Karen Blackmore

Verifying the Miles and Snow strategy types in Australian small- and medium-size enterprises

In this paper we set out to verify the existence of Miles and Snow strategy types in Australian small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) through objective classification. Australian SMEs, in particular, are interesting as they are reported to have some unique characteristics, with as many as 70% following a low growth or life-style pathway. While numerous empirical studies have been conducted to validate the existence and characteristics of the Miles and Snow strategy types in different domains for both larger and smaller enterprises, these studies typically rely on a subjective, ‘self-typing’ approach. In this study we employ a more objective approach by identifying measures from existing survey data that capture the strategic dimensions proposed by Miles and Snow. We use these objective measures in a K-means cluster analysis to identify four different strategic groups. Three of the groups correspond to the three ‘viable’ Miles and Snow strategy types of Defender, Prospector and Analyser; however, we also identify a ‘Static’ strategy type that constitutes 42% of SMEs in the sample.

Cybersickness provoked by head-mounted display affects cutaneous vascular tone, heart rate and reaction time.

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.

Using the Startle Eye-Blink to Measure Affect in Players

The startle eye-blink is part of a non-voluntary response that typically occurs when an individual encounters a sudden and unexpected stimulus, such as a loud noise or increase in light. Modulations of the startle reflex can be used to infer affective processing in players. The response can be elicited using simple auditory, visual, electric, or mechanical stimuli. The magnitude of the startle eye-blink is used to infer the unconscious positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant) emotional state of the player. It is frequently used in psychology where variations in the magnitude, latency, and duration of the startle response are used to understand attention, workload, affective processing, and psychopathologies such as schizophrenia. By comparison, there has been limited use of this objective measure for studying games. As such, there are opportunities to adapt this measure to studies of player affect in the context of game design. We provide a review of the concepts of “affect” and “affective computing” as they relate to game design and also explain in detail the use of the startle eye-blink for objectively measuring player affect. Finally, the use of the approach is illustrated in a case study for evaluating a serious game design.

Profiling subjective symptoms and autonomic changes associated with cybersickness

Our aim was to expand knowledge of cybersickness - a subtype of motion sickness provoked by immersion into a moving computer-generated virtual reality. Fourteen healthy subjects experienced a 15-min rollercoaster ride presented via a head-mounted display (Oculus Rift), for 3 consecutive days. Heart rate, respiration, finger and forehead skin conductance were measured during the experiment; this was complemented by a subjective nausea rating during the ride and by Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire before, immediately after and then 1, 2 and 3h post-ride. Physiological measurements were analysed in three dimensions: ride time, association with subjective nausea rating and experimental day. Forehead, and to a lesser extent finger phasic skin conductance activity showed a correlation with the reported nausea ratings, while alteration in other measured parameters were mostly related to autonomic arousal during the virtual ride onset. A significant habituation was observed in subjective symptom scores and in the duration of tolerated provocation. The latter increased from 7.0±1.3min on the first day to 12.0±2.5min on the third day (p<0.05); this was associated with a reduced slope of nausea rise from 1.3±0.3units/min on the first to 0.7±0.1units/min on the third day (p<0.01). Furthermore, habituation with repetitive exposure was also determined in the total symptom score post-ride: it fell from 1.6±0.1 on the first day to 1.2±0.1 on the third (p<0.001). We conclude that phasic changes of skin conductance on the forehead could be used to objectively quantify nausea; and that repetitive exposure to provocative VR content results in habituation.

A Meta-Analysis of Data Collection in Serious Games Research

Serious game analytics share many of the challenges of data analytics for computer systems involving human activity. Key challenges include how to collect data without influencing its generation, and more fundamentally, how to collect and validate data from humans where a primary emphasis is on what people are thinking and doing. This chapter presents a meta-analysis of data collection activities in serious games research. A systematic review was conducted to consider metrics and measures across the human–computer interaction, gaming, simulation, and virtual reality literature. The review focus was on the temporal aspect of data collection to identify if data is collected before, during, or after gameplay and if so what fundamental processes are used to collect data. The review found that the majority of data collection occurred post-game, then pre-game, and finally during gameplay. This reflects traditional difficulties of capturing gameplay data and highlights opportunities for new data capture approaches oriented towards data analytics. Also we identify how researchers gather data to answer fundamental questions about the efficacy of serious games and the design elements that might underlie their efficacy. We suggest that more standardized and better-validated data collection techniques, that allow comparing and contrasting outcomes between studies, would be beneficial.

Visualisation in biomedicine as a means of data evaluation

Visualisation of complex phenomena can aid in understanding the interactions of multiple feature parameters that underlie such phenomena. One such example is the study of dementia, where fractal image measures obtained from post-mortem cortex images have been found useful in studying the relationship between micro-vascular structure and disease. In this research, we analyse the correlation differences in these measures between cases classified as control (non-diseased) and those classified as having either Alzheimer’s disease, small vessel disease or both (diseased). Correlations between feature parameters within these groups indicate that a relationship exists between vessel structure and the parietal and occipital brain regions not identified previously. A simple visualisation method allows these differences to be readily identified. These differences may lead to new insights about the difference in disease progression in different brain areas, and could assist in identifying useful parameters for automated classification.Graphical abstract

Data mining of missing persons data

The United States government has long sought data about individuals for a wide variety of important public purposes. The process of collecting this information was often time-consuming and expensive and resulted in data that were difficult to use because of the form in which they were captured. The Supreme Court described the effect as “practical obscurity.”1 Much of the “privacy” Americans have enjoyed results from the fact that it was simply too expensive or laborious to find out intimate data about them. In the twenty-first century, technology and law have combined to erode the protection for personal privacy previously afforded by practical obscurity. Advances in digital technologies have greatly expanded the volume of personal data created as individuals engage in everyday activities. “Today, our biographies are etched in the ones and zeros we leave behind in daily digital transactions,”2 Professor Kathleen Sullivan has written. Moreover, technology has contributed to an explosion not only in the ubiquity of data, but also in the range of parties with physical access to those data and in the practical and economic ability of those parties to collect, store, share, and use those digital footprints. At the same time, the Supreme Court has refused to extend the Fourth Amendment to restrict the government’s access to data held by third parties. In the 1976 decision United States v. Miller, the Court held that because there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in information held by a

Characterisation of academic journals in the digital age

Innovations in scholarly publishing have led to new possibilities for academic journals (e.g., open access), and provided scholars with a range of indicators that can be used to evaluate their characteristics and their impact. This study identifies and evaluates the journal characteristics reported in five databases: Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (Ulrichs), Journal Citation Reports (JCR), SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), Google Scholar Metrics (GS), and Cabell’s Periodical Directory (Cabells). It describes the 13 indicators (variables) that are available through these databases—scholarly impact, subject category, age, total articles, distribution medium, open access, peer review, acceptance rate, pricing, language, country, status, and issue frequency—and highlights the similarities and differences in the ways these indicators are defined and reported. The study also addresses the ways in which this kind of information can be used to better understand particular journals as well as the scholarly publishing system.

Correlating reaction time and nausea measures with traditional measures of cybersickness

Abstract We provoked cybersickness in participants by immersing them in one of two virtual roller coaster rides using a head-mounted display. As simulation technology is often used in training, our main intention was to examine the effect of the experience on their cognitive function. Participant reaction times before and after the experience were measured by averaging their response time to a visual stimulus over a number of trials. We measured a significant reduction in response time before and after the virtual experience. We also examined the changing state of nausea experienced by participants using some simple nausea measures. These included a repeated nausea rating recorded by participants at two-minute intervals. At the completion of the experience, we averaged these ratings to create a standard nausea score. As participants could decide to stop the experience at any time, we also recorded the voluntary duration of the experience. We correlated our measures with two traditional simulator sickness measures, namely the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ) and Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ). The standard nausea score provided a simple measure of nausea that could be collected at regular intervals with minimal interference to the immersive experience, and was significantly correlated with both the MSSQ and MSAQ scores.

A Systematic Review of Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation Applications in the Higher Education Domain.

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.