Effect Of Asymmetry Research Articles

Factors mitigate the effect of widowhood's mental health impact: A longitudinal test from individual, familial, and social perspectives.

Although widowhood has been considered a significant risk factor for mental health, the duration of its effects and the potential mitigating factors involved in this relationship remain inadequately understood among Chinese older adults. This study investigates the longitudinal relationship between widowhood and depression and examines the interaction effects of health asymmetry, the number of children, and urban-rural differences from individual, familial, and social perspectives. A sample of 9,563 individuals for the four rounds period (from 2011 to 2018) is obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Results demonstrate that (a) the depression associated with widowhood is expected to revert to prewidowhood level after 3 years, (b) the relationship between widowhood and depression is stronger for older adults who are health pessimists compared to those who are health optimists, (c) the relationship between widowhood and depression is stronger for older adults with fewer children compared to those with more children, and (d) the relationship between widowhood and depression is stronger for older adults living in rural areas than those living in urban areas. These findings are essential for policymakers and practitioners working with widowed older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect of word order asymmetry on the cognitive load of English–Chinese sight translation

Abstract This article examines word order asymmetry as one prominent obstacle in the cognitive process of English–Chinese sight translation. A within-subject experiment was designed for 23 MA translation students who sight translated sentences with different degrees of structural asymmetry from English into Chinese in both single sentence and discourse contexts. To measure cognitive load, participants’ eye movements during translation were recorded using an eye tracker. Three major findings were generated: (1) The effect of word order asymmetry was confirmed on both sentence-based and word-based processing; (2) Contextual information did not contribute to less effortful processing in the discourse context (as indicated by more fixations and longer regressions); (3) Segmentation was used far more frequently than restructuring to address asymmetric structures. We expect these findings will enrich our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in interpreting between languages that are structurally very different and help inform training practices.

Estimating Compressive and Shear Forces at L5-S1: Exploring the Effects of Load Weight, Asymmetry, and Height Using Optical and Inertial Motion Capture Systems.

This study assesses the agreement of compressive and shear force estimates at the L5-S1 joint using inertial motion capture (IMC) within a musculoskeletal simulation model during manual lifting tasks, compared against a top-down optical motion capture (OMC)-based model. Thirty-six participants completed lifting and lowering tasks while wearing a modified Plug-in Gait marker set for the OMC and a full-body IMC set-up consisting of 17 sensors. The study focused on tasks with variable load weights, lifting heights, and trunk rotation angles. It was found that the IMC system consistently underestimated the compressive forces by an average of 34% (975.16 N) and the shear forces by 30% (291.77 N) compared with the OMC system. A critical observation was the discrepancy in joint angle measurements, particularly in trunk flexion, where the IMC-based model underestimated the angles by 10.92-11.19 degrees on average, with the extremes reaching up to 28 degrees. This underestimation was more pronounced in tasks involving greater flexion, notably impacting the force estimates. Additionally, this study highlights significant differences in the distance from the spine to the box during these tasks. On average, the IMC system showed an 8 cm shorter distance on the X axis and a 12-13 cm shorter distance on the Z axis during lifting and lowering, respectively, indicating a consistent underestimation of the segment length compared with the OMC system. These discrepancies in the joint angles and distances suggest potential limitations of the IMC system's sensor placement and model scaling. The load weight emerged as the most significant factor affecting force estimates, particularly at lower lifting heights, which involved more pronounced flexion movements. This study concludes that while the IMC system offers utility in ergonomic assessments, sensor placement and anthropometric modeling accuracy enhancements are imperative for more reliable force and kinematic estimations in occupational settings.

Can the global financial cycle and economic conditions predict real estate market volatility?

ABSTRACT This study examines the predictive power of the newly proposed global financial cycle (GFC) and global economic conditions (GECON) indicators for real estate market volatility. To this end, we extend the GARCH-MIDAS model by simultaneously incorporating realized volatility and macro indicators along with the asymmetry effect. The empirical results reveal that both GFC and GECON provide significant predictive information on real estate market volatility. The predictive performance of GFC is superior to that of GECON, implying the important role of finance in the real estate market. The relationship between GFC/GECON and the future volatility of the real estate market is positive, and the short- and long-run asymmetry effects are evidenced.

A numerical study on the effect of asymmetry on underwater noise emission in offshore monopile installation

Offshore wind energy holds significant promise as a solution in the energy transition. However, installing offshore pile foundations can generate substantial levels of underwater noise, posing potential risks to marine life. This paper examines the influence of asymmetric impact forces and pile inclination on producing underwater noise and seabed vibrations based on cases of a small- and large-diameter monopile. The study focuses on scenarios involving inclined and eccentric forces and tilted piles. The analysis reveals that non-symmetrical conditions significantly impact the sound pressure levels around the ring frequency of the pile due to various noise generation mechanisms. However, it is observed that the vertical component of the impact force predominantly contributes to the generation of underwater noise, primarily due to its considerably higher amplitude.

Driven electron g-factor anisotropy in layered III–V semiconductors: Interfacing, tunnel coupling, and structure inversion asymmetry effects

A key piece for spintronic applications, the so-called electron g-factor engineering is still predominantly based on the semiconductor bulk g factor and its dependence on the bandgap energy. In nanostructures, however, the mesoscopic confinement introduces exclusive anisotropies, transforming scalar g factors into tensors, enabling different renormalization mechanisms as routes for fine-tuning the electron g factor. These questions we address in this comparative theoretical analysis between the obtained electron g-factor (tensor) anisotropies for realistic InAs|AlSb- and In0.53Ga0.47As|InP-based multilayers. The electron g-factor anisotropy, i.e., the difference between g factors for magnetic fields parallel and perpendicular to the interfaces, is analytically calculated via perturbation theory using the envelope-function approach based on the eight-band Kane model. Effects from bulk, interfacing, tunnel coupling, and structure inversion asymmetry are systematically introduced within a transparent comparative view; differences between obtained anisotropies, such as in the magnitude, sign, and other fine details, are analyzed in terms of the heterostructure parameters, mapped over different confining and tunnel-coupling regimes without requiring elaborated numerical computations.

Emission abatement in low-carbon supply chains with government subsidy and information asymmetry

Governmental subsidy policy and channel information structure have substantial effects on supply chain emission reduction, operations and marketing decisions. In this paper, we use game theory to study the interplay of government subsidizing arrangement and information asymmetry on manufacturers' emission reduction and retailers' low-carbon promotion. Suppose realistically that the investment coefficients for manufacturers' emission reduction levels and retailer' low-carbon promotion levels are their respective private information. Among diverse governmental subsidy schemes, we find dual subsidizing are the best choice for the defined level of total subsidy under information asymmetry, while it is not always the best choice if the total subsidy level is uncertain. Under information asymmetry, the results show that manufacturer have no incentive to lie under any subsidy policy. However, the retailer has incentive to misrepresent individual information and its misreporting behaviour is related to the coefficient and allocation ratio of governmental subsidies. On this basis, we illustrate that a screening model can be deployed to reduce the negative effects of information asymmetry on supply chain operations. We therefore propose the method of improving the performance of low-carbon supply chains under various situations of information asymmetry and governmental subsidizing schemes to achieve system-wide Pareto improvement.

Is There J-Curve Phenomenon and Asymmetric Effects of Exchange Rate on Trade Balance in East Java?

This study aims to analyze the effect of exchange rate asymmetry on the trade balance between East Java Province and the largest trading partner countries (China, Japan, and the United States) in the short-run and long-run and to detect the J-Curve phenomenon. This study uses the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed-Lag (NARDL) method with 2010Q1 - 2023Q1 time-series data. The results of the study show that in the short-run, both the appreciation (NEG) and depreciation (POS) of the exchange rate have no effect on East Java's trade balance in all models. However, in the long-run, exchange rate appreciation and depreciation have a significant negative effect on East Java's trade balance across all models. Based on the estimation results, it can be concluded that there is no J-Curve phenomenon in East Java's trade balance with trading partner countries. Because in the asymmetry model, the J-Curve phenomenon can occur if depreciation or appreciation has a significant positive effect and is cointegrated in the long-run, regardless of the short-run coefficient being positive or negative and significant or not significant. From these conditions, it can be concluded that the trade industry in East Java is called inelastic. That is, price changes do not affect demand for export and import volumes. Therefore, the policy of depreciating the Rupiah exchange rate is not the best strategy to be implemented as an export promotion for East Java because only a few sectors benefit.

Maneuvering Characteristics of Bilateral Amplitude-Asymmetric Flapping Motion Based on a Bat-Inspired Flexible Wing.

Flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) have gained much attention from researchers due to their exceptional performance at low Reynolds numbers. However, the limited understanding of active aerodynamic modulation in flying creatures has hindered their maneuverability from reaching that of their biological counterparts. In this article, experimental investigations were conducted to examine the effect of the bilateral amplitude asymmetry of flexible flapping wings. A reduced bionic model featuring bat-like wings is built, and a dimensionless number ΔΦ* is introduced to scale the degree of bilateral amplitude asymmetry in flapping motion. The experimental results suggest that the bilateral amplitude-asymmetric flapping motion primarily induces maneuvering control forces of coupling roll moment and yaw moment. Also, roll moment and yaw moment have a good linear relationship. To achieve more efficient maneuvers based on this asymmetric motion, it is advisable to maintain ΔΦ* within the range of 0 to 0.4. The magnitude of passive pitching deformation during the downstroke is significantly greater than that during the upstroke. The phase of the peak of the passive pitching angle advances with the increase in flapping amplitude, while the valleys lag. And the proportion of pronation and supination in passive pitching motion cannot be adjusted by changing the flapping amplitude. These findings have important practical relevance for regulating turning maneuvers based on amplitude asymmetry and help to understand the active aerodynamic modulation mechanism through asymmetric wing kinematics.

A North-South Agent–Based Model of segmented labor markets: the role of education and trade asymmetries

Abstract Drawing upon the labour-augmented K+S Agent-Based Model (ABM), this paper develops a two-country North-South ABM wherein the leader and the laggard country interact through the international trade of machines. The model aims to address sources of asymmetries and possible converge patterns between two economies belonging to a currency union, that are initially differentiated only in terms of the education level they are able to ensure. Education is modeled as a macro-level public policy differently targeting three levels, that is primary, secondary and tertiary. After being educated, when workers enter the labour force, they face a segmented labour market, divided into three types of qualifications and resulting functions deployed inside firms, i.e., basic, medium and advanced occupations. The three markets are heterogeneous in terms of both requested education level and minimum offered wage. We experiment with different education and trade settings. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding the coupling effects of asymmetries in education, which reverberate in segmented labour markets and differentiated growth patterns. Notably, our focus on capital-goods trade, rather than on consumption goods, allows us to investigate a direct link between productive capabilities in complex products and country growth prospects.

Deterioration-induced asymmetry-insensitive collapse behavior in low-rise torsionally-stiff buildings

This study investigates a significant point in the collapse behavior of asymmetric torsionally-stiff buildings, which is ignored by seismic design codes. The aim is to show how the effect of asymmetry on the collapse capacity depends on the deterioration characteristics of structures. To this end, the collapse performance evaluation of low-rise moment-resisting frame buildings is performed according to the FEMA-P695 methodology, emphasizing the drawbacks of ignoring degrading properties of structures in the collapse assessment. Then, the importance of deterioration is measured by a novel criterion, which is able to resolve the deficiency of prior justifications for the effect of asymmetry on the collapse performance of structures. Accordingly, there is a limit state for the proposed measure above which we may have an asymmetry-insensitive collapse performance for low-rise torsionally-stiff buildings. A two-step verification process is employed to confirm the validity of the results.

Efficiency and resilience of cooperation in asymmetric social dilemmas

Direct reciprocity is a powerful mechanism for cooperation in social dilemmas. The very logic of reciprocity, however, seems to require that individuals are symmetric, and that everyone has the same means to influence each others' payoffs. Yet in many applications, individuals are asymmetric. Herein, we study the effect of asymmetry in linear public good games. Individuals may differ in their endowments (their ability to contribute to a public good) and in their productivities (how effective their contributions are). Given the individuals' productivities, we ask which allocation of endowments is optimal for cooperation. To this end, we consider two notions of optimality. The first notion focuses on the resilience of cooperation. The respective endowment distribution ensures that full cooperation is feasible even under the most adverse conditions. The second notion focuses on efficiency. The corresponding endowment distribution maximizes group welfare. Using analytical methods, we fully characterize these two endowment distributions. This analysis reveals that both optimality notions favor some endowment inequality: More productive players ought to get higher endowments. Yet the two notions disagree on how unequal endowments are supposed to be. A focus on resilience results in less inequality. With additional simulations, we show that the optimal endowment allocation needs to account for both the resilience and the efficiency of cooperation.

Power asymmetry in repeated play of provision and appropriation games

This paper studies the effect of power asymmetry on resolution of social dilemmas in repeated play of linear public good games. The experiment uses a 2 × 2 design that crosses power symmetry or asymmetry in payoff-equivalent provision and appropriation games with positive (provision) or negative (appropriation) externalities. Power asymmetry combines privileged access to information with extended opportunity sets that allow for taking a public good provided or not-appropriated by others. Our data suggest that power asymmetry has a detrimental effect on efficiency, with the effect being more pronounced in the asymmetric-power appropriation game. Individual allocations to the public good increase in others’ allocations, suggesting that individual allocations are not strategic substitutes. With power asymmetry, first movers earn less than the second mover in the appropriation game but not in the provision game.

Measuring neutrino mass and asymmetry with matter pairwise velocities

ABSTRACT Neutrinos are believed to be the most abundant fermions in the Universe, but their masses are unknown, except for being non-zero but much smaller than other fermions. Cosmological relic neutrinos could also have non-zero chemical potentials (or asymmetries). Using neutrino-involved N-body simulations, we investigate the neutrino effects on the matter pairwise velocity, which itself is an interesting probe of cosmology. We find that for light-halo ([1011, 1013] M⊙) mean pairwise velocity, in the transition range ([4, 15] Mpc), the effects of neutrino masses overwhelm the effects of neutrino asymmetries, while in the two-halo-group range ([25, 50] Mpc), for both light and heavy haloes ([1013, 1015] M⊙), the effects of neutrino asymmetries dominate, making it possible to disentangle the two effects. We provide fitting formulae to quantify the effects of neutrino mass and asymmetry on halo–halo pairwise velocities.

Pitch Improvement in Attentional Blink: A Study across Audiovisual Asymmetries.

Attentional blink (AB) is a phenomenon in which the perception of a second target is impaired when it appears within 200-500 ms after the first target. Sound affects an AB and is accompanied by the appearance of an asymmetry during audiovisual integration, but it is not known whether this is related to the tonal representation of sound. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of audiovisual asymmetry on attentional blink and whether the presentation of pitch improves the ability to detect a target during an AB that is accompanied by audiovisual asymmetry. The results showed that as the lag increased, the subject's target recognition improved and the pitch produced further improvements. These improvements exhibited a significant asymmetry across the audiovisual channel. Our findings could contribute to better utilizations of audiovisual integration resources to improve attentional transients and auditory recognition decline, which could be useful in areas such as driving and education.

الأثر المعدل للتحفظ المحاسبي على العلاقة بين عدم تماثل المعلومات وتكلفة رأس المال: دراسة تطبيقية على الشركات الصناعية المدرجة في بورصات دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي

The aim of this study is to identify the moderating effect of accounting conservatism on the relationship between information asymmetry and cost of capital. Since this issue is almost neglected in the emerging markets, especially in the Arab countries, the study uses data belongs to the industrial companies listed on the exchanges of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries covering the 2015-2021 period. The results show that accounting conservatism moderates the positive effect of information asymmetry on the cost of capital. Therefore, companies may reduce cost of capital by decreasing information asymmetry and enhancing the use of conservative accounting practices. In particular, the level of disclosure and the efficiency of governance should be enhanced. Regulators can significantly contribute in this regard by issuing relevant regulations and improving the oversight over companies. Finally the study provides insights to be considered in the future research.

Approximate parameter estimation and mis-specification analysis of degradation model with asymmetric random effects

Asymmetric distributions such as the skew-normal (SN) distribution have been used for modeling the unit-to-unit variation of the degradation rate of products, and its superiority for model fitting and lifetime estimation has been demonstrated in literature. However, there still exist two issues that need to be further studied. That is, how to simply estimate the parameters of the degradation model with asymmetric random effects and whether the asymmetry or skewness affects the remaining useful life (RUL) prediction. Driven by these two issues, the parameter estimation and RUL prediction of the degradation model with general random effects are first introduced and a two-step maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method for parameter estimation is proposed, which could greatly simplify the parameter estimation of the degradation model with asymmetric random effects. Then, the SN distribution is used as an example to analyze the second issue regarding the effect of model mis-specification on RUL prediction based on regression models and Wiener processes with different asymmetric random effects in theory. Finally, the parameter estimation and mis-specification analysis of degradation models with other asymmetric random effects are conducted through numerical examples and two case studies. The results demonstrate that the proposed two-step MLE method is satisfactory and the effect of asymmetry on RUL prediction is negligible. Therefore, there is no need to consider the asymmetry of random effects for RUL prediction.

Effect of asymmetry on microstructure and mechanical behavior of as-rolled AZ31 magnesium alloy medium plates during coiling at warm temperatures

This study investigates the mechanical behavior, microstructural characteristics, and neutral layer shift of as-rolled AZ31 Mg alloys during coiling deformation at various warm temperatures. The medium plates were subjected to V-bending tests and numerical simulations. The results indicated that as the temperature increases, the non-basal slip systems are heavily activated, resulting in a decrease in fracture stress and an increase in flexural deflection. The analysis of geometrically necessary dislocations (GND) and Schmid factor (SF) indicates that tension-compression asymmetry results in higher stress concentration and a greater likelihood of cracking in the tensile zone (TZ) compared to the compressive zone (CZ). This condition is not conducive to coiling. Moreover, as the temperature increases, the density of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) in the TZ gradually increases. This leads to an enhanced activation of non-basal slip systems, improving the deformability of the medium plate during coiling. The stress triaxiality fluctuated the most when the temperature reached 200 °C. This can be attributed to the involvement of non-basal slip systems in the deformation of the plate. With the increase in coiling temperature and coiling rate, the neutral layer shifts towards the TZ and subsequently transitions to the CZ, leading to a reduction in the coiling inner diameter. Moreover, the shift of the neutral layer is significantly influenced by the radius of the indenter.

Comprehensive Analysis of Graphene Geometric Diodes: Role of Geometrical Asymmetry and Electrostatic Effects

Comprehensive Analysis of Graphene Geometric Diodes: Role of Geometrical Asymmetry and Electrostatic Effects

Updated Theory and New Evidence on the Effect of Information System Precision on Managerial Reporting

ABSTRACT Information asymmetry is fundamental to participative budgeting. Hannan, Rankin, and Towry (2006, “HRT”) develop a nuanced theory regarding the effect of information asymmetry on slack. The authors provide evidence that suggests increasing the precision of a superior’s information system, thereby reducing information asymmetry, can increase slack. We develop a refined version of HRT’s theory by incorporating evidence of how nonpecuniary incentives affect subordinates’ reporting slack from research subsequent to HRT. Our updated theory predicts that slack decreases as information system precision increases, opposite to the results in HRT. To test our refined theory, we replicate HRT’s experiment and find results consistent with our theory. Our results support HRT’s general theory but highlight the importance of establishing regularities of how nonpecuniary incentives affect behavior in accounting. Specifically, our updated theory and new evidence suggest that improving information system precision decreases budgetary slack, contrary to the results suggested in HRT. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request. JEL Classifications: D82; M41; M52.