Make Reading Fun: Implications of Virtual Reality on Standing Balance and Control

The recent rapid expansion of virtual reality (VR) technology is driving a widespread number of new applications, including providing immersive environments for users to learn and read through commercially-available applications. However, recent research has shown that VR causes symptoms of dizziness and motion sickness, which could disrupt users gait and balance. Thus, it is important to understand how to best mitigate these effects before VR use becomes more widespread across the lay public. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the acute effect of VR use on gait and balance control following use, and whether aspects of virtual environment design can mitigate negative effects.. METHODS: 60 young, healthy participants read a short story for 45 minutes while immersed in VR.They were randomly assigned to read in one of three environments: 1) a cluttered library, 2) a bright snowy landscape and 3) a dark outer space scene. These environments were selected due to their differences in visual clutter and lighting–VR design considerations which have been shown in previous work to influence visual fatigue and motion sickness. Prior to and following VR use, participants completed three standing balance tasks(standing balance, eyes open; standing balance, eyes closed and single leg stance) and two gait tasks (tandem walking and regular gait). While completing these tasks, kinematic and ground reaction force data were collected from an 8-camera 3D motion capture system and two force plates in order to assess changes in gait and balance kinematics and kinetics. RESULTS: Preliminary results (n = 12) indicate that those who read in the dark outer space environment demonstrated diminished balance control, as evidenced in an increase in center of pressure velocity during single leg balance. CONCLUSION: This finding indicates that the type of virtual environment a person is immersed in can affect their sense of balance following use. Specific to the dark outer space environment, it is possible the lack of visual anchors (i.e., nothing for them to focus on) lead to visual fatigue and downstream balance effects. Additional data analysis will help to elucidate these findings, which could lend insight to the role of virtual environment design on the user experience

Action Observation: Olympic Clean & Jerk Skill Acquisition of Novice Individuals in Virtual Reality

Action observation (AO) involves acquiring skills through watching an expert model demonstrating said skill. Recent developments in virtual reality (VR) technology now allows for a 3D AO viewing perspective. In theory, this allows a learner to view and practice a skill without the requirement of a live demonstrator. While a 360-degree view is not possible through a 2D AO format, it is unknown if it serves as an added benefit or hinderance. PURPOSE: This study explored the viability of using VR for enhancing AO in novice individuals by performing an Olympic weightlifting exercise compared to those engaging in AO through a 2D format. METHODS: Thirty-six healthy, young novice participants were randomized into one of three groups: a 3D AO group, a 2D AO group, and a no-AO control group. Participants performed the clean & jerk exercise five times using a ten-pound barbell to assess baseline ability. Each group underwent their assigned AO paradigm for three minutes. The control group examined a poster that all groups had observed prior to their protocols. The 2D AO group viewed a video where a model was demonstrating the movement pattern from both sagittal & frontal planes. The 3D AO group utilized an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset that permitted views in a 360-degree fashion. Immediately after the learning portion, participants were asked to perform five repetitions of the clean & jerk. This cycle was done four times, with the final five repetitions serving as the post-training data set. For baseline and post training, 3D motion capture was used to assess bar kinematics and leg joint coordination. RESULTS: There were significant increases in bar displacement for both the 2D & 3D groups following training when compared to their baseline, indicative of worsened performance. There were no significant differences in horizontal bar displacement between groups. Those in the 2D group were significantly more likely than the other two groups to implement a three-step lift following training. Finally, during the second pull of the clean and jerk, the 2D group demonstrated a significantly greater proximal-to-distal leg joint sequencing pattern. CONCLUSION: Results may be attributed to the amount of information being presented to a novice individual. Future work should consider and further elucidate underlying relationships between the user and VR

Just Bust a Move; Relating Subjective Evaluation to Objective Measurements in Hip – Hop Dance

Being globally recognized as a performance art and mode of expression, Hip - hop dance is becoming more prevalent in today’s modern dance and popular culture. With multiple renditions across the globe on what encompasses Hip - hop dance on various social media platforms and the different sub styles of hip-hop dance that currently exist, there are a limited number of ways to assess a dancer and their ability without relying on a high amount of subjectivity from those that are watching it. PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between common dance moves (like the Arm Wave & Inverted Happy Feet) implemented into Hip - hop dance choreography and whether certain biomechanical aspects of those moves can predict how well a dancer may be evaluated in a competition. METHODS: Participants learned a brief Hip - hop dance routine, incorporating the aforementioned dance moves, for one week before data collection. After a brief warm up, the participants performed the learned dance choreography in a lab space while under a 3D motion capture system with force plates collecting kinematic and kinetic data. Video footage of each participant was also collected at this time. Videos of each participant’s performance footage was then sent out to judges for scoring, and a series of regression models were run to determine how well judge’s scores predicted discrete biomechanical variables related to performance of dance moves. RESULTS: Preliminary results suggest that displacement of the arm wave, propagation velocity of the arm wave, shape deviation of the arm wave, and ground reaction force symmetry during foot work have a significant role in predicting how a judge may score a dancer. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the mechanical aspects of performing certain hip-hop dance moves are significant predictors of judges’ scoring, lending insight into the degree to which scoring is related to the mechanics of Hip – hop dance itself. Thus, a certain level of objectivity in judges’ scoring of hip-hop dance exists. Future work should consider how subjective factors such as age, sex/gender, and clothing choice may also influence judges’ scoring

Observation of the modification of quantum statistics of plasmonic systems

For almost two decades, researchers have observed the preservation of the quantum statistical properties of bosons in a large variety of plasmonic systems. In addition, the possibility of preserving nonclassical correlations in light-matter interactions mediated by scattering among photons and plasmons stimulated the idea of the conservation of quantum statistics in plasmonic systems. It has also been assumed that similar dynamics underlie the conservation of the quantum fluctuations that define the nature of light sources. So far, plasmonic experiments have been performed in nanoscale systems in which complex multiparticle interactions are restrained. Here, we demonstrate that the quantum statistics of multiparticle systems are not always preserved in plasmonic platforms and report the observation of their modification. Moreover, we show that optical near fields provide additional scattering paths that can induce complex multiparticle interactions. Remarkably, the resulting multiparticle dynamics can, in turn, lead to the modification of the excitation mode of plasmonic systems. These observations are validated through the quantum theory of optical coherence for single- and multi-mode plasmonic systems. Our findings unveil the possibility of using multiparticle scattering to perform exquisite control of quantum plasmonic systems

Effect of Compression Garments in the Speed Performance among Track and Field and Swimming student-athletes in a Catholic University of the Philippines

Background and Purpose: Speed is critical for sports such as swimming and track and field. One of the sports industry's solutions is compression garments to enhance athletic performance. This study aims to determine the effect of short and long compression garments on the speed performance of track and field and swimming athletes of the University of Santo Tomas. Methodology: The researchers used quantitative and experimental methods. This study focused on the athletes of the track and field and swimming teams of the University of Santo Tomas. The researchers conducted the study at the open field and swimming pool within the vicinity of the University; 14 athletes from track and field and 16 from the swimming team were invited to participate in the 60M Sprint Test and Critical Swim Speed Test. Results: The study shows a slight difference in the speed performance of track and field athletes when using short compression garments (7.54m/s) and long compression garments (7.44m/s). While swimming, the speed performance when using a long compression garment (1.450m/s) is higher than the short compression garment (1.512m/s). Both swimming (0.887) and track and field (0.559) show no significant difference in using the compression garment. Conclusion and Recommendations: Based on the study, there is a minimal difference in using long compression garments against short compression garments. Therefore, the researchers recommend using long compression garments since this garment slightly increases participants' speed which is vital in any sport measuring speed to win a race. The researchers recommend further study by increasing the number of participants, only endurance athletes participants, and including the materials used in making the garments. This further helps the claim that long and short compression garments affect speed performance regardless of sports or events

Releasing incompatible males drives strong suppression across populations of wild and Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti in Australia

Releasing sterile or incompatible male insects is a proven method of population management in agricultural systems with the potential to revolutionize mosquito control. Through a collaborative venture with the “Debug” Verily Life Sciences team, we assessed the incompatible insect technique (IIT) with the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti in northern Australia in a replicated treatment control field trial. Backcrossing a US strain of Ae. aegypti carrying Wolbachia wAlbB from Aedes albopictus with a local strain, we generated a wAlbB2-F4 strain incompatible with both the wild-type (no Wolbachia) and wMel-Wolbachia Ae. aegypti now extant in North Queensland. The wAlbB2-F4 strain was manually mass reared with males separated from females using Verily sex-sorting technologies to obtain no detectable female contamination in the field. With community consent, we delivered a total of three million IIT males into three isolated landscapes of over 200 houses each, releasing ∼50 males per house three times a week over 20 wk. Detecting initial overflooding ratios of between 5:1 and 10:1, strong population declines well beyond 80% were detected across all treatment landscapes when compared to controls. Monitoring through the following season to observe the ongoing effect saw one treatment landscape devoid of adult Ae. aegypti early in the season. A second landscape showed reduced adults, and the third recovered fully. These encouraging results in suppressing both wild-type and wMel-Ae. aegypti confirms the utility of bidirectional incompatibility in the field setting, show the IIT to be robust, and indicate that the removal of this arbovirus vector from human-occupied landscapes may be achievable

TOI-2119: A transiting brown dwarf orbiting an active M-dwarf from NASA’s TESS mission

We report the discovery of TOI-2119b, a transiting brown dwarf (BD) that orbits and is completely eclipsed by an active M-dwarf star. Using light curve data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission and follow-up high-resolution Doppler spectroscopic observations, we find the BD has a radius of $R_b = 1.08 \pm 0.03{\rm R_J}$, a mass of $M_b = 64.4 \pm 2.3{\rm M_J}$, an orbital period of $P = 7.200865 \pm 0.00002$ days, and an eccentricity of $e=0.337\pm 0.002$. The host star has a mass of $M_\star = 0.53 \pm 0.02{\rm M_\odot}$, a radius of $R_\star= 0.50 \pm 0.01{\rm R_\odot}$, an effective temperature of $T_{\rm eff} = 3621 \pm 48$K, and a metallicity of $\rm [Fe/H]=+0.06\pm 0.08$. TOI-2119b joins an emerging population of transiting BDs around M-dwarf host stars, with TOI-2119 being the ninth such system. These M-dwarf--brown dwarf systems typically occupy mass ratios near $q = M_b/M_\star \approx 0.1-0.2$, which separates them from the typical mass ratios for systems with transiting substellar objects and giant exoplanets that orbit more massive stars. The nature of the secondary eclipse of the BD by the star enables us to estimate the effective temperature of the substellar object to be $2030\pm 84$K, which is consistent with predictions by substellar evolutionary models.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, accepted in MNRA

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure

A massive hot Jupiter orbiting a metal-rich early-M star discovered in the TESS full frame images

Observations and statistical studies have shown that giant planets are rare around M dwarfs compared with Sun-like stars. The formation mechanism of these extreme systems remains under debate for decades. With the help of the TESS mission and ground based follow-up observations, we report the discovery of TOI-4201b, the most massive and densest hot Jupiter around an M dwarf known so far with a radius of $1.22\pm 0.04\ R_J$ and a mass of $2.48\pm0.09\ M_J$, about 5 times heavier than most other giant planets around M dwarfs. It also has the highest planet-to-star mass ratio ($q\sim 4\times 10^{-3}$) among such systems. The host star is an early-M dwarf with a mass of $0.61\pm0.02\ M_{\odot}$and a radius of$0.63\pm0.02\ R_{\odot}$. It has significant super-solar iron abundance ([Fe/H]=$0.52\pm 0.08$ dex). However, interior structure modeling suggests that its planet TOI-4201b is metal-poor, which challenges the classical core-accretion correlation of stellar-planet metallicity, unless the planet is inflated by additional energy sources. Building on the detection of this planet, we compare the stellar metallicity distribution of four planetary groups: hot/warm Jupiters around G/M dwarfs. We find that hot/warm Jupiters show a similar metallicity dependence around G-type stars. For M dwarf host stars, the occurrence of hot Jupiters shows a much stronger correlation with iron abundance, while warm Jupiters display a weaker preference, indicating possible different formation histories.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, submitted to A