User interfaces for remote robotic manipulation widely lack sufficient support for situation awareness and, consequently, can induce high mental workload. With poor situation awareness, operators may fail to notice task-relevant features in the environment often leading the robot to collide with the environment. With high workload, operators may not perform well over long periods of time and may feel stressed. We present an ecological visualization that improves operator situation awareness. Our user study shows that operators using the ecological interface collided with the environment on average half as many times compared with a typical interface, even with a poorly calibrated 3D sensor; however, users performed more quickly with the typical interface. The primary benefit of the user study is identifying several changes to the design of the user interface; preliminary results indicate that these changes improve the usability of the manipulator.

Triggered by advanced technologies, physical structures are becoming increasingly efficient and vanish from the experienced space. Eventually, the main task of architects will shift to shaping and manipulating the atmosphere that is surrounding the dissolving physical reality of architecture. Any clear separation between interior and exterior starts to blur as every biological and metaphysical experience can be simulated in any given environment. A phenomenon accelerated by efficient communication technologies, merging the analog and digital space. Not only profane architecture will be affected, but also the very intimate setting of our living habitats. The proposal of a prototypical future dwelling explores the potential to both implement spatial simulations and to manipulate cultural rituals in our living environments. By communicating through the medium of post-processed pencil drawings, the project dares to predict the future relation of serving and served spaces to our body and mind.

Understanding of mechanisms that limit the abundance and distribution of species is central to ecology. The failure of mechanisms to regulate populations can result in population outbreaks. There have been two outbreaks of house mice in the past decade in central Florida. In my study, I examine the efficacy of landscape management in the form of mowing and plowed soil barriers to limit or prevent outbreaks of house mice in a former agricultural area. House mouse populations were highly variable, but were unaffected by mowing or plowed soil barriers. Red imported fire ants were ubiquitous in the study area regardless of land management treatments. Control of fire ants did not result in more house mice on treated plots.

In today's social media we see an increase in the use of filters, filters that can distort one's appearance and surroundings, making one wonder what is real and authentic. This essay will analyze two different apps intended for social media that use the popular automated editing tools; Augmented Reality(AR)- and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to find how easily accessible they are and whether the results seem authentic. Through a semiotic approach, I begin the analysis by visually examining the AR and AI filter in the apps to see how they are represented and then what effect it has when applying it on a selected portrait. My findings will contribute to gaining more understanding within the subject of image manipulation and filter, as well as helping me and other graphic designers to increase awareness around consequences when using tools that alter reality.

This study investigates the earnings management practices of firms around product recalls. In recent years, the management of earnings around firm-specific events has received considerable attention in the finance and accounting literature. New equity issues, mergers and acquisitions, share repurchases, and management buyouts are some events around which at least some firms have been shown to manage their earnings to achieve managements? objectives. Product recalls offer yet another interesting occasion when managers have incentives to cover up the true financial performance of their firms and mislead investors. In order to determine whether firms announcing product recalls manage earnings more aggressively than non-announcing firms, this study employs the cross-sectional version of the modified Jones (1991) model, as adapted by Teoh, Welch, and Wong (1998 a and b). In order to address the misspecification concern of the model, especially in the context of a performance-related event like product recall, we suggest a modification in the model. We show that the proposed change in the model not only better controls for event-specific working capital changes around recalls, it also increases the explanatory power of the model. Overall, our results suggest that managers tend to manage earnings upwards in quarters immediately preceding and following the recall announcement quarter. We also find weak evidence of downward earnings management in the quarter of recall. These results are in line with the predictions of theoretical models and the findings of past empirical studies in earnings management. The results of our research have important implications for investors and regulators.

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