501 September 2013 S URGERY remains a primary treatment for cancer. It is therefore important to know whether any perioperative factors, including anesthetic(s), can positively or negatively affect the prognosis of cancer. In this issue of AnEsthEsIoloGY, Benzonana et al.1 have reported the effects of anesthetic isoflurane on the growth and migration (malignant potential) of renal cancer cells....

Over the years, studies have established that circadian clocks, the internal timekeepers that run many biological processes on a near 24-hour schedule, are associated in some way with tumor growth. What's not known is precisely how the relationship works. But now researchers are uncovering some of the clock's key cancer-related components and beginning to envision a time when manipulating or ta...

This paper provides a high level overview of a game called ORIENT which aims at cultural and emotional learning by engaging adolescents in a role-play with virtual characters in a virtual world. The paper focuses on defining and explaining the learning objectives, and gives an overview of how we intend to achieve these objectives using narrative concepts, affective characters, and innovative te...

As online environments and tools have evolved over the last 15–20 years, their use for role-based learning has expanded. This analysis draws on work for an Australian project that has been sharing and developing knowledge about the use of online role-plays in higher education. We describe the learning needs that online role-play can meet, and give examples of solutions—some using custom-built s...

Video games in general and educational role play games in particular would increase in believability if Non Player Characters reacted appropriately to the player’s actions. Realistic and responsive feedback from game characters is important to increase engagement and enjoyment in players. In this paper, we discuss the modelling of autonomous characters based on a biologically-inspired theory of...

The paper explores the use of virtual worlds to support online role-play as a collaborative activity. This paper describes some of the challenges involved in building online role-play environments in a virtual world and presents some of the ideas being explored by the project in the role-play applications being developed. Finally we explore how this can be used within the context of immersive e...