FAKE REVIEWS AND MANIPULATION: DO CUSTOMER REVIEWS MATTER?

With the prevalence of fake reviews across web and e-commerce platforms it has become difficult for the customers to make an informed purchase decision. Considering this we examine the influence of review manipulation on customer’s purchase decision. A qualitative approach employing interviews with frequent online shoppers was employed to explore the phenomenon. The results of the study suggest that customers accord recommendations from their social network more weightage than the reviews available on an e-commerce platform. Further, we found that customers apply either or both interactive and extractive strategies to deal with review manipulation. Keywords: information processing, review manipulation, fake reviews, grounded theory

Review Manipulation: Literature Review, and Future Research Agenda

Background: The phenomenon of review manipulation and fake reviews has gained Information Systems (IS) scholars’ attention during recent years. Scholarly research in this domain has delved into the causes and consequences of review manipulation. However, we find that the findings are diverse, and the studies do not portray a systematic approach. This study synthesizes the findings from a multidisciplinary perspective and presents an integrated framework to understand the mechanism of review manipulation. Method: The study reviews 88 relevant articles on review manipulation spanning a decade and a half. We adopted an iterative coding approach to synthesizing the literature on concepts and categorized them independently into potential themes. Results: We present an integrated framework that shows the linkages between the different themes, namely, the prevalence of manipulation, impact of manipulation, conditions and choice for manipulation decision, characteristics of fake reviews, models for detecting spam reviews, and strategies to deal with manipulation. We also present the characteristics of review manipulation and cover both operational and conceptual issues associated with the research on this topic. Conclusions: Insights from the study will guide future research on review manipulation and fake reviews. The study presents a holistic view of the phenomenon of review manipulation. It informs various online platforms to address fake reviews towards building a healthy and sustainable environment

Valley-Spin Hall Effect-based Nonvolatile Memory with Exchange-Coupling-Enabled Electrical Isolation of Read and Write Paths

Valley-spin hall (VSH) effect in monolayer WSe2 has been shown to exhibit highly beneficial features for nonvolatile memory (NVM) design. Key advantages of VSH-based magnetic random-access memory (VSH-MRAM) over spin orbit torque (SOT)-MRAM include access transistor-less compact bit-cell and low power switching of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) magnets. Nevertheless, large device resistance in the read path (RS) due to low mobility of WSe2 and Schottky contacts deteriorates sense margin, offsetting the benefits of VSH-MRAM. To address this limitation, we propose another flavor of VSH-based MRAM that (while inheriting most of the benefits of VSH-MRAM) achieves lower RS in the read path by electrically isolating the read and write terminals. This is enabled by coupling VSH with electrically-isolated but magnetically-coupled PMA magnets via interlayer exchange-coupling. Designing the proposed devices using object oriented micro magnetic framework (OOMMF) simulation, we ensure the robustness of the exchange-coupled PMA system under process variations. To maintain a compact memory footprint, we share the read access transistor across multiple bit-cells. Compared to the existing VSH-MRAMs, our design achieves 39%-42% and 36%-46% reduction in read time and energy, respectively, along with 1.1X-1.3X larger sense margin at a comparable area. This comes at the cost of 1.7X and 2.0X increase in write time and energy, respectively. Thus, the proposed design is suitable for applications in which reads are more dominant than writes

XNOR-VSH: A Valley-Spin Hall Effect-based Compact and Energy-Efficient Synaptic Crossbar Array for Binary Neural Networks

Binary neural networks (BNNs) have shown an immense promise for resource-constrained edge artificial intelligence (AI) platforms as their binarized weights and inputs can significantly reduce the compute, storage and communication costs. Several works have explored XNOR-based BNNs using SRAMs and nonvolatile memories (NVMs). However, these designs typically need two bit-cells to encode signed weights leading to an area overhead. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing a compact and low power in-memory computing (IMC) of XNOR-based dot products featuring signed weight encoding in a single bit-cell. Our approach utilizes valley-spin Hall (VSH) effect in monolayer tungsten di-selenide to design an XNOR bit-cell (named 'XNOR-VSH') with differential storage and access-transistor-less topology. We co-optimize the proposed VSH device and a memory array to enable robust in-memory dot product computations between signed binary inputs and signed binary weights with sense margin (SM) > 1 micro-amps. Our results show that the proposed XNOR-VSH array achieves 4.8% ~ 9.0% and 37% ~ 63% lower IMC latency and energy, respectively, with 4 % ~ 64% smaller area compared to spin-transfer-torque (STT)-MRAM and spin-orbit-torque (SOT)-MRAM based XNOR-arrays

High Speed Railway (HSR): India And The World

India has one of the largest rail networks in the world but has no line which can be classified as HSR allowing operational speed of 125mph. The current fastest train runs at 100 mph over a distance of only around 100 miles. However, supported by a robust political willingness, a new HSR corporation has been set up to kick-start the HSR projects from ideation to reality. Four major corridors have been identified and pre-feasibility studies have been commissioned. The first in this ambitious program is the HSR between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, two major population and commercial centers in the west of India. The success or failure of this project could show the way for future road map of HSR in India. This paper identifies and analyses the countries where HSR systems are in operation – their political, economic and social conditions relevant to HSR systems and then the features of HSR systems themselves to understand the commonalities between the nations that have opted for HSR. The objective is to identify if there is a common character or a baseline characteristic in terms of geographical, economic, political and social conditions which are essential to be a member of this exclusive club? Is there a standard financial and business model that has been adopted by these countries?Theattempt is also to compare these baseline benchmarks with those in India, to assess its strengths and weaknesses and reaffirm the chances of its success in taking up this project, one of the biggestever in its history. The results would be relevant not only for India but for all countries who aspire to be HSR countries in near future

Review Based Study On Risk Management Model For High Speed Indian Railway System

In this paper, a framework for risk management at railways has been studied and integrated into global safety management system of railways. Furthermore we studied how it was applied to a manually controlled full barrier road rail level crossing in Morocco. We studied different aspects that should be considered during the system definition phase where we suggested using functional diagrams for modeling operations at LC from the perspective of LC actors. It is a critical part for risk management and specifically for hazard identification where we provided different techniques that can be used; our experience shows that involvement of all stakeholders is a prerequisite to the success to this phase. Initiating events can be unveiled through brainstorming sessions and FTA can model complex interactions of events that have the potential to lead to accidents. Risk analysis can then be carried out provided that historical LC accident and incident data is available to estimate frequencies and consequences; ETA is the ideal tool for estimating consequences of hazards due to multiple causes. The existing risks are then classified and decisions are made regarding their tolerability, the ALARP principle can serve this purpose. A cost benefit analysis then helps prioritize risk treatment actions that should target intolerable risks. Control mechanisms should be also put in place to assess, monitor and review the risk control actions put in place. Finally, it is emphasized on the importance of having a database of historical accidents and incidents at LC for the success and efficiency for the suggested framework. Accidents at level crossings are the result of complex interactions between factors arising from the design and operations of level crossings. An important first step towards eliminating the causes of these accidents is thru understanding and assessing the risks associated with a given level crossing and acting on them. This paper presents review based study on risk management framework that serves this purpose

A STUDY OF POST-DEMONETIZATION IMPACT OF LIMITED-CASH RETAILING IN UTTARAKHAND, INDIA

Purpose of Study: The paper aims to assess the new face of retailing after demonetization with specific focus to the role of financial intermediaries and it also focuses on Long term solutions to drive the digital cash enabled retailing in India. Methodology: This study used a questionnaire for data collection among 250 retailers in Uttarakhand, India. The questionnaire was later on analyzed using SPSS. Qualitative data was gathered from the interview with the officials from 100 financial intermediaries from banks. Findings: The Indian retail market has been fostered by the cash dealings. The step of demonetization caught the black marketers, retailers and common people by surprise. The move was supported by the majority of people despite facing difficulties.  After the demonetization, people started using the adoption of different forms of digital payment options. The trade in the market was affected and the retail sales witnessed a severe dip. The market is recovering but the actual recovery will depend on devising the substitute for the cash payments at all levels of retailers. Social implications: Financial inclusion is important for inclusive growth and bank to have a crucial role to play in financial literacy campaigns and should ensure that those deprived sections that come to exchange their old notes are properly taken care of. Banks could make unbanked people aware about the financial instruments available with banks and the importance of saving and putting their money in these instruments. This step would further help the economy move from unorganized to organized sector. The originality of Study: This study is original and first of its kind conducted in Uttarakhand, India