840 research outputs found
Would you buy if you know? Does knowledge promote or deter adoption of Digital Home Assistants?
We are living in an era characterized by continuous technology evolution. A number of technology acceptance models are found in the literature pertaining to information systems, business and other sectors like agriculture and farming. Lack of knowledge was identified as one of the main barriers to technology adoption and hence a number of studies examined awareness, information gathering and learning process as influencers of technology adoption.
In the context of web-based technology, much of the literature is related to E-Commerce or the use of other internet-based platforms, in what is known as computer mediated environment (CME). The barriers to adoption were found to be concerns of privacy, trust, information security and perceived risk. While e-commerce entails a user-initiated transaction, other devices and services like digital assistants and smart technology actively gather information, which the users may or may not be aware of. Digital home assistants (DHAs) like Google Home and Alexa, when connected to the homes, can perform numerous tasks and offer greater convenience. Recent incidents related to Facebook for example, have indicated breach of information gathered from the users, including information gathered without the active knowledge or consent of the users.
In this context, it is interesting to examine the users’ perceptions of a digital home assistant which is always capable of gathering information of all members of the family and visitors. Are users aware of the information flows – inward and outward – when using a DHA? How does it influence the adoption of DHA? These were the questions addressed by the study. The study covered two sets of respondents: current users and non-users. A pretest-posttest model was used to study the level of knowledge and their purchase intention (non-users) / continuity intention (users)
First, the quantum of data captured and the inflows and outflows from Google Home has been measured in a four-day period.
The non-user respondents who displayed positive intention to buy have been exposed to the information and a post-test response related to purchase intention was measured.
The current users’ knowledge related to information security in the use of DHAs was tested and their continuity intention was measured. The paper shares initial findings of the ongoing study of 102 non-users and 33 current users.
Keywords: Smart tech, Knowledge, adoption, Digital Home Assistant
Improving navigation conditions in the Westerschelde and managing its estuarine environment: how to harmonize accessibility, safetyness and naturalness?
Characterisation of the effects of salicylidene acylhydrazide compounds on type three secretion in Escherichia coli O157:H7
Recent work has highlighted a number of compounds that target bacterial virulence by affecting gene regulation. In this work, we show that small-molecule inhibitors affect the expression of the type III secretion system (T3SS) of <i>Escherichia coli</i> O157:H7 in liquid culture and when the bacteria are attached to bovine epithelial cells. The inhibition of T3SS expression resulted in a reduction in the capacity of the bacteria to form attaching and effacing lesions. Our results show a marked variation in the ability of four structurally-related compounds to inhibit the T3SS of a panel of isolates. Using transcriptomics, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the conserved- and inhibitor-specific transcriptional responses to the four compounds. These analyses of gene expression show that numerous virulence genes, located on horizontally-acquired DNA elements, are affected by the compounds but the number of genes significantly affected varied markedly between the compounds. Overall, we highlight the importance of assessing the effect of such "anti-virulence" agents on a range of isolates and discuss the possible mechanisms which may lead to the co-ordinate down-regulation of horizontally acquired virulence genes
A molecular dynamics study on the equilibrium magnetization properties and structure of ferrofluids
We investigate in detail the initial susceptibility, magnetization curves,
and microstructure of ferrofluids in various concentration and particle dipole
moment ranges by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We use the Ewald
summation for the long-range dipolar interactions, take explicitly into account
the translational and rotational degrees of freedom, coupled to a Langevin
thermostat. When the dipolar interaction energy is comparable with the thermal
energy, the simulation results on the magnetization properties agree with the
theoretical predictions very well. For stronger dipolar couplings, however, we
find systematic deviations from the theoretical curves. We analyze in detail
the observed microstructure of the fluids under different conditions. The
formation of clusters is found to enhance the magnetization at weak fields and
thus leads to a larger initial susceptibility. The influence of the particle
aggregation is isolated by studying ferro-solids, which consist of magnetic
dipoles frozen in at random locations but which are free to rotate. Due to the
artificial suppression of clusters in ferro-solids the observed susceptibility
is considerably lowered when compared to ferrofluids.Comment: 33 pages including 12 figures, requires RevTex
VIP enhances TRH-stimulated prolactin secretion of pituitary tumours Studies with 31P NMR
AbstractIntravenous thyrotrophin releasing hormone (TRH) caused a 6.5-fold increase in plasma prolactin (PRL) in rats carrying implanted pituitary tumours. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) had no effect, but TRH given after VIP raised TRH stimulated secretion 13-fold above basal. 31P NMR spectroscopy showed that VIP caused a decrease in high energy metabolites (depleted phosphocreatine, elevated inorganic phosphate and lowered intracellular pH). TRH alone caused a similar but smaller effect; given after VIP, it caused no detectable depletion. We suggest that the changes in high energy metabolite cencentrations reflect increased cellular energy consumption consistent with a priming process (stage 1) in PRL secretion, followed by hormone release (stage 2). VIP induces stage 1 whereas RTH induced both stages
Orientational order in dipolar fluids consisting of nonspherical hard particles
We investigate fluids of dipolar hard particles by a certain variant of
density-functional theory. The proper treatment of the long range of the
dipolar interactions yields a contribution to the free energy which favors
ferromagnetic order. This corrects previous theoretical analyses. We determine
phase diagrams for dipolar ellipsoids and spherocylinders as a function of the
aspect ratio of the particles and their dipole moment. In the nonpolar limit
the results for the phase boundary between the isotropic and nematic phase
agree well with simulation data. Adding a longitudinal dipole moment favors the
nematic phase. For oblate or slightly elongated particles we find a
ferromagnetic liquid phase, which has also been detected in computer
simulations of fluids consisting of spherical dipolar particles. The detailed
structure of the phase diagram and its evolution upon changing the aspect ratio
are discussed in detail.Comment: 35 pages LaTeX with epsf style, 11 figures in eps format, submitted
to Phys. Rev.
Theoretical study of the absorption spectra of the sodium dimer
Absorption of radiation from the sodium dimer molecular states correlating to
Na(3s)-Na(3s) is investigated theoretically. Vibrational bound and continuum
transitions from the singlet X Sigma-g+ state to the first excited singlet A
Sigma-u+ and singlet B Pi-u states and from the triplet a Sigma-u+ state to the
first excited triplet b Sigma-g+ and triplet c Pi-g states are studied
quantum-mechanically. Theoretical and experimental data are used to
characterize the molecular properties taking advantage of knowledge recently
obtained from ab initio calculations, spectroscopy, and ultra-cold atom
collision studies. The quantum-mechanical calculations are carried out for
temperatures in the range from 500 to 3000 K and are compared with previous
calculations and measurements where available.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, revtex, eps
A small universe after all?
The cosmic microwave background radiation allows us to measure both the
geometry and topology of the universe. It has been argued that the COBE-DMR
data already rule out models that are multiply connected on scales smaller than
the particle horizon. Here we show the opposite is true: compact (small)
hyperbolic universes are favoured over their infinite counterparts. For a
density parameter of Omega_o=0.3, the compact models are a better fit to
COBE-DMR (relative likelihood ~20) and the large-scale structure data (sigma_8
increases by ~25%).Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 7 Figure
Criticality in confined ionic fluids
A theory of a confined two dimensional electrolyte is presented. The positive
and negative ions, interacting by a potential, are constrained to move on
an interface separating two solvents with dielectric constants and
. It is shown that the Debye-H\"uckel type of theory predicts that
the this 2d Coulomb fluid should undergo a phase separation into a coexisting
liquid (high density) and gas (low density) phases. We argue, however, that the
formation of polymer-like chains of alternating positive and negative ions can
prevent this phase transition from taking place.Comment: RevTex, no figures, in press Phys. Rev.
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