80 research outputs found
Building a Bidirectional Bridge Between the Digital and Physical Worlds
No full textWe humans today are dual-citizens inhabiting both the digital and physical worlds; Both offer us unique advantages. The digital world offers us advantages such as unlimited access to information and expansion of human capabilities, while the physical world has long been providing us structural affordances, functional mechanisms, rich sensations, and much more. Currently, there exists a gap between the two. We constantly find ourselves having to frequently switch contexts to interact with either. Within this thesis, I propose building bi-direction interactions between the two worlds so that we can leverage advantages of both worlds simultaneously. I demonstrate this vision with an interactive system and a device each seamlessly bring advantages of one world into another, leveraging computational techniques and inspirations from design. </p
How packaging designs of cosmetics affect female consumers' purchasing behavior?
No full textThe topic of the thesis is “How packaging designs of cosmetics affect female consumers’ purchasing behavior?” Its aim is to identify whether female consumers are attracted by packaging designs of cosmetics, and how packaging designs of cosmetics affect different female consumer groups. Research question is: “If packaging of cosmetics affects which cosmetics females prefer when they buy cosmetics? And if so, is this preferences related to age and income?” To answer this question, the author uses data collection---questionnaire to investigate this topic. Limitations of the thesis concern nationalities and age groups. Due to questionnaires is distributed in Finland and Arcada University, the author find that most respondents are Finnish and young people, thus, results of minority groups may be not very accurate. The main theories are characteristics affecting consumer behavior, segmenting consumer markets, product and packaging design, and international product decisions. Results of the thesis are most female consumers think packaging design of cosmetics are important, and they will buy good-looking packaging cosmetics. Different nationalities and age groups of female consumers prefer different styles. Most consumers think that it would be best to spend the lowest cost on packaging; however, the higher monthly incomes, the greater proportion of high acceptable cost on packaging design
Nested Dust Shells around the Wolf-Rayet Binary WR 140 observed with JWST
No full textAuthors: Ryan M. Lau, Matthew J. Hankins, Yinuo Han, Ioannis Argyriou, Michael F. Corcoran, Jan J. Eldridge, Izumi Endo, Ori D. Fox, Macarena Garcia Marin, Theodore R. Gull, Olivia C. Jones, Kenji Hamaguchi, Astrid Lamberts, David R. Law, Thomas Madura, Sergey V. Marchenko, Hideo Matsuhara, Anthony F.J. Moffat, Mark R. Morris, Patrick W. Morris, Takashi Onaka, Michael E. Ressler, Noel D. Richardson, Christopher M. P. Russell, Joel Sanchez-Bermudez, Nathan Smith, Anthony Soulain, Ian R. Stevens, Peter Tuthill, Gerd Weigelt, Peredur M. Williams, and Ryodai YamaguchiMassive colliding-wind binaries that host a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star
present a potentially important source of dust and chemical enrichment
in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the chemical composition
and survival of dust formed from such systems is not well understood. The carbon-rich WR (WC) binary WR 140 presents an ideal
astrophysical laboratory for investigating these questions given its welldefined orbital period and predictable dust-formation episodes every
7.93 years around periastron passage. We present observations from our
Early Release Science program (ERS1349) with the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution
Spectrometer (MRS) and Imager that reveal the spectral and spatial signatures of nested circumstellar dust shells around WR 140.
MIRI MRS spectroscopy of the second dust shell and Imager detections of over 17 shells formed throughout the past & 130 years
confirm the survival of carbonaceous dust grains from WR 140 that
are likely carriers of “unidentified infrared” (UIR)-band features at 6.4
and 7.7 µm. The observations indicate that dust-forming WC binaries
can enrich the ISM with organic compounds and carbonaceous dust.RML would like to acknowledge the members of our entire WR DustERS team
for their valuable discussions and contributions to this work. We thank Amaya
Springer Nature 2021 LATEX template
Nested Dust Shells around the Wolf-Rayet Binary WR 140 observed with JWST 17
Moro-Martin, William Januszewki, Neill Reid, Margaret Meixner, and Bonnie
Meinke for their support of the planning and execution of our ERS program.
We would also like to acknowledge the MIRI instrument and MIRISim teams
for their insightful feedback and support of our observation and data analysis
plans. We are also grateful to Karl Gordon for his guidance on the MIRI Imager
data reduction. Lastly, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for
their prompt and valuable feedback that helped to improve the quality and
focus of this work.
The work of RML is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. YH acknowledges
funding from the Gates Cambridge Trust. MFC and KH were supported
by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002. OCJ acknowledges support from an STFC Webb fellowship. AFJM is grateful for financial aid
from NSERC (Canada). J.S.-B. acknowledges the support received from
the Mexican Council of Science (CONACyT) “Ciencia de Frontera” project
CF-2019/263975. CMPR acknowledges support from NATA ATP grant
80NSSC22K0628 and NASA Chandra Theory grant TM2-23003X.
This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James
Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive
for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under
NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated
with program ERS1349.
Support for program ERS1349 was provided by NASA through a grant from
the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS
5-03127.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01812-
A nemzetközi utazás hatása a kereskedelemre
No full textThis paper uses a gravity model with export flows as the explanatory variable, country’s GDP, country’s population and distance between two countries as control variables, international arrivals as the variable of interest, and adds other explanatory variables such as the Global Peace Index and World Happiness Index, and dummy variables of Visa-free, Visa-on-arrival and common Free Trade Area, to the analysis. The author conducts a panel data analysis on bilateral exports between ASEAN countries and five trading partner countries for the period 2012-2020. The empirical results show that the coefficient on international arrivals as the variable of interest is statistically positive and significant. This implies that booming international travel positively contributes to the size of international trade between ASEAN and the five countries. Coefficients on GDP and geographical distance as control variables are both significant in the expected direction. In addition, other explanatory variables related to international travel, such as visa-free, visa-on-arrival, common free trade area and global peace index, are all statistically significant under certain conditions. Thus, promoting the recovery and development of international travel can be an effective starting point for international trade growth between ASEAN and its trading partner countries today and in the years to come. Moreover, the findings of this paper can provide a direction and recommendations for ASEAN countries to follow in the process of promoting travel integration.International Economics and BusinessMSc/M
Toward climate resilient land-use planning:Indicators for adaptation and mitigation
No full textAs climate and land-use pressures intensify, Climate resilient land-use (CRLU) planning is becoming increasingly essential. This study conducts a scoping review of 115 studies to examine how adaptation and mitigation are addressed in CRLU planning, focusing on the indicators used to measure these goals. The review analyzes indicators across agriculture, forestry, and urban planning sectors, revealing an imbalance emphasizing climate mitigation over adaptation indicators. It also distinguishes urban and rural contexts, highlighting the need for region-specific indicators. Synergies and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation indicators are then discussed to inform integrated planning and avoid unintended negative consequences. The review also evaluates CRLU modeling approaches, from pattern-based to process-based, and finds that their effectiveness depends on selecting indicators closely aligned with planning objectives. A conceptual framework is finally proposed to guide the selection of targeted, context-sensitive, comprehensive indicators, supporting more effective CRLU planning.<br/
Geographical distribution of MTHFR C677T, A1298C and MTRR A66G gene polymorphisms in China: findings from 15357 adults of Han nationality.
No full textBACKGROUND: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, A1298C and methionine synthase reductase (MTRR) A66G polymorphisms are important genetic determinants for homocysteine (Hcy) levels, and are associated with several disorders. These polymorphisms are heterogeneously distributed worldwide. Our objective was to explore the geographical distributions of these polymorphisms in China. METHODOLOGIES: 15357 healthy adults were recruited from 10 regions. Buccal samples were collected and genomic DNA was isolated. Genotyping was performed using the fluorogenic 5'-nuclease assay. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The prevalence of the three polymorphisms among different populations from China varied significantly and showed apparent geographical gradients. For MTHFR C677T, the frequencies of the 677T allele and the 677TT genotype were significantly higher among northern populations and ranged from the lowest values (24.0% and 6.4%, respectively) in Hainan (southern) to the highest values (63.1% and 40.8%, respectively) in Shandong (northern). For MTHFR A1298C, the 1298C allele and the 1298CC genotype frequencies were significantly higher among southern populations and increased from low values (13.1% and 1.4%, respectively) in Shandong to high values (25.7% and 6.7%, respectively) in Hainan. For A66G, the 66G allele and the 66GG genotype frequencies increased from lower values (23.7% and 5.4%, respectively) in Shandong to higher values (29.2% and 8.6%, respectively) in Hainan. The overall frequency of the 677T allele, 677TT genotype, 1298C allele, 1298CC genotype, 66G allele and 66GG genotype in the Chinese Han population was 45.2%, 23.2%, 18.6%, 3.9%, 25.7%, and 6.6%, respectively. No gender differences were found in the prevalence of both the MTHFR C677T and MTRR A66G polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that there are marked geographical variations in the prevalence of the three polymorphisms among Chinese Han populations. Our baseline data may be useful for future researches in related fields
Resource Management for Device-to-Device Communications in Heterogeneous Networks Using Stackelberg Game
No full textDevice-to-device (D2D) communications and femtocell systems can bring significant benefits to users’ throughput. However, the complicated three-tier interference among macrocell, femtocell, and D2D systems is a challenging issue in heterogeneous networks. As D2D user equipment (UE) can cause interference to cellular UE, scheduling and allocation of channel resources and power of D2D communication need elaborate coordination. In this paper, we propose a joint scheduling and resource allocation scheme to improve the performance of D2D communication. We take UE rate and UE fairness into account by performing interference management. First, we construct a Stackelberg game framework in which we group a macrocellular UE, a femtocellular UE, and a D2D UE to form a two-leader one-follower pair. The cellular UE are leaders, and D2D UE is the follower who buys channel resources from the leaders. We analyze the equilibrium of the game and obtain solutions to the equilibrium. Second, we propose an algorithm for joint scheduling of D2D pairs based on their utility. Finally, we perform computer simulations to study the performance of the proposed scheme
From 1/4° to 1/8°: Influence of Spatial Resolution on Eddy Detection Using Altimeter Data
No full textA substantial portion of ocean eddies, especially small ones, may be missed due to insufficient spatial or temporal sampling by satellite altimetry. In order to illustrate the influence of spatial resolution on eddy detection, this study provides a comparison of eddy identification, tracking, and analysis between two sets of merged altimeter data with spatial resolutions of 1/4° and 1/8°. One main study area (the Mediterranean Sea), and three confirmatory areas (the South-China Sea, the North-West Pacific, and the South-East Pacific) are chosen. The results show that the number and density of eddies captured by the 1/8° data are about twice as much as those captured by the 1/4° data, while the ratios of corresponding eddy parameters, i.e., radius, amplitude, (eddy kinetic energy (EKE)) are about 0.6–0.8 (1.3) for the two datasets (1/8° ÷ 1/4°). Long-term eddy tracking (1993–2018) is conducted in the Mediterranean Sea, indicating that the improvement in spatial resolution will increase the observed values of both the lifetime and the propagation distance of robust eddies. The number of eddies identified using the 1/4° data only accounts for ~30% to 60% of those identified using the 1/8° data. However, for eddies that can be detected using the two datasets, ~5% to 10% present errors (i.e., confusion). In comparison between the four regions, we find that for the enclosed seas with complex conditions, the increase in spatial resolution may lead to more significant improvements in the efficiency and accuracy of eddy detection
Radiation-driven acceleration in the expanding WR140 dust shell.
No full textThe Wolf-Rayet (WR) binary system WR140 is a close (0.9-16.7 mas; ref. 1) binary star consisting of an O5 primary and WC7 companion2 and is known as the archetype of episodic dust-producing WRs. Dust in WR binaries is known to form in a confined stream originating from the collision of the two stellar winds, with orbital motion of the binary sculpting the large-scale dust structure into arcs as dust is swept radially outwards. It is understood that sensitive conditions required for dust production in WR140 are only met around periastron when the two stars are sufficiently close2-4. Here we present multiepoch imagery of the circumstellar dust shell of WR140. We constructed geometric models that closely trace the expansion of the intricately structured dust plume, showing that complex effects induced by orbital modulation may result in a 'Goldilocks zone' for dust production. We find that the expansion of the dust plume cannot be reproduced under the assumption of a simple uniform-speed outflow, finding instead the dust to be accelerating. This constitutes a direct kinematic record of dust motion under acceleration by radiation pressure and further highlights the complexity of the physical conditions in colliding-wind binaries
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