Towards Understanding the Influence of Nature Imagery in User Interface Design: A Review of the Literature

Nature imagery is frequently employed as a design element to improve how users experience interactions with computerized artifacts such as websites and mobile apps. However, literature on the influence of such imagery on human perception and behavior is scant and highly fragmented. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework that integrates the different pathways for how nature imagery embedded in user interface design may affect user perception and behavior. Building on this framework, we synthesize the results of existing literature on how humans perceive nature imagery and the potential cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. By providing a concise overview of key theories and results of the extant literature, this study contributes to the knowledge base of (1) scholars who theorize on the impact of nature imagery on user perception and behavior and (2) systems designers who intend to utilize nature imagery in their user interfaces

Latent transforming growth factor β-binding protein-3 and fibulin-1C interact with the extracellular domain of the heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor precursor

BACKGROUND: The membrane-bound cell-surface precursor and soluble forms of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF) contribute to many cellular developmental processes. The widespread occurrence of HB-EGF in cell and tissue types has led to observations of its role in such cellular and tissue events as tumor formation, cell migration, extracellular matrix formation, wound healing, and cell adherence. Several studies have reported the involvement of such extracellular matrix proteins as latent transforming growth factor β-binding protein, TGF-β, and fibulin-1 in some of these processes. To determine whether HB-EGF interacts with extracellular matrix proteins we used the extracellular domain of proHB-EGF in a yeast two-hybrid system to screen a monkey kidney cDNA library. cDNA clones containing nucleotide sequences encoding domains of two proteins were obtained and their derived amino acid sequences were evaluated. RESULTS: From ≈ 3 × 10(6) screened monkey cDNA clones, cDNA clones were recovered that contained nucleotide sequences encoding domains of the monkey latent transforming growth factor-β binding protein-3 (MkLTBP-3) and fibulin-1C protein. The amino acid sequence derived from the MkLTBP-3 gene shared 98.6% identity with human LTBP-3 and 86.7% identity with mouse LTBP-3 amino acid sequences. The amino acid sequence derived from the monkey fibulin-1C gene shared 97.2% identity with human fibulin-1C. Yeast two-hybrid screens indicate that LTBP-3 and fibulin-1C interact with proHB-EGF through their calcium-binding EGF-like modules. CONCLUSIONS: The interactions of the extracellular domain of proHB-EGF with LTBP-3 and fibulin-1C suggest novel functions for HB-EGF between cell and tissue surfaces

Setting the e-Commerce Scene: A Qualitative Investigation of the Use of Nature Imagery in User Interface Design

User experience designers often employ natural landscapes as background imagery in e-commerce user interfaces (UI). However, at this stage, there is only limited work on how nature imagery in UI design affects user perception and behaviour. In this paper, we present a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews into the use of nature imagery in UI design. Our study builds on theories in environmental psychology and seeks to develop a theoretical framework for the role of nature imagery in user perception and behaviour. Further, building on the expertise of user experience practitioners and end users, we seek to develop theoretically-grounded design guidelines for the capture, selection, and integration of nature imagery in e-commerce UI designs

Evaluating Player Strategies in the Design of a Hot Hand Game

The user’s strategy and their approach to decisionmakingare two important concerns when designing user-centricsoftware. While decision-making and strategy are key factors in awide range of business systems from stock market trading tomedical diagnosis, in this paper we focus on the role these factorsplay in a serious computer game. Players may adopt individualstrategies when playing a computer game. Furthermore, differentapproaches to playing the game may impact on the effectivenessof the core mechanics designed into the game play. In this paperwe investigate player strategy in relation to two serious gamesdesigned for studying the ‘hot hand’. The ‘hot hand’ is aninteresting psychological phenomenon originally studied in sportssuch as basketball. The study of ‘hot hand’ promises to shedfurther light on cognitive decision-making tasks applicable todomains beyond sport. The ‘hot hand’ suggests that playerssometimes display above average performance, get on a hotstreak, or develop ‘hot hands’. Although this is a widely heldbelief, analysis of data in a number of sports has produced mixedfindings. While this lack of evidence may indicate belief in the hothand is a cognitive fallacy, alternate views have suggested thatthe player’s strategy, confidence, and risk-taking may accountfor the difficulty of measuring the hot hand. Unfortunately, it isdifficult to objectively measure and quantify the amount of risktaking in a sporting contest. Therefore to investigate thisphenomenon more closely we developed novel, tailor-madecomputer games that allow rigorous empirical study of ‘hothands’. The design of such games has some specific designrequirements. The gameplay needs to allow players to perform asequence of repeated challenges, where they either fail or succeedwith about equal likelihood. Importantly the design also needs toallow players to choose a strategy entailing more or less risk inresponse to their current performance. In this paper we comparetwo hot hand game designs by collecting empirical data thatcaptures player performance in terms of success and level ofdifficulty (as gauged by response time). We then use a variety ofanalytical and visualization techniques to study player strategiesin these games. This allows us to detect a key design flaw the firstgame and validate the design of the second game for use infurther studies of the hot hand phenomenon

Emphasizing responder speed or accuracy modulates but does not abolish the distractor-induced quitting effect in visual search

Acknowledgements This research project was initially presented at the 2023 Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (Lawrence et al., 2023c April 12–14). The authors would like to acknowledge the feedback and insights provided by Professor Allison Waters throughout the conceptualization and execution of this project. Funding This research was supported by a Griffith University New Researcher Grant awarded to RKL.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Can two dots form a Gestalt? Measuring emergent features with the capacity coefficient

a b s t r a c t While there is widespread agreement among vision researchers on the importance of some local aspects of visual stimuli, such as hue and intensity, there is no general consensus on a full set of basic sources of information used in perceptual tasks or how they are processed. Gestalt theories place particular value on emergent features, which are based on the higher-order relationships among elements of a stimulus rather than local properties. Thus, arbitrating between different accounts of features is an important step in arbitrating between local and Gestalt theories of perception in general. In this paper, we present the capacity coefficient from Systems Factorial Technology (SFT) as a quantitative approach for formalizing and rigorously testing predictions made by local and Gestalt theories of features. As a simple, easily controlled domain for testing this approach, we focus on the local feature of location and the emergent features of Orientation and Proximity in a pair of dots. We introduce a redundant-target change detection task to compare our capacity measure on (1) trials where the configuration of the dots changed along with their location against (2) trials where the amount of local location change was exactly the same, but there was no change in the configuration. Our results, in conjunction with our modeling tools, favor the Gestalt account of emergent features. We conclude by suggesting several candidate information-processing models that incorporate emergent features, which follow from our approach

Gangliosides Block Aggregatibacter Actinomycetemcomitans Leukotoxin (LtxA)-Mediated Hemolysis

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is an oral pathogen and etiologic agent of localized aggressive periodontitis. The bacterium is also a cardiovascular pathogen causing infective endocarditis. A. actinomycetemcomitans produces leukotoxin (LtxA), an important virulence factor that targets white blood cells (WBCs) and plays a role in immune evasion during disease. The functional receptor for LtxA on WBCs is leukocyte function antigen-1 (LFA-1), a β-2 integrin that is modified with N-linked carbohydrates. Interaction between toxin and receptor leads to cell death. We recently discovered that LtxA can also lyse red blood cells (RBCs) and hemolysis may be important for pathogenesis of A. actinomycetemcomitans. In this study, we further investigated how LtxA might recognize and lyse RBCs. We found that, in contrast to a related toxin, E. coli α-hemolysin, LtxA does not recognize glycophorin on RBCs. However, gangliosides were able to completely block LtxA-mediated hemolysis. Furthermore, LtxA did not show a preference for any individual ganglioside. LtxA also bound to ganglioside-rich C6 rat glioma cells, but did not kill them. Interaction between LtxA and C6 cells could be blocked by gangliosides with no apparent specificity. Gangliosides were only partially effective at preventing LtxA-mediated cytotoxicity of WBCs, and the effect was only observed when a high ratio of ganglioside:LtxA was used over a short incubation period. Based on the results presented here, we suggest that because of the similarity between N-linked sugars on LFA-1 and the structures of gangliosides, LtxA may have acquired the ability to lyse RBCs