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The integration of social media and e-commerce has resulted in a rising phenomenon among individual content providers (ICPs), who used to offer free content, to provide consumers with paid content, such as online courses, Q&As or consultations. Despite the prevalence of ICPs’ content monetization, empirical research has rarely studied its underlying mechanism. This paper examines how the characteristics of free content contributed by ICPs on social media platforms influence their paid content sales, focusing on the perspective of human brand.

The empirical setting is an online knowledge exchange platform, where users are allowed to provide free content (e.g. answers) on the social media platform and launch paid content (e.g. lectures) on the e-commerce platform. A machine learning technique is employed to construct measures for the characteristics of free content, and fixed-effects estimation is presented to confirm which factors have a significant influence on the sales of paid content.

The empirical results show that the quality, diversity and expertness of free content have a significant positive impact on the sales of the ICP-paid content, with the brand popularity of ICP playing a mediating role.

This study is the first attempt to demystify the relationship between content contribution and ICPs’ content monetization from the perspective of human brand. The findings validate the effectiveness of the “Selling by Contribution” strategy and provide valuable insights for ICPs and social media platforms.

It has been verified that the WBZ‐α method of Wood, Bossak and Zienkiewicz can have unconditional stability and numerical dissipation for linear elastic systems. However, it is still unclear about its performance in the solution of nonlinear systems analytically. Hence, this study proposes to analytically investigate its numerical characteristics for solving nonlinear systems.

Two parameters are introduced to facilitate the basic analysis for nonlinear systems. One is the step degree of nonlinearity, which describes the stiffness change within a time step, and the other is the step degree of convergence, which describes the convergence error due to an iteration procedure.

It is theoretically proved that the sub‐family of WBZ‐α method of −1≤α<0, β=(1/4)(1−α)² and γ=(1/2)−α is unconditionally stable and has desired numerical dissipation for any nonlinear systems even with the presence of convergence error. These theoretical results are confirmed by numerical examples.

This analytical study reveals that the performance of the WBZ‐α method for nonlinear systems is in general the same as that for linear elastic systems.

The time‐discretization process of transient equation systems is an important concern in computational heat transfer applications. As such, the present paper describes a formal basis towards providing the theoretical concepts, evolution and development, and characterization of a wide class of time discretized operators for transient heat transfer computations. Therein, emanating from a common family tree and explained via a generalized time weighted philosophy, the paper addresses the development and evolution of time integral operators [IO], and leading to integration operators [InO] in time encompassing single‐step integration operators [SSInO], multi‐step integration operators [MSInO], and a class of finite element in time integration operators [FETInO] including the relationships and the resulting consequences. Also depicted are those termed as discrete numerically assigned [DNA] algorithmic markers essentially comprising of both: the weighted time fields, and the corresponding conditions imposed upon the dependent variable approximation, to uniquely characterize a wide class of transient algorithms. Thereby, providing a plausible standardized formal ideology when referring to and/or relating time discretized operators applicable to transient heat transfer computations.

This paper aims to systematically review over two decades of academic articles on romance fraud to provide a holistic insight into this crime and identify literature gaps.

More than two decades of peer-reviewed academic journal articles from 2000 to 2023 were systematically reviewed using multiple search engines and databases for relevant papers, identified through searches of paper titles, keywords, abstracts and primary texts.

The findings reveal 10 themes: i) the definitions and terminology of romance fraud; ii) romance fraud’s impact on victims; iii) the profile of romance fraud criminals and victims; iv) romance fraud methods and techniques; v) why victims become susceptible to romance fraud; vi) the psychology of romance fraud criminals; vii) the links between romance fraud and other crimes; viii) the challenges of investigating romance fraud; ix) preventing romance fraud and protecting victims; and x) how romance fraud victims can be supported.

The paper reveals implications regarding the future direction of policy and strategy to address the pervasive low reporting rates and narratives of shame bound with victims of this crime.

Romance fraud is a serious crime against individuals with impacts beyond financial losses. Still, this fraud type is under-researched, and the literature lacks a holistic view of this crime. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review providing a holistic view of romance fraud. It combines evidence across the academic landscape to reveal the breadth and depth of the current work concerning romance fraud and identify gaps in the understanding of this fraud crime.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the deformation characteristics and failure modes of the right bank slope of Xiluodu Hydropower Station after excavation.

Micro-seismic monitoring technology is applied to obtain the microfracture information and study the internal damage evolution law of the slope rock mass. A numerical model for discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) is established to analyse the deformation characteristics and failure mode of the slope. Micro-seismic monitoring and DDA can verify and supplement each other's results in the investigation of slope failure.

The results show that the slope has a downhill displacement along the weathered zone under natural conditions; the maximum resultant displacement at the monitoring point is 380 mm. The micro-seismic events are concentrated in an area located 30–100 m horizontally away from the slope surface and at an elevation of 390–470 m. The distribution of these micro-seismic events is consistent with the location of the unloading and weathered zones; it is the same as the DDA simulation result.

The study is anticipated to be used as reference for the stability analysis of rock slopes. By combining the continuous (micro-seismic monitoring technology) and discontinuous (DDA) methods, the entire process starting from the gradual accumulation of internal rock micro-damage to the macroscopic discontinuous deformation and failure of the slope can be investigated.

This paper aims to analyze cognitive-based trust development during the beginning phase of virtual teams (VT) before any trustor’s firsthand, knowledge-based trust of a trustee can develop. At this phase, early cognitive trust development is largely an individual construct that can help set the tone for subsequent phases and may also influence final VT effectiveness and performance.

This study begins with an analysis of cognitive-based trust and trust in VT and then focuses on the models and antecedents of early trust development in VT.

The conclusion offers a precise visualization of the research on early trust development in VT that identifies new research opportunities, particularly valuable for new field research.

This literature review could be useful to both researchers of early trust formation in VTs and to organizations that use VTs as a part of their workforce. The figures and tables produced in this literature could be useful to researchers of early trust development in VTs in two areas. First, researchers can use this information to quickly identify the academic literature associated with each component of early trust models, the type of research conducted for each component. Second, new research opportunities based on this sample for each component of the early trust model is clearly identified.

Organizations need to ensure that members of VTs can form quickly and operate effectively within a short period. Identifying factors that may influence early trust formation could give managers and VT members an understanding of the importance of trust development in the early stages of VTs and how this may ultimately influence a VTs performance, effective teamwork and productivity.

The conclusion offers a precise visualization of the research on early trust development in VT that identifies new research opportunities, particularly valuable for new field research.

The microseismic monitoring technique has great advantages on identifying the location, extent and the mechanism of damage process occurring in rock mass. This study aims to analyze distribution characteristics and the evolution law of excavation damage zone of surrounding rock based on microseismic monitoring data.

In situ test using microseismic monitoring technique is carried out in the large-span transition tunnel of Badaling Great Wall Station of Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway. An intelligent microseismic monitoring system is built with symmetry monitoring point layout both on the mountain surface and inside the tunnel to achieve three-dimensional and all-round monitoring results.

Microseismic events can be divided into high density area, medium density area and low density area according to the density distribution of microseismic events. The positions where the cumulative distribution frequencies of microseismic events are 60 and 80% are identified as the boundaries between high and medium density areas and between medium and low density areas, respectively. The high density area of microseismic events is regarded as the high excavation damage zone of surrounding rock, which is affected by the grade of surrounding rock and the span of tunnel. The prediction formulas for the depth of high excavation damage zone of surrounding rock at different tunnel positions are given considering these two parameters. The scale of the average moment magnitude parameters of microseismic events is adopted to describe the damage degree of surrounding rock. The strong positive correlation and multistage characteristics between the depth of excavation damage zone and deformation of surrounding rock are revealed. Based on the depth of high excavation damage zone of surrounding rock, the prestressed anchor cable (rod) is designed, and the safety of anchor cable (rod) design parameters is verified by the deformation results of surrounding rock.

The research provides a new method to predict the surrounding rock damage zone of large-span tunnel and also provides a reference basis for design parameters of prestressed anchor cable (rod).

Marketers of new brands increasingly utilize complex names to draw consumers’ attention. Although complexity can make a brand stand out, whether it encourages or discourages consumers’ patronage intention remains unclear. To address this issue, the research explores the double-edged sword of brand name complexity on consumers’ patronage intention, mediated by uniqueness perception and psychological distance. It also examines the moderating effect of brand self-introduction.

Three between-subjects experimental studies were conducted across different scenarios and brands. In Study 1 (N = 151), a single-factor (simple name vs complex name) between-subject design examined the mediating effect of uniqueness perception between brand name complexity and consumers’ patronage intention. Study 2 (N = 112) replicated this design to test the mediating effect of psychological distance. Study 3 (N = 231) conducted a 2 (simple vs complex name) × 2 (no introduction vs self-introduction) between-subject design to test the moderating effect.

The results indicate that a complex brand name (vs simple) can make the brand appear more unique, thereby increasing patronage intention. However, complexity also creates a sense of psychological distance, which can reduce patronage intention. Further, our results reveal that brand self-introduction can attenuate the association between brand name complexity and psychological distance.

This research extends brand name strategy literature by addressing the dual impact of brand name complexity on patronage intention, particularly emphasizing the impact of brand name complexity on psychological distance for a new brand. Additionally, the findings offer practical insights for marketers, highlighting that brand self-introduction is a key strategy to reduce psychological distance. This underscores the importance of balancing complexity with clear and effective communication.

Timing constraints affect the manufacturing of traditional large-scale components through the material extrusion technique. Thus, researchers are exploring using many independent and collaborative heads that may work on the same part simultaneously while still producing an appealing final product. The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple and repeatable approach for toolpath planning for gantry-based n independent extrusion heads with effective collision avoidance management.

This research presents an original toolpath planner based on existing slicing software and the traditional structure of G-code files. While the computationally demanding component subdivision task is assigned to computer-aided design and slicing software to build a standard G-code, the proposed algorithm scans the conventional toolpath data file, quickly isolates the instructions of a single extruder and inserts brief pauses between the instructions if the non-priority extruder conflicts with the priority one.

The methodology is validated on two real-life industrial large-scale components using architectures with two and four extruders. The case studies demonstrate the method's effectiveness, reducing printing time considerably without affecting the part quality. A static priority strategy is implemented, where one extruder gets priority over the other using a cascade process. The results of this paper demonstrate that different priority strategies reflect on the printing efficiency by a factor equal to the number of extrusion heads.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to produce an original methodology to efficiently plan the extrusion heads' trajectories for a collaborative material extrusion architecture.