Interview anxiety narrative validation for a virtual reality-based study

When conducting a Virtual Reality-based study one important feature that needs to be assured is valid is the narrative context. Our objective was to validate a job interview anxiety provoking narrative. One experiment with a between-subject design was conducted. Participants were instructed to read a job interview-context narrative and then self-report the level of anxiety experienced. Results indicated that the narrative describing the individual’s parents’ economic and financial difficulties as well as an ambiguous description of the organization’s physical characteristics elicited significantly higher levels of state anxiety. Research findings suggests the potential influence the narrative may have on interview anxiety and, most importantly, evidence the validity of instruments necessary for a Virtual Reality-based methodology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Radiocarbon and blue optically stimulated luminescence chronologies of the Oitavos consolidated dune (Western Portugal)

The dune of Oitavos, the underlying paleosol, and Helix sp. gastropod shells found within the paleosol were dated using a combination of radiocarbon and blue optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The organic component of the paleosol produced a significantly older age (~20,000 cal BP) than the OSL age measurement (~15,000 yr), while 14C age measurements on the inorganic component and the gastropods produced ages of ~35,000 yr and ~34,000 yr, respectively. Rare-earth element analyses provide evidence that the gastropods incorporate geological carbonate, making them an unreliable indicator of the age of the paleosol. We propose that the 14C age of the small organic component of the paleosol is also likely to be unreliable due to incorporation of residual material. The OSL age measurement of the upper paleosol (~15,000 yr) is consistent with the age for the base of the dune (~14,500 yr). The younger OSL age for the top of the dune (~12,000 yr) suggests that it was built up by at least 2 sand pulses or that there was a remobilization of material at the top during its evolution, prior to consolidation

The shock of lockdown on the spending on wine in the Iberian market: the effects of procurement and consumption patterns

Purpose This study aims to provide a better understanding of the behaviour of wine consumers in a completely new and unexpected setting, that is, a forced lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seeks to explain consumer decisions and the probability of changes occurring in wine expenditure compared to a normal situation. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis, conducted on a representative sample of Iberian consumers and based on the random utility theory, consists in the application of a multinomial logit model, setting the usual pattern of expenditure as a baseline category. Findings The results show that the coronavirus pandemic could have changed alcohol drinking habits. Consumers generally spent less on wine during the lockdown, maybe due to the uncertainty regarding their future income and professional situation. Those people more likely to spend more on wine were those who increased their wine consumption during the lockdown, those who drank for romantic purposes, those who purchased less wine in supermarkets but more online, those who used a wine app and those living in urban areas. The increased consumption of other alcoholic beverages also increases the probability of spending less than usual on wine. Additionally, the absence of certain reasons for drinking wine other than social purposes, such as wine and food pairing, its taste and relaxing effects, together with the previous consumption pattern leads to a decrease in the probability of spending less per bottle. Originality/value This paper makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the determinants of wine consumption in a very abnormal setting, an imposed lockdown and provides important policy implications. The findings show that managers and policymakers should pay attention to the different influence of variables related to behaviour and consumption patterns that may contribute to an increase in the demand for less expensive wines. Specifically, they should focus on new consumption patterns that may arise, adapting the supply chain and defining appropriate marketing strategies to fill new market segments

Neutronographic Residual Stress Analysis for Materials With Depth Gradients of the Strain Free Lattice Parameter d0{{{d}}}_{0} for the Example of a Case-Hardened Steel 20MnCr5

In the present work, ring-shaped samples made from steel 20MnCr5 were low-pressure carburized (LPC) and subsequently hardened by gas quenching (case-hardened). This results in a near-surface gradient in chemical composition, microstructure- and hardness distribution, as well as a three-dimensional residual stress (RS) distribution, which was investigated by neutron diffraction. Near-surface RSs in the ferrite-/martensite- and austenite phase are additionally determined by X-ray diffraction. It is shown that the chemical gradient has an influence on the chosen ${{{d}}}_{0}$ strategy and how such a reference sample should be extracted. If near-surface RS values are to be determined by neutron diffraction, the pseudo-strain effect must be taken into account. For this purpose, a suitable approach using the ‘‘open source’’ software SIMRES and STRESSFIT is also presented. By combining neutron and X-ray diffraction data, a complete RS distribution over the whole sample can be obtained

A novel lipase with dual localisation in Trypanosoma brucei

Experiment costs were supported by Université de Bordeaux (https://www.u-bordeaux.fr), CNRS (https://www.cnrs.fr) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche through the grants GLYCONOV (grant number ANR-15-CE-15-0025-01) and ADIPOTRYP (grant number ANR19-CE15-0004-01). This work was also funded by the Laboratoire d’Excellence (LabEx) “French Parasitology Alliance For Health Care” (ANR-11-LABX-0024-PARAFRAP, https://labex-parafrap.fr). This work was also partially supported by the European Research Council (FatTryp, ref. 771714) and by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (CEECIND/03322/2018) awarded to LMF.Phospholipases are esterases involved in lipid catabolism. In pathogenic micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi, parasites) they often play a critical role in virulence and pathogenicity. A few phospholipases (PL) have been characterised so far at the gene and protein level in unicellular parasites including African trypanosomes (AT). They could play a role in different processes such as host–pathogen interaction, antigenic variation, intermediary metabolism. By mining the genome database of AT we found putative new phospholipase candidate genes and here we provided biochemical evidence that one of these has lipolytic activity. This protein has a unique non-canonical glycosome targeting signal responsible for its dual localisation in the cytosol and the peroxisomes-related organelles named glycosomes. We also show that this new phospholipase is excreted by these pathogens and that antibodies directed against this protein are generated during an experimental infection with T. brucei gambiense, a subspecies responsible for infection in humans. This feature makes this protein a possible tool for diagnosis.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Immersiveness of ubiquitous computing environments prototypes: A case study

The development of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments raises several challenges in terms of their evaluation. Ubicomp virtual reality prototyping tools enable users to experience the system to be developed and are of great help to face those challenges, as they support developers in assessing the consequences of a design decision in the early phases of development. Given the situated nature of ubicomp environments, a particular issue to consider is the level of realism provided by the prototypes. This work presents a case study where two ubicomp prototypes, featuring different levels of immersion (desktop-based versus CAVE-based), were developed and compared. The goal was to determine the cost/benefits relation of both solutions, which provided better user experience results, and whether or not simpler solutions provide the same user experience results as more elaborate one.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through Projecto Estratégico – LA 9 – 2014-2015 (PEst-OE/EEI/LA0009/201

Leptonic CP Violation and Neutrino Mass Models

We discuss leptonic mixing and CP violation at low and high energies, emphasizing possible connections between leptogenesis and CP violation at low energies, in the context of lepton flavour models. Furthermore we analyse weak basis invariants relevant for leptogenesis and for CP violation at low energies. These invariants have the advantage of providing a simple test of the CP properties of any lepton flavour model.Comment: 26 pages, no figures, submitted to the Focus Issue on `Neutrino Physics` edited by F. Halzen, M. Lindner and A. Suzuki, to be published in New Journal of Physic

Resonant leptogenesis and tribimaximal leptonic mixing with A4 symmetry

We investigate the viability of thermal leptogenesis in type-I seesaw models with leptonic flavour symmetries that lead to tribimaximal neutrino mixing. We consider an effective theory with an A4 x Z3 x Z4 symmetry, which is spontaneously broken at a scale much higher than the electroweak scale. At the high scale, leptonic Yukawa interactions lead to exact tribimaximal mixing and the heavy Majorana neutrino mass spectrum is exactly degenerate. In this framework, leptogenesis becomes viable once this degeneracy is lifted either by renormalization group effects or by a soft breaking of the A4 symmetry. The implications for low-energy neutrino physics are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures; final version to appear in Phys. Rev.