Sensitivity to Rate of Change in Gains Applied by Redirected Walking

Redirected walking allows for natural locomotion in virtual environments that are larger than a user’s physical environment. The mapping between real and virtual motion is modified by scaling some aspect of motion. As a user traverses the virtual environment these modifications (or gains) must be dynamically adjusted to prevent collision with physical obstacles. A significant body of work has established perceptual thresholds on rates of absolute gain, but the effect of changing gain is little understood. We present the results of a user study on the effects of rate of gain change. A psychophysical experiment was conducted with 21 participants. Each participant completed a series of two-alternative forced choice tasks in which they determined whether their virtual motion differed from their physical motion while experiencing one of three different methods of gain change: sudden gain change, slow gain change and constant gain. Gain thresholds were determined by 3 interleaved 2-up 1-down staircases, one per condition. Our results indicate that slow gain change is significantly harder to detect than sudden gain change

Fenomena Perkembangan Islam Dan Hukum Islam Di Indonesia

Syariat Islam dalam pandangan sebagian masyarakat masih terkesan negatif, padahal syariat Islam dalam konteksnya yang luas dan luwes tampak mencerminkan sisi positif untuk diamalkan, sehingga sampai saat ini masih terjadi pro dan kontra dalam penerapan syariat Islam di Indonesia, yang sekaligus juga masih mempertanyakan apakah syariat Islam di Indonesia sebagai mitos atau fakta? Pro-kontra syariat Islam masa lalu (1945-1959) lebih bersifat politis-ideologis-konstitusionalis, sedangkan pro-kontra pada era 1990-an sampai sekarang lebih bersifat legal formal. Dibalik perdebatan pro-kontra penerapan syariat Islam ini, faktanya telah terjadi proses taqninisasi Hukum islam dan/atau Islamisasi peraturan Perundang-undangan yang sudah berlangsung selama kurang lebih 30 tahun, diantaranta adalah lahirnya UU Nomor 1 tahun 1974 tentang Perkawinan, PP No. 9 tahun 1975 tentang Pelaksanaan UU Nomor 1 tentang Perkawinan, Instruksi Presiden Nomor 1 Tahun 1991 tentang Kompilasi Hukum Islam, kemudian berlanjut dengan UU Nomor 7 tahun 1989 tentang Peradilan Agama dan UU Nomor 21 tahun 2008 tentang Perbankan syariah. Berdasarkan fakta yang bersifat akademik ilmiah berupa taqninisasi Hukum Islam dan/atau Islamisasi peraturan Perundang-undangan tersebut, penerapan syariat Islam bukanlah mitos tetatpi fakta hukum yang sangat fenomenal (red)

Pore translocation of knotted DNA rings

We use an accurate coarse-grained model for DNA and stochastic molecular dynamics simulations to study the pore translocation of 10-kbp–long DNA rings that are knotted. By monitoring various topological and physical observables we find that there is not one, as previously assumed, but rather two qualitatively different modes of knot translocation. For both modes the pore obstruction caused by knot passage has a brief duration and typically occurs at a late translocation stage. Both effects are well in agreement with experiments and can be rationalized with a transparent model based on the concurrent tensioning and sliding of the translocating knotted chains. We also observed that the duration of the pore obstruction event is more controlled by the knot translocation velocity than the knot size. These features should advance the interpretation and design of future experiments aimed at probing the spontaneous knotting of biopolymers

Pet Attachment and the Social Support that Pets Provide to College Students

The purpose of this research was to see how the quality of a person’s attachment to their pet affects their perception of the amount of social support they are receiving from that pet. We recruited a sample of 309 undergraduate students who were pet owners. Students were enrolled in a General Psychology course at Kennesaw State University during Spring 2017. Data were collected using SurveyMonkey®. To measure the quality of pet attachment, we used the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale. To measure perceived social support, we adapted the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. There was a significant relationship between quality of attachment to one’s pet and perceived social support [r(307) = 0.77, p \u3c 0.001, r2 = 0.59]. We also collected demographic data on variables such as ethnicity, gender, year in college, species of pet owned, number of years of pet ownership, and pet gender. We studied how these different variables affected the quality of pet attachment and perceived social support

How to fold intricately: using theory and experiments to unravel the properties of knotted proteins.

Over the years, advances in experimental and computational methods have helped us to understand the role of thermodynamic, kinetic and active (chaperone-aided) effects in coordinating the folding steps required to achieving a knotted native state. Here, we review such developments by paying particular attention to the complementarity of experimental and computational studies. Key open issues that could be tackled with either or both approaches are finally pointed out.We acknowledge support from the Italian Ministry of Education, grant PRIN 2010HXAW77

Dynamics of supercoiled DNA with complex knots: Large-scale rearrangements and persistent multi-strand interlocking

Knots and supercoiling are both introduced in bacterial plasmids by catalytic processes involving DNA strand passages. While the effects on plasmid organization has been extensively studied for knotting and supercoiling taken separately, much less is known about their concurrent action. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations and oxDNA, an accurate mesoscopic DNA model, to study the kinetic and metric changes introduced by complex (five-crossing) knots and supercoiling in 2 kbp-long DNA rings. We find several unexpected results. First, the conformational ensemble is dominated by two distinct states, differing in branchedness and knot size. Secondly, fluctuations between these states are as fast as the metric relaxation of unknotted rings. In spite of this, certain boundaries of knotted and plectonemically-wound regions can persist over much longer timescales. These pinned regions involve multiple strands that are interlocked by the cooperative action of topological and supercoiling constraints. Their long-lived character may be relevant for the simplifying action of topoisomerases

On Classes of Neighborhood Resolving Sets of a Graph

Let G=(V,E) be a simple connected graph. A subset S of V is called a neighbourhood set of G if G=\bigcup_{s\in S}<N[s]>, where N[v] denotes the closed neighbourhood of the vertex v in G. Further for each ordered subset S={s_1,s_2, ...,s_k} of V and a vertex $u\in V$, we associate a vector $\Gamma(u/S)=(d(u,s_1),d(u,s_2), ...,d(u,s_k))$ with respect to S, where d(u,v) denote the distance between u and v in G. A subset S is said to be resolving set of G if $\Gamma(u/S)\neq \Gamma(v/S)$ for all $u,v\in V-S$. A neighbouring set of G which is also a resolving set for G is called a neighbourhood resolving set (nr-set). The purpose of this paper is to introduce various types of nr-sets and compute minimum cardinality of each set, in possible cases, particulary for paths and cycles

How to fold intricately: using theory and experiments to unravel the properties of knotted proteins

Over the years, advances in experimental and computational methods have helped us to understand the role of thermodynamic, kinetic and active (chaperone-aided) effects in coordinating the folding steps required to achieving a knotted native state. Here, we review such developments by paying particular attention to the complementarity of experimental and computational studies. Key open issues that could be tackled with either or both approaches are finally pointed out

Non-Gaussianity Consistency Relation for Multi-field Inflation

While detection of the "local form" bispectrum of primordial perturbations would rule out all single-field inflation models, multi-field models would still be allowed. We show that multi-field models described by the $\delta N$ formalism obey an inequality between $f_{\rm NL}$ and one of the local-form {\it trispectrum} amplitudes, $\tau_{\rm NL}$, such that $\tau_{\rm NL}>\frac12(\frac65f_{\rm NL})^2$ with a possible logarithmic scale dependence, provided that 2-loop terms are small. Detection of a violation of this inequality would rule out most of multi-field models, challenging inflation as a mechanism for generating the primoridal perturbations.Comment: 5 pages. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Knowledge attitude and practices of pneumococcal vaccines in India

Introduction: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) have revolutionized the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) globally.The initial 7-valent (PCV7) vaccine has gradually been replaced by higher valency vaccines such as PCV10 and PCV13, as these cover additionalserotypes causing increased immunization. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the overall attitude and practices of the Indian public toward PCV for their infants. Materials and Methods: Data were collected over a period of 18 months from a tertiary perinatal center. Pneumococcal vaccine leaflets with current, unbiased information on PCV10 and PCV13 were circulated to parents, who were then asked to opt for either one or none of the vaccines for their infants at their 6 weeks immunization check-up. Results: A total of 3406 infants came for follow-up. Among them, 84% chose to give the PCV while the remaining 16% opted out. Among the parents that opted for the vaccines, 90% chose PCV13 over PCV10. This may be attributable to its increased immunogenicity and broader serotype coverage as understood by the parents - who seem to want the best for their children. Conclusion: PCV13 was a preferred vaccine of choice for infants by majority of the parents, as compared to PCV10. Such information is of valuable importance in deciding which vaccine to go for if and when India goes for PCV in the future with Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and United Nations Children’s Fund funding