Background: Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), holly (Ilex opaca) and mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens) adorn homes during the Christmas and New Year holiday season and create the potential for curious children to sample their colorful leaves and enticing berries. This study was aimed to review the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Poison Data System (AAPCC NPDS) to des...

exposure to O3 showed similar but nonsignificant associations. No associations were observed for PM2.5, PM10, or NO2, although adjustment for these pollutants strengthened the childhood O3 associations. Conclusions—Childhood exposure to O3 may be a novel risk factor for CIMT in a healthy population of college students. Regulation of air pollutants and efforts that focus on limiting childhood ex...

The paper shows how established two-dimensional multi-media technologies were used to develop robust prototypes which were then observed in use by children. Results from these phases have been used to guide the current phase of work. This involves the construction of a three-dimensional shared VE using the experimental Deva Virtual Reality system.

Presence in Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) can be classified into personal presence and co-presence. Personal presence is having a feeling of “being there” in the CVE oneself. Co-presence is having a feeling that one is in the same place as the other participants, and that one is collaborating with real people. In this paper we describe an experiment to investigate the effects that s...

We present our experience with a usability evaluation of two prototype CVE applications being developed by the COVEN project. The applications are a teleconferencing system aimed at future business users of CVEs, and a holiday planning environment for the use of the general public. Our concerns in the evaluations were three fold: to refine the design of these applications, to gain further under...

This paper reviews the features of five 3 dimensional networked virtual environments which support collaborative learning applications, through the comparison of the tools and services they offer. Following that, we justify our choice of platform, which is the Croquet platform, and discuss design and implementation issues. Finally we present the results of the evaluation process of the virtual ...