Effects of Mental Model and Intrinsic Motivation on Behavioral Intention of Smartphone Application Users

An application that has a simple user interface not only motivates a user to continue using the application, but also enables the user to develop their mental model for the application — the like of which is a product of their interaction with the application. In the information systems literature, little empirical research has been undertaken on the effects of the mental model and motivation on smartphone users’ behavioral beliefs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to suggest a research model that can examine the following: 1) the effects that the mental model has not only on smartphone users’ behavioral beliefs (that is, perceived usefulness and ease of use of an application) but also on their behavioral intention to use an application and 2) the effects that smartphone users’ intrinsic motivation has on their behavioral beliefs through an expansion of the mental model. A survey is conducted, and structural equation modeling is then used to analyze the survey data. The results, through consideration of variables such as intrinsic motivation, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user satisfaction, indicate that the mental model has an indirect effect on a user's intention to use an application.     

A universal two-way approach for estimating unknown frequencies for unknown number of sinusoids in a signal based on eigenspace analysis of Hankel matrix

We develop a novel approach to estimate the \(n\) unknown constituent frequencies of a noiseless signal that comprises of unknown number, \(n\), of sinusoids of unknown phases and unknown amplitudes. The new two-way approach uses two constraints to accurately estimate the unknown frequencies of the sinusoidal components in a signal. The new approach serves as a verification test for the estimated unknown frequencies through the estimated count of the unknown number of frequencies. The Hankel matrix, of the time domain samples of the signal, is used as a basis for further analysis in the Pisarenko harmonic decomposition. The new constraints, the existence factor and the component factor, have been introduced in the methodology based on the relationships between the components of the sinusoidal signal and the eigenspace of the Hankel matrix. The performance of the developed approach has been tested to correctly estimate any number of frequencies within a signal with or without a fixed unknown bias. The method has also been tested to accurately estimate the very closely spaced low frequencies.     

Optimal Stabilization of Column Buckling

Linear buckling of column structures is an important design constraint in many structures, particularly where weight is a primary concern. Active strengthening is the application of feedback control to increase the critical buckling load of the structure. An important feature of this control problem is that the structure is inherently unstable when the axial load surpasses the critical buckling load. This research presents a design method for creating optimal buckling control systems using state or static output feedback. The primary feature of this method is the ability to select the designed closed loop, actively strengthened, critical buckling load. The stability of the resulting controllers is determined using Lyapunov methods. Simulation and experimental demonstration of this algorithm is performed using a column employing piezoelectric actuators, and MEMS-based strain sensors. The optimal buckling controllers developed are able to increase the critical buckling load by a factor of 2.9. The closed loop system is able to support lower axial loads indefinitely (>30 min).     

PEMFC modeling based on characterization of effective diffusivity in simulated cathode catalyst layer

Oxygen diffusion in the cathode catalyst layer (CCL) is crucial to the high performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), especially in high current density or concentration loss regions. Recently, PEMFC performance has been reported to be enhanced by increasing CCL pore size and pore volume due to the reduction of diffusion resistance by capillary water equilibrium [Yim et al., Electrochimica Acta 56 (2011) 9064–9073]. Herein, we simulate these experimental results utilizing a new one-dimensional PEMFC model considering the effects of accumulated water film in CCL on oxygen diffusion. Two CCL microstructures were numerically generated based on agglomerate models to examine the experimental results obtained for two membrane electrode assembly (MEA) samples with different CCL porosity. The effective diffusivity of oxygen in the CCL was estimated by performing auxiliary simulations of oxygen concentration in CCL microstructures covered by a film of liquid water, with exponential correlation obtained between effective diffusivity and the thickness of the above film. Polarization curves predicted by the present model were in good agreement with experimental results. In agreement with the results of Yim et al., the present model predicts that the MEA featuring a CCL with smaller pores (which are more easily filled by liquid water) should exhibit a larger concentration loss at high current densities.     

Calixarene Derivatives as Novel Nanopore Generators for Templates of Nanoporous Thin Films

Summary: We report herein calixarene derivatives, which could adapt to various fields of application, as novel pore generators for making nanoporous materials. The pore structure of nanoporous materials exhibits disordered pores with small mesopore diameter (2–3 nm), which is similar to the micelle‐like assembled structure of the calixarene compounds. The electro‐optical properties such as dielectric constants and refractive indexes of these porous thin films can easily be manipulated. The calixarene‐templated nanoporous films could find a variety of potential applications, such as low‐dielectric constant (k) materials and high‐surface area materials for catalysis and biotechnology.

PM3‐optimized structures of CA[4] and CA[6].     

Analysis and design study of LCD transfer robot using dynamic simulation and experiment

Recently, the size of raw glass has been greatly increased in the new generation Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. To handle bigger and heavier glasses, it is necessary to develop a large scale LTR (LCD Transfer Robot) to support various complicated LCD fabrication processes. This adjustment will result in difficult design problems such as vibration, handling accuracy deterioration, and high stress due to heavier dynamic loads. In turn, these will result in inaccurate transfer motion and fatigue cracks. In this paper, the dynamic simulation technique is introduced to validate a baseline design and to propose new and improved designs for the best performance of heavy-scaled LCD transfer robots. The dynamic models and analysis results were verified by real experiments including strain measure test and motor power test. Using the verified simulation model, some dynamic situations such as the robot’s emergency stop and free fall situation, which were not impossible to test using the real proto robot, were analyzed and predicted using the simulation model. This paper was presented at the 4th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics(ACMD2008), Jeju, Korea, August 20–23, 2008. Jong-Hwi Seo received a B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Ajou University in 1998, 2000 and 2005, respectively. He is currently a senior engineer in Mechatronics and Manufacturing Technology Center of Samsung Electronics Co. His research interests are in the area of multibody dynamics, robotics and mechanism design. Jae Chul Hwang received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1996, 1998, and 2002, respectively. He is currently a senior engineer in Mechatronics and Manufacturing Technology Center of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. His research interests are in the area of kinematics and dynamics of serial and parallel kinematic robot. Yong-Won Choi received a M.S degree in Mechanical Engineering from Korea University in 1993. He has worked for Samsung Electronics, Ltd from 1993 and is currently a principle engineer at Robot Mechanism Part in Mechatronics and Manufacturing Technology Center of Samsung Electronics Co. He is interest in the area of robotics, control and mechanism design. Hong Jae Yim received B.S. and M.S degrees in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1979, and 1983, respectively. He received Ph.D degree from Univ. of Iowa, USA. He is currently a professor in School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, Kookmin University. His research interests are in the area of computer aided kinematics and dynamics of mechanical systems.     

A job shop distributed scheduling based on Lagrangian relaxation to minimise total completion time

This paper considers a distributed job shop scheduling problem where autonomous sub-production systems share common machines with each other. Each sub-production system is responsible for the scheduling of a set of jobs to minimise the total completion time on shared machines. A sub-production system has ultimate responsibility on maintaining private information such as objective function, processing time and routings on shared machines. Also sub-production systems must cooperate each other in order to achieve a global goal while sharing minimum of private information. In this research, we propose a distributed cooperation method in which sub-production systems and shared machines interact with one another to find a compromised solution between a locally optimised solution and a system-wide solution. We tested the proposed method for small, medium and large size of job shop scheduling problems and compared to a global optimal solutions. The proposed method shows promising results in terms of solution qualities and computational times.     

Reliability Enhancement of the Diverse Protection System Regarding Common Cause Failures

The issue of CCF （common cause failure） in digital I ＆ C （instrumentation and control） systems is of great interest because an increasing number of such systems are implemented in nuclear power plants. For the mitigation of ATWS （anticipated transients without scram） as well as CCF within the PPS （plant protection system） and the ESF-CCS （engineered safety feature-component control system）, the ADPS （advanced diverse protection system） has been developed by KEPCO E ＆ C （KEPCO Engineering and Construction） Company for new nuclear units in Korea. As compared to the DPS （diverse protection system） design of APR1400, the ADPS has a diverse safety injection function considering a LBLOCA （large break loss of coolant accident） concurrent with the CCF of the PPS and ESF-CCS. Besides the function of SIAS （safety injection actuation signal） initiation, several CCF avoidance features, such as the changes of software design classification, communication methods, equipment platform, and man-machine interfaces, are introduced to enhance the reliability of the ADPS. In addition, the ADPS has recently incorporated four redundant channels with 2-out-of-4 voting logics to enhance its fault tolerant capability. Therefore, it is expected that the ADPS can provide an enhanced reliability regarding possible CCFs in the safety-grade digital I ＆ C systems as well as the ADPS itself.     

Dynamic load analysis and design methodology of LCD transfer robot

The objective of the present study is to develop a design methodology for the large scale heavy duty robot to meet the design requirements of vibration and stress levels in structural components resulting from exposure of system modules to LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) processing environments. Vibrations of the component structures significantly influence the motion accuracy and fatigue damage. To analyze and design a heavy duty robot for LCD transfer, FE and multi-body dynamic simulation techniques have been used. The links of a robot are modeled as flexible bodies using modal coordinates. Nonlinear mechanical properties such as friction, compliance of reducers and bearings were considered in the flexible multi-body dynamics model. Various design proposals are investigated to improve structural design performances by using the dynamic simulation model. Design sensitivity analyses with respect to vibration and stresses are carried out to search an optimal design. An example of an 8G (8th-Generation) LTR (LCD Transfer Robot) is illustrated to demonstrate the proposed methodology. Finally, the results are verified by real experiments including vibration testing.     

Interferometric measurement using bimorph actuated staggered mirror (BASM) microsensor

For physical and chemical sensing applications, a bimorph actuated staggered mirror (BASM) microsensor was designed and fabricated by surface micromachining using a transparent quartz substrate. While the conventional cantilever sensors have angular deflection, BASM’s moving mirror performs piston-type pure vertical motion in response to environmental stimuli like temperature change and surface stress change due to molecular adsorption. Since the sensor itself has a fixed or reference mirror as well as a moving mirror, 1) an interferometric measurement is possible without an additional reference mirror in off-axis measurement setup, and 2) vibration measurement noise can be reduced. For preliminary test purposes, interferometric measurement using an optical setup was performed for temperature change. At He-Ne line (632.8 nm), a temperature change of ∼0.8 K caused a minimum-to-maximum interferometric light intensity change which corresponds to ∼144 nm shift of the moving mirror part. An optical diffraction analysis was performed and optimal device parameters were found to maximize the sensor sensitivity.