Communication in Immersive Social Virtual Reality: A Systematic Review of 10 Years' Studies

As virtual reality (VR) technologies have improved in the past decade, more research has investigated how they could support more effective communication in various contexts to improve collaboration and social connectedness. However, there was no literature to summarize the uniqueness VR provided and put forward guidance for designing social VR applications for better communication. To understand how VR has been designed and used to facilitate communication in different contexts, we conducted a systematic review of the studies investigating communication in social VR in the past ten years by following the PRISMA guidelines. We highlight current practices and challenges and identify research opportunities to improve the design of social VR to better support communication and make social VR more accessible.Comment: Chinese CHI '22: The Tenth International Symposium of Chinese CHI (Chinese CHI 2022

Orientation dependent thermal conductance in single-layer MoS 2

We investigate the thermal conductivity in the armchair and zigzag MoS2 nanoribbons, by combining the non-equilibrium Green's function approach and the first-principles method. A strong orientation dependence is observed in the thermal conductivity. Particularly, the thermal conductivity for the armchair MoS2 nanoribbon is about 673.6 Wm−1 K−1 in the armchair nanoribbon, and 841.1 Wm−1 K−1 in the zigzag nanoribbon at room temperature. By calculating the Caroli transmission, we disclose the underlying mechanism for this strong orientation dependence to be the fewer phonon transport channels in the armchair MoS2 nanoribbon in the frequency range of [150, 200] cm−1. Through the scaling of the phonon dispersion, we further illustrate that the thermal conductivity calculated for the MoS2 nanoribbon is esentially in consistent with the superior thermal conductivity found for graphene

Evodiamine induces extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells via the mitogen-activated protein kinase/phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B signaling pathways

AbstractObjectiveTo explore the effects of evodiamine on ovarian cancer cells and the mechanisms underlying such effects.MethodsHuman ovarian cancer cells HO-8910PM were treated with evodiamine at 0, 1.25, 2.5, and 5 μM for 1-4 d. 3-(4,5-Dimethiylthiazol2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to detect the growth inhibition rate of evodiamine-treated HO-8910PM cells. The cell cycle was observed via propidium iodide (PI) staining. Apoptosis induction was assessed via Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide (Annexin V-FITC/PI) double staining assay. To verify the mechanism of apoptosis, caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway-related protein was detected by Western blot analysis. The expression levels of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and/or phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway-related proteins were also investigated.ResultsEvodiamine significantly inhibited the proliferation of HO-8910PM cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Evodiamine induced G2/M arrest with an increase of cyclin B1 level, and promoted cell apoptosis with a decrease of B cell lymphoma/lewkmia-2 (Bcl-2) and an increase of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) level. In addition, evodiamine treatment led to the activation of caspase-8, caspase-9, and caspase-3 and the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose)-polymerase (PARP). Evodiamine targeted the MAPK and/or PI3K/Akt pathways by reducing the expression and activity of PI3K, Akt, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK1/2 MAPK) and the activity of p38 MAPK.ConclusionEvodiamine can inhibit the growth of ovarian cancer cells by G2/M arrest and intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis. In addition, evodiamine-induced PI3K/Akt, ERK1/2 MAPK, and p38 MAPK signaling may be involved in cell death

Synapse: Interactive Guidance by Demonstration with Trial-and-Error Support for Older Adults to Use Smartphone Apps

As smartphones are widely adopted, mobile applications (apps) are emerging to provide critical services such as food delivery and telemedicine. While bring convenience to everyday life, this trend may create barriers for older adults who tend to be less tech-savvy than young people. In-person or screen sharing support is helpful but limited by the help-givers' availability. Video tutorials can be useful but require users to switch contexts between watching the tutorial and performing the corresponding actions in the app, which is cumbersome to do on a mobile phone. Although interactive tutorials have been shown to be promising, none was designed for older adults. Furthermore, the trial-and-error approach has been shown to be beneficial for older adults, but they often lack support to use the approach. Inspired by both interactive tutorials and trial-and-error approach, we designed an app-independent mobile service, \textit{Synapse}, for help-givers to create a multimodal interactive tutorial on a smartphone and for help-receivers (e.g., older adults) to receive interactive guidance with trial-and-error support when they work on the same task. We conducted a user study with 18 older adults who were 60 and over. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that Synapse provided better support than the traditional video approach and enabled participants to feel more confident and motivated. Lastly, we present further design considerations to better support older adults with trial-and-error on smartphones

TNFα induces Ca2+ influx to accelerate extrinsic apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor-α has been proven an effective anticancer agent in preclinical studies. However, the translation of TNFα from research to clinic has been blocked by significant systemic toxicity and limited efficacy at maximal tolerated dose, which need urgently to be solved. METHODS: The level of cytosolic Ca RESULTS: Here, we demonstrated that TNFα induced extracellular Ca CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides the evidence supporting a novel mechanism by which TNFα induces extracellular C

Optimised Power Error Comparison Strategy for Direct Power Control of the Open-winding Brushless Doubly-Fed Wind Power Generator

This paper presents the conceptual analysis and comparative simulation and experimental evaluation of a novel power error comparison direct power control (PEC-DPC) strategy of the open-winding brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator (OW-BDFRG) for wind energy conversion systems (WECSs). As one of the promising candidates for limited speed range application of pump-alike and wind turbine with partially-rated converter. The emerging OW-BDFRG employed for the proposed PEC-DPC is fed via dual low-cost two-level converters, while the DPC concept is derived from the fundamental dynamic analyses between the calculated and controllable electrical power and flux of the BDFRG with two stators measurable voltage and current. Compared to the traditional two-level and three-level converter systems, the OW-BDFRG requires lower rated capacity of power devices and switching frequency converter, though have more flexible switching mode, higher reliability, redundancy and fault tolerance capability. The performance correctness and effectiveness of the proposed DPC strategy with the selected and optimised switching vector scheme are evaluated and confirmed through computer simulation studies and experimental measurements on a 25 kW generator test rig