Few literature studies have investigated the relationships between different uses and gratifications (U&Gs) of mobile instant messaging (MIM) apps, continuation, and purchase intentions. To address this gap, the researchers aimed to examine the influence of the content, social, process, and technology U&Gs of MIM on continuation intentions toward MIMs, and purchase intentions toward virtual goods available on MIMs. A comprehensive research model was developed based on the U&G theory, which was tested using cross-sectional data from 309 Japanese MIM users. The study considered six different U&Gs of MIM as independent variables and purchase intentions towards stickers and continuation intentions towards MIM as dependent variables. The study results suggest that exposure U&G has a significant positive association with MIM sticker purchase intentions. The entertainment and affection U&G are positively associated with continuation intentions towards MIM use. The study contributes to the literature by investigating U&Gs that motivate MIM users to have both positive purchase intentions toward virtual goods, such as stickers, and continuation intentions toward MIMs. The study has significant theoretical and practical implications for both researchers and practitioners who are interested in virtual goods, the virtual economy, MIM apps, social media, new media, and the service economy. 相似文献
The automatic design of controllers for mobile robots usually requires two stages. In the first stage, sensorial data are preprocessed or transformed into high level and meaningful values of variables which are usually defined from expert knowledge. In the second stage, a machine learning technique is applied to obtain a controller that maps these high level variables to the control commands that are actually sent to the robot. This paper describes an algorithm that is able to embed the preprocessing stage into the learning stage in order to get controllers directly starting from sensorial raw data with no expert knowledge involved. Due to the high dimensionality of the sensorial data, this approach uses Quantified Fuzzy Rules (QFRs), that are able to transform low-level input variables into high-level input variables, reducing the dimensionality through summarization. The proposed learning algorithm, called Iterative Quantified Fuzzy Rule Learning (IQFRL), is based on genetic programming. IQFRL is able to learn rules with different structures, and can manage linguistic variables with multiple granularities. The algorithm has been tested with the implementation of the wall-following behavior both in several realistic simulated environments with different complexity and on a Pioneer 3-AT robot in two real environments. Results have been compared with several well-known learning algorithms combined with different data preprocessing techniques, showing that IQFRL exhibits a better and statistically significant performance. Moreover, three real world applications for which IQFRL plays a central role are also presented: path and object tracking with static and moving obstacles avoidance. 相似文献
The issue of a multicast search for a group of users is discussed in this study. Given the condition that the search is over
only after all the users in the group are found, this problem is called the Conference Call Search (CCS) problem. The goal
is to design efficient CCS strategies under delay and bandwidth constraints. While the problem of tracking a single user has
been addressed by many studies, to the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to reduce the search
cost for multiple users. Moreover, as oppose to the single user tracking, for which one can always reduce the expected search
delay by increasing the expected search cost, for a multicast search the dependency between the delay and the search cost
is more complicated, as demonstrated in this study. We identify the key factors affecting the search efficiency, and the dependency
between them and the search delay. Our analysis shows that under tight bandwidth constraints, the CCS problem is NP-hard.
We therefore propose a search method that is not optimal, but has a low computational complexity. In addition, the proposed
strategy yields a low search delay as well as a low search cost. The performance of the proposed search strategy is superior
to the implementation of an optimal single user search on a group of users.
Amotz Bar-Noy received the B.Sc. degree in 1981 in Mathematics and Computer Science and the Ph.D. degree in 1987 in Computer Science, both
from the Hebrew University, Israel. From October 1987 to September 1989 he was a post-doc fellow in Stanford University, California.
From October 1989 to August 1996 he was a Research Staff Member with IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, New York. From February
1995 to September 2001 he was an associate Professor with the Electrical Engineering-Systems department of Tel Aviv University,
Israel. From September 1999 to December 2001 he was with AT research labs in New Jersey. Since February 2002 he is a Professor
with the Computer and Information Science Department of Brooklyn College - CUNY, Brooklyn New York.
Zohar Naor received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2000. Since 2003 he is with
the University of Haifa, Israel. His areas of interests include wireless networks, resource management of computer networks,
mobility, search strategies, and multiple access protocols. 相似文献
A CEC-funded project has been performed to tackle the problem of producing an advanced Life Monitoring System (LMS) which would calculate the creep and fatigue damage experienced by high temperature pipework components. Four areas were identified where existing Life Monitoring System technology could be improved:
1. 1. the inclusion of creep relaxation
2. 2. the inclusion of external loads on components
3. 3. a more accurate method of calculating thermal stresses due to temperature transients
4. 4. the inclusion of high cycle fatigue terms.
The creep relaxation problem was solved using stress reduction factors in an analytical in-elastic stress calculation. The stress reduction factors were produced for a number of common geometries and materials by means of non-linear finite element analysis. External loads were catered for by producing influence coefficients from in-elastic analysis of the particular piping system and using them to calculate bending moments at critical positions on the pipework from load and displacement measurements made at the convenient points at the pipework. The thermal stress problem was solved by producing a completely new solution based on Green's Function and Fast Fourier transforms. This allowed the thermal stress in a complex component to be calculated from simple non-intrusive thermocouple measurements made on the outside of the component. The high-cycle fatigue problem was dealt with precalculating the fatigue damage associated with standard transients and adding this damage to cumulative total when a transient occurred.
The site testing provided good practical experience and showed up problems which would not otherwise have been detected. 相似文献
Anguilla is a UK overseas (non-independent) territory in the Caribbean. It is a small middle-income island with a population of 13 000, and recent statistics indicate that it is more dependent on tourism than any other country or territory in the world. Rapid population growth and development have placed more emphasis on the need for human health and environmental protection. For the first time, a systematic water-quality monitoring programme has been developed, based on the realities of the local situation, e.g. low resource base, limited capabilities, dependence on household rainwater catchment, storage cisterns, and a poor water-supply network. Development of the programme incorporated the key themes of pragmatic, realistic, incremental, responsive, and consultative approaches. 相似文献