Daily Archives: July 2, 2021

Thursday, July 1, 2021

Conduct disorder often characterized by aggression, theft, vandalism, violations of rules and lying is one of the most prevalent and debilitating psychiatric disorders that emergesduring childhood and adolescence.

There is a subgroup of those with conduct disorder who are more likely to engage in chronic violence and criminal behavior. These individuals display severe behavioral and personality symptoms, called callous-unemotional traits, that include callousness toward others, lack of empathy or guilt for their harmful behaviors, and shallow or diminished emotional expression.

Nicholas Thomson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in theDepartment of Surgeryin theSchool of Medicineand theDepartment of Psychologyin theCollege of Humanities and Sciences, has received a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study conduct disorder. He aims to shed new light on the mechanisms that underlie callous-unemotional traits, thereby allowing for a more targeted approach in treating young people who exhibit them.

Youth with conduct disorder and callous-unemotional traits are more likely to engage in chronic criminal behavior and develop mental health problems into adulthood, said Thomson, director of research and forensic psychologist for theInjury and Violence Prevention Programat VCU Health Trauma Center. Therefore, understanding what contributes to the development and stability of these traits is beneficial for guiding treatment and prevention programs.

Thomson will lead a study, Distinguishing Youth with Conduct Disorder with Callous-Unemotional Traits using Cardiovascular Psychophysiology During Virtual Reality Fear Induction: Testing for Sex Differences, that focuses on the roles of fear and fearlessness among youth with callous-unemotional traits.

It has long been theorized that because youth with callous-unemotional traits often do not feel fear, they also fail to recognize fear in others. That fear deficit may disrupt typical social development, increasing the stability and development of callous-unemotional traits.

Because fearlessness is associated with punishment insensitivity, it may inhibit the socialization process, learning and the internalizing of guilt and empathy, Thomson said. If youth with high levels of callous-unemotional traits do not feel fear, they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors (i.e., aggression) as they do not fear the consequences (i.e., being injured or punished) and are less concerned about the harm it causes to others.

While there is research that supports this theory, Thomson said, it mostly comes from survey data, past event recall or non-fear-inducing scenarios, such as pictures of fear expressions.

This new study aims to test the low-fear hypothesis by precisely defining and measuring fear.

Participants will use an immersive virtual reality system while researchers measure their biological responses.

With support from the [VCU Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Researchs Endowment Fund], we have developed a virtual reality fear assessment battery, which provides youth with an immersive but mild exposure to common phobias, Thomson said. For example, the youth will get to experience a VR roller coaster. While experiencing the roller coaster, we record parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activity with facial [electromyography]. This will provide us with a more complete understanding of the relation between callous-unemotional traits and physiological threat sensitivity.

While the study explores serious questions around conduct disorder, it is actually a pretty fun and novel experience for participants, Thomson said.

Past research on conduct disorder has generally neglected the study of females, Thomson said, so it is unknown if the fearlessness theory is true for both boys and girls. The new study will seek to explore sex differences, if any.

Along with Thomson, the study will involve VCU researchersJames Bjork, Ph.D., associate professor in theDepartment of Psychiatry;Roxann Roberson-Nay, Ph.D., associate professor at theVirginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics; andScott Vrana, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology; as well asJames Blair, Ph.D., director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Research in Children atBoys Town National Research Hospital; andKostas Fanti, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cyprus.

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How virtual reality may help explore the role of fear in youth at risk for violence and crime - VCU News

A nurse works on a computer while treating patients with coronavirus in the intensive care unit at a ... [+] hospital on May 1, 2020 in Leonardtown, Maryland. An innovative program at the Eastern Michigan University aims to help nurses provide more 'culturally competent care' and address healthcare inequities for Asian American patients.

A team at the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) is using virtual reality to help address healthcare inequities for Asian Americans by teaching medical staff how to deliver culturally competent care to the communities they serve.

Earlier this year, the EMU School of Nursing was awarded a $72,000 grant to develop a virtual reality program aimed at addressing health inequities affecting Asian Americans.

Provided by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, EMU was one of only two nursing schools in the state to receive the grant.

Now, Dr Tsu-Yin Wu, director of the Center for Health Disparities Innovation and Studies (CHDIS) at EMU and a professor and director of the universitys school of nursing PhD program, is overseeing the execution of the innovative program.

Here in Michigan, we do not have the largest Asian American population. So of almost 9.9 million Michiganders, we are about 3.4 percent, Dr Wu said in a video interview.

Dr Tsu-Yin Wu has been leading a new project at the Eastern Michigan University to help train ... [+] healthcare providers to provide 'culturally competent' care to the communities they serve.

Asian Americans, she said, can face certain barriers to accessing healthcare and oftentimes, healthcare providers are not aware of those disparities and risk exacerbating them.

Meanwhile, she said, health care providers can also help improve health outcomes and quality of care by better understanding the social and cultural needs of patients.

Under the Immersive Community, Culture, and Care Experiences for Undergraduate Nursing Students: The 360-degree Difference program, Dr Wu has led efforts to help healthcare providers better understand the needs of Asian American patients and provide culturally aware care.

In the virtual reality program, nurses are able to simulate interactions with patients and learn more about the barriers they may face.

Those barriers, Dr Wu said, can range from something like food insecurity to something like racism.

The students can actually learn that this is what their patients or clients are experiencing...and they can be aware of and think about racism and all of the stressors, anxieties and fears [their patients face], Dr Wu said.

Still, the doctor said it is also critical to have diversity and representation in the healthcare system.

Its important to have a work force that represents the people, she said.

In an interview, DrJamesSmith, the presidentof EMU said he believed Dr Wus work has been a significant contributor to improving the quality of care for the Asian American community in Detroit.

He further hailed the virtual reality program as a key component to EMUs leadership in addressing inequities in healthcare.

In addition to leading the virtual program, Dr Wu, who was recognised as one of the 2020 Notable Women in Health Care by Crains Detroit Business, has previously received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to further help address health disparities for Asian Americans across Michigan.

She has also previously led a navigator program for underserved Asian communities in Michigan as part of a three-year grant from the federal Center for Medicare Services (CMS).

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Using Virtual Reality To Help Address Inequities In Healthcare - Forbes

INDIANAPOLIS Virtual reality technology is helping improve patient outcomes at IU Health.

Every other Monday, Steve Unversaw finds himself here at the Simon Cancer Center.

I have Pompe disease, said Unversaw. Seventeen people in the state of Indiana have been diagnosed. Nationwide, theres only 700 people in the US that suffer from what Ive got.

His treatments consist of four-hour-long dialysis, which Unversaw describes as painful, boring and even unsettling.

Walking into the building of a medical environment, especially one with the word cancer written on the side of it, you go Whoa, said Unversaw. It makes you realizes youre in a tough spot and you start thinking about it.

But virtual reality is changing that.

By distracting them with VR, we have found in our initial trial that we were able to decrease their anxiety by 50% in the patients we did this with, said Brian Overshiner, a manager with IU Healths 3d Innovation Lab.

What were doing is taking a toy and turning it into a tool, said Overshiner.

Its a tool thats helping more than just patients.

During the height of COVID, we had a lot of stressed-out frontline workers, said Overshiner.

IU Health set up tranquility rooms for frontline workers, which included snacks, soothing music and virtual reality.

We can transport that person to the beach and they can sit and unwind. Who doesnt want that? Overshiner asked.

IU Health plans to expand the program and continue researching ways VR could affect patient outcomes.

We were surprised it had such an impact so now were looking at longer term, how to offer VR as a standard of care for these patients, Overshiner said.

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Taking a toy and turning it into a tool: Virtual reality improving patient outcomes at IU Health - Fox 59

Say what you will about virtual reality, but the barrier for entry is still exceedingly high. The recent release of self-contained VR headsets such as the Oculus Quest have managed to bring the entry price down a smidge, but if youre craving the best that VR gaming has to offer, then youll probably need to invest a lot of money (and time) to get things up and running.

READ NEXT: The best VR headsets

The HTC Vive Pro 2 is no different. Building upon the successes of its predecessor, HTCs next-gen headset is once again the most expensive way to access virtual reality right now and thats before you take into consideration the beefy gaming PC needed to enjoy it to the fullest.

Still, if you can afford the high price and youve somehow managed to pick up a new graphics card without having to pay inflated scalping prices, then the Vive Pro 2 currently offers a premium VR experience like no other.

Buy HTC Vive Pro 2 now

Its worth tempering your expectations to begin with, though, since the Vive Pro 2 is still more of a refinement to the original 2018 headset than a radical change.

Design-wise, its exactly the same as the original. You still plug it into your PC via a confusing mess of wires and it still uses a pair of base-station sensors to track your movements. It also requires plenty of play space to get going.

The Vive Pro 2s key improvements come from the display side of things. The headsets LCD panel now has an increased resolution per eye of 2,448 x 2,448, with a wider 120-degree field-of-view and a boosted maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, up from 90Hz. Clearly, the Vive Pro 2 is geared more towards gamers with high-end rigs, using modern graphics cards capable of pushing VR to its limits.

Price is where things really start to get interesting. With standalone VR headsets bringing the entry cost to less than 300, the Vive Pro 2 finds itself in a bit of a sticky situation. And thats because the headset itself (sans controllers and base stations) costs a hefty 719.

Unlike the Oculus Quest 2, the Vive Pro 2 wont work on its own. If you arent planning on upgrading from the original headset youll also need to buy a pair of base stations and two controllers either Vives own or any others from Oculus or Valve. According to HTC, a full bundle will also be available to buy for first-time Vive buyers in August for 1,299.

How does the Vive Pro 2s sky-high cost stack up against the competition? If youve got a gaming PC and youre hoping to push VR to the max, then you do have a few other alternatives.

As I've mentioned, perhaps the most well-known is the Oculus Quest 2, which costs 300 and can either be used on its own or connected to your PC via a single USB-C to USB 3.1 cable for some extra processing grunt. HTCs other VR headset, the Vive Cosmos, also uses a no-fuss, inside-out system for head tracking, although it costs 400 more than the Oculus (700).

Finally, the Valve Index like the Vive Pro 2 needs a pair of base stations, costs 919 for the full bundle (with a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx) and has a higher maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, as well as a wider 130-degree FOV. However, as is the case with all the other VR headsets listed above, it doesnt come close to the Vive Pro 2s generous per-eye resolution.

The Vive Pro 2s design is immediately familiar. Its mostly identical in appearance to the original 2018 headset and shares the same ergonomics, cable setup and overall weight (850g). However, HTC has added a matte black faceplate on the front, which to my eyes looks a bit out of place next to the rest of the headsets blue/navy colour.

What this all means is that, for better or worse, youre getting exactly the same comfort experience with the Vive Pro 2 as you did with the original. Youre still going to look a bit silly with one of these strapped to your face (as my pictures show), but the Vive Pro 2 does a good job of evenly distributing weight across your head, and the adjustable headband can accommodate a wide range of noggin sizes as well.

On that note, the Vive Pro 2 is just as well suited to glasses wearers and, like the previous model, youre also able to adjust the interpupillary distance (the space between both lenses) by between 57mm and 72mm in order to get the image correctly in focus. Its easy enough to do this, too: you simply hold down a small button on the left side of the headset and pull the front either towards or away from your face until everything looks clear.

Buy HTC Vive Pro 2 now

One thing Im not pleased about is the return of the Vive Pros removable face cushion. Using the same fabric as the original, it felt itchy during long VR sessions and is generally a bit of a sweat sponge. Its no good at blocking out light, either, since it doesnt sit around your nose. The good news is that you can pretty much eliminate these problems if you attach a (far better) third-party face pad.

What do you get in the box, then? Inside, youll find the headset itself, a link box (which is used to connect the Vive Pro 2 to your PC), a DisplayPort cable, a USB-A cable and a power adapter. If you buy the bundle, you also get a pair of Vive controllers, two SteamVR 2 base-station sensors and all the relevant chargers and cables that come with them.

Unfortunately, the Vive Pro 2s setup process is still an absolute nightmare. After youve plugged in all the cables, switched on the three extra plugs, appropriately positioned your sensors, charged the controllers and pressed the button on the link box, you then need to launch SteamVR and pray that the software actually detects the headset and all the other gubbins.

It gets even more complicated with the Vive Pro 2, too, since you also need to run HTC's new Vive Console software alongside SteamVR while playing games and running VR applications. This grants access to all sorts of extra settings, however, allowing you to manually adjust per-eye resolution, maximum refresh rate and apply motion compensation. This last setting is best used for PCs with weaker specs and adapts video resolution during gameplay in order to reach a 90fps target.

As for the display, the Vive Pro 2s low-persistence LCD panel provides a boosted total resolution of 4,896 x 2,448, with a huge per-eye resolution of 2,448 x 2,448. For reference, thats almost double the resolution of the original, and its the highest of any VR headset released to date.

Thats not the only upgrade, though. The Vive Pro 2 now refreshes at 120Hz (up from 90Hz) and has a marginally wider 120-degree field of view. The latter doesnt make a huge difference during gameplay, but the former is a serious game-changer if youre lucky enough to own a gaming PC that can reliably push out frames. One thing to note, however, is that the wireless adapter (sold separately) restricts the Vive Pro 2s refresh rate to 90Hz.

Quality-wise, the Vive Pro 2s display looks astonishing, and it's a significant improvement on all the over VR headsets Ive tested previously. Colours looked rich and vibrant, although since the Vive Pro 2s lenses are a bit more rectangular than the original lenses, the vertical field of view is reduced slightly.

The Vive Pro 2s system requirements are understandably stringent. HTC recommends at least an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500 CPU, 8GB of RAM and either an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card. Youll also need a DisplayPort 1.2 output and a spare USB 3 port for the link box.

As a frame of reference, my testing rig consists of a Ryzen 7 1700 (close to the minimum), an Nvidia RTX 3070 FE graphics card and 16GB of DDR4 RAM.

This finally brings me to the good stuff. I tested the Vive Pro 2 with a variety of games, and (assuming you have the PC for the job) I can confidently say that VR gaming really doesnt get any better. The stunning post-apocalyptic environments of Half-Life: Alyx were rendered beautifully, with top-notch performance from beginning to end. If there was any slowdown during gameplay, I certainly didnt notice it.

Wacky wobbly-weapon-waving colosseum battler Gorn also ran without any noticeable performance hiccups, as did time-stopping shooter Superhot VR. The Vive Pro 2s headsets and controllers support both first- and second-gen SteamVR base stations, and I tested both neither failed to register my head/body movements and arm waggles.

On a similar note, the Vive Pro 2 uses the same tried-and-tested Vive controllers weve seen previously. For some reason, HTC doesnt want to update the design and functionality of its now five-year-old input devices, and theyre rapidly showing signs of age. The halo design at the top throws off the balance in the hand, and they generally feel a bit cumbersome to use.

That being said, following a short absence, the Vive Pros sequel is yet again the very best that VR has to offer. Provided youve got the hardware to support it, the Vive Pro 2 offers a truly exceptional VR experience, with an as-yet-unmatched maximum rendering resolution, as well as a handful of added gaming-friendly benefits.

Buy HTC Vive Pro 2 now

Of course, its not entirely faultless. The Vive Pro 2s starting price is hard to stomach, especially when you can pick up a standalone VR headset such as the Oculus Quest 2 for a fraction of the cost. Pair the high cost with the lack of any meaningful design changes and the absence of new controllers, and its ultimately a bit of a head-scratching update.

If youre keen to take your first steps into the virtual world, you still cant do much better for your money than the Oculus Quest 2. On the flip side, if you identify as a bit of a self-proclaimed VR enthusiast and youre looking for an excuse to upgrade, then theres no better reason than this.

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HTC Vive Pro 2 review: Virtual reality for the fortunate few - Expert Reviews

On a torrid afternoon in June, Emma Enderby, chief curator of the Shed, and Cecilia Alemani, director and chief curator of High Line Art, walked side by side between their respective bailiwicks on the West Side of Manhattan, plotting the configuration of their first collaborative exhibition.

They were exultant.

No night install, Alemani said. No cranes. Thats the best.

Nothing would be decided until right before the opening. We didnt have to think about engineering or weight loads, Enderby said. You can just spend a leisurely day placing them.

The exhibition, The Looking Glass, which runs from Saturday through Aug. 29, is a show in which all of them the sculptures on view are virtual, existing only in augmented reality, or A.R.

Using an app developed by Acute Art, a London-based digital-art organization, a spectator can point a phone at a QR code displayed at one of the sites the giveaway of where a virtual artwork is hidden. The code activates a specific sculpture to appear on the viewers camera screen, superimposed on the surroundings. (Unlike virtual reality, or V.R., in which a viewer wears a device, such as goggles, A.R. does not require total immersion.) Most of the virtual art will be placed on the plaza surrounding the Shed, on West 30th Street at 11th Avenue, supplemented by three locations on the nearby High Line.

Acute Art is supervised by the third curator of the exhibition, Daniel Birnbaum, who, because of the pandemic, could only be present remotely. The Looking Glass is an updated and expanded reprise of another Acute Art show, Unreal City, which opened on the South Bank of London last year and then, in the face of new lockdown precautions, resurfaced in a monthlong at-home version. A teaser, with three of The Looking Glass artists, was presented last month at Frieze New York at the Shed.

There is something charming about it being secret or not completely visible, Birnbaum said in a phone interview. It is a totally invisible show until you start talking about it.

If The Looking Glass duplicates the sensation of Pokmon Go in 2016-2017, the search will be as exciting as the find. Whereas the title of the London iteration alluded to T.S. Eliots poem The Waste Land, in New York, the show gets its name from Lewis Carroll. In todays Alice in Wonderland, the phone is the new rabbit hole, Enderby said.

Birnbaum, a respected curator who was the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm for eight years before leaving to run Acute Art, enlisted the participation of 11 artists, including household names Olafur Eliasson and KAWS and such art-world favorites as Precious Okoyomon, winner of the 2021 Frieze Artist Award, Cao Fei, Nina Chanel Abney, Koo Jeong A and Julie Curtiss. Some of their works unfold over time and incorporate sound, while others are as unchanging as traditional sculptures.

Released from plinths, they can acquire new meaning from their unconventional contexts. Abneys piece, Imaginary Friend, is a hovering, bearded Black man in high-top sneakers and banded crew socks, reading a book, with a halo around his head. Its a Black Jesus, I guess, Birnbaum said. He observed that it would have a different impact if it appeared in a Washington political demonstration rather than on the High Line.

Eliasson, whose Rainbow in 2017 was a pioneering virtual-reality artwork, contributed a cluster of five pieces, from a series collectively titled Wunderkammer: a buzzing ladybug, a floating rock, a cloud, a sun and a clump of flowers that push up through the pavement.

Very often, these digitized platforms are presented to us as if they are the opposite of reality, but I saw it as an extension of reality, he said in a phone interview. Im a very analog artist, interested in the mixture of the mind and the body, and my first thought is, This is taking away your body. It seems like escapism and open to hedonism. On reflection, though, he concluded that since people are tethered to their phones, he would aim to reach them through the device in ways that are sensitizing rather than numbifying.

Maybe we can get a message into the phones that the world is amazing, he said. In terms of what I hope to achieve, in what is left of public space and the High Line is such a good example there is the potential of the imaginary, the unexpected encounter, meeting someone you dont expect to know and becoming friends. I think its about adding plurality and other stories onto the public space.

Toms Saraceno, the Argentine artist based in Berlin who worked in Eliassons studio early in his career, is even more determined to blend augmented reality with real life. Obsessed with ecological concerns, Saraceno is particularly enamored of spiders, and he has founded a research organization, Arachnophilia, to study them and the architecture of their webs.

For The Looking Glass, he created two virtual spiders. One, which will be on the plaza of the Shed, is a recreation of the spectacular Maratus speciosus, known as the Australian coastal peacock spider. The other will be at a secret location in Manhattan. If you send a photo of a real spider to the Acute Art app, the team will respond with the location of the other virtual spider, which will also be transportable to your home. It is at the center of the whole thing, Birnbaum said. He likes the look of the A.R. spider, but he cares more that you pay attention to real spiders.

For other artists, the possibilities of augmented reality permit different approaches to their longstanding artistic investigations. Curtiss, a French artist living in Brooklyn, paints and sculpts nude women. My work is all about the gaze, and what Im choosing to reveal and what Im choosing to hide, she said in a phone interview. Introduced to Birnbaum by Brian Donnelly, who is known as KAWS, Curtiss became excited by the chance to pursue this theme in a manner previously unavailable to her.

In mid-June, she was still working with the computer coders at Acute Art to develop her piece: a naked woman with long dark hair one of the characters that she has presented in paintings who will be placed in the environment. The model is faced away. When you try to go around her, she will keep dodging, so you can never see her front, Curtiss said. And when you get too close, you go through her. That naked woman is exposed and vulnerable, but also, like a wall, she is protected. Its playing off these opposites.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, Birnbaum suggested, the popularity of virtual representations may accelerate. Can they ever do fashion shows again? he said. Will people travel? I see this as possibly another model for exhibitions. I could imagine that the A.R. and V.R. and mixed-reality thing will be part of a global and local future art world. I will be surprised if the art world doesnt change a little after the lockdown. We may be a little bit early.

Although Acute Art is not at this point profit-making, its financial backers, the wealthy Swedish businessman Gerard De Geer and his son Jacob, are aware of the commercial possibilities. Acute Art has already created virtual pieces for Chanel and BMW, and is exploring ways to issue works in editions. We havent really monetized things, Birnbaum said. But he allowed that the unexpected NFT craze and blockchain purchasing have generated talk among some artists about financial opportunities.

One thing seems certain: Virtual and augmented reality are still in their artistic infancy. Acute Art acts as a technological guru, providing computer coders and engineers to bring the virtual creations of artists into being. There is a little storyboard thing written, then we do a trial version, and they will come back and say, The texture is too small, and, It should be more red, Birnbaum said. They get a test app, and they can play around with it and place it.

My interest is to see what we can do with this technology, he continued. Once there was photography and everyone thought it would kill painting. Then cinema and the video camera and the internet came along. In our own time, A.R. and V.R. are the new media. There is a period before it is commercialized when one can do experimental things. We are there now.

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Now You See the Art in A.R. Now You Dont. - The New York Times

People who are curious about how it feels to be near the jaws of death may be able to experience it thanks to this unusual virtual reality machine from an inventor. Known only as Dr. Death, a virtual suicide machine was created and is now on display in some venues in Europe.

The virtual suicide machine was first shown at the Funeral Fair in Amsterdam back in 2018.

Now open to the public, the machine named Sarco is designed to produce a rapid decrease in oxygen level while maintaining a low CO2 level (the conditions for a peaceful, even euphoric death). per the Sarco website.

An explanation of the 3D-printed euthanasia capsule reveals that the machine was intended to suggest a sense of occasion. Aside from that, also considered were to come up with a system that requires no specialized skills or involvement, no sourcing of difficult to obtain drugs and no medical involvement.

The machine would also be of help to people with some disabilities. It is activated by eye movement and voice control is reportedly anticipated.

When it was unveiled in 2018, Sarco death was described as painless with no suffocation or choking sensation. The user would still be able to breathe easily even in a low-oxygen environment, the Huffington Post reported.

In a press release, Sarco was meant to get people talking positively about death and with broader consideration than being afraid, scared or shocked. And it appears Sarco is not the only one giving people a chance to experience it.

Lithuanian Julijonas Urbonas designed a rollercoaster that painlessly kills its passengers in 2010. It was described as a "hypothetic death machine in the form of a rollercoaster, engineered to humanely take the life of a human being".

Sony Project Morpheus Virtual Reality Headset Will Go Awesome With The PS4 and 'Gran Turismo 7' Racing Game Sony

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Uncanny Virtual Reality Machine Gives People Chance To Experience Death Before It Happens - Latin Times