Experiencing Nature: Embodying Animals in Immersive Virtual Environments Increases Inclusion of Nature in Self and Involvement With Nature

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) produce simulations that mimic unmediated sensory experiences. 3 experiments (N = 228) tested how different modalities increase environmental involvement by allowing users to inhabit the body of animals in IVEs or watch the experience on video. Embodying sensory‐rich experiences of animals in IVEs led to greater feeling of embodiment, perception of being present in the virtual world, and interconnection between the self and nature compared to video. Heightened interconnection with nature elicited greater perceptions of imminence of the environmental risk and involvement with nature, which persisted for 1 week. Although the effect sizes were small to moderate, findings suggest that embodied experiences in IVEs may be an effective tool to promote involvement with environmental issues.     

Proactive privacy for a driverless age

Autonomous vehicles are on the cusp of disrupting the entire transportation industry and current privacy legislation is not yet equipped to deal with the changes being spurred by this innovation. This paper enumerates and elucidates on the various privacy concerns that are specific autonomous vehicles. It also proposes the principles of “Privacy-by-Design”, an industry trend pertaining to other arenas of privacy, be adapted and used for regulating privacy around autonomous vehicles. It calls for the NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration), with guidance from the FCC, and the FTC, to use their expertise in creating administrative rules that will protect the privacy of the public. Having learned valuable lessons from recent privacy concerns in the mobile device industry, the Privacy-by-Design approach would help ease the transition into this useful, but potentially intrusive technology. Currently, privacy is receiving significant attention in publications, but with autonomous vehicles being a nascent industry, there is very little being said about the privacy concerns specifically pertaining to these technology autonomous vehicles. Recent strides in the technology and the legislative acceptance of these vehicles have made them a widely discussed topic, and thus makes a thorough discussion of privacy related specifically to this technology both timely and relevant. This paper provides an early assessment of an area of concern that is growing as rapidly as are autonomous vehicles. The technology is being proven effective and safe, so the real focus will shift to use concerns, like privacy. The autonomous vehicle industry is still early in its development, and there is imminent opportunity to anchor privacy into the fundamentals of autonomous vehicles, preempting numerous potential infringements.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the EMO and the SUS in the Context of a Large-Sample Unmoderated Usability Study

This article describes the psychometric properties of the Emotional Metric Outcomes (EMO) questionnaire and the System Usability Scale (SUS) using data collected as part of a large-sample unmoderated usability study (n = 471). The EMO is a concise multifactor standardized questionnaire that provides an assessment of transaction-driven personal and relationship emotional outcomes, both positive and negative. The SUS is a well-known standardized usability questionnaire designed to assess perceived usability. In previous research, psychometric evaluation using data from a series of online surveys showed that the EMO and its component scales had high reliability and concurrent validity with loyalty and overall experience metrics but did not find the expected four-factor structure. Previous structural analyses of the SUS have had mixed results. Analysis of the EMO data from the usability study revealed the expected four-factor structure. The factor structure of the SUS appeared to be driven by item tone. The estimated reliability of the SUS (.90) was consistent with previous estimates. The EMO and its subscales were also quite reliable, with the estimates of reliability for the various EMO scales ranging from .86 to .96. Regression analysis using SUS, EMO, and Effort as predictors revealed different key drivers for the outcome metrics of Satisfaction and Likelihood-to-Recommend. The key recommendations are to include the EMO as part of the battery of poststudy standardized questionnaires, along with the SUS (or similar questionnaire), but to be cautious in reporting SUS subscales such as Usable and Learnable.     

Improving trust modeling through the limit of advisor network size and use of referrals

This paper explores potential improvements to the trust modeling of agents in multi-agent systems when a social network of advisors is employed as part of the trust modeling, and in particular, examines means of optimizing the number of advisors that should be maintained in the social network. We propose three such improvements, two directly relating to the limit of advisor network size by either setting a maximum size for a buyer’s advisor network or setting a minimum trustworthiness threshold for agents to be accepted into that advisor network, and a third which uses an advisor referral system in combination with one of the first two network-limiting techniques. We provide experimental results in defence of our approach for two distinct trust modeling systems, and show how these optimizations can improve, sometimes significantly, the accuracy of different trust models (in the context of electronic marketplaces). We believe that the proposed techniques will be very useful for trust researchers seeking to improve the accuracy of their own trust models by setting the size and composition of advisor networks.     

Noble Metal Ion-Directed Assembly of 2D Materials for Heterostructured Catalysts and Metallic Micro-Texturing

Assembling 2D-material (2DM) nanosheets into micro- and macro-architectures with augmented functionalities requires effective strategies to overcome nanosheet restacking. Conventional assembly approaches involve external binders and/or functionalization, which inevitably sacrifice 2DM's nanoscale properties. Noble metal ions (NMI) are promising ionic crosslinkers, which can simultaneously assemble 2DM nanosheets and induce synergistic properties. Herein, a collection of NMI–2DM complexes are screened and categorized into two sub-groups. Based on the zeta potentials, two assembly approaches are developed to obtain 1) NMI-crosslinked 2DM hydrogels/aerogels for heterostructured catalysts and 2) NMI–2DM inks for templated synthesis. First, tetraammineplatinum(II) nitrate (TPtN) serves as an efficient ionic crosslinker to agglomerate various 2DM dispersions. By utilizing micro-textured assembly platforms, various TPtN–2DM hydrogels are fabricated in a scalable fashion. Afterward, these hydrogels are lyophilized and thermally reduced to synthesize Pt-decorated 2DM aerogels (Pt@2DM). The Pt@2DM heterostructures demonstrate high, substrate-dependent catalytic activities and promote different reaction pathways in the hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene. Second, PtCl₄ can be incorporated into 2DM dispersions at high NMI molarities to prepare a series of PtCl₄–2DM inks with high colloidal stability. By adopting the PtCl₄–graphene oxide ink, various Pt micro-structures with replicated topographies are synthesized with accurate control of grain sizes and porosities.     

Exploration of channel width scaling and edge states in transition metal dichalcogenides

We explore the impact of edge states in three types of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), namely metallic Td-phase WTe₂ and semiconducting 2H-phase MoTe₂ and MoS₂, by patterning thin flakes into ribbons with varying channel widths. No obvious charge depletion at the edges is observed for any of these three materials, in contrast to observations made for graphene nanoribbon devices. The semiconducting ribbons are characterized in a three-terminal field-effect transistor (FET) geometry. In addition, two ribbon array designs have been carefully investigated and found to exhibit current levels higher than those observed for conventional one-channel devices. Our results suggest that device structures incorporating a high number of edges can improve the performance of TMD FETs. This improvement is attributed to a higher local electric field, resulting from the edges, increasing the effective number of charge carriers, and the absence of any detrimental edge-related scattering.

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Spinel growth in the interface of δ-Al2O3 fibre reinforced aluminium piston alloys

Spinel growth is studied by analytical electron microscopy in the fibre-matrix interface of as-processed and in thermal treated -Al₂O₃ fibre reinforced AlSi12CuMgNi alloys. In the as-processed composites a few nanometer large spinel crystals are observed in the fibre-matrix interface. They are interpreted as the reaction product of remnants of the SiO₂ binder, with magnesium segregating in the interface. In the thermally treated material, large spinel crystals of a few tenths of a micrometer grow on the fibre, preferentially at positions where -Al₂O₃ crystals reach the fibre surface. The spinel grows into the aluminium grain of the matrix, as well as into -Al₂O₃ of the fibre. The orientational relationship of the spinel and the alumina is studied and the results are discussed in relation to the fibre wetting, adhesion and fibre-matrix reaction.