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BackgroundTo provide participants with a more real and immersive intervening experience, virtual reality (VR) and/or augmented reality (AR) technologies have been integrated into some bystander intervention training programs and studies measuring bystander behaviors. ObjectiveWe focused on whether VR or AR can be used as a tool to enhance training bystanders. We reviewed the evidence from empirical studies that used VR and/or AR as a tool for examining bystander behaviors in the domain of interpersonal violence research. MethodsTwo librarians searched for articles in databases, including APA PsycInfo (Ovid), Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO), Medline (Ovid), Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ProQuest), Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest), and Scopus till April 15, 2020. Studies focusing on bystander behaviors in conflict situations were included. All study types (except reviews) written in English in any discipline were included. ResultsThe search resulted in 12,972 articles from six databases, and the articles were imported into Covidence. Eleven studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All 11 articles examined the use of VR as a tool for studying bystander behaviors. Most of the studies were conducted in US young adults. The types of interpersonal violence were school bullying, dating violence, sexual violence/assault, and soccer-associated violence. VR technology was used as an observational measure and bystander intervention program. We evaluated the different uses of VR for bystander behaviors and noted a lack of empirical evidence for AR as a tool. We also discuss the empirical evidence regarding the design, effectiveness, and limitations of implementing VR as a tool in the reviewed studies. ConclusionsThe reviewed results have implications and recommendations for future research in designing and implementing VR/AR technology in the area of interpersonal violence. Future studies in this area may further contribute to the use of VR as an observational measure and explore the potential use of AR to study bystander behaviors.

In this study, ceramic precursor fibers were prepared by a simple solution blowing spinning (SBS) method, and compressible, heat-resistant zirconia-doped alumina (ZDA) submicrometer fiber mats with a diameter of 400–800 nm were obtained by subsequent calcination. By doping ZrO2 in alumina fibers via the solution route, it can be confirmed by the analysis of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, Raman spectra, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images that the nano-t-ZrO2 formed at 1000 °C could retard the phase transition of Al2O3 from γ-phase to α-phase at high temperatures and effectively inhibit the growth of α-Al2O3 grains, then the consequent deterioration of mechanical properties and thermal stability could be alleviated. As a result, the ZDA submicrometer fiber mats exhibited improved compressibility and flexibility. The ZDA submicrometer fiber mats had thermal stability from −196 °C (liquid nitrogen) to above 1000 °C, making them suitable candidates for thermal insulation in extremely low-temperature environments and high-temperature industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study discrete-time nonstationary stochastic games with average reward criteria. The state space is denumerable and the action space of players are Borel spaces, while the transition probability and reward functions can be changed with time. Meanwhile, the reward functions are allowed to be non-uniformly bounded. Under the suitable optimality conditions, we establish the average optimality equation and prove the existence of Nash equilibria. Finally, we use a queueing system to illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As scientific simulations and experiments move toward extremely large scales and generate massive amounts of data, the data access performance of analytic applications becomes crucial. A mismatch often happens between write and read patterns of data accesses, typically resulting in poor read performance. Data layout reorganization has been used to improve the locality of data accesses. However, current data reorganizations are static and focus on generating a single (or set of) optimized layouts that rely on prior knowledge of exact future access patterns. We propose a framework that dynamically recognizes the data usage patterns, replicates the data of interest in multiple reorganized layouts that would benefit common read patterns, and makes runtime decisions on selecting a favorable layout for a given read pattern. This framework supports reading individual elements and chunks of a multi-dimensional array of variables. Our pattern-driven layout selection strategy achieves multi-fold speedups compared to reading from the original dataset.

Frameworks that facilitate runtime data sharing across multiple applications are of great importance for scientific data analytics. Although existing frameworks work well over uniform mesh data, they can not effectively handle adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) data. Among the challenges to construct an AMR-capable framework include: (1) designing an architecture that facilitates online AMR data management; (2) achieving a load-balanced AMR data distribution for the data staging space at runtime; and (3) building an effective online index to support the unique spatial data retrieval requirements for AMR data. Towards addressing these challenges to support runtime AMR data sharing across scientific applications, we present the AMRZone framework. Experiments over real-world AMR datasets demonstrate AMRZone's effectiveness at achieving a balanced workload distribution, reading/writing large-scale datasets with thousands of parallel processes, and satisfying queries with spatial constraints. Moreover, AMRZone's performance and scalability are even comparable with existing state-of-the-art work when tested over uniform mesh data with up to 16384 cores; in the best case, our framework achieves a 46% performance improvement.

As a natural satellite of the Earth, the moon is a prime target for planetary remote sensing exploration. However, lunar polarization studies are not popular in the planetary science community. Polarimetry of the lunar surface had not been carried out from a spacecraft until the Korean lunar exploration program was initiated. In previous polarization observations of the moon, images of different polarization states were obtained by a rotating linear polarizer. This method is not well suited for future polarization observations from space-based spacecraft. To this end, we present a new kind of polarized observation of the moon using a division of a focal-plane polarization camera and propose a pipeline on the processing method of the polarization observation of the moon. We obtain a map of the degree of white-light polarization on the nearside of the moon through polarization observation, data processing, and correction. The observation and data processing methods presented in this study have the potential to serve as a reference for analyzing polarization observation data from future orbiting spacecraft. These are expected to lead to new discoveries in the fields of astronomy and planetary science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between recurrence-free survival (RFS) and perirenal fat thickness (PFT) in a cohort of Chinese population with unilateral nephrolithiasis. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 81 patients with unilateral nephrolithiasis in our center from January 2019 to June 2019. PFT measured on computed tomography (CT) scans was evaluated. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to assess significant differences in RSF between high-PFT and low-PFT groups within sexes. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the potential risk factors for renal stone recurrence. High PFT was significantly associated with high BMI and hyperlipidemia (p =.003 and.047, respectively). The PFT of stone-bearing kidney was significantly greater than PFT of non-stone-bearing kidney (0.77 ± 0.60 cm vs. 0.67 ± 0.58 cm, p =.002). During the follow-up periods (median 31 months), 21 (25.9%) patients experienced ipsilateral renal stone recurrence. In addition, Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that patients with low PFT had a significant better RFS than those with high PFT (p =.012). In the univariable Cox analyses, male sex and high PFT were significantly associated with a poor RFS (p =.042 and.018, respectively). Moreover, both male sex and high PFT retained significance in the multivariable analyses (p =.045 and.020, respectively). Our findings suggested that PFT is a noninvasive and feasible parameter, which may help in the risk stratification of renal stone recurrence in the follow-up periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]