing demand for electronic advertising of REU programs, provided support for several assumptions of the model including the key role of both the

Virtual marketing in virtual enterprises

OpenAIRE

Ale Ebrahim, Nader; Fattahi, Hamaid Ali; Golnam, Arash

2008-01-01

Virtualization caused tremendous evolution in the economics of marketing channels, patterns of physical distribution and the structure of distributors and developed a new concept that is known as virtual marketing (VM). VM combines the powerful technologies of interactive marketing and virtual reality. Virtual enterprise (VE) refers to an organization not having a clear physical locus. In other words, VE is an organization distributed geographically and whose work is coordinated through e...

Virtual Presenters: Towards Interactive Virtual Presentations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Cappellini, V.; Hemsley, J.

2005-01-01

We discuss having virtual presenters in virtual environments that present information to visitors of these environments. Some current research is surveyed and we will look in particular to our research in the context of a virtual meeting room where a virtual presenter uses speech, gestures, pointing

Virtual Worlds for Virtual Organizing

Science.gov (United States)

Rhoten, Diana; Lutters, Wayne

The members and resources of a virtual organization are dispersed across time and space, yet they function as a coherent entity through the use of technologies, networks, and alliances. As virtual organizations proliferate and become increasingly important in society, many may exploit the technical architecture s of virtual worlds, which are the confluence of computer-mediated communication, telepresence, and virtual reality originally created for gaming. A brief socio-technical history describes their early origins and the waves of progress followed by stasis that brought us to the current period of renewed enthusiasm. Examination of contemporary examples demonstrates how three genres of virtual worlds have enabled new arenas for virtual organizing: developer-defined closed worlds, user-modifiable quasi-open worlds, and user-generated open worlds. Among expected future trends are an increase in collaboration born virtually rather than imported from existing organizations, a tension between high-fidelity recreations of the physical world and hyper-stylized imaginations of fantasy worlds, and the growth of specialized worlds optimized for particular sectors, companies, or cultures.

VESPA: A community-driven Virtual Observatory in Planetary Science

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Erard, S.; Cecconi, B.; Le Sidaner, P.; Rossi, A. P.; Capria, M.T.; Schmitt, B.; Génot, V.; André, N.; Vandaele, A. C.; Scherf, M.; Hueso, R.; Määttänen, A.; Thuillot, W.; Carry, B.; Achilleos, N.; Marmo, C.; Santolík, Ondřej; Benson, K.; Fernique, P.; Beigbeder, L.; Millour, E.; Rousseau, B.; Andrieu, F.; Chauvin, C.; Minin, M.; Ivanoski, S.; Longobardo, A.; Bollard, P.; Albert, D.; Gangloff, M.; Jourdane, N.; Bouchemit, M.; Glorian, J. M.; Trompet, L.; Al-Ubaidi, T.; Juaristi, J.; Desmars, J.; Guio, P.; Delaa, O.; Lagain, A.; Souček, Jan; Píša, David

2018-01-01

Roč. 150, SI (2018), s. 65-85 ISSN 0032-0633 EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 654208 - EPN2020-RI Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : Virtual Observatory * Solar System * GIS Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics OBOR OECD: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science) Impact factor: 1.892, year: 2016 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063316304937#gs1

Avatar-mediation and Transformation of Practice in a 3D Virtual World

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riis, Marianne

The purpose of this study is to understand and conceptualize the transformation of a particular community of pedagogical practice based on the implementation of the 3D virtual world, Second Life™. The community setting is a course at the Master's programme on ICT and Learning (MIL), Aalborg...... with knowledge about 3D Virtual Worlds, the influence of the avatar phenomenon and the consequences of 3D-remediation in relation to teaching and learning in online education. Based on the findings, a conceptual design model, a set of design principles, and a design framework has been developed....

Beyond Open Source: Evaluating the Community Availability of Software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bret Davidson

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The Code4Lib community has produced an increasingly impressive collection of open source software over the last decade, but much of this creative work remains out of reach for large portions of the library community. Do the relatively privileged institutions represented by a majority of Code4Lib participants have a professional responsibility to support the adoption of their innovations? Drawing from old and new software packaging and distribution approaches (from freeware to Docker, we propose extending the open source software values of collaboration and transparency to include the wide and affordable distribution of software. We believe this will not only simplify the process of sharing our applications within the library community, but also make it possible for less well-resourced institutions to actually use our software. We identify areas of need, present our experiences with the users of our own open source projects, discuss our attempts to go beyond open source, propose a preliminary set of technology availability performance indicators for evaluating software availability, and make an argument for the internal value of supporting and encouraging a vibrant library software ecosystem.

Virtual environments for scene of crime reconstruction and analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Toby L. J.; Murta, Alan D.; Gibson, Simon

2000-02-01

This paper describes research conducted in collaboration with Greater Manchester Police (UK), to evalute the utility of Virtual Environments for scene of crime analysis, forensic investigation, and law enforcement briefing and training. We present an illustrated case study of the construction of a high-fidelity virtual environment, intended to match a particular real-life crime scene as closely as possible. We describe and evaluate the combination of several approaches including: the use of the Manchester Scene Description Language for constructing complex geometrical models; the application of a radiosity rendering algorithm with several novel features based on human perceptual consideration; texture extraction from forensic photography; and experiments with interactive walkthroughs and large-screen stereoscopic display of the virtual environment implemented using the MAVERIK system. We also discuss the potential applications of Virtual Environment techniques in the Law Enforcement and Forensic communities.

Virtual endoscopy in neurosurgery: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Neubauer, André; Wolfsberger, Stefan

2013-01-01

Virtual endoscopy is the computerized creation of images depicting the inside of patient anatomy reconstructed in a virtual reality environment. It permits interactive, noninvasive, 3-dimensional visual inspection of anatomical cavities or vessels. This can aid in diagnostics, potentially replacing an actual endoscopic procedure, and help in the preparation of a surgical intervention by bridging the gap between plain 2-dimensional radiologic images and the 3-dimensional depiction of anatomy during actual endoscopy. If not only the endoscopic vision but also endoscopic handling, including realistic haptic feedback, is simulated, virtual endoscopy can be an effective training tool for novice surgeons. In neurosurgery, the main fields of the application of virtual endoscopy are third ventriculostomy, endonasal surgery, and the evaluation of pathologies in cerebral blood vessels. Progress in this very active field of research is achieved through cooperation between the technical and the medical communities. While the technology advances and new methods for modeling, reconstruction, and simulation are being developed, clinicians evaluate existing simulators, steer the development of new ones, and explore new fields of application. This review introduces some of the most interesting virtual reality systems for endoscopic neurosurgery developed in recent years and presents clinical studies conducted either on areas of application or specific systems. In addition, benefits and limitations of single products and simulated neuroendoscopy in general are pointed out.

Comunidad virtual para un aprendizaje basado en proyectos en Ecoturismo de la Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MSc. Mónica Pozo-Vinueza

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Virtual communities in education emerge with the birth of such networks, particularly the Internet, which converge in a series of tools with a highly educational component. Thus, in this article aims to reflect on the field of virtual learning communities for ESPOCH specifically ecotourism in school, considering its structure and implications in the current educational context, as it has a dynamic, more slope beyond the classroom and involve some advantages arising from autonomous operation, equally, it is important to analyze the role of the teacher as a transforming agent in these emerging processes of teaching and learning, and solving problems or finding answers to possible needs, with the implementation of learning projects that radiate towards the community.Keywords: virtual community, learning, research, learning pro-jects, ESPOCH.

Positive Relationship Between Individuality and Social Identity in Virtual Communities: Self-Categorization and Social Identification as Distinct Forms of Social Identity.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Tian-Chao; Li, Xuemei

2016-11-01

Previous studies have reported conflicting results regarding the relationship between individuality and social identity, indicating this area requires further examination. This study constructed a research model to help understand the positive role of individualized behavior and social identity in virtual communities. The results of an online survey conducted to assess our theoretical research model indicated that social identity can be expressed in two ways: self-categorization and social identification. Furthermore, we found individualized behavior was positively related to social identification, while self-categorization was directly derived from social identification.

The importance of trust in virtual team knowledge mediation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Nils Braad

2012-01-01

For transnational companies, virtual project teams are a means of overcoming temporal, geographical and organizational boundaries between team members. However, because the level of knowledge communication has been shown to be influenced by trust (e.g. Staples & Webster 2008; Quigley, Tesluk, Locke......, and will examine how the corporate context, consisting of embedded cultures, corporate structures and orgamizational communities of practice (CoP) support relationships, identity, trust and knowledge communication. According to the literature review on virtual teams conducted by Martins, Gilson & Maynard (2004...

Raising Virtual Laboratories in Australia onto global platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Wyborn, L. A.; Barker, M.; Fraser, R.; Evans, B. J. K.; Moloney, G.; Proctor, R.; Moise, A. F.; Hamish, H.

2016-12-01

Across the globe, Virtual Laboratories (VLs), Science Gateways (SGs), and Virtual Research Environments (VREs) are being developed that enable users who are not co-located to actively work together at various scales to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, etc. Outcomes range from enabling `long tail' researchers to more easily access specific data collections, to facilitating complex workflows on powerful supercomputers. In Australia, government funding has facilitated the development of a range of VLs through the National eResearch Collaborative Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) program. The VLs provide highly collaborative, research-domain oriented, integrated software infrastructures that meet user community needs. Twelve VLs have been funded since 2012, including the Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL); Virtual Hazards, Impact and Risk Laboratory (VHIRL); Climate and Weather Science Laboratory (CWSLab); Marine Virtual Laboratory (MarVL); and Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Laboratory (BCCVL). These VLs share similar technical challenges, with common issues emerging on integration of tools, applications and access data collections via both cloud-based environments and other distributed resources. While each VL began with a focus on a specific research domain, communities of practice have now formed across the VLs around common issues, and facilitate identification of best practice case studies, and new standards. As a result, tools are now being shared where the VLs access data via data services using international standards such as ISO, OGC, W3C. The sharing of these approaches is starting to facilitate re-usability of infrastructure and is a step towards supporting interdisciplinary research. Whilst the focus of the VLs are Australia-centric, by using standards, these environments are able to be extended to analysis on other international datasets. Many VL datasets are subsets of global datasets and so extension to global is a

Marketing of the online communities

OpenAIRE

Pražan, Jan

2010-01-01

The Bachelor Thesis "Marketing of the online communities" is devoted to online virtual communities, one of the phenomena of the current Internet. Goal of this thesis is to determine the factors that predispose the successful operation of online communities. The thesis defines the essentials features of social media, characterized by online communities and their role in marketing. It deals with strategic and tactical aspects of building and maintaining successful online communities. Based on t...

Vibrant Interior Reflects Lifestyle. 1974 Award Winning Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

American School and University, 1974

1974-01-01

The design of the student center at Essex Community College in Baltimore County, Maryland, reflects youthful lifestyles in the interior decor while providing exterior design to harmonize with existing campus buildings. (Author/MF)

Sensorial Virtualization: Coupling Gaming and Virtual Environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Garbaya, S.; Miraoui, C.; Wendrich, Robert E.; Lim, T.; Stanescu, I.A.; Hauge, J.B.

2014-01-01

Virtual reality and virtualization are currently used to design complex systems and demonstrate that they represent the functionalities of real systems. However, the design refinement of the virtual environment (VE) and distributed virtual environment (DVE) are still time consuming and costly, as it

Usage of a learning virtual environment with interactive virtual reality for helping in reactor engineering teaching; Utilização de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem com realidade virtual interativa no auxílio de ensino de engenharia de reatores

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miguel, Lucas de Castro

2017-07-01

In the last few decades, several studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality as a teaching tool. New and complex IT tools (Information and Communication Technologies) have also been developed. One such tool, is the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). VLEs are internet media that use cyberspace to convey didactic content and can complement the orthodox teaching method, allowing students a new way of understanding complex content through digital interaction. This work aims to teach the operation of the first and second cycles of a pressurized water nuclear reactor through the development and use of a VLE. The VLE will use interactive virtual reality to demonstrate to the student the 'anatomy' of a generating nuclear power plant. There are several possibilities for future work using this VLE. One is the use as a data repository and 'virtual exhibition room' of each component of the nuclear reactor that researchers are modelling and developing. With these virtual objects allocated in a category, teachers could use this VLE in the classroom as a teaching tool while researchers could use the platform as a quick and practical way of viewing their online work and sharing it with other researchers. Thus, this VLE will be an effective tool for spreading knowledge of nuclear power more easily within, as well as outside of the research community. (author)

Virtual Class Support at the Virtual Machine Level

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Anders Bach; Ernst, Erik

2009-01-01

This paper describes how virtual classes can be supported in a virtual machine.  Main-stream virtual machines such as the Java Virtual Machine and the .NET platform dominate the world today, and many languages are being executed on these virtual machines even though their embodied design choices...... conflict with the design choices of the virtual machine.  For instance, there is a non-trivial mismatch between the main-stream virtual machines mentioned above and dynamically typed languages.  One language concept that creates an even greater mismatch is virtual classes, in particular because fully...... general support for virtual classes requires generation of new classes at run-time by mixin composition.  Languages like CaesarJ and ObjectTeams can express virtual classes restricted to the subset that does not require run-time generation of classes, because of the restrictions imposed by the Java...

Creating a virtual community of practice to investigate legitimate peripheral participation by African American middle school girls in science activities

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Leslie D.

How do teenage girls develop an interest in science? What kinds of opportunities can science teachers present to female students that support their engagement with learning science? I studied one aspect of this issue by focusing on ways students could use science to enhance or gain identities that they (probably) already valued. To do that I created technology-rich activities and experiences for an after school class in science and technology for middle school girls who lived in a low socio-economic urban neighborhood. These activities and experiences were designed to create a virtual community of practice whose members used science in diverse ways. Student interest was made evident in their responses to the activities. Four conclusions emerged. (1) Opportunities to learn about the lives and work of admired African American business women interested students in learning by linking it to their middle-class aspirations and their interest in things that money and status can buy. (2) Opportunities to learn about the lives and work of African American women experts in science in a classroom context where students then practiced similar kinds of actual scientific tasks engaged students in relations of legitimate peripheral participation in a virtual and diverse community of practice focused on science which was created in the after-school classes. (3) Opportunities where students used science to show off for family, friends, and supporters of the after-school program, identities they valued, interested them enough that they engaged in long-term science and technology projects that required lots of revisions. (4) In response to the opportunities presented, new and enhanced identities developed around becoming a better student or becoming some kind of scientist.

NASA and Public Libraries: Enhancing STEM Literacy in Underserved Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Dusenbery, P.; LaConte, K.; Harold, J. B.; Randall, C.

2016-12-01

NASA research programs are helping humanity understand the origin and evolution of galaxies, stars, and planets, and defining the conditions necessary to support life beyond Earth. The Space Science Institute's (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) was recently funded by NASA`s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to develop and implement a project called NASA@ My Library: A National Earth and Space Science Initiative That Connects NASA, Public Libraries and Their Communities. As places that offer their services for free, public libraries have become the "public square" by providing a place where members of a community can gather for information, educational programming, and policy discussions. Libraries are developing new ways to engage their patrons in STEM learning, and NCIL's STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) has been supporting their efforts for the last eight years, including through a vibrant community of practice that serves both librarians and STEM professionals. Project stakeholders include public library staff, state libraries, the earth and space science education community at NASA, subject matter experts, and informal science educators. The project will leverage high-impact SMD and library events to catalyze partnerships through dissemination of SMD assets and professional development. It will also develop frameworks for public libraries to increase STEM interest pathways in their communities (with supports for reaching underserved audiences). This presentation will summarize the key activities and expected outcomes of the 5-year project.

Estudio de la estructura y del comportamiento de las comunidades virtuales de aprendizaje no formal sobre estandarización del e-learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burgos, Daniel

2006-01-01

Two main hypotheses are supported on this research: 1) Virtual communities on informal e-learning are organized as directed graphs; and b) virtual communities on informal e-learning follow some patterns on participation and behavior that can be identified and bounded, related to face-to-face and

Microsoft Virtualization Master Microsoft Server, Desktop, Application, and Presentation Virtualization

CERN Document Server

Olzak, Thomas; Boomer, Jason; Keefer, Robert M

2010-01-01

Microsoft Virtualization helps you understand and implement the latest virtualization strategies available with Microsoft products. This book focuses on: Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Application Virtualization, and Presentation Virtualization. Whether you are managing Hyper-V, implementing desktop virtualization, or even migrating virtual machines, this book is packed with coverage on all aspects of these processes. Written by a talented team of Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Virtualization is the leading resource for a full installation, migration, or integration of virtual syste

Virtual colonoscopy - changes for screening examination?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rust, G.F.; Reiser, M.

2002-01-01

In principle, virtual colonoscopy is capable to be used as method for early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC), even if the accuracy of the method and radiation exposure are matters discussion in the radiological community. Virtual colonoscopy is able to detect any pathology which is relevant for early detection of CRC especially when using multislice CT, but also with single slice CT. The diagnosis of small lesions, less than 7 mm in diameter (polyps and flat lesions) is still problematic as it is in conventional colonoscopy. The exposure to x-rays in asymptomatic patients, without any increased risk of developing cancer is highly problematic and should be reduced to a minimum. Using special post processing filters on the volume dataset it can be shown that a tube current of 20 mAs is sufficient without any loss in accuracy. Measurements on the Alderson-phantom showed, that an effective dose exposure of 1.2 mSv is obtained using these reduced mAs values. It has to be differentiated between virtual colonoscopy for early detection of polyps and CRC in individual patients or as a screening examination of a large population. Virtual colonoscopy as a screening examination necessitates reduction of radiation dose, a high degree of automatisation in 3D reconstructions as well as the assessment of the entire mucosa. High risk patients, whom refuse fibreoptic colonoscopy should undergo virtual colonoscopy. Virtual colonoscopy has a good chance to become an accepted tool for general screening, if efficient dose reduction, complete visualization of the colon mucosa and automatisation of the post processing procedures can be achieved. (orig.) [de

L2 Immersion in 3D Virtual Worlds: The Next Thing to Being There?

Science.gov (United States)

Paillat, Edith

2014-01-01

Second Life is one of the many three-dimensional virtual environments accessible through a computer and a fast broadband connection. Thousands of participants connect to this platform to interact virtually with the world, join international communities of practice and, for some, role play groups. Unlike online role play games however, Second Life…

Virtual Library: An essential component of virtual education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M zarghani

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Library is one of the essential elements of universities which provide some important educational needs of students. Virtual education can not be exempted and virtual libraries are important support for virtual training programs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the viewpoint of administrators and students in virtual education centers about the virtual library, its role and resources. Methods: This study was a descriptive survey. The research instrument was a researcher made questionnaire that its validity and reliability was confirmed. The study population consisted of 19 virtual training centers in Tehran city. Out of 19 centers, simple randomized sampling was done in five Centers. The sample size was 360 students. Data collection was conducted online and descriptive statistics using SPSS 18 and Excel software were used. Results: The results showed that viewpoints of administrators and students about the mission and services of virtual libraries in some cases were similar and in some cases were different. One of the administrators’ reasons for setting up a virtual learning system was lifelong learning, and lack of knowledge about virtual libraries was the reason for inadequate use of virtual libraries. The best format of virtual library from the administrators’ and students’ viewpoint, was portal document format (PDF. Conclusion: One of the most important function of a virtual library, is lifelong learning and empowering users to provide information and educational needs. The main reason for not setting up a virtual library is t lack of knowledge about it.

Micro-blogging and Online Community

OpenAIRE

Richardson, L-J

2015-01-01

The dominance of social media technologies on the Internet has located virtual communities around the use of proprietary social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, although the situation, location and definition of any online community are constantly evolving. Belonging to a number of these online communities, through social networking sites or forums is becoming a normal practice among Internet users. Yet much of the academic analysis of these online communities and...

Virtual Reality and the Virtual Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Oppenheim, Charles

1993-01-01

Explains virtual reality, including proper and improper uses of the term, and suggests ways that libraries might be affected by it. Highlights include elements of virtual reality systems; possible virtual reality applications, including architecture, the chemical industry, transport planning, armed forces, and entertainment; and the virtual…

A Case Study on English Language Learners' Task-Based Interaction and Avatar Identities in Second Life: A Mixed-Methods Design

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Julian ChengChiang

2014-01-01

English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…

Virtual Visits in Home Health Care for Older Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Marie Lunde Husebø

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background. This review identifies the content of virtual visits in community nursing services to older adults and explores the manner in which service users and the nurses use virtual visits. Design. An integrative literature review. Method. Data collection comprised a literature search in three databases: Cinahl, Medline, and PubMed. In addition, a manual search of reference lists and expert consultation were performed. A total of 12 articles met the inclusion criteria. The articles were reviewed in terms of study characteristics, service content and utilization, and patient and health care provider experience. Results. Our review shows that in most studies the service is delivered on a daily basis and in combination with in-person visits. The findings suggest that older home-dwelling patients can benefit from virtual visits in terms of enhanced social inclusion and medication compliance. Service users and their nurses found virtual visits satisfactory and suitable for care delivery in home care to the elderly. Evidence for cost-saving benefits of virtual visits was not found. Conclusions. The findings can inform the planning of virtual visits in home health care as a complementary service to in-person visits, in order to meet the increasingly complex needs of older adults living at home.

Trust Discovery in Online Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Piorkowski, John

2014-01-01

This research aims to discover interpersonal trust in online communities. Two novel trust models are built to explain interpersonal trust in online communities drawing theories and models from multiple relevant areas, including organizational trust models, trust in virtual settings, speech act theory, identity theory, and common bond theory. In…

Creating the Economy of Virtuality: Systemic Aspects and Educational Considerations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julio Rezende

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article discuss how an economy of virtuality had been created in Orlando, United States, with the great collaboration of entrepreneurs, creativists and the action of academic institutions like University of Central Florida (UCF. In UCF the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy – FIEA is an exemplary initiative of education that aims at creating new professionals for the economy of virtuality. Examining the case of Orlando city, would be seen the economic outcomes of the operation of different activities of virtuality: creation of jobs, revenues, tax and improving the quality of life of this community. The research debates the understanding of Economy of Virtuality and as also a educational field. The virtuality can been seen as a technology (a combination of developed hardware and software and as a psychological experience (values, time/ availability, health, motivation, emotions and education. The article presents the story of virtuality and also a typical pathway in the creation of products in Economy of Virtuality taking the example of Spider-Man and the event Awesome.Con held in Washington D.C. in the period of 3 to 5 June 2016. At Central Florida Research Park (CFRP, there are 146 businesses in 59 buildings (March/2016 generating aproximally10 thousand jobs operating.

Increasing student engagement and retention using immersive interfaces virtual worlds, gaming and simulation

CERN Document Server

Wankel, Charles

2012-01-01

Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Immersive Interfaces: Virtual Worlds, Gaming, and Simulation uses case studies, surveys, and literature reviews to critically examine how gaming, simulation, and virtualization are being used to improve teamwork and leadership skills in students, create engaging communities of practice, and as experiential learning tools to create inter-cultural, multi-perspective, and global experiences. Chapters include how to increase learner engagement using serious games, using game features for classroom engagement, using client-based peer assessment in multi-role, whole-enterprise simulations, using virtual worlds to develop teacher candidate skills, enhancing leadership skills through virtual simulation, using online video simulation for educational leadership, using augmented reality in education, using open source software in education, using educational robotics laboratories to enhance active learning, and utilizing the virtual learning environment to encourage facu...

On Weighted Regions and Social Crowds : Autonomous-agent Navigation in Virtual Worlds

OpenAIRE

Jaklin, N.S.

2016-01-01

Virtual environments have gained in importance in many aspects of the world we live in today. Immersive virtual worlds are ubiquitous in modern movies, video games, and online communities. They are also important in non-entertainment applications such as training and education software, simulations of mass events, evacuation scenarios, human factor analysis, and urban city planning. Training and education software itself comprises various application areas, ranging from teaching children with...

The Hydro-Economic Interdependency of Cities: Virtual Water Connections of the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard R. Rushforth

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Water footprinting has revealed hydro-economic interdependencies between distant global geographies via trade, especially of agricultural and manufactured goods. However, for metropolitan areas, trade not only entails commodity flows at many scales from intra-municipal to global, but also substantial intra-metropolitan flows of the skilled labor that is essential to a city’s high-value economy. Virtual water flows between municipalities are directly relevant for municipal water supply policy and infrastructure investment because they quantify the hydro-economic dependency between neighboring municipalities. These municipalities share a physical water supply and also place demands on their neighbors’ water supplies by outsourcing labor and commodity production outside the municipal and water supply system boundary to the metropolitan area. Metropolitan area communities span dense urban cores to fringe agricultural towns, spanning a wide range of the US hydro-economy. This study quantifies water footprints and virtual water flows of the complete economy of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area’s municipalities. A novel approach utilized journey to work data to estimate virtual water flows embedded in labor. Commodities dominate virtual water flows at all scales of analysis, however labor is shown to be important for intra-metropolitan virtual water flows. This is the first detailed water footprint analysis of Phoenix, an important city in a water-scarce region. This study establishes a hydro-economic typology for communities to define several niche roles and decision making points of view. This study’s findings can be used to classify communities with respect to their relative roles, and to benchmark future improvements in water sustainability for all types of communities. More importantly, these findings motivate cooperative approaches to intra-metropolitan water supply policy that recognize the hydro-economic interdependence of these

Ageing in Communal Place:Ethnographic studies of social interaction in senior housing communities

OpenAIRE

Aarhus, Rikke; Ballegaard, Stinne Aaløkke; Grönvall, Erik; Larsen, Simon Bo

2009-01-01

In this paper we adopt the position that design of social media for the elderly and virtual senior communities may be informed by studying ‘real’ senior communities. Since current research efforts target the role of social media and virtual communities for supporting seniors ageing in place, i.e. in their homes, housing communities seem a natural place to begin this enquiry. We conducted observations and informal interviews in six different senior dwellings. In this paper we present the key f...

Avatar-mediation and transformation of practice in a 3D virtual world

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riis, Marianne

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to understand and conceptualize the transformation of a particular community of pedagogical practice based on the implementation of the 3D virtual world, Second Life™. The community setting is a course at the Danish online postgraduate Master's programme on ICT...... and Learning, which is formally situated at Aalborg University. The study is guided by two research questions focusing on the participants' responses to the avatar phenomenon and the design of the course. In order to conduct and theorize about the transformation of this community of practice due to the 3D....... In summary, the study contributes with knowledge about 3D Virtual Worlds, the influence of the avatar phenomenon and the consequences of 3D-remediation in relation to teaching and learning in online education. Based on the findings, a conceptual design model, a set of design principles, and a design...

Exploring the Strategies for a Community College Transition into a Cloud-Computing Environment

Science.gov (United States)

DeBary, Narges

2017-01-01

The use of the Internet has resulted in the birth of an innovative virtualization technology called cloud computing. Virtualization can tremendously improve the instructional and operational systems of a community college. Although the incidental adoption of the cloud solutions in the community colleges of higher education has been increased,…

Improving Access Using Simulations of Community Resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Germann, Clark; Broida, Jane Kaufman; Broida, Jeffrey M.; Thompson, Kimberly

The Community Access Through Technology Project (CATT) is developing and implementing virtual reality software that persons with disabilities can use to experience a physical location prior to visiting it in person. A virtual scenario of one physical location has been developed, implemented, and tested, and work is underway on two others. Using a…

Mechanism of Action for Obtaining Job Offers With Virtual Reality Job Interview Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Matthew J; Smith, Justin D; Fleming, Michael F; Jordan, Neil; Brown, C Hendricks; Humm, Laura; Olsen, Dale; Bell, Morris D

2017-07-01

Four randomized controlled trials revealed that virtual-reality job interview training (VR-JIT) improved interviewing skills and the odds of obtaining a job offer among trainees with severe mental illness or autism spectrum disorder. This study assessed whether postintervention interviewing skills mediated the relationship between completion of virtual interviews and receiving job offers by six-month follow-up. VR-JIT trainees (N=79) completed pre- and posttest mock interviews and a brief survey approximately six months later to assess whether they received a job offer. As hypothesized, analyses indicated that the number of completed virtual interviews predicted greater posttest interviewing skills (β=.20, 95% posterior credible interval [PCI]=.08-.33), which in turn predicted trainees' obtaining a job offer (β=.28, 95% PCI=.01-.53). VR-JIT may provide a mechanism of action that helps trainees with various psychiatric diagnoses obtain job offers in the community. Future research can evaluate the community-based effectiveness of this novel intervention.

The use of local data in ESRI Virtual Campus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staunstrup, Jan Kloster; Hedegaard, Torben

1998-01-01

of the Virtual Campus training modules. We consider this important, because the default exercises of course are based on US data, which are in many respects much different from Danish – and other European data. Assignments built on data, that are familiar to the trainees, will appear motivating, and probably...... make the training more rewarding for the individuals involved. We would like to present our results so far, to the European ESRI user community, together with some work still in progress. We believe, that our experience, and our work together with the very kind and cooperative Virtual Campus...

Implementing a virtual community of practice for family physician training: a mixed-methods case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Stephen; Jones, Sandra C; Caton, Tim; Iverson, Don; Bennett, Sue; Robinson, Laura

2014-03-12

GP training in Australia can be professionally isolating, with trainees spread across large geographic areas, leading to problems with rural workforce retention. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) may provide a way of improving knowledge sharing and thus reducing professional isolation. The goal of our study was to review the usefulness of a 7-step framework for implementing a VCoP for general practitioner (GP) training and then evaluated the usefulness of the resulting VCoP in facilitating knowledge sharing and reducing professional isolation. The case was set in an Australian general practice training region involving 55 first-term trainees (GPT1s), from January to July 2012. ConnectGPR was a secure, online community site that included standard community options such as discussion forums, blogs, newsletter broadcasts, webchats, and photo sharing. A mixed-methods case study methodology was used. Results are presented and interpreted for each step of the VCoP 7-step framework and then in terms of the outcomes of knowledge sharing and overcoming isolation. Step 1, Facilitation: Regular, personal facilitation by a group of GP trainers with a co-ordinating facilitator was an important factor in the success of ConnectGPR. Step 2, Champion and Support: Leadership and stakeholder engagement were vital. Further benefits are possible if the site is recognized as contributing to training time. Step 3, Clear Goals: Clear goals of facilitating knowledge sharing and improving connectedness helped to keep the site discussions focused. Step 4, A Broad Church: The ConnectGPR community was too narrow, focusing only on first-term trainees (GPT1s). Ideally there should be more involvement of senior trainees, trainers, and specialists. Step 5, A Supportive Environment: Facilitators maintained community standards and encouraged participation. Step 6, Measurement Benchmarking and Feedback: Site activity was primarily driven by centrally generated newsletter feedback. Viewing

Five Years Virtual University - Review and Preview.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldmann, Birgit; Schlageter, Gunter

In 1996, the Virtual University (VU) started as an online learning project at the University of Hagen (Germany) with a few courses and a small number of users. Today the VU has grown into a large learning platform with a student community of more than 10,000 and more than 200 learning events online. This paper describes some of the experiences…

Lessons From Managerial Theories for Improving Virtualness in Electronic Business

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wassenaar, Arjen; Govindaraju, Rajesri; Govindaraju, R.; Moreno Bragado, Elisa; Moreno Bragado, Elisa; von Raesfeld Meijer, Ariane M.; Ribbers, Pieter; Swagerman, D.M.; Sieber, Pascal; Griese, Joachim

1998-01-01

Electronic business and virtual organisations are important research topics in the IS research community today. At the same time these research topics are very appropriate for interdisciplinary research. The panel aims: - presentation of lessons from managerial theories for improving organisational

Virtual Team Governance: Addressing the Governance Mechanisms and Virtual Team Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Yihong; Bai, Yu; Liu, Ziheng

As technology has improved and collaborative software has been developed, virtual teams with geographically dispersed members spread across diverse physical locations have become increasingly prominent. Virtual team is supported by advancing communication technologies, which makes virtual teams able to largely transcend time and space. Virtual teams have changed the corporate landscape, which are more complex and dynamic than traditional teams since the members of virtual teams are spread on diverse geographical locations and their roles in the virtual team are different. Therefore, how to realize good governance of virtual team and arrive at good virtual team performance is becoming critical and challenging. Good virtual team governance is essential for a high-performance virtual team. This paper explores the performance and the governance mechanism of virtual team. It establishes a model to explain the relationship between the performance and the governance mechanisms in virtual teams. This paper is focusing on managing virtual teams. It aims to find the strategies to help business organizations to improve the performance of their virtual teams and arrive at the objectives of good virtual team management.

The I-Tribe Community Pharmacy Practice Model: professional pharmacy unshackled.

Science.gov (United States)

Alston, Greg L; Waitzman, Jennifer A

2013-01-01

To describe a mechanism by which pharmacists could create a disruptive innovation to provide professional primary care services via a Web-based delivery model. Several obstacles have prevented pharmacists from using available technology to develop business models that capitalize on their clinical skills in primary care. Community practice has experienced multiple sustaining innovations that have improved dispensing productivity but have not stimulated sufficient demand for pharmacy services to disrupt the marketplace and provide new opportunities for pharmacists. Pharmacists are in a unique position to bridge the gap between demand for basic primary medical care and access to a competent medical professional. Building on the historic strengths of community pharmacy practice, modern pharmacists could provide a disruptive innovation in the marketplace for primary care by taking advantage of new technology and implementing the I-Tribe Community Pharmacy Practice Model (I-Tribe). This model would directly connect pharmacists to patients through an interactive, secure Web presence that would liberate the relationship from geographic restrictions. The I-Tribe is a disruptive innovation that could become the foundation for a vibrant market in pharmacist professional service offerings. The I-Tribe model could benefit society by expanding access to primary medical care while simultaneously providing a new source of revenue for community practice pharmacists. Entrepreneurial innovation through I-Tribe pharmacy would free pharmacists to become the care providers envisioned by the profession's thought leaders.

Exchanging environmental information and decision making: developing the local Pilot Environmental Virtual Observatory with stakeholder communities

Science.gov (United States)

Mackay, E.; Beven, K.; Brewer, P.; M, Haygarth, P.; Macklin, M.; Marshall, K.; Quinn, P.; Stutter, M.; Thomas, N.; Wilkinson, M.

2012-04-01

Public participation in the development of flood risk management and river basin management plans are explicit components of both the Water Framework and Floods Directives. At the local level, involving communities in land and water management has been found to (i) aid better environmental decision making, (ii) enhance social, economic and environmental benefits, and (iii) increase a sense of ownership. Facilitating the access and exchange of information on the local environment is an important part of this new approach to the land and water management process, which also includes local community stakeholders in decisions about the design and content of the information provided. As part of the Natural Environment Research Council's pilot Environment Virtual Observatory (EVO), the Local Level group are engaging with local community stakeholders in three different catchments in the UK (the rivers Eden, Tarland and Dyfi) to start the process of developing prototype visualisation tools to address the specific land and water management issues identified in each area. Through this local collaboration, we will provide novel visualisation tools through which to communicate complex catchment science outcomes and bring together different sources of environmental data in ways that better meet end-user needs as well as facilitate a far broader participatory approach in environmental decision making. The Local Landscape Visualisation Tools are being evolved iteratively during the project to reflect the needs, interests and capabilities of a wide range of stakeholders. The tools will use the latest concepts and technologies to communicate with and provide opportunities for the provision and exchange of information between the public, government agencies and scientists. This local toolkit will reside within a wider EVO platform that will include national datasets, models and state of the art cloud computer systems. As such, local stakeholder groups are assisting the EVO

Data center virtualization and its economic implications for the companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian STEFAN

2009-05-01

Full Text Available In the current situation of the economic crisis, when companies target budgetcuttings in a context of an explosive data growth, the IT community must evaluate potentialtechnology developments not only on their technical advantages, but on their economiceffects as well. More then ever, the old cliché “doing more things with fewer resources” istrue today. Many IT companies started building very large facilities, called data centers(DCs or Internet DC (IDCs, which provide businesses a wide range of solutions forsystems deployment and operation. In recent years, the IT departments around the worldhave moved from data center and infrastructure consolidation to virtualization.Data center virtualization is the process of aligning available resources with the actualneeds of the offered services, moving from physical servers to virtual servers, sharing andprovisioning servers, networks, storage, and applications. By taking advantage of threebasic innovations — virtualization, tiered storage architectures and dynamic provisioningsoftware — an organization can achieve greater efficiencies in their current computingenvironment.Such a unified computing architecture offers end-to-end virtualization; all structures areoptimized for virtualized environments, from the CPU to the aggregation layer. Incombination with embedded management, this new approach increases responsiveness andreduces the opportunities for human error, improving consistency and reducing server andnetwork deployment times.

Hacking Say and Reviving ELIZA: Lessons from Virtual Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mazar, Rochelle; Nolan, Jason

2009-01-01

As text-based predecessors to Second Life, MOOs can offer educators important insights on managing virtual communities to create rich, meaningful learning experiences. Rochelle Mazar and Jason Nolan outline two instructional experiments in MOOs that have implications for current educational practice in Second Life. One involves modifying and…

Innovative application of virtual display technique in virtual museum

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jiankang

2017-09-01

Virtual museum refers to display and simulate the functions of real museum on the Internet in the form of 3 Dimensions virtual reality by applying interactive programs. Based on Virtual Reality Modeling Language, virtual museum building and its effective interaction with the offline museum lie in making full use of 3 Dimensions panorama technique, virtual reality technique and augmented reality technique, and innovatively taking advantages of dynamic environment modeling technique, real-time 3 Dimensions graphics generating technique, system integration technique and other key virtual reality techniques to make sure the overall design of virtual museum.3 Dimensions panorama technique, also known as panoramic photography or virtual reality, is a technique based on static images of the reality. Virtual reality technique is a kind of computer simulation system which can create and experience the interactive 3 Dimensions dynamic visual world. Augmented reality, also known as mixed reality, is a technique which simulates and mixes the information (visual, sound, taste, touch, etc.) that is difficult for human to experience in reality. These technologies make virtual museum come true. It will not only bring better experience and convenience to the public, but also be conducive to improve the influence and cultural functions of the real museum.

Virtual Trondheim: A Virtual Environment for Tourism and Education

OpenAIRE

Jose, Dawn Alphonse

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether educational activities in tourism can be supported by virtual reality technologies, using virtual world frameworks. Settings of virtual world of SecondLife and a recent Virtual Reality technology known as Oculus Rift were used in the thesis work with the city of Trondheim as the main context. Theoretical studies on Virtual Reality systems were conducted and data for the research were obtained through empirical studies condu...

Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kindler, Lori; Stoliartchouk, Alexei; Teytelman, Leonid; Hurwitz, Bonnie L

2016-01-01

The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

Innovative STRoke Interactive Virtual thErapy (STRIVE) online platform for community-dwelling stroke survivors: a randomised controlled trial protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Liam; Bird, Marie-Louise; Muthalib, Makii; Teo, Wei-Peng

2018-01-09

The STRoke Interactive Virtual thErapy (STRIVE) intervention provides community-dwelling stroke survivors access to individualised, remotely supervised progressive exercise training via an online platform. This trial aims to determine the clinical efficacy of the STRIVE intervention and its effect on brain activity in community-dwelling stroke survivors. In a multisite, assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial, 60 stroke survivors >3 months poststroke with mild-to-moderate upper extremity impairment will be recruited and equally randomised by location (Melbourne, Victoria or Launceston, Tasmania) to receive 8 weeks of virtual therapy (VT) at a local exercise training facility or usual care. Participants allocated to VT will perform 3-5 upper limb exercises individualised to their impairment severity and preference, while participants allocated to usual care will be asked to maintain their usual daily activities. The primary outcome measures will be upper limb motor function and impairment, which will be assessed using the Action Research Arm Test and Upper Extremity Fugl-Meyer, respectively. Secondary outcome measures include upper extremity function and spasticity, as measured by the box and block test and Modified AshworthScale, respectively, and task-related changes in bilateral sensorimotor cortex haemodynamics during hand reaching and wrist extension movements as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Quality of life will be measured using the Euro-Quality of Life-5 Dimension-5 Level Scale, and the Motor Activity Log-28 will be used to measure use of the hemiparetic arm. All measures will be assessed at baseline and immediately postintervention. The study was approved by the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee in May 2017 (No. 2017-087). The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and presented at major international stroke meetings. ACTRN12617000745347; Pre-results. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless

Virtual Trackballs Revisited

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Knud; Sporring, Jon; Hornbæk, Kasper

2004-01-01

reviews and provides a mathematical foundation for virtual trackballs. The first, but still popular, virtual trackball was described by Chen et al. [CHECK END OF SENTENCE]. We show that the virtual trackball by Chen et al. does not rotate the object along the intended great circular arc on the virtual...... trackball and we give a correction. Another popular virtual trackball is Shoemake's quaternion implementation [CHECK END OF SENTENCE], which we show to be a special case of the virtual trackball by Chen et al.. Shoemake extends the scope of the virtual trackball to the full screen. Unfortunately, Shoemake......'s virtual trackball is inhomogeneous and discontinuous with consequences for usability. Finally, we review Bell's virtual trackball [CHECK END OF SENTENCE] and discuss studies of the usability of virtual trackballs....

Personal Virtual Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Pappas, Marjorie L.

2004-01-01

Virtual libraries are becoming more and more common. Most states have a virtual library. A growing number of public libraries have a virtual presence on the Web. Virtual libraries are a growing addition to school library media collections. The next logical step would be personal virtual libraries. A personal virtual library (PVL) is a collection…

The National Virtual Observatory Science Definintion Team: Report and Status

Science.gov (United States)

Djorgovski, S. G.; NVO SDT Team

2002-05-01

Astronomy has become an enormously data-rich science, with numerous multi-Terabyte sky surveys and archives over the full range of wavelengths, and Petabyte-scale data sets already on the horizon. The amount of the available information is growing exponentially, largely driven by the progress in detector and information technology, and the quality and complexity of the data are unprecedented. This great quantitative advance will result in qualitative changes in the way astronomy is done. The Virtual Observatory concept is the astronomy community's organized response to the challenges posed by efficient handling and scientific exploration of new, massive data sets. The NAS Decadal Survey, Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium, recommends as the first priority in the ``small'' projects category creation of the National Virtual Observatory (NVO). In response to this, the NSF and NASA formed in June 2001 the NVO Science Definition Team (SDT), with a mandate to: (1) Define and formulate a joint NASA/NSF initiative to pursue the NVO goals; (2) Solicit input from the U.S. astronomy community, and incorporate it in the NVO definition documents and recommendations for further actions; and (3) Serve as liaison to broader space science, computer science, and statistics communities for the NVO initiative, and as liaison with the similar efforts in Europe, looking forward towards a truly Global Virtual Observatory. The Team has delivered its report to the agencies and made it publicly available on its website (http://nvosdt.org), where many other relevant links can be found. We will summarize the report, its conclusions, and recommendations.

EVEREST: Creating a Virtual Research Environment for Earth Science

Science.gov (United States)

Glaves, H.

2017-12-01

There is an increasing trend towards researchers working together using common resources whilst being geographically dispersed. The EVER-EST project is developing a range of both generic and domain specific technologies, tailored to the needs of Earth Science (ES) communities, to create a virtual research environment (VRE) that supports this type of dynamic collaborative research. The EVER-EST VRE provides a suite of services to overcome the existing barriers to sharing of Earth Science data and information allowing researchers to discover, access, share and process heterogeneous data, algorithms, results and experiences within and across their communities, and with other domains beyond the Earth Sciences. Researchers will be able to seamlessly manage both the data and the scientific methods applied in their observations and modelling that lead to results that need to be attributable, validated and shared both within their communities and more widely in the form of scholarly communications.To ensure that the EVER-EST VRE meets the specific needs of the Earth Science domain, it is being developed and validated in consultation with four pre-selected virtual research communities (VRC) that include ocean observing, natural hazards, land monitoring and volcanic risk management. The requirements of these individual VRCs for data, software, best practice and community interaction are used to customise the VRE platform This user-centric approach allows the EVER-EST infrastructure to be assessed in terms of its capability to satisfy the heterogeneous needs of Earth Science communities for more effective collaboration, greater efficiency and increasingly innovative research. EVER-EST is a three year project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 674907.

Nuclear Community in network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tejedor, E.

2014-01-01

The internet has revolutionized the ways of communication and many companies/ organizations have adapted to the change but others have not, or have done it halfway. This presentation is a review of the main characteristics of virtual communities and their typology. The status of the Nuclear Online Community, both pro nuclear and antinuclear is analysed , and their main similarities and differences are discussed. The Pro nuclear Online Community is formed gradually. This presentation attempts to define some ways to increase the scope of the Community and encourage greater dissemination of the characteristics of nuclear energy. (Author)

Factors Affecting Re-usage Intentions of Virtual Communities Supporting Cosmetic Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jhong-Min Yang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Aim/Purpose: This study uses a cosmetic virtual community (VC as the research context and the UTAUT model as the theoretical structure aim to explore factors affecting the re-usage intentions of VC members. Background: The Internet use rate of VC was up to 50%, thereby implying that VC gained the attention of Internet users. Therefore, operating a VC will be an effective way to communicate with customers. However, to maintain an existing member is more efficient than creating a new one. As such, understanding determinants of VC members’ re-use intentions becomes important for firms. Methodology: Through an online survey, 276 valid responses were gathered. The collected data were examined by performing confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling procedures, as well as the moderator analysis. Contribution: This study shows the importance in the context of online cosmetics-related VC, which was rarely explored before. We provide issues for future research, despite the accumulated academic literature related to UTAUT and VC. Findings: Results show that only performance expectancy and social influence significantly affecting re-usage intentions and only gender has moderating effects on the path from performance expectancy to VC re-use intention and from trust to VC re-use intention. Recommendations for Practitioners\t: This study found that users emphasized performance expectancy most of all. A cosmetic product-related VC should introduce products abundantly, offer useful information, and help people accomplish tasks quickly and productively. Recommendation for Researchers: Future researchers may use our findings to conduct further positivist research in the area of social influence using different subjects and research contexts.

Wireless virtualization

CERN Document Server

Wen, Heming; Le-Ngoc, Tho

2013-01-01

This SpringerBriefs is an overview of the emerging field of wireless access and mobile network virtualization. It provides a clear and relevant picture of the current virtualization trends in wireless technologies by summarizing and comparing different architectures, techniques and technologies applicable to a future virtualized wireless network infrastructure. The readers are exposed to a short walkthrough of the future Internet initiative and network virtualization technologies in order to understand the potential role of wireless virtualization in the broader context of next-generation ubiq

Virtual Environments: Issues and Opportunities for Researching Inclusive Educational Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Sheehy, Kieron

This chapter argues that virtual environments offer new research areas for those concerned with inclusive education. Further, it proposes that they also present opportunities for developing increasingly inclusive research processes. This chapter considers how researchers might approach researching some of these affordances. It discusses the relationship between specific features of inclusive pedagogy, derived from an international systematic literature review, and the affordances of different forms of virtual characters and environments. Examples are drawn from research in Second LifeTM (SL), virtual tutors and augmented reality. In doing this, the chapter challenges a simplistic notion of isolated physical and virtual worlds and, in the context of inclusion, between the practice of research and the research topic itself. There are a growing number of virtual worlds in which identified educational activities are taking place, or whose activities are being noted for their educational merit. These encompasses non-themed worlds such as SL and Active Worlds, game based worlds such as World of Warcraft and Runescape, and even Club Penguin, a themed virtual where younger players interact through a variety of Penguin themed environments and activities. It has been argued that these spaces, outside traditional education, are able to offer pedagogical insights (Twining 2009) i.e. that these global virtual communities have been identified as being useful as creative educational environments (Delwiche 2006; Sheehy 2009). This chapter will explore how researchers might use these spaces to investigative and create inclusive educational experiences for learners. In order to do this the chapter considers three interrelated issues: What is inclusive education?; How might inclusive education influence virtual world research? And, what might inclusive education look like in virtual worlds?

How to Leverage Virtual Learning Communities for Teaching Agile Communication Skills? The eGroups Case at the University of Münster in Germany and Massey University in New Zealand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina vom Brocke

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Global business life nowadays is marked by quickly evolving forms of cooperation. These are often set in virtual space where various members from different countries are brought together in order to collaborate. This trend calls for specific abilities in communication that respond to the challenges evoked by the ever evolving and newly forming nature of international virtual project teams. In this paper, these abilities are called “agile communication skills”. The paper reports on the conceptualisation and implementation of a Virtual Learning Community (VLC in a longitude study designed to foster so-called “agile communication skills”. Our research presents an approach where VLCs are used in order to create authentic evolving cooperations between students. For this matter internet technology seemed to prove as a key enabler. However, the mere use of technology does not suffice on its own. We, thus, identified design principles of VLCs that appear to be critical factors for successfully implementing such communities. We applied design-oriented research by grounding our model in prior work and formatively evaluating it in multiple case studies over a period of two years. In this paper we present the matured model and show what features characterise an eLearning environment to teach agile communication skills in a university setting. In addition we report on evaluating this model in a real-life application scenarios by giving illustrating examples from the final case study between the players involved: the Massey University in New Zealand and the University of Münster in Germany.

Using a Virtual Environment to Deliver Evidence-Based Interventions: The Facilitator's Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Villarruel, Antonia; Tschannen, Dana; Valladares, Angel; Yaksich, Joseph; Yeagley, Emily; Hawes, Armani

2015-01-01

Background Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) have the potential to maximize positive impact on communities. However, despite the quantity and quality of EBIs for prevention, the need for formalized training and associated training-related expenses, such as travel costs, program materials, and input of personnel hours, pose implementation challenges for many community-based organizations. In this study, the community of inquiry (CoI) framework was used to develop the virtual learning environment to support the adaptation of the ¡Cuídate! (Take Care of Yourself!) Training of Facilitators curriculum (an EBI) to train facilitators from community-based organizations. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of adapting a traditional face-to-face facilitator training program for ¡Cuídate!, a sexual risk reduction EBI for Latino youth, for use in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). Additionally, two aims of the study were explored: the acceptability of the facilitator training and the level of the facilitators’ knowledge and self-efficacy to implement the training. Methods A total of 35 facilitators were trained in the virtual environment. We evaluated the facilitators' experience in the virtual training environment and determined if the learning environment was acceptable and supported the acquisition of learning outcomes. To this end, the facilitators were surveyed using a modified community of inquiry survey, with questions specific to the Second Life environment and an open-ended questionnaire. In addition, a comparison to face-to-face training was conducted using survey methods. Results Results of the community of inquiry survey demonstrated a subscale mean of 23.11 (SD 4.12) out of a possible 30 on social presence, a subscale mean of 8.74 (SD 1.01) out of a possible 10 on teaching presence, and a subscale mean of 16.69 (SD 1.97) out of a possible 20 on cognitive presence. The comparison to face-to-face training showed no

Growth Hacking a Global Community

OpenAIRE

Sarkkinen, Laura; Rauhala, Marita

2015-01-01

As technology is developing at a fast phase people are engaging in community activities more and more online, either by extending their offline social life or by creating themselves a whole new parallel life as a member of virtual community. Companies behind communities are rivaling for attention and need to come up with increasingly clever tactics to attract and engage new members. In this thesis the relatively new phenomenon of growth hacking, the use of unconventional methods in order ...

Virtual colonoscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Colonoscopy - virtual; CT colonography; Computed tomographic colonography; Colography - virtual ... Differences between virtual and conventional colonoscopy include: VC can view the colon from many different angles. This is not as easy ...

Virtual Exploratories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Sisse Siggaard

2006-01-01

-systems, the paper introduces the designing strategy referred to as virtual exploratories. Some of the advanced virtual worlds may inspire the design of such provoking and challenging virtual exploratories, and especially the Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGS). However, if we have to learn from...... the design and activity of the advanced virtual worlds and role-playing games, then the empirical research on the actors’ activity, while they are acting, is an important precondition to it. A step towards the conception of such a designing strategy for virtual exploratories is currently pursued....... [1] The research project: Actors and Avatars Communicating in Virtual Worlds – an Empirical Analysis of Actors’ Sense-making Strategies When Based on a Communication Theoretical Approach’ (2006-2007) is supported...

Content Analysis of Virtual Reference Data: Reshaping Library Website Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Suhua Caroline; Welch, Jennifer M

2016-01-01

An academic health sciences library wanted to redesign its website to provide better access to health information in the community. Virtual reference data were used to provide information about user searching behavior. This study analyzed three years (2012-2014) of virtual reference data, including e-mail questions, text messaging, and live chat transcripts, to evaluate the library website for redesigning, especially in areas such as the home page, patrons' terminology, and issues prompting patrons to ask for help. A coding system based on information links in the current library website was created to analyze the data.

The role of E-mentorship in a virtual world for youth transplant recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Cantrell, Kathryn; Fischer, Amy; Bouzaher, Alisha; Bers, Marina

2010-01-01

Because of geographic distances, many youth transplant recipients do not have the opportunity to meet and form relationships with peers who have undergone similar experiences. This article explores the role of E-mentorship in virtual environments. Most specifically, by analyzing data from a study conducted with the Zora virtual world with pediatric transplant recipients, suggestions and recommendations are given for conceiving the role of virtual mentors and allocating the needed resources. Zora is a graphical virtual world designed to create a community that offers psychoeducational support and the possibility of participating in virtual activities following a curriculum explicitly designed to address issues of school transition and medical adherence. Activities are designed to foster relationships, teach technological skills, and facilitate the formation of a support network of peers and mentors.This article addresses the research question, "What makes a successful E-mentorship model in virtual worlds for children with serious illnesses?" by looking at E-mentoring patterns such as time spent online, chat analysis, initiation of conversation, initiation of activities, and out-of-world contact.

HEP specific benchmarks of virtual machines on multi-core CPU architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alef, M; Gable, I

2010-01-01

Virtualization technologies such as Xen can be used in order to satisfy the disparate and often incompatible system requirements of different user groups in shared-use computing facilities. This capability is particularly important for HEP applications, which often have restrictive requirements. The use of virtualization adds flexibility, however, it is essential that the virtualization technology place little overhead on the HEP application. We present an evaluation of the practicality of running HEP applications in multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single multi-core Linux system. We use the benchmark suite used by the HEPiX CPU Benchmarking Working Group to give a quantitative evaluation relevant to the HEP community. Benchmarks are packaged inside VMs and then the VMs are booted onto a single multi-core system. Benchmarks are then simultaneously executed on each VM to simulate highly loaded VMs running HEP applications. These techniques are applied to a variety of multi-core CPU architectures and VM configurations.

(Virtual) Water-repellent Law? Why Legal Studies Should Be Brought Into the Virtual Water Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Turrini, Paolo

2014-05-01

Virtual water studies are a marvelous example of the much praised "interdisciplinary approach", efficaciously intertwining many threads woven by scholars of very diverse fields of research. After all, if water is an object of biological interest and the word "virtual" becomes especially significant in the framework of the international trade flows, why should agronomists and economists not work together? And, with them, hydrologists, environmental engineers, network analysis experts… either working side by side or, at least, following one another's steps. Browsing the relevant academic literature one may notice that a vast array of disciplines is dealing with the topic. As a consequence, it may come as a surprise that lawyers seem to have remained almost deaf to the charming call of virtual water. A social science thoroughly "social" even if sometimes deemed (also by its practitioners) akin to humanities - and for this reason not always timely in catching the hints by hard sciences - law has a lot to say about virtual water and its manifold aspects. And it is so, in my opinion, in at least two respects. First of all, legal provisions can be determinants of social facts no less than other types of norms, such as physical or economic laws. Law shapes the human behavior by giving incentives or establishing constraints to the conduct of virtually any kind of social actor, be they farmers needing to decide what to grow, entrepreneurs willing to invest in the water market, or governments requested to address their communities' problems. All of them will make their choices in consideration of the costs, opportunities, and limits set by a number of regulations. In the second place, and strictly connected with the first reason, law may offer some answers to the challenges that virtual water and, more in general, the water-food nexus bring with them. In fact, understanding the way legal provisions affect the taking of decisions in the water sector, one may try to devise

The Tale of Two Virtual Teacher Professional Development Modules

Science.gov (United States)

Keown, Paul

2009-01-01

Virtual communities of practice (VCoP) have been advocated for some time as a promising means of taking professional development to teachers in widely distributed locations. However, geography, and indeed education literature as a whole, contains very few examples where this has been achieved. This paper reports on two VCoP professional…

Virtual Spaces and Networks in Geographical Education and Research

Science.gov (United States)

Chalmers, Lex

2009-01-01

This paper relates developments in the use of Internet-based communication technologies to contemporary exchanges of geographical ideas and content. A brief history of the Internet provides the basis for a review of uses of broadband Internet in contemporary Geography. Two themes are explored: the first is the concept of virtual communities of…

Super-virtual refraction interferometry: Theory

KAUST Repository

Bharadwaj, Pawan

2011-01-01

Inverting for the subsurface velocity distribution by refraction traveltime tomography is a well-accepted imaging method by both the exploration and earthquake seismology communities. A significant drawback, however, is that the recorded traces become noisier with increasing offset from the source position, and so prevents accurate picking of traveltimes in far-offset traces. To enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the far-offset traces, we present the theory of super-virtual refraction interferometry where the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of far-offset head-wave arrivals can be theoretically increased by a factor proportional to N; here, N is the number of receiver and source positions associated with the recording and generation of the head-wave arrival. There are two steps to this methodology: correlation and summation of the data to generate traces with virtual head-wave arrivals, followed by the convolution of the data with the virtual traces to create traces with super-virtual head-wave arrivals. This method is valid for any medium that generates head-wave arrivals. There are at least three significant benefits to this methodology: 1). enhanced SNR of far-offset traces so the first-arrival traveltimes of the noisy far-offset traces can be more reliably picked to extend the useful aperture of data, 2). the SNR of head waves in a trace that arrive after the first arrival can be enhanced for accurate traveltime picking and subsequent inversion by traveltime tomography, and 3). common receiver-pair gathers can be analyzed to detect the presence of diving waves in the first arrivals, which can be used to assess the nature of the refracting boundary. © 2011 Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Sensitivity-based virtual fields for the non-linear virtual fields method

Science.gov (United States)

Marek, Aleksander; Davis, Frances M.; Pierron, Fabrice

2017-09-01

The virtual fields method is an approach to inversely identify material parameters using full-field deformation data. In this manuscript, a new set of automatically-defined virtual fields for non-linear constitutive models has been proposed. These new sensitivity-based virtual fields reduce the influence of noise on the parameter identification. The sensitivity-based virtual fields were applied to a numerical example involving small strain plasticity; however, the general formulation derived for these virtual fields is applicable to any non-linear constitutive model. To quantify the improvement offered by these new virtual fields, they were compared with stiffness-based and manually defined virtual fields. The proposed sensitivity-based virtual fields were consistently able to identify plastic model parameters and outperform the stiffness-based and manually defined virtual fields when the data was corrupted by noise.

Review: Christian Stegbauer (2001. Grenzen virtueller Gemeinschaft – Strukturen internetbasierter Kommunikationsforen [Boundaries of Virtual Communities—Structures of Internet-based Communication Fora

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Carls

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Christian STEGBAUER discusses a common thesis for community development in the Internet as well as "popular destructuring fictions"—among them the assumption that in communication in virtual space "real life" origins, roles and status have no (or strongly reduced importance. The core of the book is the presentation of STEGBAUER's own empirical study on interaction patterns in selected mailing lists, reconstructed by means of quantitative analysis. The book contains interesting portrayals of classic models of community and group as well as one from the viewpoint of quantitative network analysis. While the means of quantification of this observation is creative and interesting, the reconstructed interaction structures, the identification of stronger central actors with high engagement in a wide variety of discussion threads, and patterns of discussions in sub-groups, are, in view of the size of most of the examined lists, not surprising. Due to the limits of analysis of interaction in mailing lists, the question about the possibility of virtual community in virtual space remains unanswered—if it is taken into consideration that interaction over various and functionally differentiated channels represents a success factor for virtual communities and groups. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0401329

Virtual Labs in proteomics: new E-learning tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Sandipan; Koshy, Nicole Rachel; Reddy, Panga Jaipal; Srivastava, Sanjeeva

2012-05-17

Web-based educational resources have gained enormous popularity recently and are increasingly becoming a part of modern educational systems. Virtual Labs are E-learning platforms where learners can gain the experience of practical experimentation without any direct physical involvement on real bench work. They use computerized simulations, models, videos, animations and other instructional technologies to create interactive content. Proteomics being one of the most rapidly growing fields of the biological sciences is now an important part of college and university curriculums. Consequently, many E-learning programs have started incorporating the theoretical and practical aspects of different proteomic techniques as an element of their course work in the form of Video Lectures and Virtual Labs. To this end, recently we have developed a Virtual Proteomics Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which demonstrates different proteomics techniques, including basic and advanced gel and MS-based protein separation and identification techniques, bioinformatics tools and molecular docking methods, and their applications in different biological samples. This Tutorial will discuss the prominent Virtual Labs featuring proteomics content, including the Virtual Proteomics Lab of IIT-Bombay, and E-resources available for proteomics study that are striving to make proteomic techniques and concepts available and accessible to the student and research community. This Tutorial is part of the International Proteomics Tutorial Programme (IPTP 14). Details can be found at: http://www.proteomicstutorials.org/. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On virtual displacement and virtual work in Lagrangian dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ray, Subhankar; Shamanna, J

2006-01-01

The confusion and ambiguity encountered by students in understanding virtual displacement and virtual work is discussed in this paper. A definition of virtual displacement is presented that allows one to express them explicitly for holonomic (velocity independent), non-holonomic (velocity dependent), scleronomous (time independent) and rheonomous (time dependent) constraints. It is observed that for holonomic, scleronomous constraints, the virtual displacements are the displacements allowed by the constraints. However, this is not so for a general class of constraints. For simple physical systems, it is shown that the work done by the constraint forces on virtual displacements is zero. This motivates Lagrange's extension of d'Alembert's principle to a system of particles in constrained motion. However, a similar zero work principle does not hold for the allowed displacements. It is also demonstrated that d'Alembert's principle of zero virtual work is necessary for the solvability of a constrained mechanical problem. We identify this special class of constraints, physically realized and solvable, as the ideal constraints. The concept of virtual displacement and the principle of zero virtual work by constraint forces are central to both Lagrange's method of undetermined multipliers and Lagrange's equations in generalized coordinates

Astronauts Prepare for Mission With Virtual Reality Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

Astronauts John M. Grunsfeld (left), STS-109 payload commander, and Nancy J. Currie, mission specialist, use the virtual reality lab at Johnson Space Center to train for upcoming duties aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. This type of computer interface paired with virtual reality training hardware and software helps to prepare the entire team to perform its duties for the fourth Hubble Space Telescope Servicing mission. The most familiar form of virtual reality technology is some form of headpiece, which fits over your eyes and displays a three dimensional computerized image of another place. Turn your head left and right, and you see what would be to your sides; turn around, and you see what might be sneaking up on you. An important part of the technology is some type of data glove that you use to propel yourself through the virtual world. Currently, the medical community is using the new technologies in four major ways: To see parts of the body more accurately, for study, to make better diagnosis of disease and to plan surgery in more detail; to obtain a more accurate picture of a procedure during surgery; to perform more types of surgery with the most noninvasive, accurate methods possible; and to model interactions among molecules at a molecular level.

Virtual Reality

Science.gov (United States)

1993-04-01

until exhausted. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGE All other editions are obsolete. UNCLASSIFIED " VIRTUAL REALITY JAMES F. DAILEY, LIEUTENANT COLONEL...US" This paper reviews the exciting field of virtual reality . The author describes the basic concepts of virtual reality and finds that its numerous...potential benefits to society could revolutionize everyday life. The various components that make up a virtual reality system are described in detail

Framework for Virtual Cognitive Experiment in Virtual Geographic Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fan Zhang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Virtual Geographic Environment Cognition is the attempt to understand the human cognition of surface features, geographic processes, and human behaviour, as well as their relationships in the real world. From the perspective of human cognition behaviour analysis and simulation, previous work in Virtual Geographic Environments (VGEs has focused mostly on representing and simulating the real world to create an ‘interpretive’ virtual world and improve an individual’s active cognition. In terms of reactive cognition, building a user ‘evaluative’ environment in a complex virtual experiment is a necessary yet challenging task. This paper discusses the outlook of VGEs and proposes a framework for virtual cognitive experiments. The framework not only employs immersive virtual environment technology to create a realistic virtual world but also involves a responsive mechanism to record the user’s cognitive activities during the experiment. Based on the framework, this paper presents two potential implementation methods: first, training a deep learning model with several hundred thousand street view images scored by online volunteers, with further analysis of which visual factors produce a sense of safety for the individual, and second, creating an immersive virtual environment and Electroencephalogram (EEG-based experimental paradigm to both record and analyse the brain activity of a user and explore what type of virtual environment is more suitable and comfortable. Finally, we present some preliminary findings based on the first method.

Building a vibrant library association: the case of Uganda ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In recent years ULA has emphasized advocacy, and contributed to progress towards new legislation (freedom of information, copyright, the National Library Act) and policies (school libraries, East African Community e-government strategy) of importance to the library and information field in Uganda and beyond.

Enabling Diverse Software Stacks on Supercomputers using High Performance Virtual Clusters.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Younge, Andrew J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Pedretti, Kevin [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Grant, Ryan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Brightwell, Ron [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2017-05-01

While large-scale simulations have been the hallmark of the High Performance Computing (HPC) community for decades, Large Scale Data Analytics (LSDA) workloads are gaining attention within the scientific community not only as a processing component to large HPC simulations, but also as standalone scientific tools for knowledge discovery. With the path towards Exascale, new HPC runtime systems are also emerging in a way that differs from classical distributed com- puting models. However, system software for such capabilities on the latest extreme-scale DOE supercomputing needs to be enhanced to more appropriately support these types of emerging soft- ware ecosystems. In this paper, we propose the use of Virtual Clusters on advanced supercomputing resources to enable systems to support not only HPC workloads, but also emerging big data stacks. Specifi- cally, we have deployed the KVM hypervisor within Cray's Compute Node Linux on a XC-series supercomputer testbed. We also use libvirt and QEMU to manage and provision VMs directly on compute nodes, leveraging Ethernet-over-Aries network emulation. To our knowledge, this is the first known use of KVM on a true MPP supercomputer. We investigate the overhead our solution using HPC benchmarks, both evaluating single-node performance as well as weak scaling of a 32-node virtual cluster. Overall, we find single node performance of our solution using KVM on a Cray is very efficient with near-native performance. However overhead increases by up to 20% as virtual cluster size increases, due to limitations of the Ethernet-over-Aries bridged network. Furthermore, we deploy Apache Spark with large data analysis workloads in a Virtual Cluster, ef- fectively demonstrating how diverse software ecosystems can be supported by High Performance Virtual Clusters.

Open access for ALICE analysis based on virtualization technology

CERN Document Server

Buncic, P; Schutz, Y

2015-01-01

Open access is one of the important leverages for long-term data preservation for a HEP experiment. To guarantee the usability of data analysis tools beyond the experiment lifetime it is crucial that third party users from the scientific community have access to the data and associated software. The ALICE Collaboration has developed a layer of lightweight components built on top of virtualization technology to hide the complexity and details of the experiment-specific software. Users can perform basic analysis tasks within CernVM, a lightweight generic virtual machine, paired with an ALICE specific contextualization. Once the virtual machine is launched, a graphical user interface is automatically started without any additional configuration. This interface allows downloading the base ALICE analysis software and running a set of ALICE analysis modules. Currently the available tools include fully documented tutorials for ALICE analysis, such as the measurement of strange particle production or the nuclear modi...

Virtualization Security Combining Mandatory Access Control and Virtual Machine Introspection

OpenAIRE

Win, Thu Yein; Tianfield, Huaglory; Mair, Quentin

2014-01-01

Virtualization has become a target for attacks in cloud computing environments. Existing approaches to protecting the virtualization environment against the attacks are limited in protection scope and are with high overheads. This paper proposes a novel virtualization security solution which aims to provide comprehensive protection of the virtualization environment.

Towards a Transcription System of Sign Language for 3D Virtual Agents

Science.gov (United States)

Do Amaral, Wanessa Machado; de Martino, José Mario

Accessibility is a growing concern in computer science. Since virtual information is mostly presented visually, it may seem that access for deaf people is not an issue. However, for prelingually deaf individuals, those who were deaf since before acquiring and formally learn a language, written information is often of limited accessibility than if presented in signing. Further, for this community, signing is their language of choice, and reading text in a spoken language is akin to using a foreign language. Sign language uses gestures and facial expressions and is widely used by deaf communities. To enabling efficient production of signed content on virtual environment, it is necessary to make written records of signs. Transcription systems have been developed to describe sign languages in written form, but these systems have limitations. Since they were not originally designed with computer animation in mind, in general, the recognition and reproduction of signs in these systems is an easy task only to those who deeply know the system. The aim of this work is to develop a transcription system to provide signed content in virtual environment. To animate a virtual avatar, a transcription system requires explicit enough information, such as movement speed, signs concatenation, sequence of each hold-and-movement and facial expressions, trying to articulate close to reality. Although many important studies in sign languages have been published, the transcription problem remains a challenge. Thus, a notation to describe, store and play signed content in virtual environments offers a multidisciplinary study and research tool, which may help linguistic studies to understand the sign languages structure and grammar.

Healthy Places for Healthy People

Science.gov (United States)

Describes the Healthy Places for Healthy People technical assistance program that helps communities create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant places by engaging with local health care facility partners

Virtual Box

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Davis, Hilary; Skov, Mikael B.; Stougaard, Malthe

2007-01-01

. This paper reports on the design, implementation and initial evaluation of Virtual Box. Virtual Box attempts to create a physical and engaging context in order to support reciprocal interactions with expressive content. An implemented version of Virtual Box is evaluated in a location-aware environment...

A Virtual Organisation Model for E-Government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janice Bum

2002-05-01

Full Text Available This paper looks at the implementation of a new customer value alliance model in e-govemment. Firstly we review the issues of e-govemment and the drive towards customer centric organisations in the context of multiple government agencies. A model of e-Government is introduced and examined within the context of a virtual organisation model which can be applied along the customer value chain across multiple service agencies. A case study is used to demonstrate how this concept of a virtual organisation as a customer value-alliance model can effect a successful transition to e-Govemment from a traditional Government model. Finally, we examine how the Aboriginal Affairs Department, a Western Australian Government agency is implementing this model for improved customer service and the implications of this model for the management of change in a developing e-community.

Leadership in MMOGs: A Field of Research on Virtual Teams

Science.gov (United States)

Mysirlaki, Sofia; Paraskeva, Fotini

2012-01-01

As our need for collaboration constantly grows, new tools have emerged to connect us in social networks, supporting the development of online communities, such as online games and virtual worlds. MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) and MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) are complex systems, in which players are…

Architectural Principles and Experimentation of Distributed High Performance Virtual Clusters

Science.gov (United States)

Younge, Andrew J.

2016-01-01

With the advent of virtualization and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), the broader scientific computing community is considering the use of clouds for their scientific computing needs. This is due to the relative scalability, ease of use, advanced user environment customization abilities, and the many novel computing paradigms available for…

Performance indices of project companies virtual divisions in the construction in CAD conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sinenko Sergey

2017-01-01

Full Text Available At the present time we consider the construction operations development triggered by the modern technologies development. The electronics, robotics, artificial intelligence, wireless technologies and more became the present-day production attribute. The creation of virtual organizations has become the expected solution of business communities. Following in the footsteps of information boom, in this article we consider the problem of construction field virtualisation, in particular: characteristics of virtuality and virtual structures operation, in-virtual organization work peculiarities, difficulties faced by the company manager with such form of work and criteria for the assessment of organization efficiency. The virtual organization is deemed to be the voluntary cooperation form of partners, aimed at project work type. This is the unique team, the basic resources of which are time and technologies. In general such organization does not have any geographical origin and it works using the Internet. In the context given herein, the virtual structure is considered in CAD conditions that is based on the high degree of construction field IT. Specific relations between the employees make the impact on the work process, therefore a number of both subjective (social, individual, etc. and objective (financial indices are given.

Realidad virtual y materialidad

OpenAIRE

Pérez Herranz, Fernando Miguel

2009-01-01

1. Fenomenología de partida: Real / Simbólico / Imaginario 2. Realidad 3. Virtual 3.1. Virtual / real / posible / probable 3.2. Los contextos de la realidad virtual A) REALIDAD VIRTUAL INMERSIVA B) REALIDAD VIRTUAL NO INMERSIVA C) REALIDAD VIRTUAL Y DIGITALIZACIÓN 3.3. Cruce virtual / real 3.4. Cuestiones filosóficas 4. Materialidad 5. Materialidad y descentramiento 5.1. Ejemplos de descentramiento en los contextos de Realidad Virtual A’) DUALISMO CARTESIANO, CUERPO Y «CIBORG » B’) EL ESPÍRIT...

Modeling and Analysis Compute Environments, Utilizing Virtualization Technology in the Climate and Earth Systems Science domain

Science.gov (United States)

Michaelis, A.; Nemani, R. R.; Wang, W.; Votava, P.; Hashimoto, H.

2010-12-01

Given the increasing complexity of climate modeling and analysis tools, it is often difficult and expensive to build or recreate an exact replica of the software compute environment used in past experiments. With the recent development of new technologies for hardware virtualization, an opportunity exists to create full modeling, analysis and compute environments that are “archiveable”, transferable and may be easily shared amongst a scientific community or presented to a bureaucratic body if the need arises. By encapsulating and entire modeling and analysis environment in a virtual machine image, others may quickly gain access to the fully built system used in past experiments, potentially easing the task and reducing the costs of reproducing and verify past results produced by other researchers. Moreover, these virtual machine images may be used as a pedagogical tool for others that are interested in performing an academic exercise but don't yet possess the broad expertise required. We built two virtual machine images, one with the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and one with Weather Research Forecast Model (WRF), then ran several small experiments to assess the feasibility, performance overheads costs, reusability, and transferability. We present a list of the pros and cons as well as lessoned learned from utilizing virtualization technology in the climate and earth systems modeling domain.

Feasibility of Virtual Reality Environments for Adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Parrish, Danielle E.; Oxhandler, Holly K.; Duron, Jacuelynn F.; Swank, Paul; Bordnick, Patrick

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study assessed the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) exposure as an assessment and treatment modality for youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods: Forty-one adolescents, 20 of which were identified as having SAD, were recruited from a community sample. Youth with and without SAD were exposed to two social virtual…

A virtual network computer's optical storage virtualization scheme

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jianzong; Hu, Huaixiang; Wan, Jiguang; Wang, Peng

2008-12-01

In this paper, we present the architecture and implementation of a virtual network computers' (VNC) optical storage virtualization scheme called VOSV. Its task is to manage the mapping of virtual optical storage to physical optical storage, a technique known as optical storage virtualization. The design of VOSV aims at the optical storage resources of different clients and servers that have high read-sharing patterns. VOSV uses several schemes such as a two-level Cache mechanism, a VNC server embedded module and the iSCSI protocols to improve the performance. The results measured on the prototype are encouraging, and indicating that VOSV provides the high I/O performance.

Virtual bronchoscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogalla, P.; Meiri, N.; Hamm, B.; Rueckert, J.C.; Schmidt, B.; Witt, C.

2001-01-01

Flexible bronchoscopy represents a clinically well-established invasive diagnostic tool. Virtual bronchoscopies, calculated from thin-slice CT sections, allow astonishing immitations of reality although principal differences exist between both technologies: the Fact that colour representation is artificial and concommitant interventions are impossible limits the clinical use of virtual bronchoscopy. However, its value increases when calculations can be attained within minutes due to technological advancements, and when virtually any chest CT is suitable for further postprocessing. Indications, findings and the clinical role of virtual bronchoscopy are discussed. (orig.) [de

Communication, Community, and Disconnection: Pre-Service Teachers in Virtual School Field Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkens, Christian; Eckdahl, Kelli; Morone, Mike; Cook, Vicki; Giblin, Thomas; Coon, Joshua

2014-01-01

This study examined the experiences of 11 graduate-level pre-service teachers completing Virtual School Field Experiences (VSFEs) with cooperating teachers in fully online, asynchronous high school courses in New York State. The VSFEs included a 7-week online teacher training course, and a 7-week online field experience. Pre-service teachers…

Virtual button interface

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, J.S.

1999-01-12

An apparatus and method of issuing commands to a computer by a user interfacing with a virtual reality environment are disclosed. To issue a command, the user directs gaze at a virtual button within the virtual reality environment, causing a perceptible change in the virtual button, which then sends a command corresponding to the virtual button to the computer, optionally after a confirming action is performed by the user, such as depressing a thumb switch. 4 figs.

Connecting Distance Learning Communities to Research via Virtual Collaboratories: A Case Study from Library and Information Science

Science.gov (United States)

Rebmann, Kristen

2012-01-01

This case study reports on patterns of participation in a virtual collaboratory organised around goals associated with the involvement of graduate students in research and writing projects. Traditionally, distance learning classrooms have been devoted to teaching content matter (in a virtual context) yet this case study reports on the use of…

Virtual interconnection platform initiative scoping study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Yong [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Kou, Gefei [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Pan, Zuohong [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Liu, Yilu [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); King Jr., Thomas J. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-01-01

Due to security and liability concerns, the research community has limited access to realistic large-scale power grid models to test and validate new operation and control methodologies. It is also difficult for industry to evaluate the relative value of competing new tools without a common platform for comparison. This report proposes to develop a large-scale virtual power grid model that retains basic features and represents future trends of major U.S. electric interconnections. This model will include realistic power flow and dynamics information as well as a relevant geospatial distribution of assets. This model will be made widely available to the research community for various power system stability and control studies and can be used as a common platform for comparing the efficacies of various new technologies.

Virtual Web Services

OpenAIRE

Rykowski, Jarogniew

2007-01-01

In this paper we propose an application of software agents to provide Virtual Web Services. A Virtual Web Service is a linked collection of several real and/or virtual Web Services, and public and private agents, accessed by the user in the same way as a single real Web Service. A Virtual Web Service allows unrestricted comparison, information merging, pipelining, etc., of data coming from different sources and in different forms. Detailed architecture and functionality of a single Virtual We...

Clustering avatars behaviours from Virtual Worlds interactions

OpenAIRE

Bello Orgaz, Gema; R-Moreno, María Dolores; Camacho, David; Barrero, David F.

2012-01-01

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Web Intelligence & Communities, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2189736.2189743 Virtual Worlds (VWs) platforms and applications provide a practical implementation of the Metaverse concept. These applications, as highly inmersive and interactive 3D environments, have become very popular in soci...

User Preferences in Reference Services: Virtual Reference and Academic Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Cummings, Joel; Cummings, Lara; Frederiksen, Linda

2007-01-01

This study examines the use of chat in an academic library's user population and where virtual reference services might fit within the spectrum of public services offered by academic libraries. Using questionnaires, this research demonstrates that many within the academic community are open to the idea of chat-based reference or using chat for…

ILCDIRAC, a DIRAC extension for the linear collider community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grefe, C; Poss, S; Sailer, A; Tsaregorodtsev, A

2014-01-01

ILCDIRAC is a complete distributed computing solution for the Linear Collider community. It's an extension of the DIRAC system and now used by all detector concepts of the LC community. ILCDIRAC provides a unified interface to the distributed resources for the ILC Virtual Organization and provides common interfaces to all ILC applications via a simplified API. It supports the overlay of beam-induced backgrounds with minimal impact on the Storage Elements by properly scheduling the jobs attempting to access the files. ILCDIRAC has been successfully used for the CLIC Conceptual Design Report and the ILC SiD Detailed Baseline Design, and is now adopted by the LC community as the official Grid production tool. Members of the CALICE collaboration also use ILCDIRAC within their own Virtual Organization.

75 FR 15601 - Greek Independence Day: a National Day of Celebration of Greek And American Democracy, 2010

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-30

... in 1823, he acknowledged Greece as ``the first of civilized nations, [which] presented examples of... their community has strengthened the fabric of our country with its vibrant culture and unique...

Structure functions of longitudinal virtual photons at low virtualities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ioffe, B.L.; Shushpanov, I.A.

1996-01-01

The structure functions F L 1 and F L 2 of longitudinal virtual photons at low virtualities are calculated in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) in the zero and first order of ChPT. It is assumed that the virtuality of a target longitudinal photon p 2 is much less than the virtuality of the hard projectile photon Q 2 and both are less than the characteristic ChPT scale. In this approximation the structure functions are determined by the production of two pions in γγ collisions. The numerical results for F L 2 and F L 1 are presented (the upper index refers to the longitudinal polarization of the virtual target photon). The possibilities of measurements of these structure functions are briefly discussed. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society

Virtual hand: a 3D tactile interface to virtual environments

Science.gov (United States)

Rogowitz, Bernice E.; Borrel, Paul

2008-02-01

We introduce a novel system that allows users to experience the sensation of touch in a computer graphics environment. In this system, the user places his/her hand on an array of pins, which is moved about space on a 6 degree-of-freedom robot arm. The surface of the pins defines a surface in the virtual world. This "virtual hand" can move about the virtual world. When the virtual hand encounters an object in the virtual world, the heights of the pins are adjusted so that they represent the object's shape, surface, and texture. A control system integrates pin and robot arm motions to transmit information about objects in the computer graphics world to the user. It also allows the user to edit, change and move the virtual objects, shapes and textures. This system provides a general framework for touching, manipulating, and modifying objects in a 3-D computer graphics environment, which may be useful in a wide range of applications, including computer games, computer aided design systems, and immersive virtual worlds.

Science Outreach in Virtual Globes; Best Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Treves, R. W.

2007-12-01

The popularity of projects such as 'Crisis in Darfur' and the IPY (International Polar Year) network link show the potential of using the rich functionality of Virtual Globes for science outreach purposes. However, the structure of outreach projects in Virtual Globes varies widely. Consider an analogy: If you pick up a science journal you immediately know where to find the contents page and what the title and cover story are meant to communicate. That is because journals have a well defined set of norms that they follow in terms of layout and design. Currently, science projects presented in virtual globes have, at best, weakly defined norms, there are little common structural elements beyond those imposed by the constraints of the virtual globe system. This is not a criticism of the science community, it is to be expected since norms take time to develop for any new technology. An example of the development of norms are pages on the web: when they first started appearing structure was unguided but over the last few years structural elements such as a left hand side navigation system and a bread crumb trail near the header have become common. In this paper I shall describe the developing norms of structure I have observed in one area of virtual globe development; Google Earth science outreach projects. These norms include text introductions, video introductions, use of folders and overlay presentation. I shall go on to examine how best to use these norms to build a clear and engaging outreach project and describe some cartographic best practices that we should also consider adopting as norms. I also will briefly explain why I think norms in science outreach aid creativity rather than limiting it despite the counter intuitive nature of this concept.

The Ever-Est Virtual Research Environment Infrastructure for Marine - the Sea Monitoring Virtual Research Community (vrc) Use Case

Science.gov (United States)

Foglini, F.

2016-12-01

The EVER-EST project aims to develop a generic Virtual Research Environment (VRE) tailored to the needs and validated by the Earth Science domain. To achieve this the EVER-EST VRE provides earth scientists with the means to seamlessly manage both the data involved in their computationally intensive disciplines and the scientific methods applied in their observations and modellings, which lead to the specific results that need to be attributable, validated and shared within the community e.g. in the form of scholarly communications. Central to this approach is the concept of Research Objects (ROs) as semantically rich aggregations of resources that bring together data, methods and people in scientific investigations. ROs enable the creation of digital artifacts that can encapsulate scientific knowledge and provide a mechanism for sharing and discovering assets of reusable research and scientific assets as first-class citizens. The EVER-EST VRE is the first RO-centric native infrastructure leveraging the notion of ROs and their application in observational rather than experimental disciplines and particularly in Earth Science. The Institute of MARine Science (ISMAR-CNR) is a scientific partner of the EVER-EST project providing useful and applicable contributions to the identification and definition of variables indicated by the European Commission in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) to achieve the Good Environment Status (GES). The VRC is willing to deliver practical methods, procedures and protocols to support coherent and widely accepted interpretation of the MSFD. The use case deal with 1. the Posidonia meadows along the Apulian coast, 2. the deep-sea corals along the Apulian continenatal slope and 3. the jellyfish abundance in the Italian water. The SeaMonitoring VRC created specific RO for asesing deep sea corals suitabilty, Posidonia meadows occurrences and for detecting jelly fish density aloing the italian coast. The VRC developed specific RO

Advanced server virtualization VMware and Microsoft platforms in the virtual data center

CERN Document Server

Marshall, David; McCrory, Dave

2006-01-01

Executives of IT organizations are compelled to quickly implement server virtualization solutions because of significant cost savings. However, most IT professionals tasked with deploying virtualization solutions have little or no experience with the technology. This creates a high demand for information on virtualization and how to properly implement it in a datacenter. Advanced Server Virtualization: VMware® and Microsoft® Platforms in the Virtual Data Center focuses on the core knowledge needed to evaluate, implement, and maintain an environment that is using server virtualization. This boo

A Virtual Class Calculus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ernst, Erik; Ostermann, Klaus; Cook, William Randall

2006-01-01

Virtual classes are class-valued attributes of objects. Like virtual methods, virtual classes are defined in an object's class and may be redefined within subclasses. They resemble inner classes, which are also defined within a class, but virtual classes are accessed through object instances...... model for virtual classes has been a long-standing open question. This paper presents a virtual class calculus, vc, that captures the essence of virtual classes in these full-fledged programming languages. The key contributions of the paper are a formalization of the dynamic and static semantics of vc...

The Virtual Tablet: Virtual Reality as a Control System

Science.gov (United States)

Chronister, Andrew

2016-01-01

In the field of human-computer interaction, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been rapidly growing areas of interest and concerted development effort thanks to both private and public research. At NASA, a number of groups have explored the possibilities afforded by AR and VR technology, among which is the IT Advanced Concepts Lab (ITACL). Within ITACL, the AVR (Augmented/Virtual Reality) Lab focuses on VR technology specifically for its use in command and control. Previous work in the AVR lab includes the Natural User Interface (NUI) project and the Virtual Control Panel (VCP) project, which created virtual three-dimensional interfaces that users could interact with while wearing a VR headset thanks to body- and hand-tracking technology. The Virtual Tablet (VT) project attempts to improve on these previous efforts by incorporating a physical surrogate which is mirrored in the virtual environment, mitigating issues with difficulty of visually determining the interface location and lack of tactile feedback discovered in the development of previous efforts. The physical surrogate takes the form of a handheld sheet of acrylic glass with several infrared-range reflective markers and a sensor package attached. Using the sensor package to track orientation and a motion-capture system to track the marker positions, a model of the surrogate is placed in the virtual environment at a position which corresponds with the real-world location relative to the user's VR Head Mounted Display (HMD). A set of control mechanisms is then projected onto the surface of the surrogate such that to the user, immersed in VR, the control interface appears to be attached to the object they are holding. The VT project was taken from an early stage where the sensor package, motion-capture system, and physical surrogate had been constructed or tested individually but not yet combined or incorporated into the virtual environment. My contribution was to combine the pieces of

A la Carte Community

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gundelach, Peter; Brincker, Benedikte

2010-01-01

and shows that there are high levels of virtual as well as face-to-face interaction among the members. The participants feel that they belong to the community and many also feel that they are recognised as part of the community. However, the members do not share common values neither in relation to software......The exchange of open source software is a phenomenon that is becoming in- creasingly significant to IT users. This article presents the results of a study of the TYPO3 community, a community related to an open source CMS software. The article explores the community, identity and values of TYPO3...... pro- duction nor generally. Instead, they stress that you are free to choose your own values. Against this background, the authors introduce the notion of an ‘a la carte community', i.e. a community where individuals pick and choose their degree of participation and integra- tion into the community...

SPASE, Metadata, and the Heliophysics Virtual Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Thieman, James; King, Todd; Roberts, Aaron

2010-01-01

To provide data search and access capability in the field of Heliophysics (the study of the Sun and its effects on the Solar System, especially the Earth) a number of Virtual Observatories (VO) have been established both via direct funding from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and through other funding agencies in the U.S. and worldwide. At least 15 systems can be labeled as Virtual Observatories in the Heliophysics community, 9 of them funded by NASA. The problem is that different metadata and data search approaches are used by these VO's and a search for data relevant to a particular research question can involve consulting with multiple VO's - needing to learn a different approach for finding and acquiring data for each. The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) project is intended to provide a common data model for Heliophysics data and therefore a common set of metadata for searches of the VO's. The SPASE Data Model has been developed through the common efforts of the Heliophysics Data and Model Consortium (HDMC) representatives over a number of years. We currently have released Version 2.1 of the Data Model. The advantages and disadvantages of the Data Model will be discussed along with the plans for the future. Recent changes requested by new members of the SPASE community indicate some of the directions for further development.

Exploring the Digital Universe with Europe's Astrophysical Virtual Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

2001-12-01

N° 73-2001 - Paris, 5 December 2001 The aim of AVO is to give astronomers instant access to the vast databanks now being built up by the world's observatories and forming what is in effect a "digital sky". Using AVO astronomers will be able, for example, to retrieve the elusive traces of the passage of an asteroid as it passes the Earth and so predict its future path and perhaps warn of a possible impact. When a giant star comes to the end of its life in a cataclysmic explosion called a supernova, they will be able to access the digital sky and pinpoint the star shortly before it exploded, adding invaluable data to the study of the evolution of stars. Modern observatories observe the sky continuously and data accumulates remorselessly in the digital archives. The growth rate is impressive and many hundreds of terabytes of data -corresponding to many thousands of billions of pixels - are already available to scientists. The real sky is being digitally reconstructed in the databanks. The volume and complexity of data and information available to astronomers are overwhelming. Hence the problem of how astronomers can possibly manage, distribute and analyse this great wealth of data. The Astrophysical Virtual Observatory will enable them to meet the challenge and "put the Universe online". AVO is a three-year project, funded by the European Commission under its Research and Technological Development (RTD) scheme, to design and implement a virtual observatory for the European astronomical community. The Commission has awarded a contract valued at EUR 4m for the project, starting on 15 November. AVO will provide software tools to enable astronomers to access the multi-wavelength data archives over the Internet and so give them the capability to resolve fundamental questions about the Universe by probing the digital sky. Equivalent searches of the "real" sky would, in comparison, both be prohibitively costly and take far too long. Towards a Global Virtual Observatory The

Virtual projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svejvig, Per; Commisso, Trine Hald

2012-01-01

that the best practice knowledge has not permeated sufficiently to the practice. Furthermore, the appropriate application of information and communication technology (ICT) remains a big challenge, and finally project managers are not sufficiently trained in organizing and conducting virtual projects....... The overall implications for research and practice are to acknowledge virtual project management as very different to traditional project management and to address this difference.......Virtual projects are common with global competition, market development, and not least the financial crisis forcing organizations to reduce their costs drastically. Organizations therefore have to place high importance on ways to carry out virtual projects and consider appropriate practices...

Capacity Building for Social Innovation: A Collective Impact Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Szarleta, Ellen J.

2017-01-01

Business, nonprofit, and government institutions generally agree that a vibrant economy is critical to addressing the multi-faceted, complex issues faced by urban communities. Yet, despite significant targeted efforts aimed at revitalizing economic activity over the past few decades, the state of many communities remains unchanged. A collective…

Interactive 3D visualization for theoretical virtual observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Dykes, T.; Hassan, A.; Gheller, C.; Croton, D.; Krokos, M.

2018-06-01

Virtual observatories (VOs) are online hubs of scientific knowledge. They encompass a collection of platforms dedicated to the storage and dissemination of astronomical data, from simple data archives to e-research platforms offering advanced tools for data exploration and analysis. Whilst the more mature platforms within VOs primarily serve the observational community, there are also services fulfilling a similar role for theoretical data. Scientific visualization can be an effective tool for analysis and exploration of data sets made accessible through web platforms for theoretical data, which often contain spatial dimensions and properties inherently suitable for visualization via e.g. mock imaging in 2D or volume rendering in 3D. We analyse the current state of 3D visualization for big theoretical astronomical data sets through scientific web portals and virtual observatory services. We discuss some of the challenges for interactive 3D visualization and how it can augment the workflow of users in a virtual observatory context. Finally we showcase a lightweight client-server visualization tool for particle-based data sets, allowing quantitative visualization via data filtering, highlighting two example use cases within the Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory.

Astronaut Prepares for Mission With Virtual Reality Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

Astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, STS-109 payload commander, uses virtual reality hardware at Johnson Space Center to rehearse some of his duties prior to the STS-109 mission. The most familiar form of virtual reality technology is some form of headpiece, which fits over your eyes and displays a three dimensional computerized image of another place. Turn your head left and right, and you see what would be to your sides; turn around, and you see what might be sneaking up on you. An important part of the technology is some type of data glove that you use to propel yourself through the virtual world. This technology allows NASA astronauts to practice International Space Station work missions in advance. Currently, the medical community is using the new technologies in four major ways: To see parts of the body more accurately, for study, to make better diagnosis of disease and to plan surgery in more detail; to obtain a more accurate picture of a procedure during surgery; to perform more types of surgery with the most noninvasive, accurate methods possible; and to model interactions among molecules at a molecular level.

Interactive 3D Visualization for Theoretical Virtual Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Dykes, Tim; Hassan, A.; Gheller, C.; Croton, D.; Krokos, M.

2018-04-01

Virtual Observatories (VOs) are online hubs of scientific knowledge. They encompass a collection of platforms dedicated to the storage and dissemination of astronomical data, from simple data archives to e-research platforms offering advanced tools for data exploration and analysis. Whilst the more mature platforms within VOs primarily serve the observational community, there are also services fulfilling a similar role for theoretical data. Scientific visualization can be an effective tool for analysis and exploration of datasets made accessible through web platforms for theoretical data, which often contain spatial dimensions and properties inherently suitable for visualization via e.g. mock imaging in 2d or volume rendering in 3d. We analyze the current state of 3d visualization for big theoretical astronomical datasets through scientific web portals and virtual observatory services. We discuss some of the challenges for interactive 3d visualization and how it can augment the workflow of users in a virtual observatory context. Finally we showcase a lightweight client-server visualization tool for particle-based datasets allowing quantitative visualization via data filtering, highlighting two example use cases within the Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory.

Virtual Museums for Landscape Valorization and Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Pietroni, E.

2017-08-01

Research in the domain of landscape virtual reconstructions has been mainly focused on digitization and recording inside GIS systems, or real time visualization, paying a minor attention to the development of a methodological approach for the landscape narration, combing different registers, conceptual, emotional incitements and, thus, able to arouse in the public a feeling of emotional "sensing" and self- identification. The landscape reflects also the human activities in the territory and the communities' cultural patterns, their sense of "belonging". In a virtual museum of landscapes, the multidisciplinary approach, the multiplication of perspectives and voices, storytelling, acquire primary importance. A Virtual Museum of landscapes should integrate both holistic and delimited visions. The holistic vision requires a diachronic approach, including both present and past phases of life. On the other side, delimited, or "monographic", representations are useful to go deeper into specific and exemplar stories, regarding specific groups of people. Beside, the emergence of new social media enhancing cultural interactions among people induce the creation of specific social platforms for Cultural Heritage for the active participation of a large number of stakeholders. Co-creation scenarios and tools can be particularly promising. Aton is an example of front-end VR social platform in the web end, for the efficient streaming of medium/large landscape, their exploration and characterization. The Tiber Valley Virtual Museum is an example of sensorial cultural landscape. Starting from the acquisition of topographical data through integrated technologies, several multi-sensory scenarios have been created, inside which visitors can feel embodied and involved.

WYSIWYG GEOPROCESSING: COUPLING SENSOR WEB AND GEOPROCESSING SERVICES IN VIRTUAL GLOBES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Zhai

2012-08-01

Full Text Available We propose to advance the scientific understanding and applications of geospatial data by coupling Sensor Web and Geoprocessing Services in Virtual Globes for higher-education teaching and research. The vision is the concept of "What You See is What You Get" geoprocessing, shortly known as WYSIWYG geoprocessing. Virtual Globes offer tremendous opportunities, such as providing a learning tool to help educational users and researchers digest global-scale geospatial information about the world, and acting as WYSIWYG platforms, where domain experts can see what their fingertips act in an interactive three-dimensional virtual environment. In the meantime, Sensor Web and Web Service technologies make a large amount of Earth observing sensors and geoprocessing functionalities easily accessible to educational users and researchers like their local resources. Coupling Sensor Web and geoprocessing Services in Virtual Globes will bring a virtual learning and research environment to the desktops of students and professors, empowering them with WYSIWYG geoprocessing capabilities. The implementation combines the visualization and communication power of Virtual Globes with the on-demand data collection and analysis functionalities of Sensor Web and geoprocessing services, to help students and researchers investigate various scientific problems in an environment with natural and intuitive user experiences. The work will contribute to the scientific and educational activities of geoinformatic communities in that they will have a platform that are easily accessible and help themselves perceive world space and perform live geoscientific processes.

Trust and virtual worlds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ess, Charles; Thorseth, May

2011-01-01

We collect diverse philosophical analyses of the issues and problems clustering around trust online with specific attention to establishing trust in virtual environments. The book moves forward important discussions of how virtual worlds and virtuality are to be defined and understood; the role o...... by virtuality, such as virtual child pornography. The introduction further develops a philosophical anthropology, rooted in Kantian ethics, phenomenology, virtue ethics, and feminist perspectives, that grounds a specific approach to ethical issues in virtual environments....

EVER-EST: European Virtual Environment for Research in Earth Science Themes

Science.gov (United States)

Glaves, H.; Albani, M.

2016-12-01

EVER-EST is an EC Horizon 2020 project having the goal to develop a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) providing a state-of-the-art solution to allow Earth Scientists to preserve their work and publications for reference and future reuse, and to share with others. The availability of such a solution, based on an innovative concept and state of art technology infrastructure, will considerably enhance the quality of how Earth Scientists work together within their own institution and also across other organizations, regions and countries. The concept of Research Objects (ROs), used in the Earth Sciences for the first time, will form the backbone of the EVER-EST VRE infrastructure. ROs will enhance the ability to preserve, re-use and share entire or individual parts of scientific workflows and all the resources related to a specific scientific investigation. These ROs will also potentially be used as part of the scholarly publication process. EVER-EST is building on technologies developed during almost 15 years of research on Earth Science data management infrastructures. The EVER-EST VRE Service Oriented Architecture is being meticulously designed to accommodate at best the requirements of a wide range of Earth Science communities and use cases: focus is put on common requirements and on minimising the level of complexity in the EVER-EST VRE to ensure future sustainability within the user communities beyond the end of the project. The EVER-EST VRE will be validated through its customisation and deployment by four Virtual Research Communities (VRCs) from different Earth Science disciplines and will support enhanced interaction between data providers and scientists in the Earth Science domain. User community will range from bio-marine researchers (Sea Monitoring use case), to common foreign and security policy institutions and stakeholders (Land Monitoring for Security use case), natural hazards forecasting systems (Natural Hazards use case), and disaster and risk

Virtual water: Virtuous impact? : the unsteady state of virtual water

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roth, D.; Warner, J.F.

2008-01-01

“Virtual water,” water needed for crop production, is now being mainstreamed in the water policy world. Relying on virtual water in the form of food imports is increasingly recommended as good policy for water-scarce areas. Virtual water globalizes discussions on water scarcity, ecological

Evolution-based Virtual Content Insertion with Visually Virtual Interactions in Videos

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chia-Hu; Wu, Ja-Ling

With the development of content-based multimedia analysis, virtual content insertion has been widely used and studied for video enrichment and multimedia advertising. However, how to automatically insert a user-selected virtual content into personal videos in a less-intrusive manner, with an attractive representation, is a challenging problem. In this chapter, we present an evolution-based virtual content insertion system which can insert virtual contents into videos with evolved animations according to predefined behaviors emulating the characteristics of evolutionary biology. The videos are considered not only as carriers of message conveyed by the virtual content but also as the environment in which the lifelike virtual contents live. Thus, the inserted virtual content will be affected by the videos to trigger a series of artificial evolutions and evolve its appearances and behaviors while interacting with video contents. By inserting virtual contents into videos through the system, users can easily create entertaining storylines and turn their personal videos into visually appealing ones. In addition, it would bring a new opportunity to increase the advertising revenue for video assets of the media industry and online video-sharing websites.

Evaluation of knowledge transfer in an immersive virtual learning environment for the transportation community.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-05-01

Immersive Virtual Learning Environments (IVLEs) are extensively used in training, but few rigorous scientific investigations regarding the : transfer of learning have been conducted. Measurement of learning transfer through evaluative methods is key ...

Theft of Virtual Property — Towards Security Requirements for Virtual Worlds

Science.gov (United States)

Beyer, Anja

The article is focused to introduce the topic of information technology security for Virtual Worlds to a security experts’ audience. Virtual Worlds are Web 2.0 applications where the users cruise through the world with their individually shaped avatars to find either amusement, challenges or the next best business deal. People do invest a lot of time but beyond they invest in buying virtual assets like fantasy witcheries, wepaons, armour, houses, clothes,...etc with the power of real world money. Although it is called “virtual” (which is often put on the same level as “not existent”) there is a real value behind it. In November 2007 dutch police arrested a seventeen years old teenager who was suspicted to have stolen virtual items in a Virtual World called Habbo Hotel [Reuters07]. In order to successfully provide security mechanisms into Virtual Worlds it is necessarry to fully understand the domain for which the security mechansims are defined. As Virtual Worlds must be clasified into the domain of Social Software the article starts with an overview of how to understand Web 2.0 and gives a short introduction to Virtual Worlds. The article then provides a consideration of assets of Virtual Worlds participants, describes how these assets can be threatened and gives an overview of appopriate security requirements and completes with an outlook of possible countermeasures.

Interaction with virtual crowd in Immersive and semi‐Immersive Virtual Reality systems

OpenAIRE

Kyriakou, Marios; Pan, Xueni; Chrysanthou, Yiorgos

2016-01-01

This study examines attributes of virtual human behavior that may increase the plausibility of a simulated crowd and affect the user's experience in Virtual Reality. Purpose-developed experiments in both Immersive and semi-Immersive Virtual Reality systems queried the impact of collision and basic interaction between real-users and the virtual crowd and their effect on the apparent realism and ease of navigation within Virtual Reality (VR). Participants' behavior and subjective measurements i...

Network communities as a new form of social organization in conditions of postmodern

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. V. Burmaha

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the approach to interpretation of essence of the network community concept in which we propose to consider it as a new form of social organization that is substantiated by the specificity of how our society is functioning in conditions of Postmodern. There were explored two main approaches to network communities studying: the first approach considers social networks in a classic, traditional interpretation of modernity as a special kind of social structure, and the second one represents social networks as a specific virtual formation, a social structure of virtual Internet reality. There were revealed some common features of a social organization and a network community: presence of permanent communication between members of the group, united by certain common interests and goals, as well as presence of the certain hierarchy among all members of the community, and the rules of conduct, implementation of communication. Distinctive features: network community is more informal, offers its members considerable leeway in the implementation of their own goals and satisfying the needs, full virtualization of communication absence of direct interaction during communication, under conditions where the main resource for the interchange in network communities is information. It was shown that in the process of emergence, development and distribution of network communities, the fundamental role is played by modern communications - namely, unification them in a stable set of interconnected networks and, in particular network communities.

Constructing Social Networks from Unstructured Group Dialog in Virtual Worlds

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Fahad; Sukthankar, Gita

Virtual worlds and massively multi-player online games are rich sources of information about large-scale teams and groups, offering the tantalizing possibility of harvesting data about group formation, social networks, and network evolution. However these environments lack many of the cues that facilitate natural language processing in other conversational settings and different types of social media. Public chat data often features players who speak simultaneously, use jargon and emoticons, and only erratically adhere to conversational norms. In this paper, we present techniques for inferring the existence of social links from unstructured conversational data collected from groups of participants in the Second Life virtual world. We present an algorithm for addressing this problem, Shallow Semantic Temporal Overlap (SSTO), that combines temporal and language information to create directional links between participants, and a second approach that relies on temporal overlap alone to create undirected links between participants. Relying on temporal overlap is noisy, resulting in a low precision and networks with many extraneous links. In this paper, we demonstrate that we can ameliorate this problem by using network modularity optimization to perform community detection in the noisy networks and severing cross-community links. Although using the content of the communications still results in the best performance, community detection is effective as a noise reduction technique for eliminating the extra links created by temporal overlap alone.

Virtual reality in Latin American clinical psychology and the VREPAR project. Virtual Reality Environments for Psycho-Neuro-physiological Assessment and Rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Mauro Rubens

2002-10-01

Starting with the excellent collective work done by the European Community (EC)-funded Virtual Reality Environments for Psycho-Neuro-physiological Assessment and Rehabilitation (VREPAR) projects, I try to indicate some possible pathways that would allow a better integration of this advanced technology into the reality of Latin American psychology. I myself use analyses that I did in my master's degree in the PUCSP-Catholic University in São Paulo, Brazil. I also include a brief description of the CD-ROM Clinical Psychology Uses of Virtual Reality (CPUVR) that accompanies my thesis. I point out the importance of collaboration between psychology and other disciplines, including computer science. I explain the method that I used to work with digital information, important for the formation of a critical mass of people thinking in Portuguese and Spanish to accelerate a technological jump.

Making the most of mobility: virtual mentoring and education practitioner professional development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hazel D. Owen

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Learning provision, including professional learning, needs to embrace mobility (of knowledge, cultures and contexts – physical and cerebral to enable education practitioners to interact locally and globally, engage with new literacies, access rich contexts, and to question, co-construct and collaborate. Virtual mentoring, also known as distance, remote, tele-, cyber- and eMentoring, offers a level of flexibility that enables mentors and mentees to maximise these concepts of mobility. There are Professional Learning and Development (PLD initiatives that offer contextualised, individualised learning experiences via mentoring partnerships and Communities of Practice (CoPs, but not so many that have focussed on virtual mentoring and online CoPs. This article describes a Virtual PLD programme that has been offered in Aotearoa New Zealand from 2009 to date and discusses findings from the associated research study, including benefits that can be specifically equated to the virtual nature of the mentoring and access to the online CoP. Also reported are shifts in mentees’ self-efficacy and perceptions of changes in professional practice.

TheCommercialValueofSocialCapitalin VirtualCommunities——FromthePerspectiveofGeneralizedVirtualEconomy%虚拟社区社会资本的商业价值——基于广义虚拟经济的视角

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

尹璐; 刘鲁

2012-01-01

　　网络中广泛存在的虚拟社区为人们提供了交流与共享的虚拟空间，在虚拟社区成员间的互动与沟通过程中，将形成一种非实物资本——社会资本。社会资本理论从三个维度上对此进行了阐释：结构维度、关系维度和认知维度。在社会化营销迅速发展的今天，虚拟社区中的社会资本也逐渐彰显出其商业价值。本文将结合社会资本理论与广义虚拟经济相关理论，以网络团购为例，对虚拟社区中社会资本对商品价值和交易活动的影响进行分析。%　　Virtual communities, which widely exist on the internet, provide cyber spaces for communica-tions and sharing among people. The interaction between community members generates a kind of virtual capital—social capital. In social capital theory, social capital is explained from three aspects:structural, rela-tional, and cognitive capital. Nowadays, the booming of social commerce has put increasing social value on the social capital in virtual communities. In this research, we will adopt social capital theory and theories in generalized fictitious economy to analyze the impact of social capital in virtual communities on commodity valueand trade. Onlinegroup buying will becited as a prominent example.

Designing Virtual Worlds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gürsimsek, Remzi Ates

2014-01-01

The online social platforms known as virtual worlds present their users various affordances for avatar based co-presence, social interaction and provide tools for collaborative content creation, including objects, textures and animations. The users of these worlds navigate their avatars as personal...... the audio-visual characteristics of designing in multi-user virtual environments generate experiential, interpersonal and textual meaning potentials....... mediators in 3D virtual space to collaborate and co-design the digital content. These co-designers are also the residents of these worlds, as they socialize by building inworld friendships. This article presents a social semiotic analysis of the three-dimensional virtual places and artifacts in the virtual...

A comparative study of hearing aids and round window application of the vibrant sound bridge (VSB) for patients with mixed or conductive hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Marino, Roberta; Linton, Nicola; Eikelboom, Robert H; Statham, Elle; Rajan, Gunesh P

2013-04-01

This study was undertaken to determine the efficacy of the round window (RW) application of the vibrant soundbridge (VSB) in patients with mixed or conductive hearing loss. Speech in quiet and in noise were compared to preoperative data attained with conventional hearing aids so that each subject served as his or her own control in a single test protocol. Eighteen adults implanted monaurally with the VSB in the poorer hearing ear. Experience with the VSB ranged from nine to 25 months. Sixteen of the 18 subjects were successful VSB users, wearing their device all waking hours. There was no significant deterioration in the averaged bone conduction results preoperatively versus post-operatively (p>0.05). Speech recognition in quiet results were not significantly different to performance attained whilst wearing hearing aids (p>0.05). Speech recognition in noise performance was substantially improved with use of the VSB in most test conditions. For the majority of the subjects, the VSB was an effective method of hearing restoration for their mixed and conductive hearing loss.

Server virtualization solutions

OpenAIRE

Jonasts, Gusts

2012-01-01

Currently in the information technology sector that is responsible for a server infrastructure is a huge development in the field of server virtualization on x86 computer architecture. As a prerequisite for such a virtualization development is growth in server productivity and underutilization of available computing power. Several companies in the market are working on two virtualization architectures – hypervizor and hosting. In this paper several of virtualization products that use host...

Virtual Trackballs Revisited

OpenAIRE

Henriksen, Knud; Sporring, Jon; Hornbæk, Kasper

2004-01-01

Udgivelsesdato: March/April Rotation of three-dimensional objects by a two-dimensional mouse is a typical task in computer-aided design, operation simulations, and desktop virtual reality. The most commonly used rotation technique is a virtual trackball surrounding the object and operated by the mouse pointer. This article reviews and provides a mathematical foundation for virtual trackballs. The first, but still popular, virtual trackball was described by Chen et al. [CHECK END OF SENTENC...

Interactive Virtual Cinematography

OpenAIRE

Burelli, Paolo

2012-01-01

A virtual camera represents the point-of-view of the player through which sheperceives the game world and gets feedback on her actions. Thus, the virtualcamera plays a vital role in 3D computer games and aects player experienceand enjoyability in games. Interactive virtual cinematography is the process ofvisualising the content of a virtual environment by positioning and animatingthe virtual camera in the context of interactive applications such as a computergame.Camera placement and animatio...

Virtual Reflexes

OpenAIRE

Jonker, Catholijn; Broekens, Joost; Plaat, Aske

2014-01-01

Virtual Reality is used successfully to treat people for regular phobias. A new challenge is to develop Virtual Reality Exposure Training for social skills. Virtual actors in such systems have to show appropriate social behavior including emotions, gaze, and keeping distance. The behavior must be realistic and real-time. Current approaches consist of four steps: 1) trainee social signal detection, 2) cognitive-affective interpretation, 3) determination of the appropriate bodily responses, and...

A Case Study of the Experiences of Instructors and Students in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with Different Cultural Backgrounds

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Keol; Kim, Mi Hwa

2015-01-01

The use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) has become more common and educators recognized the potential of VLEs as educational environments. The learning community in VLEs can be a mixture of people from all over the world with different cultural backgrounds. However, despite many studies about the use of virtual environments for learning,…

Virtual patients in a real clinical context using augmented reality: impact on antibiotics prescription behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Nifakos, Sokratis; Zary, Nabil

2014-01-01

The research community has called for the development of effective educational interventions for addressing prescription behaviour since antimicrobial resistance remains a global health issue. Examining the potential to displace the educational process from Personal Computers to Mobile devices, in this paper we investigated a new method of integration of Virtual Patients into Mobile devices with augmented reality technology, enriching the practitioner's education in prescription behavior. Moreover, we also explored which information are critical during the prescription behavior education and we visualized these information on real context with augmented reality technology, simultaneously with a running Virtual Patient's scenario. Following this process, we set the educational frame of experiential knowledge to a mixed (virtual and real) environment.

Teachers' perceptions of virtual worlds as a medium for social inclusion for adults with intellectual disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Balandin, Susan; Molka-Danielsen, Judith

2015-01-01

The aim of this research was to explore educators' perceptions of a virtual world Second Life TM as an environment for social interaction and social inclusion for the Norwegian adult students with intellectual disability that they supported. Five educators who supported a total of 10 adult students with intellectual disability in computer classes in community Adult Education Centres participated in individual in-depth interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a content analysis. Participants were positive about Second Life although they did not perceive that it offered a successful context for social interaction or inclusion. They identified a number of benefits to using a virtual world and for students participating in virtual world research. Barriers identified included language, literacy, and technology issues along with the complexity of participating independently in a virtual world. Some people with intellectual disability can use virtual worlds but the skills required need additional research. Virtual worlds may provide a stimulating, safe, and exciting context for a range of activities but the level of support required by many people is high and consequently expensive.

Virtual rapid response: the next evolution of tele-ICU.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkins, Carrie L

2012-01-01

The first of its kind in the Veterans Affairs (VA) system, the Denver VA Medical Center's tele-intensive care unit (ICU) program is unique because it is entirely nurse driven. A nontraditional tele-ICU model, the program was tailored to meet the needs of rural veterans by using critical care nursing expertise in Denver, Colorado. An experienced CCRN-certified nurse manages the system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from Eastern Colorado Health Care System. The virtual ICU provides rapid response interventions through virtual technology. This tele-ICU technology allows for a "virtual handshake" by nursing staff at the start of the shift and a report on potential patient issues. Clinical relationships have been strengthened between all 5 VA facilities in the Rocky Mountain Region, increasing the likelihood of early consultation at the onset of clinical decline of a patient. In addition, the tele-ICU nurse is available for immediate nursing consultation and support, coordinates point-to-point virtual consultation between physicians at the rural sites and specialists in Denver, and assists in expediting critical care transfers. The primary objectives for the tele-ICU program include improving quality and access of care to critical care services in rural sites, reducing community fee basis costs and frequency of transfers, and increasing collaboration and collegiality among nursing and medical staff in all Region 19's medical centers.

Corporate Philanthropy Toward Community Health Improvement in Manufacturing Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, Megan; Farley, Diane; Maechling, Claude R; Dunlop, Dorothy D; French, Dustin D; Holl, Jane L

2018-06-01

Virtually all large employers engage in corporate philanthropy, but little is known about the extent to which it is directed toward improving community health. We conducted in-depth interviews with leaders of corporate philanthropy from 13 of the largest manufacturing companies in the US to understand how giving decisions were made, the extent to which funding was directed towards improving community health, and whether companies coordinate with local public health agencies. We found that corporate giving was sizable and directed towards communities in which the manufacturers have a large presence. Giving was aligned with the social determinants of health (i.e., aimed at improving economic stability, the neighborhood and physical environment, education, food security and nutrition, the community and social context, and the health care system). However, improving public health was not often cited as a goal of corporate giving, and coordination with public health agencies was limited. Our results suggest that there may be opportunities for public health agencies to help guide corporate philanthropy, particularly by sharing community-level data and offering their measurement and evaluation expertise.

Effectiveness of a virtual intervention for primary healthcare professionals aimed at improving attitudes towards the empowerment of patients with chronic diseases: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial (e-MPODERA project).

Science.gov (United States)

González-González, Ana Isabel; Orrego, Carola; Perestelo-Perez, Lilisbeth; Bermejo-Caja, Carlos Jesús; Mora, Nuria; Koatz, Débora; Ballester, Marta; Del Pino, Tasmania; Pérez-Ramos, Jeannet; Toledo-Chavarri, Ana; Robles, Noemí; Pérez-Rivas, Francisco Javier; Ramírez-Puerta, Ana Belén; Canellas-Criado, Yolanda; Del Rey-Granado, Yolanda; Muñoz-Balsa, Marcos José; Becerril-Rojas, Beatriz; Rodríguez-Morales, David; Sánchez-Perruca, Luis; Vázquez, José Ramón; Aguirre, Armando

2017-10-30

Communities of practice are based on the idea that learning involves a group of people exchanging experiences and knowledge. The e-MPODERA project aims to assess the effectiveness of a virtual community of practice aimed at improving primary healthcare professional attitudes to the empowerment of patients with chronic diseases. This paper describes the protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. We will randomly assign 18 primary-care practices per participating region of Spain (Catalonia, Madrid and Canary Islands) to a virtual community of practice or to usual training. The primary-care practice will be the randomization unit and the primary healthcare professional will be the unit of analysis. We will need a sample of 270 primary healthcare professionals (general practitioners and nurses) and 1382 patients. We will perform randomization after professionals and patients are selected. We will ask the intervention group to participate for 12 months in a virtual community of practice based on a web 2.0 platform. We will measure the primary outcome using the Patient-Provider Orientation Scale questionnaire administered at baseline and after 12 months. Secondary outcomes will be the sociodemographic characteristics of health professionals, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients, the Patient Activation Measure questionnaire for patient activation and outcomes regarding use of the virtual community of practice. We will calculate a linear mixed-effects regression to estimate the effect of participating in the virtual community of practice. This cluster randomized controlled trial will show whether a virtual intervention for primary healthcare professionals improves attitudes to the empowerment of patients with chronic diseases. ClicalTrials.gov, NCT02757781 . Registered on 25 April 2016. Protocol Version. PI15.01 22 January 2016.

An exploration of fetish social networks and communities

OpenAIRE

Fay, Damien; Haddadi, Hamed; Seto, Michael C.; Wang, Han; Kling, Christoph Carl

2015-01-01

Online Social Networks (OSNs) provide a venue for virtual interactions and relationships between individuals. In some communities, OSNs also facilitate arranging online meetings and relationships. FetLife, the worlds largest anonymous social network for the BDSM, fetish and kink communities, provides a unique example of an OSN that serves as an interaction space, community organizing tool, and sexual market. In this paper, we present a first look at the characteristics of European members of ...

Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report

Science.gov (United States)

Langseth, Madison L.; Hsu, Leslie; Amberg, Jon J.; Bliss, Norman; Bock, Andrew R.; Bolus, Rachel T.; Bristol, R. Sky; Chase, Katherine J.; Crimmins, Theresa M.; Earle, Paul S.; Erickson, Richard; Everette, A. Lance; Falgout, Jeff T.; Faundeen, John L.; Fienen, Michael N.; Griffin, Rusty; Guy, Michelle R.; Henry, Kevin D.; Hoebelheinrich, Nancy J.; Hunt, Randall; Hutchison, Vivian B.; Ignizio, Drew A.; Infante, Dana M.; Jarnevich, Catherine; Jones, Jeanne M.; Kern, Tim; Leibowitz, Scott; Lightsom, Francis L.; Marsh, R. Lee; McCalla, S. Grace; McNiff, Marcia; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Nelson, John C.; Norkin, Tamar; Preston, Todd M.; Rosemartin, Alyssa; Sando, Roy; Sherba, Jason T.; Signell, Richard P.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Sundquist, Eric T.; Talbert, Colin B.; Viger, Roland J.; Weltzin, Jake F.; Waltman, Sharon; Weber, Marc; Wieferich, Daniel J.; Williams, Brad; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie

2017-05-19

The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working groups, virtual training series, and other CDI-sponsored events in fiscal year 2016. The report also describes the objectives and accomplishments of the 13 CDI-funded projects in fiscal year 2016.

Analysis of gaming community using Soft System Methodology

OpenAIRE

Hurych, Jan

2015-01-01

This diploma thesis aims to analyse virtual gaming community and it's problems in case of community belonging to EU server of the game called World of Tanks. To solve these problems, Soft System Methodology by P. Checkland, is used. The thesis includes analysis of significance of gaming communities for the gaming industry as a whole. Gaming community is then defined as a soft system. There are 3 problems analysed in the practical part of the thesis using newer version of SSM. One iteration of...

The Role of Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sarker, Saonee; Ahuja, Manju; Sarker, Suprateek

2011-01-01

in prior research. Our results indicate that the "mediating" model best explains how communication and trust work together to influence performance. Overall, the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on virtual teams by empirically reconciling conflicting views regarding...... to contribute some clarity to the understanding of the theoretical linkages among trust, communication, and member performance in virtual teams. To this end, we identify and test three proposed models (additive, interaction, and mediation) describing the role of trust in its relationship with communication...... the interrelationships between key constructs in the literature. Further, the study, through its adoption of the social network analysis approach, provides awareness within the IS research community of the strengths of applying network approaches in examining new organizational forms....

[Virtual + 1] * Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Beckhaus, Steffi

Virtual Reality aims at creating an artificial environment that can be perceived as a substitute to a real setting. Much effort in research and development goes into the creation of virtual environments that in their majority are perceivable only by eyes and hands. The multisensory nature of our perception, however, allows and, arguably, also expects more than that. As long as we are not able to simulate and deliver a fully sensory believable virtual environment to a user, we could make use of the fully sensory, multi-modal nature of real objects to fill in for this deficiency. The idea is to purposefully integrate real artifacts into the application and interaction, instead of dismissing anything real as hindering the virtual experience. The term virtual reality - denoting the goal, not the technology - shifts from a core virtual reality to an “enriched” reality, technologically encompassing both the computer generated and the real, physical artifacts. Together, either simultaneously or in a hybrid way, real and virtual jointly provide stimuli that are perceived by users through their senses and are later formed into an experience by the user's mind.

Virtual Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Terzopoulos, Demetri; Qureshi, Faisal Z.

Computer vision and sensor networks researchers are increasingly motivated to investigate complex multi-camera sensing and control issues that arise in the automatic visual surveillance of extensive, highly populated public spaces such as airports and train stations. However, they often encounter serious impediments to deploying and experimenting with large-scale physical camera networks in such real-world environments. We propose an alternative approach called "Virtual Vision", which facilitates this type of research through the virtual reality simulation of populated urban spaces, camera sensor networks, and computer vision on commodity computers. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by developing two highly automated surveillance systems comprising passive and active pan/tilt/zoom cameras that are deployed in a virtual train station environment populated by autonomous, lifelike virtual pedestrians. The easily reconfigurable virtual cameras distributed in this environment generate synthetic video feeds that emulate those acquired by real surveillance cameras monitoring public spaces. The novel multi-camera control strategies that we describe enable the cameras to collaborate in persistently observing pedestrians of interest and in acquiring close-up videos of pedestrians in designated areas.

Tangible interfaces in virtual environments, case study: Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear Virtual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santo, Andre Cotelli do E.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pinto, Emanuele Oliveira; Melo, Joao Victor da C.; Paula, Vanessa Marcia de; Freitas, Victor Goncalves Gloria [Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN/CNEN-RJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Machado, Daniel Mol [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra

2015-07-01

Virtual Reality (VR) techniques allow the creation of realistic representations of an individual. These technologies are being applied in several fields such as training, simulations, virtual experiments and new applications are constantly being found. This work aims to present an interactive system in virtual environments without the use of peripherals typically found in computers such as mouse and keyboard. Through the movement of head and hands it is possible to control and navigate the virtual character (avatar) in a virtual environment, an improvement in the man-machine integration. The head movements are recognized using a virtual helmet with a tracking system. An infrared camera detects the position of infrared LEDs located in the operator's head and places the vision of the virtual character in accordance with the operator's vision. The avatar control is performed by a system that detects the movement of the hands, using infrared sensors, allowing the user to move it in the virtual environment. This interaction system was implemented in the virtual model of the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN), which is located on the Ilha do Fundao - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. This three-dimensional environment, in which avatars can move and interact according to the user movements, gives a feeling of realism to the operator. The results show an interface that allows a higher degree of immersion of the operator in the virtual environment, promoting a more engaging and dynamic way of working. (author)

Tangible interfaces in virtual environments, case study: Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear Virtual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santo, Andre Cotelli do E.; Mol, Antonio Carlos A.; Pinto, Emanuele Oliveira; Melo, Joao Victor da C.; Paula, Vanessa Marcia de; Freitas, Victor Goncalves Gloria; Machado, Daniel Mol

2015-01-01

Virtual Reality (VR) techniques allow the creation of realistic representations of an individual. These technologies are being applied in several fields such as training, simulations, virtual experiments and new applications are constantly being found. This work aims to present an interactive system in virtual environments without the use of peripherals typically found in computers such as mouse and keyboard. Through the movement of head and hands it is possible to control and navigate the virtual character (avatar) in a virtual environment, an improvement in the man-machine integration. The head movements are recognized using a virtual helmet with a tracking system. An infrared camera detects the position of infrared LEDs located in the operator's head and places the vision of the virtual character in accordance with the operator's vision. The avatar control is performed by a system that detects the movement of the hands, using infrared sensors, allowing the user to move it in the virtual environment. This interaction system was implemented in the virtual model of the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN), which is located on the Ilha do Fundao - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. This three-dimensional environment, in which avatars can move and interact according to the user movements, gives a feeling of realism to the operator. The results show an interface that allows a higher degree of immersion of the operator in the virtual environment, promoting a more engaging and dynamic way of working. (author)

Your Microbes and You

Science.gov (United States)

... the healthy bacteria are filling all those little niches so that the more dangerous bacteria can’t ... normal mice have vibrant bacterial communities and a rich variety of immune cells and molecules on their ...

On a new concept of community: social networks, personal communities and collective intelligence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogério da Costa

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This text essentially deals with the transmutation of the concept of "community" into "social networks". This change is due largely to the boom of virtual communities in cyberspace, a fact that has generated a number of studies not only on this new way of weaving a society, but also on the dynamic structure of communication networks. At the core of this transformation, concepts such as social capital, trust and partial sympathy are called upon, to enable us to think about the new forms of association that regulate human activity in our time.

Comunidades em redes sociais na internet: um estudo de caso dos fotologs brasileiros | Communities in Social Networks on the internet: a case study of Brazilian photologs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Recuero

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Resumo Redes sociais online são grupos de atores que se constituem através da interação mediada pelo computador. Essas interações são capazes de estabelecer novas formas sociais de grupos e comunidades. Através da discussão de diversos conceitos de comunidade e comunidade virtual, propõe-se o estudo das comunidades virtuais como uma forma de rede social. Esse debate teórico é discutido então no campo de estudo constituído pelo Fotolog, durante os anos de 2005 e 2006. O fotolog é um sistema que permite aos usuários a publicação de fotografias, textos e comentários. Dos dados coletados através de formas qualitativas e quantitativas, propomos uma tipologia para as comunidades virtuais baseada em sua estrutura (a rede em si e sua composição (tipos de laços sociais e capital social. Esses tipos são definidos como comunidades virtuais emergentes, comunidades virtuais de associação e comunidades virtuais híbridas. Palavras-chave redes sociais, comunidades virtuais, fotolog. Abstract Online social networks are groups of actors formed by computer-mediated social interaction. These interactions are capable of establishing new social forms of groups and communities. Based on a discussion over several concepts of community and virtual community we propose the virtual community as a specific form of online social network. This theoretical debate is brought to the field studying the system named Fotolog during 2005 and 2006. Fotolog (www.fotolog.com is a web service that allows for its users to post photographs or images with an associated text and other users may comment on each other’s posts. From the collected data, we propose a typology for communities found in these networks, based on their structure (network and composition (social ties and social capital. We define three types of communities as associative virtual communities, emergent virtual communities and hybrid virtual communities. Keywords social networks, virtual

Exploring Arizona K-12 Virtual Educator Experiences and Perspectives Developing Collaborative Learning Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Cross, Deborah Iyron

2015-01-01

Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) provided an instructional alternative to nearly fifty thousand K-12 students in Arizona during the 2012-2013 school year. Growth in online education underscores the importance of evolving the role of the K-12 virtual teacher as the human agent (Turvey, 2008) demonstrating social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) by…

Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) as Lingua Franca in Virtual Communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tambo, Torben

2017-01-01

processes are carried out through informal as well as formal VCs. In formal organizations, VCs are regarded as dynamic; people or work processes move back and forth between formal business processes and VCs. It is interesting to see how VCs in enterprise landscapes can execute using a common understanding......, a single language or an expression, a lingua franca to transform ideas into knowledge, sustain representation of knowledge, and exchange knowledge with the formal, non-virtual organization. Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) has become commonplace for describing and formalizing regular enterprise...

Virtual volatility

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, A. Christian; Prange, Richard E.

2007-03-01

We introduce the concept of virtual volatility. This simple but new measure shows how to quantify the uncertainty in the forecast of the drift component of a random walk. The virtual volatility also is a useful tool in understanding the stochastic process for a given portfolio. In particular, and as an example, we were able to identify mean reversion effect in our portfolio. Finally, we briefly discuss the potential practical effect of the virtual volatility on an investor asset allocation strategy.

Virtual laboratories : comparability of real and virtual environments for environmental psychology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kort, de Y.A.W.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.; Kooijman, J.M.A.; Schuurmans, Y.

2003-01-01

Virtual environments have the potential to become important new research tools in environment behavior research. They could even become the future (virtual) laboratories, if reactions of people to virtual environments are similar to those in real environments. The present study is an exploration of

A Study on College EFL Learning Community Based on QQ International

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

WEI Li

2013-03-01

Full Text Available An EFL Learning Community has been set up online via a free messaging tool QQ International to consolidate and apply the knowledge learnt in class. One sub-community aims at developing multicultural awareness while the other focuses on expertise training in English for the undergraduates in several universities. Our innovative approach is that the trainees interact with other participants with virtual icons, virtual roles and specific achievement goals according to curriculum-related scenarios. The project team utilized surveys and observations to analyze the advantages and disadvantages from different perspectives and gain further insight into the nature of member participation, knowledge application and learning interests. Results revealed that EFL Learning Community promoted learning interests and training efficiency, contributed to interprofessional collaboration and interpersonal cooperation, with the implication that levels of moderate anonymity are the most optimal for role-plays in a learning community both online and in real life.

High availability using virtualization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calzolari, Federico; Arezzini, Silvia; Ciampa, Alberto; Mazzoni, Enrico; Domenici, Andrea; Vaglini, Gigliola

2010-01-01

High availability has always been one of the main problems for a data center. Till now high availability was achieved by host per host redundancy, a highly expensive method in terms of hardware and human costs. A new approach to the problem can be offered by virtualization. Using virtualization, it is possible to achieve a redundancy system for all the services running on a data center. This new approach to high availability allows the running virtual machines to be distributed over a small number of servers, by exploiting the features of the virtualization layer: start, stop and move virtual machines between physical hosts. The 3RC system is based on a finite state machine, providing the possibility to restart each virtual machine over any physical host, or reinstall it from scratch. A complete infrastructure has been developed to install operating system and middleware in a few minutes. To virtualize the main servers of a data center, a new procedure has been developed to migrate physical to virtual hosts. The whole Grid data center SNS-PISA is running at the moment in virtual environment under the high availability system.

Virtual reality in education

OpenAIRE

Minocha, Shailey; Tudor, Ana-Despina

2017-01-01

In this workshop-presentation, we described the evolution of virtual reality technologies and our research from 3D virtual worlds, 3D virtual environments built in gaming environments such as Unity 3D, 360-degree videos, and mobile virtual reality via Google Expeditions. For each of these four technologies, we discussed the affordances of the technologies and how they contribute towards learning and teaching. We outlined the significance of students being aware of the different virtual realit...

Virtual Reality: Principles and Applications

OpenAIRE

MÉRIENNE , Frédéric

2017-01-01

Virtual reality aims at immersing a user in a virtual environment. Dedicated virtual reality technologies of human–computer interaction enable to make the link between the user and a virtual environment in capturing the user’s motion, acting on his senses as well as computing the virtual experience in real-time. The immersion in virtual environment is evaluated through the user’s perception and reaction. Virtual reality is used in a large variety of application domains which need multisensory...

Virtual Organizations: Beyond Network Organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liviu Gabriel CRETU

2006-01-01

Full Text Available One of the most used buzz-words in (e-business literature of the last decade is virtual organization. The term "virtual" can be identified in all sorts of combinations regarding the business world. From virtual products to virtual processes or virtual teams, everything that is “touched” by the computer’s processing power instantly becomes virtual. Moreover, most of the literature treats virtual and network organizations as being synonyms. This paper aims to draw a much more distinctive line between the two concepts. Providing a more coherent description of what virtual organization might be is also one of our intentions.

Virtual Reference Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Brewer, Sally

2003-01-01

As the need to access information increases, school librarians must create virtual libraries. Linked to reliable reference resources, the virtual library extends the physical collection and library hours and lets students learn to use Web-based resources in a protected learning environment. The growing number of virtual schools increases the need…

Developing a Virtual Network of Research Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Hooper, R. P.; Kirschtl, D.

2008-12-01

The hydrologic community has been discussing the concept of a network of observatories for the advancement of hydrologic science in areas of scaling processes, in testing generality of hypotheses, and in examining non-linear couplings between hydrologic, biotic, and human systems. The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) is exploring the formation of a virtual network of observatories, formed from existing field studies without regard to funding source. Such a network would encourage sharing of data, metadata, field methods, and data analysis techniques to enable multidisciplinary synthesis, meta-analysis, and scientific collaboration in hydrologic and environmental science and engineering. The virtual network would strive to provide both the data and the environmental context of the data through advanced cyberinfrastructure support. The foundation for this virtual network is Water Data Services that enable the publication of time-series data collected at fixed points using a services-oriented architecture. These publication services, developed in the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information Systems project, permit the discovery of data from both academic and government sources through a single portal. Additional services under consideration are publication of geospatial data sets, immersive environments based upon site digital elevation models, and a common web portal to member sites populated with structured data about the site (such as land use history and geologic setting) to permit understanding the environmental context of the data being shared.

Low-Cost Solutions Using the Infrastructure as a Service with High Availability and Virtualization Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cesar Armando Moreira Zambrano

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the results obtained from the implementation of an infrastructure to improve technological services of email, virtual learning environment, digital repository and virtual library at the Polytechnic Agricultural Higher School of Manabí (Polytechnic School of Agriculture of Manabí, ESPAM, through the use of high availability and virtualization mechanisms to provide more reliable resources. Virtualization is an empowering and cutting-edge technology that is transforming the operation of technological services, but it involves a paradigm shift in serviceoriented information technologies and cloud computing. To execute each of the processes the V-cycle methodology was used as a strategy. Virtualization services empowers companies and institutions by transforming how they operate to be at the forefront of innovation in their services as a technological solution. So the implementation of redundant technology in the ESPAM, has allowed its technological services are always operative, for the benefit of the university community, because if there were failures in the main system or services, the backups will be enabled quickly allowing the systems come into operation immediately.

Game-Based Virtual Worlds as Decentralized Virtual Activity Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Scacchi, Walt

There is widespread interest in the development and use of decentralized systems and virtual world environments as possible new places for engaging in collaborative work activities. Similarly, there is widespread interest in stimulating new technological innovations that enable people to come together through social networking, file/media sharing, and networked multi-player computer game play. A decentralized virtual activity system (DVAS) is a networked computer supported work/play system whose elements and social activities can be both virtual and decentralized (Scacchi et al. 2008b). Massively multi-player online games (MMOGs) such as World of Warcraft and online virtual worlds such as Second Life are each popular examples of a DVAS. Furthermore, these systems are beginning to be used for research, deve-lopment, and education activities in different science, technology, and engineering domains (Bainbridge 2007, Bohannon et al. 2009; Rieber 2005; Scacchi and Adams 2007; Shaffer 2006), which are also of interest here. This chapter explores two case studies of DVASs developed at the University of California at Irvine that employ game-based virtual worlds to support collaborative work/play activities in different settings. The settings include those that model and simulate practical or imaginative physical worlds in different domains of science, technology, or engineering through alternative virtual worlds where players/workers engage in different kinds of quests or quest-like workflows (Jakobsson 2006).

An Exploration of Leadership in Virtual Communities of Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John T. Chrisentary

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This qualitative phenomenological research study represents the personal and professional lived experiences of midlevel leaders’ effective management of virtual committees of practice (VCoP in medical device companies in the Atlanta metro area. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 leaders of VCoP from different medical device functional specialties. The study used a combination of the modified van Manen (1990 and van Kaam methods (Moustakas, 1994 to facilitate the analysis of the data gathered through in-depth interviews. This method served as the template for data collection and analysis. The research study revealed common themes after an analysis of data. Six emergent themes were identified: (a empowerment, (b communication, (c trust, (d encouragement/inspiration, (e integrity, and (f connecting with individuals. The research findings revealed a leadership model that relies on the development of genuine leaders/follower relationships to lead a VCoP effectively.

Taking on the gender challenge in organisations: what does it take?

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, Sarah K; Sandler, Joanne; Passerini, Luca; Darmstadt, Gary L

2017-07-01

Clear patterns emerged and are summarised on conditions for success in integrating a gender equality perspective across organisational programmes and culture. In short, organisations should consider five key 'ingredients' when designing their approach to integrating a gender equality perspective: (1) have a clear vision of success with measurable indicators; (2) have high-level, consistent, visible support; (3) take an intentional approach deeply rooted in the organisational culture and competencies; (4) ensure accountability at all levels and (5) invest both financial and technical resources. A vibrant community exists in virtually every region of the world of highly experienced gender equality experts that can support organisations on this path. Late adopters of integrating a gender equality perspective can benefit from decades of practice and a robust evidence base which has shifted focus among development organisations from asking 'why' addressing gender inequalities is important to learning 'how' to most effectively do this in programmes, policies, research and organisational culture while building a strong results framework.

EMERGENCE OF THE SOCIAL CONSUMER- THE IMPACT OF PERSONALISATION, LOCALIZATION AND SOCIAL COLLABORATION ON CONSUMERISM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TATJANA PETKOVSKA MIRCHEVSKA

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Social media affects human behavior and culture through personalization, localization, advocacy, social collaboration. New form of virtual social interaction has emerged: Social Consumerism. Consumer brands are flocking to social networks. Traditional consumer purchase funnel no longer reflects the consumer purchase behavior. A new more sophisticated and more complicated than traditional funnel has emerged. This new approach, called the consumer decision journey, places greater emphasis on loyalty and advocacy and better reflects the dynamics of today’s market influenced by social media. As the online world continues to evolve understanding how to merge e-commerce with social media is critical for retail success. “Social commerce” integrates new media, via user generated content platforms and social networking features, directly onto commerce sites. By building vibrant communities that address the passion of retailer’s core audience, and spreading passion to larger social web, retailers will attract loyal and engaged customers, and will achieve better business results.

Open access for ALICE analysis based on virtualization technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buncic, P; Gheata, M; Schutz, Y

2015-01-01

Open access is one of the important leverages for long-term data preservation for a HEP experiment. To guarantee the usability of data analysis tools beyond the experiment lifetime it is crucial that third party users from the scientific community have access to the data and associated software. The ALICE Collaboration has developed a layer of lightweight components built on top of virtualization technology to hide the complexity and details of the experiment-specific software. Users can perform basic analysis tasks within CernVM, a lightweight generic virtual machine, paired with an ALICE specific contextualization. Once the virtual machine is launched, a graphical user interface is automatically started without any additional configuration. This interface allows downloading the base ALICE analysis software and running a set of ALICE analysis modules. Currently the available tools include fully documented tutorials for ALICE analysis, such as the measurement of strange particle production or the nuclear modification factor in Pb-Pb collisions. The interface can be easily extended to include an arbitrary number of additional analysis modules. We present the current status of the tools used by ALICE through the CERN open access portal, and the plans for future extensions of this system. (paper)

Virtualization A Manager's Guide

CERN Document Server

Kusnetzky, Dan

2011-01-01

What exactly is virtualization? As this concise book explains, virtualization is a smorgasbord of technologies that offer organizations many advantages, whether you're managing extremely large stores of rapidly changing data, scaling out an application, or harnessing huge amounts of computational power. With this guide, you get an overview of the five main types of virtualization technology, along with information on security, management, and modern use cases. Topics include: Access virtualization-Allows access to any application from any deviceApplication virtualization-Enables applications

Virtual reality - aesthetic consequences

OpenAIRE

Benda, Lubor

2014-01-01

In the present work we study aesthetic consequences of virtual reality. Exploring the fringe between fictional and virtual is one of the key goals, that will be achieved through etymologic and technologic definition of both fiction and virtual reality, fictional and virtual worlds. Both fiction and virtual reality will be then studied from aesthetic distance and aesthetic pleasure point of view. At the end, we will see the main difference as well as an common grounds between fiction and virtu...

User-centered virtual environment design for virtual rehabilitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rizzo Albert A

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background As physical and cognitive rehabilitation protocols utilizing virtual environments transition from single applications to comprehensive rehabilitation programs there is a need for a new design cycle methodology. Current human-computer interaction designs focus on usability without benchmarking technology within a user-in-the-loop design cycle. The field of virtual rehabilitation is unique in that determining the efficacy of this genre of computer-aided therapies requires prior knowledge of technology issues that may confound patient outcome measures. Benchmarking the technology (e.g., displays or data gloves using healthy controls may provide a means of characterizing the "normal" performance range of the virtual rehabilitation system. This standard not only allows therapists to select appropriate technology for use with their patient populations, it also allows them to account for technology limitations when assessing treatment efficacy. Methods An overview of the proposed user-centered design cycle is given. Comparisons of two optical see-through head-worn displays provide an example of benchmarking techniques. Benchmarks were obtained using a novel vision test capable of measuring a user's stereoacuity while wearing different types of head-worn displays. Results from healthy participants who performed both virtual and real-world versions of the stereoacuity test are discussed with respect to virtual rehabilitation design. Results The user-centered design cycle argues for benchmarking to precede virtual environment construction, especially for therapeutic applications. Results from real-world testing illustrate the general limitations in stereoacuity attained when viewing content using a head-worn display. Further, the stereoacuity vision benchmark test highlights differences in user performance when utilizing a similar style of head-worn display. These results support the need for including benchmarks as a means of better

User-centered virtual environment design for virtual rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fidopiastis, Cali M; Rizzo, Albert A; Rolland, Jannick P

2010-02-19

As physical and cognitive rehabilitation protocols utilizing virtual environments transition from single applications to comprehensive rehabilitation programs there is a need for a new design cycle methodology. Current human-computer interaction designs focus on usability without benchmarking technology within a user-in-the-loop design cycle. The field of virtual rehabilitation is unique in that determining the efficacy of this genre of computer-aided therapies requires prior knowledge of technology issues that may confound patient outcome measures. Benchmarking the technology (e.g., displays or data gloves) using healthy controls may provide a means of characterizing the "normal" performance range of the virtual rehabilitation system. This standard not only allows therapists to select appropriate technology for use with their patient populations, it also allows them to account for technology limitations when assessing treatment efficacy. An overview of the proposed user-centered design cycle is given. Comparisons of two optical see-through head-worn displays provide an example of benchmarking techniques. Benchmarks were obtained using a novel vision test capable of measuring a user's stereoacuity while wearing different types of head-worn displays. Results from healthy participants who performed both virtual and real-world versions of the stereoacuity test are discussed with respect to virtual rehabilitation design. The user-centered design cycle argues for benchmarking to precede virtual environment construction, especially for therapeutic applications. Results from real-world testing illustrate the general limitations in stereoacuity attained when viewing content using a head-worn display. Further, the stereoacuity vision benchmark test highlights differences in user performance when utilizing a similar style of head-worn display. These results support the need for including benchmarks as a means of better understanding user outcomes, especially for patient

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Stroud, James T; Bush, Michael R; Ladd, Mark C; Nowicki, Robert J; Shantz, Andrew A; Sweatman, Jennifer

2015-11-01

Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; "community," "assemblage," "guild," and "ensemble". We revisit Fauth et al.'s conclusion and discuss how the use of these terms has changed over time since their review. An updated analysis of term definition from a selection of popular ecological textbooks suggests that definitions have drifted away from those encountered pre-1996, and slightly disagreed with results from a survey of 100 ecology professionals (comprising of academic professors, nonacademic PhDs, graduate and undergraduate biology students). Results suggest that confusion about these terms is still widespread in ecology. We conclude with clear suggestions for definitions of each term to be adopted hereafter to provide greater cohesion among research groups.

Phenomenological classification of cultural heritage: role of virtual reality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyuk-Jin Lee

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Human consciousness is always the consciousness toward some thing and our perception of cultural heritage is no exception. Thus, understanding human cognition is closely related to understanding how the perceptible objects are classified in human mind. The perceptible objects include both physical and virtual experiences and thoughts, and it is important and necessary to analyze the types and the effective levels of those objects. With the emergence of Virtual Reality (VR technologies in cultural heritage field, it is necessary to understand how and why different cognitive media such as realor visual reality including VR, are differently recognized by people. This study suggests the philosophical and theoretical frame for the usage of phenomenological classfication and analysis. By using this new classification with the case of Korean built heritage, the role of VR is explained in cultural discourse of the community.

Using Virtualization to Integrate Weather, Climate, and Coastal Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, J. R.; Paramygin, V. A.; Figueiredo, R.; Sheng, Y.

2012-12-01

To better understand and communicate the important roles of weather and climate on the coastal environment, a unique publically available tool is being developed to support research, education, and outreach activities. This tool uses virtualization technologies to facilitate an interactive, hands-on environment in which students, researchers, and general public can perform their own numerical modeling experiments. While prior efforts have focused solely on the study of the coastal and estuary environments, this effort incorporates the community supported weather and climate model (WRF-ARW) into the Coastal Science Educational Virtual Appliance (CSEVA), an education tool used to assist in the learning of coastal transport processes; storm surge and inundation; and evacuation modeling. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is a next-generation, community developed and supported, mesoscale numerical weather prediction system designed to be used internationally for research, operations, and teaching. It includes two dynamical solvers (ARW - Advanced Research WRF and NMM - Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model) as well as a data assimilation system. WRF-ARW is the ARW dynamics solver combined with other components of the WRF system which was developed primarily at NCAR, community support provided by the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) division of National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Included with WRF is the WRF Pre-processing System (WPS) which is a set of programs to prepare input for real-data simulations. The CSEVA is based on the Grid Appliance (GA) framework and is built using virtual machine (VM) and virtual networking technologies. Virtualization supports integration of an operating system, libraries (e.g. Fortran, C, Perl, NetCDF, etc. necessary to build WRF), web server, numerical models/grids/inputs, pre-/post-processing tools (e.g. WPS / RIP4 or UPS), graphical user interfaces, "Cloud"-computing infrastructure and other tools into a

Trends in Virtualized User Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diane Barrett

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Virtualized environments can make forensics investigation more difficult. Technological advances in virtualization tools essentially make removable media a PC that can be carried around in a pocket or around a neck. Running operating systems and applications this way leaves very little trace on the host system. This paper will explore all the newest methods for virtualized environments and the implications they have on the world of forensics. It will begin by describing and differentiating between software and hardware virtualization. It will then move on to explain the various methods used for server and desktop virtualization. Next, it will explain how virtualization affects the basic forensic process. Finally, it will describe the common methods to find virtualization artifacts and identify virtual activities that affect the examination process of certain virtualized user environments.

Canadian initiative leading the way for equitable health systems and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-04-27

Apr 27, 2016 ... Home · Resources · Publications ... The field of health systems research has grown into a vibrant community. IDRC grantees are actively involved in Health Systems Global, a newinternational agency that gathers researchers, ...

Project-Based Community Participatory Action Research Using Geographic Information Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Minsung

2018-01-01

The paper investigates the effects of a project-based community participation course in which students chose research topics relevant to a local community. Specifically, the students undertook the following projects: (1) creating a virtual 3D model of a local government office, (2) creating interactive digitized versions of mountain trails using…

Spatial augmented reality merging real and virtual worlds

CERN Document Server

Bimber, Oliver

2005-01-01

Like virtual reality, augmented reality is becoming an emerging platform in new application areas for museums, edutainment, home entertainment, research, industry, and the art communities using novel approaches which have taken augmented reality beyond traditional eye-worn or hand-held displays. In this book, the authors discuss spatial augmented reality approaches that exploit optical elements, video projectors, holograms, radio frequency tags, and tracking technology, as well as interactive rendering algorithms and calibration techniques in order to embed synthetic supplements into the real

Method-centered digital communities on protocols.io for fast-paced scientific innovation [version 2; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lori Kindler

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The Internet has enabled online social interaction for scientists beyond physical meetings and conferences. Yet despite these innovations in communication, dissemination of methods is often relegated to just academic publishing. Further, these methods remain static, with subsequent advances published elsewhere and unlinked. For communities undergoing fast-paced innovation, researchers need new capabilities to share, obtain feedback, and publish methods at the forefront of scientific development. For example, a renaissance in virology is now underway given the new metagenomic methods to sequence viral DNA directly from an environment. Metagenomics makes it possible to "see" natural viral communities that could not be previously studied through culturing methods. Yet, the knowledge of specialized techniques for the production and analysis of viral metagenomes remains in a subset of labs.  This problem is common to any community using and developing emerging technologies and techniques. We developed new capabilities to create virtual communities in protocols.io, an open access platform, for disseminating protocols and knowledge at the forefront of scientific development. To demonstrate these capabilities, we present a virology community forum called VERVENet. These new features allow virology researchers to share protocols and their annotations and optimizations, connect with the broader virtual community to share knowledge, job postings, conference announcements through a common online forum, and discover the current literature through personalized recommendations to promote discussion of cutting edge research. Virtual communities in protocols.io enhance a researcher's ability to: discuss and share protocols, connect with fellow community members, and learn about new and innovative research in the field.  The web-based software for developing virtual communities is free to use on protocols.io. Data are available through public APIs at protocols.io.

Designing a Virtual Research Facility to motivate Professional-Citizen Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, Pamela

In order to handle the onslaught of data spilling from telescopes on the Earth and on orbit, CosmoQuest has created a virtual research facility that allows the public to collaborate with science teams on projects that would otherwise lack the necessary human resources. This second-generation citizen science site goes beyond asking people to click on images to also engaging them in taking classes, attending virtual seminars, and participating in virtual star parties. These features were introduced to try and expand the diversity of motivations that bring people to the project and to keep them engaged overtime - just as a research center seeks to bring a diversity of people together to work and learn over time. In creating the CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility, we sought to answer the question, “What would happen if we provided the public with the same kinds of facilities scientists have, and invite them to be our collaborators?” It had already been observed that the public readily attends public science lectures, open houses at science facilities, and education programs such as star parties. It was hoped that by creating a central facility, we could build a community of people learning and doing science in a productive manner. In order to be successful, we needed to first create the facility, then test if people were coming both to learn and to do science, and finally to verify that people were doing legitimate science. During the past 18 months of operations, we have continued to work through each of these stages, as discussed talk. At this early date, progress is on-going, and much research remains to be done, but all indications show that we are on our way to building a community of people learning and doing science. During 2013-2014, a series of studies looked at the motivations of CosmoQuest users, as well as their forms of site interactions. During this talk, we will review these results, as well as the demographics of our user population.

Primary and Secondary Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Examining Barriers to Achieving Maturity

Science.gov (United States)

Barbour, Michael; Davis, Niki; Wenmoth, Derek

2016-01-01

This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry's Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful…

The Virtual Xenbase: transitioning an online bioinformatics resource to a private cloud.

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi, Kamran; Vize, Peter D

2014-01-01

As a model organism database, Xenbase has been providing informatics and genomic data on Xenopus (Silurana) tropicalis and Xenopus laevis frogs for more than a decade. The Xenbase database contains curated, as well as community-contributed and automatically harvested literature, gene and genomic data. A GBrowse genome browser, a BLAST+ server and stock center support are available on the site. When this resource was first built, all software services and components in Xenbase ran on a single physical server, with inherent reliability, scalability and inter-dependence issues. Recent advances in networking and virtualization techniques allowed us to move Xenbase to a virtual environment, and more specifically to a private cloud. To do so we decoupled the different software services and components, such that each would run on a different virtual machine. In the process, we also upgraded many of the components. The resulting system is faster and more reliable. System maintenance is easier, as individual virtual machines can now be updated, backed up and changed independently. We are also experiencing more effective resource allocation and utilization. Database URL: www.xenbase.org. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Critical Community Building: Beyond Belonging

Science.gov (United States)

Bettez, Silvia Cristina

2011-01-01

In this paper, the author talks about community building and the power of active listening. Active listening is a particular kind of listening that requires conscious effort; it is a type of listening that some rarely practice and sometimes is virtually absent from classroom interactions. Thus active listening itself may be deceptively simple…

The Real Virtual World: Connectivity and Techno-Mediation in the Lives of College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Standlee, Alecea

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the way in which techno-mediated communication technologies, such as social media, text messaging, and virtual communities are used to negotiate, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships among college students. Using in-depth interview and online participant observation, I explore the relationship between…

Virtual reality environments for psycho-neuro-physiological assessment and rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Riva, G; Bolzoni, M; Carella, F; Galimberti, C; Griffin, M J; Lewis, C H; Luongo, R; Mardegan, P; Melis, L; Molinari-Tosatti, L; Poerschmann, C; Rovetta, A; Rushton, S; Selis, C; Wann, J

1997-01-01

Virtual Reality Environments for Psychoneurophysiological Assessment and Rehabilitation-is an European Community funded project (Telematics for health-HC 1053 http:/(/)www.etho.be/ht_projects/vrepar/) whose aim is: to develop a PC based virtual reality system (PC-VRS) for the medical market that can be marketed at a price which is accessible to its possible end-users (hospitals, universities and research centres) and which would have the modular, connectability and interoperability characteristics that the existing systems lack; to develop three hardware/software modules for the application of the PC VRS in psychoneurophysiological assessment and rehabilitation. The chosen development areas are eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia and obesity), movement disorders (Parkinson's disease and torsion dystonia) and stroke disorders (unilateral neglect and hemiparesis). This paper presents the rationale of the different approaches and the methodology used.

Virtual Reality Job Interview Training for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Matthew J.; Ginger, Emily J.; Wright, Michael; Wright, Katherine; Humm, Laura Boteler; Olsen, Dale; Bell, Morris D.; Fleming, Michael F.

2014-01-01

Services are available to help support existing employment for individual with psychiatric disabilities; however, there is a gap in services targeting job interview skills that can help obtain employment. We assessed the feasibility and efficacy of Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT) in a randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomized to VR-JIT (n=25) or treatment as usual (TAU) (n=12) groups. VR-JIT consisted of 10 hours of simulated job interviews with a virtual character and didactic online training. Participants attended 95% of lab-based training sessions and found VR-JIT easy-to-use and felt prepared for future interviews. The VR-JIT group improved their job interview role-play performance (pinterview skills and self-confidence. Future research may help clarify whether this intervention is efficacious in community-based settings. PMID:25099298

 e-Learning in Virtual Communities of Practice - And Beyond?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Karen Bjerg

2007-01-01

The work of Lave and Wenger on learning in 'communities of practice' has evoked a considerable response in e-learning environments through-out the world including Denmark in the last few decades. Within the development of web-based second language learning, the ideas of learning in communities...... interaction and case studies of e-learning language platforms within the area of teaching Danish as a second language for adult foreigners. The concepts of communities of practice are also discussed and developed....... individual process. The aim of this paper is to investigate aspects of the Danish development of e-learning platforms and, especially students' and teachers' very differing perceptions of e-learning and the concepts behind it. The analysis is based on student and teacher interviews, research on language...

Micro-blogging and Online Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorna-Jane Richardson

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The dominance of social media technologies on the Internet has located virtual communities around the use of proprietary social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, although the situation, location and definition of any online community are constantly evolving. Belonging to a number of these online communities, through social networking sites or forums is becoming a normal practice among Internet users. Yet much of the academic analysis of these online communities and networks takes place in isolation from the activities of the community itself in real life. This abstracts the community ties that people also hold offline with their online networks and does not consider the relationships and interactions that may also exist offline. This article will explore the experiences of archaeologists using the micro-blogging platform Twitter, and explore how the format and communication supported by Twitter creates a sense of community online and offline, and support professional and personal networking, using the concepts of weak ties and social capital.

“I hate coke”: an nethnographic analysis about speech anti-brand of the virtual community on orkut “Eu odeio Coca-Cola”: uma análise netnográfica sobre o discurso antimarca da comunidade virtual do orkut

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Márcio Moutinho Abdalla

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} It is evident broad organizational concerns regarding the management and maintenance of their brands. Retaliatory and repudiation action against product and services brands are shown as imposing barriers to be implemented by organizations. Thus, this study aims to deepen understanding of the subject by analyzing the speech of members of the virtual community antibrand "eu odeio coca-cola (I hate Coke" in Orkut social network, besides seeking the motivations that led these members to express their opinions. As research procedures, drew on an exploratory analysis by conducting a search netnography, which led the researchers to immerse themselves in the community for a period of one year, featuring a longitudinal study. For the analysis of information, was employed discourse analysis, which enabled the categorization of the motivations for community members to express their opinions. As a result, we found six categories of behavior, which were (1 negative experience of consumption, (2 brand association with health/aesthetics problems, (3 presumed use of illicit material in the product, (4 concern with the effects of globalization, and

Virtual Workshop

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buus, Lillian; Bygholm, Ann

In relation to the Tutor course in the Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU) project, a virtual workshop “Getting experiences with different synchronous communication media, collaboration, and group work” was held with all partner institutions in January 2006. More than 25 key-tutors within MVU...

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Ke; Lippelt, Dominique P; Hommel, Bernhard

2017-03-01

Studies investigating how people represent themselves and their own body often use variants of "ownership illusions", such as the traditional rubber-hand illusion or the more recently discovered enfacement illusion. However, these examples require rather artificial experimental setups, in which the artificial effector needs to be stroked in synchrony with the participants' real hand or face-a situation in which participants have no control over the stroking or the movements of their real or artificial effector. Here, we describe a technique to establish ownership illusions in a setup that is more realistic, more intuitive, and of presumably higher ecological validity. It allows creating the virtual-hand illusion by having participants control the movements of a virtual hand presented on a screen or in virtual space in front of them. If the virtual hand moves in synchrony with the participants' own real hand, they tend to perceive the virtual hand as part of their own body. The technique also creates the virtual-face illusion by having participants control the movements of a virtual face in front of them, again with the effect that they tend to perceive the face as their own if it moves in synchrony with their real face. Studying the circumstances that illusions of this sort can be created, increased, or reduced provides important information about how people create and maintain representations of themselves.

Enhancing Mathematical Communication for Virtual Math Teams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerry Stahl

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The Math Forum is an online resource center for pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and pre-calculus. Its Virtual Math Teams (VMT service provides an integrated web-based environment for small teams of people to discuss math and to work collaboratively on math problems or explore interesting mathematical micro-worlds together. The VMT Project studies the online math discourse that takes place during sessions of virtual math teams working on open-ended problem-solving tasks. In particular, it investigates methods of group cognition that are employed by teams in this setting. The VMT environment currently integrates social networking, synchronous text chat, a shared whiteboard for drawing, web browsers and an asynchronous wiki for exchanging findings within the larger community. A simple version of MathML is supported in the whiteboard, chat and wiki for displaying mathematical expressions. The VMT Project is currently integrating the dynamic mathematics application, GeoGebra, into its collaboration environment. This will create a multi-user version of GeoGebra, which can be used in concert with the chat, web browsers, curricular topics and wiki repository.

Virtual data in CMS production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arbree, A. et al.

2004-01-01

Initial applications of the GriPhyN Chimera Virtual Data System have been performed within the context of CMS Production of Monte Carlo Simulated Data. The GriPhyN Chimera system consists of four primary components: (1) a Virtual Data Language, which is used to describe virtual data products, (2) a Virtual Data Catalog, which is used to store virtual data entries, (3) an Abstract Planner, which resolves all dependencies of a particular virtual data product and forms a location and existence independent plan, (4) a Concrete Planner, which maps an abstract, logical plan onto concrete, physical grid resources accounting for staging in/out files and publishing results to a replica location service. A CMS Workflow Planner, MCRunJob, is used to generate virtual data products using the Virtual Data Language. Subsequently, a prototype workflow manager, known as WorkRunner, is used to schedule the instantiation of virtual data products across a grid

Virtual Data in CMS Production

CERN Document Server

Arbree, A; Bourilkov, D; Cavanaugh, R J; Graham, G; Katageri, S; Rodríguez, J; Voeckler, J; Wilde, M

2003-01-01

Initial applications of the GriPhyN Chimera Virtual Data System have been performed within the context of CMS Production of Monte Carlo Simulated Data. The GriPhyN Chimera system consists of four primary components: 1) a Virtual Data Language, which is used to describe virtual data products, 2) a Virtual Data Catalog, which is used to store virtual data entries, 3) an Abstract Planner, which resolves all dependencies of a particular virtual data product and forms a location and existence independent plan, 4) a Concrete Planner, which maps an abstract, logical plan onto concrete, physical grid resources accounting for staging in/out files and publishing results to a replica location service. A CMS Workflow Planner, MCRunJob, is used to generate virtual data products using the Virtual Data Language. Subsequently, a prototype workflow manager, known as WorkRunner, is used to schedule the instantiation of virtual data products across a grid.

Supporting Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Fractions through Co-Designing a Virtual Manipulative

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Alice; Mavrikis, Manolis; Geraniou, Eirini

2016-01-01

This study explores the impact that co-designing a virtual manipulative, Fractions Lab, had on teachers' professional development. Tapping into an existing community of practice of mathematics specialist teachers, the study identifies how a cooperative enquiry approach utilising workshops and school-based visits challenged 23 competent primary…

Virtual reality exposure therapy

OpenAIRE

Rothbaum, BO; Hodges, L; Kooper, R

1997-01-01

It has been proposed that virtual reality (VR) exposure may be an alternative to standard in vivo exposure. Virtual reality integrates real-time computer graphics, body tracking devices, visual displays, and other sensory input devices to immerse a participant in a computer- generated virtual environment. Virtual reality exposure is potentially an efficient and cost-effective treatment of anxiety disorders. VR exposure therapy reduced the fear of heights in the first control...

Virtual data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjorklund, E.

1993-01-01

In the 1970's, when computers were memory limited, operating system designers created the concept of ''virtual memory'' which gave users the ability to address more memory than physically existed. In the 1990s, many large control systems have the potential for becoming data limited. We propose that many of the principles behind virtual memory systems (working sets, locality, caching, and clustering) can also be applied to data-limited systems - creating, in effect, ''virtual data systems.'' At the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), we have applied these principles to a moderately sized (10,000 data points) data acquisition and control system. To test the principles, we measured the system's performance during tune-up, production, and maintenance periods. In this paper, we present a general discussion of the principles of a virtual data system along with some discussion of our own implementation and the results of our performance measurements

Coastal zone: Shelf-EEZ and land sea interface

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Desai, B.N.; Parulekar, A

Among the few vibrant ecotopes is the coastal zone, where multifaceted interactions among air, sea and land are dynamically balanced. An area of intense clash of interest of user community, the coastal zone harbouring vast potential of renewable...

Using Google Earth to conduct a neighborhood audit: reliability of a virtual audit instrument.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Philippa; Ailshire, Jennifer; Melendez, Robert; Bader, Michael; Morenoff, Jeffrey

2010-11-01

Over the last two decades, the impact of community characteristics on the physical and mental health of residents has emerged as an important frontier of research in population health and health disparities. However, the development and evaluation of measures to capture community characteristics is still at a relatively early stage. The purpose of this work was to assess the reliability of a neighborhood audit instrument administered in the city of Chicago using Google Street View by comparing these "virtual" data to those obtained from an identical instrument administered "in-person". We find that a virtual audit instrument can provide reliable indicators of recreational facilities, the local food environment, and general land use. However, caution should be exercised when trying to gather more finely detailed observations. Using the internet to conduct a neighborhood audit has the potential to significantly reduce the costs of collecting data objectively and unobtrusively. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using blackmail, bribery, and guilt to address the tragedy of the virtual intellectual commons

Science.gov (United States)

Griffith, P. C.; Cook, R. B.; Wilson, B. E.; Gentry, M. J.; Horta, L. M.; McGroddy, M.; Morrell, A. L.; Wilcox, L. E.

2008-12-01

One goal of the NSF's vision for 21st Century Cyberinfrastructure is to create a virtual intellectual commons for the scientific community where advanced technologies perpetuate transformation of this community's productivity and capabilities. The metadata describing scientific observations, like the first paragraph of a news story, should answer the questions who? what? why? where? when? and how?, making them discoverable, comprehensible, contextualized, exchangeable, and machine-readable. Investigators who create good scientific metadata increase the scientific value of their observations within such a virtual intellectual commons. But the tragedy of this commons arises when investigators wish to receive without giving in return. The authors of this talk will describe how they have used combinations of blackmail, bribery, and guilt to motivate good behavior by investigators participating in two major scientific programs (NASA's component of the Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia; and the US Climate Change Science Program's North American Carbon Program).

Virtual Experiments on the Neutron Science TeraGrid Gateway

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lynch, Vickie E; Cobb, John W; Farhi, Emmanuel N; Miller, Stephen D; Taylor, M

2008-01-01

The TeraGrid's outreach effort to the neutron science community is creating an environment that is encouraging the exploration of advanced cyberinfrastructure being incorporated into facility operations in a way that leverages facility operations to multiply the scientific output of its users, including many NSF supported scientists in many disciplines. The Neutron Science TeraGrid Gateway serves as an exploratory incubator for several TeraGrid projects. Virtual neutron scattering experiments from one exploratory project will be highlighted

Universidades virtuales: ¿aprendizaje real?

OpenAIRE

Valenzuela González, Jaime R.

2015-01-01

1. Introducción; 2. Modalidades educativas; 3. Concepto y características de las universidades virtuales; 4. Un modelo de universidad virtual; 5. Universidades virtuales ¿aprendizaje real?; 6. Tensiones de las universidades virtuales; 7. Referencias

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR OF VIRTUAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY IN DISTANCE LEARNING SYSTEM «KHERSON VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY»

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kravtsov H.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The questions of modeling the structure of the objects of the system, the design of software modules and technologies for creating the editor of a virtual laboratory are considered. The relevance of the study is due to the lack in existing distance learning systems of support for the creation and use of virtual laboratory work on disciplines of the natural-science profile. The subject of the study is a software module for creating and using virtual laboratory work in a distance learning system. The purpose of the study is the development of a system model and a description of the software development technology of a virtual laboratory for physics for a distance learning system. The information technologies of designing the structure of the virtual laboratory and the main modes of the program module of the editor of the virtual laboratory work are described. At the heart of the structure of the software module "Virtual Laboratory" is the multimedia Web-editor of virtual laboratory works, which is created using object-oriented design technology. The program library of multimedia 3D objects created in the development environment of interactive graphic objects Unity3D. It unifies the process of creation and processing of virtual laboratory works. The basic mathematical package for supporting calculations is the mathematical processor Waterloo Maple. The application of the developed software interface will allow teachers to create laboratory works and use them in their distance courses. Students, in turn, will be able to conduct research, performing virtual laboratory work. As an example, the editor of the virtual laboratory for physics in the distance learning system "Kherson Virtual University" is considered.

Virtualized Networks and Virtualized Optical Line Terminal (vOLT)

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Jonathan; Israel, Stephen

2017-03-01

The success of the Internet and the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is forcing telecommunications carriers to re-architecture a central office as a datacenter (CORD) so as to bring the datacenter economics and cloud agility to a central office (CO). The Open Network Operating System (ONOS) is the first open-source software-defined network (SDN) operating system which is capable of managing and controlling network, computing, and storage resources to support CORD infrastructure and network virtualization. The virtualized Optical Line Termination (vOLT) is one of the key components in such virtualized networks.

The virtual mirror: a new interaction paradigm for augmented reality environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Bichlmeier, Christoph; Heining, Sandro Michael; Feuerstein, Marco; Navab, Nassir

2009-09-01

Medical augmented reality (AR) has been widely discussed within the medical imaging as well as computer aided surgery communities. Different systems for exemplary medical applications have been proposed. Some of them produced promising results. One major issue still hindering AR technology to be regularly used in medical applications is the interaction between physician and the superimposed 3-D virtual data. Classical interaction paradigms, for instance with keyboard and mouse, to interact with visualized medical 3-D imaging data are not adequate for an AR environment. This paper introduces the concept of a tangible/controllable Virtual Mirror for medical AR applications. This concept intuitively augments the direct view of the surgeon with all desired views on volumetric medical imaging data registered with the operation site without moving around the operating table or displacing the patient. We selected two medical procedures to demonstrate and evaluate the potentials of the Virtual Mirror for the surgical workflow. Results confirm the intuitiveness of this new paradigm and its perceptive advantages for AR-based computer aided interventions.

A study on development of virtual panel and virtual collaboration system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, H. J.; Park, S. Y.; Lee, M. S.; Hong, J. H.

2001-01-01

The Nuclear I and C group of KEPRI has been peforming research and development on the VRCATS, Virtual Reality based Computer Assisted Training System. For the past two years, we have developed the first VRCATS for Youngkwang 1 nuclear power plant. Currently, we are developing an advanced VRCATS for Uljin 3 nuclear power plant. In this paepr, we will describe virtual panel system and VR based collaborate training system (VRCATS) of the Uljin VRCATS. Since Virtual Panel provides the same environment as the real MCR, trainees can expect the same training effect with Virtual Panel as they do with full scope simulator. i.e., trainees can check key variables and operate the plants and get responses with Virtual Panel. VRCTS provides another realistic training environment for trainees. In VRCATS, for example, operators in a group can work together t handle LOCA (Loss of Coolant Accident) according to emergency operation procedures

The use of virtual communities of practice to improve interprofessional collaboration and education: findings from an integrated review.

Science.gov (United States)

McLoughlin, Clodagh; Patel, Kunal D; O'Callaghan, Tom; Reeves, Scott

2018-03-01

The recent growth in online technology has led to a rapid increase in the sharing of health related information globally. Health and social care professionals are now using a wide range of virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) for learning, support, continuing professional education, knowledge management and information sharing. In this article, we report the findings from a review of the literature that explored the use of VCoPs by health and social care professionals to determine their potential for interprofessional education and collaboration. We employed integrated review methods to search and identify relevant VCoP articles. We undertook searches of PubMed and Google Scholar from 2000, which after screening, resulted in the inclusion of 19 articles. A thematic analysis generated the following key issues related to the use of VCoPs: 'definitions and approaches', 'technological infrastructure', 'reported benefits', 'participation issues', 'trust and privacy and 'technical ability'. Based on the findings from this review, there is some evidence that VCoPs can offer an informal method of professional and interprofessional development for clinicians, and can decrease social and professional isolation. However, for VCoPs to be successful, issues of privacy, trust, encouragement and technology need to be addressed.

Teachers’ interactions and mathematics learning within a virtual environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aline Terra Salles

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The use of information and communication technology brings new ways of enrolment and motivation of individuals. These technologies have been an important vehicle for sharing information and constitute various communities. For this reason, it is necessary analysis of learning in virtual environments. The aim of this article focuses on the analysis of teachers interactions in the environment Virtual Math Team (VMT-Chat in addressing one problem of taxicab geometry. We study learning through different forms of participation of individuals within the environment. The results shows that the identification of different types of interlocution (evaluative, interpretative, informative and negociative allows the teacher the creation of strategies to contribute with the continuity of the debate and to promote the development of mathematical ideas emerged from interlocutions. The analysis also illustrates how teachers interacted online with the use of combinatorial analysis on the metric in taxicab geometry.

Using virtual machine monitors to overcome the challenges of monitoring and managing virtualized cloud infrastructures

Science.gov (United States)

Bamiah, Mervat Adib; Brohi, Sarfraz Nawaz; Chuprat, Suriayati

2012-01-01

Virtualization is one of the hottest research topics nowadays. Several academic researchers and developers from IT industry are designing approaches for solving security and manageability issues of Virtual Machines (VMs) residing on virtualized cloud infrastructures. Moving the application from a physical to a virtual platform increases the efficiency, flexibility and reduces management cost as well as effort. Cloud computing is adopting the paradigm of virtualization, using this technique, memory, CPU and computational power is provided to clients' VMs by utilizing the underlying physical hardware. Beside these advantages there are few challenges faced by adopting virtualization such as management of VMs and network traffic, unexpected additional cost and resource allocation. Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) or hypervisor is the tool used by cloud providers to manage the VMs on cloud. There are several heterogeneous hypervisors provided by various vendors that include VMware, Hyper-V, Xen and Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). Considering the challenge of VM management, this paper describes several techniques to monitor and manage virtualized cloud infrastructures.

Organization Virtual or Networked?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rūta Tamošiūnaitė

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose—to present distinction between “virtual organization” and “networked organization”; giving their definitions.Design/methodology/approach—review of previous researches, systemic analyses of their findings and synthesis of distinctive characteristics of ”virtual organization” and “networked organization.”Findings—the main result of the research is key diverse features separating ”virtual organization” and ”networked organization.” Definitions of “virtual organization” and “networked organization” are presented.Originality/Value—distinction between “virtual organization” and “networked organization” creates possibilities to use all advantages of those types of organizations and gives foundation for deeper researches in this field.Research type: general review.

Perception of Virtual Audiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Chollet, Mathieu; Scherer, Stefan

2017-01-01

A growing body of evidence shows that virtual audiences are a valuable tool in the treatment of social anxiety, and recent works show that it also a useful in public-speaking training programs. However, little research has focused on how such audiences are perceived and on how the behavior of virtual audiences can be manipulated to create various types of stimuli. The authors used a crowdsourcing methodology to create a virtual audience nonverbal behavior model and, with it, created a dataset of videos with virtual audiences containing varying behaviors. Using this dataset, they investigated how virtual audiences are perceived and which factors affect this perception.

Local seed businesses in Uganda: a market-oriented approach towards community seed production

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mastenbroek, A.

2015-01-01

The integrated seed sector development (ISSD) programme aims to improve food security and economic development, by providing smallholder farmers with sustainable access to quality seed of superior varieties. The specific objective of the programme is to create a vibrant, pluralistic and

Virtual School Startups: Founder Processes in American K-12 Public Virtual Schools