Reality-based interaction affecting mental workload in virtual reality mental arithmetic training

ABSTRACT

The concept of digital game-based learning (DGBL) evolves rapidly together with technological enhancements of virtual reality (VR) and smart phones. However, the mental workload (MWL) that VR-training applications demand and motivational qualities originating from user experience (UX) should be identified in order to create effective and enjoyable training/learning challenges that fit with individual users’ capabilities. This study examined the effects of reality-based interaction (RBI) and VR on measures of student motivation and MWL, in a mental arithmetic game for secondary school pupils. In a randomised controlled trial with sixty school children, a mental arithmetic game was tested with three different interaction and two different presentation methods – VR RBI, VR head-mounted-display tapping and tablet flick-gesture. Results found a significant effect of RBI on MWL but no differences in enjoyment of training were found between VR-experience and tablet training-experience. In fact, adding the gaming-context to the mental arithmetic task created an enjoyable, motivating experience regardless of presentation or interaction-style.     

Exceptions that prove the rule--Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological incongruities and political anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003).

A meta-analysis by J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) concluded that political conservatism is partially motivated by the management of uncertainty and threat. In this reply to J. Greenberg and E. Jonas (2003), conceptual issues are clarified, numerous political anomalies are explained, and alleged counterexamples are incorporated with a dynamic model that takes into account differences between "young" and "old" movements. Studies directly pitting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis against the ideological extremity hypothesis demonstrate strong support for the former. Medium to large effect sizes describe relations between political conservatism and dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; lack of openness to experience; uncertainty avoidance; personal needs for order, structure, and closure; fear of death; and system threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complementary Justice: Effects of "Poor but Happy" and "Poor but Honest" Stereotype Exemplars on System Justification and Implicit Activation of the Justice Motive.

It was hypothesized that exposure to complementary representations of the poor as happier and more honest than the rich would lead to increased support for the status quo. In Study 1, exposure to "poor but happy" and "rich but miserable" stereotype exemplars led people to score higher on a general measure of system justification, compared with people who were exposed to noncomplementary exemplars. Study 2 replicated this effect with "poor but honest" and "rich but dishonest" complementary stereotypes. In Studies 3 and 4, exposure to noncomplementary stereotype exemplars implicitly activated justice concerns, as indicated by faster reaction times to justice-related than neutral words in a lexical decision task. Evidence also suggested that the Protestant work ethic may moderate the effects of stereotype exposure on explicit system justification (but not implicit activation). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Formation reactions of chalcopyrite compounds and the role of sodium doping

The selenisation of the thin film precursors indium, Cu-In and Cu-In-Ga has been studied by in-situ X-ray diffraction. The influence of sodium doping on the kinetics of the solid-state reactions observed agrees with the predictions derived from a phenomenological model presented earlier. In this model a layer of sodium polyselenide is assumed to form at the surface of the precursor, or around each crystal grain. This layer might be responsible for impeded ion exchange in certain solid-state reactions.     

A digital library framework for heterogeneous music collections: from document acquisition to cross-modal interaction

In this paper, we present a digital library system for managing heterogeneous music collections. The heterogeneity refers to various document types and formats as well as to different modalities, e. g., CD-audio recordings, scanned sheet music, and lyrics. The system offers a full-fledged, widely automated document processing chain: digitization, indexing, annotation, access, and presentation. Our system is implemented as a generic and modular music repository based on a service-oriented software architecture. As a particular strength of our approach, the various documents representing aspects of a piece of music are jointly considered in all stages of the document processing chain. Our user interfaces allow for a multimodal and synchronized presentation of documents (WYSIWYH: what you see is what you hear), a score- or lyrics-based navigation in audio, as well as a cross- and multimodal retrieval. Hence, our music repository may be called a truly cross-modal library system. In our paper, we describe the system components, outline the techniques of the document processing chain, and illustrate the implemented functionalities for user interaction. We describe how the system is put into practice at the Bavarian State Library (BSB) Munich as a part of the German PROBADO Digital Library Initiative (PDLI).     

High resolution STEM/EDX spectral imaging to resolve metal distributions within ∼100 nm combustion generated ash particles

Ultrafine ash particles play an important role in establishing a sticky inner deposit layer on heat transfer surface for power plants, but it is still unclear whether a thin surface alkali coating on these ultrafine particles might control this deposition behavior. In this research, we used a high resolution FE-TEM/STEM equipped with twin SDD EDX detectors for high X-ray detection efficiency, to determine the presence and absence of surface enrichment of alkali metals on ultrafine solid fuel ash samples that had low bulk alkali compositions but high deposition rates. Results from two types of combustion generated nano-sized ash particles are presented. One was from the oxy-combustion of pulverized bituminous coal, the other from oxy-combustion of pulverized rice husks, both being burned in a 100?kW rated down-flow laboratory combustor. Elemental mapping results from STEM/EDX uncovered some surface enrichment of alkali metals in ultrafine ash particles, where it existed, as it did for combustion of rice husks. However, it was not able to discern similar alkali metal surface enrichment for the bituminous coal ultrafines that had resulted in even higher deposition rates. Since deposition rates from both of these cases lie on the same correlation with PM₁, one can conclude that although surface enrichment of alkali metals is present for some ～100?nm particles, it is not a prerequisite to achieve high inner surface deposition rates. This is in contrast to prevailing theories that point to alkali metals as “bad actors” as far as the sticky inner deposition rate is concerned.

Copyright © 2019 American Association for Aerosol Research     

New inhibitors of the Tat-TAR RNA interaction found with a "fuzzy" pharmacophore model

TAR RNA is a potential target for AIDS therapy. Ligand-based virtual screening was performed to retrieve novel scaffolds for RNA-binding molecules capable of inhibiting the Tat-TAR interaction, which is essential for HIV replication. We used a "fuzzy" pharmacophore approach (SQUID) and an alignment-free pharmacophore method (CATS3D) to carry out virtual screening of a vendor database of small molecules and to perform "scaffold-hopping". A small subset of 19 candidate molecules were experimentally tested for TAR RNA binding in a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay. Both methods retrieved molecules that exhibited activities comparable to those of the reference molecules acetylpromazine and chlorpromazine, with the best molecule showing ten times better binding behavior (IC50 = 46 microM). The hits had molecular scaffolds different from those of the reference molecules.     

Toughening of vinylester–urethane hybrid resins through functionalized polymers

Liquid nitrile rubber, hyperbranched polyester, and core/shell rubber particles of various functionality, namely, vinyl, carboxyl, and epoxy, were added up to 20 wt % to a bisphenol‐A‐based vinylester–urethane hybrid (VEUH) resin to improve its toughness. The toughness was characterized by the fracture toughness (K_c) and energy (G_c) determined on compact tensile (CT) specimens at ambient temperature. Toughness improvement in VEUH was mostly achieved when the modifiers reacted with the secondary hydroxyl groups of the bismethacryloxy vinyl ester resin and with the isocyanate of the polyisocyanate compound, instead of participating in the free‐radical crosslinking via styrene copolymerization. Thus, incorporation of carboxyl‐terminated liquid nitrile rubber (CTBN) yielded the highest toughness upgrade with at least a 20 wt % modifier content. It was, however, accompanied by a reduction in both the stiffness and glass transition temperature (T_g) of the VEUH resin. Albeit functionalized (epoxy and vinyl, respectively) hyperbranched polymers were less efficient toughness modifiers than was CTBN, they showed no adverse effect on the stiffness and T_g. Use of core/shell modifiers did not result in toughness improvement. The above changes in the toughness response were traced to the morphology assessed by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and fractographic inspection of the fracture surface of broken CT specimens. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 672–680, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10392