110830 research outputs found
Sort by
Understanding the co-dependence of cursor warping and boundary switching in XR workspaces
Get PDFExtended reality (XR) enables flexible, multi-display workspaces without the need for physical monitors, yet extensive pointer travel between displays can compromise both ergonomics and productivity. To address this challenge, we evaluated five cursor warping techniques and their interaction with Boundary Switching—a counter-rotation method that shifts displays opposite to head yaw to reduce neck strain. The techniques initialize the pointer at different locations when moving between displays: (1) at the display’s center, (2) at the last-known cursor position on the target display, (3) at the same relative position as on the previous display, (4) at the user’s first gaze fixation within the target display, and (5) projected into world space as is typical for desktop environments. In a within-subjects study (N=20), participants selected cued targets across five horizontally arranged virtual displays. Without Boundary Switching, center, last-known, and relative-position warping proved reliable defaults. With Boundary Switching enabled, gaze-based warping significantly outperformed all alternatives, while world-space warping consistently underperformed. Our findings highlight how display motion changes pointer initialization strategies and inform design guidelines for ergonomic and efficient multi-display interfaces in immersive workspaces
Tracking the trajectory of executive function from 2.5 to 6.5 years of age and the impact of COVID-19
No full textGiven the significance of executive function (EF) for longer-term outcomes, it is important to understand the trajectory of EF in childhood and how COVID-19 influenced this trajectory. 139 (71 girls) children were examined longitudinally from 2.5 to 6.5 years using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale. Individual differences in EF abilities were stable longitudinally, and children with a more highly educated mother had higher EF scores. Children tested 1–3 years after the first lockdown showed greater variation in individual differences over time. Additional analyses examined linear growth curves for children assessed 3–4 times from 2.5 to 6.5 years. Children who were in preschool during the first lockdown had steeper growth curve trajectories than children in the first year of primary school
Breeding for multi‐stress resilience in crops : Myth or possibility?
Get PDFSocial Impact Statement: Climate change threatens millions of farmers worldwide by exposing crops to multiple concurrent or sequential environmental stresses such as drought, heat, waterlogging, and diseases. Although crops have long been selected under naturally occurring multi‐stress conditions, breeding pipelines largely focus on optimal or single‐stress environments, leaving complex stress combinations under‐addressed. Developing crop cultivars that withstand multiple stress scenarios is essential for ensuring food security, food safety, and strengthening farmer resilience. Breeding for multi‐stress resilience seems feasible but requires international collaboration among applied crop scientists, pure biologists, and policymakers to develop climate‐resilient crops that sustain people and ecosystems. Summary: Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of combined abiotic and biotic stressors that may occur simultaneously or sequentially, dramatically reducing crop growth and yield stability. Plant breeding activities primarily target crop improvement for a single stressor, limiting crop resilience under complex environmental conditions. This opinion paper highlights the complexity of crop breeding for multi‐stress growing conditions and discusses major challenges and opportunities to enable plant breeders to develop more climate‐resilient crops. It also outlines the importance of integrating conventional breeding approaches with multi‐omics and novel breeding technologies to develop multi‐stress resilient crop cultivars. Identifying and validating key regulatory genes involved in multi‐stress resilience and evaluating their performance across diverse genetic backgrounds, environments, and stress combination scenarios are needed. Although achieving complete multi‐stress resilience remains an immense challenge, advances in integrative approaches and cross‐disciplinary collaboration are steadily improving the potential to enhance crop resilience to multiple environmental stresses
Defining safety leadership : A qualitative exploration of senior leaders’ perspectives in high-risk industries
Get PDFWith workplace fatalities and injuries on the rise, research on safety and leadership has also grown, given the critical role leadership has been shown to play in enhancing safety performance. Despite the frequent use of the term ‘safety leadership’ in both academia and industry, no consensus exists on what safety leadership actually means, nor has a concrete definition of safety leadership been developed. The present study aimed to address these gaps by adopting a qualitative exploratory research approach. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore two key questions: how senior leaders in high-risk industries from around the world define safety leadership; and what qualities characterize safety leaders. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data and address the research questions. A conceptual definition of safety leadership is presented together with the key characteristics of safety leaders. Despite having parallels with other leadership styles, safety leadership was found to be conceptually unique from other leadership constructs, especially from transformational leadership, highlighting a key theoretical advancement that challenges the prevailing, long-standing perspective in the academic literature. Additionally, while safety leadership has traditionally been discussed in relation to safety performance, the present study unveils its additional positive impact on business performance. These findings offer significant contributions to both safety science and practice, with implications discussed alongside recommendations for future research while recognizing the study’s strengths and limitations
Tailoring high concentration electrolytes for supercapacitors : the impact of anion structure on ion transport and charge storage
Get PDFElectric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) are promising energy storage devices due to their high power density and long cycle life, but their lower energy density compared to batteries remains a major limitation. Highly concentrated electrolytes present a safer and more sustainable alternative to conventional organic electrolytes, while retaining the ability to operate at high-voltage. Since many water-in-salt (WIS) electrolytes are based on fluorinated anions, the length of the fluorinated chain plays a critical role in determining electrolyte properties. In this study, we investigate the impact of anion structure by comparing three fluorinated imide-based salts, i.e. LiTFSI (lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide), LiPFSI (lithium bis(pentafluoroethanesulfonyl)imide), and LiNFSI (lithium bis(nonafluorobutanesulfonyl)imide), for supercapacitor applications. Electrochemical characterization, Raman spectroscopy, and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) reveal that LiPFSI, with its higher proportion of double-donor single-acceptor (DDA) hydrogen bonding profiles, forms a highly coordinated anionic network at an optimal concentration of 5 mol kg−1. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy shows that LiPFSI preferentially occupies the in-pore environment of nanoporous carbon, achieving a favourable ion to solvent balance that supports efficient charge storage and enhanced capacitance. In contrast, although LiNFSI can form dense ion agglomerates at high concentrations, the bulky anion and associated higher viscosity restrict ion transport and pore accessibility. These findings highlight the importance of anion selection and concentration, and pore-level electrolyte distribution in tailoring high-concentrated electrolytes for next-generation high-voltage, high-capacity supercapacitors
Anisotropy and shear stress accumulation during collective migration of epithelial cells
Get PDFAnisotropy is a fundamental physical characteristic that influences efficient cell migration in biological systems. Concurrently, anisotropy serves as a primary factor contributing to a significant accumulation of mechanical stress within migrating epithelial collectives, provided that the cells maintain the strong E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion contacts that are characteristic of epithelial cells. While cells are capable of effectively enduring both compressive and tensile stress, the shear stress that can be generated during a physiological process such as collective cell migration poses a risk of: (i) disrupting the adhesion contacts among cells and between cells and the extracellular matrix, (ii) causing a partial disintegration of the lipid bilayer and cytoskeleton, (iii) triggering cellular inflammation, and (iv) inducing changes in gene expression. The principal aims of this theoretical analysis are: (i) to emphasize the main characteristics of isotropic and anisotropic wetting/de-wetting of migrating epithelial collectives as the main factor in mechanical stress generation; (ii) to formulate a constitutive model of the anisotropic viscoelasticity of migrating epithelial and mesenchymal collectives; (iii) to emphasize the physical factors related to cell sensitivity to shear stress; and (iv) to explore potential cellular strategies to mitigate shear stress, while also highlighting the associated costs of these strategies
Green Goodwill and Carbon Emission Abatement in a Monopolistic Market : A Dynamic Game Approach
Get PDFThis paper examines how carbon taxation, green awareness, and abatement technology jointly affect emissions and market stability in a monopolistic setting. We develop a dynamic model in which a bounded-rational firm builds green goodwill in response to environmentally conscious consumers. The analysis uncovers a counter-intuitive, market-size-dependent effect: awareness and technology reduce total emissions only when the market is sufficiently large, while in smaller markets they may increase emissions by expanding output. Carbon taxation, by contrast, consistently lowers emissions. Welfare analysis shows that awareness and technology enhance surplus, whereas excessive taxation can reduce welfare. The stability analysis further indicates that while a higher carbon tax rate tends to enhance market stability, excessively strong environmental awareness or overly low abatement costs may instead lead to instability. These findings highlight that effective climate policy must balance awareness, taxation, and technology according to market scale
Exploring the potential of the pratfall effect in travel influencer marketing
Get PDFThis study introduces the use of the pratfall effect as a novel concept in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of social media influencers (SMIs) in tourism. Drawing on the stereotype content model, the study examines whether the pratfall effect can be associated with perceived warmth and competence and ultimately relates to the travel intentions of customers through its link to travel inspiration. The study also investigates the moderating roles of central and peripheral processing routes based on the elaboration likelihood model. Using a scenario-based survey design, data were collected from 234 Turkish Instagram users who actively follow SMIs. Findings reveal that pratfall-induced perceived warmth and competence toward the SMI are associated with travel inspiration, which mediates followers' travel intentions. The strengths of these effects vary according to the message processing routes of the followers. While peripheral processing corresponds with increased warmth perceptions, central processing relates to enhanced competence perceptions of the SMI. These findings extend the SMI literature and offer practical implications for tourism practitioners to develop efficient and effective influencer marketing strategies
Mooring-based frequency-domain and AI-based time-domain optimization for improved power capture performance of the TALOS wave energy converter
Get PDFMooring-based frequency-domain analysis combined with AI-based time-domain optimization offers a systematic approach to improving power capture performance in multi degree-of-freedom wave energy converters. While most existing studies focus on single degree-of-freedom systems, enhanced energy absorption can be achieved by exploiting the dynamic potential of multi-DoF configurations. This study investigates the TALOS wave energy converter, a six-degree-of-freedom system, with the objective of improving its power capture capability through coordinated mooring and power take-off (PTO) optimization. The optimization framework begins with a frequency-domain analysis to assess the influence of mooring parameters on the system response. Based on this analysis, two refined configurations, denoted as TALOS-L and TALOS-H, are developed using optimized mooring stiffness characteristics. Subsequently, time-domain simulations are conducted using a genetic algorithm to determine optimal PTO damping settings under site-specific sea conditions. The results show that adaptive tuning of both mooring and PTO parameters significantly improves power capture across different sea states. In particular, the TALOS-H configuration, featuring tuned surge mooring stiffness and genetically optimized PTO damping, consistently outperforms the baseline configuration. These findings highlight the importance of site-specific tuning and demonstrate the effectiveness of AI-based optimization for enhancing the adaptability and efficiency of multi-degree-of-freedom wave energy converters
Gift and Anti-gift : The Dynamics of Relationships in MMORPGs
Get PDFThis dissertation explores the evolving dynamics of virtual gifting practices, with a specific focus on the interaction between human actors and non-human digital beings, such as computer-generated entities (CGEs), in Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games (MMORPGs). Drawing primarily on theories of gift exchange and employing Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a theoretical lens, the study examines how these interactions shape the socio-cultural and relational dimensions of virtual environments. A key contribution of this research is the conceptualization of anti-gift, a deliberate and adversarial form of exchange characterized by actions such as resource exploitation, marauding, and conflict-driven interactions. While inherently malicious, anti-gift paradoxically fosters social cohesion by strengthening bonds within virtual communities through shared experiences of loss, retaliation, and collective counteractions. Additionally, the study highlights the unique dynamics of humandigital interaction, revealing how digital beings, as active participants, influence reciprocity and gifting behaviors in MMORPGs. By contextualizing anti-gift within broader frameworks of malicious reciprocity and digital gift exchange, this research provides novel insights into the cultural and social mechanisms of virtual communities. These findings advance theoretical discourse on human-non-human interaction and have practical implications for understanding the social dynamics of online networks and virtual economies