Aplikasi jual-beli dalam talian berasaskan web awan dengan analisis data (Buy-On-Behalf Service)

Pemodenan dan pasca-COVID-19 telah membawa revolusi digital yang signifikan dan memberi impak yang besar dalam kehidupan kita, terutama dalam bidang pembelian atas talian. Walaupun edagang telah menjadi perkara biasa, terdapat beberapa produk seperti kraf tradisional, kepakaran produk tempatan, dan produk borong yang hanya boleh dibeli dari kedai fizikal. Apabila produkproduk ini dijual dalam talian, perantara sering terlibat untuk mengaut komisen tambahan yang meningkatkan kos secara keseluruhan. Oleh itu, pembeli sering bergantung kepada rakan dan keluarga yang berada di kawasan tersebut untuk mendapatkan produk ini kerana perjalanan ke sana hanya untuk membeli produk adalah tidak praktikal dan mahal. Oleh itu, projek ini dibangunkan untuk memudahkan pengguna dalam mendapatkan produk yang diingini, terutamanya dari kedai fizikal yang tidak menawarkan perkhidmatan dalam talian. Projek ini adalah penambahbaikan daripada projek yang telah dilaksanakan dan akan dibangunkan sebagai aplikasi web kerana ia boleh diakses oleh sesiapa sahaja yang mempunyai sambungan Internet yang stabil dan tidak berminat untuk memuat turun aplikasi dalam telefon pintar. Platform ini akan membolehkan pengguna untuk membeli produk melalui individu yang akan membeli barang yang diminta dari kedai fizikal. Selain itu, aplikasi web ini akan diintegrasikan dengan pengkomputeran awan untuk memastikan aksesibiliti dan skalabiliti aplikasi. Dengan mengurangkan jurang antara pembelian dalam talian dan luar talian, projek ini berjanji untuk mengubah pengalaman membeli-belah sambil mencipta peluang baru untuk pembeli dan penjual

Analyzing key influences of tourists’ acceptance of online reviews in travel decisions

Purpose: This study aims to examine what influence travelers’ adoption of online reviews, and whether the online reviews will influence their travel planning decisions. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 193 respondents from eWOM websites and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: Our results revealed that eWOM has a significant influence on travel decisions. Furthermore, travelers were willing to adopt information from eWOM and this information was useful in their travel planning and decisions. Gender and time spent on online reviews were found to affect travel planning and decisions. Travelers also found that the reviews and issues raised in eWOM had credibility and were of good quality. Research limitations/implications: Our study was not able to incorporate all factors which may be relevant to this study and so further theoretical development may be necessary to develop the conceptual model. The sample size, while adequate, can be expanded further. Practical implications: Operators and administrators of eWOM can use these findings to develop more user-friendly interfaces so that more positive reviews and sales can be generated. Social implications: Our results showed that travelers who adopt the information in eWOM will, in turn, use eWOM in their travel planning. This confirms the importance of eWOM and travelers in general will translate their pre-travel decisions into actual travel planning. Originality/value: This research extended existing eWOM and information system adoption studies and focused on the travel planning context. This research validated the significant roles of eWOM argument quality and credibility in predicting the information usefulness of eWOM

Electrophysiological Correlates of Reading the Single- and Interactive-Mind

Understanding minds is the cognitive basis of successful social interaction. In everyday life, human mental activity often happens at the moment of social interaction among two or multiple persons instead of only one-person. Understanding the interactive mind of two- or multi-person is more complex and higher than understanding the single-person mind in the hierarchical structure of theory of mind. Understanding the interactive mind maybe differentiate from understanding the single mind. In order to examine the dissociative electrophysiological correlates of reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind, the 64 channels event-related potentials were recorded while 16 normal adults were observing three kinds of Chinese idioms depicted physical scenes, one-person with mental activity, and two- or multi-person with mental interaction. After the equivalent N400, in the 500- to 700-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of late positive component (LPC) over frontal for reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind were significantly more positive than for physical representation, while there was no difference between the former two. In the 700- to 800-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of LPC over frontal–central for reading the interactive mind were more positive than for reading the single mind and physical representation, while there was no difference between the latter two. The present study provides electrophysiological signature of the dissociations between reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind

Therapeutic Effects of Water Extract of Arisaema Erubescens Tubers on Type II Collagen-induced Arthritis in Rats

Purpose: To investigate the anti-arthritic activity of the water extract of Rhizoma Arisaematis (WERA) using collagen II (CII)-induced arthritis (CIA) rat model.Methods: CIA was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rat by intra dermal injection of bovine collagen type II (C II) in Freund’s complete adjuvant (cFA). The rats were treated daily for 21 consecutive days with WERA at doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg. Methotrexate (MTX) was used as positive control, and administered at a dose of 3 mg/kg intraperitoneally in two-weekly cycles for 3 weeks. Severity of arthritis was evaluated by arthritic scores, including paw swelling, arthritic score, body weight, thymus index and spleen index. The levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α in serum were also measured.Results: The results revealed that WERA significantly inhibited paw edema (p-value < 0.01), decreased arthritis scores (p-value < 0.01) and spleen index (p-value < 0.05), and alleviated the weight loss of CIA rats. Furthermore, the pro-inflammatory cytokines of TNF-α (19.3%, 60.5% and 73.9%, respectively), IL- 1β (7.9%, 41.1% and 52.7%, respectively) and IL-6 (26.6%, 48.0% and 72.2%, respectively) were remarkably attenuated in serum of all WERA treated rats, however, IL-10 (72.4% and 39.1%, respectively) was markedly increased at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg of WERA.Conclusion: The results demonstrate that WERA exerts therapeutic effects in collagen--induced arthritis of rats by decreasing the levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 in serum, and therefore may be an effective candidate drug for the treatment of human rheumatoid arthritis.Keywords: Rhizoma Arisaematis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Inflammatory, Cytokines, Freund’s complete adjuvan

Effect of Arisaema erubescens (Wall) Schott rhizome extract on rheumatoid arthritis

Purpose: To investigate the anti-arthritic activity of the water extract of Rhizoma Arisaematis (WERA) using a collagen II -induced arthritis (CIA) rat model.Methods: CIA was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats by intradermal injection of bovine collagen II in Complete Freund’s Adjuvant. The rats were treated with daily oral doses of WERA (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) for 21 consecutive days. Methotrexate (MTX, 3 mg/kg), used as a positive control, was administered orally 2 times/week for 3 weeks. The severity of arthritis was evaluated using indices of paw swelling, arthritic score, body weight, thymus index, and spleen index. In addition, the serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α were measured.Results: All doses of WERA significantly inhibited paw edema (p < 0.01), decreased arthritis scores (p < 0.01) and spleen index (p < 0.05), and alleviated the weight loss associated with CIA in rats. Furthermore, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 serum levels were significantly decreased (p < 0.05) by all doses of WERA. By contrast, IL-10 serum levels were markedly increased (p < 0.05).Conclusion: WERA exerts therapeutic effects in CIA in rats by decreasing the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10, suggesting WERA may be an effective candidate drug for treating human rheumatoid arthritis.Keywords: Rhizoma Arisaematis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Inflammatory, Cytokines, Freund’s complete adjuvan

Maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy is associated with risk of low birth weight: a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis

Background: Considerable controversy exists regarding the relation between maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy and risk of low birth weight (birth weight <2,500 g). We aim to assess this association using a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Methods: Potential articles were identified by searching MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases through 17 July 2013. Two authors independently extracted information on study design, participant characteristics and estimates of associations. Random-effects models were used to derive the summary relative risks (RRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Dose–response relationships were assessed using generalized least-squares trend estimation. Results: In our meta-analysis, we included 13 prospective studies: 9 with low birth weight as a binary outcome variable (90,747 participants and 6,303 cases) and 6 with birth weight as a continuous outcome variable (10,015 participants; 2 studies reported both types of outcomes). Compared with the reference category with no or very low caffeine intake, the RR (95% CI) of low birth weight was 1.13 (1.06 to 1.21; I2 0.0%) for low intake (50 to 149 mg/day), 1.38 (1.18 to 1.62; I2 31.9%) for moderate intake (150 to 349 mg/day), and 1.60 (1.24 to 2.08; I2 65.8%) for high intake (≥350 mg/day). In the dose–response analysis, each 100-mg/day increment in maternal caffeine intake (around one cup of coffee) was associated with 13% (RR 1.13, 1.06 to 1.21) higher risk of low birth weight. The association persisted in strata defined according to various study characteristics. Moderate (−33 g, 95% CI −63 to −4; I2 0.3%) and high (−69 g, 95% CI −102 to −35; I2 0.0%) caffeine intakes were also associated with a significantly lower birth weight as compared with the reference category. Conclusions: Higher maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of delivering low birth weight infants. These findings support recommendations to restrict caffeine intake during pregnancy to low levels. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-014-0174-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Evaluating user-generated content in social media: an effective approach to encourage greater pro-environmental behavior in tourism?

Appealing to tourists’ intrinsic interest for high-quality tourism environments, and thus encouraging them to act with a greater sense of personal responsibility toward the environment, could be critical to promoting sustainable tourism. Proliferating media channels makes the choice, style and delivery of pro-environmental messages a key issue for tourism marketers and management. Social media has become a recognized important channel for tourism information, with user-generated content (UGC) being more trusted than official channels, yet there is little knowledge about its potential role in activating pro-environmental norms. This study investigates that issue. Focusing on the conjoining aspects of personal and social norms for the first time, we propose a hypothetical model to explain the direct and indirect effects of pro-environmental UGC in activating tourists’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Working in a Chinese context, where social media plays an increasing role, the research, using a web-based sample (N = 1043), UGC-linked pro-environmental knowledge and awareness, was found to have a strong role in activating pro-environmental norms, creating a pro-environment online community, and increasing tourists’ level of engagement in pro-environmental social media activity. The study highlights the effectiveness of social media channels with UGC providing persuasive communications able to impact sustainable behaviors

Fabrication of gradient hydrogels using a thermophoretic approach in microfluidics

The extracellular matrix presents spatially varying physical cues that can influence cell behavior in many processes. Physical gradients within hydrogels that mimic the heterogenous mechanical microenvironment are useful to study the impact of these cues on cellular responses. Therefore, simple and reliable techniques to create such gradient hydrogels are highly desirable. This work demonstrates the fabrication of stiffness gradient Gellan gum (GG) hydrogels by applying a temperature gradient across a microchannel containing hydrogel precursor solution. Thermophoretic migration of components within the precursor solution generates a concentration gradient that mirrors the temperature gradient profile, which translates into mechanical gradients upon crosslinking. Using this technique, GG hydrogels with stiffness gradients ranging from 20 to 90 kPa over 600 µm are created, covering the elastic moduli typical of moderately hard to hard tissues. MC3T3 osteoblast cells are then cultured on these gradient substrates, which exhibit preferential migration and enhanced osteogenic potential toward the stiffest region on the gradient. Overall, the thermophoretic approach provides a non-toxic and effective method to create hydrogels with defined mechanical gradients at the micron scale suitable for in vitro biological studies and potentially tissue engineering applications

Fabrication of gradient hydrogels using a thermophoretic approach in microfluidics

The extracellular matrix presents spatially varying physical cues that can influence cell behavior in many processes. Physical gradients within hydrogels that mimic the heterogenous mechanical microenvironment are useful to study the impact of these cues on cellular responses. Therefore, simple and reliable techniques to create such gradient hydrogels are highly desirable. This work demonstrates the fabrication of stiffness gradient Gellan gum (GG) hydrogels by applying a temperature gradient across a microchannel containing hydrogel precursor solution. Thermophoretic migration of components within the precursor solution generates a concentration gradient that mirrors the temperature gradient profile, which translates into mechanical gradients upon crosslinking. Using this technique, GG hydrogels with stiffness gradients ranging from 20 to 90 kPa over 600 µm are created, covering the elastic moduli typical of moderately hard to hard tissues. MC3T3 osteoblast cells are then cultured on these gradient substrates, which exhibit preferential migration and enhanced osteogenic potential toward the stiffest region on the gradient. Overall, the thermophoretic approach provides a non-toxic and effective method to create hydrogels with defined mechanical gradients at the micron scale suitable for in vitro biological studies and potentially tissue engineering applications

A bibliometric analysis of the structural equation modeling in mathematics education

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is well-known in statistics due to its flexibility and accessibility. In the Scopus database alone, there were more than 1,500 search results related to SEM in mathematics education. However, there is a lack of scientific reviews of mathematics education that use SEM. The purpose of this study was to investigate research trends related to SEM in mathematics education. The researcher used Biblioshiny and VOS viewer to conduct bibliometric analysis on 1,017 papers that have been published in the Scopus database. The result showed that the number of publications in the research area has continuously grown over the last few decades. The US was the most prolific country in terms of publication and international collaboration. Professor Herbert W. Marsh had the most publications and citations, while the most productive journal was Frontiers in Psychology. The most current keywords include STEM, technology acceptance model, control-value theory, and computational thinking. Hence, these findings may serve as a guide for future researchers to conduct relevant research using SEM