Moderating Role of Long-term Orientation on Augmented Reality Adoption

Recently, the tourism and hospitality industry is providing tourists with an enhanced experience via various cutting-edge technologies such as augmented reality (AR). In addition, there has been an increased interest on the effects of cultural traits on human behaviours. The aim of this paper is to examine how Long- and Short-term orientation moderates the relationship between experience economy provided by AR applications and users’ perceived value. Data were collected from 145 participants at Deoksugung Palace in Seoul, South Korea and 119 participants at An Post Museum, Dublin, Ireland. We found that South Korean tourists, who are representatives of long-term orientation culture in this study, put a high value on educational factors of AR applications, whereas Irish tourists, who are representative of short-term orientation culture, regard escapist experiences of AR applications highly

Flux Dendrites of Opposite Polarity in Superconducting MgB2_2 rings observed with magneto-optical imaging

Magneto-optical imaging was used to observe flux dendrites with opposite polarities simultaneously penetrate superconducting, ring-shaped MgB$_2$ films. By applying a perpendicular magnetic field, branching dendritic structures nucleate at the outer edge and abruptly propagate deep into the rings. When these structures reach close to the inner edge, where flux with opposite polarity has penetrated the superconductor, they occasionally trigger anti-flux dendrites. These anti-dendrites do not branch, but instead trace the triggering dendrite in the backward direction. Two trigger mechanisms, a non-local magnetic and a local thermal, are considered as possible explanations for this unexpected behaviour. Increasing the applied field further, the rings are perforated by dendrites which carry flux to the center hole. Repeated perforations lead to a reversed field profile and new features of dendrite activity when the applied field is subsequently reduced.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev.

Gene expression profiling of mammary gland development reveals putative roles for death receptors and immune mediators in post-lactational regression

INTRODUCTION: In order to gain a better understanding of the molecular processes that underlie apoptosis and tissue regression in mammary gland, we undertook a large-scale analysis of transcriptional changes during the mouse mammary pregnancy cycle, with emphasis on the transition from lactation to involution. METHOD: Affymetrix microarrays, representing 8618 genes, were used to compare mammary tissue from 12 time points (one virgin, three gestation, three lactation and five involution stages). Six animals were used for each time point. Common patterns of gene expression across all time points were identified and related to biological function. RESULTS: The majority of significantly induced genes in involution were also differentially regulated at earlier stages in the pregnancy cycle. This included a marked increase in inflammatory mediators during involution and at parturition, which correlated with leukaemia inhibitory factor–Stat3 (signal transducer and activator of signalling-3) signalling. Before involution, expected increases in cell proliferation, biosynthesis and metabolism-related genes were observed. During involution, the first 24 hours after weaning was characterized by a transient increase in expression of components of the death receptor pathways of apoptosis, inflammatory cytokines and acute phase response genes. After 24 hours, regulators of intrinsic apoptosis were induced in conjunction with markers of phagocyte activity, matrix proteases, suppressors of neutrophils and soluble components of specific and innate immunity. CONCLUSION: We provide a resource of mouse mammary gene expression data for download or online analysis. Here we highlight the sequential induction of distinct apoptosis pathways in involution and the stimulation of immunomodulatory signals, which probably suppress the potentially damaging effects of a cellular inflammatory response while maintaining an appropriate antimicrobial and phagocytic environment

On the Crepant Resolution Conjecture in the Local Case

In this paper we analyze four examples of birational transformations between local Calabi-Yau 3-folds: two crepant resolutions, a crepant partial resolution, and a flop. We study the effect of these transformations on genus-zero Gromov-Witten invariants, proving the Coates-Corti-Iritani-Tseng/Ruan form of the Crepant Resolution Conjecture in each case. Our results suggest that this form of the Crepant Resolution Conjecture may also hold for more general crepant birational transformations. They also suggest that Ruan's original Crepant Resolution Conjecture should be modified, by including appropriate "quantum corrections", and that there is no straightforward generalization of either Ruan's original Conjecture or the Cohomological Crepant Resolution Conjecture to the case of crepant partial resolutions. Our methods are based on mirror symmetry for toric orbifolds.Comment: 27 pages. This is a substantially revised and shortened version of my preprint "Wall-Crossings in Toric Gromov-Witten Theory II: Local Examples"; all results contained here are also proved there. To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Bounding quantum-classical separations for classes of nonlocal games

We bound separations between the entangled and classical values for several classes of nonlocal t-player games. Our motivating question is whether there is a family of t-player XOR games for which the entangled bias is 1 but for which the classical bias goes down to 0, for fixed t. Answering this question would have important consequences in the study of multi-party communication complexity, as a positive answer would imply an unbounded separation between randomized communication complexity with and without entanglement. Our contribution to answering the question is identifying several general classes of games for which the classical bias can not go to zero when the entangled bias stays above a constant threshold. This rules out the possibility of using these games to answer our motivating question. A previously studied set of XOR games, known not to give a positive answer to the question, are those for which there is a quantum strategy that attains value 1 using a so-called Schmidt state. We generalize this class to mod-m games and show that their classical value is always at least 1m+m−1mt1−t. Secondly, for free XOR games, in which the input distribution is of product form, we show β(G)≥β∗(G)2t where β(G) and β∗(G) are the classical and entangled biases of the game respectively. We also introduce so-called line games, an example of which is a slight modification of the Magic Square game, and show that they can not give a positive answer to the question either. Finally we look at two-player unique games and show that if the entangled value is 1−ϵ then the classical value is at least 1−O(√ϵlogk) where k is the number of outputs in the game. Our proofs use semidefinite-programming techniques, the Gowers inverse theorem and hypergraph norms

Bounding quantum-classical separations for classes of nonlocal games

We bound separations between the entangled and classical values for several classes of nonlocal t-player games. Our motivating question is whether there is a family of t-player XOR games for which the entangled bias is 1 but for which the classical bias goes down to 0, for fixed t. Answering this question would have important consequences in the study of multi-party communication complexity, as a positive answer would imply an unbounded separation between randomized communication complexity with and without entanglement. Our contribution to answering the question is identifying several general classes of games for which the classical bias can not go to zero when the entangled bias stays above a constant threshold. This rules out the possibility of using these games to answer our motivating question. A previously studied set of XOR games, known not to give a positive answer to the question, are those for which there is a quantum strategy that attains value 1 using a so-called Schmidt state. We generalize this class to mod-m games and show that their classical value is always at least 1/m + (m-1)/m t^{1-t}. Secondly, for free XOR games, in which the input distribution is of product form, we show beta(G) >= beta^*(G)^{2^t} where beta(G) and beta^*(G) are the classical and entangled biases of the game respectively. We also introduce so-called line games, an example of which is a slight modification of the Magic Square game, and show that they can not give a positive answer to the question either. Finally we look at two-player unique games and show that if the entangled value is 1-epsilon then the classical value is at least 1-O(sqrt{epsilon log k}) where k is the number of outputs in the game. Our proofs use semidefinite-programming techniques, the Gowers inverse theorem and hypergraph norms

The Moderating Effect of Long-term Orientation on Experience Economy in Augmented Reality Adoption

Recently, the tourism industry is providing tourists with an enhanced touristic experience via various cutting-edge information technologies such as augmented reality (AR). In addition, there has been an increased interest on the effects of cultural characteristics on human behaviour and phenomena. The aim of this paper is to examine how long- and short-term orientation moderates the relationship between experience economy provided by AR application and users’ perceived value. A research model is proposed and tested with data from 264 participants experiencing an AR application in Ireland and South Korea. The data are analysed using PLS-Graph and the findings reveal that there are significant differences in terms of the effect of education and escapism on the perceived value of using AR applications. These findings provide important implications for academics and practitioners in terms of the development and implementation of AR applications

Geometry-dependent electrostatics near contact lines

Long-ranged electrostatic interactions in electrolytes modify their contact angles on charged substrates in a scale and geometry dependent manner. For angles measured at scales smaller than the typical Debye screening length, the wetting geometry near the contact line must be explicitly considered. Using variational and asymptotic methods, we derive new transcendental equations for the contact angle that depend on the electrostatic potential only at the three phase contact line. Analytic expressions are found in certain limits and compared with predictions for contact angles measured with lower resolution. An estimate for electrostatic contributions to {\it line} tension is also given.Comment: 3 .eps figures, 5p

Cross-Cultural Differences in Adopting Mobile Augmented Reality at Cultural Heritage Tourism Sites

Purpose Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used in cultural heritage tourism sites for the enhancement of the tourist experience. However, behavioral intention to adopt AR is dependent on cultural traits and close investigation is required on cultural differences. To explore these cultural differences and the effect on AR acceptance in cultural heritage tourism sites, the current study focused on the aesthetic and hedonic characteristics of AR applications. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in two countries with strong contrasts in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explore cultural differences in AR acceptance. In total, 145 questionnaires were collected in Deoksugung Palace, South Korea, and 119 questionnaires were collected in the An Post Museum, Republic of Ireland. Data were analyzed using PLS Graph 3.0. Findings The findings confirmed that the aesthetics of AR have a strong influence on perceived enjoyment. Furthermore, this study supported the notion that high-power distance, collectivism and high uncertainty avoidance culture such as South Korea’s perceivesstronger dependence on social influence and the hedonic characteristics of AR. Practical Implications AR innovation and marketing within the hospitality and tourism industry requires an understanding of cultural differences to ensure successful implementation. In addition, tourism and hospitality managers need to ensure that the needs and requirements of different target markets are met. Originality/value This study applied Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to explore the differences between two very distinct countries with regard to AR acceptance. The findings provide important implications for the implementation of tourism AR applications for different countries, especially considering international target markets

Two-dimensional analysis of smooth pursuit eye movements reveals quantitative deficits in precision and accuracy

Purpose: Small moving targets are followed by pursuit eye movements, with success ubiquitously defined by gain. Gain quantifies accuracy, rather than precision, and only for eye movements along the target trajectory. Analogous to previous studies of fixation, we analyzed pursuit performance in two dimensions as a function of target direction, velocity, and amplitude. As a subsidiary experiment, we compared pursuit performance against that of fixation. Methods: Eye position was recorded from 15 observers during pursuit. The target was a 0.4° dot that moved across a large screen at 8°/s or 16°/s, either horizontally or vertically, through peak-to-peak amplitudes of 8°, 16°, or 32°. Two-dimensional eye velocity was expressed relative to the target, and a bivariate probability density function computed to obtain accuracy and precision. As a comparison, identical metrics were derived from fixation data. Results: For all target directions, eye velocity was less precise along the target trajectory. Eye velocities orthogonal to the target trajectory were more accurate during vertical pursuit than horizontal. Pursuit accuracy and precision along and orthogonal to the target trajectory decreased at the higher target velocity. Accuracy along the target trajectory decreased with smaller target amplitudes. Conclusions: Orthogonal to the target trajectory, pursuit was inaccurate and imprecise. Compared to fixation, pursuit was less precise and less accurate even when following the stimulus that gave the best performance. Translational Relevance: This analytical approach may help the detection of subtle deficits in slow phase eye movements that could be used as biomarkers for disease progression and/or treatment