Mobile Free-to-Play Gaming Practices: The Entanglement of Time, Technology and Games in Everyday Life

Mobile games have become a major part of many people\u27s everyday life, especially since the rise of the Free-to-Play (F2P) model which brought mobile gaming to the fore of gaming culture. As a “new” cultural phenomenon, “playing” is now accessible anytime, in part due to the widespread availability of mobile technologies that host these games. Drawing from key concepts of the social practices theory, this study aims to explore how do mobile F2P games fit into the players’ everyday activities and occupations. Specifically, in what ways can time, mobile technologies and games shape the integration of gaming practices into the everyday life of players? Based on a thematic content analysis of 15 semi-structured qualitative interviews with players, it is possible to see how three key dimensions can shape mobiles F2P gaming practices, namely the characteristics of mobile F2P games, the use of mobile technologies, and the temporal dispositions of everyday life. These results highlight how social practices theory allows for a broader understanding of mobile F2P gaming practices by taking into account both the individual and structural aspects of this phenomenon. So what? Situating mobile F2P gaming practices within the context of everyday life can shed light on their complete embeddedness in the player’s daily routines. It highlights how time can play a major role in shaping the gaming practices and raises key questions, namely the importance of time in mobile gaming addiction

How does the responsible gambling discourse shape the mind of young adult gamblers?

The responsible gambling approach is the subject of significant debate in the scientific community due to its tendency to individualize responsibility, focusing most heavily on gambler’s responsibility for gambling-related harm. In the meantime, studies have showed that young adult gamble at a higher rate than the general adult population. They are now more than ever susceptible to being drawn in to gambling due to the availability of online gambling. In this context, this study aims to explore the social representations of the concept of responsibility held by young adult gamblers. How do they perceive the concept of responsibility? Do they have an individual-centred understanding of this concept or are they able to distinguish their individual responsibility from that of the other stakeholders? The results reveal that the social representations of responsibility held by young adult gamblers fit into five categories rooted in an individual perspective of responsibility: self control, knowing the rules and making the right decision, enjoying the game, not becoming an addict, and preventing harms related to gambling. These results shed a light on how young adult gamblers internalized a discourse about responsibility that is situated at the intersection of a responsible gambling approach and neoliberal ideology. So what? The multiplicity of the involved actors in the gambling landscape requires an equitable sharing of responsibility between different stakeholders. Individual persons cannot solely bear the consequences of a social problem and the scientific community have an important role in pushing for this change to happen

Unsupervised Log-Likelihood Ratio Estimation for Short Packets in Impulsive Noise

International audiencelmpulsive noise, where large amplitudes arise with a relatively high probability, arises in many communication systems including interference in Low Power Wide Area Networks. A challenge in coping with impulsive noise, particularly alpha­stable models, is that tractable expressions for the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) are not available, which bas a large impact on soft­input decoding schemes, e.g., low-density parity-check (LDPC) packets. On the other band, constraints on packet length also mean that pilot signais are not available resulting in non­trivial approximation and parameter estimation problems for the LLR. In this paper, a new unsupervised parameter estimation algorithm is proposed for LLR approximation. In terms of the frame error rate (FER), this algorithm is shown to significantly outperform existing unsupervised estimation methods for short LDPC packets (on the order of 500 symbols), with nearly the same performance as when the parameters are perfectly known. The performance is also compared with an upper bound on the information-theoretic limit for the FER, which suggests that in impulsive noise further improvements require the use of an alternative code structure other than LDPC

Using sulphide indicator mineral chemistry for ore discrimination and targeting in the Churchill Province, northern Quebec, Canada

The Churchill Province in northern Quebec consists of Archean to Proterozoic basement rocks, which have undergone a complex orogenic and metamorphic history. The vast majority of these rocks are covered by Quaternary glacial deposits that display a complex geomorphology reflecting important variations in the glacial dynamics. Occasional mineralized outcrops have been identified south from the Ungava Bay in the Churchill Province during mapping surveys. However, this area has been underexplored owing to the thick sedimentary cover, which limits the effectiveness of conventional exploration methods. Heavy mineral separation from till and esker samples reveals the presence of thousands of sulphide grains, namely pyrite and chalcopyrite, and lesser amounts of sulfarsenides (löllingite and arsenopyrite), which is indicative of the presence of underlying mineralized rocks. As a result, this area is ideal to test the use of sulphide indicator mineral chemistry for mineral assessment and vectoring. In this study, we focus on integrating sulphide indicator mineral chemistry determined by laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) with the geology of glacial deposits. Trace-element signatures of pyrite and chalcopyrite grains indicate two distinct compositions for the sulphide minerals present in the glacial deposits and suggest there is strong potential for magmatic and hydrothermal mineralisation. Integrated maps combining sample locations and sulphide grain compositions and populations allow to delineate vectors toward potential economic targets

Actes du Symposium International - Le livre, la Roumanie, l’Europe / Proceedings of the International Symposium Books, Romania, Europe - 5ème édition 24-26 septembre 2012

Tome 2 des actes du Symposium International "Le livre, la Roumanie, L\u27Europe" qui s\u27est tenu les 24, 25 et 26 septembre 2012 à Mamaia, Roumanie, organisé par la Bibliothèque Métropolitaine de Bucarest. / Tome 2 of the Proceedings of the International Symposium "Books, Romania, Europe" held on 24, 25 and 26 September 2012 in Mamaia, Romania, organized by the Bucharest Metropolitan Library. Textes réunis et présentés par : Réjean Savard Chantal Stanescu Hermina G.B. Anghelescu Cristina Io

9-Genes Reinforce the Phylogeny of Holometabola and Yield Alternate Views on the Phylogenetic Placement of Strepsiptera

Background: The extraordinary morphology, reproductive and developmental biology, and behavioral ecology of twisted wing parasites (order Strepsiptera) have puzzled biologists for centuries. Even today, the phylogenetic position of these enigmatic “insects from outer space” [1] remains uncertain and contentious. Recent authors have argued for the placement of Strepsiptera within or as a close relative of beetles (order Coleoptera), as sister group of flies (order Diptera), or even outside of Holometabola.Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we combine data from several recent studies with new data (for a total of 9 nuclear genes and ∼13 kb of aligned data for 34 taxa), to help clarify the phylogenetic placement of Strepsiptera. Our results unequivocally support the monophyly of Neuropteroidea ( = Neuropterida + Coleoptera) + Strepsiptera, but recover Strepsiptera either derived from within polyphagan beetles (order Coleoptera), or in a position sister to Neuropterida. All other supra-ordinal- and ordinal-level relationships recovered with strong nodal support were consistent with most other recent studies. Conclusions/Significance: These results, coupled with the recent proposed placement of Strepsiptera sister to Coleoptera, suggest that while the phylogenetic neighborhood of Strepsiptera has been identified, unequivocal placement to a specific branch within Neuropteroidea will require additional study.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements