A Case Study in the Application of Authentic Material Texts: Findings after Using the New York Times Monday Weekly on the United Daily News

It is easy to have access to satellite or cable TV programs in Taiwan, and thus ordinary learners have ample opportunities to immerse themselves in an English-rich environment if they want. However, military cadets do not have enough English input because their time is limited on campus. In this study, the writer strives to figure out the best way to increases their interest in the language and relate English instruction to their real world. She used the New York Times Monday Weekly (NYTMW) in the United Daily News as a supplementary reading material during the 2005-2006 school year, and tried to analyze the mixed results. She finds that retention is increased if the selected material is relevant to learners’ lives. Key words: NYTMW, New York Times, reading assessment, authentic material texts Résumé: Il est facile d’accéder aux programmes de satellite ou de télévison par câble à Taiwai, et ainsi les apprenants disposent de nombreuses opportunités pour s’immigrer dans un environnement anglais s’ils en ont envie. Cependant, les élèves des écoles militaires n’ont pas assez de contact avec l’anglais parce qu’ils passent leur temps au campus. Dans cette étude, l’auteur essaie de trouver le meilleur moyen de soulever leur intérêt et relier l’instruction anglaise à leur vie réelle. De plus, elle trouve que la rétention est augmentée si le matériel sélectionné concerne la vie des apprenants. Mots-Clés: NYTMW, New York Time, évaluation de lecture, matériel authentiqu

System quality, user satisfaction, and perceived net benefits of mobile broadband services

The continued decline of voice revenues is pushing mobile operators in Taiwan turn into data and content services for exploring new revenue opportunities and raising ARPU. This study aims to discuss the critical determinants of the internet user's adoption of 3.5G mobile broadband services in Taiwan. The theoretical framework employed in the study is Information System Success Model (DeLone & McLean, 2003; Chae et al.,2002), which is operationally defined with mobile web-services measurement scales. The study attempts to identify how the system quality of 3.5G mobile broadband services affects the customer satisfaction and their perceived net benefit. With the affordable mobile broadband connectivity, 3.5 G access or HSDPA in Taiwan has played a major role in the burgeoning mobile Internet market. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) could be viewed as an advanced version of WCDMA wireless network. HSDPA ideally provides mobile data services up to 14.4 Mbps for the downlinks and up to 5.8 Mbps for the uplinks. According to TWNIC, the number of cell phone subscribers in Taiwan has grown up to 23 million by March 2009 with a 100% penetration rate Yet, among cell phone subscribers there were only 1.6 million users adopting mobile broadband services. --Mobile Broadband Services,IS Success Model,Customer Satisfaction,Net Benefits

DiffXPBD : Differentiable Position-Based Simulation of Compliant Constraint Dynamics

We present DiffXPBD, a novel and efficient analytical formulation for the differentiable position-based simulation of compliant constrained dynamics (XPBD). Our proposed method allows computation of gradients of numerous parameters with respect to a goal function simultaneously leveraging a performant simulation model. The method is efficient, thus enabling differentiable simulations of high resolution geometries and degrees of freedom (DoFs). Collisions are naturally included in the framework. Our differentiable model allows a user to easily add additional optimization variables. Every control variable gradient requires the computation of only a few partial derivatives which can be computed using automatic differentiation code. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method with examples such as elastic material parameter estimation, initial value optimization, optimizing for underlying body shape and pose by only observing the clothing, and optimizing a time-varying external force sequence to match sparse keyframe shapes at specific times. Our approach demonstrates excellent efficiency and we demonstrate this on high resolution meshes with optimizations involving over 26 million degrees of freedom. Making an existing solver differentiable requires only a few modifications and the model is compatible with both modern CPU and GPU multi-core hardware

CANF-VC++: Enhancing Conditional Augmented Normalizing Flows for Video Compression with Advanced Techniques

Video has become the predominant medium for information dissemination, driving the need for efficient video codecs. Recent advancements in learned video compression have shown promising results, surpassing traditional codecs in terms of coding efficiency. However, challenges remain in integrating fragmented techniques and incorporating new tools into existing codecs. In this paper, we comprehensively review the state-of-the-art CANF-VC codec and propose CANF-VC++, an enhanced version that addresses these challenges. We systematically explore architecture design, reference frame type, training procedure, and entropy coding efficiency, leading to substantial coding improvements. CANF-VC++ achieves significant Bj{\o}ntegaard-Delta rate savings on conventional datasets UVG, HEVC Class B and MCL-JCV, outperforming the baseline CANF-VC and even the H.266 reference software VTM. Our work demonstrates the potential of integrating advancements in video compression and serves as inspiration for future research in the field

Semiconductor Packaging

In semiconductor manufacturing, understanding how various materials behave and interact is critical to making a reliable and robust semiconductor package. Semiconductor Packaging: Materials Interaction and Reliability provides a fundamental understanding of the underlying physical properties of the materials used in a semiconductor package. By tying together the disparate elements essential to a semiconductor package, the authors show how all the parts fit and work together to provide durable protection for the integrated circuit chip within as well as a means for the chip to communicate with the outside world. The text also covers packaging materials for MEMS, solar technology, and LEDs and explores future trends in semiconductor packages

Effects of nonverbal communication on Chatbot's perceived personality and user satisfaction

As artificial intelligence develops rapidly, companies have created exclusive chatbots to facilitate conversational commerce and establish an emotional connection between their brands and their customers. Therefore, shaping the chatbot personality to match the brand image is often the focus of chatbot design. Two studies were conducted to investigate how nonverbal communication elements (avatar, sticker, emoji) affect users' judgment of chatbot personality and explore the effect of chatbot personality on user satisfaction. In Study 1, Kansei engineering was adopted to conduct an online survey using six combinations of nonverbal elements as experimental conditions and the five dimensions of the Brand Personality Scale as Kansei vocabularies. The results revealed that the three nonverbal elements did affect users' perceptions of chatbot personalities; however, the impacts of each element on different personality dimensions varied. In Study 2, based on Study 1, two crowdfunding chatbots with distinct personality traits, sincere and insincere, were developed as the experimental conditions to interact with participants within FB messenger. One hundred fifty valid questionnaires and the click rate of participants during the experiment were collected to measure participants' satisfaction. The results showed that participants were more satisfied with the sincere chatbot than the insincere chatbot. In addition, the personality of the chatbots also affected the participants' judgment of the quality of the messages as well as their willingness to use the chatbots