From ‘Cinderella’ to ‘Beloved Princess’: The Evolution of Early Childhood Education Policy in China

published_or_final_versio

Impact of Transformational Leadership on System Exploration in the Mandatory Organizational Context

Organizational investments in such complex information systems as customer relationship management (CRM) systems have reached a record high. Unfortunately, underutilization of these sophisticated technologies hinders organizations from realizing the promised returns on investment. This study tackles this issue from the perspective of intention to explore, which refers to individual intentions to explore the technology and seek new ways of using it. Drawing upon insights from concepts of exploration, extra-role behavior, technology acceptance, and transformational leadership, this paper proposes a research model for employees’ intention to explore in mandatory organizational contexts, with special emphasis on the effect of transformational leadership. The model was examined in a large telecom service company that uses CRM information systems. The results suggest that transformational leadership, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation (i.e. perceived usefulness) directly affect employees’ exploratory intentions. Transformational leadership also indirectly influences intention to explore through individuals’ intrinsic motivation and computer self-efficacy

Vertex functions for d-wave mesons in the light-front approach

While the light-front quark model (LFQM) is employed to calculate hadronic transition matrix elements, the vertex functions must be pre-determined. In this work we derive the vertex functions for all d-wave states in this model. Especially, since both of $^3D_1$ and $^3S_1$ are $1^{--}$ mesons, the Lorentz structures of their vertex functions are the same. Thus when one needs to study the processes where $^3D_1$ is involved, all the corresponding formulas for $^3S_1$ states can be directly applied, only the coefficient of the vertex function should be replaced by that for $^3D_1$. The results would be useful for studying the newly observed resonances which are supposed to be d-wave mesons and furthermore the possible 2S-1D mixing in $\psi'$ with the LFQM.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, some typos corrected and more discussions added. Accepted by EPJ

Matter wave functions and Yukawa couplings in F-theory Grand Unification

We study the local structure of zero mode wave functions of chiral matter fields in F-theory unification. We solve the differential equations for the zero modes derived from local Higgsing in the 8-dimensional parent action of F-theory 7-branes. The solutions are found as expansions both in powers and derivatives of the magnetic fluxes. Yukawa couplings are given by an overlap integral of the three wave functions involved in the interaction and can be calculated analytically. We provide explicit expressions for these Yukawas to second order both in the flux and derivative expansions and discuss the effect of higher order terms. We explicitly describe the dependence of the couplings on the U(1) charges of the relevant fields, appropriately taking into account their normalization. A hierarchical Yukawa structure is naturally obtained. The application of our results to the understanding of the observed hierarchies of quarks and leptons is discussed.Comment: Latex, 51 pages, 4 figures, typos corrected, note adde

Functional Diversity of Microbial Communities in Sludge-Amended Soils

AbstractThe BIOLOG method was applied to exploration of functional diversity of soil microbial communities in sludge-amended soils sampled from the Yangtze River Delta. Results indicated that metabolic profile, functional diversity indexes and Kinetic parameters of the soil microbial communities changed following soil amendment with sewage sludge, suggesting that the changes occurred in population of the microbes capable of exploiting carbon substrates and in this capability as well. The kinetic study of the functional diversity revealed that the metabolic profile of the soil microbial communities exhibited non-linear correlation with the incubation time, showing a curse of sigmoid that fits the dynamic model of growth of the soil microbial communities. In all the treatments, except for treatments of coastal fluvo-aquic soil amended with fresh sludge and dried sludge from Hangzhou, kinetic parameters K and r of the functional diversity of the soil microbial communities decreased significantly and parameter S increased. Changes in characteristics of the functional diversity well reflected differences in C utilizing capacity and model of the soil microbial communities in the sludge-amended soils, and changes in functional diversity of the soil microbial communities in a particular eco-environment, like soil amended with sewage sludge

Form factors of pion and kaon

An addtional intrinsic form factors of pion and kaons have been studied.Comment: 14 pages and 10 figure

Motivational Differences Across Post-Acceptance IS Usage Behaviors

We identify two post-acceptance information system (IS) usage behaviors related to how employees leverage implemented systems. While routine use (RTN) refers to employees’ using IS in a routine and standardized manner to support their work, innovative use (INV) describes employees’ discovering new ways to use IS to support their work. We use motivation theory as the overarching perspective to explain RTN and INV and appropriate the rich intrinsic motivation (RIM) concept from social psychology to propose a conceptualization of RIM toward IS use, which includes intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment (IMap), intrinsic motivation to know (IMkw), and intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation (IMst). We also consider the influence of perceived usefulness (PU)—a representative surrogate construct of extrinsic motivation toward IS use—on RTN and INV. We theorize the relative impacts of the RIM constructs and PU on RTN and INV and the role of personal innovativeness with IT (PIIT) in moderating the RIM constructs\u27 influences on INV. Based on data from 193 employees using a business intelligence system (BIS) at one of the largest telecom service companies in China, we found 1) PU had a stronger impact on RTN than the RIM constructs, 2) IMkw and IMst each had a stronger impact on INV than either PU or IMap, and 3) PIIT positively moderated the impact of each RIM construct on INV. Our findings provide insights on managing RTN and INV in the post-acceptance stage

A Motivational Account for Post-Acceptance Routine and Innovative Use: Introducing the Concept of Tri-Dimensional Intrinsic Motivation

We conceptualize two distinct post-acceptance usage behaviors: (1) routine use (RTN) refers to the use of information system (IS) consistent with normal work processes and (2) innovative use (INV) means users’ applying system features in novel ways. While RTN helps integrate the implemented IS into work processes, INV further extracts the value of the IS. Drawing on motivation theory, we propose a tri-dimensional intrinsic motivation (3D-IM) construct and hypothesize about the differential roles of intrinsic motivation (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) in explaining RTN and INV. Our first study confirms the measurement model of 3D-IM and illustrates its superior predictive power over perceived enjoyment, a typical measure of IM in prior literature. Study 2 reveals the differential impacts of IM (measured as 3D-IM) and EM (measured as perceived usefulness) on INV and RTN. Specifically, relative to EM, IM has a stronger effect on INV but a weaker impact on RTN

The Contingent Effect of Personal IT Innovativeness and IT Self-Efficacy on Innovative Use of Complex IT

While organizational investment in complex information technologies (IT) keeps growing, these technologies are often applied at a superficial level and fail to attain the promised benefits. To further extract the value potential of complex IT, this study investigates employee users’ innovate with IT (IwIT), which is a post-acceptance behavior that refers to individual users’ applying IT in novel ways to support their task performance. Drawing on the information systems continuance (ISC) model, we propose a research framework with perceived usefulness (PU) and satisfaction (SAT) as the antecedents of IwIT. We further emphasize the contingent role of personal characteristics and include personal innovativeness with IT (PIIT) and information technology self-efficacy (ITSE) as the moderators of the framework. We validate the model with data from users of two complex ITs: enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) technologies. The results suggest that positioning personal factors as moderators significantly increases the explanatory power of the ISC model and offers a more comprehensive understanding about IwIT. Specifically, ITSE positively moderates the effect of PU, and negatively moderates the effect of SAT, on IwIT. The moderating role of PIIT, however, is subject to the specific type of IT of investigation