The Investigation of E-Learning System Design Quality on Usage Intention

ABSTRACT

A well-designed product increases customer value and leads to repeat usage. However, studies on the impact of website quality on customer usage fail to distinguish website competence from website capability, ignoring that website quality performance has impacts on other website quality attributes. We gather data from 314 undergraduate students and apply partial least square method to examine the design quality mechanisms and other factors that influence users’ experience. Our results indicate that offering personalized products or services is an important enabler toward enhancing users’ attitude and usage intention. Particularly, for IS education in the format of e-learning, our results suggest firms developing textbook technology platforms primarily focus on creating superior quality designs leading to capabilities that enhance user customization. The customization experience will lead to better satisfaction via both perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use.     

Enhancement of fermentative biohydrogen production from textile desizing wastewater via coagulation-pretreatment

A real textile desizing wastewater (TDW) was coagulation-pretreated to enhance its potential of biohydrogen production. Batch fermentation showed that the hydrogen production was efficiently enhanced (550 and 120% increments for hydrogen production rate and hydrogen yield, respectively) and the production performance was substrate-concentration dependent. A peak hydrogen production rate of 3.9 L/L-d and hydrogen yield of 1.52 mol/mol hexose were obtained while using coagulant GGEFloc-653 at a dosage of 1 g/L to pretreat TDW with the concentration of 15 g total sugar/L. The coagulation-pretreatment could have butyrate-type fermentation with high biohydrogen production and the removed some toxic materials that might drive the metabolic pathways to those not favoring biohydrogen production. Based on the data obtained, strategies to operate the coagulation and biohydogen fermentation are suggested. Moreover, fermentation effluent utilization such as for two-stage biogas production and further biohythane (a mixture of H₂ and CH₄) generation are also elucidated.     

Transparent polyimide nanocomposites with improved moisture barrier using graphene

A facile technique was developed to improve the water barrier properties of transparent polyimide (PI) films. Transparent and organo‐soluble PI films were synthesized from an alicyclic tetracarboxylic dianhydride (bicyclo[2.2.2]oct‐7‐ene‐2,3,5,6‐tetracarboxylic dianhydride) and an aromatic diamine (3,4′‐oxydianiline) in a co‐solvent of dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and γ‐butyrolactone via a one‐step process. Thermally reduced graphene (RG) was then blended with the PI in DMAc solution to fabricate PI/RG nanocomposite films without the addition of coupling agent. With the incorporation of only 0.1 wt% highly exfoliated RG in the PI matrix, the resultant PI/RG‐0.1 nanocomposite exhibited a superior barrier to moisture and retained high transmittance in the visible light region. The surface of PI/RG was more hydrophobic than that of pure PI and simultaneously the water vapor transmission rate was significantly reduced to 13 g m^?2 day^?1 for the PI/RG‐0.1 nanocomposite compared to 181 g m^?2 day^?1 for pure PI. Notably, the PI/RG‐0.1 nanocomposite also exhibited favorable thermal stability with a lower coefficient of thermal expansion and a higher thermal degradation temperature compared to pure PI. The easy processing of PI solution and RG nanosheets, the good orientation of RG in PI and the excellent barrier and thermal properties of PI/RG make the transparent PI nanocomposite films potential substrate materials in flexible electronic applications .     

Electrochemical evaluation of LiCoO2 synthesized by decomposition and intercalation of hydroxides for lithium-ion battery applications

LiCoO2 has been synthesized by a solid-state synthesis route involving the decomposition and intercalation of hydroxide precursors generated by precipitation and freeze-drying. Cyclic voltammetry of LiCoO2 obtained by heating at 100°C for 2h has shown this material to be electrochemically active with an initial discharge capacity of 92mAhg–1. Optimization of processing conditions reduced the firing time to as little as 2h at 800°C, producing LiCoO2 powders with high reversible capacity (142mAhg–1), good rate capability, and good cyclability. The favourable performance of this oxide powder in LiCoO2/C lithium-ion cells using the present oxide powders shows the instant synthesis route to be promising and cost-effective for lithium-ion battery applications.     

Estimating the variance of production cost using a stochastic loadmodel

The purpose of this paper is to provide a realistic load variation model to be used in short-term (one to three years) planning studies. A stochastic model is proposed, and this model is used to quantify the variation of the estimated production cost that is directly affected by the load uncertainty. The paper presents a method of estimating the variation of production cost. This is the first paper to use a Gauss-Markov stochastic model of load with a chronological production simulation model. This load model captures the stochastic load variation behavior and the correlation between weekly peak demand and weekly energy. A weekly Gauss-Markov sampling scheme is incorporated in the proposed approach to model load variation. This stochastic load model is used to generate sample chronological load profiles that represent the annual load variation in weekly detail. These load profiles are then used in annual Monte Carlo production simulation. Case studies illustrate the implementation of this stochastic load variation modeling. These case studies illustrate that load uncertainty has a significantly larger effect on cost uncertainty than does uncertainty in unit availability     

Visual facility layout design system

This paper presents an integrated visual facility layout design system to solve layout problems with geometric constraints on a continual planar site. The system employs a tabu search algorithm as the search engine with heuristic neighbourhood control and a manual interference mechanism to obtain good solutions. The Windows®-based system provides layout designers with a friendly environment that can automatically search a good solution aided by the visual inspection function. The visual inspection function is a mechanism embedded in the search process that dynamically displays the improvement status and allows manual adjustment of facility location during the search. The system also serves as a powerful tool for performing 'what if' analyses for layout designers.     

Shift-share analysis and international trade

In today’s global economy, increased international market integration and a steep rise in the number of multinational enterprises have made the notion of there being no international trade bizarre indeed. This paper revises the shift-share analysis by adopting the net export ratio (NX) to separate the domestic and foreign components of regional employment change and to show the revealed comparative advantage of international trade. The result is found that the effects of international trade on employment change are ubiquitous, and its importance therefore cannot be overlooked. As for the significantly positive values of NX and its relative growth, for example, the employment change mainly arises from the international market and not from domestic demand. This modification makes the shift-share analysis more reasonable and sensible, especially in relation to a small open economy.