EVERYDAY GAMING INDUCES AMATEUR ESPORTS PARTICIPATION THROUGH COMMITMENT

Electronic sports (esports), as a professionalized form of organized video game competition, enjoys incredibly high popularity worldwide. Its current limitation necessitates the emergence of amateur esports, a specific form of esports designated for mass gamer participation. As amateur esports is in the initial developmental stage, mass gamers’ transformation into amateur participants is the current focus. However, we know little about this transformation due to scant research. Thus, this study attempts to understand the transformation of mass gamers into amateur esports participants by investigating the relationship between mass gamers’ everyday gaming behaviors and their amateur esports participation. Specifically, relying on use and gratification theory, this study learns what everyday gaming behaviors impact amateur esports participation intention. Furthermore, this study also explains the mechanism of these influences through the lens of commitment. This study contributes to research and practice regarding amateur esports development

Effect of Prandtl number on heat transport enhancement in Rayleigh-B\'enard convection under geometrical confinement

We study, using direct numerical simulations, the effect of geometrical confinement on heat transport and flow structure in Rayleigh-B\'enard convection in fluids with different Prandtl numbers. Our simulations span over two decades of Prandtl number $Pr$, $0.1 \leq Pr \leq 40$, with the Rayleigh number $Ra$ fixed at $10^8$. The width-to-height aspect ratio $\Gamma$ spans between $0.025$ and $0.25$ while the length-to-height aspect ratio is fixed at one. We first find that for $Pr \geq 0.5$, geometrical confinement can lead to a significant enhancement in heat transport as characterized by the Nusselt number $Nu$. For those cases, $Nu$ is maximal at a certain $\Gamma = \Gamma_{opt}$. It is found that $\Gamma_{opt}$ exhibits a power-law relation with $Pr$ as $\Gamma_{opt}=0.11Pr^{-0.06}$, and the maximal relative enhancement generally increases with $Pr$ over the explored parameter range. As opposed to the situation of $Pr \geq 0.5$, confinement-induced enhancement in $Nu$ is not realized for smaller values of $Pr$, such as $0.1$ and $0.2$. The $Pr$ dependence of the heat transport enhancement can be understood in its relation to the coverage area of the thermal plumes over the thermal boundary layer (BL) where larger coverage is observed for larger $Pr$ due to a smaller thermal diffusivity. We further show that $\Gamma_{opt}$ is closely related to the crossing of thermal and momentum BLs, and find that $Nu$ declines sharply when the thickness ratio of the thermal and momentum BLs exceeds a certain value of about one. In addition, through examining the temporally averaged flow fields and 2D mode decomposition, it is found that for smaller $Pr$ the large-scale circulation is robust against the geometrical confinement of the convection cell.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, and 1 table in main tex

Encouraging Individuals to Go Green by Gamification: An Empirical Study

The quality of the environment is the main concern of the current world. For the improvement of environmental quality, individuals are suggested to perform pro-environmental behaviors. Gamifying information systems to encourage their users to do so is an emerging phenomenon showing its potential for environmental conservation. Contributing to the environment in interesting ways is the main idea of gamification which helps the system attract users. However, maintaining active user engagement within such a gamified system is difficult. To understand the mechanism of users’ continuous intention to use gamified information system for environmental protection, this research based on the theories of goal framing and gamification affordance to explain what factors influence user’ continuance to use intention and what roles the gamification design takes in the user interaction with the system. This study contributes to knowledge of research and practice regarding gamified information systems for environmental protection

Calling for Information Systems Research on Esports: An Overview Study

Online gaming has become a pervasive entertainment activity, and its professionalization has resulted in esports (i.e., electronic sports)—a new blend of sport and business. Esports has a promising future given its widespread acceptance and significant business value. Its innovative nature necessitates more research to help understand and shape its future. We hold that scholars, especially information systems (IS) researchers, should pay more attention to this phenomenon since the IS discipline has a key interest in examining esports’ constituents (i.e., people, organizations, and technologies). To increase research attention and help readers understand esports, we compiled this research overview. In it, we first comprehensively define esports. Then, we summarize the esports development. We outline the current state of research in general and systematically review the IS perspective. Based on these efforts, we propose an esports research framework with four promising IS research avenues. We end by discussing “IS contributions” to esports and this overview’s implications. This study serves as a foundation for comprehensively mapping the esports practice and research landscape. We hope our findings can help others, especially IS researchers, more clearly understand esports and guide them towards creating increasingly impactful works

Alliances in the Shadow of Conflict

Victorious alliances often fight about the spoils of war. This paper presents an experiment on the determinants of whether alliances break up and fight internally after having defeated a joint enemy. First, if peaceful sharing yields an asymmetric rent distribution, this increases the likelihood of fighting. In turn, anticipation of the higher likelihood of internal fight reduces the alliance’s ability to succeed against the outside enemy. Second, the option to make non-binding declarations on non-aggression in the relationship between alliance members does not make peaceful settlement within the alliance more likely. Third, higher differences in the alliance players’ contributions to alliance effort lead to more internal conflict and more intense fighting

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase family member 14 (PARP14) is a novel effector of the JNK2-dependent pro-survival signal in multiple myeloma

Copyright @ 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Regulation of cell survival is a key part of the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM). Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling has been implicated in MM pathogenesis, but its function is unclear. To elucidate the role of JNK in MM, we evaluated the specific functions of the two major JNK proteins, JNK1 and JNK2. We show here that JNK2 is constitutively activated in a panel of MM cell lines and primary tumors. Using loss-of-function studies, we demonstrate that JNK2 is required for the survival of myeloma cells and constitutively suppresses JNK1-mediated apoptosis by affecting expression of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)14, a key regulator of B-cell survival. Strikingly, we found that PARP14 is highly expressed in myeloma plasma cells and associated with disease progression and poor survival. Overexpression of PARP14 completely rescued myeloma cells from apoptosis induced by JNK2 knockdown, indicating that PARP14 is critically involved in JNK2-dependent survival. Mechanistically, PARP14 was found to promote the survival of myeloma cells by binding and inhibiting JNK1. Moreover, inhibition of PARP14 enhances the sensitization of MM cells to anti-myeloma agents. Our findings reveal a novel regulatory pathway in myeloma cells through which JNK2 signals cell survival via PARP14, and identify PARP14 as a potential therapeutic target in myeloma.Kay Kendall Leukemia Fund, NIH, Cancer Research UK, Italian Association for Cancer Research and the Foundation for Liver Research

The effect of intervertebral cartilage on neutral posture and range of motion in the necks of sauropod dinosaurs

The necks of sauropod dinosaurs were a key factor in their evolution. The habitual posture and range of motion of these necks has been controversial, and computer-aided studies have argued for an obligatory sub-horizontal pose. However, such studies are compromised by their failure to take into account the important role of intervertebral cartilage. This cartilage takes very different forms in different animals. Mammals and crocodilians have intervertebral discs, while birds have synovial joints in their necks. The form and thickness of cartilage varies significantly even among closely related taxa. We cannot yet tell whether the neck joints of sauropods more closely resembled those of birds or mammals. Inspection of CT scans showed cartilage:bone ratios of 4.5% for Sauroposeidon and about 20% and 15% for two juvenile Apatosaurus individuals. In extant animals, this ratio varied from 2.59% for the rhea to 24% for a juvenile giraffe. It is not yet possible to disentangle ontogenetic and taxonomic signals, but mammal cartilage is generally three times as thick as that of birds. Our most detailed work, on a turkey, yielded a cartilage:bone ratio of 4.56%. Articular cartilage also added 11% to the length of the turkey's zygapophyseal facets. Simple image manipulation suggests that incorporating 4.56% of neck cartilage into an intervertebral joint of a turkey raises neutral posture by 15°. If this were also true of sauropods, the true neutral pose of the neck would be much higher than has been depicted. An additional 11% of zygapophyseal facet length translates to 11% more range of motion at each joint. More precise quantitative results must await detailed modelling. In summary, including cartilage in our models of sauropod necks shows that they were longer, more elevated and more flexible than previously recognised

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) debate is gaining ground in contemporary evolutionary biology. In parallel, a number of philosophical standpoints have emerged in an attempt to clarify what exactly is represented by the EES. For Massimo Pigliucci, we are in the wake of the newest instantiation of a persisting Kuhnian paradigm; in contrast, Telmo Pievani has contended that the transition to an EES could be best represented as a progressive reformation of a prior Lakatosian scientific research program, with the extension of its Neo-Darwinian core and the addition of a brand-new protective belt of assumptions and auxiliary hypotheses. Here, we argue that those philosophical vantage points are not the only ways to interpret what current proposals to ‘extend’ the Modern Synthesis-derived ‘standard evolutionary theory’ (SET) entail in terms of theoretical change in evolutionary biology. We specifically propose the image of the emergent EES as a vast network of models and interweaved representations that, instantiated in diverse practices, are connected and related in multiple ways. Under that assumption, the EES could be articulated around a paraconsistent network of evolutionary theories (including some elements of the SET), as well as models, practices and representation systems of contemporary evolutionary biology, with edges and nodes that change their position and centrality as a consequence of the co-construction and stabilization of facts and historical discussions revolving around the epistemic goals of this area of the life sciences. We then critically examine the purported structure of the EES—published by Laland and collaborators in 2015—in light of our own network-based proposal. Finally, we consider which epistemic units of Evo-Devo are present or still missing from the EES, in preparation for further analyses of the topic of explanatory integration in this conceptual framework

Cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in England – Are we clear on cancer?

Background: Low cancer awareness may contribute to delayed diagnosis and poor cancer survival. We aimed to quantify socio-demographic differences in cancer symptom awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation in the English population. Methods: Using a uniquely large data set (n=49?270), we examined the association of cancer symptom awareness and barriers to presentation with age, gender, marital status and socio-economic position (SEP), using logistic regression models to control for confounders. Results: The youngest and oldest, the single and participants with the lowest SEP recognised the fewest cancer symptoms, and reported most barriers to presentation. Recognition of nine common cancer symptoms was significantly lower, and embarrassment, fear and difficulties in arranging transport to the doctor’s surgery were significantly more common in participants living in the most deprived areas than in the most affluent areas. Women were significantly more likely than men to both recognise common cancer symptoms and to report barriers. Women were much more likely compared with men to report that fear would put them off from going to the doctor. Conclusions: Large and robust socio-demographic differences in recognition of some cancer symptoms, and perception of some barriers to presentation, highlight the need for targeted campaigns to encourage early presentation and improve cancer outcomes

Proteomics: in pursuit of effective traumatic brain injury therapeutics

Effective traumatic brain injury (TBI) therapeutics remain stubbornly elusive. Efforts in the field have been challenged by the heterogeneity of clinical TBI, with greater complexity among underlying molecular phenotypes than initially conceived. Future research must confront the multitude of factors comprising this heterogeneity, representing a big data challenge befitting the coming informatics age. Proteomics is poised to serve a central role in prescriptive therapeutic development, as it offers an efficient endpoint within which to assess post-TBI biochemistry. We examine rationale for multifactor TBI proteomic studies and the particular importance of temporal profiling in defining biochemical sequences and guiding therapeutic development. Lastly, we offer perspective on repurposing biofluid proteomics to develop theragnostic assays with which to prescribe, monitor and assess pharmaceutics for improved translation and outcome for TBI patients