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Visually-induced dizziness (visual vertigo) is a core symptom of Persistent Perceptual Postural Dizziness (PPPD) and occurs in other conditions and general populations. It is difficult to treat and lacks new treatments and research. We incorporated the existing rehabilitation approach of visual desensitisation into an online game environment to enhance control over visual motion and complexity. We report a mixed-methods feasibility trial assessing: Usage and adherence; rehabilitation potential; system usability and enjoyment; relationship with daily dizziness. Participants played online with (intervention, N = 37) or without (control, N = 39) the visual desensitisation component for up to 5-10 min, twice daily for 6 weeks. Dropout was 45%. In the intervention group, N = 17 played for the recommended time while N = 20 played less. Decreases in visual vertigo symptoms, anxiety and depression correlated with playtime for the intervention but not control. System usability was high. Daily symptoms predicted playtime. Qualitative responses broadly supported the gamified approach. The data suggest gamified visual desensitisation is accessible, acceptable and, if adherence challenges can be overcome, could become a useful addition to rehabilitation schedules for visually-induced dizziness and associated anxiety. Further trials are needed.

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Virtual reality (VR) simulation offers a proactive, cost effective, immersive, and low risk platform for studying pedestrian safety. Within immersive virtual environments (IVEs), existing and alternative design conditions and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies can be directly compared, prior to real-world implementation, to assess the impacts alternatives may have on pedestrian safety, perception, and behavior. Environmental factors can be controlled within IVEs so that test trials are replicable and directly comparable. Coupled with stated preference feedback, participants' observed preferences and behavior provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of proposed design alternatives. This research presents a case study of pedestrian behavior with three different mid-block crossing safety treatments modeled within a one-to-one scale IVE replication of a real-world location in Charlottesville, Virginia. The three safety treatments consider both passive and active collision avoidance designs and technologies, including (1) the existing painted crosswalk, (2) the addition of rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), and (3) a pedestrian to everything (P2X) ITS phone application. Additionally, this paper demonstrates a VR simulation experimental design and framework for testing pedestrian safety treatments within naturalistic and replicable IVEs to assess both stated and observed preferences and behaviors of pedestrians. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated changes in both accepted gap size (p = 0.001) and crossing speed (p < 0.001) with alternative safety treatments. Generalized mixed models showed that pedestrians waited for statistically larger gap sizes (p = 0.02) without the assistance of alternative safety technologies (RRFBs and P2X application) and pedestrians crossed the street significantly faster (p = 0.001) without the alternative safety technologies, leading to unsafe dashing behavior. Through post-experiment surveys, it was found that participants perceived the As Built environment to be the least safe of the three treatments and that their sense of risk within the IVE was realistic. Considering both the observed crossing behavior and stated feedback, pedestrians exhibited intentionally unsafe darting behavior without assistive safety technology. This study demonstrates how VR simulation may be leveraged to study both stated preferences and observed behavior for understanding the safety implications of alternative roadway designs, providing a proactive approach for assessing and designing for pedestrian safety.

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Goal-directed navigation requires the hippocampus to process spatial information in a value-dependent manner, but its underlying mechanism needs to be better understood. Here, we investigated whether the dorsal (dHP) and intermediate (iHP) regions of the hippocampus differentially function in processing place and its associated value information. Rats were trained in a place-preference task involving reward zones with different values in a visually rich virtual reality environment where two-dimensional navigation was possible. Rats learned to use distal visual scenes effectively to navigate to the reward zone associated with a higher reward. Inactivation of both dHP and iHP with muscimol altered the efficiency and precision of wayfinding behavior, but iHP inactivation induced more severe damage, including impaired place preference. Our findings suggest that the iHP is more critical for value-dependent navigation toward higher-value goal locations.

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BACKGROUND: Sexual minority men with HIV are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and have been underrepresented in behavioral research and clinical trials. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore perceptions of HIV-related comorbidities and assess the interest in and usability of a virtual environment for CVD prevention education in Black and Latinx sexual minority men with HIV. METHODS: This is a 3-phase pilot behavioral randomized controlled trial. We report on formative phases 1 and 2 that informed virtual environment content and features using qualitative interviews, usability testing, and beta testing with a total of 25 individuals. In phase 1, a total of 15 participants completed interviews exploring HIV-related illnesses of concern that would be used to tailor the virtual environment. In phase 2, usability testing and beta testing were conducted with 10 participants to assess interest, features, and content. RESULTS: In phase 1, we found that CVD risk factors included high blood pressure, myocardial infarction, stroke, and diabetes. Cancer (prostate, colon, and others) was a common concern, as were mental health conditions. In phase 2, all participants completed the 12-item usability checklist with favorable feedback within 30 to 60 minutes. Beta-testing interviews suggested (1) mixed perceptions of health and HIV, (2) high risk for comorbid conditions, (3) virtual environment features were promising, and (4) the need for diverse avatar representations. CONCLUSIONS: We identified several comorbid conditions of concern, and findings carry significant implications for mitigating barriers to preventive health screenings, given the shared risk factors between HIV and related comorbidities. Highly rated aspects of the virtual environment were anonymity; meeting others with HIV who identify as gay or bisexual; validating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others (LGBTQ+) images and content; and accessibility to CVD prevention education. Critical end-user feedback from beta testing suggested more options for avatar customization in skin, hair, and body representation. Our next phase will test the virtual environment as a new approach to advancing cardiovascular health equity in ethnic and racial sexual minority men with HIV. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04061915; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05242952. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/38348.

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In the last few years, with the fast growing of neural network field such as those for virtual reception and enhanced nature, the practice and theory of conventional landscape are impacted and challenged by virtual landscape based on these sorts of neural network technologies. On the one hand, the virtual landscape changes the carrier of landscape design from material real world to the networked virtual world, which breaks the traditional way of generating landscape and the way of expression of results. On the other hand, the virtualized and networked morphological characteristics of the virtual landscape itself and its capacity that can offer users a sense of immertion, interplay and enjoyment of the experience provide a way of extending and deepening the realm of scenery. It is also a new type of landscape that conforms to the trend of the times created in the background of the fast evolution of scientific and technical development. Virtual landscape brings new construction thinking and practical means for the application of digital city, the construction of urban context, and the development and utilization of relics. It provides an important research source for thinking about the relationship between current humanities and science, material and virtual, history and contemporary. After the research and experiment on the urban environment landscape design of PSO-BP neural network, the experimental data showed that before using the neural network method to improve Yanta East Garden, 57% of the crowd were satisfied with the overall impression of Yanta East Garden, and 17% were dissatisfied. After the improvement, 67% were satisfied with the landscape of Yanta East Garden, only 5% were dissatisfied, and the landscape satisfaction increased by 10%. The survey group believed that the landscape color of Yanta East Garden was full of historical flavor, especially the small sculptures convey the unique Qin Opera culture. The above data show that the method based on neural network is very suitable for the improvement and development of urban landscape design.

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Visual learning often occurs in a specific context, where an agent acquires skills through exploration and tracking of its location in a consistent environment. The historical spatial context of the agent provides a similarity signal for self-supervised contrastive learning. We present a unique approach, termed environmental spatial similarity (ESS), that complements existing contrastive learning methods. Using images from simulated, photorealistic environments as an experimental setting, we demonstrate that ESS outperforms traditional instance discrimination approaches. Moreover, sampling additional data from the same environment substantially improves accuracy and provides new augmentations. ESS allows remarkable proficiency in room classification and spatial prediction tasks, especially in unfamiliar environments. This learning paradigm has the potential to enable rapid visual learning in agents operating in new environments with unique visual characteristics. Potentially transformative applications span from robotics to space exploration. Our proof of concept demonstrates improved efficiency over methods that rely on extensive, disconnected datasets.

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PURPOSE: Self-management and lifestyle interventions are a key factor in treatment outcomes for persons with bipolar disorder (BD). A virtual environment (VE), due to it's ability to provide flexibility of involvement in its platform, may be an alternative to face-to-face treatment to provide support for self-management. The purpose of this study is to explore how a VE, developed for chronic illness self-management, may be modified to promote self-management and lifestyle changes in those with BD. METHOD: This study used a qualitative description design with focus groups. Data were collected via minimally structured interviews and analyzed using thematic content analysis. A total of seven focus groups were conducted, and the sample consisted of 30 adults with BD. Age range was 21-77 years with 21 females, seven males, and two non-binary individuals. RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the findings: Self-management and lifestyle interventions with regards to (1) mental health; (2) holistic health; (3) role of peers; (4) involvement of the family; (5) technological aspects of the VE. CONCLUSIONS: Focus group participants suggested that the VE may be an efficacious way to enhance self-management and promote lifestyle interventions in those with BD. Research is needed to adapt such platforms to the need of the patients and examine its' effect on health outcomes.

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Older adults demonstrate impairments in navigation that cannot be explained by general cognitive and motor declines. Previous work has shown that older adults may combine sensory cues during navigation differently than younger adults, though this work has largely been done in dark environments where sensory integration may differ from full-cue environments. Here, we test whether aging adults optimally combine cues from two sensory systems critical for navigation: vision (landmarks) and body-based self-motion cues. Participants completed a homing (triangle completion) task using immersive virtual reality to offer the ability to navigate in a well-lit environment including visibility of the ground plane. An optimal model, based on principles of maximum-likelihood estimation, predicts that precision in homing should increase with multisensory information in a manner consistent with each individual sensory cue's perceived reliability (measured by variability). We found that well-aging adults (with normal or corrected-to-normal sensory acuity and active lifestyles) were more variable and less accurate than younger adults during navigation. Both older and younger adults relied more on their visual systems than a maximum likelihood estimation model would suggest. Overall, younger adults' visual weighting matched the model's predictions whereas older adults showed sub-optimal sensory weighting. In addition, high inter-individual differences were seen in both younger and older adults. These results suggest that older adults do not optimally weight each sensory system when combined during navigation, and that older adults may benefit from interventions that help them recalibrate the combination of visual and self-motion cues for navigation.

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BACKGROUND: Virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) is increasingly used for balance evaluation and rehabilitation. However, more studies must be conducted on virtual environments (VE) effects. This study aimed to assess the impact of an outdoor VE projected in a high-quality VR-HMD and of the VR-HMD mass on postural stability, postural control and leaning. METHODS: This study involved ten healthy young men who performed five 30-s stabilometric trials. Four experimental conditions were randomly performed: eyes open (EO) or eyes closed (EC), with (VR) or without (No VR) VR-HMD. Postural stability (antero-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) ranges of the center of pressure (CoP), 90% confidence ellipse area), postural control (CoP velocity (global, AP and ML)) and standard deviation of the CoP mean position), and postural leaning (AP/ML CoP mean position) were assessed. The comparisons between EO VR and EO No VR were used to analyze the VE effects and comparisons between EC VR and EC No VR for the VR-HMD mass effects. RESULTS: Spatiotemporal parameters that characterised postural stability and postural control, except ML velocity (p > 0.05), were significantly influenced by the simulated VE with higher values in EO VR than EO No VR (p < 0.05), but not by the VR-HMD mass. The mean position of the CoP showed no significant differences between conditions. SIGNIFICANCE: Postural stability and postural control modification due to the VE used in this study revealed that this VE could be interesting for VR-HMD rehabilitation and assessment. VR-HMD is not a factor to be considered for stabilometric analysis.

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Objective: This study systematically summarizes the extant literature on the impacts of immersive virtual nature (IVN) on nature connectedness in the general population. Methods: Papers were considered eligible if peer-reviewed, in English language, comprising experimental or quasi-experimental trials, including at least one outcome relative to nature connectedness in the general population. Database search was conducted on Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Medline, and GreenFILE (22-28 November 2021). Risk of bias was established by the Cochrane RoB 2 tool. Data synthesis was conducted through meta-analysis according with the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Group guidelines. Results: Six eligible papers (9 studies; n = 730) were selected, in which IVN was compared to (i) non-immersive virtual nature, (ii) immersive virtual built environments, (iii) non-immersive virtual built environments, and (iv) actual nature. The risk of bias was predominantly "low" or of "some concerns." Meta-analyses showed a statistically significant overall effect for the first (g = 0.26; 95% CI = 0.06-0.45; I2 = 35%) and fourth group (g = -1.98; 95% CI = -3.21 to -0.75; I2 = 96%), the former in favor of IVN and the latter in favor of actual nature. Subgroup analyses were conducted for the first and second groups of studies to explore possible sources of heterogeneity. The small number of studies available limits the validity of the outcomes of the meta-analyses. Conclusion: The findings indicate that IVN may be an effective tool for the promotion of nature connectedness, although the evidence in this field is still limited and largely mixed. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

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Objective: Increasing evidence shows that traditional neuropsychological tests are insensitive for detecting mild unilateral spatial neglect (USN), lack ecological validity, and are unable to clarify USN in all different spatial domains. Here we present a new, fully immersive virtual reality (VR) task battery with integrated eye tracking for mild visual USN and extinction assessment in the acute state of stroke to overthrow these limitations. Methods: We included 11 right-sided stroke patients and 10 healthy controls aged 18-75 years. Three VR tasks named the Extinction, the Storage and the Shoot the target tasks were developed to assess USN. Furthermore, neuropsychological assessment examining various parts of cognitive functioning was conducted to measure general abilities. We compared VR and neuropsychological task performance in stroke patients - those with (USN+, n = 5) and without USN (USN-, n = 6) - to healthy controls (n = 10) and tentatively reported the usability of VR system in the acute state of stroke. Results: Patients had mostly mild neurological and USN symptoms. Nonetheless, we found several differences between the USN+ and healthy control groups in VR task performance. Compared to controls, USN+ patients showed visual extinction and asymmetry in gaze behavior and detection times in distinct spatial locations. Extinction was most evident in the extrapersonal space and delayed detection times on the extreme left and on the left upper parts. Also, USN+ patients needed more time to complete TMT A compared with USN- patients and TMT B compared with controls. VR system usability and acceptance were rated high; no relevant adverse effects occurred. Conclusion: New VR technology with eye tracking enables ecologically valid and objective assessment methods with various exact measures for mild USN and thus could potentially improve future clinical assessments.

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Since 2010, the Human Proteome Project (HPP), the flagship initiative of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO), has pursued two goals: (1) to credibly identify the protein parts list and (2) to make proteomics an integral part of multiomics studies of human health and disease. The HPP relies on international collaboration, data sharing, standardized reanalysis of MS data sets by PeptideAtlas and MassIVE-KB using HPP Guidelines for quality assurance, integration and curation of MS and non-MS protein data by neXtProt, plus extensive use of antibody profiling carried out by the Human Protein Atlas. According to the neXtProt release 2023-04-18, protein expression has now been credibly detected (PE1) for 18,397 of the 19,778 neXtProt predicted proteins coded in the human genome (93%). Of these PE1 proteins, 17,453 were detected with mass spectrometry (MS) in accordance with HPP Guidelines and 944 by a variety of non-MS methods. The number of neXtProt PE2, PE3, and PE4 missing proteins now stands at 1381. Achieving the unambiguous identification of 93% of predicted proteins encoded from across all chromosomes represents remarkable experimental progress on the Human Proteome parts list. Meanwhile, there are several categories of predicted proteins that have proved resistant to detection regardless of protein-based methods used. Additionally there are some PE1-4 proteins that probably should be reclassified to PE5, specifically 21 LINC entries and ∼30 HERV entries; these are being addressed in the present year. Applying proteomics in a wide array of biological and clinical studies ensures integration with other omics platforms as reported by the Biology and Disease-driven HPP teams and the antibody and pathology resource pillars. Current progress has positioned the HPP to transition to its Grand Challenge Project focused on determining the primary function(s) of every protein itself and in networks and pathways within the context of human health and disease.

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William James's use of "time in passing" and "stream of thoughts" may be two sides of the same coin that emerge from the brain segmenting the continuous flow of information into discrete events. Herein, we investigated how the density of events affects two temporal experiences: the felt duration and speed of time. Using a temporal bisection task, participants classified seconds-long videos of naturalistic scenes as short or long (duration), or slow or fast (passage of time). Videos contained a varying number and type of events. We found that a large number of events lengthened subjective duration and accelerated the felt passage of time. Surprisingly, participants were also faster at estimating their felt passage of time compared to duration. The perception of duration scaled with duration and event density, whereas the felt passage of time scaled with the rate of change. Altogether, our results suggest that distinct mechanisms underlie these two experiential times.

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OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the feasibility and usability of stroke survivor participation in an 8-week virtual environment intervention that provides opportunities for social support exchanges, social network interactions, and recovery education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-group, pre- and post-test measure design was used. Descriptive statistics were used to examine enrollment and retention rates, proportion of questionnaires completed, and virtual environment process data (e.g., number of log-ins) and usability scores. Changes in pre- and post-intervention questionnaire (e.g., usability, social support, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and self-efficacy) scores were explored using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and paired t-test. RESULTS: Fifteen (65 %) of the eligible stroke survivors enrolled (60 % white, 27 % black), 12 (80 %) had an ischemic stroke, ages ranged from 33 to 74 years (mean 44 years), and mean months since stroke was 33 ± 23. Retention and questionnaire completion rates were both 93 % (n = 14). Survivors logged into the virtual environment a total of 122 times, logged an average of 49 min/log-in, and 12 (80 %) attended support groups and social activities. Median usability score indicated lower than average usability. Improvement trends in social support, loneliness, and depressive symptoms were found, but significant changes in mean questionnaire scores were not found. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results suggest that using a virtual environment to foster social support exchanges, social network interactions, and recovery education after stroke is feasible. Similar to other chronic disease populations, stroke survivor adoption of a virtual environment likely requires ongoing technical assistance, repetition of instructions, and opportunities for practice to reinforce engagement. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05487144.

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The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and principles in industrial environments is known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIoT concept aims to integrate various industrial devices, sensors, and actuators for collection, storage, monitoring, and process automation. Due to the complexity of IIoT environments, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The main challenges in developing an IIoT solution are represented by the diversity of sensors and devices, connectivity, edge/fog computing, and security. This paper proposes a distributed and customized IioT (Industrial Internet of Things) framework for the interaction of things from the industrial environment. This framework is distributed on the fog nodes of the IIoT architecture proposed, and it will have the possibility to interconnect local things (with low latency) or global things (with a latency generated by the Internet network). To demonstrate the functionality of the proposed framework, it is included in the fog nodes presented in other paper. These fog nodes allow the integration of CANOpen networks into an IioT architecture. The most important advantages of the proposed architecture are its customizability and the fact that it allows decision operations to be carried out at the edge of the network to eliminate latency due to the Internet.

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OBJECTIVE: Using eye tracking technology, this study sought to determine if differences in hazard statement (HS) compliance based on design elements are attributable to attention maintenance (AM). BACKGROUND: Recent empirical work has demonstrated counter-intuitive findings for HS designs embedded in procedures. Specifically, prevalent HS designs in procedures were associated with lower compliance. METHOD: The current study utilized eye tracking technology to determine whether participants are attending to HSs differently based on the inclusion or absence of visually distinct HS design elements typically used for consumer products. We used two different designs that previously yielded the largest gap in HS compliance. In a fully-crossed design, 33 participants completed four rounds of tasks using four procedures with embedded HSs. To assess AM, eye tracking was used to measure gaze and fixation duration. RESULTS: The results indicated there are differences in AM between the two designs. The HSs that included elements traditionally considered effective in the consumer products literature elicited lower fixation duration times, and were associated with lower compliance. However, AM did not mediate the design effect on compliance. CONCLUSIONS: The study results suggest the design of HSs are impacting individuals as early as the AM stage of the C-HIP model. The absence of HS design-AM-compliance mediation suggests other C-HIP elements more directly explain the HS design-compliance effects. APPLICATION: These results provide more evidence that the communication of Health, Environment, and Safety information in procedures may need to be different from those on consumer products, suggesting design efficacy may be task dependent.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the scope of healthcare education and shifted the teaching methods from on-campus to virtual. The impact of such a shift has rarely been investigated, and limited evidence exists about students' experience in terms of effort made and time spent, especially for laboratory sessions. Assessing students' experiences will provide paramount evidence to fine-tune laboratory virtual learning sessions. Objective: To assess students' experience of virtual (online) laboratory sessions versus on-campus laboratory sessions, including preference, time spent, the effort made, ability to remember instructions, and preference for future teaching. Methods: A cross-sectional study was utilized. A Google Forms questionnaire was prepared and sent to medicine, dentistry, and nursing school students registered at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) during the 2019/2020 academic year. Self-reported preference, time spent, efforts made, ability to remember instructions and preference for future teaching were assessed for virtual versus on-campus anatomy, pathology, microbiology, histology, and physiology laboratory sessions. Results: A total of 455 students participated in this questionnaire. More students in histology (55.2%), pathology (57.4%), and microbiology (55.3%) laboratories, but not anatomy (39.6%) physiology (443.95), reported preferring virtual sessions over on-campus sessions. More students from histology (35.6%) and microbiology (37.0%) reported spending less effort than on-campus sessions. More than half of the participants agreed that virtual laboratory sessions consumed less time than on-campus sessions. Participants reported that they cannot remember the instruction given during virtual teaching compared to on-campus teaching. Differences in students' experiences were detected by gender, major, and year of study. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to change the future of healthcare education, and preparation for future crises is paramount. Effort made, time spent, ability to remember, and preference for virtual education should be considered in terms of gender, major of study, and year. These differences should also be reflected in the planning of virtual sessions for effective implementation.

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More realistic assessment tools are imperative for a better understanding of the impact of age-related cognitive deficits on functional status. With this in mind, we probed the ability of the EcoKitchen, a non-immersive virtual environment task with increasing executively demanding kitchen chores, to detect the effects of aging on the simulated everyday functioning of healthy adults. Fifty-three adults (age between 23 and 77 years) were assessed with the EcoKitchen and a set of conventional paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests. The associations between the baseline features of study participants and each of the two different assessment methods were examined. The associations between the EcoKitchen variables and an executive composite score were also explored. Our results showed that older individuals present deficits in the performance of both the EcoKitchen task and standard assessment methods. Notably, we found that, unlike conventional tests, accuracy in the EcoKitchen task was not related to the education level and IQ score of participants. Moreover, the EcoKitchen performance time was significantly correlated with executive tests. We have demonstrated that the EcoKitchen task, an ecologically relevant computerized neuropsychological assessment tool, might be more suitable than classic paper-and-pencil tests to capture the impact of aging on everyday cognitive function, as it proved to be less prone to the influence of confounding factors. Additionally, we have shown that executive function plays an important role in the timely performance of cognitively challenging virtual environment tasks.

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State Social Physique Anxiety (SPA), in contrast to Trait SPA, is triggered by specific situations that elicit SPA. To date, no research has used virtual reality (VR) to recreate a situation that may elicit State SPA. The purpose of this study is to validate a virtual environment (VE) that simulates an anxiogenic situation to induce State SPA in women with obesity and high SPA. The high SPA group consisted of 25 self-identified women living with obesity and high Trait SPA. The low SPA group consisted of 20 self-identified women with low SPA. All participants were immersed in a virtual swimming pool environment for 10 min using a virtual reality headset. After the immersion, State SPA and fear of being negatively judged felt during immersion were measured with self-report questionnaires. A questionnaire assessing unwanted negative side effects was administered before and after the immersion. Using an ANCOVA with Trait SPA as covariate, State SPA was found to be significantly higher in the high SPA group. Fear of being judged negatively was also significantly higher in the high SPA group. Unwanted negative side effects scores did not increase post-immersion in either group. This study documents the validity of a novel VE for inducing State SPA in women with obesity and high SPA.