This paper presents a conceptual framework of a virtual reality therapy to assist individuals, especially lung cancer patients or those with breathing disorders to regulate their breath through real-time analysis of respiration movements using a smartphone. Virtual reality technology is an attractive means for medical simulations and treatment, particularly for patients with cancer. The theories, methodologies and approaches, and real-world dynamic contents for all the components of this virtual reality therapy (VRT) via a conceptual framework using the smartphone will be discussed. The architecture and technical aspects of the offshore platform of the virtual environment will also be presented.
Monitoring breath and identifying breathing movements have settled importance in many biomedical research areas, especially in the treatment of those with breathing disorders, e.g., lung cancer patients. Moreover, virtual reality (VR) revolution and their implementations on ubiquitous hand-held devices have a lot of implications, which could be used as a simulation technology for healing purposes. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to detect and classify breathing movements. The overall VR framework is intended to encourage the subjects regulate their breath by classifying the breathing movements in real time. This paper focuses on a portion of the overall VR framework that deals with classifying the acoustic signal of respiration movements. We employ Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) along with speech segmentation techniques using voice activity detection and linear thresholding to the acoustic signal of breath captured using a microphone to depict the differences between inhale and exhale in frequency domain. For every subject, 13 MFCCs of all voiced segments are computed and plotted. The inhale and exhale phases are differentiated using the sixth MFCC order, which carries important classification information. Experimental results on a number of individuals verify our proposed classification methodology.
Purpose: The objective of the study is to critically analyze the impact of entrepreneurial competitions on the soft skills of Omani students.
Design/methodology/approach: Purposive sampling methodology was adopted to perform the study. A sample of 125 students was selected among the 450 students from various Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who participated in the entrepreneurship competition. The questionnaire was distributed two times to the students before and after the competition and 110 fully completed questionnaires only were taken into the research study. Using SPSS, statistical tests like non-parametric chi-square test, t-paired sample test, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were carried out the results were interpreted.
Findings: The findings of the empirical study suggest that competitions have a positive impact on the students’ soft skills and their mindset after participating in the competitions. The study also confirmed that competition is an encouraging affair that makes the students learn new skills and new developments in the business fields. Further, the study also confirmed that competition makes it easy to explore the labor market in the area of requirements.
Research limitations/Implications: HEIs should motivate and encourage students to participate in various entrepreneurial competitions inducing a spirit of entrepreneurship among the young students to enhance their soft skills for self-sufficiency and to identify the potentialities vested within them.
Social implications: The study suggests that to improve the entrepreneurial mindsets of young students, and universities. Originality/Value Only a very few have examined the role of entrepreneurship education in developing soft skills through competition-based learning in Oman. Our study includes selected students from HEIs of Oman the study can further be extended to all the HEIs across Oman.
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