Players as Authors: Conjecturing Online Game Creation Modalities and Infrastructure

This paper will outline a movement beyond the apparent creative stagnation in the videogames industry through a possible transformation that proposes to mobilize the players to the creative process, by enabling them to assume creative roles in online games, thus becoming authors. This paper will analyze the meaning of a "player as author" metaphor with a discussion of what is the potential and challenges in mobilizing players as authors and how to stimulate this transition of roles. But is this a real transition? Isn\u27t the act of playing already a creative one? We will attempt to shed some light into this and identify new professional roles that may emerge from this mindset. We will also analyze the requirements needed to develop an infrastructure to support these new player/creator roles. By using a MMORPG as the ideal game genre to prototype such an infrastructure, a virtual world is idealized in which the players socialize and experience the needs of such a worldview, and attempt creative acts to satisfy those needs. In such an environment we expect to foster the emergence of collaborative playwork as the world will become populated with player\u27s designs. The basis for developing content will be new game arenas where, with the right tools avaliable, new game concepts will possibly emerge. A scripting language is outlined to enable players to create new programmable content, allowing players to define objects, structurally and behaviorally, and combine them to synthesize new game experiences. The effects of enabling online or play-time edition on game scenarios, objects and characters must still be studied for a better comprehension of the socio-technical tradeoffs as the technologies required for such collaborative setups are complex and may become computationally expensive, and as such will limit scalability for a minimum quality of experience. To enable such a setup, characterizing the scope and range of actions for the definition of games is a most important aspect. If we want new interactive experiences to go beyond character or object personalization, for new game concepts to emerge the player-author needs to be given control over the rules and parameters that functionally define a game. Aesthetically, being able to influence the presentation layer of the game design is also a requisite for creative work. Two illustrative examples are discussed: rules definition and camera control. The rules can be defined in two ways: through the definition of object behaviors and through the definition of general game rules. A defining part of the experience of games and their design is how to promote goal setting. A goal can be preset by the game author when she\u27s creating the game setting; or it can be negotiated by the players through socializing within the game (e.g., a wealthy character may want some valuable information from another player which would refuse to trade it and, to get it, hires another player in the role of a "spy", a group of players forge an alliance within a game to achieve an agreed set of goals); Goals can also be influenced dynamically through the affordances and constraints provided by the possible interactions with and between the objects that appear in the game, or by the players that participate in the experience. A design decision that could be passed to the player-author is camera control over specific events of intervals. By controlling the camera, the author will become a kind of director and the resulting experience may be considered a movie, at least in the machinima category. A number of decisions should be made about how and when the player controls a camera. But the control of the camera shouldn\u27t be made saying "The camera should be in a position (x,y) and pointing in a θ angle", instead, a more sociable way of doing this would be "The camera is in a determined object and when the player passes by the object the camera does a close-up on it". Further research will be needed to study what options could be made and in what way, and their technical, aesthetic and social implications. The definition of a flexible supporting data model is of crucial importance because of it influences the range of new content that can be created. If the data model is too concrete it may artificially bound the creative space to specific genre or interpretation. On the other hand, an abstract data model can be hard to understand. All editing can be made available through a scripting language, which allows experts to create virtually everything they wish. But novice users should also be empowered to create. Possible ways to ease the creation process and the use of metaphors in the design of the interaction will be discussed in this paper. For such possibilities to be effectively mobilized by players, first they must be experienced and learned. A progressive route from novice to expert usage should be provided not to loose author candidates, which brings us to one more fundamental requirement in the design of the infrastructure: its usability and evaluation. These possibilities and their influence on interface design will be discussed

PROCESSO DE SEPARA??O DE MERCADORIAS: SISTEMA DE INFORMA??O COMO SOLU??O DE PROBLEMAS ORGANIZACIONAIS

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo analisar os requisitos de um sistema de informa??o integrado ao processo de pr?-separa??o de mercadorias, tendo em vista o incremento da efici?ncia operacional para o analista 2, no contexto de uma f?brica de cigarros em Jo?o Pessoa-PB. Para isso, utilizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, com levantamento de requisitos de um sistema de informa??o, a partir de entrevistas com funcion?rios do setor de separa??o de mercadorias, no per?odo de 29 de julho a 04 de agosto de 2016. O estudo tomou como refer?ncia o pr?prio processo de separa??o das mercadorias, no qual foram verificadas potenciais corre??es que poderiam aprimorar o controle substancial de cada etapa da atividade, ao longo da cadeia produtiva. A partir das melhorias no sistema de informa??o, o controle operacional e log?stico teria, ent?o, um ganho significativo de produtividade, al?m de proporcionar maior qualidade aos aspectos higi?nicos dos colaboradores envolvidos diretamente nesse processo. A melhoria no sistema de informa??o traria tamb?m reflexo direto na economia de folhas de pedidos, que geram custos significativos para a empresa. E, em contra partida, os colaboradores teriam informa??es de suas atividades sem a preocupa??o de sair do seu ambiente em busca das mesmas. Conclui-se que, as melhorias no sistema de informa??o s?o de grande valia para a empresa, pois minimizam seus custos e aumentam sua produtividade e efici?ncia no processo de separa??o de mercadorias, cumprindo-se, assim, os objetivos estrat?gicos da companhia

Nutritional intake and training load of professional female football players during a mid-season microcycle

Football (soccer) is a high-intensity intermittent sport with large energy demands. In a repeated-measures design, we analysed the nutritional intake and training load of fourteen female football players (22.50 ? 4.38 y; 57.23 ? 8.61 kg; 164 ? 6.00 cm; 18.33 ? 2.48% of fat mass and 23.71 ? 2.51 kg of muscle mass) competing in the highest female Football Portuguese League across a typical mid-season microcycle. The microcycle had one match day (MD), one recovery session (two days after the MD, MD+2), three training sessions (MD-3, MD-2, MD-1) and two rest days (MD+1). Energy intake and CHO (g.kg.BW?1) intake were lower on the days before the competition (MD+2, MD-3, MD-2 and MD-1 vs. MD; p < 0.05; ES: 0.60?1.30). Total distance, distance covered at high-speed running (HSRD) and the high metabolic distance load (HMLD) were lower on MD+2, MD-3 and MD-1 compared with MD (p < 0.05; ES: <0.2?5.70). The internal training load was lower in all training sessions before the competition (MD+2, MD-3, MD-2 and MD-1 vs. MD; p ? 0.01; ES: 1.28?5.47). Despite the small sample size and a single assessment in time, the results suggest that caloric and CHO intake were below the recommendations and were not structured based on the physical requirements for training sessions or match days.D915-7373-ED16 | Cesar LeaoN/

Removal of 60 Hz interference on the ECG signal using digital notch filter.

A interfer?ncia de 60 Hz AC pode ser um problema em qualquer situa??o de medi??o de biopotencial. A fonte dessa interfer?ncia ? o potencial AC da rede de alimenta??o de energia el?trica que est? inevitavelmente presente em qualquer situa??o cl?nica, ou para ilumina??o do ambiente ou como fonte de suprimento dos equipamentos de medi??o. A interfer?ncia causada pela rede el?trica, em 60 Hz, pode ser dif?cil de detectar visualmente em sinais tendo formas de onda n?o-regulares, como o EEG ou o EMG. N?o obstante, a interfer?ncia ? facilmente vis?vel quando presente em sinais com formas de onda bem definidas, como ? o caso do sinal de ECG (Eletrocardiograma). Em todo caso, o espectro de pot?ncia do sinal deve fornecer uma indica??o clara da presen?a da interfer?ncia da rede como um impulso em 60 Hz. Os harm?nicos, caso presentes, aparecem como impulsos adicionais em m?ltiplos inteiros da frequ?ncia fundamental. Neste trabalho ? demonstrada uma t?cnica de filtragem, empregando um filtro ?Notch? digital, o qual remove o artefato de 60 Hz do sinal de ECG, aumentando a confiabilidade do diagn?stico cl?nico a partir da interpreta??o do mesmo.60 Hz AC interference can be a problem in any biopotential measurement situation. The source of such interference is the AC potential of the electrical power supply network that is inevitably present in any clinical situation, either for lighting the environment or as a source of supply for the measuring equipment. Electrical interference at 60 Hz can be difficult to detect visually on signals having non-regular waveforms such as EEG or EMG. Nevertheless, the interference is easily visible when present in signals with well-defined waveforms, such as the ECG (Electrocardiogram) signal. In any case, the power spectrum of the signal shall provide a clear indication of the presence of the network interference as a 60 Hz pulse. The harmonics, if present, appear as additional pulses in integral multiples of the fundamental frequency. In this work, a filtering technique is demonstrated, using a digital Notch filter, which removes the 60 Hz artifact from the ECG signal, increasing the reliability of the clinical diagnosis from its interpretation

Fault location technique in transmission lines using the minimum square method.

A investiga??o de diferentes tipos de faltas em linhas de transmiss?o ? uma tarefa complexa e de extrema import?ncia para o Sistema El?trico de Pot?ncia (SEP). A modelagem da linha de transmiss?o deve ser estabelecida da forma mais rigorosa poss?vel, visando ? precis?o das dist?ncias de faltas simuladas a partir dos modelos levantados. Neste trabalho ser? modelada uma linha de transmiss?o em circuito simples usando o programa de c?lculo de transit?rios eletromagn?ticos ATPDraw? e, posteriormente, o algoritmo de localiza??o de falta baseado no emprego do m?todo dos m?nimos quadrados ser? implementado no MATLAB?. O desempenho do m?todo ser? discutido em termos de precis?o e robustez dos resultados.The investigation of different types of faults in transmission lines is a complex and extremely important task for the Electric Power System (EPS). The modeling of the transmission line should be established as rigorously as possible, aiming at the accuracy of simulated fault distances from the models surveyed.. In this work, a simple circuit transmission line will be modeled using the ATPDraw? electromagnetic transient program, and later the fault localization algorithm based on the use of the least squares method will be implemented in MATLAB?. The performance of the method will be discussed in terms of accuracy and robustness of the results

Cell-by-cell dissection of phloem development links a maturation gradient to cell specialization

Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved;In the plant meristem, tissue-wide maturation gradients are coordinated with specialized cell networks to establish various developmental phases required for indeterminate growth. Here, we used single-cell transcriptomics to reconstruct the protophloem developmental trajectory from the birth of cell progenitors to terminal differentiation in the Arabidopsis thaliana root. PHLOEM EARLY DNA-BINDING-WITH-ONE-FINGER (PEAR) transcription factors mediate lineage bifurcation by activating guanosine triphosphatase signaling and prime a transcriptional differentiation program. This program is initially repressed by a meristem-wide gradient of PLETHORA transcription factors. Only the dissipation of PLETHORA gradient permits activation of the differentiation program that involves mutual inhibition of early versus late meristem regulators. Thus, for phloem development, broad maturation gradients interface with cell-type-specific transcriptional regulators to stage cellular differentiation.Peer reviewe

In vivo antileishmanial efficacy of a naphthoquinone derivate incorporated into a Pluronic? F127-based polymeric micelle system against Leishmania amazonensis infection.

New therapeutic strategies against leishmaniasis are desirable, since the treatment against disease presents problems, such as the toxicity, high cost and/or parasite resistance. As consequence, new antileishmanial compounds are necessary to be identified, as presenting high activity against Leishmania parasites, but low toxicity in mammalian hosts. Flau-A is a naphthoquinone derivative recently showed to presents an in vitro effective action against Leishmania amazonensis and L. infantum species. In the present work, the in vivo efficacy of Flau-A, which was incorporated into a Poloxamer 407-based micelle system, was evaluated in a murine model against L. amazonensis infection. Amphotericin B (AmB) and Ambisome? were used as controls. The animals were infected and later treated with the compounds. Thirty days after the treatment, parasitological and immunological parameters were evaluated. Results showed that AmB, Ambisome? , Flau-A or Flau-A/M-treated animals presented significantly lower average lesion diameter and parasite burden in tissue and organs evaluated, when compared to the control (saline and micelle) groups. Flau-A or Flau-A/M-treated mice were those presenting the most significant reductions in the parasite burden, when compared to the others. These animals developed also a more polarized antileishmanial Th1 immune response, which was based on significantly higher levels of IFN-?, IL-12, TNF-?, GM-CSF, and parasite-specific IgG2a isotype; associated with low levels of IL-4, IL10, and IgG1 antibody. The absence of toxicity was found in these animals, although mice receiving AmB have showed high levels of renal and hepatic damage markers. In conclusion, results suggested that the Flau-A/M compound may be considered as a possible therapeutic target to be evaluated against human leishmaniasis