Purpose -The study uses an AR(1)-EGARCH(1,1) model to investigate the pricing behaviors of the real estate investment trusts (REITs) for four countries (Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the USA) before and after the 2007 financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach -The study uses an AR(1)-EGARCH(1,1) model to investigate the pricing behaviors of the REITs. Findings -The results show that after the financial crisis, REITS returns show a stronger linkage to the overall market returns but they are not sensitive to expected interest rate movements, except for the Taiwanese REIT market, which shows a negative and significant reaction to the interest rates. There are stronger asymmetric effects of good and bad news on REIT returns particularly after the post financial crisis for the four REIT markets. Research limitations/implications -An examination of the relationship between REIT and the stock market provides information as how REIT provides an effective device related to the stock portfolio diversification. Practical implications -It would be interesting to see how the Asian REIT markets differ from the US market on return and risk behavior. Originality/value -The 2007 subprime crisis happened because of the decline of the real estate market prices in the USA. It represents a special opportunity to examine the time-dependent behavior of REIT returns in a turbulent market environment.

Scenic vistas of Quanzhou are displayed in a 720° perspective as an immersive live 3D display to provide a real digitalized virtual reality experience. In this paper, we report our research on simulating and exploring the extensive scenery of the Quanzhou Maritime Silk Route to support cultural tourism. Users can access the "Maritime Silk Route" applet on their mobile phone by approaching a sensor or scanning a QR code.

Modern education attaches great importance to interdisciplinary skills, among which computational thinking is a core element, and heralds a new era. IT application has shaped education in the 21st century. Computational thinking has provided further impetus for building an all-encompassing social network and fostering a DIY culture enabled by digital technologies. One empirical study used four apps to test children's development in computational thinking and fluency. The article will help students overcome their fears of coding. Peer reviews provide students with an opportunity to learn from each other and become more motivated. These reviews also serve as feedback for teachers to evaluate students' performance. Experimental design is used in this study, and a peer review system is implemented. Freshmen attending a programming class in a university are used as samples. At the class, students write computer programs with f-Chart, which provides a graphical user interface for students to learn programming logic and design. Zuvio, a cloud-based interactive response system, is used to conduct the peer reviews. The data of this study are analyzed through R. The results show not only an improvement in students' learning performance but also a gap between students' peer review scores and teachers' evaluation scores. Learning feedback and evaluation is crucial to transform education between students and teachers into a sustainable cycle system.

The Bitcoin exchange rate (BER) is influenced by many variables such as human speculation and policies and, thus, is dependent on the financial system. The fluctuation of BER submitted has been extensively investigated. However, the correlation analysis of the short- and long-term effects by indicators of online sentiment is unexplored. Therefore, this study establishes a VAR model for BER which provides a framework to the Google search volume index (SVI), the investor fear gauge (VIX), and the S&P500 Index. The findings of the analysis suggest that BER and Google SVI have a Granger causality feedback relationship in both the short- and long-term co-integration equilibrium, and the VIX is significantly related to BER in the long-term co-integration.

We have developed a system that includes a newly designed smart socket for IoT sensors and a cloud platform for smart home power management. The system can initiate the platform service upon the user's authentication and give suggestions based on the analysis of usage patterns. By sending data to the analysis system through the IoT, the system can recommend to the user the most suitable power management setting, calculate the power consumption requirement of the user, and determine whether it is within a reasonable range. The cloud platform employs a mobile device app, which adopts a graphical user interface. The app effectively provides users with information on their domestic power consumption. Through the cloud platform for smart home power management, users can have a better understanding of their daily power needs and plan accordingly to reduce the use of unnecessary power.