14698101
Experiences with electronic and voice mail
Organizational computing tools are often developed and managed with an eye toward increasing efficiency. Two of today's most widespread tools are electronic mail and voice mail. They are often considered similar asynchronous communication systems, one less rich than the other. We report usage results from a single firm which adopted both electronic mail and voice mail at the same time. Survey respondents view technologies as vital to accomplishing business, but use them in quite different ways. Electronic mail was utilized to communicate with all personnel equally. In contrast, respondents communicated with their peers using voice mail more than they did up or down the corporate hierarchy. The technologies were used differently for internal and external communication. Both of these results fly in the face of information richness theory.
36985476
Who Wins on eBay: An Analysis of Bidders and Their Bid Behaviours
Online auctioning is one of the more successful business innovations on the Web. The auction format at eBay, the leading online auctioneer, has some unique characteristics including a fixed closing time for the bids and the use of a proxy bidding system that that is capable of acting as a bidder's agent. These features, coupled with third party products such as sniping software, have introduced novel bidder behaviours that may not occur in more traditional auction formats. In an attempt to study these behaviours, we collected and analysed data from over 11,000 eBay auctions. This paper presents the results of the analyses including descriptive information about the auctions and the classification of bids and bidders based on bid timing, frequency and strategy employed. The different types of bidders and their success rates offer insights into the nature of bidder participation in eBay auctions. In addition, chi‐square analyses reveal significant differences among the bidding strategies with respect to auc...
45578333
Editor's Introduction
Editors’ Introduction We are pleased to present here the first issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity. Studies is dedicated to Latter-day Saint research on the Old Testament, New Testament, and other texts or topics that illuminate our understanding of the Bible and religion in antiquity. It is the first LDS periodical devoted exclusively to these subjects and will serve as a companion to the other periodicals of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship dedicated to the study of the scripture and faith of the Restored Gospel. Studies in the Bible and Antiquity serves the needs of two constituencies. Like its sister publications, Studies serves a broad community of general LDS readers who study and teach the Bible and who wish to better understand both the biblical text and its world. Yet Studies is also a journal by LDS scholars for LDS scholars, as well as for our academic colleagues who have an interest in LDS approaches to the Bible and religion in antiquity. Therefore, many of the articles published here will be technical in nature. But to serve our general readership, we will work with authors of more technical studies to ensure that even the most specialized articles are as accessible as possible to nonspecialists. This inaugural issue of Studies contains five excellent articles. In “A Comparison of the Communal Lament Psalms and the TreatyCovenant Formula,” Daniel Belnap examines the communal lament psalms within the context of the Hittite covenantal formula. Belnap aptly demonstrates through many examples from the lament psalms that the relationship between Israel and Jehovah fits comfortably within the ancient Hittite treaty-covenant formula, which provides insight into how the Lord taught the Israelites about repentance and forgiveness within the context of their own time. This article has implications for our understanding of LDS covenant making, covenant breaking, and the restoration of covenantal blessings through repentance. ii • Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 1 (2009) David Bokovoy’s article, “From the Hand of Jacob: A Ritual Analysis of Genesis 27,” analyzes the element of ritual in Jacob’s deception when receiving a blessing from Isaac. Insights gleaned from Hebrew and other ancient practices suggest that hand placement, exchange of clothing, and the seeking of blessing probably relate to rituals associated with the temple. Bokovoy believes that the deception of Jacob may be better understood as a ritual act common to his environment, giving insight into a difficult-to-understand part of the book of Genesis. In “And the Word Was Made Flesh: An LDS Exegesis of the Blood and Water Imagery in the Gospel of John,” Eric D. Huntsman examines a number of Greek words and phrases that illuminate how the Gospel of John presents the symbolic nature of blood and water. It is commonly known that John, more than the other three evangelists, employed symbolism very extensively, and Huntsman has illustrated this fact well with his discussion of blood and water as symbols of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Julie M. Smith’s “Pointing Our Souls to Christ: Lessons from Leviticus” examines the Book of Leviticus analogically and shows how the ritual laws of Leviticus pointed the Israelites towards Christ and the atonement. Smith’s rereading of Leviticus, informed by contemporary exegetical method, will help readers see Leviticus not as a “dry and irrelevant” legal code, but as a witness to Christ as Savior and Redeemer. Finally, Gaye Strathearn in “The Valentinian Bridal Chamber in the Gospel of Philip” examines whether the “bridal chamber” in the Gospel of Philip may be seen as providing evidence of a primitive practice like modern LDS temple marriage. Some LDS scholars have suggested that this is the case. Strathearn carefully describes the issues and provides an accurate and insightful assessment to help readers draw informed conclusions. We now present this debut issue of Studies in the Bible and Antiquity with our hope that readers will find in its original and carefully researched articles a greater understanding and appreciation of the Bible and the biblical world.
9601024
Using COTS to Construct a High Performance Robot Arm
In this paper we present a design study and technical specifications of a high performance robotic manipulator to be used for ball catching experiments using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Early evaluation shows that very good performance can be achieved using standardized PowerCube actuator modules from Amtec and a standard workstation using CAN bus communication. Implementation issues of low-level control and software platform are also described, as well as early experimental evaluation of the system.
13422329
Performance Engineering Models of CORBA-based Distributed-Object Systems
Systems using distributed object technology offer many advantages and their use is becoming widespread. Distributed object systems are typically developed without regard to the locations of objects in the network or the nature of the communication between them. However, this approach often leads to performance problems due to latency in accessing remote objects and excessive overhead for communication. Thus, it is important to provide support for early assessment of the performance characteristics of such systems. This paper presents extensions to the software performance engineering process and its associated models for assessing distributed object systems, and illustrates with a case study.
41677043
Unknown object grasping using statistical pressure models
Grasping is one of the most fundamental and challenging tasks in robotics. Applications range from space missions (e.g., collection of rock samples) to industrial automation. In this work, we use a camera mounted on the end-effector of a manipulator to grasp an unknown object in the workspace. A novel deformable contour model is used to determine plausible grasp axes of the target object. Potential grasp point pairs are generated, ranked based upon measurements taken from the contour, and a vision-guided grasp of the object using the highest ranked grasp point pair is executed. Several experimental results are presented.
6988052
QSEM: Quantitative Scalability Evaluation Method
While scalability is important to today's software applications, few organizations understand how to quantitatively evaluate their software's scalability. This paper describes the Quantitative Scalability Evaluation Method, QSEM. QSEM uses straightforward measurements to quantify the scalability of a software application. The results provide an understanding of the application's scalability that makes it possible to extrapolate behavior to larger configurations with confidence. The seven steps of the QSEM method are described and illustrated with a case study.