16119 research outputs found
Sort by
Timing Matters: Cognitive Depletion and the Effectiveness of Benefit-Focused Messaging for Insect Foods
No full textSephora Tweens: How Mobile Technology and Social Media Turn Brands into Travel Destinations
No full textThis paper explores how mobile technology and social media transform retail brands like Sephora into travel destinations for tweens aged 9 to 12. Tweens’ engagement with brands is shaped by digital and cultural trends, with Sephora’s appeal extending beyond traditional retail to influence travel behaviours through platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Sephora’s mobile app integrates features like geolocation and service booking, enabling tweens to incorporate Sephora visits into their travel plans. This study explores how smart tourism innovations, such as location-based services and augmented reality, enhance Sephora's appeal and create experiences that align with identity-driven aspirations. Using focus group discussions, the research investigates the impact of social media and mobile technology on travel behaviours, highlighting the relationship between technology, identity, and consumer culture. The findings contribute to understanding retail tourism, showing how brands evolve into cultural landmarks within smart city ecosystems, and offer marketing strategies for leveraging digital engagement and smart tourism
TeleMotion: A Realtime Humanoid Teleoperation System with Motion Capture
No full textTeleoperation serves as a vital means of interaction between humans and robots, aiming to enable robots to move in accordance with human intentions. An effective teleoperation system can facilitate seamless collaboration and communication between humans and robots, enhancing their cooperative capabilities. This paper presents a motion-capture-based upper-body teleoperation system for humanoid robots, called TeleMotion, which consists of two key modules. The first module is an inertial sensor-based motion capture subsystem that accurately tracks human motion while remaining unaffected by environmental factors such as lighting and occlusion. The second module is a learnable temporal neural network inverse kinematics algorithm (TNIK) that fully leverages the relationship between historical human motion data and robotic joint angles. This allows for the rapid and precise mapping of human motion to humanoid motion. By integrating these two modules, TeleMotion enables a highly natural and intuitive interaction method for real-time teleoperation of humanoid robot
Ventilation differences in the menstrual cycle: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Minute ventilation (V̇E) may vary across the menstrual cycle due to cyclical changes in sex hormones, potentially exerting an exercise intensity dependent effect. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to quantify differences in V̇E, respiratory frequency (RF), and tidal volume (VT) between the follicular and luteal phases at rest, during submaximal exercise (≤90%V̇O2max), and at incremental maximum (100%V̇O2max). METHODS: The systematic review adhered to PRISMA guidelines for conducting and reporting systematic reviews. Studies included healthy eumenorrheic females (≥18 years) not using hormonal contraceptives. Studies that reported V̇E in the follicular and luteal phases were included. RF and VT were extracted as secondary outcome measures. Searches were conducted in Cochrane, PubMed, and EBSCO databases in January 2025. Study quality was assessed using the modified Downs and Black checklist for menstrual cycle research. Data were extracted and analysed using maximum likelihood random-effect meta-analyses followed with meta-regressions with intensity and duration as a moderator in submaximal exercise. Publication bias was assessed using Egger's test. Meta-regressions were also conducted for resting and submaximal datasets using change in progesterone as a moderator. RESULTS: A total of 35 studies inclusive of 743 participants and 64 paired datasets were included. V̇E was lower in the follicular phase than the luteal phase at rest (ES = -0.64, p < 0.001, I2 = 75.74%) and during submaximal exercise (ES = -0.89, p < 0.001, I2 = 76.58%), with no effect of study quality. Meta-regression revealed that duration and intensity did not influence menstrual cycle effect on V̇E in submaximal exercise. At incremental maximum, a small but significant effect was observed towards higher V̇E in the luteal phase than the follicular phase (ES = -0.33, p = 0.03, I2 = 61.5%) however this effect was no longer observed after removal of low-quality studies. All analyses were coupled with significant heterogeneity. Meta-regression demonstrated that change in progesterone significantly predicted V̇E changes during submaximal exercise (p = 0.02), but not at rest (p = 0.07). RF and VT analyses suggested minimal menstrual cycle effect, with only VT reductions at rest contributing to V̇E differences, this was likely related to the low number of studies included. CONCLUSIONS: The menstrual cycle significantly influences V̇E, with lower values in the follicular phase at rest and during submaximal exercise. Changes in progesterone partially explain the differences in V̇E between menstrual phases during exercise but not at rest. At maximal intensities, hormonal influence on V̇E is minimal which corroborates the hypothesis that physiological mechanisms override hormonal mediation of ventilatory responses at high intensities. These findings suggest potential implications for exercise performance, particularly endurance activities in the luteal phase due to the increased likelihood of hyperventilation
Interactive Tangible and Intangible Heritage Applications Built on Real-Time Graphics Systems: Heritage Experiences in Desktop CG, Virtual and Augmented Reality
No full textModern virtual environment infrastructure, most commonly encountered in the guise of game engines, provide the means for the creation of a wide range of applications across the breadth of the cultural heritage domain, i.e. encompassing both tangible and intangible heritage. This chapter will list and discuss different types of interactive heritage applications, including museum exhibits, games and mobile apps, illustrated with a set of case studies that will highlight aspects of the real-time computer graphics technology of virtual environments that are particularly useful for cultural heritage
The health system in Nepal's unique federalisation experiment.
Get PDFNepal’s introduction of its federal system in the 2015 Constitution changed the way society, including its health system, was organised. It meant that political changes and health systems changes occurred in parallel. Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen explores the impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system as part of an interdisciplinary mixed-methods study* called ‘The Impact of Federalisation on Nepal’s Health System: A longitudinal Analysis’.
First, implementing a new federal system is a slow, resource intensive process. While building new federal structures is important, challenging the status quo through strategic “unlearning and undoing” of old tendencies is also essential, as this creates spaces for new approaches that are more in line with federalism. This requires attention to emotional and political spheres, and not just structural or technical ones.
Federalisation, generally, brought decision making, resources and service delivery closer to the people, yet the process remains challenging and incomplete. Importantly, at the same time as federalism was being introduced, Nepal’s health system had to respond to COVID-19, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of the pandemic from those of federalisation. The health system is also part of a broader, complex, and interdependent set of socio-political, economic, legal, and cultural systems.
We found that the impact of federalisation varied across the six WHO building blocks and pre-existing conditions, e.g. wealthier regions often benefit disproportionately, exacerbating inequities in health. Our study further highlighted: (a) the importance of leadership and governance, combined with financing mechanisms; (b) insufficient planning and misalignment between central and local levels resulting in inefficiencies; (c) weak health information systems hinder the ability to measure long-term effects. Overall, unlocking the full potential of federalism will require political will and commitment at all three levels of government.
• Funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative (Grant ref MR/T023554/1). Prof. van Teijlingen is part of the Nepal Federal Health System Team, see: https://www.nepalfederalhealthsystem.com/
Contrasting responses to riverine barrier modification and fish pass provision in two anadromous non-salmonid species during their spawning migrations
Get PDF1. Anthropogenic in-river structures represent barriers to migrating anadromous fishes. Fish pass designs usually focus on passing anadromous salmonids, and fish pass studies usually focus on site-scale metrics, failing to consider the wider effects.
2. Weir passage metrics and spawning distributions of anadromous iteroparous twaite shad Alosa fallax and semelparous sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus were assessed using acoustic telemetry between 2018 – 2023, within a catchment-scale reconnection programme on the River Severn (“Unlocking the Severn” (UtS)). Reconnection was by fish pass installation (Severn mainstem; 3 deep-vertical slot (DVS), 1 column bypass) and weir modification (Teme tributary; 1 partial removal/ reduced head height, 1 reduced gradient).
3. Time-to-event analysis revealed reconnection increased the probability of lamprey passing both the most downstream DVS and modified weir, and virgin shad were more likely than previous spawners to pass the DVS, but not the modified weir. Improvements in the proportion of tagged shad (to 7%) and lamprey (to 48%) passing the most downstream DVS were modest, but shad passage times were significantly reduced (by 20 days). Weir modification resulted in greater improvements in shad (to 58%) and lamprey (to 78%) passage. Reconnection also enabled passage on substantially lower flows; shad passed the most downstream Severn weir (via the DVS) at Q89 versus Q3 prior to construction, and lampreys at Q86 versus Q45.
4. At catchment scales, reconnection significantly increased the proportion of shad passing the pre-reconnection migration limit, but with the upstream extent of both species in the mainstem not being increased significantly, attributed to the limited motivations of individuals to access previously fragmented reaches. Returning shad expressed fidelity to previous spawning sites and lamprey lacked pheromone cues from ammocoetes upstream. Passage motivations are predicted to increase subsequently as more individuals spawn in these reaches.
5. Synthesis and applications UtS succeeded in facilitating both species to pass weirs under lower flow conditions than before. Weir modification improved passage rates more than fish pass installation, although catchment-scale benefits currently remain limited. Project legacies include identifying long-term monitoring needs to measure accumulating catchment-scale benefits, and information on the suitability of reconnection methods to inform similar reconnection programmes
Augmented Reality Enhanced: 3D Crowd Reconstruction from a Single Viewpoint
Get PDFReconstructing human figures from a single view-point has long intrigued researchers, particularly for augmented reality (AR) applications. While significant progress has been made in single-human body reconstruction, densely populated scenes with substantial occlusions pose complex challenges. This paper introduces 3DCrowd+, an advanced two-stage methodology for 3D reconstruction of human meshes in crowded environments. Building on the 3DCrowdNet framework, our model refines HRNet 2D pose estimation and integrates Lite-HRNet with Shuffle Block and CoordAttention modules, achieving robust feature extraction and lightweight performance. 3DCrowd+ combines an attention mechanism with a model pruning algorithm, demonstrating high accuracy and efficiency on various datasets. This research bridges the gap between complex crowd scenes and detailed 3D reconstruction, offering a promising solution for precise crowd modeling in AR environments
Virtual Reality Training System for Nurses: Evaluating Risks in Patients Home Environments
No full textIn this paper, we introduce a Virtual Reality (VR) nurse training simulation system designed to enhance risk management skills within patient home environments. Our VR training system focuses on preparing nurses to identify, assess, and respond to various hazards and risk factors commonly encountered in home care settings. By simulating realistic home environments and potential patient safety risks, our VR training system aims to improve nurse's situational awareness, decision-making abilities, and readiness to address complex scenarios in non-hospital environments. This approach supports the development of critical competencies essential for providing safe and effective care in patient's homes. The VR training system enhances student engagement through immersive, interactive experiences and offers immediate feedback to support effective learning. Our VR nurse training system consist of several essential components: realistic and relevant scenarios, alignment with the nursing curriculum, active instructor involvement, robust assessment tools, accessibility for all learners, and a commitment to continual improvement. Although challenges exist such as the high cost of VR technology, potential technical issues, and the need for specialized instructor training, however these can be mitigated through thoughtful planning and institutional support. Overall, VR holds the potential to transform nurse training by delivering hands-on, practical experiences that go beyond what traditional teaching methods can offer, preparing students with essential skills in a safe and controlled environment