Is checkout- free store a flash in the pan? Factors influencing Hong Kong people’s adoption intention of checkout-free stores

Last year, two checkout-free flash stores made their debut in Hong Kong. After the initial try, several companies followed up, and opened their own checkout-free stores or exhibitions, e.g., Sinopec’s easy joy, Watsons, and AlipayHK Futureland. The trial of these stores has aroused wide attentions and discussions on the possibility of new retailing format and experience in Hong Kong. From the consumers’ perspective, this study aims to understand whether the concept of checkout-free store is welcomed by the local people, and what are the factors influencing Hongkongers’ adoption intention toward checkout-free technologies and stores. To realize the above research objectives, we used theory of technology acceptance, UTAUT2, and their extension to build a theoretical model, and empirically tested it by focus groups. The qualitative study shows some initial results to address the research questions

Apparent horizon and gravitational thermodynamics of Universe in the Eddington-Born-Infeld theory

The thermodynamics of Universe in the Eddington-Born-Infeld (EBI) theory was restudied by utilizing the holographic-style gravitational equations that dominate the dynamics of the cosmical apparent horizon $\Upsilon_{A}$ and the evolution of Universe. We started in rewriting the EBI action of the Palatini approach into the Bigravity-type action with an extra metric $q_{\mu\nu}$. With the help of the holographic-style dynamical equations, we discussed the property of the cosmical apparent horizon $\Upsilon_{A}$ including timelike, spacelike and null characters, which depends on the value of the parameter of state $w_{m}$ in EBI Universe. The unified first law for the gravitational thermodynamics and the total energy differential for the open system enveloped by $\Upsilon_{A}$ in EBI Universe were obtained. Finally, applying the positive-heat-out sign convention, we derived the generalized second law of gravitational thermodynamics in EBI universe.Comment: 23 pages, 0 figure

Void Generation Between Shell and Charge ofWarhead under the Projection Load

In the process of projecting, the coupled property of warhead shell and charge is an  important issueof the launching safety study. To maintain charge in close contact with the shell is one of the requirementsfor quality. For solid-liquid mixed charge , its tensile strength is very small, the dynamic response characteristicbetween warhead shell and charge make it possible to form instantaneous void between the shell and charge.his paper studies the impact of factors of instantaneous void and its development law by numerical simulation.This work lays foundation for warhead charge quality control and projection safety.Defence Science Journal, 2008, 58(6), pp.715-720, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.58.169

The Insect Fascicle Morphology Research and Bionic Needle Pierced Mechanical Mechanism Analysis

In this paper, mosquito and cicadas two kinds of insects fascicle were studied, and observed the fascicle surface morphology and distribution through scanning electron microscopy, discussed the height of the six parameters of sawtooth and analyzed quantitatively, compared the two types of fascicle in micro-structure size, and shape, the experiment results show that there are obviously different among the two mouth fascicle morphological structure. Triangular sawtooth are all clearly visible in the two kinds of insect fascicle, in which the mosquito has the small microstructure, and the cicada has the larger one; microstructure of mosquitoes tilt to the rear part of the fascicle, while the microstructure of cicada is symmetric on bottom corner. Based on non-smooth surface structure of fascicle obvious principles of drag reduction effect, the model of drag reduction bionic syringe is proposed, Designed a bionic drag painless needles, and simulated needle piercing power is also measured. Bionic needle surface microstructure can help reduce the needle to decrease the contact area, form rolling, friction, and thus reduce the resistance to needle piercing. Bionic needle has been proved that its puncture resistance is less than smooth one consequently has significant drag reduction effects. Keywords: Insects fascicle; surface morphology; bionic needles; drag reductio

Dicke Superradiance in Solids

Recent advances in optical studies of condensed matter have led to the emergence of phenomena that have conventionally been studied in the realm of quantum optics. These studies have not only deepened our understanding of light-matter interactions but also introduced aspects of many-body correlations inherent in optical processes in condensed matter systems. This article is concerned with superradiance (SR), a profound quantum optical process predicted by Dicke in 1954. The basic concept of SR applies to a general $N$-body system where constituent oscillating dipoles couple together through interaction with a common light field and accelerate the radiative decay of the system. In the most fascinating manifestation of SR, known as superfluorescence (SF), an incoherently prepared system of $N$ inverted atoms spontaneously develops macroscopic coherence from vacuum fluctuations and produces a delayed pulse of coherent light whose peak intensity $\propto N^2$. Such SF pulses have been observed in atomic and molecular gases, and their intriguing quantum nature has been unambiguously demonstrated. Here, we focus on the rapidly developing field of research on SR in solids, where not only photon-mediated coupling but also strong Coulomb interactions and ultrafast scattering exist. We describe SR and SF in molecular centers in solids, molecular aggregates and crystals, quantum dots, and quantum wells. In particular, we will summarize a series of studies we have recently performed on quantum wells in strong magnetic fields. These studies show that cooperative effects in solid-state systems are not merely small corrections that require exotic conditions to be observed; rather, they can dominate the nonequilibrium dynamics and light emission processes of the entire system of interacting electrons.Comment: 23 pages, 26 figure

Relationship and Contract Issues of IT Outsourcing – Descriptive Case Studies in China Regions

In spite of the continuous increase in IT outsourcing activities globally, a major percentage of outsourcing deals failed or suffered from serious problems. In China regions where IT outsourcing practice is still at its initial stage, the situation is even serious: there lacks systematic guidance in terms of how to negotiate decent contracts and how to develop sound relationships. In view of this, the current research develops a research framework based on the theories in Economics, Management and Marketing fields, and investigates the effects of both relationship and contract on IT outsourcing success. To support the research framework, evidence was collected from two descriptive case studies conducted in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The case analysis implies the dimensionalities of relationship and contract. What is more, IT outsourcing success is mainly evaluated from the technological benefits client company could gain. A significant contribution of this study to theory is to look into IT outsourcing phenomenon with a balanced view and through an integrated theoretical lens. For practitioners, this research removes executives’ doubts about simultaneously employing both relationship (soft side) and contract (hard side) as governance mechanisms in managing IT outsourcing deals

Fusion of the Power from Citations: Enhance your Influence by Integrating Information from References

Influence prediction plays a crucial role in the academic community. The amount of scholars' influence determines whether their work will be accepted by others. Most existing research focuses on predicting one paper's citation count after a period or identifying the most influential papers among the massive candidates, without concentrating on an individual paper's negative or positive impact on its authors. Thus, this study aims to formulate the prediction problem to identify whether one paper can increase scholars' influence or not, which can provide feedback to the authors before they publish their papers. First, we presented the self-adapted ACC (Average Annual Citation Counts) metric to measure authors' impact yearly based on their annual published papers, paper citation counts, and contributions in each paper. Then, we proposed the RD-GAT (Reference-Depth Graph Attention Network) model to integrate heterogeneous graph information from different depth of references by assigning attention coefficients on them. Experiments on AMiner dataset demonstrated that the proposed ACC metrics could represent the authors influence effectively, and the RD-GAT model is more efficiently on the academic citation network, and have stronger robustness against the overfitting problem compared with the baseline models. By applying the framework in this work, scholars can identify whether their papers can improve their influence in the future