Effects of Species Information and Furniture Price on Consumer Preferences for Selected Woods

Changing consumer tastes and species availability are influencing the design and manufacture of hardwood products. In addition, the globalization of wood product markets is exposing U.S. consumers to new species. This research evaluates consumer preferences for six domestic wood species—three from the eastern United States and three from the western United States. The survey was designed to evaluate four treatment effects including two price points and the presence vs. absence of species identification labels. Four different pieces of furniture (dresser, entertainment center, hutch, and desk) were considered. Data were collected at Pacific Northwest home shows in late 2004 and early 2005. There were no significant differences in the species preferences expressed by consumers between price points at either level of species information. This indicates that furniture price did not significantly influence species preferences for the selected pieces. However, there were significant differences in consumer species preferences with and without labels at the higher price points. For the entertainment center, preference was greater for cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrh.) when species information was provided, but oak (Quercus rubra L.) was preferred when no species label was provided. When viewing the hutch, consumers preferred cherry and maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) when species labels were present, whereas oak, birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), and spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) were preferred when no species labels were present. Lastly, for the desk, spruce was more preferred with no information, and cherry was more preferred when species information was included. No preference differences were detected for the dresser. Overall, consumers expressed the highest preference for cherry; the second most preferred species was oak. With the exception of oak, consumer knowledge of the species investigated was low. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that species information be provided for furniture pieces made from cherry and maple at higher price points, as preferences for these species can be enhanced in such cases

Should We Trust our Judgments about the Proficiency of Motivational Interviewing Counselors?A Glimpse at the Impact of Low Inter-rater Reliability

Standardized rating systems are often used to evaluate the proficiency of Motivational Interviewing (MI) counselors. The published inter-rater reliability (degree of coder agreement)  in many studies using these instruments has varied a great deal; some studies report MI proficiency scores that have only fair inter-rater reliability, and others report scores with excellent reliability. How much can we to trust the scores with fair versus excellent reliability? Using a Monte Carlo statistical simulation, we compared the impact of fair (0.50) versus excellent (0.90) reliability on the error rates of falsely judging a given counselor as MI proficient or not proficient. We found that improving the inter-rater reliability of any given score from 0.5 to 0.9 would cause a marked reduction in proficiency judgment errors, a reduction that in some MI evaluation situations would be critical. We discuss some practical tradeoffs inherent in various MI evaluation situations, and offer suggestions for applying findings from formal MI research to problems faced by real-world MI evaluators, to help them minimize the MI proficiency judgment errors bearing the greatest cost

On the thermal and mechanical properties of Mg0.2_{0.2}Co0.2_{0.2}Ni0.2_{0.2}Cu0.2_{0.2}Zn0.2_{0.2}O across the high-entropy to entropy-stabilized transition

As various property studies continue to emerge on high entropy and entropy-stabilized ceramics, we seek further understanding of property changes across the phase boundary between \enquote{high-entropy} and \enquote{entropy-stabilized}. The thermal and mechanical properties of bulk ceramic entropy stabilized oxide composition Mg$_{0.2}$Co$_{0.2}$Ni$_{0.2}$Cu$_{0.2}$Zn$_{0.2}$O are investigated across this critical transition temperature via the transient plane-source method, temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction, and nano-indentation. Thermal conductivity remains constant within uncertainty across the multi-to-single phase transition at a value of ~2.5 W/mK, while the linear coefficient of thermal expansion increases nearly 24 % from 10.8 to 14.1 x 10$^{-6}$ K$^{-1}$. Mechanical softening is also observed across the transition.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, to be published in APL Material

Challenges and Opportunities for North American Hardwood Manufacturers to Adopt Customization Strategies in an Era of Increased Competition

Much of the North American wood products industry was severely impacted by the recession of 2008–2009. In addition, many sectors within this industry face intense global competition. Against this backdrop, we examine economic opportunities for hardwood manufacturers to achieve greater competitive advantage via product customization, through a literature review and synthesis. We also discuss several related themes including agility, lean manufacturing, and clustering. We found that, in globally competitive environments, hardwood producers must be agile to adapt to economic conditions and dynamic customer demand. We discuss how some sectors of the hardwood industry have effectively exhibited customized production, and subsequently fared relatively well in the current economy. We conclude the synthesis by evaluating the importance of supply chains to achieving customization for hardwood producers. In the future, supply chains will need to be configured to rapidly respond to changing consumer demands, and pressure to provide more services will likely extend further back up the supply chain to hardwood sawmills. It is expected that sustainability practices, including green supply chain management, will impact operational and economic performance of hardwood firms as well

Sustainable Practices in Furniture Design: A Literature Study on Customization, Biomimicry, Competitiveness, and Product Communication

This research considers the ecosystem services associated with furniture, one of the leading types of secondary wood products manufactured internationally. We review and synthesize the literature surrounding the sustainable design, use, and disposition of wood furniture and related products in global markets. We consider emerging and innovative design strategies for wood (in biomimicry, for example) as well as topics that have been gaining traction in recent years (i.e., green supply chain management and eco/environmental labels and related market communications). An overarching theme is to consider how firm competitiveness can be influenced, or even enhanced, by green practices in design and associated communications with consumers. With a trend toward increasing customization in the secondary wood product marketplace, the role of design might be changing. However, design remains a critical product development function in modern markets, and designers are well-positioned to influence sustainable material utilization and improve furniture product use and lifespan

Photocatalytic activity and antibacterial efficacy of UVA-treated titanium oxides

Studies have shown ultraviolet-A (UVA) irradiation of crystalline titanium oxides leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via a photocatalytic process. The ROS exhibit antimicrobial properties that may be of benefit in preventing bacterial attachment to implant devices. Recent studies have suggested a potential benefit of mixed anatase and rutile oxides and dopants on the photocatalytic properties of titanium oxides. The goal of this work was to compare the photocatalytic activity of different anodized commercially pure titanium grade 4 (CPTi4) surfaces. CPTi4 specimens were anodized in three mixed-acid electrolytes to create crystalline oxide surfaces that were either primarily anatase, primarily rutile, or a combination of anatase and rutile. Additionally, the primarily anatase and combination oxides incorporated some phosphorous from the phosphoric acid component in the electrolyte. The photocatalytic activity of the anodized specimens was measured using both methylene blue (MB) degradation assay and comparing the attachment of S. aureus under irradiation with UVA light of differing intensities (1 mW/cm2, 8 mW/cm2, and 23 mW/cm2). Primarily rutile oxides exhibited significantly higher levels of MB degradation after exposure to 1 mW/cm2 UVA lights. Primarily rutile specimens also had the largest reduction in bacterial attachment followed by the mixed phase specimens and the primarily anatase specimens at 1 mW/cm2 UVA lights. Phosphorous-doped, mixed phase oxides exhibited an accelerated MB degradation response during exposure to 8 mW/cm2 and 23 mW/cm2 UVA lights. All anodized and unanodized CPTi4 groups revealed similar S. aureus attachment at the two higher UVA intensities. Although MB degradation assay and the bacteria attachment assay both confirmed photocatalytic activity of the oxides formed in this study, the results of the MB degradation assay did not accurately predict the oxides performance against S. aureus