Despite the rapid growth of virtual content purchases in online games, understanding of how to measure gamers’ motivations to purchase such in-game content lags behind to date, exposing an important gap in the literature. Addressing this gap, we take a self-determination theory perspective to conceptualize in-game content purchase motivations (IGCPMs) as a player’s drive for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in online games that leads the individual to purchase in-game virtual content. Following established scale development procedures, we conceptualize, develop, and validate an eight-dimensional, 30-item IGCPM scale. As a formative higher-order construct, IGCPMs comprise three second-order factors (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness motivations), which are each composed of particular facets: (i) players’ autonomy motivation comprises creativity, choice, and uniqueness, (ii) their competence motivation includes dominance, achievement, and skillfulness, and (iii) their relatedness motivation comprises social interaction and social affiliation. The findings generate pertinent implications for gaming researchers (e.g., by applying the proposed scale) and developers, manufacturers, and marketers (e.g., by allowing them to deduce players’ key IGCPMs).

In online gaming, selling virtual game items is a growing phenomenon designed to engage players. Despite growing adoption, little remains known regarding the gamer’s perceived virtual item retail experiences, particularly in the online game retail context. Based on the hedonic consumption perspectives, we examined the role of escapism, role projection, fantasy, enjoyment, emotional involvement, and arousal in developing positive attitudes toward in-game virtual items, which eventually enhanced behavioral outcomes such as game store loyalty, willingness to pay (WTP) and word-of-mouth (WOM). We collected survey data from 281 online gamers and analyzed the data using partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modeling. The results indicate that fantasy, escapism, enjoyment, and arousal significantly enhance gamers’ favorable attitudes toward virtual item experiences. Moreover, the findings indicate the positive influence of attitude on players’ WTP, loyalty to retailers, and positive WOM. This study is the first to explore imaginal and emotional experiences as antecedents that derive gamers’ favorable attitudes toward in-game item retail experiences and their subsequent influence on gamers’ consumption behavior. Online game retailers may benefit from focusing on virtual item experiences to elevate premium gamers’ retail attitudes and their ensuing consumption behaviors.

This research article explores the significance of molecular characteristics and structural design of sulfur $$(S^{VI})$$ -based drugs. Topological descriptors and entropy of these drugs were calculated for analyzing the structural properties, in order to enhance our understanding of molecular behavior. Furthermore, their physicochemical properties were explored by utilizing supervised machine learning algorithms and performing Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship (QSPR) analysis, which explains the connections between the topological descriptor and physicochemical attributes. This comprehensive approach elucidates the molecular characteristics of sulfur $$(S^{VI})$$ -based drugs, establishing the foundation for a deeper understanding of their pharmacological effects and therapeutic capacity.

ARA is an at-scale Platform for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR), specifically tailored to the unique community, application, and economic context of rural regions. It features the first-of-its-kind real-world implementation of long-distance, high-capacity wireless backhaul and access systems spanning over 30 km in diameter. Leveraging both software-defined radios and programmable Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems, ARA orchestrates the wireless resources alongside the networking and compute resources for enabling end-to-end experiments involving user equipment, base stations, edge computing, and cloud infrastructure. Such an integration facilitates the coevolution of rural-focused wireless innovation and applications, while helping to advance the frontiers of advanced Next-G wireless systems such as Open RAN. As of summer 2024, ARA is publicly accessible with 7 base stations (BSes) and over 30 user equipment (UEs). In this demo, we share advanced wireless research experiments enabled by ARA, involving MU-MIMO in TV White Space (TVWS) bands, long-range mmWave and microwave backhaul communications, and open-source 5G NR protocol stacks such as srsRAN and OpenAirInterface (OAI).

Lassa Fever (LF), caused by Mastomys natalensis, a rodent specie, is an acute zoonotic viral hemorrhagic illness. It is endemic in most countries of West Africa, and may spread to other parts of the world, if not checked, according to the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention. In this paper, we present a spatiotemporal analysis of previous outbreaks of Lassa Fever in Nigeria, and hybrid mathematical and agent-based models to understand the dynamics of the transmission and environmental factors affecting the outbreaks. Using existing data on recorded cases and available intervention details, we model the effectiveness of these control measures on curtailing the outbreaks. According to our findings, efforts aimed at isolating newly infected individuals, coupled with treatment, appear to yield the highest efficiency amongst all studied control measures. This is closely followed by efforts aimed at controlling infected and susceptive rodent populations. In low-resource countries, it is recommended that the few available resources be channeled in this order of priority in the management of Lassa Fever cases: isolation, treatment and rodent control.