Dynamic Interrelation of Births and Deaths: Evidence from Plant Level Data

In this paper, the dynamic panel data method is used to investigate the dynamic interrelation of plant births and plant deaths. The dynamic panel data method considers the endogenous problem and individual effects. Empirical findings support the multiplier effect. In addition, exit does not cause entry, whereas entry causes exit.

Fabrication, modeling, and characterization of form-birefringent nanostructures

A 490-nm-deep nanostructure with a period of 200 nm was fabricated in a GaAs substrate by use of electron-beam lithography and dry-etching techniques. The form birefringence of this microstructure was studied numerically with rigorous coupled-wave analysis and compared with experimental measurements at a wavelength of 920 nm. The numerically predicted phase retardation of 163.3 degrees was found to be in close agreement with the experimentally measured result of 162.5 degrees, thereby verifying the validity of our numerical modeling. The fabricated microstructures show extremely large artificial anisotropy compared with that available in naturally birefringent materials and are useful for numerous polarization optics applications

Why People Blog? An Empirical Investigations of the Task Technology Fit Model

Blog has been one of the fastest growing applications in the Internet. Content provided by users has also been an important source of information. Current studies, however, can not explain well why people build their blog. Based on the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) model, this study examines both the impacts of task and technology characteristics on user evaluation of blog and blog usage. Task needs for using blog are described as selfpresentation, self-orientation, and sociality need; technology characteristics refer to the perception of forward and backward social presence. Results of this study show that selfpresentation, sociality need, and the perception of social presence can explain why people build their blog. Interactions between task and technology features also affect user evaluation and blog usage, as predicted by the TTF model

Why Do People Share Music Files in the P2P Environment: An Ethical Decision Perspective

Digitalized information and the Internet have brought great impacts on the music and movies industries. This study tested the ethical decision model of Hunt-Vitell to understand why and how people share unauthorized music files with others in the P2P network. Four scenarios of using P2P system and four norms related to them were proposed in the study. The results indicate that the deontological norm of anti-piracy, whether is theft of intellectual property or not, is not the main factors affecting P2P users’ ethical consideration regarding sharing music with others. The results also suggest the music companies should care more about how to realize the benefits of the digital and network technology to increase the consumers’ welfare instead of just declare the intellectual property they owned and resist the innovations caused by the new technologies

An Empirical Classification of Bidders in Online Auctions

Auctions have been a popular way of transaction on the Internet. Most of the studies of auction assume participants attending the auction are homogeneous. However, this assumption is open to question. In fact, every participant has his own personality, risk attitude, behavior, and cost when attending online auctions. This study takes an empirical approach and uses four variables, time of entry, time of exit, number of bids, and number of jump bids, to find the heterogeneity among bidders. We first used k-means clustering method to identify the types of bidders of online auctions, and then used C5.0 decision tree learning algorithm to find the rules to differentiate bidders. A taxonomy of four types of bidders is proposed in the study, which include observers, adventurers, opportunists, and early players. The results also suggest pacing of the auctions is an important factor that will affect bidder’s behavior in online auctions

A Comprehensive Study on Off-path SmartNIC

SmartNIC has recently emerged as an attractive device to accelerate distributed systems. However, there has been no comprehensive characterization of SmartNIC especially on the network part. This paper presents the first comprehensive study of off-path SmartNIC. Our experimental study uncovers the key performance characteristics of the communication among the client, SmartNIC SoC, and the host. We find without considering SmartNIC hardware architecture, communications with it can cause up to 48% bandwidth degradation due to performance anomalies. We also propose implications to address the anomalies.Comment: This is the short version. Full version will appear at OSDI2