The Hardcore Scorecard: Defining, Quantifying and Understanding “Hardcore” Video Game Culture

ABSTRACT The goal of the current study is to further conceptualize and define the term “hardcore” as it relates to video game culture. Past research indicates that members of cultural subdivisions favor their own group versus others due to perceived commonalities (Durkheim, 1915; Tajfel, 1970). In gaming culture, the subdivisions of “hardcore” and “casual” games/gamers have become especially salient in recent years. However, the definition of what constitutes “hardcore” and “casual” is inconsistent (Adams, 2000; Alexandre, 2012; Jacobs & Ip, 2003; Juul, 2010; Kim, 2001; Kuittinen, Kultima, Niemelä & Paavilainen, 2007; Wallace & Robbins, 2006). Therefore, it is beneficial to better understand these terms considering the implications: less audience infighting, more accurately tailored game design/marketing, and less ambiguous/sensationalist gaming journalism/media. A sample of 109 undergraduate students from a large university (19,000 undergraduates) in an upstate New York city (metropolitan population of 1.1 million) completed an online survey, reporting their perceptions of hardcore gaming. Values were then attributed to certain video game criteria based on the survey results and applied to popular games. The sum of these values produced a hardcore index for the “scorecard.” To assess the scorecard’s validity, correlations were run between our final values and an independently collected hardcore percentage publicly available on the Wii’s Nintendo Channel (327,818.45 average respondents per game). Results suggest hardcore gaming is perceived as a harsh subculture consisting of long play times, challenging play, anti-social behavior, and content not suitable for children. The index produced by the resulting “hardcore scorecard” was significantly correlated (r = .765, p \u3c .01) with the independently collected data on the Nintendo Channel. Thus, the current research provides tools the gaming industry (users, developers, journalists) can use to their advantage by better understanding and defining the term “hardcore,” as well as a valuable blueprint for future research to continue refining and improving

Zoropelecinus zigrasi, a pelecinid wasp in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar (Hymenoptera: Pelecinidae)

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/paleoent/indexThe proctotrupoid wasp family Pelecinidae (Proctotrupomorpha: Proctotrupoidea) is recorded in Early Cretaceous amber for the first time, previous amber inclusions being from the Late Cretaceous or Tertiary. Zoropelecinus zigrasi Engel & Grimaldi, new genus and species, is described and figured from an exquisitely preserved female in Albian-Cenomanian amber from Myanmar. The genus is similar to other fossil pelecinids of the genera Pelecinopteron Brues (Paleogene ambers of the Baltic and Siberia) and Henopelecinus Engel & Grimaldi (Turonian amber, New Jersey). Although two subfamilies have at times been recognized (or even as two families) the Iscopininae are clearly paraphyletic with respect to Pelecininae and therefore of no classificatory value and accordingly synonymized herein (new synonymy)

Serphitid wasps in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey (Hymenoptera: Serphitidae)

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/.Species of the extinct, parasitoid wasp family Serphitidae (Proctotrupomorpha: Bipetiolarida: Serphitoidea), occurring in Cretaceous (Turonian) amber from New Jersey, are reviewed. Two species, both new, are described and figured as Serphites raritanensis Engel & Grimaldi sp.n. and S. navesinkae Engel & Grimaldi sp.n

Delineation of Gambel\u27s Quail Habitat in the Trans-Pecos, Texas

Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii) are a common quail species in southwestern states of the United States and the northwestern states of Mexico. In Texas this species occurs in the Trans-Pecos region, are underutilized, and could become an important game bird and source of income for ranchers in the Chihuahuan Desert region of Texas. Salt cedar (Tamarisk spp.), introduced from Asia for ornamental and erosion purposes, is invasive in the western part of the Rio Grande corridor that generally creates monocultures that choke out the native vegetation of the region. Knowing this, the objectives of this study were to: (1) delineate salt cedar and native riparian habitats along the Rio Grande corridor in the Trans-Pecos; (2) evaluate those habitats based on the known distribution of Gambel’s quail in the Trans-Pecos; and (3) estimate the amount of suitable habitat for Gambel’s quail in Trans-Pecos, Texas. Although dominant along the Rio Grande, native riparian vegetation was more prevalent than salt cedar communities when combining primary creeks in all counties. Brewster County was the area with a higher percentage of salt cedar occurrence (21.2%) vs. native riparian vegetation (78.8%). The largest extension of salt cedar occurred in Presidio County with an extension of 6,656.3 ha but this only represented 12.7% of our analyzed area. Hudspeth County had an occurrence of salt cedar of 2,905.2 ha representing 6.8% of the estimated riparian area of the Rio Grande corridor in this county. El Paso County’s total urban area-agricultural fields area is a total of 90,682.9184 ha

Substantial improvements not seen in health behaviors following corner store conversions in two Latino food swamps.

BackgroundThe effectiveness of food retail interventions is largely undetermined, yet substantial investments have been made to improve access to healthy foods in food deserts and swamps via grocery and corner store interventions. This study evaluated the effects of corner store conversions in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, California on perceived accessibility of healthy foods, perceptions of corner stores, store patronage, food purchasing, and eating behaviors.MethodsHousehold data (n = 1686) were collected at baseline and 12- to 24-months post-intervention among residents surrounding eight stores, three of which implemented a multi-faceted intervention and five of which were comparisons. Bivariate analyses and logistic and linear regressions were employed to assess differences in time, treatment, and the interaction between time and treatment to determine the effectiveness of this intervention.ResultsImprovements were found in perceived healthy food accessibility and perceptions of corner stores. No changes were found, however, in store patronage, purchasing, or consumption of fruits and vegetables.ConclusionsResults suggest limited effectiveness of food retail interventions on improving health behaviors. Future research should focus on other strategies to reduce community-level obesity

Progress Towards the ELROI\u3csup\u3eTM\u3c/sup\u3e Satellite License Plate

The ELROITM System, (Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier), uses a beacon that could be attached to any object that goes into space and provide a persistent identifier to the space object that can be read out by a small telescope on the ground. This could alleviate the approaching crisis in Space Traffic Management caused by mass launches of small satellites and the formation of large constellations. Identification beacons on all future space objects will simplify satellite operations and greatly relieve our overstressed space tracking and traffic management infrastructure

Evolutionary Responses of Invasive Grass Species to Variation in Precipitation and Soil Nitrogen

1.Global climate models suggest that many ecosystems will experience reduced precipitation over the next century and the consequences for invasive plant performance are largely unknown. Annual invasive species may be able to quickly evolve traits associated with drought escape or tolerance through rapid genetic changes. 2.We investigated the influence of five years of water and nitrogen manipulations on trait values in a southern California grassland system. Seeds from two annual grass species (Avena barbata, Bromus madritensis) were collected from experimental plots and grown in a common environment over two generations. We measured 14 physiological, morphological, phenological, and reproductive traits. 3.Both species displayed phenotypic differences depending on the water treatment from which they were collected, but not depending on the nitrogen treatment. Both species displayed trait values characteristic of drought escape (e.g., earlier flowering in A. barbata and B. madritensis, lower water-use efficiency in B. madritensis) when grown from seeds collected from plots that experienced five years of reduced precipitation. Furthermore, A. barbata individuals grown from seeds collected from drought plots had higher reproductive output and higher photosynthetic performance than individuals grown from water addition plots, with individuals grown from ambient plots displaying intermediate trait values. Notably, we found no phenotypic variation among treatments for six root traits. 4.Synthesis. Trait differences were observed following two generations in a common garden, suggesting that treatment differences were genetically based. This suggests that populations were responding to selection over the five years of water manipulations, a remarkably short time period. The rapid evolutionary responses observed here may help these two widespread invasive grass species thrive under reduced precipitation scenarios, which could have important implications for fire dynamics, invasive species management, and native plant restoration in communities invaded by annual grasses

The Madeiran plants collected by Sir Hans Sloane in 1687, and his descriptions

The Macaronesian Islands comprise the Atlantic archipelagos of Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canaries and Cape Verde. These islands were a major focus for plant exploration during the 17th and 18th centuries. Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), one of the most important patrons and sponsors of natural sciences and botanical research, visited Madeira on his way to Jamaica in 1687. Although he stayed in Madeira for only three days, he collected plant specimens of 38 taxa (including one brown alga) and made important observations concerning the flora and fauna of Madeira from near Funchal. Sixty-six polynomial names of plants from the island are recorded in Sloane’s published work along with 18 copperplate engravings, ostensibly from Madeira, although our study shows that only thirteen of them are of taxa occurring on the island. Fourteen of the sixty-six polynomials reported by Sloane relate to Macaronesian endemic taxa, six of them restricted to Madeira. Our study shows that nine of the fifteen polynomials that he putatively recorded for Madeira and/or the Antilles or for which he was unsure of their origin are from the West Indies and do not occur on this Macaronesian island. Two of the taxa that are listed for Madeira and the Carib bean Islands were likely to be present in both insular systems. Although there is evidence of earlier botanical explorations in Macaronesia, the herbarium collections made by Sloane in Madeira represent the earliest documented plant hunting expedition to Macaronesia, and Sir Hans Sloane can be considered as one of the pioneers of botanical exploration in these Atlantic Islands. Sloane’s records provide an early floristic study of a diverse island flora.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Numerical approximations of second-order matrix differential equations using higher-degree splines

Many studies of mechanical systems in engineering are based on second-order matrix models. This work discusses the second-order generalization of previous research on matrix differential equations dealing with the construction of approximate solutions for non-stiff initial problems Y 00(x) = f(x, Y (x), Y 0 (x)) using higher-degree matrix splines without any dimensional increase. An estimation of the approximation error for some illustrative examples are presented by using Mathematica. Several MatLab functions have also been developed, comparing, under equal conditions, accuracy and execution times with built-in MatLab functions. Experimental results show the advantages of solving the above initial problem by using the implemented MatLab functions.The authors wish to thank for financial support by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia [grant number PAID-06-11-2020].Defez Candel, E.; Tung ., MM.; Solis Lozano, FJ.; Ibáñez González, JJ. (2015). Numerical approximations of second-order matrix differential equations using higher-degree splines. Linear and Multilinear Algebra. 63(3):472-489. https://doi.org/10.1080/03081087.2013.873427S472489633Loscalzo, F. R., & Talbot, T. D. (1967). Spline Function Approximations for Solutions of Ordinary Differential Equations. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 4(3), 433-445. doi:10.1137/0704038Al-Said, E. A. (2001). The use of cubic splines in the numerical solution of a system of second-order boundary value problems. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 42(6-7), 861-869. doi:10.1016/s0898-1221(01)00204-8Al-Said, E. A., & Noor, M. A. (2003). Cubic splines method for a system of third-order boundary value problems. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 142(2-3), 195-204. doi:10.1016/s0096-3003(02)00294-1Kadalbajoo, M. K., & Patidar, K. C. (2002). Numerical solution of singularly perturbed two-point boundary value problems by spline in tension. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 131(2-3), 299-320. doi:10.1016/s0096-3003(01)00146-1Micula, G., & Revnic, A. (2000). An implicit numerical spline method for systems for ODEs. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 111(1), 121-132. doi:10.1016/s0096-3003(98)10111-xDefez, E., Soler, L., Hervás, A., & Santamaría, C. (2005). Numerical solution ofmatrix differential models using cubic matrix splines. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 50(5-6), 693-699. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2005.04.012Defez, E., Hervás, A., Soler, L., & Tung, M. M. (2007). Numerical solutions of matrix differential models using cubic matrix splines II. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 46(5-6), 657-669. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2006.11.027Ascher, U., Pruess, S., & Russell, R. D. (1983). On Spline Basis Selection for Solving Differential Equations. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 20(1), 121-142. doi:10.1137/0720009Brunner, H. (2004). On the Divergence of Collocation Solutions in Smooth Piecewise Polynomial Spaces for Volterra Integral Equations. BIT Numerical Mathematics, 44(4), 631-650. doi:10.1007/s10543-004-3828-5Tung, M. M., Defez, E., & Sastre, J. (2008). Numerical solutions of second-order matrix models using cubic-matrix splines. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 56(10), 2561-2571. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2008.05.022Defez, E., Tung, M. M., Ibáñez, J. J., & Sastre, J. (2012). Approximating and computing nonlinear matrix differential models. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 55(7-8), 2012-2022. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2011.11.060Claeyssen, J. R., Canahualpa, G., & Jung, C. (1999). A direct approach to second-order matrix non-classical vibrating equations. Applied Numerical Mathematics, 30(1), 65-78. doi:10.1016/s0168-9274(98)00085-3Froese, C. (1963). NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF THE HARTREE–FOCK EQUATIONS. Canadian Journal of Physics, 41(11), 1895-1910. doi:10.1139/p63-189Marzulli, P. (1991). Global error estimates for the standard parallel shooting method. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 34(2), 233-241. doi:10.1016/0377-0427(91)90045-lShore, B. W. (1973). Comparison of matrix methods applied to the radial Schrödinger eigenvalue equation: The Morse potential. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 59(12), 6450-6463. doi:10.1063/1.1680025ZHANG, J. F. (2002). OPTIMAL CONTROL FOR MECHANICAL VIBRATION SYSTEMS BASED ON SECOND-ORDER MATRIX EQUATIONS. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 16(1), 61-67. doi:10.1006/mssp.2001.1441Flett, T. M. (1980). Differential Analysis. doi:10.1017/cbo978051189719