Online Social Network Adoption: A Cross-Cultural Study

This research explores the extent to which users across cultures adopt the technology of online social networks (OSNs) in order to promote or support a social cause. By surveying graduate-level university students at institutions in the United States, China and India, this research builds on prior work in technology acceptance to model and explain how three elements of the task domain – the cultural aspects of the user, the social nature of the technology, and the social nature of the task – combine to influence the constructs and relationships within a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework as well as the behavior that flows from it. This study contributes to our understanding of technology adoption by showing how OSNs are adopted by users across cultures in promoting and supporting social causes.     

Representations of lesbian and bisexual women’s sexual and relational health in online video and text-based sources

The Internet is the preferred source of health information followed by healthcare providers, friends and family, print media, and television (Baxter & Egbert, 2008). Yet, previous research about online sexual health resources for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer) groups, especially lesbian and bisexual (LB) women, primarily consists of introductions and reviews of related websites rather than critique of the quality of the information present (e.g. Clark, 2003; Finlon, 2002; McKay, 2011). Thus, the goals of this study were to examine the LB women’s sexual and relational health content in online sources and identify the degree to which the online sources considered LB women’s identity and standpoint when presenting sexual and relational health messages. The analysis includes a comparison of text-based and video-based online messages related to LB women’s sexual and relational health. We argue that there is an overall lack of quality in the online sexual and relational health messages for LB women, and that websites are not comprehensive enough in their coverage of LB women’s sexual and relational health.     

Leveling up: Are non-gamers and women disadvantaged in a virtual world classroom?

Today's young gamers are tomorrow's students who expect more immersion from their online learning experiences. Teachers and administrators, however, must ask are some students at a disadvantage in such a class and does gender play a role? We examine the degree to which gaming experience and gender influence sense of presence in a virtual world learning classroom. Feelings of presence are key to involvement in virtual worlds. Participants, 348 undergraduates, interacted within a custom designed virtual world classroom focusing business negotiation skills. Results reveal that while gaming experience gives a slight advantage, lack of previous software ownership and gender do not put learners at a disadvantage. This finding shows that non-gamers and females can equally participate in a virtual world classroom, relieving concerns of adoption.     

The Identification and Influence of Social Roles in a Social Media Product Community

This research focuses on the identification of social roles and an investigation of their influence in online context. Relying on a systemic approach for role conceptualization, we investigate member's activity, shared content and position in the network within a consumer to consumer social media‐based community (SMC) around a product. This investigation led to the identification of ten core roles, based on three key elements: object of interest (product, practice, and community), main contribution type (sharing information and seeking information), individual orientation (factual, emotional). We propose an explanation about how these roles, through their positioning, participate in the community dynamics and how they contribute to the creation and diffusion of cookery as a social practice, shaping the periphery around this practice.     

汉字联机手写建模方法

为了解决手机的汉字联机识别,我们提供了完整的解决方案。先定义了一套六组基本定义,形成一种特殊的但是很简单的图形描述方法。将汉字楷书的常用字的笔画,进行统计归纳归类,找到有限的笔画组成。使用基本定义,描述楷书的独立笔画,这些描述是互不相同的。回避了传统的复杂的二维图形学的方法。经过穷举法验证,几乎每个常用汉字的拆解的内容,都互不相同,所以从逻辑上可判定这种方法是有效的。也提供并公布对汉字行书、草书的部分解决方案。形成了一个手机汉字连笔识别的体系。     

基于DSP的壁纸印刷花纹涂层厚度在线检测

在壁纸生产过程中,尤其是在花纹印刷过程中,有效地在线测量花纹涂层厚度,对于减少壁纸生产的次品率和提高生产效率至关重要。本课题针对壁纸印刷花纹涂层厚度在线检测问题进行了研究,利用激光传感器测厚原理,基于TI公司生产的TMS320F2812DSP芯片为硬件核心处理器,完成了花纹涂层厚度的非接触在线测量。     

A global piecewise smooth Newton method for fast large-scale model predictive control

In this paper, the strictly convex quadratic program (QP) arising in model predictive control (MPC) for constrained linear systems is reformulated as a system of piecewise affine equations. A regularized piecewise smooth Newton method with exact line search on a convex, differentiable, piecewise-quadratic merit function is proposed for the solution of the reformulated problem. The algorithm has considerable merits when applied to MPC over standard active set or interior point algorithms. Its performance is tested and compared against state-of-the-art QP solvers on a series of benchmark problems. The proposed algorithm is orders of magnitudes faster, especially for large-scale problems and long horizons. For example, for the challenging crude distillation unit model of Pannocchia, Rawlings, and Wright (2007) with 252 states, 32 inputs, and 90 outputs, the average running time of the proposed approach is 1.57 ms.     

Scheduling on two identical machines with a speed-up resource

We address a variant of scheduling problem on two identical machines, where we are given an additional speed-up resource. If a job uses the resource, its processing time may decrease. However, at any time the resource can only be used by at most one job. The objective is to minimize the makespan. For the offline version, we present an FPTAS. For the online version where jobs arrive over list, we propose an online algorithm with competitive ratio of 1.781, and show a lower bound of 1.686 for any online algorithm.     

Online scheduling on unbounded parallel-batch machines to minimize maximum flow-time

We consider online scheduling on m unbounded parallel-batch machines to minimize maximum flow-time of the jobs. We show that no online algorithm can have a competitive ratio less than 1+αm, where αm is the positive root of α²+(m+1)α−1=0, and this lower bound is still valid even when all jobs have the same processing times. Then we provide an online algorithm of competitive ratio 1+1/m. When the jobs have the same processing times, we present a best possible online algorithm of competitive ratio 1+αm.