Adolescents constitute a vulnerable group in the context of HIV because of early sexual debut and engagement in risk behaviors. Traditional health education methods face significant challenges regarding their effectiveness in altering risk perception and promoting sustainable behavioral changes among youth. In this scenario, serious games (SG)-educational technologies that integrate game mechanics for pedagogical and therapeutic purposes, moving beyond pure entertainment-emerge as an approach for HIV prevention. Our study sought to answer the following: What are the types and themes of SGs produced for the prevention of HIV transmission among adolescents? Thus, the objective of this scoping review was to map the types and themes of these games developed for this purpose in the literature. This scoping review, conducted between June and August 2024, was guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Thirteen databases were searched. The 21 selected studies identified four types of SG (video games, mobile applications, card games, and board games), addressing five central themes (HIV testing, prevention, risk behaviors, affective relationships, and sexual and reproductive health). The digital format predominated (87.5%), specifically for computers (47.6%) and smartphones (38%). Serious games are effective in HIV prevention among adolescents by surpassing conventional health education methods through immersion and empowerment. They reinforce the need for combination prevention by integrating gaming into health promotion strategies to reduce vulnerability.
Mixed reality (MR) technologies enable users to experience computer-generated content within the physical environment through spatial computing and head-mounted displays. By supporting real-time interaction through speech, gesture, gaze, and movement, MR offers new opportunities for game design beyond productivity and educational applications. However, relatively few studies have examined interaction modalities in MR games. In this paper, we present the design and deployment of four MR games on the Microsoft HoloLens 2: three that use monomodal input (speech, gaze, or gesture) and one that uses multimodal input (speech, gaze, and gesture). We conducted a study with ten participants and evaluated player experience using subjective self-reports of task load, emotional engagement, and comfort alongside objective measures, namely brain activity data collected with a five-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) device. Our preliminary findings suggest two clusters of interaction modalities based on subjective measures, a pattern that is also reflected in the objective EEG measures. Our analysis combining subjective and EEG data indicates that interaction modality influences task load and emotional engagement. Additionally, our functional connectivity analysis showed links in activity across the prefrontal, temporal, and occipital brain regions for different input modalities in the MR games.
This article studies privacy-preserving distributed Nash equilibrium (NE) seeking for aggregative games over directed graphs, where agents' cost functions contain sensitive information. A novel differentially private algorithm using decaying Laplace noise is developed to address two key issues: 1) how to design a distributed algorithm over directed graphs that achieves linear convergence while satisfying differential privacy requirements and 2) how to characterize the tradeoff between convergence accuracy and the privacy budget. First, sufficient conditions for linear convergence are established through the appropriate design of constant step sizes and convex combination parameters. Second, the differential privacy properties of the algorithm are analyzed without assuming bounded gradients, and a quantitative relationship between convergence accuracy and privacy budget is characterized. Furthermore, under additional restrictions on adjacent functions, the cumulative privacy budget admits an explicit expression and remains finite over an unbounded horizon, while the proposed algorithm is proven to converge to the exact NE. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated through a Nash-Cournot game and comparative simulations, which demonstrate its superior convergence performance compared to existing methods.
This study investigated whether match outcome influences external training load in a rolling three-team small-sided game (SSG) format in semi-professional male football players. Twenty outfield players contributed valid GPS data across five training sessions consisting of repeated 6v6 rolling SSG bouts, where the winning team remained on the pitch and the losing team rotated out. External load variables, total distance (TD), accelerations (ACC), decelerations (DEC), and high-speed running (HSR) were measured using 10 Hz GPS and analysed using repeated-measures ANOVA with Bonferroni corrections, considering both absolute and time-normalised (per-minute) values. Accumulated total distance (TD; F = 18.04, p < .001, η2p = .52), accelerations (ACC; F = 6.05, p = .006, η2p = .27), and decelerations (DEC; F = 8.11, p = .001, η2p = .34) differed significantly between match outcomes, with values decreasing from win to draw to loss conditions. Accumulated high-speed running (HSR) did not reach statistical significance (F = 3.74, p = .055, η2p = .19). No significant effects were observed for any time-normalised variable (TD: F = 1.57, p = .223, η2p = .09; ACC: F = 0.49, p = .620, η2p = .03; DEC: F = 1.72, p = .196, η2p = .10; HSR: F = 0.45, p = .642, η2p = .03). These findings indicate that match outcome was associated with accumulated, but not time-normalised, external load in this rolling SSG format. The winner-stays rule should therefore be considered when interpreting accumulated external load in such training formats.
The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of different small-sided game (SSG) formats on internal load, perceived enjoyment, and technical-tactical performance in elite youth water polo players. Twenty male athletes (U16, n = 10; U18, n = 10) performed in three 4 vs. 4 SSG formats with different time of ball possessions and size of field areas. Technical-tactical variables were assessed using the Team Sport Assessment Procedure (TSAP), while internal load and enjoyment were measured through session-RPE (s-RPE) and a 7-point enjoyment Likert scale (ENJ). Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models and Spearman correlations. SSG format significantly influenced internal load, with higher RPE values (F = 6.878; p = 0.004) and s-RPE (F = 6.27; p = 0.006) observed in larger formats of the SSG. Technical-tactical indices were also affected, with significant differences found for volume of play (VP) (F = 17.041; p < 0.001) and performance score (PS) (F = 18.574; p < 0.001), showing higher values in the smallest format (SSG1). Enjoyment differed between categories (F = 13.136; p = 0.003), with higher scores in U16 players. No significant correlations were found between final RPE and TSAP indices (p > 0.05). These findings suggest that SSGs are effective tools for simultaneously developing physical and technical-tactical skills. Coaches should manipulate task constraints to balance training intensity and skill development, while also enhancing player motivation and engagement.
To evaluate emergency CT interpretation demand during major sporting events, characterize surge-related backlog and turnaround time, and estimate how threshold-based teleradiology support could affect queue performance during short event-related imaging boluses. We developed a Monte Carlo discrete-event simulation in Python to model an 8-h emergency radiology shift with baseline CT demand and a 2-h event-related surge. CT arrivals followed a Poisson process. Local and teleradiology radiologists were modeled as parallel servers with stochastic interpretation times. Two scenarios were compared across 500 Monte Carlo iterations: local radiologists only and local radiologists supplemented by a rapid-response teleradiology team activated when the unread CT backlog reached 10 cases. Primary outcomes included mean turnaround time, 90th percentile turnaround time, unread queue wait time, maximum unread backlog, number of cases delayed for more than 60 min, and time above the activation threshold. The model generated a mean of 132.7 CT examinations per shift in both scenarios. Local-only coverage resulted in a mean turnaround time of 48.7 min and a 90th percentile turnaround time of 89.6 min. With teleradiology support, the mean turnaround time decreased to 18.0 min, and the 90th percentile to 37.3 min. Mean maximum unread backlog decreased from 27.7 to 16.2 cases, and the mean number of cases delayed longer than 60 min decreased from 47.4 to 2.0. Sensitivity analysis showed that saturation risk increased sharply when surge arrivals rose and local staffing remained limited. Discrete-event simulation can help emergency radiology departments estimate when CT interpretation workflows may become saturated during major sporting events. In this model, threshold-based teleradiology reduced backlog and turnaround time but functioned as a surge buffer rather than a substitute for adequate local staffing and predefined escalation pathways.
Background/Objectives: Caffeinated chewing gum is a practical, rapidly absorbed ergogenic aid increasingly used in team sports, yet its interaction with different small-sided soccer game (SSG) formats in young male players remains unclear. This study evaluated the effects of acute caffeinated (CAF) chewing gum on psychophysiological responses and kinematic profiles during intermittent (INT) and continuous (CON) 3-a-side SSGs. Methods: Twenty-four young male soccer players (18.4 ± 0.5 years) completed four 3-a-side SSG sessions separated by 48 h in a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLA)-controlled, crossover design (CAF-INT, PLA-INT, CAF-CON, PLA-CON). Participants chewed 300 mg of CAF or PLA gum for 5 min, with mastication completed 5 min before warm-up session. The heart rates and kinematic profiles were recorded during the SSGs, and the ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), exercise enjoyment scale (EES), and visual analogue scale (VAS) to perceived mental fatigue (MF) were assessed post-game. Results: Compared with the PLA, the CAF increased the heart rate responses (HR), EES, total distance (TD), player load (PL), acceleration (ACC), and distances covered in selected speed zones (from Z0 to Z5), while reducing the RPE and MF. Significant format × supplementation interactions indicated that CAF-induced changes in high-intensity kinematic outcomes (TD, PL, ACC, Z2-Z5) and HR responses (HRmean, HRmax) were generally greater in INT, whereas CAF-induced increases in low-intensity running distances (Z0 and Z1) and %HRmax were more pronounced in the CON format (all p < 0.05 for the reported effects; ηp2 = 0.16-0.93 for CAF main effects [large effects]). The EES improvements were more pronounced in the CON format, whereas the MF and RPE reductions were more pronounced in the INT format. Conclusions: CAF chewing gum may be a practical acute strategy for modulating psychophysiological responses and kinematic profiles during SSGs, with the effects depending partly on the game format.
Ice hockey is a high-intensity intermittent team sport where games of 3 × 20-min periods involve on-ice shifts (typically lasting ∼30-80 s) interspersed with passive recovery periods (2-5 min). Playing requires endurance, speed, strength, and balance in conjunction with technical, tactical, and cognitive abilities. Nutrition can play a valuable role in optimizing physical and mental performance and in maintaining overall health of ice hockey players. The aim of this review is to provide evidence-based nutrition guidelines for elite male ice hockey players. The energy demands during training sessions and games in ice hockey are not well investigated, but elite players typically cover 2.3-6.7 km in their 15-25 min of on-ice time during games. Carbohydrate (primarily muscle glycogen) is the major fuel during training and match play, and match performance has been shown to be associated with the pregame muscle glycogen content. Sweat losses are typically high (2.02 ± 0.74 L/hr) due to the high intensity and the use of protective equipment. Sufficient carbohydrate and fluid intake are therefore the most important nutritional considerations during training sessions, games, and recovery to maintain performance. Protein intake is important after training sessions and games to support muscle repair, growth, and overall recovery. Nutrition plans should be personalized and periodized to meet the demands of training sessions and games, and individual objectives. Players should prioritize food before supplements to meet nutrient requirements. While studies on supplementation are scarce, supplements that might be beneficial to some ice hockey players include Vitamin D, iron, caffeine, and creatine.
To investigate the feasibility of an eight-week immersive virtual reality (VR) intervention using co-produced games for upper limb (UL) rehabilitation in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). In this multicentre, two-armed randomised controlled feasibility study, participants were randomised to either an intervention group involving VR co-produced games, 30 min, twice/week, for eight weeks, or to a control group of usual care. A mixed methods approach was undertaken, collecting feasibility data, UL outcome measures, and conducting post-intervention interviews. Nineteen pwMS were recruited (intervention n = 11, control n = 8), with a recruitment rate of 3.2 participants/month. Adherence was good with 87% (±12%) session completed, with two dropouts both in the control group. Only minor adverse events were reported (n = 9), such as fatigue and UL pain. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction and good usability of VR games. Thematic analysis revealed participants enjoyed the distraction and atmospheres that immersive VR provided, and believed the games were fit for purpose with the majority of participants reporting improvements in their UL function. Immersive VR is feasible and safe for pwMS. Future work should refine recruitment strategies, develop VR games for long-term application and explore the clinical and cost effectiveness of this approach.
To characterize the composition and specialty training of sideline medical providers present during National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Power 5) college football games. Cross-sectional survey study. Power 5 NCAA Division I football programs during the 2023 to 2024 season. Head team physicians from 69 institutions were contacted; 53 (76.8%) completed the survey.Intervention: A 25-question REDCap survey assessing on-site personnel during home and away football games, including physician specialties, emergency coverage, imaging availability, emergency medicines, and athletic training support. Presence, specialty training, and roles of medical providers on the sideline during football games. All responding programs had orthopedic surgeons (OS) on-site at home games, and all but 1 had a primary care sports medicine physician (SMP). SMPs most commonly trained in family medicine (54.2%), followed by emergency medicine (13.5%) and pediatrics (11.9%). OSs were most frequently fellowship-trained in sports medicine (68.6%). Emergency/airway management physicians were present at 37.7% of schools; neurotrauma-specific providers were present at 15.1%. Away game coverage was reduced, with fewer SMPs and OSs traveling. Athletic trainer coverage remained consistent. Only a minority of schools traveled with additional medical specialists. There is significant variability in sideline medical staffing across Power 5 college football programs. While all schools met or exceeded NCAA minimums, these findings highlight opportunities for standardization and alignment with professional sports models to optimize athlete safety.
Physical inactivity and air pollution are significant global health concerns, yet limited evidence examines how residential air pollution is associated with physical activity behaviours among children. Existing research has mainly focused on adults, older adults, or self-reported activity outcomes. This study examined the association between residential carbon monoxide (CO) exposure, objectively measured physical activity, and children's reported preference for outdoor sports and games using data from the Millennium Cohort Study. This study used a cross-sectional secondary analysis of Sweep 4 Millennium Cohort Study data. Physical activity was measured using accelerometer-derived total steps over one week. Residential CO exposure was derived from linked MEDIx air pollution deciles and categorised into relatively lower and higher exposure groups. Linear regression was used to examine the association between CO exposure and total steps. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between CO exposure and preference for outdoor sports and games. Models were adjusted for sex, ethnicity, and socio-economic position, with survey and non-response weights applied. The analytic sample included 6,281 children. In the adjusted linear regression model, children living in areas with higher CO exposure recorded, on average, 356.26 more steps than those living in areas with lower CO exposure. In the adjusted logistic regression model, higher CO exposure was associated with slightly higher odds of reporting a preference for outdoor sports and games. However, the adjusted step-count model explained only a small proportion of variation in total steps. Higher residential CO exposure was modestly associated with higher total steps and greater reported preference for outdoor sports and games. These findings should be interpreted cautiously because the study was cross-sectional, explanatory power was low, and residual confounding by neighbourhood, household, school travel, and built-environment factors is likely. Future studies should examine multiple pollutants alongside more detailed contextual and environmental measures.
Background/Objectives: Free riding in healthcare occurs when actors benefit from health-related public goods, risk-pooling arrangements, common resources, or cooperative institutions while contributing less than is socially optimal. This review clarifies how free-rider dynamics differ across vaccination, health insurance and universal health coverage, antimicrobial resistance, organ donation and transplant allocation, and global health cooperation. Methods: A narrative review with conceptual synthesis was conducted. Searches of PubMed and Scopus were complemented by citation tracking and targeted inclusion of foundational economics, game theory, public-health ethics, and market-design sources. Sources were mapped by domain, actors, strategies, payoff structure, information conditions, time horizon, enforcement mechanism and policy relevance. Results: Across domains, free riding arises when private payoffs diverge from collective welfare, but the underlying game differs: threshold public-good and coordination games in vaccination, adverse-selection and participation games in insurance, common-pool-resource dilemmas in antimicrobial use, donor-registration and matching-market problems in transplantation, and repeated public-goods games in global health. The review identifies three policy functions: altering payoffs, altering information and beliefs, and changing the structure, repetition, or enforceability of the game. Conclusions: Game theory is most useful as a mechanism-based framework rather than a stand-alone policy prescription. Its policy value depends on empirical calibration, institutional context, ethical legitimacy, and attention to equity, incomplete information, behavioral responses, and enforcement capacity. The synthesis also emphasizes boundary conditions: game-theoretic prescriptions can fail when political economy, asymmetric power, implementation capacity, access barriers, or trust-related drivers are ignored.
While Olympic participation offers elite basketball players international competition, it occurs shortly after a demanding National Basketball Association (NBA) season, limiting recovery time. Condensed scheduling and cumulative physical stress may elevate injury risk in the subsequent professional season. Understanding how Olympic involvement affects player health and performance is essential for optimizing player sustainability within the NBA. NBA players competing in the Summer Olympics will demonstrate higher injury incidence and reduced durability in the subsequent season, without improvement in performance metrics. Descriptive epidemiology study. Publicly available NBA player data from the 2003-2004 to 2024-2025 seasons were reviewed. Inclusion was limited to NBA players who represented the United States in the Olympic Games with documented participation in the NBA season both immediately preceding and immediately following their Olympic appearance. A total of 67 players were included. Variables analyzed included regular season metrics (age, years of NBA experience, number of games played, total minutes played, plus-minus, net rating, game score), injury incidence during the regular season and postseason, and Olympic workload, defined as total minutes played during the Olympic tournament. Data were adjusted for shortened seasons (2011-2012, 2020-2021). Paired t tests and multivariable linear regression were performed. The percentage of games played declined significantly in the NBA season following Olympic participation compared with the preceding NBA season (89.2% ± 10.3% vs 83.2% ± 18.7%; P = .01; d = -0.31). Injury incidence increased in the subsequent NBA season compared with the preceding season (0.7 ± 0.8 vs 0.9 ± 1.0; P = .04; d = 0.25). No significant differences were observed in plus-minus (P = .44; d = 0.096), net rating (P = .65; d = 0.055), game score (P = .49; d = 0.086), or total minutes played (P = .55; d = -0.07). Olympic participation was associated with increased injury incidence and decreased availability in the subsequent NBA season, without meaningful changes in performance metrics or total minutes played. These findings suggest cumulative fatigue and limited offseason recovery may be associated with overuse-related injury and reduced durability, with age and preceding injury history as additional risk factors.
Fact-checks have become a popular intervention aimed at tackling misinformation, yet concern has persisted related to the potential for fact-checking to inadvertently amplify false narratives-a phenomenon commonly referred to as a "backfire effect." At the same time, recent evidence from research on repeated claims has suggested that there is a risk that fact-checks may also generate misperceptions regarding societal beliefs-or an "illusory consensus" effect. This paper presents findings from an ecologically valid two-wave experimental study that tested whether repeated fact-checking interventions could cause either of these negative outcomes. To further enhance the validity of the design, we draw on quota-balanced samples of participants from the United States, France, and South Africa (N = 680), who were presented with a set of true and false posts taken from online discussions regarding the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. Outcome measures focused on personal accuracy judgments (i.e., how accurate participants deemed each claim) and consensus estimates (i.e., whether their fellow citizens would believe each claim). After the Olympics concluded, participants were asked to assess both new and previously reviewed statements. Consistent with prior work, results indicate no evidence of the backfire effect ( d $d$  = 0.048). The findings also provide evidence of a small "illusory consensus" effect ( d $d$  = 0.125), whereby participants who had previously seen fact-checks were more likely to estimate that the wider population would accept these debunked claims as accurate. Supplementary analyses of true statements reveal that fact-checks produced large, durable improvements in accuracy judgments ( d $d$  = 0.71-0.91), suggesting that fact-checking was substantially more effective at reinforcing correct beliefs than it was at generating unintended consequences. Item-level analyses further reveal heterogeneity across misinformation narratives, indicating that the specific content of false claims may moderate both the persistence of corrections and consensus distortions. Implications for fact-checking strategies and public perceptions of misinformation, including the need for further studies which incorporate group dynamics, are discussed and debated.
This study explores the psychological mechanisms underlying Gaming Disorder (GD) among Polish gamers, situating its findings within broader European and global contexts. Data were collected from a representative sample of Polish gamers (N = 2738; 18-65 years, 55.6% women) via an online survey. Participants completed validated self-report measures. Structural equation modelling was used to test a hypothesised model examining these factors as potential predictors and protective variables of GD. Central to the analysis is the role of Desire to dissociate, which significantly influenced all examined variables, particularly Desire Thinking and gaming motives. Desire to dissociate, a form of avoidance, emerged as a core factor, contributing to maladaptive cognitive and motivational processes associated with problematic gaming. Desire Thinking had the strongest association with GD symptoms, supporting theoretical models such as S-REF and I-PACE, which frame it as a perseverative cognitive process sustaining addictive behaviours. Additionally, gaming motives-especially enhancement and social interaction-were linked to GD risk, with online games often replacing traditional social interactions. Importantly, Resilience was identified as a protective factor against both GD symptoms and dissociative tendencies. The study highlights a conceptual overlap between Desire to Dissociate and Immersion, suggesting that excessive Immersion may evolve into dissociative gaming, increasing vulnerability to addiction.
Visual-spatial attention (VSA) selects relevant sensory information and supports the preparation of responses to this information. Mental rotation (MR) is the ability to rotate an object seen from a certain perspective to a new orientation in space. Exercise stands out as a promising non-pharmacological treatment for cognitive functions. Balance control is known to be related to the visual system. Therefore, the aim was to investigate the effectiveness of video-based balance games and structured balance exercises on VSA and MR with EEG brain oscillations. 30 healthy participants were included in the study. Participants were divided into two groups (structured balance exercises group (SBEG) and video-based balance exercises group (VBBEG)) by randomization. Both groups received exercise sessions 2 days a week for a total of 6 weeks. The mentioned cognitive functions were evaluated by selecting tests previously used in the literature. For the VSA task, after 6 weeks of exercise, occipital theta (4-7 Hz) power decreased in the VBBEG group, while SBEG increased. In the MR task results, high alpha (11-13 Hz) power decreased in VBBEG and increased in SBEG when centroparietal areas were examined. In conclusion, it is thought that the two different exercise methods may affect visual-spatial attention and mental rotation skills in different ways. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-026-10494-4.
Diseases during childhood and adolescence such as cancer or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can have an impact on brain development and place children and adolescents at increased risk for cognitive long-term problems. Most cognitive trainings currently available have limited efficacy and show limited transfer to nontrained tasks and everyday functioning. We developed a novel intervention (Mio-Training) aiming to increase metacognitive abilities at the intersection between exercise psychology and cognitive science to strengthen the cognitive development of pediatric patients with atypical brain development in the long term. The study assesses the efficacy of the Mio-Training on the primary (metacognitive abilities) and secondary outcomes (executive functions, processing speed, and memory) before the training, immediately after the training, and at a 3-month follow-up in patients with atypical development and healthy controls. The Mio-Training stimulates metacognition through 38 digital games, which playfully teach mnemonic strategies (ie, rehearsal, chaining, and associations), present intensive verbal and visual working memory training, and motor coordination tasks. The training group will train for 5 weeks, 3 times per week, for 20 minutes. The waiting control group will receive the training after completion of the study procedure. We will evaluate the efficacy of the Mio-Training on metacognitive abilities and cognitive performance in a randomized controlled clinical trial. We expect a long-term increase in metacognitive abilities associated with an increase in subjective and objective cognitive performance. The efficacy of the Mio-Training will be investigated in 3 subgroups (patients with cancer, ADHD, and healthy controls; each group n=40; all aged 8-16 years) using pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments. All participants will be randomly assigned to the Mio-Training or the waiting control group, stratified by age and sex. This study protocol describes the study design of the randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of the Mio-Training. The project is funded from October 2024 to December 2027. Recruitment for healthy controls has been completed (n=40; October 2024-August 2025), recruitment for childhood cancer survivors (n=10, 25% participants recruited) is scheduled from August 2025 to December 2027, and recruitment for participants with ADHD (n=39, 97.5% recruited) is scheduled from October 2025 to September 2026. Data analyses have not yet commenced; first results from the ADHD subgroup are expected in early 2027, with findings from the cancer survivor subgroup anticipated in early 2028 following completion of recruitment. To strengthen cognitive development in young patients with atypical development, it is necessary to address the current lack of effective treatment options. The combination of cognitive and motor training with metacognitive abilities may support patients' cognitive maturation trajectories and will enable transfer of the training effect to everyday and school situations.
Clinical phonetics and phonology are essential components of speech and language therapy education, yet many incoming students struggle with early phonetic concepts, particularly the shift from orthographic to sound-based thinking. These difficulties reflect phonetics as a threshold concept requiring repeated and varied practice to achieve accurate sound-to-symbol mapping and analytical skills. More recently, teaching in this area has drawn on innovative approaches to support such practice, with increasing attention to game-based and playful learning. Contributing to this emerging field, this paper presents a set of playful, low-cost learning activities designed to support first-year students in developing core phonetic and phonological knowledge. Grounded in principles of playful learning, the activities create an open, low-stakes environment that encourages exploration, collaboration and productive failure. Examples include black-out poetry tasks that reinforce the distinction between letters and sounds and IPA-adapted word games such as word searches and IPA Scrabble. These playful, interactive approaches enhance engagement, support peer learning and offer adaptable tools for early phonetics teaching across a range of educational contexts.
Mobile gaming is important for children's social interaction, but its impact on real-life social connectedness depends heavily on family dynamics. How family patterns shape children's emotional and social experiences around gaming remains underexplored, particularly qualitatively. This study examined how family dynamics influence children's belonging, emotion regulation, and virtual interactions in mobile gaming. Using a phenomenological design, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 participants from 10 families across urban, suburban, and rural China. Participants included children (n=10, aged 10-12), parents (n=8, all mothers), and siblings (n=2). All children had played mobile games for ≥6 months. Data were analyzed via thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke). Family patterns were identified based on parental mediation, emotional communication, and children's sense of connectedness. Three family patterns emerged. Restrictive-Control Families (4/8) showed high monitoring and low trust, linked to concealment, tension, and social shift to virtual peers. Supportive Co-Play Families (3/8) exhibited shared play, emotional communication, and digital-offline continuity, with children reporting greater resilience and belonging. Sibling-Mediated Families (3 families) featured siblings as companions and emotional buffers, helping manage frustration without direct parental involvement. No severe conflicts or distress were directly caused by gaming in any pattern. Children's mobile gaming outcomes are shaped by relational context, not just time. This study identifies three family-level regulatory mechanisms: suppression (restrictive-control), cognitive reappraisal (supportive co-play), and co-regulation (sibling-mediated). These findings extend Social Connectedness Theory, showing how family patterns shape children's emotion regulation. Supportive co-play and sibling mediation facilitate adaptive regulation and connectedness, while restrictive-control may drive children to virtual spaces. Family-based interventions targeting emotion regulation, not just screen reduction, are recommended. Shifting from "anti-addiction" to "developmental enhancement" offers a safe, practical strategy for integrating gaming into family life.
Time pressure and positional ambiguity are two fundamental cognitive constraints that threaten human performance in sequential decision systems such as chess. However, the interactive and nonlinear nature of these factors has not yet been sufficiently quantified. In this study, 39,922 ply-level positions from blitz games of seven elite chess players on the Lichess platform were analysed using Stockfish 14.1 engine evaluation to examine how blunder probability varies across time pressure and positional ambiguity regimes. Cluster-robust logistic regression and histogram-based gradient boosting (HGB) models were applied comparatively and game phase included as a control variable. Permutation importance and SHAP values were used for explainability analyses. The findings reveal that blunder probability amplifies nonlinearly under the joint effect of low remaining time and high engine evaluation gap which is a pattern formally confirmed by restricted cubic spline regression ([Formula: see text] relative to a log-linear baseline). The proposed Amplification Index (AMPIND), defined as the exponentiated interaction coefficient between extreme time pressure and positional ambiguity, showed an additional error multiplier of approximately 5.1% at a 300 cp ambiguity level under the sub-10-second regime. This estimate remained stable across four model specifications including game phase control, sensitivity analysis, and mixed effects modeling. The HGB model achieved the highest discriminative performance (AUC [Formula: see text]), and explainability analyses confirmed positional ambiguity and time pressure as the dominant determinants of model decisions. These results demonstrate that human errors are not random but concentrate under specific combinations of cognitive constraints. We offer a quantitative framework for context-sensitive error modeling and provide generalizable findings that can form the basis for developing adaptive decision support systems in human-centered AI research.