The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented crises to societies and economies around the world and has brought drastic changes in the way consumers behave. Fashion business is one of the industries that has been significantly affected by Covid-19 as many consumers reduced their discretionary spending during the pandemic. While the world is entering the post-pandemic era and recovering from the pandemic, it is important to uncover and reflect on the reasons behind varying patterns of consumers’ coping behaviors associated with fashion shopping. However, current research on consumer fashion behavior during the pandemic primarily focuses on a particular type of shopping behavior, without addressing varying patterns of fashion consumption behaviors. In addition, most of these studies attributed such changes in behaviors to motivations toward protection against health-adverse threats based on the Protection Motivation Theory, which mostly focuses on protective behaviors and has limited power in understanding varying internal reasons toward various coping behaviors. Considering the varying adaptive and maladaptive patterns of fashion consumption behaviors observed in the market, it is important to address the psychological mechanism behind varying adaptive and maladaptive patterns of fashion consumption behaviors. Thus, drawing from the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, this study aims to investigate how cognitive appraisal of threats affects the affective/emotional state of consumers and consequently their intention to engage in various coping behaviors in the context of fashion shopping. Specifically, this study aims to investigate how individuals’ cognitive appraisals on risks and uncertainty induce varying emotional feelings (i.e., fear, anxiety, and hope), which further leads to their decisions to engage in problem vs. emotion-focused coping through fashion shopping during the pandemic.

Extant studies assessing determinants of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation prices have mainly focused on individual listing-level analysis, with a less attention to inter-regional dynamics between cooperation and competition. While Airbnb has announced how to set a pricing strategy tool called “smart pricing” to help hosts gauge rental rates, many hosts find that its suggesting prices are too low, failing to offer a robust picture of their destination market (Jiang et al., 2022). This calls for a research on how P2P accommodation hosts can benefit from coopetitive pricing strategy – a hybrid behavior of cooperation and competition that occurs among hosts or regions (Chim-Miki & Batista-Canino, 2018).

Direct injection of CRISPR/Cas9 into zygotes enables the production of genetically modified nonhuman primates (NHPs) essential for modeling specific human diseases, such as Usher syndrome, and for developing novel therapeutic strategies. Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that causes loss of hearing, retinal degeneration, and problems with balance, and is attributed to a mutation in MYO7A, a gene that encodes an uncommon myosin motor protein expressed in the inner ear and retinal photoreceptors. To produce an Usher syndrome type 1B (USH1B) rhesus macaque model, we disrupted the MYO7A gene in developing zygotes. Identification of appropriately edited MYO7A embryos for knockout embryo transfer requires sequence analysis of material recovered from a trophectoderm (TE) cell biopsy. However, the TE biopsy procedure is labor intensive and could adversely impact embryo development. Recent studies have reported using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from embryo culture media to detect aneuploid embryos in human in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. The cfDNA is released from the embryo during cell division or cell death, suggesting that cfDNA may be a viable resource for sequence analysis. Moreover, cfDNA collection is not invasive to the embryo and does not require special tools or expertise. We hypothesized that selection of appropriate edited embryos could be performed by analyzing cfDNA for MYO7A editing in embryo culture medium, and that this method would be advantageous for the subsequent generation of genetically modified NHPs. The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether cfDNA can be used to identify the target gene mutation of CRISPR/Cas9 injected embryos. In this study, we were able to obtain and utilize cfDNA to confirm the mutagenesis of MYO7A, but the method will require further optimization to obtain better accuracy before it can replace the TE biopsy approach.

This study aimed to determine the growth and carbon storage of planted Haloxylon aphyllum in the Aralkum Desert in Kazakhstan. Six sites afforested in 2000, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2017 were selected. The root collar diameter (cm) and height (m) were measured for all H. aphyllum in 30 m×44 m plots. Biomass accumulation (g m-2) and carbon storage (C g m-2) were calculated using allometric equations and the carbon concentration data of Haloxylon species. The diameters varied from 2.5 cm to 4.3 cm and the height varied from 106.2 cm to 223.7 cm. The growth of H. aphyllum was not linearly related to the afforestation year or soil properties. Tree growth might have been influenced by variations in the microclimate, such as temperature, precipitation, and dust storms. The mean total biomass accumulation was 20.57 g m-2 and ranged from 2.42 g m-2 to 64.53 g m-2. The mean carbon storage was 9.70 C g m-2 and ranged from 1.12 C g m-2 to 30.61 C g m-2. These biomass and carbon storage estimates were smaller than those reported for other Central Asian deserts, but afforestation enabled the generation of vegetative cover and consequently, carbon sequestration in the manmade Aralkum Desert.

This is a descriptive case study of the capacity building program in the field of climate change cooperation achieved by UNITAR Jeju Cifal and GTC(Green Technology Center). The study included the GTC's expertise in climate technology and the UNITAR's collaboration program, an international training body in the environment, peace and security. First, in this study, the results of the satisfaction survey of the education and training in 2017 were analyzed. Education demand for climate change adaptation was shown to be high, and technology demand needed in developing countries was found to be the highest demand for ecosystem monitoring/restoration. Second, an analysis of the program for 2018 showed that South Korea's Eco-city project case is also worth referring to Asian Pacific countries. It was also found that exchanges and discussion activities among participants were more helpful than simple lectures. Meanwhile, development of city-share programs, including self-evaluation, was found to be necessary. Finally, we discussed ways to improve the city-share program in UNITAR. Sharing urban information among peers in this program is beneficial. However, it is necessary to plan programs that have a prior understanding of the culture and background of participants. And it is also important for participants to follow up on their own goals by setting up action plans and checking them after training. It is also necessary to make it clear to participants that there is an organic connection at each stage of the program. That way, participants will set up and plan problems in the climate technology sector of their own country or city, and the effect of education and training will be even greater.

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.

Oocytes from small antral follicles (< 3 mm in diameter; SAFO) show lower developmental competence compared to those from medium antral follicles (3-8 mm in diameter; MAFO) in pigs. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of various macromolecules such as fetal bovine serum (FBS), porcine follicular fluid (PFF), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in in vitro growth (IVG) medium on oocyte growth, maturation, and embryonic development after parthenogenesis (PA). The base medium for IVG was α-MEM supplemented with dibutyryl cyclic AMP, pyruvate, kanamycin, hormone. This medium was further supplemented with 10% FBS, 10% PFF, 0.4% BSA, or 0.1% PVA. The in vitro maturation (IVM) medium was medium-199 supplemented with 10% PFF, cysteine, pyruvate, epidermal growth factor, kanamycin, insulin, and hormones. SAFO were cultured for 2 days for IVG and then cultured for 44 h for IVM. After IVG, the mean diameter of SAFO treated with FBS, PVA, and no IVG-MAFO (114.1, 113.0, and 114.8 μm, respectively) was significantly larger (P<0.01) than that of no IVG-SAF (111.8 μm). Oocyte diameter after IVM was greater (P<0.01) in SAFO treated with FBS, BSA and PVA (112.8, 112.9 and 112.6 μm, respectively) than other groups (110.4, 109.6, and 109.8 μm for no IVG-MAFO, no IVG-SAFO and PFF, respectively). Intraoocyte GSH content was not influenced by the macromolecules in IVG medium (0.92, 0.93, 1.05, and 1.12 pixels/oocyte for FBS, PFF, BSA and PVA, respectively). The proportion of oocytes reached the metaphase II stage was higher in PFF (73.6%) than in BSA (43.5%) and PVA (53.7%) but not different from that of FBS treatment (61.5%). The cumulus expansion score of oocytes after IVG was significantly influenced (P<0.01) by the macromolecules (2.94, 2.24, 1.84, and 1.38 for PFF, FBS, PVA, and BSA treatments, respectively). Blastocyst formation of PA oocytes that were treated with FBS (51.8%), PFF (50.4%), and PVA (45.2%) during IVG was higher (P<0.05) than that of BSA-treated oocytes (20.6%) but was not significantly different from that (54.8%) of no IVG-MAFO oocytes. Our results demonstrated that growth, maturation, and embryonic development of SAFO are greatly influenced by macromolecules in IVG medium and that PFF or FBS can be replaced with a chemically defined synthetic macromolecule PVA.

Social media has radically altered marketing’s ecology of influence. Moreover, through the rise of visual social media platforms in recent years, marketers are facing new challenges. Adopting an exploratory approach, our study combines interviews and content analysis to explore the managerial perspectives to brand storytelling through visual content site Pinterest and to assess its potential as a strategic marketing communications tool.

The research examines the role of social media as a part of marketing communications strategy in the fashion industry. The aim is to develop a conceptual framework for marketing communications in the digital age, given the rise in importance of social media and the decline of traditional print media in terms of fashion influence.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a maturation medium on oocyte maturation and embryonic development in pigs. Immature pig oocytes were matured for 44 h in a medium supplemented with 0.4% (w/v) BSA, 0.1% (w/v) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), or 10% (v/v) pig follicular fluid (PFF). After IVM, oocytes reached metaphase II stage were activated for parthenogenesis (PA) or used as cytoplasts for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Nuclear maturation (89.5%, 90.7% and 91.3% for BSA, PVA and PFF, respectively) and intraoocyte glutathione contents (1.20, 1.16 and 1.00 pixels/oocyte for BSA, PVA and PFF, respectively) were not altered by the macromolecules added to maturation medium. IVM of oocytes in a medium containing BSA (21.4%) and PVA (20.7%) showed significantly lower blastocyst formation after PA than culture in medium with PFF (39.2%). After SCNT, oocytes matured in medium with BSA showed decreased embryonic development to the blastocyst stage (9.2%) compared to those matured in medium with PFF (28.9%), while 23.6% of SCNT oocytes matured in medium with PVA developed to the blastocyst stage. When the effect of BSA in a maturation medium during the first 22 h and the second 22 h of IVM in combination with PFF or PVA was examined, PVA-BSA showed a higher nuclear maturation (94.1%) than BSA-PFF (84.5%). However, there was no significant difference in the blastocyst formation among tested combinations (47.3, 52.2, 50.0, 44.4 and 49.0% for PFF-PFF, PFF-BSA, PVA-BSA, BSA-PVA and BSA-PFF, respectively). Our results demonstrate that BSA and PVA added to maturation medium can support oocyte maturation comparable to PFF-supplemented medium. However, maturation of oocytes in a BSA-containing medium decreases embryonic development after PA and SCNT when compared with the medium supplemented with PFF.

We present the rst period variation study for the Algol eclipsing binary V346 Cyg by constructing the (O-C) residual diagram using all the available precise minima times. We conclude that the period variation can be explained by a sine{like variation due to the presence of a third body orbiting the binary in about 68:89  4:69 years, together with a long-term orbital period decrease (dP=dt = -1:23 x 10-7day=yr) that can be interpreted to be due to slow mass loss from the δ-Scuti primary component. The sinusoidal variation may also be explained by using the the Applegate (1992) mechanism involving cyclic magnetic activity due to star-spots on the secondary component. The present preliminary solution needs more precise photometric observations to be conrmed.

Plodia interpunctella, Indianmeal moth, is world-widely distributed pest in stored and manufactured agricultural products. Practically, this species seriously damaged by the infestation of most stored and manufactured agricultural products. It is necessary to find useful techniques for the control of stored-product pests insects including P. interpunctella. Recently, heating at 55℃ for 48 h can be practically used to disinfest stored-product insects in the filed of manufactures. To improve efficiency of this technique we conducted combination treatments with heat and diatomaceous earth. At room temperature, wandering larvae, which is most tolerant developmental stage to heat, were not dead regardless of diatomaceous earth (4 mg/L) treatment within 24 h. However, incubation at 40℃, all the larvae were dead with diatomaceous earth treatment while its mortality was 28% without diatomaceous earth treatment. Thus, heating effects was significantly improved by the combined treatments of diatomaceous earth. This effect was increased when temperature was higher and the exposed time is longer. Our results clearly showed that the combined treatments of both heat and diatomaceous earth showed synergistic effects for the control of P. interpunctella.

We present an analysis of the measurements of mid-eclipse times of V839 Oph, collected from literature sources. Our analysis indicates a period increase of 3.2 X 10-7 day/yr. This period increase of V839 Oph can be interpreted in terms of mass transfer of rate 1.76 X 10-7⊙/yr, from the less to the more massive component. The O - C diagram shows a damping sine wave covering two different complete cycles of 36.73 yr and 19.93 yr with amplitudes approximately equal to 0.0080 and 0.0043 day, respectively. The third cycle has to be expected to cover about 13.5 years with lower amplitude than those of the former two cycles. These unequal duration cycles show a non periodicity which may be explained as resulting from either the presence of a tertiary component to the system or cyclic magnetic activity variations due to star spots. For the later mechanism, the obtained characteristics are consistent when applying Applegate (1992) mechanism.

A period study of the semi-detached eclipsing binary system W Delphini based on the extensive series of minimum timings covering more than a century(109 years) indicates a cyclic(O-C) variation of the system. This variation can be explained as due either to (1) stellar magnetic activity cycles of the cool subgiant G5 secondary component of the binary with a subsurface magnetic field equals to 3 kG, or (2) a long-term orbital period increases with a rate of 1.68 × 10-8 day/cycle caused by a mass transfer rate of 4.9 × 10-8M⊙yr-1 from the less to more massive component modulated by a light time effect due to a hypothetical third body with period of 53.4±1.06 years. The former explanation is more recommended than the later one since the obtained third body mass value(M3=1.58 M⊙) is quite large but it can not manifest itself observationally and also it cannot be a white dwarf. In the contrary, from the magnetic activity point of view, the obtained characteristics are in good consistent when applying Applegate(1992) mechanism. However, further precise photometric and CCD observations for minima timings with brightness determinations are needed to confirm the present solution.

The effect of different cooling rate on the structure and mechanical properties of Fe-3%Mn-(Cr)-(Mo)-0.3%C steels is described. Pre-alloyed Astaloy CrM and CrL, ferromanganese and graphite were used as the starting powders. Following pressing in a rigid die, compacts were sintered at and in atmospheres and cooled with cooling rates and . Convective cooled specimens were subsequently tempered at for 60 and 240 minutes.