Research trends and collaborations by applied science researchers in South African universities of technology: 2007–2017

This paper analyses the publication patterns of researchers in the field of applied sciences at Universities of Technology in South Africa. Aspects investigated include publications in SCOPUS-listed journals; number of citations and countries of publication. Collaborative research patterns at national and international levels were also investigated. A bibliometric analysis approach was followed using SCOPUS as the main source of data and analysing the articles published in selected applied science disciplines. Results show that researchers in the field of applied sciences in universities of technology have increased their number of publications over the past 10?years and are also working in conjunction with other researchers both nationally and internationally. The analysis is an important addition to the field in South Africa which helps in measuring how institutions are positively responding to government incentives in research. The results are also important to information professionals who are increasingly playing an important role in research impact assessments.     

Why Users Share the News: A Theory of Reasoned Action-Based Study on the Antecedents of News-Sharing Behavior

Social media have become an integral part of online news use, affecting how individuals find, consume, and share news. By applying the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), this study investigates the effects of motives, attitude, and intention on news-sharing behavior among German social media users (n = 333). Findings show that news-sharing attitude and subjective norms have a positive effect on news-sharing intention, which in turn has a positive effect on actual news-sharing behavior. Taken together, we see that a new media behavior in the early phases of its societal diffusion—like social media news sharing in Germany in 2015—can mainly be explained by a rational choice logic and is rooted in the motives of socializing and information seeking. This finding thus reflects the double nature of social media as a means for both information retrieval and social grooming.     

Narrative Persuasion in a New Media Environment: The Impact of Binge-Watching and Second-Screening

The study explored the role of second-screen use and binge-watching in moderating entertainment education (EE) effects. A pretest/posttest experiment of 273 viewers of East Los High measured the effects of exposure to three subplots, concerning alcohol abuse, abortion, and immigration. The effect of identification with characters on change in attitudes was significantly moderated by second-screen use and binge-watching. In particular, second-screening tended to enhance the positive impact of identification; whereas, among respondents who binge-watched the show, the effects of identification were weaker.     

一种新的用于图像检索的颜色一空间特征

为了解决图像检索中颜色直方图无法描述颜色空间位置信息的问题,提出了一种新的基于色彩量化的凸壳内角直方图特征.针对量化后HSV颜色空间中某一具体量化颜色值对应像素点的空间分布,首先计算包含这些像素点位置信息的凸壳,并对该凸壳的所有内角建立直方图.然后处理所有量化颜色值提取整幅图像的凸壳内角直方图特征.将该方法和一些文献中提出的方法进行的比较实验结果表明:提出的新特征可以有效地描述颜色空间位置信息,在查准率和查全率指标上均优于已有文献中的一些方法.