MR399: Forestry-Related Nonpoint Source Pollution in Maine: A Literature Review

A great deal of research effort has been devoted to the topic of erosion and sedimentation from forest lands. This report reviews the literature dealing with the potential sources of forestry-related nonpoint source pollution and impacts on surface water, with particular emphasis on those studies conducted in Maine and in the Northeast. This review is organized along the following topics: sediment, temperature, nitrate, phosphorus, acidity, and herbicides.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscreports/1024/thumbnail.jp

Grassroots Diffusion: A Research Agenda and Propositional Inventory

As information and communication technologies become increasingly enmeshed in our personal lives, individuals have greater exposure to innovations that may be adaptable to work-related tasks. While innovations have traditionally been introduced into and diffused through organizations in a top-down manner, some innovations spread through grassroots diffusion. We define grassroots diffusion as the process by which the use of an innovation spreads throughout an organization through informal means and without organizational sanction or support. In this paper we describe the grassroots diffusion process and pose a number of research questions that may help guide our investigation of this phenomenon. In addition, we provide theory-based discussions of a number of relevant issues. Further, we present theoretically-derived propositions that may provide guidance for future research. Taken together, these elements form a research agenda that may be useful in moving research into grassroots diffusion forward

Can We Use the Oculus Quest VR Headset and Controllers to Reliably Assess Balance Stability?

Balance is the foundation upon which all other motor skills are built. Indeed, many neurological diseases and injuries often present clinically with deficits in balance control. With recent advances in virtual reality (VR) hardware bringing low-cost headsets into the mainstream market, the question remains as to whether this technology could be used in a clinical context to assess balance. We compared the head tracking performance of a low-cost VR headset (Oculus Quest) with a gold standard motion tracking system (Qualisys). We then compared the recorded head sway with the center of pressure (COP) measures collected from a force platform in different stances and different visual field manipulations. Firstly, our analysis showed that there was an excellent correspondence between the two different head movement signals (ICCs > 0.99) with minimal differences in terms of accuracy (<5 mm error). Secondly, we found that head sway mapped onto COP measures more strongly when the participant adopted a Tandem stance during balance assessment. Finally, using the power of virtual reality to manipulate the visual input to the brain, we showed how the Oculus Quest can reliably detect changes in postural control as a result of different types of visual field manipulations. Given the high levels of accuracy of the motion tracking of the Oculus Quest headset, along with the strong relationship with the COP and ability to manipulate the visual field, the Oculus Quest makes an exciting alternative to traditional lab-based balance assessments

Using a virtual reality cricket simulator to explore the effects of pressure, competition anxiety on batting performance in cricket

Virtual reality (VR) has created opportunities to innovatively re-imagine the way we examine the relations between pressure, competition anxiety and performance. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of VR as a means of measuring the effects of competition anxiety when pressure manipulations are applied while participants bat in a cricket batting VR simulator. The twenty-eight male participants who took part in two experiments were divided into a high (14, mean age: 22.94, SD: 5.4) and a low skill group (14; mean age: 23.55, SD: 9.9). The aim of the first experiment was to validate the VR simulator as a tool that could capture differences in batting performance between a high and low skilled group. The results showed that high skill participants not only scored significantly higher run rates than low skill participants, but they outperformed the low skill group in all performance measures including higher incidences of correct foot placements that reflect better anticipatory responses. Having established the VR batting simulator as being a reliable tool for capturing batting dynamics, experiment 2 aimed to explore the effects of a pressure manipulation on competition anxiety and batting performance. All measures of competition anxiety were significantly greater for both groups in the high-pressure condition compared to the two low-pressure conditions (p &lt; 0.001). The magnitude of this effect was greater in the low skill group for cognitive (0.59) and somatic (0.794) anxiety. Despite anxiety levels significantly increasing in the high-pressure condition, no significant negative changes to batting performance were found for either group, with both groups actually demonstrating performance improvements. Overall, the findings show how a cricket batting virtual reality simulator can be used as a tool to measure the effects of pressure on competition anxiety and batting performance in tasks involving dynamic skill execution.</p