4101 research outputs found
Sort by
Implementations of virtual reality for anxiety-related disorders : systematic review
No full textBackground: Although traditional forms of therapy for anxiety-related disorders (eg, cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT) have been effective, there have been long-standing issues with these therapies that largely center around the costs and risks associated with the components comprising the therapeutic process. To treat certain types of specific phobias, sessions may need to be held in public, therefore risking patient confidentiality and the occurrence of uncontrollable circumstances (eg, weather and bystander behavior) or additional expenses such as travel to reach a destination. To address these issues, past studies have implemented virtual reality (VR) technologies for virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) to provide an immersive, interactive experience that can be conducted privately and inexpensively. The versatility of VR allows various environments and scenarios to be generated while giving therapists control over variables that would otherwise be impossible in a natural setting. Although the outcomes from these studies have been generally positive despite the limitations of legacy VR systems, it is necessary to review these studies to identify how modern VR systems can and should improve to treat disorders in which anxiety is a key symptom, including specific phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and paranoid ideations.Objective: The aim of this review was to establish the efficacy of VR-based treatment for anxiety-related disorders as well as to outline how modern VR systems need to address the shortcomings of legacy VR systems.Methods: A systematic search was conducted for any VR-related, peer-reviewed articles focused on the treatment or assessment of anxiety-based disorders published before August 31, 2017, within the ProQuest Central, PsycINFO, and PsycARTICLES databases. References from these articles were also evaluated.Results: A total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria from an initial pool of 2419 studies. These studies were a mix of case studies focused solely on VRET, experimental studies comparing the efficacy of VRET with various forms of CBT (eg, in vivo exposure, imaginal exposure, and exposure group therapy), and studies evaluating the usefulness of VR technology as a diagnostic tool for paranoid ideations. The majority of studies reported positive findings in favor of VRET despite the VR technology’s limitations.Conclusions: Although past studies have demonstrated promising and emerging efficacy for the use of VR as a treatment and diagnostic tool for anxiety-related disorders, it is clear that VR technology as a whole needs to improve to provide a completely immersive and interactive experience that is capable of blurring the lines between the real and virtual world
Remarkable Lives : Patsy Flanagan in conversation with Jerome Carson
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Patsy Flanagan.Design/methodology/approach – Patsy provides a short background to her life story and is then interviewed by Jerome.Findings – Patsy shares with us a journey of suffering that started when she was only five, to today where she feels she has been saved by motherhood and would like to save others through her books.Research limitations/implications – Case studies illustrate the complexities and the richness of human experience and help us understand mental health and mental illness better.Practical implications – Patsy makes a heartfelt plea to those contemplating suicide, “I beg of you, reconsider. Life can improve.” Social implications – To tackle the mental health epidemic we are witnessing, Patsy says we must start conversations about mental wellbeing in childhood. Schools have a vital role to play.Originality/value – Patsy states that creativity and empathy can arise from suffering. Her own story bears witness to thi
An eye for an I: Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Questions of Identity
No full textThis paper sees Neil Gaiman's Coraline as following a darker tradition in children's literature, most commonly found in the fairy tale. It explores some of the existential issues that concern us all: to do with identity, sex, death, ontology, evil, desire and violence. The article takes a largely psychoanalytical approach, showing how Freud's concept of the Uncanny is particularly helpful in explaining both the text's appeal, and its creepy uneasiness. Namely, our fears about existence and identity as separate beings: our worry that we will either not be noticed (being invisible and isolated), or we will be completely consumed by the attention of another. Lacan's concepts of the Symbolic and the Real provide the theoretical underpinning for this reading, together with Kristeva's notion of the abject
Impacts of El Nino Southern oscillation and the Indian Ocean SSTs on inflow to the Roseires Dam in the Sudan
No full textn this study, potential impacts of ENSO and Indian Ocean SSTs indices on variability of inflow to the Roseires Dam are investigated. The objective is to investigate the relationship between these climatic indices and the river flow to enable building a forecasting tool to give a lead time prediction of inflow to the dam using lead time information of these indices. Ninety one years of annual flow (1914-2004) were used in the analysis. Correlation results showed that the annual inflow to the dam has negative relation with the ENSO-SST index and SST indices from two regions in the Indian Ocean. Two probabilistic prediction models were developed using the concept of conditional probability to forecast the inflow to the dam. Modelling results showed significant improvements in predictability of inflow when these indices are used as predictors. The models developed could contribute to better water management and operation of the dam reservoir
Mass customization and technology functions: enhancing market responsiveness
No full textManufacturing companies are constantly confronting the challenges of competitive markets and lack of know-how of application of technology innovations within their environments. Industries are also getting very dependable to end users’ voice and satisfaction, therefore forcing them to seek appropriate organisational strategies with the aim towards creating a consistent customer experience and efficiency enhancement. The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of IT based strategies, innovative manufacturing and marketing practices within the mass customization operations. Therefore, the authors aim to pursuit the current state of mass customization within the manufacturing industries and the existing challenges particularly relevant to customer experience. The findings of this study would be utilised by researchers and practitioners who seek explore integrations between demand aspects of mass customisation practices with a particular focus to technological infrastructure
Fire-resistant natural fibre-reinforced composites from flame retarded textiles
No full textThermoplastic composites were prepared by melt pressing fabrics from commingled natural (flax) –thermoplastic (polypropylene (PP) and poly lactic acid (PLA)) polymeric fibres. Fabrics were treated with a number of commercial flame retardants (FRs) used for textiles prior to composite preparation. Their flammabilities and mechanical performances have been evaluated in terms of FR types effective on each fibre type. The fire performances of the composite laminates evaluated using UL-94 showed that flax/PP control and all flame retarded composite samples failed the UL-94 test, except for one treated with organophosphonate FR. On the other hand all flame retarded flax/PLA samples achieved V0 rating. Cone calorimetric results obtained at 35 kW/m2 also showed that all FRs significantly reduced the flammability of the composites and that their efficiencies were more pronounced in flax/PLA than in flax/PP composites. The mechanical performances of composites evaluated in tensile, flexural and impact modes indicated that all flame retardants reduced the mechanical properties of the composites, with the extent of reduction dependent on the pH of the flame retardant solution used. The reduction in mechanical properties was more severe in flax/PLA composites than in flax/PP composites
Way more than luck
No full textWay More Than Luck is the vivid debut collection from the well-known young poet and critic Ben Wilkinson. The book opens with a series of poems that, with a remarkable clarity and sympathy, recall a battle with clinical depression: the “days when you weren’t anyone. Days gone undercover...”. The author interrogates this malady: “two-parts sadness, one-part anger”, grapples to understand that its sources are both personal and cultural. It soon emerges that competitive running, which possibly starts as therapy, a means of combat, becomes a way of life, not just for fitness but for the long-haul, for endurance. The poet finds a still, calm centre: “Running is the pure solitude of a wordless hour.” The collection centres on a series of vivid character portraits, giving life to the legends of Liverpool Football Club. With characteristic self-deprecation Wilkinson calls this section ‘An Ordinary Game’ and kicks things off with the Bill Shankly quote: “What a great day for football. All we need is some green grass and a ball.” In various inventive forms that echo the characters they celebrate or decry, the author finds in football an apt field for human display. Bruce Grobbelaar shoots a ball straight at the ref’s face; old-school Billy Liddell still inspires hymns in the stands; Stevie Gerrard is the soul of “grit”; the “dancing shadow”of John Barnes endures racism: “dark slurs circle the stands”; Fernando Torres is a latter-day Icarus. These poems recapture both the childish wonder of the young fan and the die-hard faith of adult fans undefeated by cynicism or rain.The final section, ‘An Absurd Pastime’, contains more occasional poems, about the writing life, both the graft of the craft and the petty indignities of performance as in ‘You Must Be Joking’ where a comedian must, by the brutal trial and error of stand-up, discover the means to laughter. Here, there are also poems about dreams, fraught with strange vertigo. There are also a number of tenderly hesitant love poems. There is an enjoyably vicious satire of the anodyne non-promises of a conservative party speech. Most notably, many poems in this collection are in artfully invisible poetic forms. Their rhymes and repetitions are wonderfully woven to suit content and expression. Way More Than Luck is a beautifully serious debut by a more-than-promising young author, Ben Wilkinson
Study of Potentials and Challenges in Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry: An Argentinian Case Study
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyse literature studies towards the potential of Vaca Muerta Field in the Neuquen Basin, its current development situation and the country's and Oil & Gas Industry background. Argentina is the second largest country in South America, which highly depends on its service and agricultural industries, been one of the major exporters of beef and soybean products. Strongly dependent on hydrocarbons, which account for 86.1% of its energy consumption, the country lost energy self-sufficiency in 2007, when it became a net importer of oil and gas. Concerns around the world about future shortages of energy were partially alleviated by the developments of commercially feasible techniques to extract oil and gas from unconventional resources, which are hard to extract due to the low porosity of the generating rock. Argentina turned to be the third and fourth larger holder of technically recoverable unconventional gas and oil respectively, mainly in the Neuquen Basin, were the second largest unconventional formation worldwide is located: Vaca Muerta is considered a world class resource, especially for its size, hydrocarbons content and thickness. It has been developed for seven years, achieving increasing production of oil and gas and improvements regarding costs, time and resources invested. As a conclusion, Argentina has vast and high-quality hydrocarbon reserves, what represents a huge opportunity for the country to recover energy self-sufficiency and its exporter position. New technologies and techniques are improving times and costs involved in the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons in the country. In addition, the new government is taking action to improve reliability and encourage investments. All these should enhance Vaca Muerta's development
Demographic change, PAYG pensions and child policies
No full textThe aim of the paper is to investigate how child policies affect the population growth and to what extent these policies are useful to increase pension benefits of a pay-as-you-go pension system in a small open economy. Specifically, we analyze two different child policies: the provision of child allowances and an educational subsidy. We apply an overlapping generations model in its canonical form, where we consider endogenous fertility, endogenous growth and endogenous aging of the society. From the analysis, we conclude that with a child allowance, there is a consequent increase in the number of children and decrease in pension benefits and life expectancy. On the other hand, we note that with an educational subsidy, there is a decrease in the number of children, and an increase in the pension benefits and the life expectancy, respectively. The model developed aims to complement the models of the Unified Growth Theory
Leisure, Unemployment and Social Service
No full textLong-term unemployment was a persistent feature of inter-war Britain, affecting at least 10 per cent of the insured workforce every year between 1921 and 1938, with the exception of 1927 when the proportion fell to 9.7 per cent. When uninsured workers were included, the total was higher and in 1932 3,400,000 persons, 17 per cent of the total workforce, were out of work. Ken Roberts has noted that the lower economic groups, being the most vulnerable to unemployment, are the most affected by class inequalities in leisure. This was historically the case as the concentration of unemployment in working-class areas intensified its social impacts. While areas of the midlands and south of England developed new industries and enjoyed a degree of prosperity with new opportunities for leisure through the welfare schemes of modernizing factories, regions in which the older staple industries were in economic decline experienced economic and social distress. In the north-east shipbuilding town of Jarrow, for example, over 80 per cent of workers were unemployed in 1932 while in the mining areas of South Wales the average rate was over 70 per cent