Depression and anxiety are the most common psychiatric conditions in late life. Despite their prevalence, we know relatively little about their unique manifestation in older adults. And, Although the most common intervention for late-life depression and anxiety continues to be medication, research on psychosocial interventions for late-life depression and anxiety has burgeoned in the past several years. Unfortunately, this growing body of intervention research has yet to be widely translated into improved systems of care for late-life depression. This article is one step toward synthesizing the knowledge in this growing area of research. The review of literature presents the conclusions of several meta-analyses that have reviewed psychosocial interventions for late-life depression and anxiety. In addition, intervention studies concerning the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, reminiscence therapy, and alternative therapies with depressed and/or anxious older adults are reviewed. A brief description of various approaches to psychosocial intervention with anxious and/or depressed older adults is also presented.

Depression and anxiety.

Second Life (SL) is currently the most mature and popular multi-user virtual world platform being used in education. Through an in-depth examination of SL, this article explores its potential and the barriers that multi-user virtual environments present to educators wanting to use immersive 3-D spaces in their teaching. The context is set by tracing the history of virtual worlds back to early multi-user online computer gaming environments and describing the current trends in the development of 3-D immersive spaces. A typology for virtual worlds is developed and the key features that have made unstructured 3-D spaces so attractive to educators are described. The popularity in use of SL is examined through three critical components of the virtual environment experience: technical, immersive and social. From here, the paper discusses the affordances that SL offers for educational activities and the types of teaching approaches that are being explored by institutions. The work concludes with a critical analysis of the barriers to successful implementation of SL as an educational tool and maps a number of developments that are underway to address these issues across virtual worlds more broadly.

https://www.westfield.ma.edu/cit/wp-content/uploads/Second-Life-in-Education.pdf

Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching

Parental factors associated with depression and anxiety in young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Unlike previous studies on the Metaverse based on Second Life, the current Metaverse is based on the social value of Generation Z that online and offline selves are not different. With the technological development of deep learning-based high-precision recognition models and natural generation models, Metaverse is being strengthened with various factors, from mobile-based always-on access to connectivity with reality using virtual currency. The integration of enhanced social activities and neural-net methods requires a new definition of Metaverse suitable for the present, different from the previous Metaverse. This paper divides the concepts and essential techniques necessary for realizing the Metaverse into three components (i.e., hardware, software, and contents) and three approaches (i.e., user interaction, implementation, and application) rather than marketing or hardware approach to conduct a comprehensive analysis. Furthermore, we describe essential methods based on three components and techniques to Metaverse’s representative Ready Player One, Roblox, and Facebook research in the domain of films, games, and studies. Finally, we summarize the limitations and directions for implementing the immersive Metaverse as social influences, constraints, and open challenges.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/6287639/9668973/09667507.pdf

A Metaverse: Taxonomy, Components, Applications, and Open Challenges

This scientific statement addresses parents and adult caregivers (PACs) as "agents of change" for obese children, evaluating the strength of evidence that particular parenting strategies can leverage behavior change and reduce positive energy balance in obese youth. The statement has 3 specific aims. The first is to review core behavior change strategies for PACs as used in family-based treatment programs and to provide a resource list. The second is to evaluate the strength of evidence that greater parental "involvement" in treatment is associated with better reductions in child overweight. The third is to identify research gaps and new opportunities for the field. This review yielded limited and inconsistent evidence from randomized controlled clinical trials that greater PAC involvement necessarily is associated with better child outcomes. For example, only 17% of the intervention studies reported differential improvements in child overweight as a function of parental involvement in treatment. On the other hand, greater parental adherence with core behavior change strategies predicted better child weight outcomes after 2 and 5 years in some studies. Thus, the literature lacks conclusive evidence that one particular parenting strategy or approach causally is superior to others in which children have a greater focus in treatment. A number of research gaps were identified, including the assessment of refined parenting phenotypes, cultural tailoring of interventions, examination of family relationships, and incorporation of new technologies. A conceptual model is proposed to stimulate research identifying the determinants of PAC feeding and physical activity parenting practices, the results of which may inform new treatments. The statement addresses the need for innovative research to advance the scope and potency of PAC treatments for childhood obesity.

Evaluating Parents and Adult Caregivers as “Agents of Change” for Treating Obese Children: Evidence for Parent Behavior Change Strategies and Research Gaps A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

This paper outlines the advantages and weaknesses of Multi-User Virtual Environments for teaching and explores the possible benefits of integrating them closely with traditional Learning Management Systems. We present survey findings of teachers interested in using the Second Life MUVE for teaching. The teachers gave us their opinions about integrating SL and LMS in their classrooms. We finally propose technical methods for creating hybrid systems combining elements of both MUVE and traditional LMS systems for use in teaching. The hybrid system uses the Moodle open source system and Second Life's connectivity features to mirror web-based classrooms with in-world learning spaces and interactive objects. We suggest that further work may help suggest the most suitable educational applications for these hybrid systems.

Putting a Second Life “metaverse” skin on learning management systems

Background Work is an aspiration for many people with intellectual disability and is regarded as a vital goal by policy-makers in pursuit of social inclusion. The aim of this study was to consider the impact of supported employment on the socio-emotional well-being of people with intellectual disabilities.

Method  A systematic search was conducted. The review included case-controlled and longitudinal studies measuring outcomes for: (1) quality of life (QOL), (2) social life and (3) autonomy.

Results  While results for QOL, well-being and autonomy were largely positive, there was a lack of perceived social acceptance. The findings are interpreted in the light of methodological strengths and weaknesses.

Conclusions  Implications for the socio-emotional support required by some individuals in employment, and directions for future research are discussed.

Feelings about Work: A Review of the Socio-Emotional Impact of Supported Employment on People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs), including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) are chronic disorders with significant overlap in aetiology and presentation. An integrative examination of environmental risk factors is lacking. Six literature searches of web-based bibliographic databases were completed to identify literature on DBDs in general and five disorders in particular: CD, ODD, ADHD, deficits of attention, motor control and perception, and reactive attachment disorder. Searches were filtered to focus on studies including diagnostic assessment, focussing on environmental risk and protective factors in the first 4 years of life. The database searches generated 9806 papers of which 47 were reviewed after filters had been applied. The evidence suggests links between a number of early life risk factors and DBDs, including prenatal cigarette smoking and alcohol use, prenatal viral illness, maternal stress and anxiety, low birthweight, peri-partum and early neonatal complications, parental stress and parenting styles in infancy, early deprivation, adoption and separation. Despite the understanding that there is sharing of risk factors between the DBDs, there has been a disproportionate focus on the role of certain risk factors at the expense of others and the field is weakened by difficulties in controlling for all potential confounding variables.

Disruptive behaviour disorders: a systematic review of environmental antenatal and early years risk factors

“Putting a Second Life ‘Metaverse’ skin on Learning Management Systems.” In Livingstone, D. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Second Life Community Convention, San Francisco, 20 August 2006. University of Paisley.

While digital virtual worlds have been used in education for a number of years, advances in the capabilities and spread of technology have fed a recent boom in interest in massively multi-user 3D virtual worlds for entertainment, and this in turn has led to a surge of interest in their educational applications. In this paper we briefly review the use of virtual worlds for education, from informal learning to formal instruction, and consider what is required to turn a virtual world from a Multi-User Virtual Environment into a fully fledged 3D Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). In this we focus on the development of Sloodle – a system which integrates the popular 3D virtual world of Second Life with the open-source VLE Moodle. Our intent is not simply to provide additional learning support features for Second Life, but to study more generally the ways in which integrated virtual environments can benefit teaching and learning, and this is the focus of our closing discussion. Keywords: Multi-User Virtual Environments; Virtual Learning Environments; gamebased learning; Second Life; Immersive Virtual Worlds DOI: 10.1080/09687760802526707

/pdf/from-multi-user-virtual-environment-to-3d-virtual-learning-4qgq9kvrpt.pdf

Jeremy Kemp

Papers

Putting a Second Life “metaverse” skin on learning management systems

Feelings about Work: A Review of the Socio-Emotional Impact of Supported Employment on People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Disruptive behaviour disorders: a systematic review of environmental antenatal and early years risk factors

“Putting a Second Life ‘Metaverse’ skin on Learning Management Systems.” In Livingstone, D. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Second Life Community Convention, San Francisco, 20 August 2006. University of Paisley.

From Multi-User Virtual Environment to 3D Virtual Learning Environment