Computing & Technology

This paper reports on a case study of a participatory technique that focuses on gathering contextual information from users to assist the analysis and design process. It presents a participatory methodology based upon a photo-elicitation approach combined with Lomo photography practices and group-centric analysis aimed at children and teenagers in order to draw together design requirements specifically for them. The paper discusses the use of this approach for designing a multimedia learning application on water safety aimed at 11--13 year olds, with results highlighting the benefits of this approach for creating appropriate designs.

A series of 3,5-disubstituted thiadiazine thiones (4-24) have been synthesized by reaction of primary amines with carbon disulphide followed by cyclocondensation of the resulting intermediate with formaldehyde and primary amines or amino acids. The compounds were screened for antitubercular activity in vitro against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. Three compounds 4, 12 and 18 showed antimycobacterial activity with MIC 12.5 microg/mL. Compound 4, was tested in vitro against five multidrug resistant (MDR) strains of M. tuberculosis and was found to be active. Compound 4 also exhibited activity in vivo. While all the mice died in the untreated group, the mean survival time (MST) of the compound treated mice was enhanced, 33% mice were surviving in treated group and the load of bacilli in the lung was considerably less in the compound treated group than in the untreated control group.

Recent studies have made it clear that Iran has too many road traffic injuries (RTI). This paper explains the reasons for high traffic injury rates and points to solutions. It also provides detailed data on the burden of traffic injury in Iran in 2005. Traffic injury rates have rapidly risen out of control because for a variety of possible reasons such as increasing number of non-standard cars and motorcycles, low gas price, decreasing ratio of travels via public transportation than with private vehicles, and problems with safety design. Besides a high need for a system safety approach, Iran needs to deal with the problem of producing a high number of cars and motorcycles. Providing safe mobility for the people of Iran needs to be a top priority of the government.

This paper considers affective interactions to achieve empathic engagement with synthetic characters in virtual learning environments, in order to support and induce the expression of empathy in children. The paper presents FearNot!, a school based virtual learning environment, populated by synthetic characters used for personal, social and health education, specifically bullying issues in schools. An empirical study of 345 children aged 8-11 years who interacted with FearNot! is outlined. The results identify that affective ...

This paper is concerned with the simulation of human-likess capabilities in synthetic characters within the domain of Personal and Social Education. Our aim was to achieve socially meaningful and engaging interactions with children in the 8���12 age group to enable an exploration of bullying and coping strategies. We consider the engagement between the interacting partners, focusing particularly on the affective and empathic aspects of this relationship. We have used Theory of Mind methods to enable us to evaluate children's ...

Abstract. The advent of techniques for affective computing [1], both in capturing user's emotional states and allowing for systems to display emotionally charged expressions, has allowed for a new development of interactive media. Following these ideas, in this paper we will discuss the role of empathy in the construction of synthetic characters to interact with learners in intelligent learning environments. We tried to answer the question: How can we build synthetic characters that are able to evoke and establish empathic relations with ...

Abstract: FearNot! is a novel software application aimed at the age-group of 8-12 year old students with the aim to influence their attitude towards and knowledge about bullying. It is a virtual learning environment for social and emotional learning that allows for individual interaction with synthetic autonomous characters that engage in bullying and ask the learner for help and advice in order to escape victimisation. FearNot! uses an emergent narrative approach that generates stories through the interaction of the learner with the autonomous ...

In the 21st Century the contemporary experience of the citizen is to live and work alongside many cultural, ethnic and religious groups, however cultural differences can lead to social stresses and sometimes outright conflict. Helping children and young people to develop empathy for people from other cultures is therefore an ever pressing pedagogical imperative. Role play and case studies which support experiential learning have been shown to be highly effective in this domain, however they are difficult to organise and ...