3D avatar seller's effect on online consumer's purchasing behavior: a trust transference perspective

The emerging 3D virtual worlds attract more and more people to participate in the virtual environment, creating a new market for business to sell their products. In 3D virtual worlds, members mainly interact with each other through avatars. The selling process is fulfilled through the shop avatars. How businesses sell their products successfully to the potential customers and eventually persuade the customer to purchase the product is an essential question. Trust played a key role in the selling process. In the general selling process, trust was established through the sales person. In the virtual world environment, could the trust be established between the sales avatars and customer avatars This paper aims at answering this question by examining the trust transference process in the 3D virtual world environment. An experiment was conducted to categorize the avatars into attractive and expert ones. The research result first suggest that trust formed in a 3D avatar seller could be transferred to a selling company and a product but for an expert 3D avatar seller, trust transferred to the company and product results in intent to purchase. Trust in a 3D avatar seller is transferred to trust in a product and a company and furthermore, an expert avatar can affect a consumer's intent to purchase. In the case of an attractive 3D avatar, although trust is transferred, it is only to the point of intent to purchase

Behavior Participation in Virtual Worlds: A Triandis Model Perspective

Emerging virtual technology suggests that we are moving into a new age of technology, Web 3.0, in which social networks and 3D virtual environments are prominent. Many new business opportunities present themselves in this context. However, business success in the new virtual world requires an understanding of how people behave in virtual worlds so that they can be effectively and efficiently managed. This paper examines how people behave in virtual worlds by using a Triandis interpersonal behavior model. The data were collected in Cyworld, and the results were tested by Lisrel 8.70. We examined two types of behaviors, giving information and obtaining information. We show that although behavioral intention plays a role in shaping virtual world behavior, habit plays a major role in determining whether people will give information and obtain information. What is more interesting is that behavior related to obtaining information is a strong antecedent of behavior related to giving information in virtual worlds. The conclusion provides several implications for both researchers and virtual world developers

Research and Design on Navigation Electronic Map System

This paper puts forward the new definition on the basis of the original concept of the navigation electronic map, designs the structure of the navigation electronic map system which contains three parts: hardware equipment, data system and software system, and analyzes each part of them in detail, finally this paper discusses the functional framework of the navigation electronic map

Autofocus Analysis: Latency and Sharpness

In this study a new camera testing method is introduced to determine and analyze the autofocus latency of cameras. This analysis allows for objective comparison and tuning of autofocus algorithms in order to deliver both sharp images and the optimal user experience with a camera. Given images taken in variable illuminance conditions with different methods of focus reset, along with high-speed recordings of the camera viewfinder throughout the reset and capture, machine vision is used to extract three different types of latencies: The first latency is the autofocus time, which is measured from the end of the focus reset to full stability, as measured by slanted-edge sharpness in the camera viewfinder. The next latency is the user interface latency, which also comes from the viewfinder and is the time between the camera trigger and when the user interface of the camera indicates that a capture took place. The final latency is the captured image latency, which is taken from the captured image itself and is the time between the camera trigger and when the image is actually captured. In addition, we measure the sharpness of the final captured image in each test. Commercially available smartphone devices were tested using this method, showing significantly different results in both latency and sharpness measurements and uncovering trends in sharpness-latency trade-offs

A Restricted Black-box Adversarial Framework Towards Attacking Graph Embedding Models

With the great success of graph embedding model on both academic and industry area, the robustness of graph embedding against adversarial attack inevitably becomes a central problem in graph learning domain. Regardless of the fruitful progress, most of the current works perform the attack in a white-box fashion: they need to access the model predictions and labels to construct their adversarial loss. However, the inaccessibility of model predictions in real systems makes the white-box attack impractical to real graph learning system. This paper promotes current frameworks in a more general and flexible sense -- we demand to attack various kinds of graph embedding model with black-box driven. To this end, we begin by investigating the theoretical connections between graph signal processing and graph embedding models in a principled way and formulate the graph embedding model as a general graph signal process with corresponding graph filter. As such, a generalized adversarial attacker: GF-Attack is constructed by the graph filter and feature matrix. Instead of accessing any knowledge of the target classifiers used in graph embedding, GF-Attack performs the attack only on the graph filter in a black-box attack fashion. To validate the generalization of GF-Attack, we construct the attacker on four popular graph embedding models. Extensive experimental results validate the effectiveness of our attacker on several benchmark datasets. Particularly by using our attack, even small graph perturbations like one-edge flip is able to consistently make a strong attack in performance to different graph embedding models.Comment: Accepted by the AAAI 202

The impact of green finance on green economy development efficiency: based on panel data of 30 provinces in China

Within the framework of China’s socioeconomic transition from a phase of rapid growth to one of high-quality development, it becomes crucial to focus on advancing the green economy to sustain economic progress. Green finance plays a pivotal role in underpinning green industries and fostering the progression of a green economy. Under the auspices of green finance, social capital is increasingly directed towards industries that prioritize energy efficiency, low carbon emissions, and environmental friendliness, thereby spurring technological innovation and industrial metamorphosis in businesses. In this paper, data envelopment approach (DEA) is used to measure the green economic development efficiency of 30 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2018 in general and by sub-region. The two-way fixed-effects model (Two-way FE) and difference-in-difference (DID) model are established to empirically analyze the effect of green finance on green economy development efficiency and the influence of green polices on these two, with sub-region models examining the heterogeneity of this impact in eastern, western and central regions. The findings suggest that green finance significantly enhances a positive influence on green economic development efficiency, albeit with regional variations. Furthermore, the implementation of green policies facilitates green finance and green economic development

PA-X is a virulence factor in avian H9N2 influenza virus

H9N2 influenza viruses have been circulating worldwide in multiple avian species, and regularly infect pigs and humans. Recently, a novel protein, PA-X, produced from the PA gene by ribosomal frameshifting, was demonstrated to be an antivirulence factor in pandemic 2009 H1N1, highly pathogenic avian H5N1 and 1918 H1N1 viruses. However, a similar role of PA-X in the prevalent H9N2 avian influenza viruses has not been established. In this study, we compared the virulence and cytopathogenicity of H9N2 WT virus and H9N2 PA-X-deficient virus. Loss of PA-X in H9N2 virus reduced apoptosis and had a marginal effect on progeny virus output in human pulmonary adenocarcinoma (A549) cells. Without PA-X, PA was less able to suppress co-expressed GFP in human embryonic kidney 293T cells. Furthermore, absence of PA-X in H9N2 virus attenuated viral pathogenicity in mice, which showed no mortality, reduced progeny virus production, mild-to-normal lung histopathology, and dampened proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine response. Therefore, unlike previously reported H1N1 and H5N1 viruses, we show that PA-X protein in H9N2 virus is a pro-virulence factor in facilitating viral pathogenicity and that the pro- or antivirulence role of PA-X in influenza viruses is virus strain-dependent

Prevailing PA mutation K356R in avian influenza H9N2 virus increases mammalian replication and pathogenicity

Adaptation of the viral polymerase complex comprising PB1, PB2, and PA is necessary for efficient influenza A virus replication in new host species. We found that PA mutation K356R (PA-K356R) has become predominant since 2014 in avian H9N2 viruses in China as with seasonal human H1N1 viruses. The same mutation is also found in most human isolates of emergent avian H7N9 and H10N8 viruses whose six internal gene segments are derived from the H9N2 virus. We further demonstrated the mammalian adaptive functionality of the PA-K356R mutation. Avian H9N2 virus with the PA-K356R mutation in human A549 cells showed increased nuclear accumulation of PA and increased viral polymerase activity that resulted in elevated levels of viral transcription and virus output. The same mutant virus in mice also enhanced virus replication and caused lethal infection. In addition, combined mutation of PA-K356R and PB2-E627K, a well-known mammalian adaptive marker, in the H9N2 virus showed further cooperative increases in virus production and severity of infection in vitro and in vivo. In summary, PA-K356R behaves as a novel mammalian tropism mutation, which, along with other mutations such as PB2-E627K, might render avian H9N2 viruses adapted for human infection

M gene reassortment in H9N2 influenza virus promotes early infection and replication: contribution to rising virus prevalence in chickens in China

Segment reassortment and base mutagenesis of influenza A viruses are the primary routes to the rapid evolution of high fitness virus genotypes. We recently described a predominant G57 genotype of avian H9N2 viruses that caused country-wide outbreaks in chickens in China during 2010-2013 which led to the zoonotic emergence of H7N9 viruses. One of the key features of the G57 genotype is the substitution of the earlier BJ/94-like M gene with the G1-like M gene of quail origin. We report here on the functional significance of the G1-like M gene in H9N2 viruses in conferring increased infection severity and infectivity in primary chicken embryonic fibroblasts and chickens. H9N2 virus housing the G1-like M gene, in place of BJ/94-like M gene, showed early surge in viral mRNA and vRNA transcription that were associated with enhanced viral protein production, and with early elevated release of progeny virus comprising largely spherical rather than filamentous virions. Importantly, H9N2 virus with G1-like M gene conferred extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented signature amino acid residues (37A, 95K, 224N and 242N in M1 protein, and 21G in M2 protein) encoded by the prevalent G1-like M gene were demonstrated as prime contributors to enhanced infectivity. Therefore, the genetic evolution of M gene in H9N2 virus increases reproductive virus fitness, indicating its contribution to rising virus prevalence in chickens in China. Importance We recently described the circulation of a dominant genotype (G57) of H9N2 viruses in country-wide outbreaks in chickens in China, which was responsible through reassortment for the emergence of H7N9 viruses that cause severe human infections. A key feature of the G57 genotype H9N2 virus is the presence of quail origin G1-like M gene which had replaced the earlier BJ/94-like M gene. We found that H9N2 virus with G1-like M gene, but not BJ/94-like M gene, showed early surge in progeny virus production, more severe pathology and extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented amino acid residues in M1 and M2 proteins derived from G1-like M gene were shown to mediate enhanced virus infectivity. These observations enhance what we currently know about the roles of reassortment and mutations on virus fitness and have implications for assessing the potential of variant influenza viruses that can cause rising prevalence in chickens

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N6 viruses exhibit enhanced affinity for human type sialic acid receptor and in-contact transmission in model ferrets

Since May 2014, highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N6 virus has been reported to cause six severe human infections three of which were fatal. The biological properties of this subtype, in particular its relative pathogenicity and transmissibility in mammals, are not known. We characterized the virus receptor-binding affinity, pathogenicity, and transmissibility in mice and ferrets of four H5N6 isolates derived from waterfowl in China from 2013-2014. All four H5N6 viruses have acquired a binding affinity for human-like SA alpha 2,6Gal-linked receptor to be able to attach to human tracheal epithelial and alveolar cells. The emergent H5N6 viruses, which share high sequence similarity with the human isolate A/Guangzhou/39715/2014 (H5N6), were fully infective and highly transmissible by direct contact in ferrets but showed less-severe pathogenicity than the parental H5N1 virus. The present results highlight the threat of emergent H5N6 viruses to poultry and human health and the need to closely track their continual adaptation in humans