Material culture in massive multiplayer online role-playing games : the social, cultural and educational meanings of virtual goods in world of warcraft

Michaela Rizzolli

La loi applicable aux transferts de biens virtuels

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'université Paris1-Sorbonne

La loi applicable aux transferts de biens virtuels

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'université Paris1-Sorbonne

Computational Market Dynamics of Virtual Economies

The last two decades have provided a vast opportunity to live and explore the compulsive imaginary world or virtual world through massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). MMORPG gives a wide range of opportunities to its users to participate with multi-players on the same platform, to communicate and to do real time actions. There is a virtual economy in these games which is largely player-driven. In-game currency provides its users to build up their Avatars, to buy or sell the necessary goods to play, survive in the games and so on. As a part of virtual economies generated through EVE Online, this thesis mainly focuses on how the prices of the minerals in EVE Online behave by applying the Jabłonska- Capasso-Morale (JCM) mathematical simulation model. It is to verify up to what degree the model can reproduce the virtual economy behavior. The model is applied to buy and sell prices of two minerals namely, isogen and morphite. The simulation results demonstrate that JCM model ts reasonably well to the mineral prices, which lets us conclude that virtual economies behave similarly to the real ones.

Gini coefficient, dissimilarity index and Lorenz curve for the spanish port system by type of goods

This paper shows the Gini Coefficient, the dissimilarity Index and the Lorenz Curve for the Spanish Port System by type of goods from 1960 to the year 2010 for business units: Total traffic, Liquid bulk cargo, Solid bulk cargo, General Merchandise and Container (TEUs) with the aim of carcaterizar the Spanish port systems in these periods and propose future strategies.

Avoiding Pitfalls Of Intraoperative Peripheral Endovascular Surgery With The Aid Of Osirix: Expanding The Use Of Virtual Fluoroscopy.

We have shown how the analysis of the angiotomography reconstruction through OsiriX program has assisted in endovascular perioperative programming. We presented its application in situations when an unexpected existence of metallic overlapping artifact (orthopedic osteosynthesis) compromised the adequate visualization of the arterial lesion during the procedure. Through manipulation upon OsiriX software, with assistance of preview under virtual fluoroscopy, it was possible to obtain the angles that would avoid this juxtaposition. These angles were reproduced in the C-arm, allowing visualization of the occluded segment, reducing the need for repeated image acquisitions and contrast overload, allowing the continuation of the procedure.

O ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e sua incorporação na Unicamp

The text describes a study about the adoption of virtual learning environments and its consequences to the learning process of undergraduate students at the State University of Campinas - Unicamp. These environments can be incorporated in various ways into the academic daily life of students and teachers. One efficient way to promote the adoption of these environments, as observed by the Distance Learning support team, is to train teachers and students in their use. Two training alternatives are described in this text to instruct the academic community in the use of TelEduc, a freeware developed and coordinated by the NIED - Núcleo de Informática Aplicada à Educação (Center for Information Technology Applied to Education), and officially adopted by Unicamp. Training courses are offered in two ways - presence or distance learning - to suit each teacher's preferences. This article compares the two modes of training, showing their strong and weak points. The adoption of TelEduc and its direct consequences to the learning process are described in a study carried out with some engineering undergraduates at Unicamp. The authors' questions and the general views of teachers and students regarding the effectiveness of the use of TelEduc as a supporting tool to presence teaching are presented. This investigation revealed the importance of training teachers in the effective use of these environments.

Centro esportivo virtual : um recurso de informação em educação fisica e esportes na internet

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Students' collective knowledge construction in the virtual learning environment ""ToLigado - your school interactive newspaper""

Introduction. The ToLigado Project - Your School Interactive Newspaper is an interactive virtual learning environment conceived, developed, implemented and supported by researchers at the School of the Future Research Laboratory of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Method. This virtual learning environment aims to motivate trans-disciplinary research among public school students and teachers in 2,931 schools equipped with Internet-access computer rooms. Within this virtual community, students produce collective multimedia research documents that are immediately published in the portal. The project also aims to increase students' autonomy for research, collaborative work and Web authorship. Main sections of the portal are presented and described. Results. Partial results of the first two years' implementation are presented and indicate a strong motivation among students to produce knowledge despite the fragile hardware and software infrastructure at the time. Discussion. In this new environment, students should be seen as 'knowledge architects' and teachers as facilitators, or 'curiosity managers'. The ToLigado portal may constitute a repository for future studies regarding student attitudes in virtual learning environments, students' behaviour as 'authors', Web authorship involving collective knowledge production, teachers' behaviour as facilitators, and virtual learning environments as digital repositories of students' knowledge construction and social capital in virtual learning communities.

Does Training Laparoscopic Skills in a Virtual Reality Simulator Improve Surgical Performance?

Background and Purpose: Several different methods of teaching laparoscopic skills have been advocated, with virtual reality surgical simulation (VRSS) being the most popular. Its effectiveness in improving surgical performance is not a consensus yet, however. The purpose of this study was to determine whether practicing surgical skills in a virtual reality simulator results in improved surgical performance. Materials and Methods: Fifteen medical students recruited for the study were divided into three groups. Group I (control) did not receive any VRSS training. For 10 weeks, group II trained basic laparoscopic skills (camera handling, cutting skill, peg transfer skill, and clipping skill) in a VRSS laparoscopic skills simulator. Group III practiced the same skills and, in addition, performed a simulated cholecystectomy. All students then performed a cholecystectomy in a swine model. Their performance was reviewed by two experienced surgeons. The following parameters were evaluated: Gallbladder pedicle dissection time, clipping time, time for cutting the pedicle, gallbladder removal time, total procedure time, and blood loss. Results: With practice, there was improvement in most of the evaluated parameters by each of the individuals. There were no statistical differences in any of evaluated parameters between those who did and did not undergo VRSS training, however. Conclusion: VRSS training is assumed to be an effective tool for learning and practicing laparoscopic skills. In this study, we could not demonstrate that VRSS training resulted in improved surgical performance. It may be useful, however, in familiarizing surgeons with laparoscopic surgery. More effective methods of teaching laparoscopic skills should be evaluated to help in improving surgical performance.

Building a Open Source Framework for Virtual Medical Training

This paper presents a framework to build medical training applications by using virtual reality and a tool that helps the class instantiation of this framework. The main purpose is to make easier the building of virtual reality applications in the medical training area, considering systems to simulate biopsy exams and make available deformation, collision detection, and stereoscopy functionalities. The instantiation of the classes allows quick implementation of the tools for such a purpose, thus reducing errors and offering low cost due to the use of open source tools. Using the instantiation tool, the process of building applications is fast and easy. Therefore, computer programmers can obtain an initial application and adapt it to their needs. This tool allows the user to include, delete, and edit parameters in the functionalities chosen as well as storing these parameters for future use. In order to verify the efficiency of the framework, some case studies are presented.

Evaluation of plaque composition by intravascular ultrasound ""virtual histology"": the impact of dense calcium on the measurement of necrotic tissue

Aims: We aimed to evaluate if the co-localisation of calcium and necrosis in intravascular ultrasound virtual histology (IVUS-VH) is due to artefact, and whether this effect can be mathematically estimated. Methods and results: We hypothesised that, in case calcium induces an artefactual coding of necrosis, any addition in calcium content would generate an artificial increment in the necrotic tissue. Stent struts were used to simulate the ""added calcium"". The change in the amount and in the spatial localisation of necrotic tissue was evaluated before and after stenting (n=17 coronary lesions) by means of a especially developed imaging software. The area of ""calcium"" increased from a median of 0.04 mm(2) at baseline to 0.76 mm(2) after stenting (p<0.01). In parallel the median necrotic content increased from 0.19 mm(2) to 0.59 mm(2) (p<0.01). The ""added"" calcium strongly predicted a proportional increase in necrosis-coded tissue in the areas surrounding the calcium-like spots (model R(2)=0.70; p<0.001). Conclusions: Artificial addition of calcium-like elements to the atherosclerotic plaque led to an increase in necrotic tissue in virtual histology that is probably artefactual. The overestimation of necrotic tissue by calcium strictly followed a linear pattern, indicating that it may be amenable to mathematical correction.

Molecular dynamics, density functional, ADMET predictions, virtual screening, and molecular interaction field studies for identification and evaluation of novel potential CDK2 inhibitors in cancer therapy

In this work, we have used molecular dynamics, density functional theory, virtual screening, ADMET predictions, and molecular interaction field studies to design and propose eight novel potential inhibitors of CDK2. The eight molecules proposed showed interesting structural characteristics that are required for inhibiting the CDK2 activity and show potential as drug candidates for the treatment of cancer. The parameters related to the Rule of Five were calculated, and only one of the molecules violated more than one parameter. One of the proposals and one of the drug-like compounds selected by virtual screening indicated to be promising candidates for CDK2-based cancer therapy.

Use of virtual screening, flexible docking, and molecular interaction fields to design novel HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia

Dietary changes associated with drug therapy can reduce high serum cholesterol levels and dramatically decrease the risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, and overall mortality. Statins are hypolipemic drugs that are effective in the reduction of cholesterol serum levels, attenuating cholesterol synthesis in liver by competitive inhibition regarding the substrate or molecular target HMG-CoA reductase. We have herewith used computer-aided molecular design tools, i.e., flexible docking, virtual screening in large data bases, molecular interaction fields to propose novel potential HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors that are promising for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia.