School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Data from National Sample Surveys (71st round, 2014 and 75th round, 2017-18) show that there is a significant increase in the utilisation of public facilities for both outpatient and inpatient services, across empowered action group states and non-EAG states. As a result, there is a dramatic fall in the overall financial burden on patients who would have otherwise used services of private healthcare providers. In light of this evidence, this paper argues that it is prudent to invest more directly to strengthen public healthcare delivery system in India. © 2020 Economic and Political Weekly. All rights reserved.

World University root node

Economic and Political Weekly

Invest more in public healthcare facilities what do nsso 71st and 75th rounds say?

This article intends to critique the spectres of authority which haunt theatrical interpretations of Rabindranath Tagore's (1861-1941) plays. As Tagore is a cultural icon, since even before his demise his plays have been made sites for exercising cultural and institutional authority. A consequent uneasy anticipation of denunciation or censorship has essentially deterred theatre directors from creatively interpreting and staging his plays. In terms of discourse also, there has been a spiral of silence regarding the presence of such authority. It is only since the beginning of the twenty-first century, after the termination of the copyright to Tagore's works, that the situation has lightened considerably. This article deals with the above phenomenon in two segments. While the second segment provides a close analysis of one of the first productions to radically subvert the status quo regarding the creative staging of Tagore's plays, the first provides a contextual, historical build-up to that moment. The article argues that in dramatic theatre authority is often validated on the basis of an 'archival logic' of thinking which requires systematic dismantling. Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2020.

Theatre Research International

Staging Tagore beyond the Spectres of Authority: Suman Mukhopadhyay's Falguni: Suchana (2001)

Orndorff and his colleagues [1] suggested that if a neural activity is considered a treatment variable instead of outcome, it widens the scope of research and has a specific implication for social neuroscience. Given this, the empirical evidence is collected and analyzed where neural activity as self-manipulation design through neurofeedback training specifically for social cognition deficit is done. The objective of the present article is to provide a systematic review of 1) how NFT is utilized to treat social cognitive deficits, 2) how NFT is utilized to target Social Cognition Deficit in ASD, 3) examining the directions, strengths, and quality of evidence to support the use of NFT for ASD. The databases for studies were searched in PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Springer, Science Direct, Psychinfo, and Google Scholar, using combinations of the following keywords: ‘Neurofeedback,’ ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder,’ ‘Mu Rhythm’ and ‘Social Cognition.’ Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were specific to 1) autistic and typically developed population, 2) intervention study, 3) Delivered by NFT, 4) participants showed social cognitive deficit and/or improvement. Total one eighty-seven studies were found of key interest; out of which 17 studies were eligible for inclusion in this review. All studies reported the improvement in different domains of social cognition and were moderately methodologically sound. Eleven out of seventeen studies satisfied the trainability and interpretability criteria suggested by Zoefel and his colleagues [2]. The conclusion from the present review is in line with comments of Marzbani and colleagues [3] that, ‘current research does not provide sufficient conclusive results about its efficacy.’ The patterns and directions concluded from studies related to protocol, methodology and results are discussed in detail in the present review. © 2020

Fulltext

International journal of online and biomedical engineering

Neurofeedback Training for Social Cognitive Deficits A Systematic Review

Students with visual impairment and blindness learn 3D shapes using physical models, which pose portability issues and high associated costs. Although tactile and kinesthetic feedback systems have been proposed for non-visual exploration of 3D virtual objects, such systems tend to suffer from similar shortcomings. In this research, we propose TMOVE, a low-cost handheld tactile feedback actuator to provide tactile, vibrotactile, and combined feedback for the exploration of virtual space. We conducted a preliminary study with 10 blindfolded sighted participants to compare the perceived 3D experience and the effectiveness of using the feedback modalities in the exploration of two coplanar virtual line segments. We found that all the feedback modalities are equally effective in the exploration of virtual space, and multimodal feedback offers an enhanced 3D perception of virtual objects. We believe the findings presented in this paper will be helpful for designers and researchers in developing low-cost tactile feedback systems. © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery.

TEI 2020 - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

TMOVE: Multimodal feedback actuator for non-visual exploration of virtual lines

In immersive VR environments, object selection is an essential interaction. However, current object selection techniques suffer from issues of hand jitter, accuracy, and fatigue, especially to select nail-size objects. Here, we present locked dwell time-based point and tap, a novel object selection technique designed for nail-size object selection in a dense virtual environment. The objects are within arm's reach. We also compare locked dwell time-based point and tap with magnetic grasp, pinch and raycasting. 40 participants evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of these techniques. The results found that locked dwell time-based point and tap took significantly less task completion time and error rate. It was also the most preferred and caused least effort among all the techniques. We also measured easy to use, easy to learn and perceived naturalness of the techniques. © 2020 Owner/Author.

Proceedings - SUI 2020: ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction

Investigating the Effectiveness of Locked Dwell Time-based Point and Tap Gesture for Selection of Nail-sized Objects in Dense Virtual Environment

Object selection is a fundamental and primary task in any Virtual Environment (VE). However, object selection in dense VEs presents challenges of inaccurate selection, higher error rates and increased task completion times. The challenges are further amplified when target objects are small as nail size, occluded and located at different distances from users. In this paper, we present a two-stage elicitation study for object selection in 4 dense VEs (2x2 selection conditions: The selection of near vs distant objects; with or without occlusion) in a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) based Virtual Reality (VR) platform. In study 1, we identified the most natural and intuitive gestures through a user-generated gesture study. In total, 737 gestures and 23, 29, 26 and 36 unique gestures were collected from 40 participants for mentioned VEs. We calculated an overall score to elucidate further a total of 3, 2, 3 and 3 gestures. In study 2, a new group of 33 participants rated these gestures on ease of performance, gesture appropriateness, body-part suitability and ranked them for user preferences and effort. Finally, we elucidate them to present one gesture each for each VE based on the results obtained from the study 2. We present and discuss the findings of preferences of upper body gestures, a strong emphasis on the confirmation, bringing targets within hands reach and non-occluded, accuracy over effort, scale manipulation of the VE and influence and adoption of WIMP and touch interfaces. A total of 40 non-paid participants (27 males, 13 females) from the age group of 18-35 (Mean= 25.42, SD= 4.07) were chosen for the study. The participants were university students. As Plaumann et al. [32] showed a strong influence of handedness, we recruited only right-handed participants for the study. All participants had prior experience in using HMD-VR platforms (e.g. Oculus Rift and/or HTC Vive). Their experiences included a minimum of 10 hours of playing games or watching movies or combined in the last six months. They were also familiar with gestural interfaces due to prior experience in using a Nintendo Wii remote or Microsoft Kinect for at least 10 hours in the last six months. © 2020 ACM.

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

A gesture elicitation study for selection of nail size objects in a dense and occluded dense hmd-vr.

The Beat generation as a countercultural movement sought a clear demarcation from the mainstream society and the American ideology of the 1950s. They were a distinctive group of people who took delight in their socially ostracized position and did not care about being labeled as “Mad.” Madness or mental insanity and its consequences were for them a powerful means of resisting social pressures and restrictions. It also helped develop among the Beat writers a spirit of fellowship based on their desire to break away from the normative style of American literature. Often resulting in exclusion from the mainstream society, madness paradoxically served as a sign of belonging for the Beat generation. Deliberately seeking segregation from the mainstream, the Beat counterculture “took delight in inferior social and economic positions” (Rogoveanu 2009, 247). According to Reynolds (2016, 83), “The word ‘counterculture’ in and of itself connotes a sense of belonging, even if that sense of belonging exists solely because of one’s desire to abandon a previous affiliation.” Rather than trying to assimilate into the mainstream American society forcibly and thereby losing their individuality, the Beats preferred to remain as the “Other.” Echoing this viewpoint, Mettler (2015, 174) states. © 2020 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

IUP Journal of English Studies

Subversion of “madness” in allen ginsberg’s poetry

Soins Psychiatrie

An elephant in the room

Reading and creating graphical information is a difficult task for users with visual impairment and blindness. It becomes even more challenging on touchscreen devices due to the lack of tactile buttons. However, advancement in flexible displays and electronics offers the potential use of physical deformation as an additional input modality. These deformation-based gestures provide innate tactile and kinesthetic feedback, which are essential for non-visual interaction. In this paper, I describe my Ph.D. research on non-visual drawing using the deformation gesture-based input method. This work is currently in the initial phase. This research aims to understand the preference and performance of deformation-based gestures on a smartphone-sized flexible handheld device and evaluate the effect of deformation and touch input modalities in the non-visual primitive geometric shape drawing. The expected outcome of this research can be useful for user interface designers and developers and researchers in developing accessible applications for future flexible devices. © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery.

Deformation gesture-based input method for non-visual primitive geometric shape drawing

"Earthscan from Routledge" Ecocriticism and environmental communication studies have for many years co-existed as parallel disciplines, occasionally crossing paths but typically operating in separate academic spheres. These fields are now rapidly converging and this handbook aims to reinforce the common concerns and methodologies of the sibling disciplines. The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication charts the history of the relationship between ecocriticism and environmental communication studies, while also highlighting key new paradigms in information studies, diverse examples of practical applications of environmental communication and textual analysis and the patterns and challenges of environmental communication in non-Western societies. Contributors to this book include literary, film and religious studies scholars, communication studies specialists, environmental historians, practicing journalists, art critics, linguists, ethnographers, sociologists, literary theorists and others, but all focus their discussions on key issues in textual representations of human-nature relationships and on the challenges and possibilities of environmental communication. The handbook is designed to map existing trends in both ecocriticism and environmental communication and to predict future directions. This handbook will be an essential reference for teachers, students and practitioners of environmental literature, film, journalism, communication and rhetoric and well as the broader meta-discipline of environmental humanities. Ecocriticism and discourse / Andrew McMurry -- The climate of change : graphic adaptation, "the rime of the modern mariner" and the ecological uncanny / Pramod Nayar -- Eco churches, eco synagogues, eco Hollywood : 21st century practical responses to Lynn White, Jr.'s and Andrew Furman's 20th century readings of environments in crisis / C.A. Cranston -- Communicating resistance in/through an aquatic ecology in KR Meera's "The gospel of Yudas" / Gayathri Prabhu -- Transformative entanglements : birds and humans in three nonfictional texts / Wendy Woodward -- Discovering the weatherworld : combining ecolinguistics, ecocriticism and lived experience / Arran Stibbe -- Narrative communication in environmental fiction : cognitive and rhetorical approaches / Markku Lehtimäki -- Postcolonial development, socio-ecological degradation and slow violence in Pakistani fiction / Saba Pirzadeh -- How the material world communicates : insights from material ecocriticism / Serpil Oppermann -- Scale in ecological science writing / Derek J. Woods -- The literal and literary conflicts of climate change : the climate migrant and the unending war against emergence / Shane Hall -- Reconceptualizing the individual as a social actor in environmental communication / Julia B. Corbett -- Directionality in Thomas Cole's The oxbow : ecocritical art history and visual communication / Alan C. Braddock -- Challenges to developing a long-term environmental perspective : PAN and DIM / Patrick D. Murphy -- The "Chernobyl syndrome" in U.S. nuclear fiction : toward risk communication parameters of "nuclear phobia" / Inna Sukhenko -- Art as eco-protest and communication in Tanure Ojaide's selected poetry / Joyce Agofure -- Nature writing in the anthropocene / Christian Hummelsund Voie -- Experimental ecocriticism, or how to know if literature really works / Wojciech Malecki Grey literature, green governance / James Goebel -- When thirst had undone so many : a postcolonial ecocritical analysis of water crisis in Ruchir Joshi's "The last jet-engine laugh" and Girish Malik's "Jal" / T. Ravichandran and Nibedita Bandyopadhyay -- Cows, corn and communication : how the discourse around GMOs impacted legislation in the EU and the USA / Annka Liepold -- Science, wonder and environmental activism : Rachel Carson / Saskia Beudel -- Designing the communication of traditional ecological knowledge : a noto case study / Yuki Masami -- Cosmopolitan communication and ecological consciousness in Latin America : Miguel Gutiérrez's "Babel, el paraíso" / Roberto Forns-Broggi -- Communicating with the cosmos : contemporary Brazilian women poets and the embodiment of spiritual values / Izabel Brandão and Edilane Ferreira da Silva -- Women's street artivism in India and Brazil : Shilo Shiv Suleman's pan-indigenous environmental movement / Aarti S. Madan -- Novelist as eco-shaman : Buket Uzuner"s "Water" as requesting spirits to help the earth in crisis / Pinar Batur and Ufuk Özdag -- Environmentalism in the realm of Malaysian novels in English / Zainor Izat Zainal -- Ecomedia nurtures Japanese ecological identity / Keitaro Morita -- Indigenous interiority as nature-culture-sacred continuum : an ecological analysis of "have you seen the arana?" / Rayson K. Alex -- Risk, resistance and memory in two narratives by Asian women / Chitra Sankaran -- Environmental ngos and environmental communication in China / Chen Hong -- Afterword / Homero Aridjis and Betty Ferber.