The Magic of Lottery: Investigating the PAYW in Live Streaming from Opportunism and Impulsiveness

Live streaming is adopted by many digital and e-commerce platforms. As a popular way for people to obtain information products and entertainment, live streaming generates tremendous business revenue through pay-as-you-wish gifting (PAYW). As one of the most important channels to earn profits by live streaming hosts, PAYW faces the trouble of free riders who watch live content without payment. To encourage free-rider audiences to pay, some platforms in China have introduced a lottery mechanism, which allows people to get high-value prizes by paying a threshold price. We conduct a quasi-experiment with lottery block on a popular live streaming platform to estimate its causal effect on PAYW gifting. The study identifies heterogeneous effects based on user opportunism and impulsive tendencies. The proposed typology of lottery provides a framework for improving PAYW gifting in live streaming e-commerce

The Structure and Evolution of Online Rating Biases in the Sharing Economy

A wave of sharing economy companies are profoundly changing the market landscape, disrupting traditional businesses alongside the social fabrics of exchange. A critical challenge to their growth, however, is that how to generate trust from online to offline transactions. Users in many online platforms rely on reputational systems such as ratings to infer quality and make decisions. However, ratings are biased by behavioral tendencies, such as homophily and power dependence. Our project examines the structure and evolution of rating biases by analyzing massive amount of platform data. Using big data techniques on leading sharing economy platforms, we identify the structure and evolution of biases, attempting to correct the tendencies in system design. We examine rating biases and their relationships to social distance among heterogeneous user populations. The coevolution of reputational systems and trust further implies long-term behavioral trends, which are critical to investigate for business growth

Concentration and Platform Growth in the Sharing Economy: A Resource Partitioning Perspective

The emergence and growth of sharing economy platforms have engendered significant research interests recently. These platforms have witnessed increased entry of professional service providers, who have large amounts of excess assets and standardized business practices. Meanwhile, sharing economy platforms have witnessed an astounding growth, much of which is not attributed to professional service providers. This paper examines two seemingly contradictory phenomena – increased concentration among professional service providers and rapid growth of non-professionals on sharing economy platforms. Using the resource partitioning theory from the organizational literature, we explain how these two phenomena are inherently related. We further emphasize the role of income inequality that affects the resource partitioning process. The empirical analysis uses 1.4 million zip-code level Airbnb data, with Airbnb Plus policy as a natural experiment. Findings reveal that professional service provider concentration facilitates non-professional growth but reduces their performance, and the effects are significantly moderated by income inequality

A Concert of Harp, Piano and Vocal Music

This is the program for the Concert of Harp, Piano and Vocal Music, featuring guest musicians Angela Kwan Lu-Fox on harp and piano and Frederick S. Fox, bass-baritone. The concert was held on April 29, 1988, in the Mabee Fine Arts Center

The Relationship Between Vision and Organizational Readiness for Change: The Mediating Effects of Empowerment and Trust in the Leader

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between vision and readiness for organizational change directly and through the mediating effects of empowerment and trust. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a sample of 409 managerial and non-managerial personnel from four business organizations. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test direct and mediating effects. Findings – Analyses provided strong support for the direct effects of vision and organizational readiness for change and the effects of vision on readiness for change were mediated by empowerment and trust in the leader. Research limitations/implications – Vision is significantly associated with readiness for organizational change. However, both trust in leadership and sense of empowerment strengthen the relationship between the two variables. Practical Implications – A compelling vision can improve employees’ readiness for change by empowering them and by developing trust in the leader. Originality/value –To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the mediating effects of trust and empowerment on the relationship between vision and organizational readiness for change

Coupling between Voltage Sensors and Activation Gate in Voltage-gated K+ Channels

Current through voltage-gated K+ channels underlies the action potential encoding the electrical signal in excitable cells. The four subunits of a voltage-gated K+ channel each have six transmembrane segments (S1–S6), whereas some other K+ channels, such as eukaryotic inward rectifier K+ channels and the prokaryotic KcsA channel, have only two transmembrane segments (M1 and M2). A voltage-gated K+ channel is formed by an ion-pore module (S5–S6, equivalent to M1–M2) and the surrounding voltage-sensing modules. The S4 segments are the primary voltage sensors while the intracellular activation gate is located near the COOH-terminal end of S6, although the coupling mechanism between them remains unknown. In the present study, we found that two short, complementary sequences in voltage-gated K+ channels are essential for coupling the voltage sensors to the intracellular activation gate. One sequence is the so called S4–S5 linker distal to the voltage-sensing S4, while the other is around the COOH-terminal end of S6, a region containing the actual gate-forming residues

The resilient women of color leaders: Narratives of black and brown leaders in P-16 settings

In this chapter, the authors report on their experiences as higher education faculty women of color through three narratives. They present the narratives from their perspectives as three full professors in educational leadership. In the first narrative, an African-American scholar reports on her experiences in academia. In the second narrative, a Latina scholar reports on former Latina students who are currently in school leadership positions enacting social justice leadership. In the third narrative, an Asian-American scholar reports on her current project about networking as a strategy for women of color

The Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect in Time Varying Vacuum Model

The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect is an important implication for dark energy. In this paper, we have calculated the power spectrum of the ISW effect in the time varying vacuum cosmological model, where the model parameter $\beta=4.407$ is obtained by the observational constraint of the growth rate. It's found that the source of the ISW effect is not only affected by the different evolutions of the Hubble function $H(a)$ and the dimensionless matter density $\Omega_m(a)$, but also by the different growth function $D_+(a)$, all of which are changed due to the presence of matter production term in the time varying vacuum model. However, the difference of the ISW effect in $\Lambda(t)\textmd{CDM}$ model and $\Lambda \textmd{CDM}$ model is lessened to a certain extent due to the integration from the time of last scattering to the present. It's implied that the observations of the galaxies with high redshift are required to distinguish the two models

Endogenous CCL2 neutralization restricts HIV-1 replication in primary human macrophages by inhibiting viral DNA accumulation

Macrophages are key targets of HIV-1 infection. We have previously described that the expressionof CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) increases during monocyte differentiation to macrophages and it is furtherup-modulated by HIV-1 exposure. Moreover, CCL2 acts as an autocrine factor that promotes viral replication ininfected macrophages. In this study, we dissected the molecular mechanisms by which CCL2 neutralization inhibitsHIV-1 replication in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM), and the potential involvement of the innate restrictionfactors protein sterile alpha motif (SAM) histidine/aspartic acid (HD) domain containing 1 (SAMHD1) and apolipoproteinB mRNA-editing, enzyme-catalytic, polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3) family members.Results:CCL2 neutralization potently reduced the number of p24 Gag+cells during the course of either productive orsingle cycle infection with HIV-1. In contrast, CCL2 blocking did not modify entry of HIV-1 based Virus Like Particles, thusdemonstrating that the restriction involves post-entry steps of the viral life cycle. Notably, the accumulation of viralDNA, both total, integrated and 2-LTR circles, was strongly impaired by neutralization of CCL2. Looking for correlates ofHIV-1 DNA accumulation inhibition, we found that the antiviral effect of CCL2 neutralization was independent of themodulation of SAMHD1 expression or function. Conversely, a strong and selective induction of APOBEC3A expression,to levels comparable to those of freshly isolated monocytes, was associated with the inhibition of HIV-1 replicationmediated by CCL2 blocking. Interestingly, the CCL2 neutralization mediated increase of APOBEC3A expression was typeI IFN independent. Moreover, the transcriptome analysis of the effect of CCL2 blocking on global gene expressionrevealed that the neutralization of this chemokine resulted in the upmodulation of additional genes involved in thedefence response to viruses.Conclusions:Neutralization of endogenous CCL2 determines a profound restriction of HIV-1 replication in primaryMDM affecting post-entry steps of the viral life cycle with a mechanism independent of SAMHD1. In addition, CCL2blocking is associated with induction of APOBEC3A expression, thus unravelling a novel mechanism which mightcontribute to regulate the expression of innate intracellular viral antagonistsin vivo. Thus, our study may potentially leadto the development of new therapeutic strategies for enhancing innate cellular defences against HIV-1 and protecting macrophages from infection