Continuous Tip Widening Technique for Roll-to-Roll Fabrication of Dry Adhesives

In this study, we reported continuous partial curing and tip-shaped modification methods for continuous production of dry adhesive with microscale mushroom-shaped structures. Typical fabrication methods of dry adhesive with mushroom-shaped structures are less productive due to the failure of large tips on pillar during demolding. To solve this problem, a typical pillar structure was fabricated through partial curing, and tip widening was realized through applying the proper pressure. Polyurethane acrylate was used in making the mushroom structure using two-step UV-assisted capillary force lithography (CFL). To make the mushroom structure, partial curing was performed on the micropillar, followed by tip widening. Dry adhesives with properties similar to those of typical mushroom-shaped dry adhesives were fabricated with reasonable adhesion force using the two-step UV-assisted CFL. This production technology was applied to the roll-to-roll process to improve productivity, thereby realizing continuous production without any defects. Such a technology is expected to be applied to various fields by achieving the productivity improvement of dry adhesives, which is essential for various applications

The Effects of Cultural Familiarity and Value Similarity on Benevolence in the Export-Import Relationship

This study examines the effects of importers cultural familiarity and value similarity on the importers benevolence towards its foreign exporter in an export-import relationship. The results indicate that both the importers cultural familiarity and value similarity significantly affect the importers commitment to the relationship with the exporter partner. The results also indicate that affective commitment has a positive effect on altruistic benevolence and calculative commitment has a positive influence on mutualistic benevolence. In turn, the importers mutualistic benevolence is shown to have a positive impact on relationship performance. Managerial implications for international marketers are discussed

Not Only Rewards But Also Constraints: Applications on Legged Robot Locomotion

Several earlier studies have shown impressive control performance in complex robotic systems by designing the controller using a neural network and training it with model-free reinforcement learning. However, these outstanding controllers with natural motion style and high task performance are developed through extensive reward engineering, which is a highly laborious and time-consuming process of designing numerous reward terms and determining suitable reward coefficients. In this work, we propose a novel reinforcement learning framework for training neural network controllers for complex robotic systems consisting of both rewards and constraints. To let the engineers appropriately reflect their intent to constraints and handle them with minimal computation overhead, two constraint types and an efficient policy optimization algorithm are suggested. The learning framework is applied to train locomotion controllers for several legged robots with different morphology and physical attributes to traverse challenging terrains. Extensive simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate that performant controllers can be trained with significantly less reward engineering, by tuning only a single reward coefficient. Furthermore, a more straightforward and intuitive engineering process can be utilized, thanks to the interpretability and generalizability of constraints. The summary video is available at https://youtu.be/KAlm3yskhvM.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Robotics (T-RO

Category-Based versus Piecemeal Processes Underlying Evaluations of Restaurants

This study tested Fiske and her colleagues' impression-formation model in the evaluations of stores. 280 undergraduate students in a business school served as subjects. As the inconsistency between a store and its associated category schema increased, the store was evaluated more slowly, fewer categorization responses were generated, more attribute-oriented responses were produced, the correlation between over-all judgments and category affect became lower, and the correlation between over-all judgments and attribute evaluations became higher, so the results generally supported the prior model of Fiske, et al. </jats:p

Category-based, piecemeal, and contrast processes underlying product evaluations: Their determinants and consequences

It has been suggested that when consumers make an evaluative judgment of a product, they sometimes categorize the product and make their judgment on the basis of the likability of the category (category-based processes); other times they integrate the likability of the individual attributes of the product to reach a judgment (piecemeal processes). As a third possibility, they also make their judgment by contrasting the description of product attributes with their category knowledge (contrast processes). This research investigated the conditions under which consumers engage in these different modes of information processing when evaluating a product, i.e., category-based, piecemeal, and contrast processing, which should result in different types of judgmental effects, i.e., assimilation, attribute, and contrast effects, respectively. It was hypothesized that the different types of processing and judgmental effects will be determined by (1) the degree of (in)consistency between the incoming information and category expectations and (2) the level of involvement with the judgment task.Two laboratory experiments were conducted where these two factors were manipulated. Results of Experiment 1 suggest that different types of judgmental effects are a function of information consistency and involvement: assimilation effects were found when the target information was consistent with category knowledge, or when it was moderately inconsistent and subjects were not highly involved with the evaluation task; attribute effects were obtained when the target information was extremely inconsistent and subjects were highly involved with the judgment task. Findings of Experiment 2 also indicate that the alternative modes of processing are determined by the two factors, consistency and involvement.Implications of the results for consumer information processing are discussed, along with practical implications for product positioning and promotion strategies.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

Consumer evaluations of fast‐food services: a cross‐national comparison

A growing number of US fast‐food franchises are expanding operations to overseas markets. Critical to the success of these service firms is an understanding of the way consumers in foreign markets evaluate their services. Reports the findings of a study that examined and compared the expectations and perceptions of US customers with those of South Korean clients about an international fast‐food chain. Reveals several important differences between the two groups of customers. Discusses the implications of the results for US fast‐food companies in international markets.</jats:p