Getting stuck with pornography? Overuse or neglect of cybersex cues in a multitasking situation is related to symptoms of cybersex addiction

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Some individuals consume cybersex contents, such as pornographic material, in an addictive manner, which leads to severe negative consequences in private life or work. One mechanism leading to negative consequences may be reduced executive control over cognition and behavior that may be necessary to realize goal-oriented switching between cybersex use and other tasks and obligations of life. METHODS: To address this aspect, we investigated 104 male participants with an executive multitasking paradigm with two sets: One set consisted of pictures of persons, the other set consisted of pornographic pictures. In both sets the pictures had to be classified according to certain criteria. The explicit goal was to work on all classification tasks to equal amounts, by switching between the sets and classification tasks in a balanced manner. RESULTS: We found that less balanced performance in this multitasking paradigm was associated with a higher tendency towards cybersex addiction. Persons with this tendency often either overused or neglected working on the pornographic pictures. DISCUSSION: The results indicate that reduced executive control over multitasking performance, when being confronted with pornographic material, may contribute to dysfunctional behaviors and negative consequences resulting from cybersex addiction. However, individuals with tendencies towards cybersex addiction seem to have either an inclination to avoid or to approach the pornographic material, as discussed in motivational models of addiction

Processes, Roles and Their Interactions

Taking an interaction network oriented perspective in informatics raises the challenge to describe deterministic finite systems which take part in networks of nondeterministic interactions. The traditional approach to describe processes as stepwise executable activities which are not based on the ordinarily nondeterministic interaction shows strong centralization tendencies. As suggested in this article, viewing processes and their interactions as complementary can circumvent these centralization tendencies. The description of both, processes and their interactions is based on the same building blocks, namely finite input output automata (or transducers). Processes are viewed as finite systems that take part in multiple, ordinarily nondeterministic interactions. The interactions between processes are described as protocols. The effects of communication between processes as well as the necessary coordination of different interactions within a processes are both based on the restriction of the transition relation of product automata. The channel based outer coupling represents the causal relation between the output and the input of different systems. The coordination condition based inner coupling represents the causal relation between the input and output of a single system. All steps are illustrated with the example of a network of resource administration processes which is supposed to provide requesting user processes exclusive access to a single resource.Comment: In Proceedings IWIGP 2012, arXiv:1202.422

First report on Pythium myriotylum as pathogen on duckweed (Lemna minor L.) in hydroponic systems in Germany

Wasserlinsen sind eine vielversprechende Ressource für die zukünftige Produktion von Futter- und Nahrungsmitteln sowie die Abwasserreinigung. Krankheiten und Schädlinge können die Leistung der Produktionssysteme jedoch kritisch einschränken. In hydroponischen Systemen traten Flecken missfarbiger und gebleichter Wasserlinsen (Lemna minor L.) auf, die sich rasch im Bestand ausbreiteten. Durch mikrobiologische und molekularbiologische Untersuchungen wurde Pythium myriotylum als ursächlicher Schaderreger eindeutig nachgewiesen. Dies ist der erste Bericht über P. myriotylum an Wasserlinsen in Deutschland. Das Ergebnis und mögliche Gegenmaßnahmen werden erörtert.Duckweed is a promising resource for future feed and food production as well as wastewater treatment. However, diseases and pests can critically limit the performance of the production systems. Patches of discolored and bleached duckweed (Lemna minor L.) appeared in hydroponic systems and spread rapidly through the crop. Pythium myriotylum was confirmed as the causing pathogen by microbiological and molecular biological analysis. This is the first report of P. myriotylum on duckweed in Germany. The result and possible countermeasures are discussed

HOW TO CULTIVATE ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION? – DESIGN AND TYPES OF ANALYTICS COMPETENCY CENTERS

Today, the ability to exploit big data using advanced analytics bears considerable potential to create competitive advantages. Therefore, business leaders need to make crucial design decisions on how to cultivate these capabilities within their organization. Analytics Competency Centers (ACCs) are an important organizational solution to spread analytics capabilities by providing leadership, expertise and infrastructure. In this paper, we analyze nine analytics competency centers of major global players across several industries - based on a series of interviews with executives, consultants and data scientists. We identify strategic and structural design options, common processes, best-practices, and potential future development paths. In particular, we distinguish between two generic types of centers that differ in their strategic orientation and their choice of design options. Our work contributes to organizational design theory addressing the question on how analytics capabilities can be nurtured for competitive advantage. It should provide concrete guidance to business leaders on how to design and apply ACCs as an organizational option

DMFC-GraspNet: Differentiable Multi-Fingered Robotic Grasp Generation in Cluttered Scenes

Robotic grasping is a fundamental skill required for object manipulation in robotics. Multi-fingered robotic hands, which mimic the structure of the human hand, can potentially perform complex object manipulation. Nevertheless, current techniques for multi-fingered robotic grasping frequently predict only a single grasp for each inference time, limiting computational efficiency and their versatility, i.e. unimodal grasp distribution. This paper proposes a differentiable multi-fingered grasp generation network (DMFC-GraspNet) with three main contributions to address this challenge. Firstly, a novel neural grasp planner is proposed, which predicts a new grasp representation to enable versatile and dense grasp predictions. Secondly, a scene creation and label mapping method is developed for dense labeling of multi-fingered robotic hands, which allows a dense association of ground truth grasps. Thirdly, we propose to train DMFC-GraspNet end-to-end using using a forward-backward automatic differentiation approach with both a supervised loss and a differentiable collision loss and a generalized Q 1 grasp metric loss. The proposed approach is evaluated using the Shadow Dexterous Hand on Mujoco simulation and ablated by different choices of loss functions. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in predicting versatile and dense grasps, and in advancing the field of multi-fingered robotic grasping.Comment: Submitted IROS 2023 workshop "Policy Learning in Geometric Spaces

Application of relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) on managed grassland

Abstract. Relaxed eddy accumulation is applied for measuring fluxes of trace gases for which there is a lack of sensors fast enough in their resolution for eddy-covariance. On managed grasslands, the length of time between management events and the application of relaxed eddy accumulation has an essential influence on the determination of the proportionality factor b and thereby on the resulting flux. In this study this effect is discussed for the first time. Also, scalar similarity between proxy scalars and scalars of interest is affected until the ecosystem has completely recovered. Against this background, CO2 fluxes were continuously measured and 13CO2 isofluxes were determined with a high measurement precision on two representative days in summer 2010. This enabled the evaluation of the 13CO2 flux portion of the entire CO2 flux, in order to estimate potential influences on tracer experiments in ecosystem sciences and to compare a common method for the partitioning of the net ecosystem exchange into assimilation and respiration based on temperature and light response with an isotopic approach directly based on the isotope discrimination of the biosphere. </jats:p

Association between subjective actual sleep duration, subjective sleep need, age, body mass index, and gender in a large sample of young adults

BACKGROUND: Poor sleep is a major health concern, and there is evidence that young adults are at increased risk of suffering from poor sleep. There is also evidence that sleep duration can vary as a function of gender and body mass index (BMI). We sought to replicate these findings in a large sample of young adults, and also tested the hypothesis that a smaller gap between subjective sleep duration and subjective sleep need is associated with a greater feeling of being restored. METHODS: A total of 2,929 university students (mean age 23.24±3.13 years, 69.1% female) took part in an Internet-based survey. They answered questions related to demographics and subjective sleep patterns. RESULTS: We found no gender differences in subjective sleep duration, subjective sleep need, BMI, age, or feeling of being restored. Nonlinear associations were observed between subjective sleep duration, BMI, and feeling of being restored. Moreover, a larger discrepancy between subjective actual sleep duration and subjective sleep need was associated with a lower feeling of being restored. CONCLUSION: The present pattern of results from a large sample of young adults suggests that males and females do not differ with respect to subjective sleep duration, BMI, or feeling of being restored. Moreover, nonlinear correlations seemed to provide a more accurate reflection of the relationship between subjective sleep and demographic variables

What Fits Tim Might Not Fit Tom: Exploring the Impact of User Characteristics on Users’ Experience with Conversational Interaction Modalities

Companies increasingly implement conversational agents (CAs), which can be text- or voice-based. While both interaction modalities have different implications for user interaction, it ultimately depends on the users how they perceive these design options. Research indicates that users’ perception and evaluation of information systems is affected by their individual characteristics – their dispositional traits and needs. To investigate the impact of user characteristics on the user experience with text- and voice-based CAs, we draw on task-technology fit (TTF) theory and develop a research design including a lab experiment. We developed and tested two CAs and conducted a pilot study of the experiment. Initial results indicate that user characteristics influence how users perceive the user experience with text- and voice-based CAs. We expect the results of our research to extend TTF theory to the context of conversational interfaces and guide companies in designing their CAs to deliver a satisfying user experience

Association between subjective actual sleep duration, subjective sleep need, age, body mass index, and gender in a large sample of young adults

Poor sleep is a major health concern, and there is evidence that young adults are at increased risk of suffering from poor sleep. There is also evidence that sleep duration can vary as a function of gender and body mass index (BMI). We sought to replicate these findings in a large sample of young adults, and also tested the hypothesis that a smaller gap between subjective sleep duration and subjective sleep need is associated with a greater feeling of being restored.; A total of 2,929 university students (mean age 23.24±3.13 years, 69.1% female) took part in an Internet-based survey. They answered questions related to demographics and subjective sleep patterns.; We found no gender differences in subjective sleep duration, subjective sleep need, BMI, age, or feeling of being restored. Nonlinear associations were observed between subjective sleep duration, BMI, and feeling of being restored. Moreover, a larger discrepancy between subjective actual sleep duration and subjective sleep need was associated with a lower feeling of being restored.; The present pattern of results from a large sample of young adults suggests that males and females do not differ with respect to subjective sleep duration, BMI, or feeling of being restored. Moreover, nonlinear correlations seemed to provide a more accurate reflection of the relationship between subjective sleep and demographic variables