This study considers the process of regional Re-Birth against the depopulation of Teshima, located in the Seto Inland Sea (Tonosho-town, Shodo-district, Kagawa Prefecture). The island was the subject of a scandal with largest illegal industrial waste since the 1970s. Now, the industrial waste issue on the island is mainly removed the ART SETOUCHI, art festival, attracted 150,000 visitors in 2016, and is held once every three years. The study focuses on the effects of ART SETOUCHI (Contemporary art festival) and the regional characteristics (especially focusing on local foods). Based on these two key characteristics, the structure model of Re-Birth aimed CSV, that is, balancing economic value and social value by Value Co-Creation among various actors centered on Local residents and New residents. In this study, Value Co-Creation defines value recognition by Local residents and New residents, based on the concept of value co-creation (4C's approach) by Muramatsu (2015) , S-D-Logic by Vargo and Lush (2004) and S-Logic by Grönroos (2006). This study explores not only the structure model of Re-Birth, but also how to adapt the model even in such harsh environmental areas, like Fukushima, suffering with depopulation, aging, and reputational damage. We see that, Regional Re-Birth means, the story that Local residents and New residents aim to establish the self-government system to have initiatives against the negative state refined as polluted land. At such time, independent, self-reliance, and self-consideration are important factors as condition of Value Co-Creation.

Free-standing hybridized electrode consisting of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) and activated carbon have been fabricated for flexible supercapacitor applications. The xanthan-gum, used in our methodology, showed high ability in dispersing the strongly bundled DWNTs, and was then effectively converted to activated carbon with large surface area via chemical activation. The homogeneously dispersed DWNTs within xanthan-gum derived activated carbon acted as both electrical path and mechanical support of electrode material. The hybridized film from highly dispersed DWNTs and activated carbon was mechanically strong, has high electrical conductivity, and exhibited high specific capacitance of 141.5 F/g at the current density of 100 mV/s. Our hybridized film is highly promising as electrode material for flexible supercapacitors in wearable device.

In this work, α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals are synthesized by co-precipitation method and used as adsorbent to remove Cr6+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ from wastewater at room temperature. The prepared sample is evaluated by XRD, BET surface area, and FESEM for structural and morphological characteristics. XRD patterns confirm the formation of a pure hematite structure of average particle size of ~ 40 nm, which is further supported by the FESEM images of the nanocrystals. The nanocrystals are found to have BET specific surface area of ~ 39.18 m2 g−1. Adsorption experiments are carried out for the different values of pH of the solutions, contact time, and initial concentration of metal ions. High efficiency Cr6+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ removal occur at pH 3, 7, and 5.5, respectively. Equilibrium study reveals that the heavy metal ion adsorption of the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals followed Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Cr6+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ adsorption equilibrium data are best fitted to the Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacities of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals related to Cr6+, Cd2+, and Pb2+ are found to be 15.15, 11.63, and 20 mg g−1, respectively. These results clearly suggest that the synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals can be considered as potential nano-adsorbents for future environmental and health related applications.

Food and agricultural production sector, especially livestock production is vital for Mongolia’s economic and social development. Domestic sheep play key roles for Mongolians, providing food (meat, milk) and raw materials (wool, sheepskin), but genetic diversity, origin of sheep populations in Mongolia have not been well studied. Studies of population genetic diversity is important research field in conservation and restoration of animal breeds and genetic resources. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate genetic characteristics and estimate origin through the analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region D-loop and Cytochrome b of Mongolian indigenous sheep (Mongolian native, Orkhon and Altanbulag) and one Europe sheep (Suffolk). As a result of there were found, 220 SNPs (Single nucleotide polymorphism) in the D-loop region, 28 SNPs in the Cytochrome B region, furthermore, 77 Haplotypes. The nucleotide diversity was only found in D-loop region (n = 0.0184). Phylogenetic analysis showed that 3 (A, B, and C) of 5 haplogroups of sheep have been identified in our research. Haplogroup C was only found in Mongolian indigenous sheep. Haplogroup D and E were not observed. As a result of haplogroups, haplogroup A was dominant (n = 46 of 94 sheeps), followed by haplogroup B (n = 36) and haplogroup C (n = 12). Sequence analysis showed that T deletion, insertion and heteroplasmy in D-loop region occurred at a high rate in Mongolian indigenous sheep population (T insertion = 47, T deletion = 83). The heteroplasmy, which has never been found in Mongolian sheep, has been newly discovered in this study. As a result, the Mongolian sheep varieties, which mainly derived from Asia, were in hybridization with European sheep varieties.

PURPOSES : Asphalt pavements are damaged by various causes, such as cracks, potholes due to climate, and traffic environment. Asphalt aging has a significant effect on cracks, which may also form potholes. The purposes of this study are to estimate the change in asphalt binder and mixture performance and to correlate the physicochemical changes of the asphalt binder and mixture performance with aging. METHODS : The aging process of the asphalt was determined in the laboratory, based on the methods used in previous studies. In terms of consistency (stiffness), crack-resistance performance, moisture susceptibility, SK investigated the binder part, and Shoreki investigated the mixture part depending on the aging time. RESULTS : The consistency (stiffness) and brittleness of both the asphalt binder and mixture tended to increase with aging. In particular, the crack-resistance performance of the asphalt binder (G*sinδ, ductility, and ΔTc) and mixture (flexural fatigue test and Cantabro test) deteriorated because of asphalt aging. Furthermore, the aging mechanisms (oxidation and polymerization) were identified based on the chemical structure analysis. CONCLUSIONS : It is confirmed that the aging affected the chemical composition change and the physical properties of the asphalt. Asphalt pavements are significantly affected by the aging characteristics of the binder. It is concluded that the crack-resistance performance of the mixture decreases with aging due to these physical and chemical changes.

Severe damages will result in human society, when several different critical natural phenomena coincide. One example relates to the resting cysts of Alexandrium species (dinoflagellates that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning), which are preserved in surface sediments throughout Osaka Bay, Japan. These cysts have been found to accumulate particularly densely in shallow areas in the inner parts of Osaka Bay, where a tsunami caused by an earthquake could occur any time. Damage by a tsunami could cause a change of the coastal ecosystems at Osaka Bay including the resuspension of surface sediments containing resting Alexandrium tamarense cysts and the subsequent redistribution of the cysts in newly deposited sediment. Under certain environmental conditions, these cysts could germinate and form dense blooms, leading to paralytic shellfish poisoning. Such a scenario could also affect other coastal areas, including the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The purpose of this study is to reveal differences towards conspicuous consumption of the hard-hit by the recession Greeks and foreign consumers. For the purposes of this research a survey was carried out in Greece. Tandem cluster analysis was performed in order to separate consumers based on their conspicuous consumption patterns and tendencies. The analysis resulted in a three cluster solution and deduced that the recession-hit Greeks buy branded luxury goods, as hypothesized and expected.

The KVN(Korean VLBI Network)-style simultaneous multi-frequency receiving mode is demonstrated to be promising for mm-VLBI observations. Recently, other Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) facilities all over the globe start to implement compatible optics systems. Simultaneous dual/multi-frequency VLBI observations at mm wavelengths with international baselines are thus possible. In this paper, we present the results from the first successful simultaneous 22/43 GHz dualfrequency observation with KaVA(KVN and VERA array), including images and astrometric results. Our analysis shows that the newly implemented simultaneous receiving system has brought a significant extension of the coherence time of the 43 GHz visibility phases along the international baselines. The astrometric results obtained with KaVA are consistent with those obtained with the independent analysis of the KVN data. Our results thus confirm the good performance of the simultaneous receiving systems for the non-KVN stations. Future simultaneous observations with more global stations bring even higher sensitivity and micro-arcsecond level astrometric measurements of the targets.

Although people generally do not pay much attention to scent, background music (BGM), color, etc. in retail or service environments, these in-store factors could potentially have a subtle yet powerful influence on customers. Through two experiments, this research examined whether the scent and music made people feel physically warm or cool, and their effect on the participants’ perception of space and social density. Regarding to participants’ subjective perception of temperature, between the warm scent (vanilla) and the cool scent (peppermint), and between the warm music (Träumerei by Schumann) and the cool music (Vocalise by Rachmaninov) are not significantly different. But I could observe that people in warm conditions felt physically warm compare to cool conditions. And there was a significant difference on participants’ perception of space and density. People in the vanilla-scented environment felt that the capacity of the room was smaller, the space was tighter, and the social density was higher. In the case of the music, the results were the same. People in the room with Träumerei as a BCM felt that the room was smaller, the space was tighter, and the social density was higher. Moreover, people in warm conditions chose a cold or room temperature drink when I offered three drink options (cold, warm, room temperature) as a token of my gratitude. In addition to the effect to perception, I found that people in warm conditions (both scent and music) were more persuaded by commercial message than in cool conditions. These results would contribute to expand our knowledge of store atmospherics and customer experience through ambient scent and BGM.

Researchers have yet to investigate whether it is beneficial for exporters to engage in greater levels of product adaptation in their export operations, or whether there is some limit to the amount of adaptation exporters should engage in. We posit that customer value creation, a central marketing concept and a mechanism to achieving market and financial goals in business to business markets, is a core outcome of export product adaptation activities. In order to explore the routes by which adaptation may shape export customer value creation, we adopt a multi-faceted conceptualization of firm-level product adaptation, comprising export product adaptation (i) quantity, (ii) intensity and (iii) novelty. Drawing on survey data from 249 Finnish exporters involved in business-to-business activities, we find evidence to support the claim that the impact of export product adaptation on export customer value creation is contingent on various factors, and we identify instances where greater adaptation is beneficial for export customer value creation, and instances where greater export product adaptation is potentially harmful for export customer value creation.

Consumers tend to anthropomorphize brands and treat products under the anthropomorphized brands as if they were human beings. Previous research has pointed out that there could be two kinds of anthropomorphized brands, i.e., servant and partner brands and claimed that typical consumers (non-materialists) prefer brands-as-partner, whereas materialists prefer brands-as-servant. However, there is room for improvement: (1) Previous studies have examined only brands-as-servant and brands-as-partner and brands-as-master have been ignored; and (2) they have regarded materialists as a unidimensional construct, though it can be divided into instrumental and terminal materialists. Thus, we conducted multiple comparison tests among the three kinds of anthropomorphized brands with a dataset of three kinds of consumers. The results showed that non-materialists, instrumental materialists, and terminal materialists prefer, brands-as-partner, brands-as-servant, and brands-as-master, respectively.

Social media have altered the communication landscape and significantly impacted brand communications in the luxury fashion industry. Research suggests that with the rise of social media, brand communication has been democratised, and the power has shifted from those in marketing to the individuals and communities that create and consume content, redistributing it across a variety of channels (Kozinets, Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Kumar & Sundaram, 2012). Yet the implications of social media are still largely unknown among practitioners and managers. Moreover, there is a lack of effective frameworks for developing, analysing and comparing social-media strategies (Effing & Spil, 2016). Scholars have just started giving their attention to the subject of ‘social-media strategy’ as such, highlighting a gap in our knowledge, which this study seeks to address. The aim of this research is to understand the role of social media as a strategic brand-communications tool in the luxury fashion industry. Firstly, the main theoretical contribution is the development of a conceptual framework that enables an understanding, explanation and description of the process of building a social-media strategy. There has been a call for this type of research from a managerial perspective, across multiple platforms and objectives, and this work provides much-needed insights. Secondly, the findings provide valuable managerial insights. The conceptual framework emerging from this research is a managerial tool that can be used to tackle the process of building a social-media strategy and to identify its key elements. In particular, the framework can be deployed to guide and evaluate the process of creating a social-media strategy. With the help of the framework, managers can harness their resources successfully and identify the factors that need to be considered. Moreover, the framework aims to guide managerial action towards a sustainable social-media approach that helps to build competitive advantage for global luxury fashion brands in the longer term.

Global ecommerce continues to flourish and consumers across the world are constantly connected to the Internet. This poses growing opportunities for the digital transformation of businesses and their expansion to international markets succeeding to reach and engage with potential customers abroad. The objective of this paper is to study the internationalization process of digital enterprises and to explore business challenges and opportunities arising from the use of innovative technologies and tools. More specifically, we aim to review the recent related literature and propose a conceptual framework introducing tools and practices regarding strategy, infrastructure technology and on- line marketing & communication needed to assure increased chances of success when digitally expanding abroad. Each country has specific features associated with the business environment, the penetration of ecommerce, as well as, specific cultural and social characteristics. These peculiarities require specific internationalization strategies and dictate parallel adjustments in IT infrastructure, as well as a suitable digital marketing & promotion that need to be followed which are thoroughly analyzed and can become a valuable tool for digital enterprises.

The growth of capitalism plays the crucial role in consumers’ consumption that drive businesses to employ new technologies to increase the efficiency of production process. It is inevitable that consumers have to take responsibility for this movement, because they are the central of market system in which most businesses have to provide choices of purchasing. It causes the impacts to overconsumption in natural resources and also affects to social and environment problems. Sheth et al. (2011) provide alternative framework for developing sustainable consumption through the concept of mindful consumption. It is in line with the Consumer Culture Theory which consumers co-create the meaning of consumption, experience, or activity in all cycles of consumption – acquisition, consumption, possession, and disposition (Arnould and Thompson, 2005). Sheth et al. (2011)’ mindful consumption is demonstrated as the strategy how consumers can control their desires, behavior, and consumption. However, there is little interest to study how to develop mindful behavior. Therefore, this paper has shed the light on how consumption provides less impact to society whereby consumers are conscious and concerns the results of their consumption. The qualitative research was employed to collect data in regarding to mindful consumers who live in harmony with nature, environment, and mind. Participant observations and in-depth interviews were conducted to make understanding of mindful consumption in Thai culture. Practice of mind and body were found in Thai culture that play an important role in co-creating well-being and sustainable society.