Dr Karen Blackmore

© 2016, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.Since the publication of the first academic journal in 1665, the number of academic journal titles has grown steadily. In 2001, Mabe and Amin studied the pattern of growth in the number of academic journals worldwide, identifying three key development periods between 1900 and 1996. These three episodes are from 1900 to 1944, from 1944 to 1978, and from 1978 to 1996. The compound annual growth rates for each episode are 3.30, 4.68 and 3.31¿% respectively. In this research, we seek to validate these findings, and extend on previous work to analyze journal growth patterns from 1986 to 2013. Our results show academic journals grew at an average rate of 4.7¿% from 1986 to 2013, which is very similar to the growth rate during the Big Science period observed in the previous study. Our results also show that academic journals had an estimated 92¿% Active rate, and 8¿% Inactive rate annually. Out of all Active journals, approximately 43¿% have high impact and reach JCR or SJR databases, and 26¿% have relatively higher impact and are thus collected in the JCR database. The comparison results of Active/InactiveSJR and JCR journals suggest that lower impact journals have a higher chance to become Inactive than higher impact journals. With the wide use of the Internet in academic science, our results expectedly show that the number of Print-Only journals is gradually decreasing while the number of Online-Only journals is increasing. The growth of Online-Only journals exceeds the growth of Print-Only journals in 2007, and the number of Online-Only journals exceeded the number of Print and Only journals in 2012. More than 30¿% Newly Created journals provide Open Access. It is suggested that we are experiencing the second journal boom in history and Internet technology has changed the academic publication system.

© 2015 Elsevier Inc.Evidence from studies of provocative motion indicates that motion sickness is tightly linked to the disturbances of thermoregulation. The major aim of the current study was to determine whether provocative visual stimuli (immersion into the virtual reality simulating rides on a rollercoaster) affect skin temperature that reflects thermoregulatory cutaneous responses, and to test whether such stimuli alter cognitive functions. In 26 healthy young volunteers wearing head-mounted display (Oculus Rift), simulated rides consistently provoked vection and nausea, with a significant difference between the two versions of simulation software (Parrot Coaster and Helix). Basal finger temperature had bimodal distribution, with low-temperature group (n. =. 8) having values of 23-29. °C, and high-temperature group (n. =. 18) having values of 32-36. °C. Effects of cybersickness on finger temperature depended on the basal level of this variable: in subjects from former group it raised by 3-4. °C, while in most subjects from the latter group it either did not change or transiently reduced by 1.5-2. °C. There was no correlation between the magnitude of changes in the finger temperature and nausea score at the end of simulated ride. Provocative visual stimulation caused prolongation of simple reaction time by 20-50. ms; this increase closely correlated with the subjective rating of nausea. Lastly, in subjects who experienced pronounced nausea, heart rate was elevated. We conclude that cybersickness is associated with changes in cutaneous thermoregulatory vascular tone; this further supports the idea of a tight link between motion sickness and thermoregulation. Cybersickness-induced prolongation of reaction time raises obvious concerns regarding the safety of this technology.

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) applications in the higher education (HE) domain. Agent-based modelling is a ¿bottom-up¿ modelling paradigm in which system-level behaviour (macro) is modelled through the behaviour of individual local-level agent interactions (micro). This approach of considering the behaviour of systems of interacting ¿agents¿ has been applied to a wide variety of domains. Of particular interest, are the ways that ABMS applications have been used to further understand the dynamics of the HE domain. We conduct a systematic review of literature to analyse publications by year, role of the simulator, development stage of the models, and any associated validation. We also identify areas for future work, which includes an emphasis on validating existing and future models, detailed description of simulations to allow replication and further development, and the use of agent-based models in other contexts within the increasingly complex HE domain.

Copyright 2016 ACM.The widespread popularity of computer games have led to their expanded use in more serious applications for training and education. In many cases serious games are being advanced as more compelling than traditional face-to-face or interactive online training. A typically reported motivation for developing serious games is to try and increase engagement of participants and thus ultimately the effectiveness of the training experience. In this paper we discuss the relation of affect to engagement. The training reported in this study relates to a psychological counseling program developed to assist patients with comorbidity in depression and alcohol use disorders. A pre-existing online intervention program, called "SHADE", had been found to provide effective treatment when participants completed the program. However, a significant number of participants failed to complete the program, with most exits occurring when Cognitive Based Training (CBT) was integrated into the online program. To try and increase the number of participants completing the program a serious game, called "Shadow" is being developed to cover similar material. This paper reports on a study that uses the startle reflex modulation measure to try and objectively quantify the affective engagement of players in the two treatment approaches, Shadow, the serious game, versus SHADE, the online intervention program. Also reported are the issues associated with using affective processing, as measured by the startle probe technique, as a means of evaluating engagement in serious games.

Copyright 2016 ACM.Human startle reflex has been identified as a valid physiological measure of valence and arousal, providing a useful mechanism for evaluating player engagement in video games. In this research, we use electromyography (EMG) recording of the startle reflex of participants to explore the impact of playing, versus watching a play through, of a game. Participants in the research played and watched Parsec Studio's Slender: The Eight Pages, a freely available video game within the horror genre. Experiments were conducted both with participants both playing and watching the game, with results showing a statistically significant difference in startle responses between the two conditions. The results suggest that the fear state of the game is enhanced through player interaction and increased attention.