Developing Serious Games with Integrated Debriefing - Findings from a Business Intelligence Context

Serious games (SG) are recognized in severaldomains as a promising instructional approach. When itcomes to the field of Information Systems, however, theyare not yet broadly investigated. Especially in businessintelligence and analytics, a literature review indicates theabsence of SG for proper report design. Such games,however, seem beneficial since many business reportssuffer from poor business information visualization (BIV).To address this issue, the scope of the study is twofold:first, the paper presents a SG that aims to foster learningabout BIV. Second, it evaluates this SG in a laboratoryexperiment, comparing it to a more conventional instruc-tional approach (i.e., presentation) and testing two differentversions of the game: One version integrates debriefinginto the game itself, whereas the other version uses clas-sical post hoc debriefing. Results indicate that it is favor-able to integrate debriefing into the game in terms ofmotivation and learning outcomes. In the vein of designscience research, the authors thus intend to contribute auseful artifact as well as a novel design principle for thisinstructional approach: Integrating debriefing into SG

Widespread seismic anisotropy in Earth’s lowermost mantle beneath the Atlantic and Siberia

Deep inside the Earth, just above the core-mantle boundary at around 2,700 km depth, large-scale mantle structures are assumed to play a key role for global geodynamic processes. While unusual hot regions are attributed to feed rising mantle plumes and volcanic hotspots, the accumulation of subducted lithospheric plates is associated with colder than average features. In both environments the appearance of dynamic-driven processes such as deformation and mantle flow can directly be inferred by the presence of seismic anisotropy. However, the geometries as well as the interactions of these massive anomalous structures with the surrounding mantle material are still under debate. Based on new seismic data from a dense and large-aperture recording network in Scandinavia we characterize the anisotropic signatures of two so far unexplored regions in the lowermost mantle by using observations of clearly discrepant SKS-SKKS shear wave splitting measurements. Thereby we can demonstrate that anisotropy is located along the northern edges of the Large Low Shear Velocity Province beneath Africa. Furthermore, we recover an anisotropic structure in a region of fast seismic velocity underneath Siberia which provides additional evidence for widespread deformation caused by a deeply subducted slab

Lidar cloud studies for FIRE and ECLIPS

Optical remote sensing measurements of cirrus cloud properties were collected by one airborne and four ground-based lidar systems over a 32 h period during this case study from the First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program) Regional Experiment (FIRE) Intensive Field Observation (IFO) program. The lidar systems were variously equipped to collect linear depolarization, intrinsically calibrated backscatter, and Doppler velocity information. Data presented describe the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of cirrus clouds over an area encompassing southern and central Wisconsin. The cirrus cloud types include: dissipating subvisual and thin fibrous cirrus cloud bands, an isolated mesoscale uncinus complex (MUC), a large-scale deep cloud that developed into an organized cirrus structure within the lidar array, and a series of intensifying mesoscale cirrus cloud masses. Although the cirrus frequently developed in the vertical from particle fall-streaks emanating from generating regions at or near cloud tops, glaciating supercooled (-30 to -35 C) altocumulus clouds contributed to the production of ice mass at the base of the deep cirrus cloud, apparently even through riming, and other mechanisms involving evaporation, wave motions, and radiative effects are indicated. The generating regions ranged in scale from approximately 1.0 km cirrus uncinus cells, to organized MUC structures up to approximately 120 km across

Exploring geodynamics at different depths with shear wave splitting

Dynamic processes in the Earth\u27s interior are the dominant driving forces behind the continuous deformation-related reworking of its surface. The characterization of deformation caused by past tectonic events near the Earth\u27s surface as well as mapping of ongoing dynamic-driven processes deep inside the Earth are therefore major objectives to understand the dynamics of our planet. Seismic anisotropy, the direction-dependence of seismic wave speed, is directly related to deformation processes and can be "felt" by passing seismic waves. Although seismic anisotropy is a well-known phenomenon, the individual contributions from different depth ranges are still debated. However, recordings available from dense and large-aperture seismic station networks, provide the opportunity for resolving both, small-scale variations relatively close to the surface as well as so far unknown structures at greater depth. In 2012, an international seismological field experiment, called ScanArray, was initiated. The combination of 72 temporary broadband stations with long-running national permanent stations and arrays resulted in a recording network consisting of 266 seismic stations in total that were distributed across the Fennoscandian peninsula in northern Europe. Fennoscandia opens the opportunity to study the (past) geodynamical evolution of crustal and upper mantle structures far away from currently active plate tectonics. The main goal of this study is to characterize the anisotropic structure beneath the Fennoscandian peninsula as well as in the Earth\u27s lowermost mantle based on a uniformly processed data set provided by the ScanArray network. For this purpose single-event shear wave splitting analysis was performed using core-refracted shear waves (SKS, SKKS, PKS) of around 3000 globally distributed teleseismic earthquakes (1998-2017). In order to improve the data coverage at a recording station, a new plugin (StackSplit) for a widely applied analysis software (SplitLab) is introduced allowing efficient and flexible handling of multi-event splitting measurements. Based on the massive seismic data set, this study provides a comprehensive characterization of the distinct lateral and backazimuthal variations of the shear wave splitting pattern at individual stations and across the ScanArray network. These variations partly correlate well with different tectonic regimes related to past large-scale lithospheric deformation due to ancient collision events. Detailed forward modeling allowed to explore different anisotropic structural geometries including anisotropy with a dipping axis of symmetry. Although, the majority of the shear wave splitting observations can be explained with high reliability, for a small number of recording stations non-unique anisotropy models were found which fit the observed data equally well. Furthermore, this study sheds light on lowermost mantle anisotropy located in the so-called D" layer just atop the core-mantle boundary in ~ 2900 km depth. This unexpected discovery is based on observations of distinct splitting discrepancies between teleseismic SKS and SKKS phases for the same source-receiver configuration. The lowermost mantle anisotropy can be associated with two large-scale seismic velocity anomalies beneath the North Atlantic and northwestern Siberia. Even though the exact geometry and mechanism of the anisotropic fabrics in D" cannot be fully constrained by ScanArray recordings alone, these new observations provide important and much-needed boundary conditions for improved future geodynamic mantle modeling

Clusteranalyse von Mikroerdbeben mittels Wellenformähnlichkeit in der Südpfalz Cluster analysis of microearthquakes using waveform similarity in Southern Palatinate

Die Untersuchung seismischer Wellenformen dient in der Seismologie der Bestimmung von Untergrundstrukturen sowie der Quellcharakteristiken von Erdbeben. In den Wellenformen unterschiedlicher seismischer Ereignisse auftretende Ähnlichkeiten weisen hierbei auf räumlich konzentrierte Hypozentren, sowie annähernd ̈bereinstimmende Herdmechanismen hin. Durch eine auf Wellenformähnlichkeiten basierende Clusteranalyse können somit wiederkehrend aktivierte Bruchzonen identifiziert und deren zugrundeliegende Mechanismen untersucht werden. Im Rahmen dieser Masterarbeit werden die an unterschiedlichen Messstationen zwischen 2006 und 2013 aufgezeichneten Wellenformen von im Umfeld der beiden Geothermieanlagen Landau und Insheim detektierten Mikroerdbeben (ML < 2) untersucht. Das Auftreten der seismischen Ereignisse korreliert eng mit den Aktivitäten an den beiden Geothermiekraftwerken und kann auf in den Untergrund injizierte Fluide zurückgeführt werden. Diese reduzieren die Scherspannungen in vorgespannten Krustenbereichen, wodurch es zu induzierter seismischer Aktivität kommt. Durch die geringe, jedoch vorhandene, räumliche Trennung der Geothermiekraftwerke ist ein Vergleich zwischen den beiden Herdgebieten bezüglich der Charakteristik und der auftretenden Seismizität möglich. Die Analyse mikroseismischer Ereignisse wird in dem Untersuchungsgebiet durch zeitlich variierende Stationskonfigurationen und Datenverfügbarkeiten, sowie starke anthropogene Einflüsse (seismisches Rauschen) erschwert

Architecture and Evaluation Design of a Prototypical Serious Game for Business Information Visualization

Poorly visualized business reports may lead to wrong decisions caused by incomprehensible or misleading data. However, many companies still do not strive for adequate business information visualization (BIV), which may be due to a lack of knowledge about how to achieve it. To support managers in avoiding the pitfalls of incomprehensible reports, we are currently developing a serious game that helps players to learn about guidelines for adequate BIV. In this so-called “Dashboard Tournament”, players compete across several minigames that address specific BIV guidelines. The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of the prototype’s architecture and to propose an experimental design for its evaluation. Researchers and practitioners may hence increase their understanding of how to design and evaluate serious games in the domain of business and information systems engineering