The role of leadership in shared mental model convergence and team performance improvement: An agent-based computational model

Research in shared mental models has immeasurably aided our understanding of effective teamwork and taskwork. However, little research has focused on the role that leaders play, if any, in influencing, developing and/or fostering shared mental models and thereby improving team performance. We developed an agent-based computational model based on McComb's theory of three-phase mental model development, where agents repeatedly share individual opinions (orientation phase), evaluate and respond to the opinions expressed by others (differentiation phase), and modify their understanding of the team based on the responses (integration phase). Leadership and team properties are represented in three experimental parameters: social network structure, heterogeneity of agents' domains of expertise, and level of their mutual interest. Participative leadership is represented by a fully connected network, while Leader–Member eXchange (LMX) is represented by a fully connected network of in-group members and several out-group members connected only to the leader. Our simulation results show that, in general, participative leadership promotes mental model convergence better than LMX. In the meantime, the team performance improvement is achieved by participative leadership only when members have both heterogeneous domains of expertise and strong mutual interest. In all other conditions, participative leadership causes the worst degradation of team performance through team development processes, while LMX is the best to minimize such team degradation. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

高校计算机辅助设计教学的实训改革研究

阐述了计算机辅助设计课程的特点,目前高校艺术设计专业计算机辅助设计的教学存在的问题及教学改革的必要性,从优化教学内容、创新教学方法、加强综合实训方面进行了分析和探讨,以评价为手段,列举了一些亟待解决的问题和改进措施,以适合高校艺术设计专业发展的教学模式,让学生熟练掌握设计软件操作的基本技能和技巧,实现创作提供启发。     

Subjective experiences of stress workload, and bodily discomfort as a function of age and type of computer work

An increasingly older workforce and a growing emphasis on jobs involving interaction with computers have resulted in a need to more carefully examine the relationship between ageing and computer-based work. In this study, a sample of 394 subjects ranging in age from 20-75 years performed a computer task across a 3-day period. Three different types of computer-based jobs (data entry, information retrieval, and accounts balancing) performed at three large US companies were simulated. Age differences in the subjective experience of stress, workload, and bodily discomfort were evaluated. The results indicated that age effects for these measures varied according to task. The older subjects perceived greater workload for the more mentally challenging problem-solving oriented accounts balancing task (Which involved a graphical user interface) than the younger participants, even with increased exposure to the task. However, the older subjects generally experienced less stress than the younger subjects on an information retrieval task that involved a more socially interactive telephone component. A positive relationship between the frustration component of workload and the measure of stress was also found, suggesting an important link between the constructs of stress and workload. Overall, the outcomes of this study provide important insights into design interventions intended to accommodate older as well as younger persons in the workforce.     

电脑与人脑作曲的美学问题研究

关于电脑音乐中电脑作曲的问题越来越成为音乐家、哲学家、心理学家、数学家倾心研究的课题，其方向和深度各有不同。本文望能在介绍电脑作曲之外，从美学角度尝试解读电脑与人脑作曲的区别问题。利用已知电脑作曲类型分析，得出艺术创作与实践动机的出发点根本上还是人，电脑始终是作为工具和技术手段出现的结论。     

Orthogonal Latin hypercube designs for Fourier-polynomial models

Latin hypercube designs (LHDs) are widely used in computer experiments because of their one-dimensional uniformity and other properties. Recently, a number of methods have been proposed to construct LHDs with properties that all linear effects are mutually orthogonal and orthogonal to all second-order effects, i.e., quadratic effects and bilinear interactions. This paper focuses on the construction of LHDs with the above desirable properties under the Fourier-polynomial model. A convenient and flexible algorithm for constructing such orthogonal LHDs is provided. Most of the resulting designs have different run sizes from that of Butler (2001), and thus are new and very suitable for factor screening and building Fourier-polynomial models in computer experiments as discussed in Butler (2001).     

“理工融合”理念下北邮信息与计算科学专业培养方案的制订和实践

本文论述了信息与计算科学专业理工融合的必要性,叙述了在理工融合的培养方案下,北邮在以下方面的做法: (1)课程体现; (2)实践贯彻; (3)师资保证.     

The fetish of the click: a small history of the computer mouse as vulva

This paper examines the fetish of the click through a technofeminist history of the computer mouse as vulva. It argues that this material turn is a necessary corrective to abstractions of the click in contemporary media studies and the long history of phallic technological practices. Drawing from anthropological, Marxist, and psychoanalytic approaches to fetish, this paper enables a rethinking of the computer mouse in the materiality of what it is and does within its broader cultural formation. This interpretation of the computer mouse serves as a feminist claim to ubiquitous computing technology. Further, the argument connects the computer mouse’s supposed obsolescence to the new and emerging technologies of touch pads and screens.     

Determining Uses and Gratifications for the Internet

Uses and gratifications (U&G) is a media use paradigm from mass communications research that guides the assessment of consumer motivations for media usage and access. It has been used previously in research and decision making related to the promotion of emerging radio and television media. Recent adaptations of U&G research to the Internet are incomplete and have not identified important new Internet‐specific gratifications. This paper empirically derives dimensions of consumer Internet use and usage gratifications among customers of a prominent Internet Service Provider (ISP). Results describe three key dimensions related to consumer use of the Internet, including process and content gratifications as previously found in studies of television, as well as an entirely new social gratification that is unique to Internet use. All three dimensions of gratification are relevant to managing the Internet as a commercial medium, and measures developed from the gratification profiles identified here can serve as trait‐valid scales in future Internet and e‐commerce research.     

A Model of the Antecedents of Perceived Ease of Use: Development and Test*

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been widely used to predict user acceptance and use based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, in order to design effective training interventions to improve user acceptance, it is necessary to better understand the antecedents and determinants of key acceptance constructs. In this research, we focus on understanding the determinants of perceived ease of use. Data from three experiments spanning 108 subjects and six different systems supported our hypothesis that an individual's perception of a particular system's ease of use is anchored to her or his general computer self-efficacy at all times, and objective usability has an impact on ease of use perceptions about a specific system only after direct experience with the system. In addition to being an important research issue in user acceptance research, understanding antecedents of perceived ease of use is also important from a practical standpoint since several systems in which millions of dollars are invested are rejected because of poor user interfaces. Moreover, the actual underlying problem might be low computer self-efficacy of the target user group. In such cases, training interventions aimed at improving computer self-efficacy of users may be more effective than improved interface design for increasing user acceptance.