User behaviors toward mobile video adoption in Taiwan: A qualitative study

This study was designed to examine users' usage behaviors toward mobile video adoption in Taiwan. A modified UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) model was designed to be the theory basis to develop questionnaires and open-ended questions. Data were gathered from six participants from iOS and Android users, two experts, and one focus group with five members. The study was conducted from February to April, 2011. The findings in this study supported those in the literature review: Effort Expectancy and Perceived Playfulness factors had positive influence to users' usage behaviors. Facilitating Conditions and Performance expectancy also had positive effect to users' usage behaviors toward mobile video app adoption. Network quality issue was the concern and should be added in the model. Moreover, several implications and suggestions for mobile video app adoption were discussed in the study. --mobile video,Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT),mobile video adoption,Taiwan

The Effect Of Cognitive Styles Upon The Completion Of A Visually-oriented Component Of Online Instruction

This study was designed to examine whether a person\u27s prepositioned cognitive style influenced learning achievement in a visually-oriented task for an online learning environment in higher education. Field dependence-independence was used to identify individuals\u27 cognitive styles. A true experimental study was conducted in the fall 2005 term at the University of Central Florida. This researcher followed Dwyer and Moore\u27s research (1991, 2002) and divided learners into three groups (field dependent [FD], field neutral [FN], and the field independent [FI] students). Eighty-three preservice teachers participated in this study; the data from 52 of the FD and the FI participants were analyzed to answer research questions. The findings in this study supported those in the literature review; students from both FD and FI cognitive styles performed equally well in online learning environments. In addition, for providing introductory-level instruction on visually-oriented tasks in an online learning environment, instructions which emphasized an FD approach benefited both FI and FD students in their knowledge-based learning achievement. In this approach, extra cues and sequence of content might have been the reasons that students had higher scores on their knowledge-based learning achievement and satisfaction levels. The findings of this study also indicated that students could demonstrate higher performance-based learning achievement if they had more experiences on the subject matter and higher knowledge-based learning achievement if they felt the instructions were easy to follow and the workload of the module was manageable. Based on the findings and conclusions, the recommendations are: (1) A larger sample size is needed to generalize the findings of the study; (2) In this study, student-to-student and teacher-to-student interactions might affect students\u27 learning achievement. Future studies should consider those interactions as factors and examine their effect on students\u27 learning achievement

Characterization of photochemically initiated gold nanoparticles synthesized via incoherent ultraviolet radiation

A modified Turkevich pathway of synthesizing water suspended gold nanoparticles using incoherent ultraviolet radiation as photochemical reaction initiator produced broader absorbance band corresponding to localised surface plasmonresonsnce around 530 nm with average particle size separated into two distinct distributions from 5 nm to 100 nm depending on ultraviolet wavelength. Presence and dynamics of nanoparticle growth was observed with photon correlation spectroscopy where aged colloids produced submicron sized agglomerated particles. Post-synthesis colloidal pH shows gradual degradation of particle stability

Interaction of Psychological Factors in Shaping Entrepreneurial Intention Among Computer and Electrical Engineering Students

Numerous technopreneurs start their ventures at college age, but the entrepreneurship of computer and electrical engineering (CEE) students remains under-studied. This study analysed both the combined and interactive effects of psychological factors on the entrepreneurial intentions of CEE students. In this study, entrepreneurial intention comprised two dimensions, conviction and preparation. Regarding the direct effects, the results indicated that self-efficacy affected entrepreneurial conviction the most, followed by negative emotion, intrinsic motivation, and metacognition. Negative emotion affected entrepreneurial preparation the most, followed by self-efficacy and positive emotion. The results also revealed several crucial interactive effects resulting from psychological factors. An increase in cognitive load increased the entrepreneurial intention of students exhibiting high intrinsic motivation and reduced the intention of students exhibiting low intrinsic motivation. An increase in metacognition increased the entrepreneurial conviction of students exhibiting either high or low intrinsic motivation. An increase in positive emotion reduced the entrepreneurial intention of students exhibiting high negative emotion and increased the intention of students exhibiting low negative emotion. An increase in self-efficacy increased the entrepreneurial intention of students exhibiting either high or low negative emotion.Przedsiębiorcy w dziedzinie zaawansowanych technologii (techno-przedsiębiorcy) często rozpoczynają aktywność już w okresie studiów, jednak działalność przedsiębiorcza studentów wydziałów elektronicznych i informatycznych nie została do tej pory dostatecznie zbadana. W tym badaniu analizowano wpływ czynników psychologicznych na intencje przedsiębiorcze tych studentów w oparciu o dwa wymiary, przekonanie i przygotowanie. W odniesieniu do skutków bezpośrednich, wyniki wskazują, że poczucie własnej skuteczności wpływa najbardziej na przekonanie o przedsiębiorczości, a kolejnymi czynnikami są negatywne emocje, motywacja wewnętrzna oraz meta-poznanie. Negatywne emocje najmocniej wpłynęły na przygotowanie do podjęcia działań przedsiębiorczych, a następnie na poczucie własnej skuteczności i na pozytywne emocje. Wyniki wykazały również kilka ważnych efektów interakcji wynikających z czynników psychologicznych. Wzrost obciążenia poznawczego wzmocnił intencje przedsiębiorcze studentów, którzy wykazywali znaczącą motywację wewnętrzną, a osłabił intencje studentów ze słabą wewnętrzną motywacją. Wzrost meta-poznania zwiększył intencje przedsiębiorcze zarówno studentów wykazujących mocną jak i słabą motywację wewnętrzną. Wzrost pozytywnych emocji wpłynął na osłabienie intencji przedsiębiorczości u studentów wykazujących wysoki poziom emocji negatywnych oraz podniósł intencję u studentów z niskim poziomem negatywnych emocji. Wzrost poczucia własnej skuteczności wzmocnił intencje przedsiębiorczości u studentów wykazujących zarówno wysoki jak i niski poziom negatywnych emocji

Development of titanium dioxide nanoparticles/nanosolution for photocatalytic activity

Biological and chemical contaminants by man-made activities have been serious global issue. Exposure of these contaminants beyond the limits may result in serious environmental and health problem. Therefore, it is important to develop an effective solution that can be easily utilized by mankind. One of the effective ways to overcome this problem is by using titanium dioxide (TiO2). TiO2 is a well-known photocatalyst that widely used for environmental clean-up due to its ability to decompose organic pollutant and kill bacteria. Although it is proven TiO2 has an advantage to solve this concern, its usefulness unfortunately is limited only under UV light irradiation. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the potential of TiO2 that can be activated under visible light by the incorporation of metal ions (Fe, Ag, Zr and Ag-Zr). In this study, sol-gel method was employed for the synthesis of metal ions incorporated TiO2. XRD analysis revealed that all samples content biphasic anatase-brookite TiO2 of size 3 nm to 5 nm. It was found that the incorporation of these metal ions did not change the morphology of TiO2 but the crystallinity and optical properties were affected. The crystallinity of anatase in the biphasic TiO2 was found to be decreased and favored brookite formation. PL analysis showed metal ions incorporation suppressed the recombination of electron-hole pairs while the band gap energy of TiO2 (3.2 eV) was decreased by the incorporation of Fe (2.46 eV) and Ag (2.86 eV). Among this incorporation, Ag-Zr incorporated TiO2 showed highest performance for methyl orange degradation (93%) under fluorescent xxv light irradiation for 10 h. This follows by Zr-TiO2 (82%), Fe-TiO2 (75%) and Ag�TiO2 (43%). Meanwhile, the highest antibacterial performance was exhibited by Ag�TiO2. TEM images showed that E.coli bacterium was killed within 12 h after treated with Ag-TiO2. The results obtained from the fieldwork study established that Ag-Zr incorporation have excellent performances for VOC removal and antibacterial test. The VOC content after treated with Ag-Zr-TiO2 fulfilled the Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality 2010 which is lower than 3 ppm. In addition, the percentage of microbes also found to be decrease around 45 % within 5 days of monitoring

Efficient micropropagation of Dendrobium aurantiacum from shoot explant

Embryogenic tissue culture (seed tissue culture) is a common practice in plant industry to speed up and mass production. However, the culture method is not widely adopted in most of the orchid species. Micro-size orchid seeds are difficult to obtain and collect due to ambiguous seed maturation period. Most of orchid seeds have no endosperm and highly dependent on the specific fungi for germination and survival. Micropropagation from shoot culture with meristem tissue is potentially be another alternative for mass propagation of orchid. Therefore, this study examine the potential of micropropagation technique by shoot culture in orchid, Dendrobium aurantiacum (F. Muell.) F. Muell. This study reported an effective aseptic technique to develop sterilized D. aurantiacum tissue in vitro. The callus induction and regeneration from shoot explant by utilization of different plant growth regulator had been examined in this study. Among the treatments, 20% sodium hypochlorite with 15 mins sterilization period showed the highest sterilization efficiency on explants with only 16.7±5.8% of contamination occurred after two weeks and obtained highest survival rate 73.3±5.8% after one month. Callus formed in all combinations of plant hormone treatments. Media treated with 10 mg/L 2,4-D showed the highest callus induction rate but browning condition occur after 3 months of culture. Cell count on callus proliferation showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) between control and treatments. In conclusion, micropropagation of D. aurantiacum had been shortened almost 9-12 months required for nature germination

A review on cloud computing security

Cloud computing is a technology that maintain the data and application by using the central remote server with the internet connection. By utilizing cloud computing, user can reduce their costs as they no need to purchase their own hardware and software. However cloud computing still has many issues concerning securities, such as privacy issues, loss of data and stolen of data. Some security issues over cloud services including confidentiality, integrity, availability, privacy and attacks are concerned by the users. This paper reviews some of the issues and its current solutions