An Ethnographic Study of Collaboration in a Game Development Team

This paper presents an ethnographically-informed study of the practices at a game company that develops serious games for business training. Games research focuses mainly on the game product, paying little attention to the design and development process. This study attempts to address this gap. We examined the day-to-day activity of a team responsible for designing and developing game content. Our data collection methods were informed by ethnography; they include field observations, contextual interviews and audio recordings. A thematic analysis was performed on transcripts of naturally occurring conversation within the team. The results were triangulated with field notes and interview data. The result is a description of collaborative activity within a game development team, and an interpretation of how the socio-technical environment supported the game development process. This study suggests innovative game design can be supported by creating a culture of collaboration, but innovation from teams is largely dependent on the quality of the interpersonal relationships

Novel recommendation for enhancing optical properties of CP-WLEDs by Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor

In this paper, the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor is proposed as the novel recommendation for enhancing the optical properties in terms of D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs. Firstly, we conducted the physical model of the CP-WLEDs in the Light Tools software with the main parameters like the real LEDs. Furthermore, the scattering process in LEDs compound of the CP-WLEDs is simulated and investigated by the Matlab software. Then the influence of the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ concentration on the D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs is investigated. Finally, the research results showed that the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ concentration has a considerable effect on the D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs. From the results, we can state that the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor can be considered as the novel recommendation for enhancing the optical properties of the CP-WLEDs

Increased success probability in Hardy's nonlocality: Theory and demonstration

Depending on the way one measures, quantum nonlocality might manifest more visibly. Using basis transformations and interactions on a particle pair, Hardy logically argued that any local hidden variable theory leads to a paradox. Extended from the original work, we introduce a quantum nonlocal scheme for n-particle systems using two distinct approaches. First, a theoretical model is derived with analytical results for Hardy's nonlocality conditions and probability. Second, a quantum simulation using quantum circuits is constructed that matches very well to the analytical theory. When demonstrated on real quantum computers for n=3, we obtain reasonable results compared to theory. Even at macroscopic scales as n grows, the success probability asymptotes 15.6%, which is stronger than previous results.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Flexural-strengthening efficiency of cfrp sheets for unbonded post-tensioned concrete T-beams

There has been a limited number of studies about the flexural behavior of unbonded post-tensioned concrete (UPC) beams strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and these studies have not systematically examined the effect of CFRP sheets on the tendon strain as well as the strengthening efficiency. Moreover, current design guides for the FRP strengthening techniques have not provided any design procedure for UPC structures. This study, thus, investigates the influence of CFRP sheet ratio on the flexural behavior of CFRP-strengthened UPC T-beams and quantifies its effect upon tendon behavior in this kind of UPC beams. The testing program consisted of nine large-scale UPC T-beams strengthened by different layers of CFRP sheets with or without CFRP U-wrapped anchors. The experimental results have shown that the use of CFRP sheets and CFRP U-wrapped anchors significantly affected the tendon strain. The FRP reinforcement ratio governed the flexural capacity, the crack width, the mid-span displacement, and the ductility of the beams in which the strengthening efficiency reduces with the increased number of CFRP layers. The configuration of the CFRP U-wrapped anchors affected the strain of the CFRP sheets, the failure mode and thus the beam behavior. In addition, semi-empirical equations were proposed to estimate the actual strain of unbonded tendons in which the effect of the CFRP sheets and CFRP U-wrapped anchors have been taken into consideration. The proposed equations, which are simple to use, yield reliable predictions with a small variation

Security and reliability analysis of a two-way half-duplex wireless relaying network using partial relay selection and hybrid TPSR energy harvesting at relay nodes

In recent years, physical layer security has been considered as an effective method to enhance the information security beside the cryptographic techniques that are used in upper layers. In this paper, we provide the security analysis for a two-way relay network, where the two sources can only communicate through the intermediate relay nodes. In particular, we consider the scenario that there is an eavesdropper in the vicinity of one source node. Both reliability and security aspects are taken into consideration in our work. To enhance the reliability of communication, the intermediate relays are supplied with the energy harvested from the sources radio frequency (RF) signals using hybrid time-switching and power splitting (TPSR) protocol. Also, we apply the relay selection technique to select the best relay for the information exchange between two sources. Regarding security, the secrecy of information is improved with the help of friendly jammers nearby the eavesdropper. We provide the in-dept reliability and security analysis in terms of the closed-form expressions of the outage probability (OP) at the source nodes, the intercept probability (IP) at the eavesdropper, the secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the average secrecy capacity (ASC) of the system. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulations are also conducted to verify the correctness of our analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Numerical results confirms that with the appropriate and feasible choices of involved parameters, both outage OP and IP can be kept at small values to guarantee the reliable and secure communication of the system.Web of Science818718118716

HierarchyNet : learning to summarize source code with heterogeneous representations

Code representation is important to machine learning models in the code-related applications. Existing code summarization approaches primarily leverage Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) and sequential information from source code to generate code summaries while often overlooking the critical consideration of the interplay of dependencies among code elements and code hierarchy. However, effective summarization necessitates a holistic analysis of code snippets from three distinct aspects: lexical, syntactic, and semantic information. In this paper, we propose a novel code summarization approach utilizing Heterogeneous Code Representations (HCRs) and our specially designed HierarchyNet. HCRs adeptly capture essential code features at lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels within a hierarchical structure. HierarchyNet processes each layer of the HCR separately, employing a Heterogeneous Graph Transformer, a Tree-based CNN, and a Transformer Encoder. In addition, HierarchyNet demonstrates superior performance compared to fine-tuned pre-trained models, including CodeT5, and CodeBERT, as well as large language models that employ zero/few-shot settings, such as CodeLlama, StarCoder, and CodeGen. Implementation details can be found at https://github.com/FSoft-AI4Code/HierarchyNet

Emergence of quasi-metallic state in disordered 2D electron gas due to strong interactions

The interrelation between disorder and interactions in two dimensional electron liquid is studied beyond weak coupling perturbation theory. Strong repulsion significantly reduces the electronic density of states on the Fermi level. This makes the electron liquid more rigid and strongly suppresses elastic scattering off impurities. As a result the weak localization, although ultimately present at zero temperature and infinite sample size, is unobservable at experimentally accessible temperature at high enough densities. Therefore practically there exists a well defined metallic state. We study diffusion of electrons in this state and find that the diffusion pole is significantly modified due to "mixture" with static photons similar to the Anderson - Higgs mechanism in superconductivity. As a result several effects stemming from the long range nature of diffusion like the Aronov - Altshuler logarithmic corrections to conductivity are less pronounced.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Associations of Underlying Health Conditions With Anxiety and Depression Among Outpatients: Modification Effects of Suspected COVID-19 Symptoms, Health-Related and Preventive Behaviors

Objectives: We explored the association of underlying health conditions (UHC) with depression and anxiety, and examined the modification effects of suspected COVID-19 symptoms (S-COVID-19-S), health-related behaviors (HB), and preventive behaviors (PB).Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 8,291 outpatients aged 18–85 years, in 18 hospitals and health centers across Vietnam from 14th February to May 31, 2020. We collected the data regarding participant's characteristics, UHC, HB, PB, depression, and anxiety.Results: People with UHC had higher odds of depression (OR = 2.11; p < 0.001) and anxiety (OR = 2.86; p < 0.001) than those without UHC. The odds of depression and anxiety were significantly higher for those with UHC and S-COVID-19-S (p < 0.001); and were significantly lower for those had UHC and interacted with “unchanged/more” physical activity (p < 0.001), or “unchanged/more” drinking (p < 0.001 for only anxiety), or “unchanged/healthier” eating (p < 0.001), and high PB score (p < 0.001), as compared to those without UHC and without S-COVID-19-S, “never/stopped/less” physical activity, drinking, “less healthy” eating, and low PB score, respectively.Conclusion: S-COVID-19-S worsen psychological health in patients with UHC. Physical activity, drinking, healthier eating, and high PB score were protective factors