Viewer types in game live streams: questionnaire development and validation

Producing and consuming live-streamed content is a growing trend attracting many people today. While the actual content that is streamed is diverse, one especially pop ular context is games. Streamers of gaming content broadcast how they play digital or analog games, attracting several thousand viewers at once. Previous scientific work has revealed that different motivations drive people to become viewers, which apparently impacts how they interact with the offered features and which streamers’ behaviors they appreciate. In this paper, we wanted to understand whether viewers’ motiva tions can be formulated as viewer types and systematically measured. We present an exploratory factor analysis (followed by a validation study) with which we developed a 25-item questionnaire assessing five different viewer types. In addition, we analyzed the predictive validity of the viewer types for existing and potential live stream fea tures. We were able to show that a relationship between the assessed viewer type and preferences for streamers’ behaviors and features in a stream exists, which can guide fellow researchers and streamers to understand viewers better and potentially provide more suitable experiences

Neutral Observers or Advocates for Societal Transformation? Role Orientations of Constructive Journalists in Germany

Since the 2010s, a new type of journalism has emerged, especially in North America and Western Europe, called constructive journalism. Its basic idea is to complement classic problem-centered reporting by covering problem-solving approaches that could inspire the recipients. It has been harshly criticized, especially for its alleged proximity to advocacy or activism. To clarify the role orientations of the protagonists of this trend, a survey of all German journalists that call themselves constructive or solution-oriented was conducted (n = 79). The results show that constructive journalists are as diverse in age as the total of all journalists in Germany, but tend to be more women journalists, freelancers, formally higher educated, and politically leaning toward green and left-wing positions. Regarding role orientations, the field of constructive journalism not only represents a new facet of the entire journalistic field but also consists of several nuanced approaches itself: In factor analysis, we found eight role dimensions, of which the most important were the Social Integrator, the Transformation Agent, the Active Watchdog, the Emotional Storyteller, and the Innovation Reporter. In comparison to the average German journalist, the German constructive journalist shows stronger ambitions to control political and business elites, to motivate people to participate, and to contribute to social change. This can be explained as a countermovement not only to a possible negativity bias in the news but also to an increased attitude of detachment in German newsrooms

Potential and effects of personalizing gameful fitness applications using behavior change intentions and Hexad user types

Personalizing gameful applications is essential to account for interpersonal differences in the perception of gameful design elements. Considering that an increasing number of people lead sedentary lifestyles, using personalized gameful applications to encourage physical activity is a particularly relevant domain. In this article, we investigate behavior change intentions and Hexad user types as factors to personalize gameful fitness applications. We first explored the potential of these two factors by analyzing differences in the perceived persuasiveness of gameful design elements using a storyboards-based online study (N=178). Our results show several significant effects regarding both factors and thus support the usefulness of them in explaining perceptual differences. Based on these findings, we implemented “Endless Universe,” a personalized gameful application encouraging physical activity on a treadmill. We used the system in a laboratory study (N=20) to study actual effects of personalization on the users’ performance, enjoyment and affective experiences. While we did not find effects on the immediate performance of users, positive effects on user experience-related measures were found. The results of this study support the relevance of behavior change intentions and Hexad user types for personalizing gameful fitness systems further

Ride Dynamics Ride Safety - Driver's Place

Die Bestrebung das Fahrverhalten bzw. die Fahrdynamik von Traktoren weiter zu verbessern – insbesondere um die Traktion zwischen Rad und Untergrund bei der Feldarbeit zu optimieren – stellt einen wichtigen Bestandteil der aktuellen Forschung dar. Das gilt in besonderer Weise auch im Hinblick auf die Reduzierung des Energieverbrauchs und des Schadstoffausstoßes. Daneben werden auch der Fahrkomfort und die Fahrsicherheit von Nutzfahrzeugen in aktuellen Untersuchungen thematisiert. Wichtige Punkte hierbei sind die Weiterentwicklung der z.T. noch unbefriedigenden Bewertungsmöglichkeiten von Ganzkörpervibrationen und der damit verbundenen Gesundheitsrisiken sowie der Möglichkeiten zur Erhöhung der Fahrzeugstabilität bzw. der Vermeidung von Instabilitäten während der Fahrt.The goal of improving the handling and the driving dynamics of tractors – especially to increase traction between the wheel and the underground during field work – is an important part of current research (mainly with regard to reducing energy consumption and exhaust emissions). Driving comfort and safety of commercial vehicles are also in the focus of current research activities. Important issues are the further development of partly unsatisfying valuation methods of whole body vibrations and the involved health risks as well as the possibilities to increase vehicle stability while driving

de.NBI Cloud Storage Tübingen. A federated and georedundant solution for large scientific data

The »German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure«, or in short »de.NBI«, is a national research infrastructure providing bioinformatics services to users in life sciences research, biomedicine and related fields. At five sites across Germany, cloud sites were established to host the bioinformatics services. In Tübingen an extension of the storage capabilites of the cloud was planned, implemented and brought into production. We here report about the motivation, requirements, design decisions and experiences which might serve as inspiration for other large scale storage endeavours in the academic domain

An exploratory study on the role of serum fatty acids in the short-term dietary therapy of gingivitis.

A previous randomised controlled trial showed that an anti-inflammatory diet (AID) significantly reduced gingival inflammation despite constant plaque values. This exploratory study investigated the role of serum fatty acids in relation to the observed clinical effects. Therefore, data of thirty participants with gingivitis, following either a pro-inflammatory dietary pattern (PID) rich in saturated fat, omega 6 fatty acids, and refined carbohydrates or an AID for 4 weeks, were correlated with corresponding serum samples for a variety of fatty acids. Changes in the fatty acid profile and effects on clinical periodontal parameters were analysed. Results showed that the polyunsatured:saturated fatty acids ratio (PUFA:SFA ratio) and nervonic acid level were significantly higher in the AID group than in the PID group at the end of the study. Significant intragroup differences were seen only in the AID group. Diverse fatty acids showed heterogeneous relations to clinical parameters. This study demonstrated that the serum fatty acid profile was not fundamentally associated with the clinical gingivitis-lowering effects of an AID in short-term, although some fatty acids showed individual relations to clinical parameters with respect to inflammation. Hence, short-term effects of dietary therapy on gingivitis may be rather based on carbohydrate-related effects and/or micronutrients

Modelling DESTINY+ interplanetary and interstellar dust measurements en route to the active asteroid (3200) Phaethon

The JAXA/ISAS spacecraft DESTINY$^+$ will be launched to the active asteroid (3200) Phaethon in 2022. Among the proposed core payload is the DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer (DDA) which is an upgrade of the Cosmic Dust Analyzer flown on the Cassini spacecraft to Saturn (Srama et al. 2011). We use two up-to-date computer models, the ESA Interplanetary Meteoroid Engineering Model (IMEM, Dikarev et al. 2005), and the interstellar dust module of the Interplanetary Meteoroid environment for EXploration model (IMEX; Sterken2013 et al., Strub et al. 2019) to study the detection conditions and fluences of interplanetary and interstellar dust with DDA. Our results show that a statistically significant number of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles will be detectable with DDA during the 4-years interplanetary cruise of DESTINY+. The particle impact direction and speed can be used to descriminate between interstellar and interplanetary particles and likely also to distinguish between cometary and asteroidal particles.Comment: 40 pages, 18 Figures, accepted for Planetary and Space Scienc

de.NBI Cloud federation through ELIXIR AAI

Belmann P, Fischer B, Krüger J, et al. de.NBI Cloud federation through ELIXIR AAI. F1000Research. 2019;8: 842.The academic de.NBI Cloud offers compute resources for life science research in Germany.  At the beginning of 2017, de.NBI Cloud started to implement a federated cloud consisting of five compute centers, with the aim of acting as one resource to their users. A federated cloud introduces multiple challenges, such as a central access and project management point, a unified account across all cloud sites and an interchangeable project setup across the federation. In order to implement the federation concept, de.NBI Cloud integrated with the ELIXIR authentication and authorization infrastructure system (ELIXIR AAI) and in particular Perun, the identity and access management system of ELIXIR. The integration solves the mentioned challenges and represents a backbone, connecting five compute centers which are based on OpenStack and a web portal for accessing the federation.This article explains the steps taken and software components implemented for setting up a federated cloud based on the collaboration between de.NBI Cloud and ELIXIR AAI. Furthermore, the setup and components that are described are generic and can therefore be used for other upcoming or existing federated OpenStack clouds in Europe

Anisotropic topographies restore endothelial monolayer integrity and promote the proliferation of senescent endothelial cells

Thrombogenicity remains a major issue in cardiovascular implants (CVIs). Complete surficial coverage of CVIs by a monolayer of endothelial cells (ECs) prior to implantation represents a promising strategy but is hampered by the overall logistical complexity and the high number of cells required. Consequently, extensive cell expansion is necessary, which may eventually lead to replicative senescence. Considering that micro-structured surfaces with anisotropic topography may promote endothelialization, we investigated the impact of gratings on the biomechanical properties and the replicative capacity of senescent ECs. After cultivation on gridded surfaces, the cells showed significant improvements in terms of adherens junction integrity, cell elongation, and orientation of the actin filaments, as well as enhanced yes-associated protein nuclear translocation and cell proliferation. Our data therefore suggest that micro-structured surfaces with anisotropic topographies may improve long-term endothelialization of CVIs. Keywords: aging; anisotropy; endothelial cells; monolayer integrity; proliferation; senescence; telomere; topograph