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The objective of this study is to understand the customer journey in technology product adoption by exploring the experiences and perspectives of individuals who have recently adopted new technology products. This research aims to identify key themes and factors influencing the customer journey from initial awareness to ongoing engagement and retention, providing insights to enhance customer experiences and inform marketing strategies. This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 participants selected through purposive sampling to ensure diverse representation. Participants included individuals who had recently adopted technology products within the past six months. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The interview transcripts were analyzed using NVivo software, following an inductive approach to identify patterns and themes. The analysis revealed three main themes: Awareness and Decision-Making, First-Time Use and Learning, and Ongoing Engagement and Retention. Initial awareness was driven by advertising, social media, and word-of-mouth, while decision-making was influenced by peer recommendations, brand reputation, and price sensitivity. The first-time use phase highlighted the importance of intuitive design and support resources. Regular updates, community engagement, and product reliability emerged as critical factors in ongoing engagement and retention. Participants valued seamless omnichannel experiences, personalized marketing efforts, and robust support systems. The study underscores the significance of personalized, seamless customer journeys in technology product adoption. Businesses should focus on integrating physical and digital touchpoints, leveraging AI for personalized experiences, and maintaining active user communities to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Addressing cultural nuances in global markets and managing digital signals effectively can further optimize the customer journey. These insights provide valuable guidance for businesses aiming to improve customer experiences and foster long-term engagement in the competitive technology market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) for conductive trace printing using molten metal microdroplets on polymer substrates to enhance digital signal transmission. Investigating microdroplet spread informs design rules for adjacent trace printing. We studied the effects of print distance on trace morphology and resolution, noting that printing distance showed almost no change in the printed trace pitch. Crosstalk interference between adjacent signal traces was analyzed across frequencies and validated both experimentally and through simulation; no crosstalk was visible for printed traces at input frequencies below 600 kHz. Moreover, we demonstrate printed trace reliability against thermal shock, whereby no discontinuation in conductive traces was observed. Our findings establish design guidelines for MMAM electronics, advancing digital signal transmission capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of integrated sensing techniques in Sixth Generation (6G) networks is an increasingly significant aspect in facilitating efficient end-to-end communication for all users. The suggested methodology employs a digital signal processed with terahertz bandwidth to assess the impact of 6G networks. The primary focus lies in the design of 6G networks, emphasizing key parameters such interference, loss, signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, and dual band channels. The aforementioned factors are combined with two machine learning algorithms in order to determine the extent of spectrum sharing among all available resources. Thus suggested approach for detecting signals in the terahertz communication spectrum is evaluated using 10 devices across four situations, which involve interference, signal loss, strength, and time margins for integrated sensing. Also the assumptions are based on signal processing devices operating within millimeter waves ranging from 5 to 10 terahertz. Interference and losses in the specified spectrum are seen to be less than 1%, but the time margin for integrated sensing with 99% maximized signal intensity remains at 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore multi-material additive manufacturing (MMAM) for conductive trace printing using molten metal microdroplets on polymer substrates to enhance digital signal transmission. Investigating microdroplet spread informs design rules for adjacent trace printing. We studied the effects of print distance on trace morphology and resolution, noting that printing distance showed almost no change in the printed trace pitch. Crosstalk interference between adjacent signal traces was analyzed across frequencies and validated both experimentally and through simulation; no crosstalk was visible for printed traces at input frequencies below 600 kHz. Moreover, we demonstrate printed trace reliability against thermal shock, whereby no discontinuation in conductive traces was observed. Our findings establish design guidelines for MMAM electronics, advancing digital signal transmission capabilities.

With one-third of marriages in the United States beginning online, online dating platforms have become important curators of the modern social fabric. Prior work on online dating has elicited two critical frictions in the heterosexual dating market. Women, governed by age-old social norms of not making the first move, are inhibited in their interactions in that they do not initiate contact with men. On the other side, men send an abundance of messages, the majority of which do not convert to matches. A key distinguishing feature of online dating versus its traditional counterpart is the ability to leave a range of digital signals not replicable in the offline world. These digital signals can impact the nature of online dating platform outcomes. In this paper, we study the impact of a feature that reveals "who likes you" (WLY) on engagement, the number of matches, match efficiency, and match sorting in online dating. This feature reveals the identity of the voters who have rated the focal user with a like. To causally identify the effect of this feature, we conduct a large-scale randomized control trial in collaboration with a major North American dating platform. The treatment causes women to be more proactive, sending 7.4% more messages, which is a highly desirable market improvement given that men send double the number of messages compared with women. Further, we find that the women endowed with this feature increase their matches by 14.4%, whereas men increase their matches by 11.5%. Analyzing the moderating impact of desirability—a key aspect of the WLY feature—provides us with nuanced findings. Depending on the levels of each of the two parties' desirability, we see evidence of sorting, encouragement, and discouragement. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems. Supplemental Material: The Online Appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4576. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for complex behavioral models on the market, as simulation has become the main verification approach used for both analog and digital functionalities. One of the most popular mixed-signal simulators nowadays is Simulation Program for Integrated Circuits Emphasis (SPICE). Over the last decade, the digital part in circuits has become predominant, but this poses big challenges when developing SPICE simulation models, as the circuits are synchronized upon internal or external clock signals, where the frequency accuracy is mandatory. The existing SPICE based simulators have built-in options to measure the signal frequency and duty cycle, but only after the simulation has completed, and in this way the frequency information can not be used during the simulation to synchronize the clock signals. There is a lot of research on frequency measurement techniques in the literature, but this topic has not been translated and covered in SPICE until now. Implementing the physical frequency measurement circuits proposed previously in the literature would increase the models’ complexity and the simulation time, without benefitting the final user. For this reason, in this article, a novel frequency measurement methodology for clock synchronization in SPICE based simulators is proposed, which aims to provide accurate measured frequency and duty cycle values for the digital clock signals with a fast simulation time. The performance evaluation of this methodology is done using OrCAD Capture, which is the most popular SPICE-based simulation environment.

This work presents the cepstral covariance detector for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio. The power cepstral peaks of digitally modulated signals are exploited for spectrum sensing. To enhance the process of signal detection in low signal-to-noise ratio environments and with the knowledge of the data rate of the primary user signal, the cepstral covariance of the received signal is evaluated. The detection test statistic of the proposed detector is evaluated and an expression for the detection threshold is obtained under the null hypothesis. The detection performance of the proposed cepstrum-based detector is compared to covariance-based detectors and the obtained results validate its detection reliability at low signal-to-noise ratio levels with relatively low computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease is a complex and heterogeneous condition, and there are many gaps in the medical community's scientific and practical understanding of the disease. Closing these gaps relies on objective data about symptoms and signs, collected over long durations. Smartphones contain sensor devices which can be used to remotely capture behavioral signals. From these signals, computational algorithms can distill metrics of symptom severity and progression. This brief review introduces the main concepts of the discipline, addressing the experimental, hardware and software logistics, and computational analysis. The article finishes with an exploration of future prospects for the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recoverability criteria of a discrete signal from its m-periodic subsequence is obtained • Predicability is associated with certain arbitrarily small degeneracy of Z-transform for amended subsequneses • Robustness of recover is established The paper investigates recoverability of discrete time signals (sequences) from their subsequences sampled at m -periodic points. It is shown that this recoverability is associated with arbitrarily small spectrum degeneracy of subsequences amended via insertion of dummy elements and bundled into a system. It appears that, for a given m , the signals of a general kind can be approximated by signals with this feature. A recovery algorithm is suggested, and some robustness of this recovery is established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐speed backplane connectors are extensively used in digital baseband communication circuits. Connector degradation may lead to deterioration of the integrity of digital signals and is one of the major causes of low communication quality. In this study, an accelerated test was used to produce degraded connector samples. Based on the degradation characteristics of the connector electrical contact surface, the differential transmission method was applied to enhance signal integrity in such degraded electrical contact circuits. Referring to the Gigabit Ethernet standard, the differential signal waveforms and eye diagrams of high‐speed channels with un‐degraded and degraded connectors were studied. Improvement of the circuit reliability by differential transmission was demonstrated from the perspectives of both experimental investigations and analysis using probability calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio‐frequency (RF) watermarking is a new technology for physical layer authentication, whose carrier is not the traditional multimedia signals but the digital signals. In the available literature, the watermark detectors are based on the cooperative environment, where the parameters of the watermark signal are known to the receiver. In this Letter, a blind watermark detection scheme with Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K‐S) test is presented. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain mechanical and electrical components, such as generators, exhibit degradation phenomena, which may develop slowly over time or suddenly. The current trend in this field of research is to develop malfunction detection indicators from analog signals recorded by operation supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), creating behavioral models of the equipment and the development of a series of status indicators. These models and indicators are used to detect malfunctions when operation SCADA are unable to detect an abnormality, thus determining that the component is beginning to degrade when certain normal limits are exceeded. However, the digital signals from operation SCADA have great potential for providing additional information that could be used to detect possible malfunction. Detection must be accompanied by a study of the remaining life of a component so that the remaining useful life of the component before failure can be estimated before losing its functionality. If SCADA can detect a malfunction and determine when the component will break, the operator will have valuable time to intervene prior to failure at an optimum time. This is particularly important in installations with difficult access, such as offshore wind farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a simple, straightforward technique to enable bidirectional transmission of analog and digital signals in single-fiber wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network systems employing reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers (RSOA). An On-Off-Keying (OOK-DL) downlink modulation is effectively erased in a saturated RSOA, reflecting a carrier for retransmitting on the same fiber an in-band analog WiFi orthogonal frequency division multiplexing uplink signal (OFDM-UL). We investigate the operating conditions and the optimization procedure to attain required signal quality for both the uplink and downlink. We demonstrate experimentally the maximum distance and the best attainable performances for different lengths of standard single mode fiber (transmission). Bit error rate below the forward error correction threshold is obtained for WiFi OFDM-UL signal over 40 km and up to 80 km of SSMF using 64QAM and QPSK modulation modes, respectively. In all cases, we achieve error-free operation for the OOK-DL signal at 1 Gb/s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Continuous conduction mode power factor correction (PFC) without input current measurement is a step forward with respect to previously proposed PFC digital controllers. Inductor volt-second (vsL) measurement in each switching period enables digital estimation of the input current; however, an accurate compensation of the small errors in the measured vsL is required for the estimation to match the actual current. Otherwise, they are accumulated every switching period over the half-line cycle, leading to an appreciable current distortion. A vsL estimation method is proposed, measuring the input (vg) and output voltage (vo). Discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) occurs near input line zero crossings and is detected by measuring the drain-to-source MOSFET voltage vds. Parasitic elements cause a small difference between the estimated voltage across the inductor based on input and output voltage measurements and the actual one, which must be taken into account to estimate the input current in the proposed sensorless PFC digital controller. This paper analyzes the current estimation error caused by errors in the ON-time estimation, voltage measurements, and the parasitic elements. A new digital feedback control with high resolution is also proposed. It cancels the difference between DCM operation time of the real input current, (TDCMg) and the estimated DCM time (TDCMreb). Therefore, the current estimation is calibrated using digital signals during operation in DCM. A fast feedforward coarse time error compensation is carried out with the measured delay of the drive signal, and a fine compensation is achieved with a feedback loop that matches the estimated and real DCM time. The digital controller can be used in universal applications due to the ability of the DCM time feedback loop to autotune based on the operation conditions (power level, input voltage, output voltage...), which improves the operation range in comparison with previous solutions. Experimental results are shown for a 1-kW boost PFC converter over a wide power and voltage range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical signal processing brings together various fields of optics and signal processing - namely, nonlinear devices and processes, analog and digital signals, and advanced data modulation formats - to achieve high-speed signal processing functions that can potentially operate at the line rate of fiber optic communications. Information can be encoded in amplitude, phase, wavelength, polarization and spatial features of an optical wave to achieve high-capacity transmission. We revisit advances in the key enabling technologies that led to recent research in optical signal processing for digital signals that are encoded in one or more of these dimensions. Various optical nonlinearities and chromatic dispersion have been shown to enable key sub-system applications such as wavelength conversion, multicasting, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and tunable optical delays. We review recent advances in high-speed optical signal processing applications in the areas of equalization, regeneration, flexible signal generation, and optical control information (optical logic and correlation). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Digital signals are complex-valued functions on Z. Signal sets with certain properties are required in various communication systems. Traditional signal sets consider only the time distortion during transmission. Recently, signal sets taking care of both the time and phase distortion have been studied, and are called time-phase signal sets. Several constructions of time-phase signal sets are available in the literature. There are a number of bounds on time signal sets (also called codebooks). They are automatically bounds on time-phase signal sets, but are bad bounds. The first objective of this paper is to develop better bounds on time-phase signal sets from known bounds on time signal sets. The second objective of this paper is to construct four series of time-phase signal sets, one of which is optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The ability to actively control the spatial and temporal dynamics of droplets in microfluidic networks can be harnessed for several applications. Achieving such control is nontrivial due to the nonlinear and interactive nature of such systems, where droplets in different branches of the network can affect each other through resistive signalling. In our previous work we have demonstrated the application of a Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework for sort-synchronization in a simple microfluidic loop device, assuming that the final control elements are elastomeric valves. In this paper, we explore the ability of the MPC framework for more intricate control, where the relative drop distances at the exit of a loop are required to conform to desired profiles. We demonstrate that through appropriate MPC objective function choices, a variety of digital signals based on the relative exit distance can be generated. The importance of such control is highlighted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Quantitative analysis of the electroencephalographic signal (EEG) is a useful tool that allows studying the relationship between behavior and nervous system. This signal is susceptible to contamination by artifacts that must be eliminated if a quantitative analysis is required. In this paper the development of a computational program CHECASEN is presented. This program offers a simple way to inspect visually, out of line, a previously digitized electroencephalographic signal and to eliminate the segments contaminated by artifacts or another noise type. It edigraphic.org.mx edigraphic.org.mx permits to make a file where the signal segments selected during the visual inspection as clean or contaminated are enlisted; in addition, it indicates when a segment is possibly contaminated. CHECASEN allows the simultaneous revision until of 32 derivations, runs in ambient Windows in personal computers with at least Pentium processor and 512 Mb in RAM. The output files that it generates are stored in text format, facilitating their later analysis. For this reasons, CHECASEN is easily adaptable to experimental and clinical researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodical and program solution is proposed for the problem of automatic feature search based on characteristic sequences in digital signals. The target problem is condition diagnostics of complex systems. The input data is digital signals recorded in operable and faulty conditions of the object under diagnostics; the result is a pattern space set with proper clustering. In the example of the problem of system diagnostics of transmission bearings in a gas-turbine engine, the advisability of change to a new family of features is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BIT BY BIT is an encryption game that is designed to improve students' understanding of natural language processing in computers. Participants encode clear words into binary code using an encryption key and exchange them in the game. BIT BY BIT enables participants who do not understand the concept of binary numbers to perform the process of converting decimal into binary and vice versa. This understanding helps participants to comprehend one of the concepts of computer science (i.e., how computers express natural languages using signals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief presents the analytical expressions for the discrete zeroth- and first-order Hermite-Gauss functions, which are normally obtained by numerical methods. These two "Gaussian-type" functions have the following interesting properties. a) They have simple analytic forms (form of a product) when the lengths of the functions satisfy certain conditions, b) They are the eigenvectors of discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs). The zero points of the functions and their respective DFTs are all located on the real axis. These discrete functions are compared with the continuous zeroth and first Hermite Gaussians. They resemble very well to the continuous functions, and the coincidence of the shapes with the continuous cases is remarkable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors describe in detail the design considerations of our previously proposed novel optical quantizing and coding method for all-optical analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion using nonlinear optical switches based on the Sagnac interferometer. The multiperiod transfer function, which is the key to quantizing and coding, is achieved through a careful design of the Sagnac interferometer. In the experiments, the intensity of the pulse train input to our A/D converter is manually changed, and the corresponding digital signals are successfully mapped generated. Although the input-pulse trains are not the sampling of real analog signal, the principle of our proposed 3-bit A/D conversion at a 10 gigasample per second (Gsps) rate is demonstrated. The proposed optical quantizing and coding, combined with existing optical sampling techniques, will enable ultrafast photonic A/D conversion without electronics. The potential in the frequency regime of over a few hundred gigasamples per second was investigated by using an optical switch that utilizes the optical Kerr effect for fast operation. It was found out that the wavelength allocations and temporal widths of control and probe pulses have to be optimized with respect to the group-velocity dispersion of highly nonlinear fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The problem of electromagnetic oscillations in a cavity excited by a signal of finite duration is considered. The singly connected cavity surface has arbitrary geometrical form and it is perfectly conducting physically; its volume is filled with a homogeneous lossy medium. The formulation of the problem involves the principle of causality. The problem is solved within the frames of the evolutionary approach to electromagnetics. The electromagnetic field is presented as an eigenmodal expansion with time dependent modal amplitudes. The amplitudes satisfy a system of evolution (i.e., with tithe derivative) ordinary differential equations, which are derived and studied. Explicit solutions are obtained satisfying the principle of causality automatically. Numerical examples for the cavity oscillations excited by the Walsh function signals are exhibited, some resonances of the digital signals are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the performance of several lossless compression algorithms on eye movement signals recorded in otoneurological balance and other physiological laboratories. Despite the wide use of these signals their compression has not been studied prior to our research. The compression methods were based on the common model of using a predictor to decorrelate the input and using an entropy coder to encode the residual. We found that these eye movement signals recorded at 400 Hz and with 13 bit amplitude resolution could losslessly be compressed with a compression ratio of about 2.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influence of two filtering modes were researched with electro-oculographically recorded impulse-like eye movements. Linear finite impulse response (FIR) and non-linear hybrid median filters were explored by considering gain and latency parameters that yield the most important information in the case of these eye movements. It is stated that carefully selected lowpass filtering can securely be run without considerable changes in parameter values in order to discard noise stemming from physiological or other reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What signals quality for digital startups seeking access to external finance? Analyzing a unique dataset from India, we investigate the impact of traditional quality signals (e.g., the founders' years of experience, prior industry experience); networking signals (e.g., degrees from elite educational institutes, the breadth of an entrepreneurial team); and digital signals (e.g., the social media presence of the startup on multiple social media sites) on the access to venture capital financing. We find that while networking and digital signals positively impact access to financing, traditional human capital signals do not have any significant impact on the process. • Our study provides support for the changing importance of signals over time. • Traditional human capital factors may not necessarily serve as quality signals. • Digital signals may serve better quality signals to access financing for startups. • We make important contribution to the signaling literature for emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]