Discovering the processes of undergraduate hospitality students' acceptance of facebook teaching interventions.

Technology drives innovation and reform in hospitality education, and Facebook has become a popular educational tool to facilitate students' classroom interactions. Understanding hospitality students' attitudes toward Facebook teaching interventions is important. Based on a survey of 289 undergraduate hospitality students, first, we expand the scope of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in this study, which integrates the two factors of social interaction and information exchange into the research structure. Second, this study also proposes a new moderated mediation model to account for the internal mechanism underlying Taiwanese undergraduate hospitality students' acceptance of Facebook teaching interventions in terms of perceived usefulness and ease of use. We illuminate the foundation of the application of Facebook media technology to teaching in hospitality higher education. The theoretical contributions and educational implications of this research are also discussed.

Integrating big data and marketing concepts into tourism, hospitality operations and strategy development.

Big data (BD) research articles are on new issues, this study sought to fill the knowledge gap of linkage the relationships between big data and marketing strategy with comprehensive viewpoints across different research fields in tourism and hospitality literatures. Content analysis was conducted to gather materials from the particular studies. For each study, the content analysis included the title, abstract, journal, type of sample, exploration design, statistical and analytical techniques, data collection process and keywords was also conducted to confirm the main results of the criteria. The research shows that big data adds value to marketing strategies by using social media to collect information from consumers, which is complemented with appropriate evidence relevant to predicting their needs and behaviors.

Topology Optimization and Prototype of a Multimaterial-Like Compliant Finger by Varying the Infill Density in 3D Printing.

This study presents a multimaterial topology optimization method for design of multimaterial compliant mechanisms. Traditionally, the objective function in topology optimization for design of structures is to minimize the strain energy (SE). For synthesis of compliant mechanisms, the objective function is usually to maximize the mutual potential energy (MPE). To design an adaptive compliant gripper for grasping size-varied objects, a multicriteria objective function considering both the SE and MPE at two different output ports is proposed in this study. In addition, based on the fact that different infill densities in three-dimensional (3D) printing leads to prototypes with different equivalent mechanical properties, this article proposes that a multimaterial design can be approximated by varying the values of infill densities in different portions of a 3D-printed component, which enables the multimaterial designs to be prototyped using the general low-cost, single-material fused deposition modeling 3D printing machines. The proposed method is used to design and prototype a bi-material compliant finger which is 3D printed using a flexible thermoplastic elastomer with infill densities of 30% and 100%. The experimental results demonstrate that the bi-material finger is a better design in terms of reducing the driving force while increasing the output displacement at the fingertip comparing to the single-material finger design with the same volume and weight. Furthermore, a two-finger gripper with two identical multimaterial-like compliant fingers is prototyped and installed on a six-axis industrial robot. The experimental tests are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented design.

Implementation and evaluation of tourism industry: Evidentiary case study of night market development in Taiwan.

Taiwan's night markets are the most popular and unique characteristics of domestic and foreign tourists' night life and have great potential value for tourism development. However, development of the night market is vulnerable to the negative impact of COVID-19. To discover the potential value and evaluation of the night market, we interviewed 46 experts from several industries and occupations in Taiwan to investigate the relationships between brand equity, benefits, motivations of and satisfaction with night market tourism and development. The results show that travel motivation has both direct and indirect effects on brand equity, benefits and satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is the most critical performance attribute of night market tourism, which may be influenced by brand equity, benefit, and motivation. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Optimal Design of a Compliant Constant-Force Mechanism to Deliver a Nearly Constant Output Force Over a Range of Input Displacements.

This study presents an optimal design procedure, including topology and geometry optimization methods to design a compliant constant-force mechanism, which can generate a nearly constant output force over a range of input displacements. The proposed constant-force mechanism is a passive force regulation device that can be used in various applications such as precision manipulation and overload protection. The numerical optimization problem is treated as an error minimization problem between output and objective forces. Both material and geometric nonlinearities are considered in topology and geometry optimization steps. Although the element stiffness for void and gray elements after topology optimization are quite small comparing with solid elements, their existence also contributes to the output force characteristic of the synthesized mechanisms. As these low-stiffness elements are not easy to manufacture in physical prototype, a helical compression spring is introduced in the topology optimized constant-force mechanism to account for the effect of low-stiffness elements, and an additional geometry optimization step is utilized to identify the spring constant as well as to fine-tune the geometric parameters. The optimized constant-force mechanism is prototyped by three-dimensional printing using flexible thermoplastic elastomer. The experimental results show that the proposed design can generate a nearly constant output force in the input displacement range of 3-6 mm. The developed constant-force mechanism is installed on an electric gripper drive mounted on a robot arm for robotic picking and placing application. Test results show the constant-force gripper can be used in handling of size-varied fragile objects.

Optimal Design of a Soft Robotic Gripper for Grasping Unknown Objects.

This study presents the design of an underactuated, two-finger, motor-driven compliant gripper for grasping size-varied unknown objects. The gripper module consists of one main frame structure and two identical compliant fingers. The compliant finger is a monolithic compliant mechanism synthesized using a topology optimization method, and then prototyped by 3D printing using flexible filament. The input port for each finger is mounted on a moving platform driven by a gear motor, whereas the fixed port of the finger is mounted on a fixed platform. Each compliant finger can be actuated through the linear motion of the moving platform, and can deform elastically to generate the grasping motion. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design, the gripper module is mounted on a six-axis robotic arm to pick and place a variety of objects. The results show that objects with the sizes between 42 and 141 mm can be grasped by the developed soft robotic gripper. The maximum payload for the gripper is 2.1 kg. The proposed compliant gripper is a low-cost design that can be used in grasping of size-varied vulnerable objects.