Perception of poverty: Promoting social responsibility through multi-sensory integration

Traditional graphic design and marketing rely heavily on visual forms of communication. With advertisements all around us, the constant visual bombardment has led to an over stimulated consumer, creating a challenge for designers to invent alternative ways to capture the audience\u27s attention. Multi-sensory integration overcomes this challenge in my opinion, by integrating more than the sense of sight and is more effective and memorable, because it conveys the core message through multiple senses rather than one. The integration of additional senses within the field, particularly olfactory in my opinion, helps to enhance the overall communication and facilitate a more potent user experience. According to National Bureau of Economic Research, the United States suffered a significant decline in economic activity resulting in the great recession, which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. Following the recession, many United States citizens still faced unforeseen financial crisis, sudden loss of income and housing foreclosure. The impact of the recession continues today, causing suffering and severe crisis. As a result of this, many families and individuals continue to find themselves newly poor. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, currently in the United States there are 643,067 people experiencing homelessness on any given night; roughly 22 of every 10,000 people are homeless. Of that number, 238,110 are people in families and 404,957 are individuals, 17% of the homeless population are considered chronically homeless and 12% of the homeless population are made up of veterans. The objective of this thesis is to show how utilizing multi-sensory integration to raise awareness of poverty in the United States is effective and to explore the effects of the great recession by allowing observers to digitally experience homelessness. The intention is to give observers a new appreciation of life, inspire individuals to take action and stimulate change within their community

Pendency and Thickets

This article empirically investigates the results of an expert-based method to identify 'patent thickets' for a unique USPTO dataset. The research aims to identify the overall effect of patent thickets on patent pendency. We find that patents belonging to a thicket are, on average, granted protection sooner. At the same time, we show that patent groups with higher thicket frequency have higher average pendency time, as do patents within larger thickets. Both suggest spillovers in processing time across patents. We additionally find mild support that the first patent in a thicket has a longer pendency period

Patent Thickets Identification

Patent thickets have been identified by various citations-based techniques, such as Graevenitz et al (2011) and Clarkson (2005). An alternative direct measurement is based on expert opinion. We use natural language processing techniques to measure pairwise semantic similarity of patents identified as thicket members by experts to create a semantic network. We compare the semantic similarity scores for patents in different expert-identified thickets: those within the same thicket, those in different thickets, and those not in thickets. We show that patents within the same thicket are significantly more semantically similar than other pairs of patents. We then present a statistical model to assess the probability of a newly added patent belonging to a thicket based on semantic networks as well as other measures from the existing thicket literature (the triples of Graevenitz and Clarkson’s density ratio). We conclude that combining information from semantic distance with other sources can be helpful to isolate the patents that are likely to be members of thickets

Investigation of crystalline lens overshooting: ex vivo experiment and optomechanical simulation results

Introduction: Crystalline lens overshooting refers to a situation in which the lens momentarily shifts too much from its typical location immediately after stopping the rotational movement of the eye globe. This movement can be observed using an optical technique called Purkinje imaging.Methods: In this work, an experimental setup was designed to reproduce this effect ex vivo using a fresh porcine eye. The sample was rotated 90° around its centroid using a high-velocity rotation stage, and the Purkinje image sequences were recorded, allowing us to quantify the overshooting effect. The numerical part of the study consisted of developing a computational model of the eye, based on the finite element method, that allowed us to understand the biomechanical behavior of the different tissues in this dynamic scenario. A 2D fluid–structure interaction model of the porcine eye globe, considering both the solid parts and humors, was created to reproduce the experimental outcomes.Results: Outputs of the simulation were analyzed using an optical simulation software package to assess whether the mechanical model behaves optically like the real ex vivo eye. The simulation predicted the experimental results by carefully adjusting the mechanical properties of the zonular fibers and the damping factor.Conclusion: This study effectively demonstrates the importance of characterizing the dynamic mechanical properties of the eye tissues to properly comprehend and predict the overshooting effect

Motywacja i zaspokojenie potrzeb w pracy a work-life balance i poczucie satysfakcji z życia pracowników polskich korporacji w okresie przed pandemią Covid-19

Introduction: Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life (work-life balance, WLB) is one of the key factors important for the effectiveness of functioning in the professional area and also has a direct impact on the sense of satisfaction with life. The article explores the relationship between motivational factors and needs satisfaction at work and WLB and life satisfaction.Research Aim: The aim of the research was to determine the relationships between the different types of motivation regulation postulated in the theory of self-determination by Deci and Ryan (2000) and the satisfaction of needs at work (autonomy, competence and bonds with other people) and WLB and the sense of life satisfaction of corporate employees.Method: The study covered 82 employees of five institutions from the financial sector, aged 22 to 62.27 (33%) of the respondents held a managerial position. The following questionnaires were used in the study: “Work-Life Balance” (Hill Hawkins, Ferris, Weitzman, 2001), “SWLS” (Juczyński, 2012), Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, Villeneuvei (2009), and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale – Work Domain (Deci et al., 2001).Results: Among the respondents, a negative relationship between amotivation – lack of motivation to work and WLB was found. The factor that turned out to be positively associated with WLB was the satisfaction of the need of autonomy at work. Positive relationships were also found between intrinsic motivation and life satisfaction, as well as WLB and life satisfaction.Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that it is not so much the specific type of motivation that affects the maintenance of WLB, as the lack of motivation is associated with the disturbance of this balance. The key need that is met at work translates into WLB is the need for autonomy. Our study reported a positive relationship between WLB and life satisfaction. This means that maintaining a work-life balance can be considered as one of the important aspects of well-being.Wprowadzenie: Utrzymanie równowagi pomiędzy życiem osobistym a zawodowym (work-life balance – WLB) jest jednym z kluczowych czynników istotnych dla efektywności funkcjonowania w przestrzeni zawodowej i ma także bezpośrednie przełożenie na poczucie satysfakcji z życia. W artykule są eksplorowane związki pomiędzy czynnikami motywacyjnymi i zaspokojeniem potrzeb w pracy a WLB i satysfakcją z życia.Cel badań: Celem badań było określenie związków pomiędzy poszczególnymi typami regulacji motywacji postulowanymi w teorii autodeterminacji Deciego i Ryana (2000) i zaspokojeniem potrzeb w pracy (autonomii, kompetencji i więzi z innymi ludźmi) a WLB i poczuciem satysfakcji z życia pracowników korporacji.Metoda badań: Badaniem objęto 82 pracowników pięciu instytucji z sektora finansowego w wieku od 22 do 62 lat; 27 (33%) respondentów było na stanowisku menedżerskim. W badaniu wykorzystano kwestionariusze: Work-Life Balance (Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, Weitzman, 2001), SWLS (Juczyński, 2012), Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, Villeneuve. (2009) oraz Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale – Work Domain (Deci i in., 2001).Wyniki: Wśród respondentów stwierdzono negatywny związek amotywacji – braku motywacji do pracy z WLB. Czynnikiem, który okazał się pozytywnie powiązany z WLB, było zaspokojenie potrzeby autonomii w pracy. Wykazano też pozytywne związki pomiędzy motywacją wewnętrzną a poczuciem satysfakcji z życia oraz WLB i satysfakcją życia.Wnioski: Wyniki badania wskazują, że nie tyle konkretny rodzaj motywacji ma wpływ na utrzymanie WLB, co brak motywacji jest związany z zaburzeniem tej równowagi. Kluczową potrzebą, której zaspokojenie w pracy przekłada się na WLB, jest potrzeba autonomii. W naszym badaniu odnotowano pozytywny związek pomiędzy WLB a satysfakcją z życia. Oznacza to, że zachowanie równowagi między życiem prywatnym a zawodowym można uznać za jeden z istotnych aspektów dobrostanu

Semantically-Based Patent Thicket Identification

Patent thickets have been identified as a major stumbling block in the development of new technologies, creating the need to accurately identify thicket membership. Various citations-based methodologies (Graevenitz et al, 2011; Clarkson, 2005) have been proposed, which have relied on broad survey results (Cohen et al, 2000) for validation. Expert evaluation is an alternative direct method of judging thicket membership at the individual patent level. While this method potentially is robust to drafting and jurisdictional differences in patent design, it is also costly to use on a large scale. We employ a natural language processing technique, which does not carry these large costs, to proxy expert views closely. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between our semantic measure and citation based measures, finding them quite distinct. We then combine a variety of thicket indicators into a statistical model to assess the probability that a newly added patent belongs to a thicket. We also study the role each measure plays, as part of creating a prospective screening model that could improve efficiency of the patent system, in response to Lemley (2001)