To immerse or not? Experimenting with two virtual retail environments

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the determinants of users’ simulated experience in a virtual store and to show the subsequent impact of that experience on engagement. The outcome of that engagement is examined in relation to enjoyment, satisfaction and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The method comprised an experiment comparing users’ perceptions of a standard 2D online clothing store with an enhanced, immersive one that aimed to provide shopping value approaching that of a traditional store by using a 3D experience where participants wore special glasses and a data glove. Findings: Results demonstrate the major role of telepresence components in simulated experience and the critical role of that experience, along with hedonic and utilitarian values, in engagement. Purchase intention is influenced by satisfaction, which is in turn influenced by enjoyment and engagement. Engagement in turn is influenced by utilitarian and hedonic value and the experience of product simulation or telepresence, which is composed of control, colour and graphics vividness, and 3D authenticity. In the immersive, 3D environment experience is more associated with engagement and enjoyment, leading to greater purchase intention. The immersive, 3D environment thus has the potential to rival traditional shopping in terms of experience, resulting in higher sales for retailers and satisfaction for consumers. Originality: This work has evaluated a robust model of purchase intention and demonstrated it to hold not only in a 3D environment on a conventional computer platform, but also in an immersive one, where participants wear special glasses and a data glove

Effect of AgNO3 on androgenesis of Brassica oleracea L. anthers cultivated in vitro

The present article is a synthesis study accomplished at Vegetable Research and Development Station Bacau regarding the implication of silver nitrate (AgNO3) in modulating the morphogenetic reaction of white cabbage anthers cultivated in vitro. According to literature, silver nitrate is a strong inhibitor of ethylene action. Embryo formation, shoot generation and rooting of plantlets are key points on which relies the entire concept of in vitro tissue culture. Silver ions, in the form of nitrate play an important role in promoting the somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis, which led its wide spread use in different plant tissue culture in vitro. Therefore, our researches focused on testing different concentrations of AgNO3 (5, 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 60 μM) added to a pre-tested medium formula– Murashige and Skoog (MS), 1962 basal medium supplemented with benzylaminopurine (BAP)- 8.9 μM and naphthylacetic acid (NAA) 2.7 μM. The biological material is represented by unopened flower buds containing anthers with microspores at late uninucleate to binucleate stage. In the culture condition investigated in this study, the data obtained promotes the utilization of AgNO3 in a concentration of 50 μM for the successfully induction and sustaining of regenerative processes of white cabbage anthers cultivated in vitro.Keywords: Buds, embryogenesis, ethylene, organogenesis, regeneratio

Imaging stress and magnetism at high pressures using a nanoscale quantum sensor.

Pressure alters the physical, chemical, and electronic properties of matter. The diamond anvil cell enables tabletop experiments to investigate a diverse landscape of high-pressure phenomena. Here, we introduce and use a nanoscale sensing platform that integrates nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers directly into the culet of diamond anvils. We demonstrate the versatility of this platform by performing diffraction-limited imaging of both stress fields and magnetism as a function of pressure and temperature. We quantify all normal and shear stress components and demonstrate vector magnetic field imaging, enabling measurement of the pressure-driven [Formula: see text] phase transition in iron and the complex pressure-temperature phase diagram of gadolinium. A complementary NV-sensing modality using noise spectroscopy enables the characterization of phase transitions even in the absence of static magnetic signatures

Antioxidant activity in selected tomato genotypes cultivated in conventional and organic culture systems

The present study is a compilation of results obtained at the Vegetable Research and Development Station Bacau regarding the influence of the culture system on the quantitative and qualitative yield of tomatoes. The present study provides comparative information regarding yield achievements of tomato genotypes cultivated in two different culture systems (conventional and organic), in order to highlight the suitability of the cultivation system. The best yield results were obtained at a density of 30,000 plants per hectare in both culture systems. All studied genotypes resulted in quantitatively superior yield in the conventional system as opposed to the organic system. Another purpose of this study was to determine the difference in antioxidant activity of tomato genotypes cultivated in the ecological and the conventional culture systems. The results indicate the suitability of the tomato to organic cultivation, highlighting the potential of the tomato species to be utilized as a significant source of natural antioxidants, and also the influence of cultivation systems on the accumulation of antioxidant compounds.Keywords: Lycopersicon esculentum, polyphenols, flavones, yieldAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(20), pp. 2884-289

Diffraction of light by a planar aperture in a metallic screen

We present a complete derivation of the formula of Smythe [Phys.Rev.72, 1066 (1947)] giving the electromagnetic field diffracted by an aperture created in a perfectly conducting plane surface. The reasoning, valid for any excitating field and any hole shape, makes use only of the free scalar Green function for the Helmoltz equation without any reference to a Green dyadic formalism. We compare our proof with the one previously given by Jackson and connect our reasoning to the general Huygens Fresnel theorem.Comment: J. Math. Phys. 47, 072901 (2006

Enhanced absorption Hanle effect on the Fg=F->Fe=F+1 closed transitions

We analyse the Hanle effect on a closed $F_g\to F_e=F_g+1$ transition. Two configurations are examined, for linear- and circular-polarized laser radiation, with the applied magnetic field collinear to the laser light wavevector. We describe the peculiarities of the Hanle signal for linearly-polarized laser excitation, characterized by narrow bright resonances at low laser intensities. The mechanism behind this effect is identified, and numerical solutions for the optical Bloch equations are presented for different transitions.Comment: to be published in J. Opt. B, special issue on Quantum Coherence and Entanglement (February 2001

Dynamical Stability of Six-Dimensional Warped Brane-Worlds

We study a generalization of the Randall-Sundrum mechanism for generating the weak/Planck hierarchy, which uses two rather than one warped extra dimension, and which requires no negative tension branes. A 4-brane with one exponentially large compact dimension plays the role of the Planck brane. We investigate the dynamical stability with respect to graviton, graviphoton and radion modes. The radion is shown to have a tachyonic instability for certain models of the 4-brane stress-energy, while it is stable in others, and massless in a special case. If stable, its mass is in the milli-eV range, for parameters of the model which solve the hierarchy problem. The radion is shown to couple to matter with gravitational strength, so that it is potentially detectable by submillimeter-range gravity experiments. The radion mass can be increased using a bulk scalar field in the manner of Goldberger and Wise, but only to order MeV, due to the effect of the large extra dimension. The model predicts a natural scale of 10^{13} GeV on the 4-brane, making it a natural setting for inflation from the ultraviolet brane.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figure