The current paper describes research that is aimed to elucidate our understanding of technology factors that may help users of home exercise equipment to stay motivated for doing regular work-outs. In particular, we investigated the effects of immersion and coaching by a virtual agent on intrinsic motivation and the sense of presence of participants cycling on a stationary home exercise bike. A...

This study examines attributes of virtual human behavior that may increase the plausibility of a simulated crowd and affect the user’s experience in Virtual Reality. Purpose-developed experiments in both Immersive and semi-Immersive Virtual Reality systems queried the impact of collision and basic interaction between real-users and the virtual crowd and their effect on the apparent realism and ...

This paper investigates aspects in designing auditory spaces to support novel forms of interaction in virtual spaces. Initial research on human imagined sounds from places has identified ‘expectation’ as an important psychological construct. Instead of designing realistic experience, the paper suggests a user’s sense of presence as a measure of the user’s experience in virtual spaces. The resul...

purpose some major competitions (e.g. london olympics, 2012) are scheduled during the ramadan fasting month. little attention has been given to explore the archers’ performance related subjective experiences with a qualitative method. therefore, this study addressed individual archers’ subjective experiences within the framework of self-regulation during ramadan. methods eleven elite malaysian ...

introduction:  premature neonates admitted in nicu besides being separated from their mothers are prone to inevitably painful and stressful situations. kangaroo care is the most effective method to get rid of this separation and its negative consequences. this study was performed to determine the experiences of mothers having premature neonates concerning kangaroo care.   material and methods: ...

background: studies have shown that nurses are under considerable job stress, which can lead to health disorders and failure in duties. stressors of nursing have been studied in some of quantitative studies; however, a few investigators have studied the nurses’ life experiences in this regard. the current qualitative research aimed to understand the nurses’ experiences and perceptions of job-re...

aims : understanding the experiences of mothers could be as a strategy for the physicians, nurses who are working in nicu and administrators in the care centers in order to provide supports for parents, particularly mothers and an effective step to improve the quality of nursing care of premature infants and their parents.   methods : in this study, one of the qualitative research methods as de...

conclusions transition to fatherhood extends beyond only moderate mental and social changes, and may be influenced by cultural background and beliefs. therefore, caregivers should be aware of fathers' changes and needs during pregnancy, and support them while taking into consideration their culture and beliefs. results through analysis of fathers’ experiences of their wives’ pregnancy, four cat...

background and purpose: the office of educational services at universities is a very important division and it is necessary for employees to strive towards providing suitable services to students. the quality of educational services has always been a major concern for higher education managers. interviewing stakeholders and experts increases our understanding of different aspects of the subject...

introduction: it is an unfamiliar, frightening and stressful experience for the parents of a child who is undergoing bone marrow transplantation. it is impossible to propose an effective caring method without considering all dimensions related to such experience. objective: the purpose of this study was to describe and understand the lived experiences of parents whose children were undergoing b...