Relationships among boredom proneness,sensation seeking and smartphone addiction among Chinese college students: Mediating roles of pastime,flow experience and self-regulation

Smartphones are indispensable for many young people, which in turn increases the risk of smartphone addiction. Previous studies have discovered significant and positive influences of boredom proneness, sensation seeking and smartphone addiction. This study further explored these influences, their underlying mechanisms, and the mediating effects of pastime, flow experience and self-regulation on smartphone addiction. A total of 442 Chinese college students completed a survey focusing on boredom proneness, sensation seeking, pastime, flow experience, self-regulation and smartphone addiction. The results indicated that boredom proneness positively affects smartphone addiction. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between sensation seeking and smartphone addiction. Moreover, pastime and self-regulation have partial mediation effects on the relationship between boredom proneness and smartphone addiction, while the effect of sensation seeking on smartphone addiction is completely transmitted with the help of flow experience and self-regulation. The findings and their implications are discussed.     

Relating video game exposure,sensation seeking,aggression and socioeconomic factors to school performance

ABSTRACT

The time displacement hypothesis has been widely used to explain the effects of media use on academic performance. This approach has been criticised for its monocausality and weak explanatory power. Utilising a combination of different theoretical perspectives is better suited than utilising only one. Considering displacement, excitement, attraction and third variable hypothesis, this paper argues that the relation between video game use and school performance is not the same for all types of gamers by considering the influence of socioeconomic, psychological and contextual factors. It investigates how gaming patterns (frequency, time of day) and psychological characteristics (sensation seeking, aggression) are related to academic performance for primary and secondary school students. Five hundred and seven students from five primary and four secondary schools in Singapore participated in a paper-pencil survey. Results showed support for a combination of displacement and third variable hypothesis, as overall time spent on video games was negatively associated with primary school children’s and active gamers’ school performances. There was no significant relationship for secondary school children. For primary school children who play games in the morning and afternoon, video game use was negatively associated with school performance. There was no support for the attraction and excitement hypotheses.     

Beyond information seeking: Consumers’ online deliberation about the risks and benefits of red meat

Successfully engaging consumers in a dialogue may provide opportunities for better tailored and more effective communication about food-related risks and benefits. Using an online deliberation concept and software, VIZZATA™, we explored the validity of a behavioral measure of deliberation in an online environment in the context of consumers’ perceptions and information seeking about the risks and benefits of red meat. Participants from Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom (n = 150) were given the opportunity to engage in an asynchronous interaction with the research team about the information provided. Online deliberation was operationalized as an individual metric based on the number of questions asked in relation to the information, the number of comments left, the number of glossary terms accessed, and the time spent on deliberative activity. This operationalization provided a coherent measure of deliberation which was positively correlated with information recall about the risks and benefits of red meat. Participants who perceived the information about red meat risks and benefits as too complex engaged less with the information. The study herewith presents a novel method of investigating consumers’ deliberation about food issues that conceptualizes consumer engagement as more than just information seeking.     

Energy-efficient operation of indirect adiabatic data center cooling systems via Newton-like phasor extremum seeking control

This paper considers the problem of optimizing the operation of Indirect Adiabatic Cooling (IAC) systems with application to data centers. Optimal operation is achieved when the required cooling demand is satisfied at the minimum energy cost. For this purpose, we design a supervisory control system, where the higher layer determines the optimal set-points for the local controllers by employing an Extremum Seeking Control (ESC) scheme. In particular, we consider a Newton-like phasor ESC, which augments the derivative estimator underlying the phasor approach to capture also the Hessian of the plant index and then it uses these estimates to steer the system along a Newton-like direction. The effectiveness of the considered approach is tested in simulation by exploiting a Matlab-based simulation environment including an IAC system and a computer room.     

Personality traits and bitterness perception influence the liking and intake of pale ale style beers

Bitterness is classically considered undesirable in foods and beverages. Yet, widespread commercial success of beers (like Bitters in the UK or IPAs in the US) indicate bitterness is desirable for some consumers. Here, we tested whether personality traits influence beer liking and intake. Under laboratory conditions, beer consumers (n = 109) rated liking and intensity of 2 pale ales and a lager, and intensity of two bitter solutions (quinine, Tetralone®). Participants also completed intake and personality questionnaires (Sensation Seeking, Sensitivity to Punishment and Reward, and Food Involvement). A liking ratio for each beer was calculated from each participant’s liking for that specific beer and their total liking for all beers. Participants were classified as weekly, monthly, or yearly pale ale consumers using intake data. Using intensity ratings, personality measures, and other parameters, hierarchical linear regression was used to predict liking ratios, and logistic regression was used to predict beer intake frequency. A significant interaction between Sensation Seeking and quinine bitterness (p = 0.03) was found for the liking ratio of a pale ale. The interaction revealed liking of the pale ale increased with Sensation Seeking but only if quinine bitterness was also high. Intake models showed increased odds of frequent pale ale intake with greater quinine bitterness and lower liking for lager beer. These data suggest liking and intake of pale ales is positively related to Sensation Seeking and bitter taste perception. Contrary to findings in other bitter foods and beverages, the high bitterness found in pale ales may be desirable for some consumers.     

基于虚拟仪器的频率测量研究

阐述了一种基于虚拟仪器的正弦信号频率测量设计方案.结合相关原理和求导原理,提出了一种新的频率测量算法,该设计方案已成功应用于某型导弹的自动测试系统.实践证明,这项技术能提高测量精度,同时也能降低费用.     

基于KBM法的气垫式调压室涌波显式解析解研究

调压室涌波计算是水电站引水系统设计和优化的重要内容。为解决现有调压室涌波隐式计算公式应用困难、显示计算公式通用性差等问题,本文通过建立统一的气垫式调压室室内气体体积与水位关系,考虑过渡过程流量变化状态和系统阻力、阻抗作用特点,推导出对各种体型均适用的气垫式调压室水位涌波方程,分别以稳定终了、初始稳定时刻为基准,采用KBM渐近法求得其水位涌波及相关极值的显示解析计算公式,并分析了不同基准的公式误差。这些公式求解方便,其中以稳定终了为基准的公式计算误差可控制在1%以内,且对各种体型的气垫式调压室及开敞式调压室均适用。     

Evaluation of log‐of‐power extremum seeking control for wind turbines using large eddy simulations

The extremum seeking control (ESC) algorithm has been proposed to determine operating parameters that maximize power production below rated wind speeds (region II). This is usually done by measuring the turbine's power signal to determine optimal values for parameters of the control law or actuator settings. This paper shows that the standard ESC with power feedback is quite sensitive to variations in mean wind speed, with long convergence time at low wind speeds and aggressive transient response, possibly unstable, at high wind speeds. The paper also evaluates the performance, as measured by the dynamic and steady state response, of the ESC with feedback of the logarithm of the power signal (LP‐ESC). Large eddy simulations (LES) demonstrate that the LP‐ESC, calibrated at a given wind speed, exhibits consistent robust performance at all wind speeds in a typical region II. The LP‐ESC is able to achieve the optimal set‐point within a prescribed settling time, despite variations in the mean wind speed, turbulence, and shear. The LES have been conducted using realistic wind input profiles with shear and turbulence. The ESC and LP‐ESC are implemented in the LES without assuming the availability of analytical gradients.     

Dairy cows with prolonged calving seek additional isolation

In modern calving facilities, dairy cows either calve in a group pen or are moved to a separate individual pen when calving is imminent. In practice, cows are often moved too close to calving, which poses a health risk to cow and calf. Thus, a need exists for new calving facility designs and management practices that better align with the motivations of the cow. This study examined dairy cow preferences for individual calving pens by offering 3 different levels of isolation (tall and narrow, low and wide, and tall and wide) by analyzing the association between precalving behavior, choice of degree of isolation, and the progress of calving. The hypotheses were that cows would prefer the highest level of isolation when giving birth, and that calving in a high level of isolation would be associated with less restlessness and a shorter calving duration. Contrary to these hypotheses, no specific preference between degrees of isolation or difference in calving behavior in the different calving pens was found. However, cows experiencing a longer calving duration chose to calve in the most secluded calving pen (tall and wide). These results cannot determine cause and effect, but may suggest that interactions between motivation for isolation seeking and calving behavior exist.     

Consumer interest in receiving information through social media about the risks of pesticide residues

A consumer segmentation approach was used to determine consumer interest in using social media to obtain information concerning the risks of pesticide residues on vegetables. A total of 497 Flemish consumers participated in an online survey in March 2012 to assess interest in social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, forums and blogs, and Wikipedia as channels for receiving information about pesticide residues from official bodies. The participants were segmented in four clusters depending on their level of information sufficiency and level of interest in social media applications: “very satisfied; interested” (24%), “not satisfied; very interested” (28%), “not satisfied; some interest” (25%) and “satisfied; little interest” (23%). The segments with higher levels of satisfaction displayed higher trust in oneself and in public bodies to deal with the risks of pesticide residues and also contained relatively more males. Differences in information sufficiency between the segments were associated with different methods of information acquisition, i.e. by purposeful information seeking or by incidental information acquisition. The segments with higher interest in social media displayed higher familiarity and higher appreciation for the opportunities of social media. These segments also contained relatively younger participants. Popular channels like Facebook and Twitter scored low in terms of perceived usefulness, even among high users. Wikipedia on the other hand was perceived by all segments as the most useful and credible online source when it comes to information about risks of pesticide residues. Speed and accessibility were the main motives for using social media applications as an information channel while lack of trustworthiness was the main barrier.