The Effect of Brand Position on Consumer Choices of Luxury Brands: A Cross-Cultural Study Between British and Chinese Consumers

This dissertation is grouped by topics—luxury brands, values, consumer luxury shopping behaviour, luxury brand management, and luxury brand differentiations. It intends to address the influence of luxury brand positioning on consumer choices.Despite various changes in internal and external environment, little research has investigated the differences of Chinese and British luxury markets. Therefore, in this article, an approach to understanding the positioning of luxury brands and luxury consumption behaviour is presented. The existing definitions are reviewed, which suggests that consumer consumption decisions of luxury brands can be evaluated by 39 items models. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to focus on and to offer a deeper understanding of the luxury brand positioning effects. In order to fulfil this purpose, four research objectives and three propositions are expounded focusing on the variables of consumer choice decision as well as an explanation of the brand unique personality. By following the research objectives and propositions as a direction guide, literature studies are critically analysed resulting in a composite framework which guides the data interpretation. This research takes a qualitative case study for collecting secondary data by means of previous research data. The analysed results demonstrate that there would be a difference in the effect of brand positioning between the Chinese and British consumers. By identifying the equity of different luxury brands, consumer choice behaviour can be better understood, and this may assist luxury brand managers in their exploration of luxury market

Probing dynamics of dark energy with latest observations

We examine the validity of the $\Lambda$CDM model, and probe for the dynamics of dark energy using latest astronomical observations. Using the $Om(z)$ diagnosis, we find that different kinds of observational data are in tension within the $\Lambda$CDM framework. We then allow for dynamics of dark energy and investigate the constraint on dark energy parameters. We find that for two different kinds of parametrisations of the equation of state parameter $w$, a combination of current data mildly favours an evolving $w$, although the significance is not sufficient for it to be supported by the Bayesian evidence. A forecast of the DESI survey shows that the dynamics of dark energy could be detected at $7\sigma$ confidence level, and will be decisively supported by the Bayesian evidence, if the best fit model of $w$ derived from current data is the true model.Comment: 4.5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; references adde

Bilateral boundary control of an input delayed 2-D reaction-diffusion equation

In this paper, a delay compensation design method based on PDE backstepping is developed for a two-dimensional reaction-diffusion partial differential equation (PDE) with bilateral input delays. The PDE is defined in a rectangular domain, and the bilateral control is imposed on a pair of opposite sides of the rectangle. To represent the delayed bilateral inputs, we introduce two 2-D transport PDEs that form a cascade system with the original PDE. A novel set of backstepping transformations is proposed for delay compensator design, including one Volterra integral transformation and two affine Volterra integral transformations. Unlike the kernel equation for 1-D PDE systems with delayed boundary input, the resulting kernel equations for the 2-D system have singular initial conditions governed by the Dirac Delta function. Consequently, the kernel solutions are written as a double trigonometric series with singularities. To address the challenge of stability analysis posed by the singularities, we prove a set of inequalities by using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, the 2-D Fourier series, and the Parseval's theorem. A numerical simulation illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed delay-compensation method.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures(including 8 sub-figures

The metaphoric nature of the ordinal position effect

Serial orders are thought to be spatially represented in working memory: The beginning items in the memorised sequence are associated with the left side of space and the ending items are associated with the right side of space. However, the origin of this ordinal position effect has remained unclear. It was suggested that the direction of serial order–space interaction is related to the reading/writing experience. An alternative hypothesis is that it originates from the “more is right”/“more is up” spatial metaphors we use in daily life. We can adjudicate between the two viewpoints in Chinese readers; they read left-to-right but also have a culturally ancient top-to-bottom reading/writing direction. Thus, the reading/writing viewpoint predicts no or a top-to-bottom effect in serial order–space interaction; whereas the spatial metaphor theory predicts a clear bottom-to-top effect. We designed four experiments to investigate this issue. First, we found a left-to-right ordinal position effect, replicating results obtained in Western populations. However, the vertical ordinal position effect was in the bottom-to-top direction; moreover, it was modulated by hand position (e.g., left hand bottom or up). We suggest that order–space interactions may originate from different sources and are driven by metaphoric comprehension, which itself may ground cognitive processing

Quantitative assessment of image motion blur in diffraction images of moving biological cells

Motion blur (MB) presents a significant challenge for obtaining high-contrast image data from biological cells with a polarization diffraction imaging flow cytometry (p-DIFC) method. A new p-DIFC experimental system has been developed to evaluate the MB and its effect on image analysis using a time-delay-integration (TDI) CCD camera. Diffraction images of MCF-7 and K562 cells have been acquired with different speed-mismatch ratios and compared to characterize MB quantitatively. Frequency analysis of the diffraction images shows that the degree of MB can be quantified by bandwidth variations of the diffraction images along the motion direction. The analytical results were confirmed by the p-DIFC image data acquired at different speed-mismatch ratios and used to validate a method of numerical simulation of MB on blur-free diffraction images, which provides a useful tool to examine the blurring effect on diffraction images acquired from the same cell. These results provide insights on the dependence of diffraction image on MB and allow significant improvement on rapid biological cell assay with the p-DIFC method

Experimental study on effects of gas flow rate on soot characteristics in diffusion flames coupled with plasma

This study examined the evolution of morphology and nanostructure of soot particles from the plasma-flame interaction for various gas flow rates. The current study used both optical diagnostic and sampling methods to explore the soot production and combustion characteristics. Soot particles were characterized at the same positions downstream from the flame zone by thermophoretic sampling and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, X-ray diffraction analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis were performed to study the nanostructure and oxidation reactivity of soot. A reduction in soot concentration was found with the plasma addition, which illustrated an inhibition effect of plasma on soot emission. The increased gas flow rate promoted soot concentration since a growing number of carbons participated in the combustion process. Depending on the gas flow rate (carbon content) variation and plasma activation, either liquid-like soot material with irregularly shaped protrusions or chain-like structure, or a mixture of both, were generated from the diffusion flames. The soot produced by plasma-flame interaction also demonstrated a high correlation between nanostructure and reactivity. The soot from lower carbon content with plasma activation had a shorter fringe length and larger fringe tortuosity related to higher oxidation reactivity. On the contrary, soot from the highest carbon content without plasma-flame interaction exhibited prevalent fullerene-like nanostructures with evident large or small shells and also had a higher carbonization degree resulting in lower oxidation reactivity