Rong Gu, Miaoliang Zhu, Liying Zhao and Ningning Zhang
Behaviour in virtual learning environments (VLE), including travel, gaze, manipulate, gesture and conversation, offer considerable information about the user's implicit interest…
Abstract
Purpose
Behaviour in virtual learning environments (VLE), including travel, gaze, manipulate, gesture and conversation, offer considerable information about the user's implicit interest. The purpose of this study is to find an approach for user interest mining via behaviour analysis in a VLE.
Design/methodology/approach
According to research in psychology, any interaction in a VLE has implications for the user's implicit interest. In order to mine a user's implicit interest, an explicit interaction‐interest model needs to be established. This paper presents findings from the concept classification of behaviour in a VLE. Based on this classification, the paper proposes a hierarchical interaction model. In this model the relation between interaction and user interest can be described and used to improve system performance.
Findings
In the experimental prototype the authors found that user‐implicit interest could be mined via stages of web mining, i.e. capture the user's original gesture signal, data pre‐process, pattern discovery, interaction goal and interest mining. The mined user's interest information can be used to update the state of local interest, leading to a reduction in network traffic and promotion of better system performance.
Originality/value
This is an original study using behaviour analysis for interest mining in e‐learning. Research on interest mining in e‐learning focused on content mining or search engine and usage mining in web courses. The paper provides valuable clues regarding user interest mining in a VLE, in which the context is different from usual web courses. The research output can be implemented widely, including online learning, and especially in the VLE.
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The purpose of this guest editorial is to introduce the papers in this special issue.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this guest editorial is to introduce the papers in this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A brief introduction about the issue of web‐mining applications in e‐commerce and e‐services is provided, along with a summary of the main contributions of the papers that are included in the special issue.
Findings
The value of web‐mining techniques can be enhanced through applying them to real environments such as e‐commerce and e‐services. The research fields of web mining, e‐commerce and e‐services can also be expanded.
Originality/value
An overview of the special issue and related research is provided in this paper.
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Marcu Handte, Christian Becker and Kurt Rothermel
Pervasive computing envisions seamless support for user tasks through cooperating devices that are present in an environment. Fluctuating availability of devices, induced by…
Abstract
Pervasive computing envisions seamless support for user tasks through cooperating devices that are present in an environment. Fluctuating availability of devices, induced by mobility and failures, requires mechanisms and algorithms that allow applications to adapt to their ever‐changing execution environments without user intervention. To ease the development of adaptive applications, Becker et al. (3) have proposed the peer‐based component system PCOM. This system provides fundamental mechanisms to support the automated composition of applications at runtime. In this article, we discuss the requirements on algorithms that enable automatic configuration of pervasive applications. Furthermore, we show how finding a configuration can be interpreted as Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem. Based on this, we present an algorithm that is capable of finding an application configuration in the presence of strictly limited resources. To show the feasibility of this algorithm, we present an evaluation based on simulations and real‐world measurements and we compare the results with a simple greedy approximation.
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Bibo Yao, Zhenhua Li, Baoren Teng and Jing Liu
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) can be used to fabricate complex extrusion die without the limitation of structures. Layer-by-layer processing leads to differences in…
Abstract
Purpose
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) can be used to fabricate complex extrusion die without the limitation of structures. Layer-by-layer processing leads to differences in microstructures and wear properties. This study aims to investigate the microstructure evolution and effects of tungsten carbide (WC) on the wear properties of LPBF-printed 18Ni300.
Design/methodology/approach
Economical spherical granulation-sintering-deoxygenation (GSD) WC-reinforced 18Ni300 steel matrix composites were produced by LPBF from powder mixtures of WC and 18Ni300. The effects of WC contents on anisotropic microstructures and wear properties of the composites were investigated.
Findings
The relative density is more than 99% for all the composites except 25% WC/18Ni300 composite. The grain sizes distributed on the top cross-section are smaller than those on the side cross-section. After adding WC particles, more high-angle grain boundaries and larger Schmid factor generate, and deformed grains decrease. With increasing WC contents, the hardness first decreases and then increases but the wear volume loss decreases. The side cross-section of the composite has higher hardness and better wear resistance. The 18Ni300 exhibits adhesive wear accompanying with abrasive wear, while plowing and fatigue wear are the predominant wear mechanisms of the composites.
Originality/value
Economical spherical GSD WC particles can be used to improve the wear resistance. The novel WC/18Ni300 composites are suitable for the application under the abrasive wear condition with low stress.
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In this chapter, rephrasing Spivak's question into ‘can subaltern children speak?’, I reorient the research on China's gigantic population of children and youths in rural migrant…
Abstract
In this chapter, rephrasing Spivak's question into ‘can subaltern children speak?’, I reorient the research on China's gigantic population of children and youths in rural migrant families towards a critical interpretative approach. Based on life history and longitudinal ethnographic interview gathered with three cases, I unpack the multiple meanings migrants' children attach to mobility in their childhood experiences. First, despite emotional difficulties, children see their parents' out-migration more as a ‘mobility imperative’ than their abandonment of parental responsibilities, which should be contextualized in China's long-term urban-biased social policies and the resultant development gaps in rural and urban societies. Second, the seemingly ‘unstable’ and ‘flexible’ mobility patterns observed in migrant families should be understood in relation to a long-term family social mobility strategy to promote children's educational achievement and future attainment. The combination of absent class politics in an illiberal society with an enduring ideology of education-based meritocracy in Confucianism makes this strategy a culturally legitimate channel of social struggle for recognition and respect for the subaltern. Last, children in migrant families are active contributors to their families' everyday organization amidst mobilities through sharing care and household responsibilities, and developing temporal and mobility strategies to keep alive intergenerational exchanges and family togetherness. The study uncovers coexisting resilience and vulnerabilities of migrants' children in their ‘doing class’ in contemporary China. It also contributes insights into our understanding of the diversity of childhoods in Asian societies at the intersection of familyhood, class dynamics and cultural politics.
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Xingfeng Huang, Mun Yee Lai and Rongjin Huang
This study aimed to explore how a group of Chinese primary mathematics teachers learned through conducting an online cross-cultural lesson study between China and Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to explore how a group of Chinese primary mathematics teachers learned through conducting an online cross-cultural lesson study between China and Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
An expansive learning theory was adopted to examine teachers' learning through collective activities across different activity systems. Multiple data sets including videos of research lessons, debriefings and audios of interviews were collected. From the expansive learning perspective, based on a fine-grained qualitative data analysis, various contradictions (as driving forces of learning) were identified and the ways of resolving the contradictions (as enactment of learning) were located to feature teacher learning throughout the online lesson study process.
Findings
Teachers' expansive learning includes enhancing teachers' MKT and Mathematics TPACK, developing instructional design skills and capabilities in addressing challenges occurring in the virtual environment were identified.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, the study illustrated how expansive learning theory could be utilized to examine teacher collaborative learning in the online cross-cultural lesson study. Practically, this study showed that reiterative cycles and experts' facilitation are crucial to expansive learning for linking research to classroom practice. However, this study did not focus on student learning in the virtual environment. Australian teachers' reciprocal learning through the online lesson study also requires further exploration.
Originality/value
Both online lesson study and cross-cultural collaboration are innovative. The expansive learning lens are creatively used to examine the complexity of teacher learning in such a novel environment.
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Qiongqiong Gu, Rong Zhang and Bin Liu
Due to product value uncertainty, consumers do not know the product matching rate before they get the product, which is the probability of product fitness. Taking the consumers’…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to product value uncertainty, consumers do not know the product matching rate before they get the product, which is the probability of product fitness. Taking the consumers’ anticipated regret into account, this paper aims to develop a theoretical model to explore how the anticipated regret affects pricing and advertising decisions and profits of retailers in the online to offline (O2O) supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers an O2O supply chain consisting of an e-retailer and a brick-and-mortar retailer; both retailers cooperate to provide buying online and pick up in-store (BOPS) for consumers.
Findings
It shows three major findings. Retailers should decide whether to introduce BOPS channel according to the matching rate of the product when the BOPS channel is not very convenient for consumers. When the BOPS channel does not exist in the market, the profits of two retailers increase with the online regret of consumers, while the BOPS channel exists in the market and the matching rate of the product is low, the higher offline regret can enable both retailers to increase the profits; furthermore, when the matching rate is high, the higher degree of online regret can bring more profit to the O2O supply chain. Therefore, both retailers can take measures together to induce consumers’ regrets according to the different matching rates, which makes both retailers obtain more profits. Counterintuitively, consumer surplus will not always increase due to consideration of anticipated regret.
Research limitations/implications
The model has some limitations that are worth further discussing. First, in practice, the O2O supply chain includes many forms except the BOPS channel, for example, order online and pick-up in-store (ROPS) channel; future research can discuss and consider the impact of consumers’ anticipated regret on ROPS. Second, the authors consider that O2O is a supply chain composed of two retailers. In reality, there is also a situation where an oligopoly retailer opens two channels to realize O2O supply chain, in the case the inventory decision-making of the product is worth studying. Finally, to highlight the impact of the anticipated regret on consumers’ decision-making, the return of the product is not considered. Future research can take the return of the product into account to assess the robustness of the results.
Originality/value
The contributions are in two main aspects. First, this paper considers an O2O supply chain with consumer value uncertainty, where there are duopoly retailers in the market and most of the existing literature focus on oligopoly retailer operates both online and offline channels; meanwhile, consumers’ value perceptions of the product is deterministic. Second, this paper explores how the consumer anticipated channel regret affects the pricing and advertising decisions of O2O supply chain, and the authors take behavioral theory into account when studying omnichannel operations, while most studies on anticipated regret consider traditional two-stage price reduction management, product innovation, etc.
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Hongyu Du, Rong Yang, Taochen Gu, Xiang Zhou, Samar Yazdani, Eric Sambatra, Fayu Wan, Sébastien Lallechere and Blaise Ravelo
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations on the HP NGD function. The identified HP NGD topology under study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations on the HP NGD function. The identified HP NGD topology under study is constituted by first order passive RC-network. The simulations and measurements confirm in very good agreement the HP NGD behaviors of the tested circuits. NGD responses with optimal values of about -1 ns and cut-off frequencies of about 20 MHz are obtained.
Design/methodology/approach
The identified HP NGD topology understudy is constituted by a first-order passive Resistor-capacitor RC network. An innovative approach to HP NGD analysis is developed. The analytical investigation from the voltage transfer function showing the meaning of HP properties is established.
Findings
This paper introduces innovative theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations on the HP NGD function.
Originality/value
The NGD characterization as a function of the resistance and capacitance parameters is investigated. The feasibility of the HP NGD function is verified with proofs of concept constituted of lumped surface mounted components on printed circuit boards. The simulations and measurements confirm in very good agreement the HP NGD behaviors of the tested circuits. NGD responses with optimal values of about −1 ns and cut-off frequencies of about 20 MHz are obtained.
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Yuan Sun, Chenyan Gu, Xinjie Zhou and Rong-An Shang
In the digital age, enterprise social media (ESM) use is becoming more prevalent in the workplace. The “group” function is a very important part in the use of ESM. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
In the digital age, enterprise social media (ESM) use is becoming more prevalent in the workplace. The “group” function is a very important part in the use of ESM. This paper explores how the characteristics of employees' task requirements affect their group participation behaviors on the ESM.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on information processing theory, the authors establish a two-stage research model to explore the impact of task characteristics on employees' online group participation behavior in the context of ESM. Data were collected using a survey of 341 Chinese employees.
Findings
The results indicate that (1) task interdependence was positively correlated with participation in small closed groups; (2) task complexity was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups and (3) task non-routineness was positively correlated with participation in small groups, large closed groups and open professional groups.
Originality/value
This study builds on the literature on task characteristics, information processing theory and employees' online group participation behavior, contributing to the research on ESM in the field of information systems and providing guidance for enterprise practice.