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1 – 10 of over 48000Xueyong Li, Changhou Lu, Rujing Xiao, Jianchuan Zhang and Jie Ding
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel image sensor technology for raised characters based on line structured‐light. It can convert raised character's three‐dimensional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel image sensor technology for raised characters based on line structured‐light. It can convert raised character's three‐dimensional (3D) features into image's grayscale levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The measurement principle and mathematical model are described. An experimental device is established and system parameters are calibrated. A grayscale conversion algorithm is proposed to convert the distortion of laser stripe to the grayscale intensity of image. The article also introduces a four‐factor method to assess the image quality of characters.
Findings
Experimental results show that the method can get high‐contrast images of raised characters that are conventionally low‐contrast with the background. Besides, the method does not need complicated calibration and mass computation, which makes the system structure simple and increases the speed of image acquisition.
Originality/value
The paper presents a novel image acquisition method for raised characters.
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WordPerfect offers several facilities to handle foreign languages and multi‐lingual documents. This paper discusses two aspects of language handling in WP: the language code…
Abstract
WordPerfect offers several facilities to handle foreign languages and multi‐lingual documents. This paper discusses two aspects of language handling in WP: the language code, which is a WP formatting code that gives access to language modules and the keyboard editor, which facilitates entering foreign characters. The paper discusses the possibilities offered in the 5.1 version of the program. The last section discusses improvements in WP 6.0.
Susanna Peruginelli, Giovanni Bergamin and Pino Ammendola
Character coding systems such as ASCII and EBCDIC are unable to deal with the worldwide range of characters and so possible solutions, such as ISO 10646 and Unicode, involving…
Abstract
Character coding systems such as ASCII and EBCDIC are unable to deal with the worldwide range of characters and so possible solutions, such as ISO 10646 and Unicode, involving 16‐bit codes have been suggested. The paper examines how libraries deal with multi‐lingual character sets and describes work being undertaken on the definition of a basic European character set as part of the National Bibliographies on CD‐ROM project being funded as part of the Commission of the European Communities Action Plan for Libraries.
Examines the history of branded characters in children’s marketing; these go back to the Michelin Man in 1898, and include the Robinson Golly and the Jolly Green Giant. Shows how…
Abstract
Examines the history of branded characters in children’s marketing; these go back to the Michelin Man in 1898, and include the Robinson Golly and the Jolly Green Giant. Shows how reliance on these characters diminished with television advertising, which allowed animated stories to carry the brand, rather than mere static poster and press characters; some of the characters have now been pensioned off. Outlines three stages of child development related to brand characters, followed by the different form of commercial character usage: licensed product (the character is the brand), brand spokespeople like Tony the Tiger, characters associated with the brand over time (like the Dulux dog), borrowed equity using entertainment characters, and pack design with character visuals. Warns that increased sophistication of children with respect to brands and advertising means that character brands can alienate older children if they are perceived as too childlike.
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Aysen Bakir, Jessica Castonguay and Jeffrey G. Blodgett
This study aims to examine the effects of character body size, subject body size and product type on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character. Given prior research…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of character body size, subject body size and product type on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character. Given prior research showing that adolescents identify more strongly with those whom they view as similar to themselves, it is possible that heavy and obese adolescents will react more favorably to plus-size ad characters.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted, one with females aged 12–14 and a second with females aged 15–17. Based on their body mass index, subjects were classified as of small/average size or overweight/obese. Ads featured either a thin, average-size or plus-size character, and promoted either a healthful or an unhealthful snack item.
Findings
In general, small/average size female adolescents responded more favorably toward thin characters, whereas their overweight/obese counterparts responded more favorably toward plus-size characters. Moreover, subjects’ responses were not moderated by the nutritional value (healthful vs unhealthful) of the product being advertised.
Research limitations/implications
To effectively promote healthy foods to overweight/obese adolescents, it may be advantageous to incorporate plus-size characters. Additional research is needed, however, to determine whether this approach can effectively influence brand attitudes and consumption behaviors.
Social implications
As obesity rates continue to rise, it has become vitally important to encourage healthier food choices among youth. To develop effective communication strategies, marketers need to better understand how young consumers respond to various advertising cues.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of character size and subject size on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character.
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Huanshu Jiang, Jiaoju Ge and Jie Yao
Using Generation Z consumers from China as an example and focusing on the nostalgia-driven design of brand spokes-character, this study sought to update research on the causal…
Abstract
Purpose
Using Generation Z consumers from China as an example and focusing on the nostalgia-driven design of brand spokes-character, this study sought to update research on the causal relationship between nostalgia and brand attitude for younger consumers. Two types of nostalgic brand spokes-characters (i.e., eliciting personal nostalgia and historical nostalgia) were examined separately and compared to verify their contributions to more positive brand attitude, as well as related mechanisms, that is, whether consumer trust in the spokes-character mediated the relationship between nostalgic spokes-characters and brand attitude.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was first conducted to test the causal effects of brand spokes-characters designed to elicit two types of nostalgic feelings (i.e., personal nostalgia and historical nostalgia). Then, the authors investigated the influencing mechanism of nostalgic brand spokes-characters based on bootstrap mediation models.
Findings
The results revealed that for less familiar brand spokes-characters, either type of nostalgia-driven design would enhance consumers' brand attitude. Moreover, consumer trust in the spokes-character mediated the relationship between personal-nostalgic brand spokes-characters and brand attitude.
Originality/value
This study was the first to examine personal nostalgia and historical nostalgia separately regarding the effects of nostalgic spokes-characters and related mechanisms. By combining methods of experimental design and bootstrap mediation modeling, it provided a more robust evaluation of nostalgia-driven design, and supported using certain nostalgic styles for designing brand spokes-characters, which can help modern brands draw more interest from young consumers and promote more positive brand attitude.
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In recent years, Chinese sentiment analysis has made great progress, but the characteristics of the language itself and downstream task requirements were not explored thoroughly…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, Chinese sentiment analysis has made great progress, but the characteristics of the language itself and downstream task requirements were not explored thoroughly. It is not practical to directly migrate achievements obtained in English sentiment analysis to the analysis of Chinese because of the huge difference between the two languages.
Design/methodology/approach
In view of the particularity of Chinese text and the requirement of sentiment analysis, a Chinese sentiment analysis model integrating multi-granularity semantic features is proposed in this paper. This model introduces the radical and part-of-speech features based on the character and word features, with the application of bidirectional long short-term memory, attention mechanism and recurrent convolutional neural network.
Findings
The comparative experiments showed that the F1 values of this model reaches 88.28 and 84.80 per cent on the man-made dataset and the NLPECC dataset, respectively. Meanwhile, an ablation experiment was conducted to verify the effectiveness of attention mechanism, part of speech, radical, character and word factors in Chinese sentiment analysis. The performance of the proposed model exceeds that of existing models to some extent.
Originality/value
The academic contribution of this paper is as follows: first, in view of the particularity of Chinese texts and the requirement of sentiment analysis, this paper focuses on solving the deficiency problem of Chinese sentiment analysis under the big data context. Second, this paper borrows ideas from multiple interdisciplinary frontier theories and methods, such as information science, linguistics and artificial intelligence, which makes it innovative and comprehensive. Finally, this paper deeply integrates multi-granularity semantic features such as character, word, radical and part of speech, which further complements the theoretical framework and method system of Chinese sentiment analysis.
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Hazard warning schemes provide efficient hazard recognition and promote project safety. Nevertheless, these schemes perform poorly because the warning information is calibrated…
Abstract
Purpose
Hazard warning schemes provide efficient hazard recognition and promote project safety. Nevertheless, these schemes perform poorly because the warning information is calibrated for individual characters and is not prioritized for the entire system. This study proposes a hazard warning scheme that prioritizes hazard characters from the inspection process based on the inspectors' experience.
Design/methodology/approach
First, hazard descriptions were decomposed into their characters, forming a double-layer network. Second, warning schemes based on cascading effects were proposed. Third, character-based warning schemes were simulated for various experiences.
Findings
The results show that when a specific hazard is detected, the degree centrality is the most effective parameter for prioritization, and hazard characters should be prioritized based on betweenness centrality for experienced inspectors, whereas degree centrality is preferred for novice inspectors.
Originality/value
The warning scheme theoretically supplements the information-processing theory in construction hazard warnings and provides a practical warning scheme with priority for the development of automated hazard navigation systems.
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Yuri Cantrell and Xiaohua Awa Zhu
Narrative-driven, choice-based games, games that allow gamers to make decisions regarding the game characters and storylines, can bring forth emotional changes in their players…
Abstract
Purpose
Narrative-driven, choice-based games, games that allow gamers to make decisions regarding the game characters and storylines, can bring forth emotional changes in their players and offer empathy during scenarios that a player may not experience in real-world situations. Therefore, they can be used as tools to help with gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals’ resilience regarding their gender identities. This study explores GNC peoples’ game-playing experiences with choice-based games, especially how such experiences help them gain resilience and shape their gender identities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study follows the classic phenomenological approach to understanding the experience of GNC gamers’ resilience experience from their own perspectives. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 GNC participants, aged between 18 and 34. Each interview lasted 45–90 minutes. Interviews were transcribed and coded using NVivo R1. The essence of meanings was identified using themes and interpreted through qualitative analysis.
Findings
This paper identified six gender- and resilience-related common themes within GNC people’s gaming experiences, including 1) character creation: exploring gender identity through an avatar; 2) self-exploration and experimentation in games; 3) resonating experiences; 4) positive inclusive features in games; 5) storytelling and involving the player and 6) your actions have meaning.
Practical implications
The themes, patterns and game features identified in this study may provide insight into potential resilience-building activities for GNC people. They may inform digital mental health interventions, information services and game design practices.
Social implications
Equity, inclusion and social justice have become a significant theme in today’s society. This study focuses on a marginalized community, GNC people and their mental health and resilience building. Results of the study will contribute to the understanding of this community and may inspire more intervention methods to help them cope with stress and difficult situations.
Originality/value
Research on gaming’s health benefits for the general population has been abundant, but studies about using games to help the LGBTQ+ community have been largely overlooked until recent years. Research on casual games’ mental benefits for LGBTQ+ people is particularly lacking. This research is one of the first in-depth, comprehensive investigations of GNC individuals’ resilience experiences with a particular type of casual video games, choice-based games. The phenomenological study offers rich description of gaming and gender identity exploration from gamers’ viewpoints.
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This paper aims to examine how character strengths have an important dual role in mental health in both promoting well-being and mental wellness and also in reducing symptoms and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how character strengths have an important dual role in mental health in both promoting well-being and mental wellness and also in reducing symptoms and suffering. While there are many studies that have touched upon variables that character strengths can enhance for mental well-being or reduce for suffering, the author actually knows very little about how character strengths might relate to or impact mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
A large-scale study of 12,050 individuals was conducted to explore the self-perceived character strengths that are most helpful for mental health, for handling physical adversity, for handling social adversity and for fostering psychological well-being.
Findings
Some character strengths showed a general effect – showing a strong perceived impact across multiple domains – such as love, perspective, kindness, hope, humor and curiosity. Other character strengths showed a specific effect in that there was a strong perceived impact in one domain, such as perseverance and self-regulation for physical health, spirituality and social intelligence for social health and creativity for mental health. A strength-based approach to understanding and managing emotions was substantially more preferred than cognitive or behavioral approaches. Other findings examined the character strengths most desired to be improved upon for mental health.
Research limitations/implications
The research strategy was cross-sectional, thereby causality cannot be determined. Because of the large sample size, researchers are encouraged to consider examining the findings in intervention studies.
Practical implications
This study indicates that character strengths are highly relevant for mental health, all 24 character strengths are possible pathways to impact mental health (some more than others) and individuals can readily connect ways they can use their character strengths to positively improve their well-being and manage their suffering.
Social implications
Character strengths and their substantial positive potential provide an avenue for public impact on a large scale.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first known study to directly examine multiple intersections among mental health and character strengths in a large sample.
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