Psychosocial causes and consequences of pathological gaming

Pathological use of computer and video games has been associated with indicators of psychosocial well-being, such as loneliness, low self-esteem, low social competence, and low life satisfaction. However, few studies have decisively demonstrated whether these indicators of psychosocial well-being are causes or consequences of pathological gaming. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a two-wave panel study among 851 Dutch adolescents (543 gamers). Causal relations were analyzed using autoregressive structural equation models. These analyses indicated that social competence, self-esteem, and loneliness were significant predictors of pathological gaming six months later. Thus, lower psychosocial well-being can be considered an antecedent of pathological gaming among adolescent gamers. Our analyses further indicated that loneliness was also a consequence of pathological gaming. This suggests that displacement of real-world social interaction resulting from pathological use of video games may deteriorate existing relationships, which could explain the increase in adolescent gamers’ feelings of loneliness.     

Suppressing intersample behavior in iterative learning control

Iterative Learning Control (ILC) is a control strategy to improve the performance of digital batch repetitive processes. Due to its digital implementation, discrete time ILC approaches do not guarantee good intersample behavior. In fact, common discrete time ILC approaches may deteriorate the intersample behavior, thereby reducing the performance of the sampled-data system. In this paper, a generally applicable multirate ILC approach is presented that enables to balance the at-sample performance and the intersample behavior. Furthermore, key theoretical issues regarding multirate systems are addressed, including the time-varying nature of the multirate ILC setup. The proposed multirate ILC approach is shown to outperform discrete time ILC in realistic simulation examples.     

先进材料促进中国电子行业的发展

半导体业务一直是道康宁公司获取更多大好商机的业务之一。目前,半导体制造技术极大地依赖于各种新兴材料,越来越多地需要道康宁这样的公司—化学和制造技术领域的     

In vivo measurement of the brain and skull resistivities using an EIT-based method and realistic models for the head

In vivo measurements of equivalent resistivities of skull (rho(skull)) and brain (rho(brain)) are performed for six subjects using an electric impedance tomography (EIT)-based method and realistic models for the head. The classical boundary element method (BEM) formulation for EIT is very time consuming. However, the application of the Sherman-Morrison formula reduces the computation time by a factor of 5. Using an optimal point distribution in the BEM model to optimize its accuracy, decreasing systematic errors of numerical origin, is important because cost functions are shallow. Results demonstrate that rho(skull)/rho(brain) is more likely to be within 20 and 50 rather than equal to the commonly accepted value of 80. The variation in rho(brain)(average = 301 omega x cm, SD = 13%) and rho(skull)(average = 12230 omega x cm, SD = 18%) is decreased by half, when compared with the results using the sphere model, showing that the correction for geometry errors is essential to obtain realistic estimations. However, a factor of 2.4 may still exist between values of rho(skull)/rho(brain) corresponding to different subjects. Earlier results show the necessity of calibrating rho(brain) and rho(skull) by measuring them in vivo for each subject, in order to decrease errors associated with the electroencephalogram inverse problem. We show that the proposed method is suited to this goal.     

先进ATHENATM选用策略与对准功能

基于先进科技对准规格的减缩,对准仪量测数据的应用也变得更为重要。不同对准策略的选择所引起的结果,对全部对准预算有很重要的影响。介绍两个主要科技研发项目:先进对准配套和对准标的设计。     

A Protein-Adsorbent Hydrogel with Tunable Stiffness for Tissue Culture Demonstrates Matrix-Dependent Stiffness Responses

Although tissue culture plastic has been widely employed for cell culture, the rigidity of plastic is not physiologic. Softer hydrogels used to culture cells have not been widely adopted in part because coupling chemistries are required to covalently capture extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and support cell adhesion. To create an in vitro system with tunable stiffnesses that readily adsorbs ECM proteins for cell culture, a novel hydrophobic hydrogel system is presented via chemically converting hydroxyl residues on the dextran backbone to methacrylate groups, thereby transforming non-protein adhesive, hydrophilic dextran to highly protein adsorbent substrates. Increasing methacrylate functionality increases the hydrophobicity in the resulting hydrogels and enhances ECM protein adsorption without additional chemical reactions. These hydrophobic hydrogels permit facile and tunable modulation of substrate stiffness independent of hydrophobicity or ECM coatings. Using this approach, it is shown that substrate stiffness and ECM adsorption work together to affect cell morphology and proliferation, but the strengths of these effects vary in different cell types. Furthermore, it is revealed that stiffness-mediated differentiation of dermal fibroblasts into myofibroblasts is modulated by the substrate ECM. The material system demonstrates remarkable simplicity and flexibility to tune ECM coatings and substrate stiffness and study their effects on cell function.     

Network virtualization as an integrated solution for emergency communication

In this paper the Virtual Private Ad Hoc Networking (VPAN) platform is introduced as an integrated networking solution for many applications that require secure transparent continuous connectivity using heterogeneous devices and network technologies. This is done by creating a virtual logical self-organizing network on top of existing network technologies reducing complexity and maintaining session continuity right from the start. One of the most interesting applications relies in the field of emergency communication with its specific needs which will be discussed in this paper and matched in detail against the architecture and features of the VPAN platform. The concept and dynamics are demonstrated and evaluated with measurements done on real hardware.     

Virtual Private Ad Hoc Networking

The fact that a lot of applications require secure communication to take place only between a dynamic subset of distributed devices sharing a common context, is, from a network point of view, very challenging and demanding. Existing technologies such as VPN, P2P overlays or VLANs can only partially respond to these requirements. This observation is the key factor that has driven the proposal of the virtual private ad hoc network concept. Virtual private ad hoc networks (VPAN) are secure and self-organizing overlay networks on top of existing IP infrastructure that use ad hoc networking techniques to enable network connectivity. The underlying IP infrastructure can be the Internet, cellular networks, ad hoc networks, mesh networks … or combinations thereof. A virtual private ad hoc overlay network creates a transparent, shielded and trusted environment for the applications and services running on the participants' devices. The overlay uses internal addressing and ad hoc routing, thereby forming a virtual network on top of the physical infrastructure. In addition, the overlay must be self-organizing and self-maintaining upon member mobility or membership changes. This paper gives an overview of the potential applications, a high-level network architecture and the network challenges emerging from the novel concept of virtual private ad hoc networking. Jeroen Hoebeke was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1979. In 2002 he received the Masters degree in engineering (Computer Science) from the University of Ghent. In August 2002, he joined the Broadband Communications Networks Group. His PhD research includes the development of adaptive routing protocol techniques for mobile ad hoc networks. His main research interests are in ad hoc wireless communications and, more generally, in broadband wireless communications. Within the European MAGNET project, he is actively involved in the development of a network architecture and demonstrator for Personal Networks, with a prime focus on routing and connectivity. Gerry Holderbeke was born in Zottegem, Belgium in 1982. He graduated in Informatics at the University of Ghent in 2004. In August 2004 he joined the Broadband Communications Networks Group where he is currently working as a project developer. His research currently includes the development of an emulator for mobile ad hoc networks. His main research interests are in ad hoc networks and broadband wireless communications and involve routing, addressing and more generally, communication within mobile ad hoc networks and infrastructured networks. Within the European MAGNET project, he is actively involved in the development of a network architecture for Personal Networks, with a prime focus on the implementation of the routing architecture. Ingrid Moerman was born in Gent, Belgium in 1965. She received the degree in Electro-technical Engineering and the Ph.D degree from the Ghent University, Gent, Belgium in 1987 and 1992, respectively. Since 1987, she has been with the Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Centre (IMEC) at the Department of Information Technology (INTEC) of the Ghent University, where she conducted research in the field of optoelectronics. In 1997, she became a permanent member of the Research Staff at IMEC. Since 2000 she is part-time professor at the Ghent University. Since 2001 she has switched her research domain to broadband communication networks. She is currently involved in the research and education on broadband mobile & wireless communication networks and on multimedia over IP. The main research topics related to mobile & wireless communication networks are: wireless access to vehicles (high bandwidth & driving speed), adaptive QoS routing in wireless ad hoc networks, body area networks, protocol boosting on wireless links, design of fixed access/metro part, traffic engineering and QoS support in the wireless access network. Ingrid Moerman is author or co-author of more than 300 publications in the field of optoelectronics and communication networks. Bart Dhoedt received a degree in Engineering from the Ghent University in 1990. In September 1990, he joined the Department of Information Technology of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Ghent. His research, addressing the use of micro-optics to realize parallel free space optical interconnects, resulted in a PhD degree in 1995. After a 2 year post-doc in opto-electronics, he became professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Information Technology. Since then, he is responsible for several courses on algorithms, programming and software development. His research interests are software engineering and mobile & wireless communications. Bart Dhoedt is author or co-author of approximately 70 papers published in international journals or in the proceedings of international conferences. His current research addresses software technologies for communication networks, peer-to-peer networks, mobile networks and active networks. Piet Demeester received the Masters degree in Electro-technical engineering and the Ph.D degree from the Ghent University, Gent, Belgium in 1984 and 1988, respectively. In 1992 he started a new research activity on broadband communication networks resulting in the IBCN-group (INTEC Broadband communications network research group). Since 1993 he became professor at the Ghent University where he is responsible for the research and education on communication networks. The research activities cover various communication networks (IP, ATM, SDH, WDM, access, active, mobile), including network planning, network and service management, telecom software, internetworking, network protocols for QoS support, etc. Piet Demeester is author of more than 300 publications in the area of network design, optimization and management. He is member of the editorial board of several international journals and has been member of several technical program committees (ECOC, OFC, DRCN, ICCCN, IZS, &).     

Bringing Time-Sensitive Networking to Wireless Professional Private Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Private professional environments such as manufacturing industry, warehouses, hospitals, airports, among others, increasingly rely on end-to-end connected...