The broad field of environmental ethics, animal welfare, animal liberation, and animal rights literature indicate that all encounters between humans and animals are ethically charged. In this article, I shall examine how environmental ethics or animal welfare/rights/liberation literature translate into public media. The case study will delve into the representation of animals in the Dutch newspapers, using content analysis to provide an empirical basis for monitoring public opinion. Assuming that attitudes to animals are influenced by media coverage, the results of this case study will be brought to bear upon the discussion of the representation of animals beyond a specific national context. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This article explores how concern about animal welfare and animal rights relates to ecological citizenship by discussing student assignments written about the Dutch Party for Animals or PvdD. ‘Animal welfare’, ‘animal rights’, and ‘ecological citizenship’ perspectives offer insights into strategic choices of eco-representatives and animal rights/welfare advocates as well as educators. The assignments balance animal issues with socio-economic ones, explore the relationship between sustainability and ethics, and attribute responsibility for unsustainable or unethical practices. Analysis of student assignments reveals nuanced positions on the anthropocentrism-ecocentrism continuum, showing students’ ability to critically rethink their place within larger environmental systems. Some students demonstrated compassion for nonhumans, indicating that biophilia is evenly distributed among different groups of students. This article finds that fostering pro-environmentalism and animal welfare or rights requires the deepening of the debate contesting but also connecting key issues in sustainability and ethics. This analysis can be valuable for political parties representing nonhumans, or for education practitioners in getting students to think about the challenges in human-environment relationships and for advancing support for ecodemocracy. https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol8/iss1/10/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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This paper describes a project to explore the possibilities of virtual worlds in educating Green IT. In the project a virtual world has been created with various assignments which are meant to create awareness on sustainability aspects of IT. The world (and the assignments) will be incorporated in a course for first-year IT students. In order to measure the effects of the course, a questionnaire has been developed which can be used before and after the course to measure the attitude towards green IT.
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The World Hunt: An Environmental History of the Commodification of Animals is written by John F. Richards, a ‘pioneer in environmental history’ as J. R. McNeill calls him in his introduction to the volume. This introduction explains how this unique yet not always easily accessible text exploring the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of commercial exploitation of non-humans came into being, and how it can be seen in the contexts of the history of human relationships to the environment and of contemporary ethics. The World Hunt is an unusual volume in that it blends environmental history, the dispassionate narrative of facts, with a voice that is at times full of hurt, as it expresses genuine concern for the voiceless victims of hunters’ increasingly global pursuits. The volume is essentially an extract from the meticulously researched and finely detailed history of hunting, fishing and whaling presented in Richards’ exhaustive The Unending Frontier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.09.025 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Abstract Background Visuospatial neglect (VSN) is a cognitive disorder after stroke in which patients fail to consciously process and interact with contralesional stimuli. Visual Scanning Training (VST) is the recommended treatment in clinical guidelines. At the moment, several mixed reality versions of Visual Scanning Training (VST) are being developed. The aim of this study was to explore the opinions of end-users (i.e., therapists) on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in VSN treatment. Methods Therapists played one VR and two AR Serious Games, and subsequently flled out a questionnaire on User Experience, Usability, and Implementation. Results Sixteen therapists (psychologists, occupational, speech, and physiotherapists) played the games, thirteen of them evaluated the games. Therapists saw great potential in all three games, yet there was room for improvement on the level of usability, especially for tailoring the games to the patient’s needs. Therapists’ opinions were comparable between VR and AR Serious Games. For implementation, therapists stressed the urgency of clear guidelines and instructions. Discussion Even though VR/AR technology is promising for VSN treatment, there is no one-size-fts-all applicability. It may thus be crucial to move towards a plethora of training environments rather than a single standardized mixed reality neglect treatment. Conclusion As therapists see the potential value of mixed reality, it remains important to investigate the efcacy of AR and VR training tools.
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Virtual care centres (VCCs) are novel wards of hospitals and facilitate the provision of remote monitoring and home-based patient care by virtual care nurses. Whereas since the COVID-19 pandemic VCCs have rapidly emerged, there is a lack of insight in virtual care nurses’ work and the associated work load. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the nursing activities performed in Virtual Care Centers (VCCs) and assess nurses’ perceived workload associated with these activities. A multicentre descriptive, observational cross-sectional study was performed.
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Integrating culture into the behavioural models of virtual characters requires knowledge from very different disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology and computer science. If culture-related behavioural differences are simulated with a virtual character system, users might not necessarily understand the intent of the designer. This is, in part, due to the influence of culture on not only users, but also designers. To gain a greater understanding of the instantiation of culture in the behaviour of virtual characters, and on this potential mismatch between designer and user, we have conducted two experiments. In these experiments, we tried to simulate one dimension of culture (Masculinity vs. Femininity) in the behaviour of virtual characters. We created four scenarios in the first experiment and six in the second. In each of these scenarios, the same two characters interact with each other. The verbal and non-verbal behaviour of these characters differs depending on their cultural scripts. In two user perception studies, we investigated how these differences are judged by human participants with different cultural backgrounds. Besides expected differences between participants from Masculine and Feminine countries, we found significant differences in perception between participants from Individualistic and Collectivistic countries. We also found that the user’s interpretation of the character’s motivation had a significant influence on the perception of the scenarios. Based on our findings, we give recommendations for researchers that aim to design culture-specific behaviours for virtual characters.
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Inaugural lecture as Lector Precision Livestock Farming at HAS University of Applied Sciences on October 14, 2016. PLF, Precision Livestock Farming, uses technologies to continuously monitor animal behaviour, animal health, production and environmental impact.
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Dit boekje is uitgegeven in het kader van de inaugurele rede van Richard Griffioen, lector Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI). De inhoud van het lectoraat is zeer divers en richt zich op de impact van AAI (in de zorg) op het welzijn van mens en dier en het beïnvloeden van de mindset in de maatschappij. Het One Health concept, waarin het welzijn van de mens én het dier hand in hand gaan, speelt hierbij een belangrijke rol. Het lectoraat richt zich ook op nieuwe technologieën zoals virtual reality en robotica toepassingen. Het doel is om programma’s te ontwikkelen die zich richten op de hond, boerderijdieren en paarden.
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