LEVERAGING SANDBOX IMMERSIVE 3D VIRTUAL WORLDS TO DEVELOP DO-IT- YOURSELF TEACHING GAMES: IMPLEMENTATION TO MARKETING CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SECOND LIFE

Games are powerful and engaging. On average, one billion people spend at least 1 hour a day playing computer and videogames. This is even more true with the younger generations. Our students have become the < digital natives >, the < gamers >, the < virtual generation >. Research shows that those who are most at risk for failure in the traditional classroom setting, also spend more time than their counterparts, using video games. They might strive, given a different learning environment. Educators have the responsibility to align their teaching style to these younger generation learning styles. However, many academics resist the use of computer-assisted learning that has been "created elsewhere". This can be extrapolated to game-based teaching: even if educational games were more widely authored, their adoption would still be limited to the educators who feel a match between the authored games and their own beliefs and practices. Consequently, game-based teaching would be much more widespread if teachers could develop their own games, or at least customize them. Yet, the development and customization of teaching games are complex and costly. This research uses a design science methodology, leveraging gamification techniques, active and cooperative learning theories, as well as immersive sandbox 3D virtual worlds, to develop a method which allows management instructors to transform any off-the-shelf case study into an engaging collaborative gamified experience. This method is applied to marketing case studies, and uses the sandbox virtual world of Second Life. -- Les jeux sont puissants et motivants, En moyenne, un milliard de personnes passent au moins 1 heure par jour jouer à des jeux vidéo sur ordinateur. Ceci se vérifie encore plus avec les jeunes générations, Nos étudiants sont nés à l'ère du numérique, certains les appellent des < gamers >, d'autres la < génération virtuelle >. Les études montrent que les élèves qui se trouvent en échec scolaire dans les salles de classes traditionnelles, passent aussi plus de temps que leurs homologues à jouer à des jeux vidéo. lls pourraient potentiellement briller, si on leur proposait un autre environnement d'apprentissage. Les enseignants ont la responsabilité d'adapter leur style d'enseignement aux styles d'apprentissage de ces jeunes générations. Toutefois, de nombreux professeurs résistent lorsqu'il s'agit d'utiliser des contenus d'apprentissage assisté par ordinateur, développés par d'autres. Ceci peut être extrapolé à l'enseignement par les jeux : même si un plus grand nombre de jeux éducatifs était créé, leur adoption se limiterait tout de même aux éducateurs qui perçoivent une bonne adéquation entre ces jeux et leurs propres convictions et pratiques. Par conséquent, I'enseignement par les jeux serait bien plus répandu si les enseignants pouvaient développer leurs propres jeux, ou au moins les customiser. Mais le développement de jeux pédagogiques est complexe et coûteux. Cette recherche utilise une méthodologie Design Science pour développer, en s'appuyant sur des techniques de ludification, sur les théories de pédagogie active et d'apprentissage coopératif, ainsi que sur les mondes virtuels immersifs < bac à sable > en 3D, une méthode qui permet aux enseignants et formateurs de management, de transformer n'importe quelle étude de cas, provenant par exemple d'une centrale de cas, en une expérience ludique, collaborative et motivante. Cette méthode est appliquée aux études de cas Marketing dans le monde virtuel de Second Life.

Serious games for rehabilitation using head-mounted display and haptic devices

In the health domain, the field of rehabilitation suffers from a lack specialized staff while hospital costs only increase. Worse, almost no tools are dedicated to motivate patients or help the personnel to carry out monitoring of therapeutic exercises. This paper demonstrates the high potential that can bring the virtual reality with a platform of serious games for the rehabilitation of the legs involving a head-mounted display and haptic robot devices. We first introduce SG principles and the current context regarding rehabilitation interventions followed by the description of an original haptic device called Lambda Health System. The architecture of the model is then detailed, including communication specifications showing that lag is imperceptible for user (60Hz). Finally, four serious games for rehabilitation using haptic robots and/or HMD were tested by 33 health specialists.

Modular support for developing mobile ad hoc applications

Abstract This PhD thesis addresses the issue of alleviating the burden of developing ad hoc applications. Such applications have the particularity of running on mobile devices, communicating in a peer-to-peer manner and implement some proximity-based semantics. A typical example of such application can be a radar application where users see their avatar as well as the avatars of their friends on a map on their mobile phone. Such application become increasingly popular with the advent of the latest generation of mobile smart phones with their impressive computational power, their peer-to-peer communication capabilities and their location detection technology. Unfortunately, the existing programming support for such applications is limited, hence the need to address this issue in order to alleviate their development burden. This thesis specifically tackles this problem by providing several tools for application development support. First, it provides the location-based publish/subscribe service (LPSS), a communication abstraction, which elegantly captures recurrent communication issues and thus allows to dramatically reduce the code complexity. LPSS is implemented in a modular manner in order to be able to target two different network architectures. One pragmatic implementation is aimed at mainstream infrastructure-based mobile networks, where mobile devices can communicate through fixed antennas. The other fully decentralized implementation targets emerging mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), where no fixed infrastructure is available and communication can only occur in a peer-to-peer fashion. For each of these architectures, various implementation strategies tailored for different application scenarios that can be parametrized at deployment time. Second, this thesis provides two location-based message diffusion protocols, namely 6Shot broadcast and 6Shot multicast, specifically aimed at MANETs and fine tuned to be used as building blocks for LPSS. Finally this thesis proposes Phomo, a phone motion testing tool that allows to test proximity semantics of ad hoc applications without having to move around with mobile devices. These different developing support tools have been packaged in a coherent middleware framework called Pervaho.

A bio-inspired agent-based programming environment for pervasive platforms

Abstract in English : Ubiquitous Computing is the emerging trend in computing systems. Based on this observation this thesis proposes an analysis of the hardware and environmental constraints that rule pervasive platforms. These constraints have a strong impact on the programming of such platforms. Therefore solutions are proposed to facilitate this programming both at the platform and node levels. The first contribution presented in this document proposes a combination of agentoriented programming with the principles of bio-inspiration (Phylogenesys, Ontogenesys and Epigenesys) to program pervasive platforms such as the PERvasive computing framework for modeling comPLEX virtually Unbounded Systems platform. The second contribution proposes a method to program efficiently parallelizable applications on each computing node of this platform. Résumé en Français : Basée sur le constat que les calculs ubiquitaires vont devenir le paradigme de programmation dans les années à venir, cette thèse propose une analyse des contraintes matérielles et environnementale auxquelles sont soumises les plateformes pervasives. Ces contraintes ayant un impact fort sur la programmation des plateformes. Des solutions sont donc proposées pour faciliter cette programmation tant au niveau de l'ensemble des noeuds qu'au niveau de chacun des noeuds de la plateforme. La première contribution présentée dans ce document propose d'utiliser une alliance de programmation orientée agent avec les grands principes de la bio-inspiration (Phylogénèse, Ontogénèse et Épigénèse). Ceci pour répondres aux contraintes de programmation de plateformes pervasives comme la plateforme PERvasive computing framework for modeling comPLEX virtually Unbounded Systems . La seconde contribution propose quant à elle une méthode permettant de programmer efficacement des applications parallélisable sur chaque noeud de calcul de la plateforme

Video Gaming in Children Improves Performance on a Virtual Reality Trainer but Does Not yet Make a Laparoscopic Surgeon.

Background: In children, video game experience improves spatial performance, a predictor of surgical performance. This study aims at comparing laparoscopic virtual reality (VR) task performance of children with different levels of experience in video games and residents. Participants and methods: A total of 32 children (8.4 to 12.1 years), 20 residents, and 14 board-certified surgeons (total n = 66) performed several VR and 2 conventional tasks (cube/spatial and pegboard/fine motor). Performance between the groups was compared (primary outcome). VR performance was correlated with conventional task performance (secondary outcome). Results: Lowest VR performance was found in children with low video game experience, followed by those with high video game experience, residents, and board-certified surgeons. VR performance correlated well with the spatial test and moderately with the fine motor test. Conclusions: The use of computer games can be considered not only as pure entertainment but may also contribute to the development of skills relevant for adequate performance in VR laparoscopic tasks. Spatial skills are relevant for VR laparoscopic task performance.

A web-based pilot study of inter-pathologist reproducibility using the ISHLT 2004 working formulation for biopsy diagnosis of cardiac allograft rejection: The European experience.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess, at the European level and using digital technology, the inter-pathologist reproducibility of the ISHLT 2004 system and to compare it with the 1990 system We also assessed the reproducibility of the morphologic criteria for diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection detailed in the 2004 grading system. METHODS: The hematoxylin-eosin-stained sections of 20 sets of endomyocardial biopsies were pre-selected and graded by two pathologists (A.A. and M.B.) and digitized using a telepathology digital pathology system (Aperio ImageScope System; for details refer to http://aperio.com/). Their diagnoses were considered the index diagnoses, which covered all grades of acute cellular rejection (ACR), early ischemic lesions, Quilty lesions, late ischemic lesions and (in the 2005 system) antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). Eighteen pathologists from 16 heart transplant centers in 7 European countries participated in the study. Inter-observer reproducibility was assessed using Fleiss's kappa and Krippendorff's alpha statistics. RESULTS: The combined kappa value of all grades diagnosed by all 18 pathologists was 0.31 for the 1990 grading system and 0.39 for the 2005 grading system, with alpha statistics at 0.57 and 0.55, respectively. Kappa values by grade for 1990/2005, respectively, were: 0 = 0.52/0.51; 1A/1R = 0.24/0.36; 1B = 0.15; 2 = 0.13; 3A/2R = 0.29/0.29; 3B/3R = 0.13/0.23; and 4 = 0.18. For the 2 cases of AMR, 6 of 18 pathologists correctly suspected AMR on the hematoxylin-eosin slides, whereas, in each of 17 of the 18 AMR-negative cases a small percentage of pathologists (range 5% to 33%) overinterpreted the findings as suggestive for AMR. CONCLUSIONS: Reproducibility studies of cardiac biopsies by pathologists in different centers at the international level were feasible using digitized slides rather than conventional histology glass slides. There was a small improvement in interobserver agreement between pathologists of different European centers when moving from the 1990 ISHLT classification to the "new" 2005 ISHLT classification. Morphologic suspicion of AMR in the 2004 system on hematoxylin-eosin-stained slides only was poor, highlighting the need for better standardization of morphologic criteria for AMR. Ongoing educational programs are needed to ensure standardization of diagnosis of both acute cellular and antibody-mediated rejection.

Le soignant face au patient lombalgique chronique: l'expérience clinique de l'Unité Rachis à l'Hôpital orthopédique [The health professional's approach to chronic lumbago: clinical experience at the Spinal Cord Unit at the orthopedic hospital]

The treatment of back pain patients refers to the biopsychosocial model of care. This model includes illness in patient's personal and relational life. In this context, it is not only the physical symptom of the patient which is focused but also his psychological distress often hidden by algic complain. Clinical interviews conducted with back pain patients have highlighted psychosocial aspects able to influence the relationship between health care user and provider. Taking account of psychosocial aspects implies an interdisciplinary approach that identify and assesses patients' needs through adequate tools. As a result, the different health care providers implied with back pain patients have to collaborate in a structured network.

Four years with FALCON - an ESTRO educational project: achievements and perspectives.

Variability in anatomical contouring is one of the important uncertainties in radiotherapy. FALCON (Fellowship in Anatomic deLineation and CONtouring) is an educational ESTRO (European SocieTy for Radiation and Oncology) project devoted to improve interactive teaching, the homogeneity in contouring and to compare individual contours with endorsed guidelines or expert opinions. This report summarizes the experience from the first 4 years using FALCON for educational activities within ESTRO School and presents the perspectives for the future.

Fathers of girls, fathers of boys: influence of child's gender on fathers' experience of, engagement in, and representations of paternity.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of child's gender on several dimensions-of paternity: the fathers' personal experience of paternity, their involvement in child rearing, and their representations. A total of 147 Swiss fathers of 18-month-old children (65 girls and 82 boys) relationship to the child or relationship with the child's completed questionnaires. The child's gender had little influence on paternal experience, mother. Globally, the fathers took on few responsibilities which were largely devolved to mothers. Fathers of boys were more involved in child care than fathers of girls. Finally, a discrepancy was found between the fathers representations of paternal roles in rearing girls and boys and the actual level of responsibility that fathers adopted in their relationship with their child.

Smart instrumentation for determination of ligament stiffness and ligament balance in total knee arthroplasty.

Ligament balance is an important and subjective task performed during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedure. For this reason, it is desirable to develop instruments to quantitatively assess the soft-tissue balance since excessive imbalance can accelerate prosthesis wear and lead to early surgical revision. The instrumented distractor proposed in this study can assist surgeons on performing ligament balance by measuring the distraction gap and applied load. Also the device allows the determination of the ligament stiffness which can contribute a better understanding of the intrinsic mechanical behavior of the knee joint. Instrumentation of the device involved the use of hall-sensors for measuring the distractor displacement and strain gauges to transduce the force. The sensors were calibrated and tested to demonstrate their suitability for surgical use. Results show the distraction gap can be measured reliably with 0.1mm accuracy and the distractive loads could be assessed with an accuracy in the range of 4N. These characteristics are consistent with those have been proposed, in this work, for a device that could assist on performing ligament balance while permitting surgeons evaluation based on his experience. Preliminary results from in vitro tests were in accordance with expected stiffness values for medial collateral ligament (MCL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL).

Evaluating fear of falling among community-dwelling older people: A qualitative pattern model based on the experience of falls

This research was conducted in the context of the project IRIS 8A Health and Society (2002-2008) and financially supported by the University of Lausanne. It was aomed at developping a model based on the elder people's experience and allowed us to develop a "Portrait evaluation" of fear of falling using their examples and words. It is a very simple evaluation, which can be used by professionals, but by the elder people themselves. The "Portrait evaluation" and the user's guide are on free access, but we would very much approciate to know whether other people or scientists have used it and collect their comments. (contact: Chantal.Piot-Ziegler@unil.ch)The purpose of this study is to create a model grounded in the elderly people's experience allowing the development of an original instrument to evaluate FOF.In a previous study, 58 semi-structured interviews were conducted with community-dwelling elderly people. The qualitative thematic analysis showed that fear of falling was defined through the functional, social and psychological long-term consequences of falls (Piot-Ziegler et al., 2007).In order to reveal patterns in the expression of fear of falling, an original qualitative thematic pattern analysis (QUAlitative Pattern Analysis - QUAPA) is developed and applied on these interviews.The results of this analysis show an internal coherence across the three dimensions (functional, social and psychological). Four different patterns are found, corresponding to four degrees of fear of falling. They are formalized in a fear of falling intensity model.This model leads to a portrait-evaluation for fallers and non-fallers. The evaluation must be confronted to large samples of elderly people, living in different environments. It presents an original alternative to the concept of self-efficacy to evaluate fear of falling in older people.The model of FOF presented in this article is grounded on elderly people's experience. It gives an experiential description of the three dimensions constitutive of FOF and of their evolution as fear increases, and defines an evaluation tool using situations and wordings based on the elderly people's discourse.

La "bientraitance", exploration du concept et essai d'utilisation en santé publique: une expérience à Fribourg (Suisse). ["Bientraitance": conceptual exploration and an example of its application in public health: an experience from Fribourg, Switzerland]

Since the year 2000, the concept of "bientraitance" (for which no equivalent term has yet emerged in either the English or German language) has gained widespread credence among educators, sociologists and health professionals in France and Belgium. This concept emphasizes a constructive approach to care and education rather than merely one of prevention of disasters. Applied in public health, and in particular to mental health promotion, the use of the concept of "bientraitance" can help promote both effectiveness and meaning in the design and planning of community interventions. The article presents an example of an intervention for children and adolescents in Fribourg, Switzerland. The underpinning hypothesis is that the children and youth groups (such as sports clubs, artistic and cultural associations, scouts and guides) represent largely untapped, or under-tapped, informal health resources with a favourable cost-effectiveness profile. "Bientraitance" criteria are used in selecting certain associations offering structured extracurricular group educational activities and collective out-of-school (or after school) programmes. Support is provided to the organisations selected for recruiting new members, in particular those with potentially lower levels of access, for example disabled children or new migrants. The results will be evaluated for the impact of participation in various out-of-school activities on health and health determinants from a prospective and comparative perspective. This paper shows how the concept of "bientraitance" can be useful in the development of a public health intervention.

Children's experience regarding the quality of their hospital stay: the development of an assessment questionnaire for children

A questionnaire assessing the satisfaction of children with their hospital stay has been developed and tested with 136 children (aged 6-12 years) at 2 Swiss hospital sites. Three out of 4 children were satisfied overall with their hospital stay. Their relationships with the professional medical staff, explanations they received, games they played, and environment, all received positive evaluations. The most critical points were pain, fear, and the absence of relatives. Ninety percent of the children appreciated that their opinions were sought. These results reinforce the importance of having questionnaires available for the children to consider their opinions to enhance the quality of care.