Towards a Metaverse Workspace: Opportunities, Challenges, and Design Implications

Both enterprises and their employees have globally experienced remote work at an unprecedented scale since the outbreak of COVID-19. As the pandemic becomes less of a threat, some companies have called their employees back to a physical office, citing issues related to working remotely, but many employees have refused to return. Thus, working in the metaverse has gained much attention as an alternative that could complement the weaknesses of completely remote work or even offline work. However, we do not know yet what benefits and drawbacks the metaverse has as a legitimate workspace, because there are few real cases of 1) working in the metaverse and 2) working remotely at such an unprecedented scale. Thus, this paper aims to identify real challenges and opportunities the metaverse workspace presents when compared to remote work by conducting semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops with various employees and company stakeholders (e.g., HR managers and CEOs) who have experienced at least two of three work types: working in a physical office, remotely, or in the metaverse. Consequently, we identified 1) advantages and disadvantages of remote work and 2) opportunities and challenges of the metaverse. We further discuss design implications that may overcome the identified challenges of working in the metaverse. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Effects of Box Shape and Diverse Components of Large-Sized Products on Consumers' Product Evaluations in Logistic Business

Purpose - With the recent spread of COVID-19, U.S. consumers' consumption pattern is changing towards purchasing large-capacity products, as they stay at home longer. Thus, the current research investigates the effects of box shape and component diversity for large-sized products on product evaluation in logistic business. Moreover, this research examines that information-processing fluency mediates the moderating effects of box shape and product components on target evaluations to confirm psychological mechanism for generating this effect. Design/methodology - In order to examine the hypotheses, the current research conducts two online experiments. The 184 participants (Study 1), and 205 participants (Study 2) of U.S. nationality were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. This research analyzes the data by using SPSS 25 and PROCESS macro 4.0. Findings - Study 1 demonstrates that when the height of a box is greater than its width, products with single components promote positive target evaluations, while when the width of box is greater than its height, products with a variety of components lead to positive target evaluations. Study 2 shows that the same results are replicated in other product categories and with different box shape ratios. Moreover, Study 2 also finds that the ease of information processing mediates the interaction effects of box shape and component diversity on U.S. consumers' target evaluations. Originality/value - The current research has originality in that it investigates the effect of box shape and product composition diversity on U.S. consumer product evaluation from the perspective of information-processing theory Moreover, this research has practical implications for global traders who prepare for entering the U.S. market.

The U.S. power sector emissions of CO2 and NOx during 2020: Separating the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns from the weather and decreasing coal in fuel-mix profile

In recent years, the United States power sector emissions of CO2 and NOx have decreased due to declining coal and increasing natural gas and renewables in the fuel-mix. In April 2020, the COVID-19 social restrictions in the United States led to a decline in electricity demand from the commercial and industrial sectors. In this study, we estimate the changes in the emissions of CO2 and NOx from the U.S. power sector due to three factors: 1) weather, 2) the fuel-mix change in the past five years, and 3) the COVID-19 social restrictions. We use a multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model to separate the impacts of outdoor temperature and type-of-day from the COVID-19 on power generation, and the daily operation status of 3013 power units to account for the fuel-mix change. We find that electricity demand changes due to COVID occurred mostly from March to June 2020, with electricity demand generally returning to 2015–2019 levels starting in July 2020. We find the U.S. power sector CO2 emissions, reported by EPA, dropped by 29.8 MTCO2 (−26%) in April 2020, relative to the average April emissions between 2015 and 2019. Of that reduction, we attribute declines of 18.3 ± 4.0 MTCO2 (−18 ± 4%) to the COVID-19 lockdowns, declines of 13.7 ± 4.2 MTCO2 (−12 ± 4%) to a fuel-mix change, and increases of 2.3 ± 1.1 MTCO2 (+2 ± 1%) due to weather variability compared to the five prior years. For the same month, the power sector NOx emissions dropped by 27.6 thousand metric tons (−42%) in April 2020, relative to the past five-year monthly average. Of that reduction, we attribute declines of 10.5 ± 2.4 thousand metric tons (−22 ± 5%) to the COVID-19 lockdowns, declines of 18.5 ± 2.5 thousand metric tons (−28 ± 4%) to a fuel-mix change, and increases of 1.4 ± 0.6 thousand metric tons (+2 ± 1%) due to weather variability. This result highlights the importance of accounting for weather and fuel-mix changes when estimating the impact of COVID-19 on the power sector emissions.

A study on development of a reusable protective face shield using a material extrusion process

Due to the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus, the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), including face shield, ventilator value, and so on, has abruptly increased in the world. The collapse of the global supply chain of PPE has led to a shortage of the PPE. An additive manufacturing process has emerged as one of solutions to overcome such shortage. The objective of this study was to develop a reusable protective face shield using a material extrusion (ME) process. Five types of face shield were designed. Effects of the design on effective stress distribution, deformation, and specific rigidity were investigated through finite element analyses. To examine the influence of the design on deposition and post-processing characteristics, five types of face shield were fabricated from a ME apparatus. Post-processing characteristics and building time were greatly improved when Design 1 was adopted. In addition, the overall weight, wasted material, and buy-to-fly (BTF) ratio were significantly reduced when Design 1 was applied. Finally, results of wearing and droplet spreading experiments showed that the fabricated face shield for Design 1 was applicable to protection of droplet spreading. © 2021 Korean Society for Precision Engineeing. All rights reserved.

Participation of the IL-10RB Related Cytokines, IL-22 and IFN-lambda in Defense of the Airway Mucosal Barrier

The airway epithelial barrier is a major barrier protecting against clinically significant infections of the lung. Its integrity is often compromised due to mechanical, chemical, or infectious causes. Opportunistic bacterial pathogens are poised to cause parenchymal infection and become difficult to eradicate due to adaptive metabolic changes, biofilm formation, and the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance and fitness genes. Enhancing mucosal defenses by modulating the cytokines that regulate barrier functions, such as interleukin-22 (IL-22) and interferon-lambda (IFN-lambda), members of the IL-10 family of cytokines, is an attractive approach to prevent these infections that are associated with high morbidity and mortality. These cytokines both signal through the cognate receptor IL-10RB, have related protein structures and common downstream signaling suggesting shared roles in host respiratory defense. They are typically co-expressed in multiple models of infections, but with differing kinetics. IL-22 has an important role in the producing antimicrobial peptides, upregulating expression of junctional proteins in the airway epithelium and working in concert with other inflammatory cytokines such as IL-17. Conversely, IFN-lambda, a potent antiviral in influenza infection with pro-inflammatory properties, appears to decrease junctional integrity allowing for bacterial and immune cell translocation. The effects of these cytokines are pleotropic, with pathogen and tissue specific consequences. Understanding how these cytokines work in the mucosal defenses of the respiratory system may suggest potential targets to prevent invasive infections of the damaged lung.