There is a tremendous interest among researchers for the development of virtual, augmented reality and games technologies due to their widespread applications in medicine and healthcare. To date the major applications of these technologies include medical simulation, telemedicine, medical and healthcare training, pain control, visualisation aid for surgery, rehabilitation in cases such as stroke, phobia and trauma therapies. Many recent studies have identified the benefits of using Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality or serious games in a variety of medical applications. This research volume on Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1 offers an insightful introduction to the theories, development and applications of virtual, augmented reality and digital games technologies in medical and clinical settings and healthcare in general. It is divided into six sections: section one presents a selection of applications in medical education and healthcare management; Section two relates to the nursing training, health literacy and healthy behaviour; Section three presents the applications of Virtual Reality in neuropsychology; Section four includes a number of applications in motor rehabilitation; Section five aimed at therapeutic games for various diseases; and the final section presents the applications of Virtual Reality in healing and restoration. This book is directed to the healthcare professionals, scientists, researchers, professors and the students who wish to explore the applications of virtual, augmented reality and serious games in healthcare further.

This user-friendly 5th Edition provides concise but complete information on numerous common and rare disorders that cause human malformation. Includes an outline of the salient features of each condition, as well as material on natural history, etiology, and pathogenesis. The text is accompanied by helpful illustrations and reference lists. Organized to allow for easy access to essential information.

Personal computers have made life convenient in many ways, but what about their impacts on the environment due to production, use and disposal? Manufacturing computers requires prodigious quantities of fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and water. Rapid improvements in performance mean we often buy a new machine every 1-3 years, which adds up to mountains of waste computers. How should societies respond to manage these environmental impacts? This volume addresses the environmental impacts and management of computers through a set of analyses on issues ranging from environmental assessment, technologies for recycling, consumer behaviour, strategies of computer manufacturing firms, and government policies. One conclusion is that extending the lifespan of computers (e.g. through reselling) is an environmentally and economically effective strategy that deserves more attention from governments, firms and the general public.

Having fully established themselves as workable engineering materials, composite materials are now increasingly commonplace around the world. Serves as both a text and reference guide to the behavior of composite materials in different engineering applications. Revised for this Second Edition, the text includes a general discussion of composites as material, practical aspects of design and performance, and further analysis that will be helpful to those engaged in research on composites. Each chapter closes with references for further reading and a set of problems that will be useful in developing a better understanding of the subject.

Well-known critic Brian Stableford, a former professor at the University of Reading, contributes "a fascinating and valuable attempt to grapple with the questions of why SF authors write what they write, and why SF readers like what they like"-Interzone. Contents: Introduction; Approaches to the Sociology of Literature; The Analysis of Communicative Functions; The Evolution of Science Fiction as a Publishing Category; The Expectations of the Science Fiction Reader; Themes and Trends in Science Fiction; and Conclusion: The Communicative Functions of Science Fiction. Complete with Notes and References, Bibliography, and Index.

In 2020, areas of particular importance for technology trends will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology. This report, the companion document to The Global Technology Revolution 2020, Executive Summary (Silberglitt et al., MG-475-NIC, 2006), assesses in detail a sample of 29 countries with respect to their ability to acquire and implement 16 key technology applications.

A cheeky, sophisticated, and strikingly illustrated guide that leaves generic English reference books in the dust When prominent Barcelona-based illustrator Luci Gutiérrez found herself tuning out in English class, she used her love of drawing to help retain what she’d learned. Ditching the kind of bland and useless phrases that fill most English textbooks, Gutiérrez uses whimsical characters, cheeky dialogue, and even insults to bring vocabulary, grammar, and usage topics to life. Nearly forty-seven million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home, and even most native speakers struggle with subtle distinctions, such as when to use “whether” as opposed to “if.” (For example: I wonder whether I should have added a little more poison to his tea.) Already published to wide acclaim abroad, English Is Not Easy is sure to delight grammar mavens and students of English in America.

Is this book about patterns? Yes and no. It is about software reuse and representation of knowledge that can be reapplied in similar situations; however, it does not follow the classic Alexandine conventions of the patterns community--i.e. Problem- solution- forces- context- example, etc. Chapter 6 on claims comes close to classic patterns, and the whole book can be viewed as a patterns language of abstract models for software engineering and HCI. So what sort of patterns does it contain? Specifications, conceptual models, design advice, but sorry not code. Plenty of other C++ code pattern books (see PLOP series). Nearest relative in published patterns books are Fowler's (1995) Analysis Patterns: Reusable object models and Coad, North and Mayfield. What do you mean by a Domain Theory? Not domains in the abstract mathematical sense, but domains in the knowledge--natural language sense, close to the everyday meaning when we talk about the application domain of a computer system, such as car rental, satellite tracking, whatever. The book is an attempt to answer the question ' what are the abstractions behind car rental, satellite tracking' so good design solutions for those problems can be reused. I work in industry, so what's in it for me? A new way of looking at software reuse, ideas for organizing a software and knowledge reuse program, new processes for reusing knowledge in requirements analysis, conceptual modeling and software specification. I am an academic, should I be interested? Yes if your research involves software engineering, reuse, requirements engineering, human computer interaction, knowledge engineering, ontologies and knowledge management. For teaching it may be useful for Master courses on reuse, requirements and knowledge engineering. More generally if you are interested in exploring what the concept of abstraction is when you extend it beyond programming languages, formal specification, abstract data types, etc towards requirements and domain knowledge. ADDITIONAL COPY: Based on more than 10 years of research by the author, this book is about putting software reuse on a firmer footing. Utilizing a multidisciplinary perspective--psychology and management science, as well as software--it describes the Domain Theory as a solution. The domain theory provides an abstract theory that defines a generic, reusable model of domain knowledge. Providing a comprehensive library of reusable models, practice methods for reuse, and theoretical insight, this book: *introduces the subject area of reuse and software engineering and explains a framework for comparing different reuse approaches; *develops a metric-oriented framework to assess the reuse claims of three competing approaches: patterns, ERPs, and the Domain Theory OSMs (object system models); *explains the psychological background for reuse and describes generic tasks and meta-domains; *introduces claims that provide a representation of design knowledge attached to Domain Theory models, as well as being a schema for representing reusable knowledge in nearly any form; *reports research that resulted from the convergence of the two theories; *describes the methods, techniques, and guidelines of design for reuse--the process of abstraction; and *elaborates the framework to investigate the future of reuse by different paradigms, generation of applications from requirements languages, and component-based software engineering via reuse libraries.

In 2020, areas of particular importance for technology trends will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology. The authors of this report assessed a sample of 29 countries across the spectrum of scientific advancement (low to high) with respect to their ability to acquire and implement 16 key technology applications (e.g., cheap solar energy, rural wireless communications, genetically modified crops).