Search results for " virtual"
showing 10 items of 493 documents
Integrating the Real and Virtual World for Academic Language Education in Second Life
2013
This chapter focuses on a Second Language Acquisition (SLA) study conducted in virtual worlds that could help teachers in terms of knowledge about acquisition processes, in which technology is integration between formal and non formal education. The research comprises of two studies strongly focused on the development of Italian oral language proficiency. It was held within Second Life® (SL™)1 in order to explore the affordances of public spaces to enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)2 and to stimulate the oral production through learner’s engagement. Since 2007, a new pilot project, Café Italia, was developed by Carmela Dell’Aria (aka Misy Ferraris) in Second Life®. Startin…
Distance Learning for Social Distancing through LMOOCs: From Local to Massive and Back
2022
This chapter discusses the first step of the adaptation of a Language Massive Open Online Course (LMOOC) offered on EdX4 to be used in higher education contexts as a result of social distancing measures imposed by the COVID19 outbreak and the sudden pivot to online learning. The LMOOC contents recently underwent a process of redesign and conversion from small-scale to massive and now the opposite move is necessary: the LMOOC is to go local by becoming embedded in English classes in higher education contexts. Participants’ feedback was analyzed and compared with the criteria from a MOOC analysis matrix in terms of content variety, quality of contents and instructors, linguistic level and ade…
Oltre l'adattamento? Narrazioni espanse: intermedialità, transmedialità, virtualità
2020
The volume hosts essays and interventions discussing the theories of adaptation in the arts.
Assessing the Relationship Between Attitudinal and Perceptual Component of Body Image Disturbance Using Virtual Reality
2018
Body image disturbance (BID) affects quality of life even in the absence of clinically diagnosable eating pathology, and numerous studies have shown its crucial role in the emergence and maintenance of eating disorders. This study aimed at exploring attitudinal and perceptual components of BID using a novel virtual reality (VR)-based paradigm. A community sample of women (N = 27) recreated in VR their perceived body in both an allocentric (third-person view) and egocentric (first-person view) perspective. Specifically, women were able to choose between a wide range of three-dimensional bodies spanning body mass index 12.5-42.5 kg/m2. Attitudinal indexes of BID (body dissatisfaction, body un…
Emotional eating and food intake after sadness and joy
2013
Do people with a high score on a scale for eating in response to negative emotions also show high food intake in response to positive emotions?. We studied these effects in 60 female students that were preselected on the basis of extreme high or low scores on an emotional eating questionnaire. Using a between subject design we experimentally tested the difference in food intake following a mood induction designed to induce joy or sadness (the joy vs. sad mood condition). The high and low emotional eaters did not differ in their food intake, but emotional eating significantly moderated the relationship between mood condition and food intake. Whereas low emotional eaters ate similar amounts a…
Break in volition: a virtual reality study in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
2013
Research in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) produced inconsistent results in demonstrating an association between patients’ symptom severity and their cognitive impairments. The process involved in volition aspects of behavioral syndromes can be extensively analyzed using specific tests developed in virtual environments, more suitable to manipulate rules and possible breaks of the normal task execution with different, confusing or stopping instructions. The study involved thirty participants (15 OCD patients and 15 controls) during task execution and the relative interferences. At this purpose, the virtual version of Multiple Errands Test was used. Virtual reality setting, with a higher…
Ten Words About Morphogenetic Images
2018
This chapter describes how the repertoire of images derived from morphogenetic shaping processes is widely studied in every scientific and humanistic field. These are from the pioneering experiences of cinematic, programmed and generative arts of the 1960s and 1970s, the utopian digital space spells in the ‘90s, the morphogenetic architectural projects in the early 2000s, to the latest experiences. It is possible to look at these currents with a critical look detached from the time distance that has developed. Many denominations indicate processes and experiences in different fields but result from a common intellectual matrix. This is used to generate shapes, figures, spaces or images from…
Synthesis and biological activities of a new class of heat shock protein 90 inhibitors, designed by energy-based pharmacophore virtual screening
2013
The design through energy-based pharmacophore virtual screening has led to aminocyanopyridine derivatives as efficacious new inhibitors of Hsp90. The synthesized compounds showed a good affinity for the Hsp90 ATP binding site in the competitive binding assay. Moreover, they showed an excellent antiproliferative activity against a large number of human tumor cell lines. Further biological studies on the derivative with the higher EC50 confirmed its specific influence on the cellular pathways involving Hsp90.
I modelli digitali come strumento per lo studio dell'architettura antica: l'anastilosi virtuale
2017
The contribution concerns the methodology for the reconstructive study of ancient monuments with particular reference to the concept of Virtual Anastylosis. This contribution illustrates the work carried out within the project of the exhibition "Living in Selinunte, from the origins to the Middle Ages", with particular reference to the virtual reconstruction of the North Gate and the FF1 block.
Ipotesi di ricostruzione virtuale della piazza maggiore a Noto Antica
2019
Today ancient Noto is a medieval archaeological site, yet to be discovered. After the 1693 earthquake, the ancient city of Noto, in the middle of the Baroque period, was rebuilt in another place and the ancient city was abandoned. The first excavation campaign in ancient Noto by Paolo Orsi dates back to the period between 1894 and 1896. In the following years there will be other excavation campaigns, in which other architectural and sculptural relics will be found. They are today part of the collection of the Civic Museum. The contribution focuses on the study of the piazza Maggiore (Main Square) site, the center of the ancient city and on the surrounding buildings. After analyzing the limi…