95 research outputs found
Use of Fantasy in Serious Games to Assist Physical Rehabilitation
No full textThis study explores fantasy's role in keeping people engaged and motivated to perform physical rehabilitation, specifically incorporating fantasy elements. Physical rehabilitation helps people recover from injuries and pain; however, due to its monotonous and tedious nature, many people are not interested in it or leave the process in the middle. This research addresses the critical issue of how to keep the user engaged with the exercises. Serious games are being used in the recovery process related to health. Fantasy in games is also important in keeping the user engaged and motivated to play the game repeatedly. In this respect, in this research, fantasy elements are incorporated into the serious game to determine the user's engagement and motivation to perform physical rehab exercises. To answer the research question, a comprehensive literature review is conducted on serious games, the use of fantasy in games, and physical rehabilitation of back pain. A survey of the last five years of work in these areas has also been undertaken. After analysing the literature review, the research is further enriched by discussions with experts from the following fields: medical rehabilitation (rheumatologist and physiotherapist), physiology (physiologist and psychiatrist), and human-computer interaction. Incorporating the perspectives of experts clears many questions, and this interdisciplinary approach also enriches the research, providing diverse viewpoints and insights. Based on this literature review and the expert views, a trial is conducted using a game prototype with two distinct versions. One version incorporates a fantasy element, while the other is a non-fantasy-based environment. These versions serve as a tool to measure the impact of a fantasy-bas ed VR serious game. The trial is instrumental in assessing the significance of fantasy for users who may find their daily rehabilitation routine monotonous, thereby encouraging them to complete their required exercises.
The analysis of this tool employs a mixed-method approach in the questionnaire, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. Data collection is done in two steps with the help of medical experts and participants. In stage one, the medical experts are requested to play the prototype and evaluate the proper implementation of exercises in the game. In stage two, participants are requested to play the game after the appropriate implementation of exercises in the game. They have assessed the game engagement and motivation by the usability of fantasy elements in serious games for physical rehabilitation. The findings not only demonstrate the potential of serious games with fantasy elements to enhance user engagement and motivation in physical rehabilitation but also suggest practical implications for applying the same work to other parts of the body
Islam: Extremism and Moderation
No full textIslam has, for many years now, been torn between radical fundamentalist groups and the more intellectually moderate groups. With both groups claiming to follow the true Islam, an individual may have a difficult time in practicing one’s faith.
The ambition of this essay will be to investigate some of the major differences between the movements, more specifically the Wahhabi/Salafi movement practiced in Saudi Arabia and the more moderate approach emphasized by numerous Islamic Scholars. Grappling with these issues in my own search for the authentic Islam, this essay will provide a view of both sides with an attempt to justify the moderate position over the strict, literalist one. The intention is to show why the moderate intellectual position is more rooted in Islamic principles and values than the monotonous fanatic position. Due to the many sects, some with more extreme positions like the Khawarij alongside the more rational such as the Mu’tazilites, I decided it would be an enlightening task to break down both sides and challenge the history of both.Peer reviewedstudent peer-reviewed journal articlefinal article publishe
More Than One Path?
No full textIn the minds of many Muslims and non-Muslims the idea of salvation in Islam is quite simple: only Muslims have a chance of attaining paradise and anyone who does not profess to be a Muslim is destined for eternal doom. The ambition of this essay is to argue that from the Islamic point of view, non-Muslims do indeed have a chance of attaining God’s mercy and being saved. This will be argued by taking a look at how the Qur’an accepts diversity, verses in the Qur’an regarding other faiths, along with an explanation and commentary on these verses from some of the most learned scholars on the Qur’an. Also, this essay will look at various Prophetic precedents in Islamic history on this issue.student peer reviewed journal articlefinal article publishe
Suicidal and homicidal tendencies after Lyme disease: an ignored problem
No full textAitzaz Munir,1 Muhammad Aadil,2 Ahmad Rehan Khan3 1Department of Psychiatry, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA; 2Department of Psychiatry, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA; 3Department of Psychiatry, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA We would like to applaud the author for conducting such an important study by performing a comprehensive assessment of suicide and its association with Lyme-associated diseases (LADs).1 It is the first study of its kind, and it raises a need for further investigation on this subject. Suicide is a major health care issue in the USA, contributing to almost 42,773 deaths in the USA in 2014.2 There is no data available specific to suicide associated with LAD. Dr Bransfield inferred the possible prevalence of suicide associated with LAD by an indirect method which revealed that 414,540 patients with LAD have suicidal ideation, 31,100 attempt suicide and a total of 1,244 commit suicide in the USA per year from LAD.1,2 View the original paper by Bransfield. 
Prediction of carbon dioxide emissions from Atlantic Canadian potato fields using advanced hybridized machine learning algorithms: Nexus of field data and modelling
No full textIn this study, three novel machine learning algorithms of additive regression-random forest (AR-RF), Iterative Classifier Optimizer (ICO-AR-RF), and multi-scheme (MS-RF) were explored for carbon dioxide (CO2) flux rate prediction from three agricultural fields. To build the dataset, 401 samples were collected from two fields in Prince Edward Island (PEI) and 122 samples from the New Brunswick (NB), Canada. In addition, soil moisture (SM), temperature (ST), and electrical conductivity (EC), alongside eight climatic variables including wind speed (WS), solar radiation (SR), relative humidity (RH), precipitation (PCP), air temperature (AT), dew point (DP), vapour pressure difference (VPD) and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) were also collected. Greedy stepwise (GS) approach was implemented for feature selection. Finally, different qualitative (scatter plot, line graph, Taylor diagram, box plot, and Rug plot), and quantitative (uncertainty analysis, root mean square error (RMSE), percent of BIAS (PBIAS), Nash Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) and RMSE-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR)) techniques were used for model evaluation and comparison. Results of feature selection approaches revealed that DP, AT, SM, and ST are the four most effective variables at CO2 prediction in PEI, while AT, RH, DP, and ST are the most effective in the NB study area. For optimum input scenario, the GS algorithm was applied, and results showed that a combination of DP, AT, ST, SM, and ETo was the best for the PEI study area, while for NB, all input variables should be involved. Our analysis, for prediction of CO2 fluxes, confirmed that the ICO-AR-RF model performed the best at both PEI (RMSE=0.70, NSE=0.76, PBIAS=-5.11, RSR=0.48) and NB (RMSE=0.74, NSE=0.75, PBIAS=3.23, RSR=0.50), followed by MS-RF and AR-RF. Uncertainty analysis showed that CO2 prediction is more sensitive to input scenario selection than models in both study areas. Results revealed that climatic variables are more effective in CO2 prediction than soil characteristics and the developed hybrid model ICO-AR-RF can be a promising tool for decision-makers and beneficial for stakeholders.Atlantic Canada Opportunities AgencyGovernment of CanadaNatural Science and Engineering Council of CanadaDepartment of Energy, Environment and Climate ActionGovernment of Prince Edward Islan
Design and Development Considerations for Serious Games to Assist in the Rehabilitation of Patients with Back Pain: An overview
No full text
Using elements of escapism and fantasy in serious games for rehabilitation of patients with back pain
No full textRecent studies have evidenced that escapism can be used as a coping strategy for patients in pain. Video games can provide means of escapism through interactivity. In physical rehabilitation one of the important factors to keep person connected to physiotherapy is motivation. Serious games can be designed for the specific rehabilitation of patients.
In this study we will be placing our main focus on fantasy aesthetics and incorporating escapism technique using fantasy aesthetic to motivate patients of back pain to stay connected to the rehabilitation process
Baseline Susceptibility and Stability of Insecticide Resistance of Spodoptera litura (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the Absence of Selection Pressure
No full textAbstract.-A population of Spodoptera litura collected from Dunyapur was reared for eleven generations under laboratory conditions without any insecticide exposure. The LC 50 data was recorded through diet incorporation method against four insecticides such as emamectin benzoate, spinosad, imidacloprid and profenofos. For new chemistry insecticides the larval mortality data was taken after 72 hrs while in case of conventional insecticides the mortality data was taken after 48 hrs. Emamectin benzoate (1.59 ppm) was found to be most toxic on the basis of LC 50 values followed by spinosad (7.77 ppm), profenofos (686.5 ppm) and imidacloprid (258.75 ppm) at generation 1. The decrease in the LC 50 values after 11 generations as compared to the field population of S. litura was 4.81, 9.83, 9.3 and 13.82 folds against emamectin benzoate, spinosad, imidacloprid and profenofos, respectively. The estimated decrease in resistance was 11.36, 11.11, 16.67 and 9.61 for imidacloprid, spinosad, emamectin benzoate and profenofos, respectively. The results suggest that spinosad can be included in the control program of S. litura, due to its lower stability and higher reversion rate with insecticides bearing novel modes of action and this baseline susceptibility data could be very helpful in future monitoring of insecticide resistance in S. litura
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