Consumer motivations for social media usage and its impact on customers' trust and long-term relationships

New challenges and opportunities have recently arisen for companies’ relationships with customers as a result of the increasing prevalence of social media. By enabling companies to build online communities, social media allow marketers to access information about consumers, identify consumers’ needs, and gain direct consumer feedback. Thus, social media can be a very important and helpful tool for interacting and communicating with customers. In order to sustain such relationships for the long term, however, efforts must be centred around building consumer trust and commitment.This study investigates the role of social media based communities in building relationships with consumers, and the influence of such communities on consumers’ attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, the study investigates whether such influences can lead to trust, commitment, and loyalty towards the organisation. Drawing on Uses and Gratification Theory, Consumption Values Theory, and the Commitment-Trust Theory, the study examines the relationship between consumers using social media channels, trusting these channels, and trusting the organisation that owns these channels.Adopting a positivist deductive approach, quantitative data was collected via a survey strategy. A questionnaire targeting telecommunications company fan pages users in Saudi Arabia was distributed through Twitter and Facebook with help from people who have many followers/likes such as celebrities. More than 700 responses were collected, of which 522 were usable for factor analysis.Based on the results, a cognitive behavioural model was established in relation to social media uses and gratifications, perceived values of social media fan pages, organisational trust, commitment, and loyalty. Users who perceived utilitarian benefits from following a company’s fan pages were likely to trust these pages, whereas perceived hedonic and social benefits did not have an influence on trust towards organization’s fan pages. The findings additionally indicated that consumers who trusted the organization’s fan pages were likely to trust the company. Therefore, telecommunication companies’ fan page users who perceived trust were expected to be committed and loyal to the company, which would consequently, lead to more frequent and larger purchases. The findings contribute to marketing theory and suggest ways in which marketers can tailor companies’ web presence for more effective communication and relationship-building with customers

A Pragmalinguistic - Assessment of Three Translations of the Meaning of the Qur'anic Reprehensible Moral Traits into English

The current study reports the results of a research that aimed markedly at probing the loss in rendering the meaning of the Qur'anic reprehensible moral traits into English, and how these a pragmalinguistic losses can be decreased minimally The study also aimed at identifying the causes of the intended pragmalinguistic losses. Three ayahs were purposefully selected to address the questions of the study . The results revealed that the pragmalinguistic loss in rendering the meaning of Qur'anic reprehensible moral traits into English occurred attribute to spectra of factors such as lack of equivalence and the translation strategies adopted by the three translators who respectively are'' Abdullah Yusuf Ali (The Meanings of the Glorious Quran), Muhammad Mahmoud Ghali.( Towards Understanding the Ever Glorious Quran) ,Mohammed Asad( The Message of the Quran). Last not the least the study suggests solutions for the identified problems. Keywords: reprehensible moral traits,, translation strategies translation loss, the Holy Quran,. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/65-02 Publication date: February 29th 202

Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. The role of spiritual ties and religious beliefs in relation to coping with pandemic stress has acquired the attention of researchers in some parts of the world. This cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the intensity of stress and anxiety symptoms experienced by people and how much they were alleviated by employing spiritual connections. The study sample comprises 795 respondents with 52% males and 48% females living in Saudi Arabia. The brief online study questionnaire collected data about background variables, anxiety and stress scale from DASS-21, and items from the WHOQOL (SRBP) instrument assessed the use of spiritual beliefs to cope. Multiple regression models were tested to determine the role of spiritual connections after adjusting demographic variables. Results illustrated that after adjusting for gender and age, participants’ anxiety symptoms decreased by (β = −0.27; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in the use of spiritual connections, and participants’ stress symptoms reduce by (β = −0.36; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in coping with spirituality. Additionally, females’ risk to experience anxiety and stress symptoms was more than males [(β = 0.88; p = 0.01) and (β = 0.92; p = 0.000)], respectively. An increase in age decreases the likelihood of experiencing anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms by (β = −0.75; p = 0.02) and (β = −0.11; p = 0.000) units, respectively. Findings support the protective role of spiritual connections despite small beta coefficients. The social and cultural context in Saudi Arabia favors deep-rooted connections with spirituality and faith. Our findings support the fact that the reliance on spiritual connections helped older people to deal with exaggerated fear during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduces the risk of experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. Females and younger participants were relatively vulnerable to developing these symptoms. We discussed these findings considering some recent studies that reported similar relationships and made recommendations for future research

Effect of Vinasse Recycling on Effluent Reduction from Distilleries: Case of Metehara Distillery, Ethiopia

This study was conducted at the ethanol plant of Metehara sugar factory, at a laboratory scale, to assess the effect of recycling vinasse into the fermentation process on effluent reduction. Vinasse is an effluent produced from distilleries. The experimental design included vinasse concentrations at 4 dilution rates (0 (control), 20, 35, 50, and 65% of process water) with 2 replicates and 6 responses, as follows: ethanol yield, fermentation efficiency, residual sugar concentration, cell count, cell viability, and calcium oxide content. In this study, the actual operational parameters of the ethanol plant were maintained during the experiment. The result of the experiment indicates that, with up to 20% vinasse recycling, there was no influential impact on the ethanol yield, the fermentation efficiency, the residual sugar concentration, or the calcium oxide content, attributable to the recycling, as compared to the control. Above 20% vinasse recycling, ethanol yield and fermentation efficiency decreased sharply from those of the control. In addition, with 20% vinasse recycling put into practice, the amount of vinasse generated will be reduced by about 19.5% and about 114.2 tons of water will be saved per day. Moreover, the excess amount of vinasse produced by the distillery, which is beyond the handling capacity of bio-compost plant of the distillery, will reduce from 105 to 36.8 tons per day. Therefore, it is possible to recycle vinasse into the fermenter up to 20% on dilution water of Metehara distillery, without causing any impacts on the distillery’s performance

Experimental Evaluation of Interfacial Surface Cracks in Friction Welded Dissimilar Metals through Image Segmentation Technique (IST)

Surface cracks on the friction welded interface of dissimilar metals are one of the earliest indications of degradation of the joint, which is a critical aspect for the welding strength. By manual inspection of the friction welded joint, observations of irregularities, porosity voids, crack lengths, cracked surfaces, and depth penetrations of two dissimilar metals can be made. Manual inspection purely depends on a quality expert’s experience of quantitative analysis and knowledge. In this research, an attempt has been made to effectively utilize the image segmentation technique (IST) in the estimation of the welded surface quality of a dissimilar joint by friction welding. The bonding strength between dissimilar metals in friction welding is more dependent on the coefficient of friction between the metallic surfaces. To demonstrate the capability of the image segmentation technique, experiments were conducted with various parameters, such as friction pressure, friction time, coefficient of friction, and torque speed of the rotating work piece. The effect of the coefficient of friction on friction welded surface quality by considering process parameters is estimated by using the proposed technique. Experiments were validated and the results claimed that the proposed image processing approach is efficient in fractured surface crack detection, reducing the computation cost, and providing a high-speed method with greater accuracy in the identification of welded surface defects. It was found that the friction coefficient is dependent mostly on the friction pressure and friction time. Its values range from 0.21 to 0.71, with the highest value of friction pressure at 120 MPa and 500 rpm. The present work deals with the detection of welding defects by means of segmentation based analysis of the welded interface. This method has a significant improvement in the fractured surface, crack detection, and non-welded areas’ detection in terms of pixels at the desired region, and is easy when compared to conventional detection techniques by using an operator’s decisions

Preparation and Characterization of Curcumin Nanoemulgel Utilizing Ultrasonication Technique for Wound Healing: In Vitro, Ex Vivo, and In Vivo Evaluation

Hydrogels being a drug delivery system has great significance particularly for topical application in cutaneous open wound. Its specific physicochemical properties such as non-adhesiveness, moisture retention, exudate absorption, and gas permeability make them ideal as a drug delivery vehicle for wound healing application. Further, curcumin (a natural bioactive) was selected as a therapeutic agent to incorporate into the hydrogel system to design and develop nanogel pharmaceutical products for wound healing. Although, curcumin possesses remarkable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-infective activity along with hastening the healing process by acting over the different stages of the wound healing process, but its poor biopharmaceutical (low aqueous solubility and skin penetrability) attributes hamper their therapeutic efficacy for skin applications. The current investigation aimed to develop the curcumin-loaded nanogel system and evaluated to check the improvement in the therapeutic efficacy of curcumin through a nanomedicine-based approach for wound healing activity in Wistar rats. The curcumin was enclosed inside the nanoemulsion system prepared through a high-energy ultrasonic emulsification technique at a minimum concentration of surfactant required to nanoemulsify the curcumin-loaded oil system (Labrafac PG) having droplet size 56.25 ± 0.69 nm with polydispersity index 0.05 ± 0.01 and negatively surface charge with zeta potential −20.26 ± 0.65 mV. It was observed that the impact of Smix (surfactant/co-surfactant mixture) ratio on droplet size of generated nanoemulsion is more pronounced at lower Smix concentration (25%) compared to the higher Smix concentration (30%). The optimized curcumin-loaded nanoemulsion was incorporated into a 0.5% Carbopol® 940 hydrogel system for topical application. The developed curcumin nanoemulgel exhibited thixotropic rheological behavior and a significant (p < 0.05) increase in skin penetrability characteristics compared to curcumin dispersed in conventional hydrogel system. The in vivo wound healing efficacy study and histological examination of healed tissue specimen further signify the role of the nanomedicine-based approach to improve the biopharmaceutical attributes of curcumin

Numerical Study of Joule Heating Effects on Microfluidics Device Reliability in Electrode Based Devices

In electrode-based microfluidic devices, micro channels having narrow cross sections generate undesirable temperature inside the microfluidic device causing strong thermal distribution (joule heating) that eventually leads to device damage or cell loss. In this work, we investigate the effects of joule heating due to different electrode configuration and found that, electrodes with triangular arrangements produce less heating effect even at applied potential of 30 V, without compromising the performance of the device and separation efficiency. However, certain electrode materials have low thermal gradients but erode the channel quickly thereby affecting the reliability of the device. Our simulation also predicts optimal medium conductivity (10 mS/m with 10 V) for cells to survive inside the channel until they are selectively isolated into the collection outlet. Our investigations will aid the researchers in the designing of efficient and reliable microfluidic devices to overcome joule heating inside the microchannels

Investigation on Control Burned of Bagasse Ash on the Properties of Bagasse Ash-Blended Mortars

In recent years, partial replacement of cement with bagasse ash has been given attention for construction application due to its pozzolanic characteristics. Sugarcane bagasse ash and fine bagasse particles are abundant byproducts of the sugar industries and are disposed of in landfills. Our study presents the effect of burning bagasse at different temperatures (300 °C and 600 °C) on the compressive strength and physical properties of bagasse ash-blended mortars. Experimental results have revealed that bagasse produced more amorphous silica with very low carbon contents when it was burned at 600 °C/2 h. The compressive strength of mortar was improved when 5% bagasse ash replaced ordinary portland cement (OPC) at early curing ages. The addition of 10% bagasse ash cement also increased the compressive strength of mortars at 14 and 28 days of curing. However, none of the bagasse ash-blended portland pozzolana cement (PPC) mortars have shown improvement on compressive strength with the addition of bagasse ash. Characterization of bagasse ash was done using XRD, DTA-TGA, SEM, and atomic absorption spectrometry. Moreover, durability of mortars was checked by measuring water absorption and apparent porosity for bagasse ash-blended mortars

First-principles calculations to investigate structural, elastic and thermodynamic properties of new M2ScSnC2 (M=V or Nb) quaternary compounds for 312 MAX phases

In this research, the approach of FP-LAPW (full potential linearized augmented plane wave) is employed within WIEN2K for the investigations of structural, thermodynamic, electronic, and mechanical properties of the V2ScSnC2 and Nb2ScSnC2 MAX-phases quaternary compounds. The V2ScSnC2 and Nb2ScSnC2 compounds exist in “α” and “β” polymorph structures. The formation energies (Eform) investigated insure that the α-polymorph is more stable than the β one. As it happens, Nb2ScSnC2 is more stable than V2ScSnC2. The Nb2ScSnC2 has an enhanced mechanical property compared to the V2ScSnC2 compound. The elastic constants (ECs) of interested materials fulfill all the conditions of mechanical stability and revealed a ductile nature. The predicted Cauchy's pressure and Poisson's ratio possess positive values signifying the ionic character of the V2ScSnC2 compound. The quaternary Nb2ScSnC2 compound exists as amalgamation of covalent and ionic bonds with a predominance of the ionic bonding character. The high melting temperature and high Debye temperature of V2ScSnC2 and Nb2ScSnC2 make them suitable for use in harsh environments. Furthermore, they exhibit potential as a promising material for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Electronic structure analysis confirm the metallic character of the two interested compounds. At high temperatures and pressures the thermodynamic properties including the Cv (Heat capacity) and ƟD (Debye temperature) are explored. We deem that this study of quaternary MAX-phase compounds will bring new insight for the experimentalists to employ for their future applications

A Novel Non-DC Biased Intensity Modulated Indoor MIMO-VLC System Using Walsh Precoder

In this paper, we propose an indoor visible light communication (VLC) system which makes use of Walsh precoding and multiple light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at the transmitter for multiplexing the data. The proposed VLC system is based on intensity modulation and uses the notion of spatial modulation for communicating the positive and negative values of the synthesized transmit signal using signal processing technique at the transmitter. We also illustrate the flexibility, ability, and easiness of the system to configure well in a multiuser environment. We have also developed a near-maximum likelihood (ML) detection technique for efficiently decoding the data bits at the receiver. The proposed near-ML reduces the search space involved in ML technique by using the initial ZF solution. The results of the simulation studies illustrate that the proposed technique offers a higher data rate and good bit error rate (BER) performance in indoor VLC environments