The cross-cultural impact of mobile payment technology:Fingerprint scanning vs. QR-code scanning

Mobile payment is becoming increasingly popular among consumers, with convenient and more or less risky means of identification and authentication. This study aims to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural preferences for two mobile payment application technologies, namely fingerprint scanning and QR-code scanning. Specifically, a comparison is made of consumers from cultures with different levels of uncertainty avoidance. For this purpose, Asian and European consumers from China (N = 70) and the Netherlands (N = 110) participated in an online survey. The findings revealed that both cultural groups regularly used mobile payment technology, whereby they clearly preferred the fingerprint scan technology over QR-code scan technology. Some culture-related differences were found. The Chinese group had higher trust in fingerprint scan technology compared to the Dutch group. In addition to this, the Chinese had higher hedonic and utilitarian attitudes towards QR-scan technology compared to the Dutch

Foundation of a component-based flexible registry for language resources and technology

Within the CLARIN e-science infrastructure project it is foreseen to develop a component-based registry for metadata for Language Resources and Language Technology. With this registry it is hoped to overcome the problems of the current available systems with respect to inflexible fixed schema, unsuitable terminology and interoperability problems. The registry will address interoperability needs by refering to a shared vocabulary registered in data category registries as they are suggested by ISO

The zebrafish mutants dre, uki, and lep encode negative regulators of the hedgehog signaling pathway.

Proliferation is one of the basic processes that control embryogenesis. To identify factors involved in the regulation of proliferation, we performed a zebrafish genetic screen in which we used proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression as a readout. Two mutants, hu418B and hu540A, show increased PCNA expression. Morphologically both mutants resembled the dre (dreumes), uki (ukkie), and lep (leprechaun) mutant class and both are shown to be additional uki alleles. Surprisingly, although an increased size is detected of multiple structures in these mutant embryos, adults become dwarfs. We show that these mutations disrupt repressors of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. The dre, uki, and lep loci encode Su(fu) (suppressor of fused), Hip (Hedgehog interacting protein), and Ptc2 (Patched2) proteins, respectively. This class of mutants is therefore unique compared to previously described Hh mutants from zebrafish genetic screens, which mainly show loss of Hh signaling. Furthermore, su(fu) and ptc2 mutants have not been described in vertebrate model systems before. Inhibiting Hh activity by cyclopamine rescues uki and lep mutants and confirms the overactivation of the Hh signaling pathway in these mutants. Triple uki/dre/lep mutants show neither an additive increase in PCNA expression nor enhanced embryonic phenotypes, suggesting that other negative regulators, possibly Ptc1, prevent further activation of the Hh signaling pathway. The effects of increased Hh signaling resulting from the genetic alterations in the uki, dre, and lep mutants differ from phenotypes described as a result of Hh overexpression and therefore provide additional insight into the role of Hh signaling during vertebrate development

Temperature-dependent interface magnetism and magnetization reversal in Co/Pt multilayers

We report on the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties and interface magnetism of Co/Pt multilayers. The magnetic properties including magnetization and anisotropy change substantially as the temperature varies from 300 to 10 K for samples with Co layer thickness in the range from 3 to 7 Å. The interface anisotropy of about 0.38 erg/cm2 is nearly independent of temperature. The magnetization reversal is dominated by domain wall motion for the thinner Co layers and dominated by nucleation for the thicker Co layers