Virtual reality for nephrolithotomy
Related Articles
Virtual contact improves intergroup relations between non-Muslim American and Muslim students from the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia in a field quasi-experiment
Given the current polarized climate in many parts of the world, finding effective interventions to address psychological factors that drive conflict is critical. Direct, face-to-face contact has the demonstrated potential to stem the tide of intergroup antipathy. However, modern socio-political conflicts often span great physical distances, making direct contact difficult, costly and rare. Programs for “virtual contact” have emerged in recent years, combining text-based computer-mediated communication with live video to extend intergroup contact’s benefits to broader audiences. While compelling, studies of such programs are typically conducted in laboratory settings, focusing only on change in outgroup attitudes. The current research tests how a semester-long virtual contact intervention that brings together non-Muslim US American students and Muslim students from the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia shapes varied intergroup processes, across two large-scale field quasi-experiments (combined N = 2886). Compared to before the intervention and a control group, participants who engaged in virtual contact showed greater self-outgroup overlap, improved outgroup attitudes, and less outgroup dehumanization and meta-dehumanization. This research provides evidence that virtual contact can be an effective tool for promoting better intergroup relations.
To choose or not to choose? A study on decision-making for virtual reality intervention in children with ADHD
Digital health interventions (DHI) using virtual reality (VR) technologies have been developed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While previous studies have mainly evaluated the feasibility of VR as an ADHD intervention, there is a dearth of research examining the decision-making psychology and influencing factors among parents of ADHD patients regarding the adoption of such emerging VR intervention techniques, which carry inherent risks. Building on the principles of Prospect Theory, this study highlights preference structures, belief characteristics, and community participation. The study selected 23 explanatory variables, including parents’ comprehension of VR treatment, level of trust, information sources, time and financial costs. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data on the willingness of parents of ADHD children to opt for VR treatment. By constructing a binary logistic regression model, we examine the preference structure, belief characteristics and decision readiness of parents of children with ADHD when choosing a virtual reality intervention policy. Parents’ choices of VR interventions for their children are complex. While parents consider the therapeutic benefits of VR, the time investment required for children’s treatment, and knowledge on VR interventions from online communities, their decisions are not always made objectively like an agent would. Instead, they frequently make choices based on a willingness to take risks, placing greater emphasis on relative rather than absolute values. Their decision-making is often swayed by online community information, resulting in choices that may not optimize benefits and sometimes disregarding financial and time costs related to their children’s health. Overall, parents of children with ADHD have demonstrated acceptance of the innovative VR intervention technique. Through examining the factors that impact preference selection, the implementation and promotion of VR intervention in ADHD treatments can be facilitated, thereby advancing the development of Digital Health Interventions (DHI). This can provide valuable insights for developing effective ADHD intervention strategies.
In-vitro accuracy of the virtual patient model with maxillomandibular relationship at centric occlusion using 3D-printed customized transfer key
This study aimed to create a 3D-printed customized transfer key and evaluate the accuracy of the virtual patient model with maxillomandibular relationship at centric occlusion using the transfer key.
Curiosity shapes spatial exploration and cognitive map formation in humans
Cognitive maps are thought to arise, at least in part, from our intrinsic curiosity to explore unknown places. However, it remains untested how curiosity shapes aspects of spatial exploration in humans. Combining a virtual reality task with indices of exploration complexity, we found that pre-exploration curiosity states predicted how much individuals spatially explored environments, whereas markers of visual exploration determined post-exploration feelings of interest. Moreover, individual differences in curiosity traits, particularly Stress Tolerance, modulated the relationship between curiosity and spatial exploration, suggesting the capacity to cope with uncertainty enhances the curiosity-exploration link. Furthermore, both curiosity and spatial exploration predicted how precisely participants could recall spatial-relational details of the environment, as measured by a sketch map task. These results provide new evidence for a link between curiosity and exploratory behaviour, and how curiosity might shape cognitive map formation.
Three-dimensional runout characterisation for rotationally symmetric components
Rotationally symmetric components (such as gears and axels) are ubiquitous to modern devices, and their precision manufacture is necessary to keep costs and manufacture time down, as well as reduce waste and possibly hazardous component failure. The manufacturing errors, which affect the shape in the rotation axis, are grouped together into the common term “runout”. Here we present a potential updated standard for characterising the runout of rotationally symmetric machined parts in three-dimensions, and evaluated using virtual instrumentation, enabling an accurate characterisation of the three dimensional (3D) surface deformation of a part from minimal surface information. For any 3D characterisation method to be widely adopted by the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics community, it must be fully compatible with previous methods and standards. As such, the proposed method produces a 3D runout vector based on four standard profile measurements. To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed runout method, a technique for evaluating the errors of commonly used virtual instruments has been developed. This evaluation technique produces a single-valued quantification of the deviation of the instrument outputs compared to the input parameters, decoupled from the errors on the instrument itself.
Responses