Narrative Transportation and Virtual Reality: Exploring the Immersive Qualities of Social Justice in the Digital World

This dissertation explores the potential applications for virtual reality (VR) stories in support of social justice causes, examining whether digital games historically been successfully leveraged for social justice purposes, and determining which components of VR technology can most encourage narrative transportation of participants in VR stories. The first chapter examines theories of simulation, virtual reality, narrative, and interactivity, as well as concepts of immersion from various disciplines and settles on narrative transportation, a theory from cognitive psychology, as the most useful in measuring the effect of VR stories on participants. The second chapter examines ethnographic practices, activist games, and modes of reclaiming digital spaces as a way to encourage digital social justice and ensure traditionally marginalized communities have meaningful access to technology—or, the tools to use it, create with it, and critique it. The third chapter presents the result of a play study conducted to measure participants\u27 transportation in a recent VR narrative and finds VR interactive narratives to be more transportive and engaging than their two-dimensional counterparts. The fourth chapter interrogates some of the fears of VR technology, namely that it will be used to further current societal injustices and as a potentially powerful propaganda tool. The final chapter presents five recommendations for designers seeking to experiment in virtual reality narratives. The ultimate aim of this work is to encourage scholars, designers, and participants to make ethical decisions in the creation and use of virtual societies

Streaming Potential and Electro-osmosis Measurements to Characterize Porous Materials

Characterizing the streaming potential and electroosmosis properties of porous media is essential in applying seismoelectric and electroseismic phenomena for oil exploration. Some parameters such as porosity, permeability, formation factor, pore size, the number of pores, and the zeta potential of the samples can be obtained from elementary measurements. We performed streaming potential and electro-osmosis measurements for 6 unconsolidated samples made of spherical polymer particles. To check the validity of the measurements, we also used alternative analysis to determine the average pore size of the samples and, moreover, used a sample made of sand particles to determine the zeta potential

Improvement of adhesive toughness measurement

The double cantilever beam (DCB) method for adhesive toughness measurement was improved by incorporating a sufficiently sharp crack made by a wedge-tapping method. A known route to producing cracks via loading–unloading cycles was proved unreliable because the cycles produced plastic deformation in the adhesive where new cracks propagated. Abnormally high toughness values with large standard deviations were obtained with cracks made by embedding a non-sticky insert. Only instantly propagated cracks made by tapping were sufficiently sharp to produce reproducible, accurate tough-ness measurements. However, toughened resin was insensit

Novel insights into transfer processes in the reaction 16O+208Pb at sub-barrier energies

The collision of the doubly-magic nuclei $^{16}$O+$^{208}$Pb is a benchmark in nuclear reaction studies. Our new measurements of back-scattered projectile-like fragments at sub-barrier energies show show that transfer of 2 protons ($2p$) is much more probable than $\alpha$-particle transfer. $2p$ transfer probabilities are strongly enhanced compared to expectations for the sequential transfer of two uncorrelated protons; at energies around the fusion barrier absolute probabilities for two proton transfer are similar to those for one proton transfer. This strong enhancement indicates strong $2p$ pairing correlations in $^{16}$O, and suggests evidence for the occurrence of a nuclear supercurrent of two-proton Cooper pairs in this reaction, already at energies well below the fusion barrier.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Giant Spin Seebeck Effect through an Interface Organic Semiconductor

Interfacing an organic semiconductor C60 with a non-magnetic metallic thin film (Cu or Pt) has created a novel heterostructure that is ferromagnetic at ambient temperature, while its interface with a magnetic metal (Fe or Co) can tune the anisotropic magnetic surface property of the material. Here, we demonstrate that sandwiching C60 in between a magnetic insulator (Y3Fe5O12: YIG) and a non-magnetic, strong spin-orbit metal (Pt) promotes highly efficient spin current transport via the thermally driven spin Seebeck effect (SSE). Experiments and first principles calculations consistently show that the presence of C60 reduces significantly the conductivity mismatch between YIG and Pt and the surface perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of YIG, giving rise to enhanced spin mixing conductance across YIG/C60/Pt interfaces. As a result, a 600% increase in the SSE voltage (VLSSE) has been realized in YIG/C60/Pt relative to YIG/Pt. Temperature-dependent SSE voltage measurements on YIG/C60/Pt with varying C60 layer thicknesses also show an exponential increase in VLSSE at low temperatures below 200 K, resembling the temperature evolution of spin diffusion length of C60. Our study emphasizes the important roles of the magnetic anisotropy and the spin diffusion length of the intermediate layer in the SSE in YIG/C60/Pt structures, providing a new pathway for developing novel spin-caloric materials

Effects of Nuclear Structure on Quasi-fission

The quasi-fission mechanism hinders fusion of heavy systems because of a mass flow between the reactants, leading to a re-separation of more symmetric fragments in the exit channel. A good understanding of the competition between fusion and quasi-fission mechanisms is expected to be of great help to optimize the formation and study of heavy and superheavy nuclei. Quantum microscopic models, such as the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach, allow for a treatment of all degrees of freedom associated to the dynamics of each nucleon. This provides a description of the complex reaction mechanisms, such as quasi-fission, with no parameter adjusted on reaction mechanisms. In particular, the role of the deformation and orientation of a heavy target, as well as the entrance channel magicity and isospin are investigated with theoretical and experimental approaches.Comment: Invited talk to NSRT12. To be published in Eur. Phys. J. Web of Con