Calculative-based trust and social welfare
Trust building has been acknowledged as one of the critical factor for the success of e-commerce. However, few sources of trust were identified in online transaction. This paper tries to fill the gap by investigating calculative-based trust. Specifically, an infinitely repeated game model is built to illustrate how strangers in online transaction build trust relationship based on the calculation of their own benefits. Furthermore, we relate the strategies of trading parties to social welfare and provide policy implications on how to control the cheating behaviors without jeopardizing social welfare.

title: The effect of negative buyer feedback on prices in Internet auction markets

title: Wireless reliable messaging protocol for Web services (WS-WRM)
abstract: By employing Web services technology, the grid system is evolving to be more manageable service infrastructure, including lifetime management, discovery of characteristics, and notifications. Reliable messaging is one of the key issues addressed for quality of services in Web services. In this paper, we propose a reliable message scheme designed for mobile environments in the context of a Web services architecture; Web services-Wireless Reliable Messaging (WS-WRM). We also consider the federation issues with emerging specifications proposed by leading Web services standard groups. We eventually intend to extend the reliability to mobile end-nodes in a more efficient way. In this paper, we address the design issues and describe the detailed scheme of messaging architecture.

title: On the Efficient Speech Feature Extraction Based on Independent Component Analysis
abstract: A new efficient code for speech signals is proposed. To represent speech signals with minimum redundancy we use independent component analysis to adapt features (basis vectors) that efficiently encode the speech signals. The learned basis vectors are sparsely distributed and localized in both time and frequency. Time-frequency analysis of basis vectors shows the property similar with the critical bandwidth of human auditory system. Our results suggest that the obtained codes of speech signals are sparse and biologically plausible.

title: 3D Medical Volume Reconstruction Using Web Services
abstract: We address the problem of 3D medical volume reconstruction using Web services. The use of proposed Web services is motivated by the fact that the problem of 3D medical volume reconstruction requires significant computer resources and human expertise in medical and computer science areas. Web services were implemented as an additional layer to a dataflow framework called data to knowledge. In the collaboration between UIC and NCSA, pre-processed input images at NCSA were made accessible to medical collaborators for registration. Every time medical collaborators inspected images and selected corresponding features for registration, the Web server at NCSA was contacted and the registration processing query was executed using the image to knowledge library of registration methods. Co-registered frames were returned for verification by medical collaborators in a new window. This paper presents 3D volume reconstruction problem requirements, architecture of the developed prototype system and the tradeoffs of our system design.

title: Creative Interface Design for Information Seeking
abstract: Inspired by Weisberg's argument that everyone is creative, and exists in varying degrees, this PhD proposal aims to investigate the relationship between creativity and information seeking, and explores implications for interface design with design features that might support users' information seeking behaviours. A holistic model of creativity was proposed synthesizing established models in creativity. Based on the model, five approaches investigating relationships between creativity and information seeking were highlighted. Initial work carried out attempted to understand users' information seeking behaviours to elicit supportive features. Discussion of on-going work is also presented to indicate approaches proposed to design, implement, and evaluate a prototype with design features to support information seeking.

title: Reaction Mass Pendulum (RMP): An explicit model for centroidal angular momentum of humanoid robots
abstract: A number of conceptually simple but behavior-rich "inverted pendulum" humanoid models have greatly enhanced the understanding and analytical insight of humanoid dynamics. However, these models do not incorporate the robot's angular momentum properties, a critical component of its dynamics. We introduce the reaction mass pendulum (RMP) model, a 3D generalization of the better-known reaction wheel pendulum. The RMP model augments the existing models by compactly capturing the robot's centroidal momenta through its composite rigid body (CRB) inertia. This model provides additional analytical insights into legged robot dynamics, especially for motions involving dominant rotation, and leads to a simpler class of control laws. In this paper we show how a humanoid robot of general geometry and dynamics can be mapped into its equivalent RMP model. A movement is subsequently mapped to the time evolution of the RMP. We also show how an "inertia shaping" control law can be designed based on the RMP.