scholarly journals CryptoKitties Transaction Network Analysis: The Rise and Fall of the First Blockchain Game Mania

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin-Jian Jiang ◽  
Xiao Fan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ownership Transfer ◽  
Time In Literature ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Short Time ◽  
First Time

CryptoKitties was the first widely recognized blockchain game. Players could own, breed, and trade kitties, which are the only prop in the game. The game gained explosive growth upon its release but quickly collapsed in a short time. This study analyzes its entire player activity history for the first time in literature and tries to find the reasons for the rise and fall of this first blockchain game mania. First, we extracted the five million transaction records among 100 thousand addresses involved in CryptoKitties in the past three years. Based on the numbers of addresses involved in the game each day, we divide the game progress into four stages: the primer, the rise, the fall, and the serenity. We construct a temporal kitty ownership transfer network and analyze the varying network parameters in the four stages. We find that a large number of players poured in during the 10th and 18th days since the game release and quickly exited in the following month. Since then, a few big players have gradually dominated the game, concentrating the game resources. Through further analysis, we find that the main reason for the rapid increase in the game popularity was the increase of public attention by media outlets, while the reasons for the rapid decline in the game popularity include the oversupply of kitties, the decreasing of player income, a widening gap between the rich and poor players, and the limitations of blockchain systems. Based on these observations, we advise on the further blockchain game design: (1) to finely control the production of props and avoid an oversupply, (2) to balance the gaming cost and revenue and protect the enjoyment of players, (3) to narrow down the gap between rich and poor and create an equal gaming community, (4) to consider the limitations of blockchain systems in their game designs.

Studies on the equatorial spot of G-type contact binary UV Lyn

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Wang ◽  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Linqiao Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Activity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Photometric Observations ◽  
Massive Component ◽  
Type Contact ◽  
Contact Binary ◽  
Periodic Trend ◽  
Short Time ◽  
First Time ◽  
Magnitude Difference

Abstract New CCD photometric observations of G-type contact binary UV Lyn were obtained in 2006 and 2020, when the light curves (LCs) show positive O'Connell effect and negative O'Connell effect, especially. From the previous studies, the LCs by other ground-based telescope are variable from 1973 to 2020, particularly the magnitude difference between the two maxima. These phenomena indicate that the component is active in the past 47 years. In addition, under the monitoring of the space telescope of Transiting Exoplant Survey Satellite (TESS) from January to March in 2020, we fortunately find the continuous variations of O'Connell effect in every circle for the first time. The analysis also shows that in a short time, the positive O'Connell effect has been transformed into the negative one, which proves that there are stronger magnetic activities on the surface of the component. By using the Wilson-Devinney code with a spot model, these photometric solutions confirm UV Lyn is a shallow W-subtype contact binary with a cool equatorial spot on the less massive component. The successive variability of O'Connell effect possibly result from one equatorial cool spot shifting gradually along with time. We also investigate its \emph{O-C} curve from these continuous LCs, there is not obvious variation in such short time. while, the O’Connell effect as the indicator of the magnetic activity are possibly undergoing a periodic trend of a period of nearly 38 days. Comparing \emph{O-C} curve, we could find there is not relation between the period variation and magnetic activity.

scholarly journals Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1754) ◽  
pp. 20122845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Ehrlich ◽  
Anne H. Ehrlich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global Collapse ◽  
The Rich ◽  
First Time

Environmental problems have contributed to numerous collapses of civilizations in the past. Now, for the first time, a global collapse appears likely. Overpopulation, overconsumption by the rich and poor choices of technologies are major drivers; dramatic cultural change provides the main hope of averting calamity.

World Economy: Prospects and Barriers for Recovery

2012 ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ershov
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Western World ◽  
Short Time Period ◽  
Market Segments ◽  
Junk Bonds ◽  
The Past ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global Liquidity ◽  
Short Time

According to the latest forecasts, it will take 10 years for the world economy to get back to “decent shape”. Some more critical estimates suggest that the whole western world will have a “colossal mess” within the next 5–10 years. Regulators of some major countries significantly and over a short time‑period changed their forecasts for the worse which means that uncertainty in the outlook for the future persists. Indeed, the intensive anti‑crisis measures have reduced the severity of the past problems, however the problems themselves have not disappeared. Moreover, some of them have become more intense — the eurocrisis, excessive debts, global liquidity glut against the backdrop of its deficit in some of market segments. As was the case prior to the crisis, derivatives and high‑risk operations with “junk” bonds grow; budget problems — “fiscal cliff” in the US — and other problems worsen. All of the above forces the regulators to take unprecedented (in their scope and nature) steps. Will they be able to tackle the problems which emerge?

A Qualified Assertion Database for the History of Places

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Brandon Plewe
Keyword(s):  
Data Model ◽  
Temporal Change ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Historical Gis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Complex Information ◽  
Invaluable Tool ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich

Historical place databases can be an invaluable tool for capturing the rich meaning of past places. However, this richness presents obstacles to success: the daunting need to simultaneously represent complex information such as temporal change, uncertainty, relationships, and thorough sourcing has been an obstacle to historical GIS in the past. The Qualified Assertion Model developed in this paper can represent a variety of historical complexities using a single, simple, flexible data model based on a) documenting assertions of the past world rather than claiming to know the exact truth, and b) qualifying the scope, provenance, quality, and syntactics of those assertions. This model was successfully implemented in a production-strength historical gazetteer of religious congregations, demonstrating its effectiveness and some challenges.

Collective Memory: Between Values and Historical Knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.

The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Computational Social Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diverse Field ◽  
The Rich

Social networks fundamentally shape our lives. Networks channel the ways that information, emotions, and diseases flow through populations. Networks reflect differences in power and status in settings ranging from small peer groups to international relations across the globe. Network tools even provide insights into the ways that concepts, ideas and other socially generated contents shape culture and meaning. As such, the rich and diverse field of social network analysis has emerged as a central tool across the social sciences. This Handbook provides an overview of the theory, methods, and substantive contributions of this field. The thirty-three chapters move through the basics of social network analysis aimed at those seeking an introduction to advanced and novel approaches to modeling social networks statistically. The Handbook includes chapters on data collection and visualization, theoretical innovations, links between networks and computational social science, and how social network analysis has contributed substantively across numerous fields. As networks are everywhere in social life, the field is inherently interdisciplinary and this Handbook includes contributions from leading scholars in sociology, archaeology, economics, statistics, and information science among others.

scholarly journals A Survey of the Knowledge of Truffles among Polish Foresters and Implications for Environmental Education

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 365
Author(s):  
Dorota Hilszczańska ◽  
Aleksandra Rosa-Gruszecka ◽  
Bogusław Kosel ◽  
Jakub Horak ◽  
Marta Siebyła
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Forest Ecology ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Hypogeous Fungi ◽  
The Public ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ecology Education ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Tuber Spp

While the use of truffles in Poland has a long tradition, for historical reasons this knowledge was almost lost. Currently, truffles and truffle orchards are again receiving public attention. For example, the Polish State Forests supported the establishment of truffle orchards by the Forestry Research Institute. In recent years, knowledge concerning these unique hypogeous fungi has been disseminated systematically through scientific and popular publications, films, and electronic media. This study investigates the awareness of economically and culinary valued truffle fungi (Tuber spp.) among more than 1400 Polish foresters. The results show that 70% of interviewees were familiar with historical and contemporary information about growing and using truffles in Poland. Based on respondents’ age, education, type of work, and gender we attempted to identify whether these elements were associated with the state of knowledge about truffles. The results indicated that younger foresters were better informed about the presence of truffles in Poland and also about their use in the past in Polish cuisine. Environmental education was an important source of knowledge about truffle harvesting and the soils that are conducive to truffle development. Foresters who have provided forest ecology education and who are 36–65 years of age generally possessed better knowledge about truffles than other age cohorts. More than 30% of respondents expressed interest in educational courses to improve their knowledge of truffles. The results point to the need for forestry education concerning truffles and indicate the need for fostering sustainable agroforestry-centered initiatives disseminating this knowledge to the public.

scholarly journals Efficacy of compressed sodium chloride (CSC) against E. coli and Candida auris in minutes and methods improvement for testing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan N. Truong ◽  
Brayden D. Whitlock
Keyword(s):  
Sodium Chloride ◽  
Improved Method ◽  
Candida Auris ◽  
Antimicrobial Surfaces ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Route Of Transmission ◽  
The World ◽  
Short Time ◽  
First Time ◽  
Time Point

AbstractControlling infections has become one of the biggest problems in the world, whether measured in lives lost or money spent. This is worsening as pathogens continue becoming resistant to therapeutics. Antimicrobial surfaces are one strategy being investigated in an attempt to decrease the spread of infections through the most common route of transmission: surfaces, including hands. Regulators have chosen two hours as the time point at which efficacy should be measured. The objectives of this study were to characterize the new antimicrobial surface compressed sodium chloride (CSC) so that its action may be understood at timepoints more relevant to real-time infection control, under two minutes; to develop a sensitive method to test efficacy at short time points; and to investigate antifungal properties for the first time. E. coli and Candida auris are added to surfaces, and the surfaces are monitored by contact plate, or by washing into collection vats. An improved method of testing antimicrobial efficacy is reported. Antimicrobial CSC achieves at least 99.9% reduction of E. coli in the first two minutes of contact, and at least 99% reduction of C. auris in one minute.

scholarly journals Bactericidal activity of three different antiseptic ophthalmic preparations as surgical prophylaxis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Tognetto ◽  
Marco R. Pastore ◽  
Gian Marco Guerin ◽  
Giuliana Decorti ◽  
Martina Franzin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Activity ◽  
Povidone Iodine ◽  
Bacterial Load ◽  
Viable Cells ◽  
Polyethylene Glycol 1000 ◽  
Oil Concentration ◽  
Short Time ◽  
First Time ◽  
Antiseptic Solutions

Abstract Purpose In the era of antibiotic resistance, there is an increased interest in antiseptic solutions that might represent a reliable option for ocular surface disinfection. The objective of this study is to compare for the first time three different antiseptic ophthalmic preparations to assess their in vitro antimicrobial activity. Methods The antiseptic activity of three commercial ophthalmic solutions, IODIM (povidone-iodine 0.6% in hyaluronic acid vehicle—Medivis, Catania, Italy), OZODROP (nanoemulsion with ozonated oil—concentration not specified—FBVision, Ophthalmic Pharmaceuticals, Rome, Italy), and DROPSEPT (chlorhexidine 0.02% and vitamin E 0.5% Tocopherol Polyethylene Glycol 1000 Succinate—TPGS, Sooft Italia, Montegiorgio, Italy), was tested in vitro on six reference strains by time-killing assays. Viable cells were evaluated after 1, 15, 30 min; 2, 6, and 24 h exposure by seeding 100 µl of the suspension (or appropriate dilutions) on LB agar or Sabouraud-dextrose agar. All plates were incubated at 37 °C for 24 h and evaluated by manually counting the colonies. Results IODIM solution showed a very rapid microbicidal activity: the number of viable cells for all the tested strains was under the detection limit (less than 10 CFU/ml) already after 1 min exposure, and this result was maintained at every incubation time. The rapid antimicrobial activity of povidone-iodine was not replicated when testing the other two antiseptics. Conclusions The study reports the great efficacy in reducing bacterial load in a very short time of povidone-iodine 0.6% compared with other antiseptic preparations.

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