Studying and Modeling the Connection between People's Preferences and Content Sharing

People regularly share items using online social media. However, people's decisions around sharing---who shares what to whom and why---are not well understood. We present a user study involving 87 pairs of Facebook users to understand how people make their sharing decisions. We find that even when sharing to a specific individual, people's own preference for an item (individuation) dominates over the recipient's preferences (altruism). People's open-ended responses about how they share, however, indicate that they do try to personalize shares based on the recipient. To explain these contrasting results, we propose a novel process model of sharing that takes into account people's preferences and the salience of an item. We also present encouraging results for a sharing prediction model that incorporates both the senders' and the recipients' preferences. These results suggest improvements to both algorithms that support sharing in social media and to information diffusion models.Comment: CSCW 201

Scissors Modes and Spin Excitations in Light Nuclei including ΔN\Delta N=2 excitations: Behaviour of 8Be^8Be and 10Be^{10}Be

Shell model calculations are performed for magnetic dipole excitations in $^8{Be}$ and $^{10}{Be}$ in which all valence configurations plus $2\hbar\omega$ excitations are allowed (large space). We study both the orbital and spin excitations. The results are compared with the `valence space only' calculations (small space). The cumulative energy weighted sums are calculated and compared for the $J=0^+$ $T$=0 to $J=1^+$ $T$=1 excitations in $^8{Be}$ and for $J=0^+$ $T$=1 to both $J=1^+$ $T$=1 and $J$=$1^+$ $T$=2 excitations in $^{10}{Be}$. We find for the $J=0^+$ $T$=1 to $J=1^+$ $T$=1 isovector {\underline {spin}} transitions in $^{10}{Be}$ that the summed strength in the {\underline {large}} space is less than in the {\underline {small}} space. We find that the high energy energy-weighted isovector orbital strength is smaller than the low energy strength for transitions in which the isospin is changed, but for $J=0^+$ $T$=1 to $J=1^+$ $T$=1 in $^{10}{Be}$ the high energy strength is larger. We find that the low lying orbital strength in $^{10}{Be}$ is anomalously small, when an attempt is made to correlate it with the $B(E2)$ strength to the lowest $2^+$ states. On the other hand a sum rule of Zheng and Zamick which concerns the total $B(E2)$ strength is reasonably satisfied in both $^8{Be}$ and $^{10}{Be}$. The Wigner supermultiplet scheme is a useful guide in analyzing shell model results. In $^{10}Be$ and with a $Q \cdot Q$ interaction the T=1 and T=2 scissors modes are degenerate, with the latter carrying 5/3 of the T=1 strength.Comment: 51 pages, latex, 9 figures available upon reques

Differences in intention to use educational RSS feeds between Lebanese and British students: A multi‑group analysis based on the technology acceptance model

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) offers a means for university students to receive timely updates from virtual learning environments. However, despite its utility, only 21% of home students surveyed at a university in Lebanon claim to have ever used the technology. To investigate whether national culture could be an influence on intention to use RSS, the survey was extended to British students in the UK. Using the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) as a research framework, 437 students responded to a questionnaire containing four constructs: behavioral intention to use; attitude towards benefit; perceived usefulness; and perceived ease of use. Principle components analysis and structural equation modelling were used to explore the psychometric qualities and utility of TAM in both contexts. The results show that adoption was significantly higher, but also modest, in the British context at 36%. Configural and metric invariance were fully supported, while scalar and factorial invariance were partially supported. Further analysis shows significant differences between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use across the two contexts studied. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty demonstrate to students how educational RSS feeds can be used effectively to increase awareness and emphasize usefulness in both contexts