Prior research has investigated the consumer effects of cash and card payments in service settings, but the growing trend of innovative payment with a mobile device hasn’t been considered in the literature so fare. This article represents one of the first studies that considers the adoption of mobile as a new payment method and investigate how the ‘checkout’ phase affect the shoppers’ overall price image of retail stores (OSPI). Results from our studies show that the ‘checkout’ phase is the ‘moment of truth’ for shoppers judging OSPI. We investigate the effects of cash, card, and mobile payments and show that the less transparent a payment method, the lower OSPI judgments of shoppers. In particular, favorable comparisons of basket prices to shoppers’ mental budgets trigger lower store price perceptions. Subsequently, these results have major implications for retailers aiming to lower their OSPI in customers’ minds.

The emergence of peer to peer systems such as online auction websites is a major element in e-commerce yet relatively little is known about what influences its adoption and use in different parts of the world. Using an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), user attitudes and behaviors from three national environmental contexts, Korea, Germany and New Zealand, are examined and compared to determine the factors influencing the adoption and usage of this system. The key questions this paper addresses are: Are there national differences affecting the ability for the TAM to predict OAWS acceptance, and if so, in what way? And are differences observed between heavy and light user motivations and perceptions of the medium and how these differ across national environments? Answers to these questions will increase the understanding for future marketers and developers of peer-to-peer systems. An extended TAM model was developed from which a number of hypothesized relationships are posited. We use the Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw (1989) core TAM model extended by our arguing for two key influencing factors on a user’s attitude to using a new technology, perceived risk and computer affinity. We contend the drivers of perceived risk are: perceived enjoyment, trust in intermediary, perceived reputation system effectiveness, and positive past experience. Additionally we address the limited understanding in the literature of the national environment effects on technology acceptance. National cultural effects such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism, along with technological heritage and country innovativeness may need to be understood to determine potential differences in consumer activity and the robustness of the theoretical model. We also considered usage behavior to be important. Research for example, identifies heavy users as influencers on other potential adopters; thus important targets for developers and marketers of new technologies. Results suggest that although the core TAM is somewhat robust for the three nations along with the extended model for the respondents from South Korea, there are some key differences in the extended model between New Zealand and Germany. Specifically the relationships: Positive Past Experience and Perceived Risk are not supported in NZ or Germany, and “computer affinity” and “attitude to using” unsupported in Germany. We similarly found differences in the attitudes of light and heavy users between the samples, especially the Korean sample with the others. Our findings highlight that national environmental variations, especially between the “eastern” and “western” samples are important, which could be attributed to both uncertainty avoidance and individualism. Key conclusions and recommendations will be given.

Despite the rapid growth and potential for technology-based services from a technology and productivity perspective, the biggest challenges that managers often face are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self‐service technology show that the perceived risk is an important factor influencing the usage of service technology. Whereas research has explored different risk types that emerge in consumer settings such as functional and psychological risk, research on risk perception in B2B setting still lacks a detailed examination of the different facets risk can take on in technology-based service adoption. Some studies indicate that there might be different views and perceptions of the risk involved in technology-based services between customers and providers. Our study addresses this gap and aims to develop a holistic understanding of the types of risk customers perceive when using a technology-based service. We investigate what types of risk are emergent in technology-based service encounters and whether customers and providers perceive these risks differently. We conducted 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two industries in four countries. Our study emphasizes the importance of functional and financial risks as expected in a B2B context, but also sheds light on the fact that business customers have personal and psychological fears that hinder them from using technology-based services. Most importantly, we show that gaps in the perception and evaluation of risk exist between customers and providers: customers doubt the functionality of technology-based services; they emphasize privacy risk as a main hindrance and worry about their own role in a service, whereas only few providers are aware of the customers’ fears.

In this paper, we study the effectiveness of social labeling as a technique to promote pro-environmental behaviors in children, and examine more specifically the potential moderating effect of children’s age. We run an experiment on a sample of 115 3rd to 6th grade children and show that 1/ children exposed to a social labeling actually declare more pro-environmental behaviors and that 2/ children at an intermediate age (between 9 years and a half and 11 years and a half) are the most responsive to the technique, underlying an inverted-U relationship between social labeling effectiveness and children's age. These results contribute to a better theoretical understanding of social labeling mechanisms and suggest implications for public policy makers.

This study investigates the role of knowledge sharing in the development of relationship capabilities, focusing on the interaction between exporting organizations and their foreign partners. Knowledge sharing can be defined as the activities of how to assist communities of people work together, facilitating the exchange of their knowledge, enhancing organizational learning capacity, and increasing their ability to attain individual and organizational goals. Knowledge sharing facilitates the development of innovative ideas, creates new business opportunities through the learning process of knowledge workers, and increases the ability of employees to achieve individual and organizational objectives. The exchange of information and knowledge is crucially important in an export marketing context, as a result of the increasing complexity and volatility of the international business environment and the information asymmetry between exporters and their foreign distributors. Knowledge sharing between the two parties enables exporters to gain a better understanding of local market conditions and develop appropriate products that fit the needs and preferences of end-user customers. In an effort to fill an important gap in the export marketing literature, the present study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model of the organizational factors that stimulate the adoption of an export knowledge sharing behavior, the relationship between export knowledge sharing behavior and export relationship capabilities, and the resulting positive outcomes for exporting organizations. The study develops seven research hypotheses, which are then tested using data collected from a sample of Greek direct exporters by means of an online survey. The key informant in this study is the head of exporting activities (hereafter referred to as export executive). The study employs available guidelines in the literature regarding the collection of high quality data from key informants, questionnaire design, and measure development and validation. The data analysis procedure involves the assessment of the psychometric properties of the measurement scales and the estimation of a structural equation model. Study findings provide support for all seven research hypotheses. More specifically, results indicate that the prevalence of an organizational culture that supports knowledge sharing is an important factor that enhances the adoption of export knowledge sharing behavior by export executives. Similarly, export executives’ attitudes towards knowledge sharing have a positive effect on their knowledge sharing behavior. Organizational culture and export knowledge sharing behavior have a positive influence on an exporting organization’s relationship capabilities. In turn, export relationship capabilities have a significant positive effect on export product advantage and export market performance. Finally, a strong positive relationship is evident between export product advantage and export market performance.

Vertical alliances for collaborative new product development in interfirm relationship have been an ongoing theme of strategy and marketing research to cope with fast changing environments, and to continuously innovate in the marketplace. However, no study has yet examind both direct and indirect effects of vertical alliances on new product performance under high technology turbulence. As alliance partners seek to enhance their collaboration and performance, the relational nature of business relationships and structural network positions can influence firm innovativeness and subsequent new product performance. Using survey data of 146 firms collected in Turkey, this study shows that while firms form stronger cooperation under conditions of high technology turbulence, the impact on firm innovativeness and new product performance is contingent upon network positions and information exchange. The findings indicate that indirect effects of vertical alliance portfolio and information exchange enhance new product performance through firm innovativeness. Vertical relationship structures facilitate firm innovativeness with enhanced exploration but may not have a positive direct effect on new product performance. Furthermore, the effect of information exchange on new product performance is contingent upon information exchange which enhances firm innovativeness.

Motivated by an illustrative case study which assesses the strength of the New Zealand wine brand, we develop a framework that provides a contemporary perspective on Country of Origin (COO) branding. The New Zealand wine industry’s COO branding was initially built around the country image of “green” production with the logo “riches of a clean green land”. This has been superseded by a branding strategy that focuses on developing the collective meaning of the COO brand with the logo “pure discovery”. A collective approach to branding involves broader considerations, where the brand is used to facilitate processes that co-create experience and meaning that reflects collective interest. This entails the alignment of a complex set of industry relationships where value is co-created within a network of stakeholders that contribute to the heritage of New Zealand Wine and its quality positioning as the country-of-origin. Our contribution comes from a wider conceptual understanding of COO to show that “COO matters” when a shared identity and image are integrated to form a collective meaning which co-creates value to fulfil the expectations of a brand’s promises of innovation, authenticity and quality.

In this experiment, a highly porous scaffold of biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) was prepared using the spongereplica method. The BCP scaffold was coated with 58S bioactive glass (BG) and sintered for a second time. The resulting scaffold was coated with gelatin (Gel) and cross-linked with [3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide] and N-Hydroxysuccinamide (EDC-NHS). The initial average pore size of the scaffold ranged from 300 to 700μm, with more than 85 % porosity. The coating of BG and Gel had a significant effect on the scaffold-pore size, decreasing scaffold porosity while increasing mechanical strength. The material and surface properties were evaluated by means of several experiments involving scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Cytotoxicity was evaluated using MTT assay and confocal imaging of MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblast cells cultured in vitro. Three types of scaffold (BCP, BCP-BG and BCP-BG-Gel) were implanted in a rat skull for in vivo evaluation. After 8 weeks of implantation, bone regeneration occurred in all three types of sample. Interestingly, regeneration was found to be greater (geometrically and physiologically) for neat BCP scaffolds than for two other kinds of composite scaffolds. However, the other two types of scaffolds were still better than the control (i.e., defect without treatment).

Stroke is the most basic element in modern Chinese character structure unit, normalization and standardization of stroke cannot only be essential to literacy teaching, and writing, retrieval and computer processing of Chinese characters, but can further improve normalization and standardization levels of Chinese characters. However, there are lots of disputes about many issues of stroke in academia, and contents about stroke in modern Chinese teaching materials in colleges and universities are inconsistent. Ten representative teaching materials of Modern Chinese are selected in this article to take strokes in these teaching materials as study object for comparison and analysis of classification, names and sequence of strokes, so as to give suggestion to normalization and standardization of strokes. The teaching materials involved in this article include: Modern Chinese (the 4th revised edition) written by Huang Borong and Liao Xudong in 2007, referred to as “Huang and Liao‟s Version”; Modern Chinese written by Hu Yushu in 1992, referred to as “Hu‟s Version”; New Modern Chinese written by Zhang Bin in 2002, referred to as “Zhang‟s Version 1”; Modern Chinese written by Zhang Zhigong in 1982, referred to as “Zhang‟s Version 2”; Introduction to Modern Chinese written by Shao Jingmin in 2001, referred to as “Shao‟s Version”; Modern Chinese written by modern Chinese teaching and research office of Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University in 2000, referred to as “Bei‟s Version”; Modern Chinese Character Outline written by Su Peicheng in 2001, referred to as “Su‟s Version”; Modern Chinese Tutorial written by Xing Fuyi① in 1986, referred to as “Xing's Version"; Modern Chinese written by Zhou Yimin in 2006, referred to as “Zhou's Version”; Modern Chinese written by Ma Guorong in 1990, referred to as “Ma's Version”.

This study applied regression analysis to evaluate the impact of hourly average congestion calculated by bumper model in the congested area of each passage of each port on the peak time congestion, to suggest the model formula that can predict the peak time congestion. This study conducted regression analysis of hourly average congestion and peak time congestion based on the AIS survey study of 20 ports in Korea. As a result of analysis, it was found that the hourly average congestion has a significant impact on the peak time congestion and the prediction model formula was derived. This formula(Cp = 4.457Ca + 29.202) can be used to calculate the peak time congestion based on the predicted hourly average congestion.

Leaching of MOCVD dust in the LED industry is an essential stage for hydro-metallurgical recovery of pure Ga and In. To recover Ga and In, the leaching behavior of MOCVD scrap of an LED, which contains significant amounts of Ga, In, Al and Fe in various phases, has been investigated. The leaching process must be performed effectively to maximize recovery of Ga and In metals using the most efficient lixiviant. Crystalline structure and metallic composition of the raw MOCVD dust were analyzed prior to digestion. Subsequently, various mineral acids were tested to comprehensively study and optimize the leaching parameters such as acidity, pulp density, temperature and time. The most effective leaching of Ga and In was observed for a boiling 4 M HCl solution vigorously stirred at 400 rpm. Phase transformation of GaN into gallium oxide by heat treatment also improved the leaching efficiency of Ga. Subsequently high purity Ga and In can be recovered by series of hydro processes.

The New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) is a 1-meter vacuum solar telescope that aims to observe the ne structures of active regions on the Sun. The main tasks of the NVST are high resolution imaging and spectral observations, including the measurements of the solar magnetic eld. The NVST has been collecting more than 20 million FITS les since it began routine observations in 2012 and produces a maximum observational records of 120 thousand les in a day. Given the large amount of les, the effective archiving and retrieval of les becomes a critical and urgent problem. In this study, we implement a new data archiving system for the NVST based on the Fastbit Not Only Structured Query Language (NoSQL) database. Comparing to the relational database (i.e., MySQL; My Structured Query Language), the Fastbit database manifests distinctive advantages on indexing and querying performance. In a large scale database of 40 million records, the multi-eld combined query response time of Fastbit database is about 15 times faster and fully meets the requirements of the NVST. Our study brings a new idea for massive astronomical data archiving and would contribute to the design of data management systems for other astronomical telescopes.

Selection based on phenotype in the traditional manner does not help in tracking the selected gene. Molecular genetics has revolutionized the old established breeding techniques. A new epoch of molecular markers has been acquainted for genetic improvement of livestock. This study is engaged on the neoteric molecular markers used in various fields of livestock. DNA markers are more encouraging in selecting genomes that have recombination events close to the target gene. Molecular markers rely on DNA assay and are better than the morphological and biochemical markers. In this study DNA-based molecular markers developed during the past decagons for animal genome analysis are reviewed. Mapping of molecular markers provide a framework, required for its subsequent use in the selection procedure. Molecular techniques help in the utilization of genetic variability in breeding population. At the same time livestock genomes play important role in human genomics and their role for understanding human genomics cannot be overlooked. Recently, in the epigenetic and transcriptomic studies, RNA sequencing as a part of next generation sequencing has revolutionized the approach and ongoing trends of analysis. Keeping in mind the goals, these molecular techniques can be implemented successfully by following well defined, crisp and integrated strategy.

Brucellosis is a notorious zoonotic disease with global implications. Efforts to control the spread of the disease have been restricted to the agricultural livestock. Increasing incidences of accidental human infection have motivated researches to start working on alternative vaccines. At present, live attenuated vaccines are the only accepted type of vaccines used in developed countries for the prevention of brucellosis. Although serodiagnosis is occasionally unreliable, some countries have already claimed to have eradicated the disease, based on this testing. Live attenuated vaccines are not suitable for use in pregnant and immune-depressed animals. Moreover, these vaccines are not tolerated in humans. Therefore, many researches have been striving to discover alternative methods of vaccination. Most research has focused on the generation of subcellular, subunit, and DNA vaccines that are as efficient as the live attenuated vaccines. At present, none of the available vaccines has been able to replace the live attenuated vaccines. Therefore, additional research is necessary in order to discover a new brucellosis vaccine that is suitable for human use.

This article reviews the US Supreme Court cases regarding detention of alleged terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and examines the interplay between international human rights law and the American Constitution with respect to the executive policies of the Bush Administration to detain terror suspects. The article first references the international human rights legal framework regarding detainees, specifically the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and then analyzes seminal cases brought before the Supreme Court by detainees, specifically how the Supreme Court interprets the US Constitution and international law in reaching its decisions regarding detainees at Guantanamo. While the Supreme Court provided detainees the right to challenge the legality of their detentions through habeas corpus petitions, limitations still exist as to the lack of extraterritorial application of rights protections as well as the domestic judicial failure to redress detainees’ subjection to torture and other abusive treatment.

본고는 韓國語를 專攻으로 운영하는 海外의 大學 중 이탈리아대학에서 이루어지는 漢字授業을 위한 漢字敎材의 內容과 構成에 대해 具體的으로 논의한 것이다. 본고의 논의는 세 가지 部分으로 이루어졌다. 첫 번째는 序文에 해당되는 부분으로 한국어와 관련된 한자의 내용이 다루어졌다. 구체적으로, 韓半島에서의 漢字表記의 歷史, 漢字가 韓國語에 미친 影響 및 韓國語 內에서의 漢字의 位置 및 使用樣相 등을 論議하였다. 이 부분은 특히 非漢字文化圈 한국어 학습자에게는 필요한 교육 내용이라고 할 수 있다. 두 번째는 교육 대상이 될 한자와 한자어의 선정과 관련된 부분이다. 이를 위해 현재 해외의 대학에서 사용되고 있는 몇몇 韓國語敎材에 제시되어 있는 語彙 중 한자 및 한자어들을 대상으로 하여 네 가지 選定基準(造語力․頻度數․難易度․基礎字)에 따라 한자교재에서 다룰 한자를 選別하였다. 대상이 된 한자들은 다시 系列關係를 이루는 것이나 體系的으로 분류할 수 있는 것으로 묶어서 領域別로 제시되었다. 본고에서는 총 390여개의 한자와 이들 한자가 결합되어 사용되는 한자어 중에서 敎材, 日常生活, 時事的인 分野에서 자주 등장하는 것들을 選別하여 총 1110여개의 한자어를 제시하였다. 세 번째는 교재의 內容과 構成에 대한 부분이다. 이는 細部的으로 本文의 내용과 구성, 읽기의 내용과 구성, 연습의 내용과 구성으로 나누어져 구체적인 예를 통해 살펴보았다.

Wastewater from textile industries is a major cause of water pollution in most developing countries. In order to address the issues of water pollution and high cost for treatment processes, the use of an inexpensive and environmentally benign adsorbents has been studied. The objective was to find a better alternative to the conventional methods. Lemon grass waste (ash) collected from a lemon grass stream distillation subunit in Bhutan was tested for dye removal from aqueous solutions. The study investigated the removal of methylene blue using the following operational parameters: initial concentration (100-600 mg/L), contact time, adsorbent dose (0.1-0.55 gm/100 mL), and pH (3-10). It was found that the percentage removal of dye increased with a decrease of the initial concentration and increased contact time and dose of adsorbent. The basic pH solution of dye showed better adsorption capacity as compared to the acidic dye solution. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were fitted to the data well. Data fitted better to Lagergren pseudo 2nd order kinetics than a 1st order kinetic model. Surface morphology was also examined via scanning electron microscopy. An elemental analysis was also carried out and the chemical composition and functional groups were analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques, respectively. The obtained results indicate that lemon grass ash could be employed as a low cost alternative to commercial activated carbon in wastewater treatment for the removal of dyes.