1,721,168 research outputs found
Avatar's ethnicity and gender modulate behavioral and physiological reactions to vicarious touch in immersive virtual reality
No full textThe subjective experience of being touched can be drastically affected not only by bottom-up variables (e.g. stimulus intensity) but also by top-down variables (e.g. toucher’s social characteristics1). Nevertheless, the neuroscientific investigation regarding the role of these higher-order factors is limited by ethical and practical constraints. Using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) we explored the subjective and physiological reactivity of healthy participants who wore a virtual body and observed an avatar caressing different part of it showing that it was possible to induce vicarious feelings of touch2. Here we expand previous knowledge by investigating the possible influence of gender and ethnicity of the touching avatar in modulating the experience of vicarious touch. We used IVR to substitute the participants’ real body with a virtual one. We collected behavioral (ratings about touch appropriateness, pleasantness, disgust, erogeneity) and physiological (skin conductance responses, heart rate) responses while Caucasian heterosexual men observed touches delivered on different parts of their virtual body by male or female Caucasian and African avatars. Bayesian parameter estimation showed that touches delivered by the female avatar were rated as more appropriate, pleasant and erogenous, and less disgusting compared to the male ones. These effects were further modulated by the touching avatar’s ethnicity: touches delivered on intimate areas were judged as more appropriate and more erogenous when performed by the female ingroup compared to the female outgroup avatar, and they were rated as less disgusting when delivered by the ingroup male compared to the outgroup male avatar. At the physiological level, the outgroup male touches elicited higher reactivity compared to the ingroup male touches, in particular when delivered on the intimate and social areas. No effect on the heart rate signals was found. Taken together, our results confirm that heterosexual men tend to avoid same-gender touch2; this effect seems to be enhanced by the toucher’s outgroup membership, suggesting a multi-layered stigmatization process. Future neuroimaging studies could shed light on the role of cognitive, affective and somatosensory components in shaping the outgroup and same-gender touch avoidance. Moreover, under the intergroup contact hypothesis, future studies could investigate whether positive virtual tactile interactions with outgroup avatars could reduce negative attitudes toward them, so that virtual touch may act as an important precursor to real intergroup touch.
References
1. Seger, C. R., Smith, E. R., Percy, E. J., & Conrey, F. R. (2014). Reach out and reduce prejudice: The impact of interpersonal touch on intergroup liking. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 36(1), 51-58.
2. Fusaro, M., Lisi, M. P., Tieri, G., & Aglioti, S. M. (2021). Heterosexual, gay, and lesbian people’s reactivity to virtual caresses on their embodied avatars’ taboo zones. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-1
The influence of sexual orientation on nonverbal interactions
No full textBackground: Immersive virtual reality (IVR) offers a way to recreate sensory environments that can duplicate reality and elicit veridical
experiences. Aims: Here using IVR we investigated the behaviour of men and women dealing with virtual characters to measure the quality of different types of nonverbal interactions (i.e., touch and interpersonal distance). Methods/Results Study1: In the first study,
heterosexual, gay and lesbian participants observed their virtual body while receiving touches on different parts (including taboo zones)
from a male or a female avatar. Results showed that touches on different areas elicited lifelike sensations that were dependent upon
the biological sex and the sexual orientation of the participants. Moreover, skin conductance responses showed that touches on the
intimate zones (breast and genitalia) elicited the highest reactivity compared to other zones. Methods/Results Study2: In the second
study, heterosexual and non-heterosexual men and women were asked to provide comfort-distance judgements in relation to approaching male or female virtual avatars. Results showed that same-sex comfort distance was smaller for non-heterosexual compared to heterosexual participants. Moreover, the larger distance toward the male avatar
kept by heterosexual men was also associated with the implicit prejudice (measured with an implicit association test) toward gay
men. Conclusion: The results from our studies suggest that sexual orientation, along with the most investigated role of sex, plays a
fundamental influence in regulating touch and interpersonal distance. Importantly, IVR seems to represent a unique opportunity to explore the psychophysiology of sexuality in the regulation of nonverbal interactions
Photon transport with a localized source in locally convex spaces
No full textThis paper deals with the study of a mathematical model of photon transport in an interstellar cloud
where a localized source is present. The source is represented by a Dirac delta functional. The problem
is studied in the setting of locally convex spaces. By means of the theory of semigroups on locally
13 convex spaces and the adjoint approach, we prove existence and uniqueness of the solution
The Chapman-Enskog procedure for an age-structured population model: initial, boundary and corner layer corrections
No full textWe consider a mathematical model of an age-structured population of some fisheries (for example, anchovies, sardines or soles). Two time scales are involved in the problem: the fast time scale for the migration dynamics and the slow time scale for the demographic process. At a first step, we study the so called 'aggregated' system by means of the semigroups theory. Then, we study the asymptotic behaviour of the model by using the Chapman-Enskog procedure. In particular, we study initial, boundary and corner layer effects in order to obtain the exact initial and boundary conditions the approximated solution has to satisfy. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
B-bounded nonlinear semigroups
No full textIn this paper we study the properties of a new one parameter family of nonlinear operators which is a generalization of B-bounded linear semigroups.
This family is constructed by means of a nonlinear operator A and a linear operator B.
We give also examples of problems which can be solved by using such a family
Wearing a virtual body and being touched on it by different gender and ethnicity avatars
No full textThe subjective experience of being touched can be drastically affected not only by bottom-up
variables (e.g. stimulus intensity) but also by top-down variables (e.g.toucher‘s social
characteristics). Nevertheless, the neuroscientific investigation regarding the role of these
higher-order factors is limited by ethical and practical constraints. Using Immersive Virtual Reality
(IVR) we explored the subjective and physiological reactivity of healthy participants who wore a
virtual body and observed an avatar caressing different part of it and we found that it was possible to
induce vicarious feelings of touch. Here we expand previous knowledge by investigating the
possible influence of gender and ethnicity of the touching avatar in modulating the experience of
vicarious touch.We used IVR to substitute the participants’ real body with a virtual one. Then we
collected behavioral (ratings about touch appropriateness, pleasantness, disgust, erogeneity) and
physiological (skin conductance responses, heart rate) responses while Caucasian heterosexual men
observed touches on different parts of their virtual body delivered by male or female Caucasian and
African avatars. At the behavioral level, we found that touches on the intimate areas were rated as
the least appropriate compared to the neutral and social ones. Moreover, the touches delivered by a
male avatar were judged as less appropriate than those delivered by a female avatar. Furthermore,
male touches in the intimate areas evoked the highest disgust sensations, while female touches in the
intimate areas induced highest pleasantness and erogeneity. Interestingly, ethnicity did not induce
any modulation. At the physiological level, the African male touches elicited higher reactivity
compared to the Caucasian male touches when delivered on the intimate areas. Taken together, these
results confirm the preference for the female touch among Caucasian heterosexual men and suggest
that the role of toucher’s ethnicity may emerge in the rooted automatic responses rather than in the
explicit evaluations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
A Service Systems Engineering Framework with Application to Performance Based Logistics
No full textAlthough Systems Engineering (SE) is becoming progressively the leading discipline in the development of engineered systems, most of the functions performed by a system are 'delivered' as services. This leads to what is referred to as Service Systems Engineering (SSE), which has its basis in the SE and, for specific types of services, represents the driving discipline to design successful systems capable of delivering effective services. In the defence market, the acquisition of defence and weapon systems is facing, in the last decades, a continuous budget contraction for both the acquisition and the support of the delivered systems. The main scope of support services, as an instance of SSE, is to define, deliver and asses the proper blend of services to ensure optimal system performance at an affordable life cycle cost. This paper introduces a model for the definition, implementation and continuous assessment of operational availability, in order to ensure that the required performance is met in a cost-effective way throughout the system lifecycle. The amount, distribution and continuous readiness of the logistic resources required to meet the target availability is the primary scope of what is referred to as performance based logistics, which this paper addresses by introducing a SSE framework to tailor, design, deliver and monitor logistic resources
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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