Predicting the acceptance of MOOCs in a developing country: Application of task-technology fit model,social motivation,and self-determination theory

Online learning courses have expanded the educational landscape to distant and disadvantaged areas. Although such courses have generated extensive interest, there is as yet sparse literature evaluating the determinants of online course acceptance, especially in developing countries. Seeking to close this gap, this study examines the factors influencing students’ adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in a developing country by applying an integrated framework incorporating the task-technology fit model, social motivation, and self-determination theory. In addition, the study investigates the moderating effect of perceived reputation on students’ adoption behavior. A self-administered survey was employed for data collection and valid responses from 414 participants were used for testing the proposed model. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling through Smart-PLS. The results establish the significant contribution of task characteristics and technology characteristics in facilitating task-technology fit, and that the fit positively influences behavioral intentions. Moreover, social recognition, perceived competence, and perceived relatedness have positive and significant effects on the behavioral intentions of the students. This research also reveals that perceived reputation has an important moderating effect on the students’ usage behavior. The study results provide both practical and theoretical insights to enrich the understanding of the paradigm shift due to MOOCs and online education.     

An overview of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel

As hydrogen fuel cell vehicles move from manifestation to commercialization, the users expect safe, convenient and customer-friendly fuelling. Hydrogen quality affects fuel cell stack performance and lifetime, as well as other factors such as valve operation. In this paper, previous researcher's development on hydrogen as a possible major fuel of the future has been studied thoroughly. Hydrogen is one of the energy carriers which can replace fossil fuel and can be used as fuel in an internal combustion engines and as a fuel cell in vehicles. To use hydrogen as a fuel of internal combustion engine, engine design should be considered for avoiding abnormal combustion. As a result it can improve engine efficiency, power output and reduce NO_x emissions. The emission of fuel cell is low as compared to conventional vehicles but as penalty, fuel cell vehicles need additional space and weight to install the battery and storage tank, thus increases it production cost. The production of hydrogen can be ‘carbon-free’ only if it is generated by employing genuinely carbon-free renewable energy sources. The acceptability of hydrogen technology depends on the knowledge and awareness of the hydrogen benefits towards environment and human life. Recent study shows that people still do not have the sufficient information of hydrogen.     

Short-time Analysis of Magnetothermoelastic Wave Under Fractional Order Heat Conduction Law

This paper deals with the problem of magnetothermoelastic interactions in a perfectly conducting elastic medium in which the boundary is stress free and subjected to thermal loading in the context of the fractional-order, two-temperature generalized thermoelasticity theory (2TT). The two-temperature, three-phase-lag (2T3P) model and two-temperature Lord–Shulman (2TLS) model of thermoelasticity are combined into a unified formulation introducing unified parameters. The governing equations of generalized thermoelasticity of these models under the influence of a magnetic field are established. The basic equations have been written in the form of a vector-matrix differential equation in the Laplace-transform domain, which is then solved by the state-space approach. The numerical inversion of the transform is carried out by a method based on Fourier-series expansion techniques. Because of the short duration of the second sound effects, small time approximations of the solutions are studied. The numerical estimates of the quantities of physical interest are obtained and depicted graphically. The effect of the fractional-order parameter and the two-temperature and magnetic field parameters on the solutions has been studied and the comparisons among different thermoelastic models are made.     

Light-weight strain sensor based on carbon nanotube/epoxy composite yarn

Journal of Materials Science - Flexible strain sensors with high sensitivity are indeed critical for smart wearable devices, they are used for detecting the tiny deformation of human skin induced...     

Efficient authentication protocol for secure multimedia communications in IoT-enabled wireless sensor networks

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In current times, multimedia application includes integrated sensors, mobile networks and Internet-of-Things (IoT) services. In IoT services, if more devices are...     

Comparative proteome analysis of seed storage and allergenic proteins among four narrow-leafed lupin cultivars

Lupin is an emerging crop worldwide due to its wide range of health benefits. In this study, a comprehensive proteome analysis was conducted using mature seed of four narrow leafed lupin cultivars, Uniharvest, Yorrel, Tanjil and Coromup, through two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometric protein sequencing. Two-dimensional gels recognised about 400 protein spots among the cultivars in the 10-100kDa molecular weight and 5.0-8.5 PI ranges. The results revealed a considerable variation of protein expression patterns with a total of 24 proteins showed differential expression among the cultivars, among which 19 were identified as β-conglutin, and 8 were identified as allergenic proteins. Most of the α, δ and γ-conglutins were showing similar expression among the cultivars. Overall, the differentially expressed proteins especially the cultivar specific proteins would be valuable markers for cultivar identification and for screening parental lines of low allergenicity in breeding process.     

Design of a Preview Controller for Articulated Heavy Vehicles

The paper presents a preview controller design for ATS （active trailer steering） systems to improve high-speed stability of AHVs （articulated heavy vehicles）. An AHV consists of a towing unit, namely tractor or truck, and one or more towed units which called trailers. Individual units are connected to one another at articulated joints by mechanical couplings. Due to the multi-unit configurations, AHVs exhibit unique unstable motion modes, including jack-knifing, trailer swing and rollover. These unstable motion modes are the leading cause of highway accidents. To prevent these unstable motion modes, the preview controller, namely the LPDP （lateral position deviation preview） controller, is proposed. For a truck/full-trailer combination, the LPDP controller is designed to control the steering of the front and rear axle wheels of the trailing unit. The calculation of the corrective steering angle of the trailer front axle wheels is based on the preview information of the lateral position deviation of the trajectory of the axle center from that of the truck front axle center. Similarly, the steering angle of the trailer rear axle wheels is calculated by using the lateral position deviation of the trajectory of the axle center from that of the truck front axle. To perform closed-loop dynamic simulations and evaluate the vehicle performance measure, a driver model is introduced and it ＇derives＇ the AHV model based on well-defined testing specifications. The proposed preview control scheme in the continuous time domain is developed by using the LQR （linear quadratic regular） technique. The closed-loop simulation results indicate that the performance of the AHV with the LPDP controller is improved by decreasing rearward amplification ratio from the baseline value of 1.28 to 0.98 and reducing transient off-tracking by 95.03%. The proposed LPDP control algorithm provides an alternative method for the design optimization of AHVs with ATS systems.     

Green synthesis of mesoporous hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity

A green synthesis method for the preparation of mesoporous α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles has been developed using the extract of green tea (camellia sinensis) leaves. This simple and one-step method can suitably be scaled up for large-scale synthesis. The as-prepared mesoporous nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, Raman, UV–visible spectroscopy and N₂ adsorption analysis. The nanoparticles were highly pure and well crystallized with an average particle size of 60 nm. The photocatalytic activity of nanoparticles was evaluated by the amount of hydroxyl radical formation under visible light irradiation detected by fluorescence spectroscopy. The as-prepared α-Fe₂O₃ showed two times higher activity than commercial α-Fe₂O₃ in term of hydroxyl radical formation and enhanced performance in a photoelectrochemical cell. Also, a plausible mechanism for the formation of mesoporous α-Fe₂O₃ has been suggested.