The Influences of Live Streaming Affordance in Cross-Border E-Commerce Platforms

Despite the promise of cross-border e-commerce, attracting consumers is still a worldwide challenge. Many cross-border e-commerce platforms have responded to the challenges by embracing innovative tools like live streaming. However, there has been limited understandings of the unique nature of live streaming and its empirical influence. Taking an affordance view of live streaming, this study defines affordance of live streaming as the capacities provided by live streaming and examines how affordance of live streaming affect consumer behavior in the cross-border e-commerce context based on information transparency perspective. Results show that although live streaming does not directly affect consumers’ cross-border purchase intention, it can increase consumers’ purchase intention through increasing perceived information transparency. In addition, affordance of live streaming can further moderate the relationship between different types of information transparency and consumers’ cross-border purchase intention. The findings provide a much-needed contribution to academia and business.

The Influences of Live Streaming Affordance in Cross-border E-commerce Platform

Despite the promise of cross-border e-commerce, attracting consumers is still a worldwide challenge. Many cross-border e-commerce platforms have responded to the challenges by embracing innovative tools like live streaming. However, there has been limited understandings of the unique nature of live streaming and its empirical influence. Taking an affordance view of live streaming, this study defines affordance of live streaming as the capacities provided by live streaming and examines how affordance of live streaming affect consumer behavior in the cross-border e-commerce context based on information transparency perspective. Results show that although live streaming does not directly affect consumers’ cross-border purchase intention, it can increase consumers’ purchase intention through increasing perceived information transparency. In addition, affordance of live streaming can further moderate the relationship between different types of information transparency and consumers’ cross-border purchase intention. The findings provide a much-needed contribution to academia and business.

What Will Happen to This Dog? A Qualitative Analysis of Rehoming Organisations' Pre-adoption Dog Behaviour Screening Policies and Procedures

Rehoming organisations often undertake some type of behaviour evaluation to determine dogs' suitability for rehoming and/or the type of suitable home. Assessments can carry considerable weight in determining dogs' fates. Although evaluation of the validity and reliability of any test is important, a more fundamental consideration is if the nature of the information sought and the weight given to this in organisations' decision making is of more than anecdotal value. Therefore, this study's aim was to conduct a qualitative analysis of organisations' pre-adoption dog behaviour screenings and potential justifications, comparing this with the available scientific evidence. A written enquiry was sent electronically to rehoming organisations in the UK and US from February 2016-July 2017. Of 73 respondents, the majority conducted assessments for all dogs. Using a thematic analysis, nine themes and 71 sub-themes emerged concerning the types of information respondents aim to gather from assessments. The majority of respondents used, at least partially, pass/fail scoring, i.e., certain outcomes would lead to dogs being deemed unadoptable. Forty-one sub-themes and one theme were identified as potentially leading to a dog being deemed unadoptable. The evidence base for these factors was identified from the scientific literature relating to: increased risk for relinquishment, impact on a dog's quality of life, and human safety risk. Evidence supported 10 factors: “aggression towards people”, “aggression towards cats or other animals”, “aggression towards dogs”, “biting or snapping”, “resource guarding”, “activity level or exercise needs”, “destructiveness”, “housetrained”, “fearfulness”, and “knowledge of basic commands and/or general training”. Of those, seven were associated only with relinquishment risk, two (“resource guarding”, “knowledge of basic commands”) with human safety risk, and one (“fearfulness”) with both. Thus, for >85% of characteristics organisations deemed important for dogs' adoptability, scientific evidence to support this is lacking. More research is needed to investigate the value of behaviour assessments, especially concerning the assessment of factors that could pose a public safety risk. However, given the current lack of scientific support for many decisions regarding dogs' rehoming suitability and recognised pressure on resources, it is suggested that organisations should focus on pre-adoption adopter education and post-adoption support.

Choosing the right COVID-19 indicator: crude mortality, case fatality, and infection fatality rates influence policy preferences, behaviour, and understanding

Individuals worldwide are overwhelmed with news about COVID-19. In times of pandemic, media alternate the usage of different COVID-19 indicators, ranging from the more typical crude mortality rate to the case fatality rate, and the infection fatality rate continuously. In this article, we used experimental methods to test whether and how the treatment of individuals with different types of information on COVID-19 is able to change policy preferences, individual and social behaviours, and the understanding of COVID-19 indicators. Results show that while the usage of the crude mortality rate proves to be more efficient in terms of supporting policy preferences and behaviours to contain the virus, all indicators suffer from a significant misunderstanding on behalf of the population.

How do Hispanics/Latinos Perceive and Value the Return of Research Results?

Introduction: Interest in the return of research results has been increasing; however, little is known about how Hispanics/Latinos perceive and value receiving results. This study examined differences among Hispanics/Latinos by education and income in the experience and expectations about the return of research results, perceived value of specific types of information, and the least and most valuable specific information. Method: Retrospective observational design using a cross-sectional national survey sample of Hispanics/Latinos (n = 327). Results: Higher educational attainment was positively associated with the expectation to receive research results, likelihood to participate in research if given study findings, and likelihood to trust researchers if given results. Higher income was positively associated with the perceived value of getting results. Respondents with higher education specifically perceived greater value in information about how lifestyle and genetics affect their risk of disease, how genetics affect how they respond to medications, their ancestry, available clinical trials near them, and how to connect with other study participants. Respondents with higher income perceived greater value in information about how genetics affect their risk of disease and how they respond to medications. Conclusion: The findings offer important insights for planning research initiatives and for developing culturally targeted educational materials for Hispanics/Latinos.

BIM for Landscape Design Improving Climate Adaptation Planning: The Evaluation of Software Tools Based on the ISO 25010 Standard

This paper investigates the capabilities and limitations of different software tools simulating landscape design adaptability. The evaluation of tools is based on the ISO 25010 framework, which investigates software functionality, reliability, performance efficiency, usability, compatibility, and information quality. These quality characteristics of software are analysed during objective experiments where five software tools are used for a case study project at the conceptual design phase. These experiments reveal that the existing software tools for climate adaptation planning are focused on different aspects of climate adaptability, generating different types of information. Moreover, all tools deal with some limitations in terms of compatibility, performance efficiency, and functional operations. The ISO 25010 quality model provides a comprehensive framework to compare the capabilities of different software tools for climate adaptation planning. This paper is part of a wider study including an analysis of the needs of project stakeholders regarding climate adaptation software tools. However, this article focuses on technical capabilities of current climate adaptation software tools.

Analysis in the World of Information Systems

There are many ways in which information systems (IS) impact the business. There are several different types of information systems applications that can be a resource for competitive advantage. To respond appropriately to changing market circumstances, it is necessary to constantly monitor and research the overall situation and then adjust the business approach accordingly. This chapter will review the systematic and methodological approach of the information systems analyst and evaluate what techniques and procedures might be useful to assist in the search, collection, and presentation of the research results and analysis for the broader business context. The chapter will also review the need for an information management policy and a management system that is necessary to develop a large-scale system to manage the amount of information that will result from the research and analysis of the business characteristics of the company and its surrounding environment and competition.

Sensor-Assisted Cooperative Localization and Communication in Multi-agent Networks

This brief highlights research advances on cooperative techniques for localization and communication. These two macro trends are investigated in the general context of mobile multi-agent networks for situational awareness applications, where time-varying agents of unknown locations are asked to fulfill positioning and information sharing tasks. Cooperative localization is conceived for both active and passive agents, i.e., targets to be detected and localized, and it is analyzed in vehicular and maritime environments. Communication is investigated for vehicular scenarios, where vehicles are requested to share massive data in the perspective development of connected and automated mobility systems. Both research areas rely on the integration of heterogeneous sensors and communication. Specifically, it is studied how to improve localization by exploring communication techniques as well as how to enhance communication performances by extracting information from perception sensors. The dynamic environment of multi-agent systems calls for robust, flexible and adaptive techniques, capable of profitably fuse different types of information, and the outcomes of these researches show how a statistical approach based on cooperation guarantees higher resilience, reliability and confidence.

Knowledge Verification Method Based on Artificial Intelligence-based Knowledge Graph Construction

The knowledge graph connects real-world entities and concepts through their relationships, connects all different types of information to obtain a relationship network, and can analyze “relationship” issues. Creating a knowledge graph is a continuous process, and it needs to continuously learn new knowledge and update existing knowledge in the library as time and events change. However, since the accuracy of the updated new knowledge cannot be guaranteed, the new knowledge must be verified. This paper aims to study the knowledge verification method based on artificial intelligence-based knowledge graph construction. Based on the analysis of the knowledge graph construction process, the knowledge graph construction method and the knowledge verification method, knowledge verification is realized by constructing a probabilistic soft logic model. The experimental results show that the recall rate, F1 value, and AUC value of the candidate knowledge set are verified by the knowledge verification model proposed in this paper. Therefore, it can be inferred that the knowledge verification model proposed in this paper is effective.