Establishing usability specifications as measurable attributes in repeatable scenarios has been an essential task in the management and continuous improvement processes [1]. Early studies in Usability Analysis were primarily conducted to assist software developers and hardware designers in improving the Human- Computer Interface (HCI) or Man- Machine Interface (MMI). However, this study was conducted to provide comparative data supporting broad conclusions regarding the comparative merits of one technology (nonstereoscopic, conventional CAD systems) competed against another (tracked, stereoscopic virtual environments). Competing environments to establish usability features and preferences provides a new tool to the interface designer. Benchmark scenarios were designed and executed to measure navigation, fault identification/repair, and spatial awareness through a sequence of choices and to provide user preference of one GUI paradigm over another functionally similar paradigm. This study, performed on a ship design application, included an analysis of the effects of user collaboration in virtual environments.

A educação médica tem passado por expressivas modificações através dos anos. Até meados do século XIX, a medicina acadêmica baseava-se na observação dos fatos; a partir deles, concluía-se o tratamento possível. Contemporaneamente, o ensino da Medicina envolve uma busca constante de novos métodos para acomodar novas exigências. Paralelamente a essa busca, enfrenta na evolução tecnológica um de seus maiores desafios. Na cirurgia, por exemplo, o advento das técnicas laparoscópicas gerou a necessidade de habilidades muito diferentes daquelas empregadas nas cirurgias convencionais, sendo que o treinamento de cirurgiões depende cada vez mais de ambientes de simulação. Uma destas ferramentas que permite estas simulações é a Realidade Virtual (RV). Considerando esse contexto, os objetivos deste trabalho foram desenvolver um ambiente de RV para o ensino de cirurgia em nível de graduação, refletir sobre o impacto desse tipo de ferramenta na educação desses alunos e refletir sobre a viabilidade de estabelecer um programa de pós-graduação focado no desenvolvimento de ambientes de RV aplicáveis à Medicina. Para tanto, formou-se uma equipe multidisciplinar que desenvolveu um ambiente RV pré-, trans- e pós-cirúrgico. O ambiente permite que alunos que nunca tiveram contato com um bloco cirúrgico executem diversas tarefas ligadas à realização de uma toracotomia e aprendam regras e rotinas vigentes no bloco. Uma avaliação preliminar com 15 estudantes de medicina e 12 profissionais (cinco médicos, cincos cientistas da computação e dois educadores) mostrou que ambos os grupos consideraram a experiência virtual global como satisfatória ou muito satisfatória (escores de 7 a 9 em um escala de 10 pontos). O ambiente de RV desenvolvido neste estudo servirá de base para outras aplicações, por exemplo, para acoplar outros módulos cirúrgicos em substituição à toracotomia. Além disso, o sistema pode ser adaptado para treinamento de outros públicos-alvo, tais como enfermeiros ou estudantes de enfermagem, auxiliares de enfermagem e outros. Apesar das complexidades inerentes ao desenvolvimento de ferramentas de RV, a necessidade inegável de fornecer aos estudantes mais oportunidades de treinamento, o inexorável crescimento da tecnologia dentro da medicina e a importância de integrar esses aspectos às oportunidades de fazer educação permitem que se conclua que o projeto teve sucesso. A linha de pesquisa estabelecida a partir deste trabalho é extremamente promissora. / Medical education has undergone major changes along the years. Until the mid 19th-century, academic medicine was based on the observation of facts; possible treatments were derived from this observation. Currently, the teaching of Medicine involves the continuous search for new methods to accommodate novel requirements. Parallel to this search, one of the biggest challenges for the teaching of Medicine is the evolution of technology. In surgery, for example, the advent of laparoscopic techniques has translated into the need for abilities that are quite different than those applied in conventional procedures, and the training of surgeons has relied increasingly more on simulations environments. One of the tools that allow these simulations is Virtual Reality (VR). Considering this context, the objectives of the present work were to develop a VR environment for the teaching of surgery at the undergraduate level, to reflect on the impact of this type of tool for the education of medical students and to consider the feasibility of establishing a graduate program focused on the development VR environments applicable to Medicine. For that, a multidisciplinary team was formed, and a pre, trans, and postsurgical VR environment was developed. This environment allows students who have never been in contact with a surgical unit to complete various tasks relating to the performance of a thoracotomy and to learn about the rules and routines associated with a surgical unit. A preliminary assessment with 15 medical students and 12 professionals (five physicians, five computer scientists, and two education specialists) showed that both these groups considered the overall virtual experience as satisfactory or very satisfactory (scores 7-9 in a 10-point scale). The VR environment developed in this study will serve as a basis for other applications, such as additional surgical modules to replace the thoracotomy module. The environment may also be adapted for the training of other target publics, such as nurses or nursing students, nursing assistants or others. Despite the complexities associated with the development of VR tools, the undeniable need to provide students with more opportunities for training, the inexorable ingrowth of technology into medicine, and the importance of integrating all this into an opportunity for education, lead to the conclusion that this project was successful and that the research line established with the present work is extremely promising.

A educação médica tem passado por expressivas modificações através dos anos. Até meados do século XIX, a medicina acadêmica baseava-se na observação dos fatos; a partir deles, concluía-se o tratamento possível. Contemporaneamente, o ensino da Medicina envolve uma busca constante de novos métodos para acomodar novas exigências. Paralelamente a essa busca, enfrenta na evolução tecnológica um de seus maiores desafios. Na cirurgia, por exemplo, o advento das técnicas laparoscópicas gerou a necessidade de habilidades muito diferentes daquelas empregadas nas cirurgias convencionais, sendo que o treinamento de cirurgiões depende cada vez mais de ambientes de simulação. Uma destas ferramentas que permite estas simulações é a Realidade Virtual (RV). Considerando esse contexto, os objetivos deste trabalho foram desenvolver um ambiente de RV para o ensino de cirurgia em nível de graduação, refletir sobre o impacto desse tipo de ferramenta na educação desses alunos e refletir sobre a viabilidade de estabelecer um programa de pós-graduação focado no desenvolvimento de ambientes de RV aplicáveis à Medicina. Para tanto, formou-se uma equipe multidisciplinar que desenvolveu um ambiente RV pré-, trans- e pós-cirúrgico. O ambiente permite que alunos que nunca tiveram contato com um bloco cirúrgico executem diversas tarefas ligadas à realização de uma toracotomia e aprendam regras e rotinas vigentes no bloco. Uma avaliação preliminar com 15 estudantes de medicina e 12 profissionais (cinco médicos, cincos cientistas da computação e dois educadores) mostrou que ambos os grupos consideraram a experiência virtual global como satisfatória ou muito satisfatória (escores de 7 a 9 em um escala de 10 pontos). O ambiente de RV desenvolvido neste estudo servirá de base para outras aplicações, por exemplo, para acoplar outros módulos cirúrgicos em substituição à toracotomia. Além disso, o sistema pode ser adaptado para treinamento de outros públicos-alvo, tais como enfermeiros ou estudantes de enfermagem, auxiliares de enfermagem e outros. Apesar das complexidades inerentes ao desenvolvimento de ferramentas de RV, a necessidade inegável de fornecer aos estudantes mais oportunidades de treinamento, o inexorável crescimento da tecnologia dentro da medicina e a importância de integrar esses aspectos às oportunidades de fazer educação permitem que se conclua que o projeto teve sucesso. A linha de pesquisa estabelecida a partir deste trabalho é extremamente promissora. / Medical education has undergone major changes along the years. Until the mid 19th-century, academic medicine was based on the observation of facts; possible treatments were derived from this observation. Currently, the teaching of Medicine involves the continuous search for new methods to accommodate novel requirements. Parallel to this search, one of the biggest challenges for the teaching of Medicine is the evolution of technology. In surgery, for example, the advent of laparoscopic techniques has translated into the need for abilities that are quite different than those applied in conventional procedures, and the training of surgeons has relied increasingly more on simulations environments. One of the tools that allow these simulations is Virtual Reality (VR). Considering this context, the objectives of the present work were to develop a VR environment for the teaching of surgery at the undergraduate level, to reflect on the impact of this type of tool for the education of medical students and to consider the feasibility of establishing a graduate program focused on the development VR environments applicable to Medicine. For that, a multidisciplinary team was formed, and a pre, trans, and postsurgical VR environment was developed. This environment allows students who have never been in contact with a surgical unit to complete various tasks relating to the performance of a thoracotomy and to learn about the rules and routines associated with a surgical unit. A preliminary assessment with 15 medical students and 12 professionals (five physicians, five computer scientists, and two education specialists) showed that both these groups considered the overall virtual experience as satisfactory or very satisfactory (scores 7-9 in a 10-point scale). The VR environment developed in this study will serve as a basis for other applications, such as additional surgical modules to replace the thoracotomy module. The environment may also be adapted for the training of other target publics, such as nurses or nursing students, nursing assistants or others. Despite the complexities associated with the development of VR tools, the undeniable need to provide students with more opportunities for training, the inexorable ingrowth of technology into medicine, and the importance of integrating all this into an opportunity for education, lead to the conclusion that this project was successful and that the research line established with the present work is extremely promising.

A educação médica tem passado por expressivas modificações através dos anos. Até meados do século XIX, a medicina acadêmica baseava-se na observação dos fatos; a partir deles, concluía-se o tratamento possível. Contemporaneamente, o ensino da Medicina envolve uma busca constante de novos métodos para acomodar novas exigências. Paralelamente a essa busca, enfrenta na evolução tecnológica um de seus maiores desafios. Na cirurgia, por exemplo, o advento das técnicas laparoscópicas gerou a necessidade de habilidades muito diferentes daquelas empregadas nas cirurgias convencionais, sendo que o treinamento de cirurgiões depende cada vez mais de ambientes de simulação. Uma destas ferramentas que permite estas simulações é a Realidade Virtual (RV). Considerando esse contexto, os objetivos deste trabalho foram desenvolver um ambiente de RV para o ensino de cirurgia em nível de graduação, refletir sobre o impacto desse tipo de ferramenta na educação desses alunos e refletir sobre a viabilidade de estabelecer um programa de pós-graduação focado no desenvolvimento de ambientes de RV aplicáveis à Medicina. Para tanto, formou-se uma equipe multidisciplinar que desenvolveu um ambiente RV pré-, trans- e pós-cirúrgico. O ambiente permite que alunos que nunca tiveram contato com um bloco cirúrgico executem diversas tarefas ligadas à realização de uma toracotomia e aprendam regras e rotinas vigentes no bloco. Uma avaliação preliminar com 15 estudantes de medicina e 12 profissionais (cinco médicos, cincos cientistas da computação e dois educadores) mostrou que ambos os grupos consideraram a experiência virtual global como satisfatória ou muito satisfatória (escores de 7 a 9 em um escala de 10 pontos). O ambiente de RV desenvolvido neste estudo servirá de base para outras aplicações, por exemplo, para acoplar outros módulos cirúrgicos em substituição à toracotomia. Além disso, o sistema pode ser adaptado para treinamento de outros públicos-alvo, tais como enfermeiros ou estudantes de enfermagem, auxiliares de enfermagem e outros. Apesar das complexidades inerentes ao desenvolvimento de ferramentas de RV, a necessidade inegável de fornecer aos estudantes mais oportunidades de treinamento, o inexorável crescimento da tecnologia dentro da medicina e a importância de integrar esses aspectos às oportunidades de fazer educação permitem que se conclua que o projeto teve sucesso. A linha de pesquisa estabelecida a partir deste trabalho é extremamente promissora. / Medical education has undergone major changes along the years. Until the mid 19th-century, academic medicine was based on the observation of facts; possible treatments were derived from this observation. Currently, the teaching of Medicine involves the continuous search for new methods to accommodate novel requirements. Parallel to this search, one of the biggest challenges for the teaching of Medicine is the evolution of technology. In surgery, for example, the advent of laparoscopic techniques has translated into the need for abilities that are quite different than those applied in conventional procedures, and the training of surgeons has relied increasingly more on simulations environments. One of the tools that allow these simulations is Virtual Reality (VR). Considering this context, the objectives of the present work were to develop a VR environment for the teaching of surgery at the undergraduate level, to reflect on the impact of this type of tool for the education of medical students and to consider the feasibility of establishing a graduate program focused on the development VR environments applicable to Medicine. For that, a multidisciplinary team was formed, and a pre, trans, and postsurgical VR environment was developed. This environment allows students who have never been in contact with a surgical unit to complete various tasks relating to the performance of a thoracotomy and to learn about the rules and routines associated with a surgical unit. A preliminary assessment with 15 medical students and 12 professionals (five physicians, five computer scientists, and two education specialists) showed that both these groups considered the overall virtual experience as satisfactory or very satisfactory (scores 7-9 in a 10-point scale). The VR environment developed in this study will serve as a basis for other applications, such as additional surgical modules to replace the thoracotomy module. The environment may also be adapted for the training of other target publics, such as nurses or nursing students, nursing assistants or others. Despite the complexities associated with the development of VR tools, the undeniable need to provide students with more opportunities for training, the inexorable ingrowth of technology into medicine, and the importance of integrating all this into an opportunity for education, lead to the conclusion that this project was successful and that the research line established with the present work is extremely promising.

In this thesis, besides the developing a bilateral automated negotiation model between agents, in incomplete information state, integrating the personality effects of human on the negotiation process and outcomes, we proposed an architecture of such agents ("buyer" or "seller"). To do so, a new offer generation approach of three adaptive families of tactics has been proposed as follows : the time dependent tactics (time supposed as continuous), behavior dependent tactics, and time independent tactics.This thesis takes into consideration also the personality effects (of negotiator agent) on negotiation process and outcome. In fact, with regard to "Big five" personality model and introducing the cognitive orientations, we have developed a negotiator agent's architecture based on personality. This architecture is, mainly, inspired from the game theory. In fact, the artificial agent's cognition in terms of negotiation is considered as a certain negotiator's mental orientation favorising the concession of the negotiator agent towards one of following three equilibria (based on game theory) : Win-Lose, Lose-Win, and Win-Win According to the privileged orientation and the personality of negotiator, such a negotiator agent decides the adequate combination of tactics (models, etc) in order to modulate, consequently, the expected outcomes of negotiation

Dans cette thèse, conjointement au développement d'un modèle de négociation bilatérale automatisée entre agents, dans un contexte à informations incomplètes, intégrant les effets de la personnalité du comportement humain sur le processus et sur les résultats de la négociation, nous proposons une architecture de tels agents (″vendeur ″ ou ″acheteur″). Pour cela, une nouvelle approche de génération d'offres a été présentée en proposant notamment trois familles de tactiques adaptatives (par rapport aux intervalles de réservation et aux dates limites), à savoir : les tactiques dépendantes du temps (supposé continu), les tactiques dépendantes du comportement et les tactiques indépendantes du temps. Cette thèse s'intéresse aussi à la prise en considération des effets de la personnalité (de l'agent négociateur) sur les issues de la négociation. En fait, en recourant à modèle appelé ‘‘cinq grands facteurs de la personnalité'' et en introduisant des orientations cognitives, nous avons développé une architecture d'agent négociant basé sur la personnalité. Notre architecture s'inspire principalement de la théorie des jeux. En effet, la connaissance de l'agent artificiel en termes de la négociation est considérée comme une certaine orientation mentale du négociateur favorisant les concessions de ce dernier vers l'un des trois équilibres (au sens de la théorie des jeux) suivants : Gagnant-Perdant, Perdant-Gagnant, ou Gagnant-Gagnant. Selon l'orientation privilégiée et la personnalité du négociateur, un tel agent négociateur décide de la combinaison adéquate des tactiques (modèles etc.) afin de moduler, en conséquence, les issues escomptées de la négociation / In this thesis, besides the developing a bilateral automated negotiation model between agents, in incomplete information state, integrating the personality effects of human on the negotiation process and outcomes, we proposed an architecture of such agents (“buyer” or “seller”). To do so, a new offer generation approach of three adaptive families of tactics has been proposed as follows : the time dependent tactics (time supposed as continuous), behavior dependent tactics, and time independent tactics.This thesis takes into consideration also the personality effects (of negotiator agent) on negotiation process and outcome. In fact, with regard to “Big five” personality model and introducing the cognitive orientations, we have developed a negotiator agent's architecture based on personality. This architecture is, mainly, inspired from the game theory. In fact, the artificial agent's cognition in terms of negotiation is considered as a certain negotiator's mental orientation favorising the concession of the negotiator agent towards one of following three equilibria (based on game theory) : Win-Lose, Lose-Win, and Win-Win According to the privileged orientation and the personality of negotiator, such a negotiator agent decides the adequate combination of tactics (models, etc) in order to modulate, consequently, the expected outcomes of negotiation

Работа посвящена изучению и совершенствованию процессов взаимодействия в виртуальной среде предприятия, моделированию архитектуры процессов виртуальной организации, разработке информационного приложения взаимодействия заказчика и исполнителя, оценке экономической эффективности проекта разработки мобильного приложения, разработке и апробации системно-динамической модели оценки эффективности реализации проектных задач в динамике средствами имитационного моделирования. / The work is devoted to the study and improvement of interaction processes in the virtual environment of the enterprise, modeling the architecture of the processes of a virtual organization, developing an information application of interaction between the customer and the contractor, evaluating the economic efficiency of the mobile application development project, developing and testing a system-dynamic model for evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of project tasks in dynamics by means of simulation modeling.