Exploring Impact Factors of Mobile Instant Messenger Users’ Continuance Intention

Combining uses and gratifications theory and one construct, that is attitude, from the theory of planned behavior, led to the creation of the research model in this study. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze data from 414 WeChat users. In this research, we aimed to explore the direct impacts of various gratifications on attitude regarding the use of mobile instant messenger. It was also sought to explore the direct and indirect influences of various gratifications on the continuance intention to use mobile instant messenger. According to the results, attitude is essential in deciding mobile instant messenger users’ intention to continue using the service. Additionally, results show that process gratification, as represented by entertainment, and technology gratification, as represented by convenience are two main direct predictors of continued intention to use WeChat. Results also show that attitude acts as a full mediator between process gratification (entertainment), technology gratification (media appeal, social presence), and continuance intention of WeChat users. Attitude partially mediates the relationship between technology gratification (convenience) and continuance intention of WeChat users. Attitude is directly influenced by process gratification (entertainment), as well as technology gratification (convenience, media appeal, social presence). This research helps with grasping the inherent connection mechanism between various gratifications and continuance intention. There are a number of important theoretical and practical implications that emerge from this study

Effects of Exogenous Galanin on Neuropathic Pain State and Change of Galanin and Its Receptors in DRG and SDH after Sciatic Nerve-Pinch Injury in Rat

A large number of neuroanatomical, neurophysiologic, and neurochemical mechanisms are thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. However, mechanisms responsible for neuropathic pain have not been completely delineated. It has been demonstrated that neuropeptide galanin (Gal) is upregulated after injury in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and spinal dorsal horn (SDH) where it plays a predominantly antinociceptive role. In the present study, sciatic nerve-pinch injury rat model was used to determine the effects of exogenous Gal on the expression of the Gal and its receptors (GalR1, GalR2) in DRG and SDH, the alterations of pain behavior, nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and morphology of sciatic nerve. The results showed that exogenous Gal had antinociceptive effects in this nerve-pinch injury induced neuropathic pain animal model. It is very interesting that Gal, GalR1 and GalR2 change their expression greatly in DRG and SDH after nerve injury and intrathecal injection of exougenous Gal. Morphological investigation displays a serious damage after nerve-pinch injury and an amendatory regeneration after exogenous Gal treatment. These findings imply that Gal, via activation of GalR1 and/or GalR2, may have neuroprotective effects in reducing neuropathic pain behaviors and improving nerve regeneration after nerve injury

Exploring Motivations for TikTok Usage and Impact Factors of TikTokers’ Continuance Intention

The objectives of this study are to examine the motivations for people’s TikTok usage and the determinants of their continued use of the app. As a relatively new social media gaining unprecedented popularity so rapidly, it begs the question of why TikTokers keep using the app. This study is essential since social media marketers who seek to engage with Chinese consumers on TikTok and platform designers who wish to optimize the app might gain valuable insights from this study. The research model was developed by integrating uses and gratifications theory (UGT) with technology acceptance model (TAM). Based on descriptive analysis, TikTok is primarily used for entertainment (ENT) and information seeking (IS) motivations, followed by sociability seeking (SS) and escape (ESC) motivations, rather than for fashion (FAS) or money making (MM) reasons. Based on an analysis of 421 TikTokers utilizing structural equation modelling (SEM), perceived usefulness (PU) and attitude (ATT) have significant positive impacts on continuance intention (CI) of TikTok usage, whereas perceived ease of use (PEOU) exerts a significant negative effect, quite the opposite of previous research findings. PEOU and PU have both been shown to positively impact ATT toward TikTok. Meanwhile, PEOU has a significant positive effect on TikTok’s PU. There is significant positive impact of ENT and IS motivations on PEOU of TikTok, while FAS motivation exerts significant negative impact, whereas ESC, SS, and MM motivations are insignificant. Moreover, it has been revealed that ENT, SS, and IS motivations significantly contribute to TikTok’s PU, whereas FAS, ESC, and MM motivations are negligible. A total of twelve hypotheses were supported out of eighteen. Several theoretical and managerial implications have been drawn from the current research

Shock-induced Martensite phase transformation and its effects of metastable near β Ti-5553 titanium alloy

In this paper, microstructure evolution and mechanic properties of metastable near β Ti-5553 alloy were investigated. SHPB, SHTB and light gas gun were employed to carry out the dynamic loadings. Microstructure evolution were characterized by OM, quantitative metallography and XRD. The experimental results demonstrated that stress-induced martensite transformation occur in metastable Ti-5553 alloy through SHPB, SHTB and plate impact loadings. In SHPB loading test, stress-induced martensite transformation is one of the methods that dissipate energy besides of adiabatic shear band, and also occur before ASB. In SHTB and SHPB+SHTB loading tests, the transformation amount of stressinduced martensite exhibit similar trend. In plate impact experiment, the content of martensite phase transformation increased with the impact velocity

LPG–PCFG: An Improved Probabilistic Context- Free Grammar to Hit Low-Probability Passwords

With the development of the Internet, information security has attracted more attention. Identity authentication based on password authentication is the first line of defense; however, the password-generation model is widely used in offline password attacks and password strength evaluation. In real attack scenarios, high-probability passwords are easy to enumerate; extremely low-probability passwords usually lack semantic structure and, so, are tough to crack by applying statistical laws in machine learning models, but these passwords with lower probability have a large search space and certain semantic information. Improving the low-probability password hit rate in this interval is of great significance for improving the efficiency of offline attacks. However, obtaining a low-probability password is difficult under the current password-generation model. To solve this problem, we propose a low-probability generator–probabilistic context-free grammar (LPG–PCFG) based on PCFG. LPG–PCFG directionally increases the probability of low-probability passwords in the models’ distribution, which is designed to obtain a degeneration distribution that is friendly for generating low-probability passwords. By using the control variable method to fine-tune the degeneration of LPG–PCFG, we obtained the optimal combination of degeneration parameters. Compared with the non-degeneration PCFG model, LPG–PCFG generates a larger number of hits. When generating 107 and 108 times, the number of hits to low-probability passwords increases by 50.4% and 42.0%, respectively

Shock-induced Martensite phase transformation and its effects of metastable near β Ti-5553 titanium alloy

In this paper, microstructure evolution and mechanic properties of metastable near β Ti-5553 alloy were investigated. SHPB, SHTB and light gas gun were employed to carry out the dynamic loadings. Microstructure evolution were characterized by OM, quantitative metallography and XRD. The experimental results demonstrated that stress-induced martensite transformation occur in metastable Ti-5553 alloy through SHPB, SHTB and plate impact loadings. In SHPB loading test, stress-induced martensite transformation is one of the methods that dissipate energy besides of adiabatic shear band, and also occur before ASB. In SHTB and SHPB+SHTB loading tests, the transformation amount of stressinduced martensite exhibit similar trend. In plate impact experiment, the content of martensite phase transformation increased with the impact velocity