With the booming popularity of social media such as facebook and Wechat, more and more people and firms commence to utilize it to promote products and services. The convenience of sharing personal experience online, however, also leads to increasing number of consumer to complain through online reiews. For example, negative online review has increased 800% over the years between 2014 and 2015 (Causon 2015) and has negative impact on many viewers’ buying decisions (Chevalier, & Mayzlin, 2006). Therefore, it is important to investigate what factors would reduce the negative impact of other customers’ online complaints on consumer purchase intention. Developing friendships with customers through social media is a common strategy for service provider to retain customers. Prior literature suggests that consumers in general are more tolerant of a service failure when the service provider is having a friendship with the customer than when the provider is having a business relationship (Wan, Hui, and Wyer 2011). Therefore, we suggest that friendship could also attenuate the negative impact of an online complaint from other customer on consumer purchase intention. Furthermore, we predict that this could happen only in the self-consumption situation. In the consumption situation of buying gifts for others, friendship would no longer attenuate the impact of a negative online review on consumer purchase intention. It is because gift giving involves sybolic value of face enhancement in developing social relationships with the gift giving target. Consumers would be less likely to take risks of buying substandard products as gifts. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.

Although the majority of prior literature has suggested the key reasons for consumer complaining in service failures are to vent negative emotions (e.g. anger, dissatisfaction) and to seek redress (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax 1997; Nyer 1997), some research has also pointed out that customers will give constructive suggestions to firms through complaining (Groth, 2005; Liu & Mattila, 2015). In this regard, consumer complaining can be classified into two types, namely, positive complaint (i.e., with constructive suggestion) and negative complaint (i.e., without constructive suggestion). Understanding what situations would dissatisfied consumers choose to give constructive suggestions in service failures would be of utmost important to firms. We suggest that a firm’s brand image may affect consumers’ intention to choose what types of complaint in service failures. In general, consumers may perceive a brand as having a competence image (e.g., professional and efficient) or having a warmth image (e.g., friendly and approachable) (Kervyn, Fiske and Malone, 2012). Comparatively speaking, a warmth image is associated with friendship and caring, whereas a competence image is associated with expertise. Therefore, it is possible that consumers would have a higher empathy and intention to help a firm with a warmth (vs. competent) image, and be more likely to choose positive complaint when a failure happens to this firm. An experimental study confirmed this prediction. In addition, we found that although a firm’s competence (vs. warmth) image does not affect the likelihood to give constructive suggestions in service failures, it leads to a higher level of return intention. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.

This research addresses an important, yet under-researched, issue concerning the management of loyalty programs (LPs) in the era of globalization: how to effectively motivate LP members from different cultures to continue the reward pursuit process. Drawing on cross-cultural research and regulatory fit theory, we identify feedback framing as a low-cost, easy-to-implement strategy for building program loyalty across cultures. Two cross-cultural studies confirm all the hypotheses about the effects of feedback framing. Overall, this research advances theoretical understanding of reward pursuit behavior across cultures and offers practical advice for managing LPs in different cultural contexts.

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

We first deduce a uniform formula forthe Fermi energy of degenerate and relativistic electrons in the weak-magnetic field approximation. Then we obtain an expression of the special solution for the electron Fermi energy through this formula, and express the electron Fermi energy as a function of electron fraction and matter density. Our method is universally suitable for relativistic electron- matter regions in neutron stars in the weak-magnetic field approximation.

Due to the lack of an accretion disk in a polar (magnetic cataclysmic variable, MCV), the material transferred from the secondary is directly accreted onto the white dwarf, forming an accretion stream and a hot spot on the white-dwarf component. During the eclipses, different light components can be isolated. Therefore, the monitoring of eclipsing polars could provide valuable information on several modern astrophysical problems, e.g., CVs as planetary hosting stars, mass transfer and mass accretion in CVs, and the magnetic activity of the most rapidly rotating cool dwarfs. In the past five years, we have monitored about 10 eclipsing polars (e.g., DP Leo and HU Aqr) using several 2-m class telescopes and about 100 eclipse profiles were obtained. In this paper, we will introduce the progress of our research group at YNOs. The first direct evidence of variable mass transfer in a CV is obtained and we show that it is the dark-spot activity that causes the mass transfer in CVs. Magnetic activity cycles of the cool secondary were detected and we show that the variable mass transfer is not caused by magnetic activity cycles. These results will shed light on the structure and evolution of close binary stars (e.g., CVs and Algols).

Two sintering methods of a pressureless sintering and a spark-plasma sintering are tested to densify the Fe-TiC composite powders which are fabricated by high-energy ball-milling. A powder mixture of Fe and TiC is prepared in a planetary ball mill at a rotation speed of 500 rpm for 1h. Pressureless sintering is performed at 1100, 1200 and 1300oC for 1-3 hours in a tube furnace under flowing argon gas atmosphere. Spark-plasma sintering is carried out under the following condition: sintering temperature of 1050oC, soaking time of 10 min, sintering pressure of 50 MPa, heating rate of 50oC, and in a vacuum of 0.1 Pa. The curves of shrinkage and its derivative (shrinkage rate) are obtained from the data stored automatically during sintering process. The densification behaviors are investigated from the observation of fracture surface and cross-section of the sintered compacts. The pressureless-sintered powder compacts show incomplete densification with a relative denstiy of 86.1% after sintering at 1300oC for 3h. Spark-plasma sintering at 1050oC for 10 min exhibits nearly complete densification of 98.6% relative density under the sintering pressure of 50 MPa.

Fe-TiC composite powders are fabricated by planetary ball mill processing. Two kinds of powder mixtures are prepared from the starting materials of (a) (Fe, TiC) powders and (b) (Fe, TiH2, Carbon) powders. Milling speed (300, 500 and 700 rpm) and time (1, 2, and 3 h) are varied. For (Fe, TiH2, Carbon) powders, an in situ reaction synthesis of TiC after the planetary ball mill processing is added to obtain a homogeneous distribution of ultrafine TiC particulates in Fe matrix. Powder characteristics such as particle size, size distribution, shape, and mixing homogeneity are investigated. In case of (Fe, TiC) powder many coarse TiC particulates with size of several μm are unevenly distributed in Fe-matrix. The composite powder prepared from (Fe, TiH2, C) powder mixture showed a homogeneous dispersion of ulatrafine TiC particulates.

We study the physical and chemical properties of the molecular clump hosting a young stellar cluster, IRAS 20160+3636, which is believed to have formed via the “collect and collapse” process. Physical parameters of the UC Hii region associated with the embedded cluster are measured from the radio continuum observations. This source is found to be a typical Galactic UC Hii region, with a B0.5 type exciting star, if it is ionized by a single star. We derive a CN/HCN abundance ratio larger than 1 over this region, which may suggest that this clump is being affected by the UV radiation from the Hii region.

Fe-TiC composite was fabricated from Fe and TiC powders by high-energy milling and subsequent spark- plasma sintering. The microstructure, particle size and phase of Fe-TiC composite powders were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction to evaluate the effect of milling conditions on the size and distribution of TiC particles in Fe matrix. TiC particle size decreased with milling time. The average TiC particle size of 38 nm was obtained after 60 minutes of milling at 1000 rpm. Prepared Fe-TiC powder mixture was densified by spark- plasma sintering. Sintered Fe-TiC compacts showed a relative density of 91.7~96.2%. The average TiC particle size of 150 nm was observed from the FE-SEM image. The microstructure, densification behavior, Vickers hardness, and frac- ture toughness of Fe-TiC sintered compact were investigated.

TiB2-reinforced iron matrix composite (Fe-TiB2) powder was in-situ fabricated from titanium hydride (TiH2) and iron boride (FeB) powders by the mechanical activation and a subsequent reaction. Phase formation of the composite powder was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The morphology and phase composition were observed and measured by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The results showed that TiB2 particles formed in nanoscale were uniformly distributed in Fe matrix. Fe2B phase existed due to an incomplete reaction of Ti and FeB. Effect of milling process and synthesis temperature on the formation of composite were discussed.

Cryopreservation of canine spermatozoa affords potential exchange of genetic material, and thus may lead to improvement in the breeding management. However, canine spermatozoa undergo many damages such as, cold shock, ice crystal formation, oxidative stress during cryopreservation. In this study used the CASA for investigating the effect of various trehalose concentrations and thawing temperatures on the sperm viability. In addition, the efficacy of the most optimal of the tested cryopreservation protocols in this study was verified by AI as the in vivo test. Also, this study evaluates the variation of frozen- thawed canine spermatozoa during different incubation condition. The addition of trehalose 25 mM was optimal concentration and frozen-thawed semen quality was significantly higher better than control (Glucose) and other concentration groups. In effect of thawing temperature on frozen-thawed sperm movement and intact acrosome evaluations, which result enhance the sperm motility and movement value depending on increase temperature condition at 36, 54 and 72℃. Also, in the effect of different incubation condition on frozen-thawed sperm after thawing at 36℃ for 60 sec, that the results trehalose 25 mM was significantly better (p<0.05) than glucose in general as well as, the post-thawed sperm motility and intact acrosome was reduced depending on increase the incubation time. Especially, incubation at 4 to 8 hour was rapidly depreciation of movement value and the rate of intact acrosome was dropped similar tendency. Thus, incubation 17℃ was better than other incubation groups on sperm motility and acrosome integrity. For the in vivo evaluate of spermatozoa survival and is the most definitive test of sperm function, we performed artificial insemination in estrous bitch. The semen was prepared for intrauterine insemination using the 25 mM trehalose freezing extender and thawing at 36℃, and 2 bitches were inseminated with 1×106 motile spermatozoa by surgical method. The results of AI, the pregnancy rates, mean litter size and oocyte fertilization rate were 16.6% (1/6), and 50% (2/4), respectively. In conclusion, based on the results of these experiments, the effect of addition of trehalose on extender improves the movement and intact acrosome of frozen-thawed semen. In particular, trehalose 25 mM groups was higher than other different concentration group on movement value and acrosome integrity of frozen-thawed sperm. Also, through incubation condition, this study identify the optimal incubation temperature after thawing was 17℃. Furthermore, the information will be contributed to develop the canine ART including AI, IVF and canine ICSI. * This research was supported by iPET (Grants 110056-3), Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea.