EXPLORING SOCIAL COMMERCE ADOPTION IN CHINA: A USES AND GRATIFICATIONS PERSPECTIVE

As a new e-commerce paradigm, social commerce has resulted from consumers relying on the online recommendations of friends and acquaintances. To clarify Chinese consumers’ social commerce intentions, we conducted an empirical study based on a uses and gratifications approach. The results indicate that perceived gratification from entertainment was found to be the strongest predictor of Chinese consumers’ social commerce intentions. This is followed by the perceived gratification from information seeking, expressive information sharing, cool and new trends, and social interaction. However, neither gratification from escape nor passing time was found to be significant predictor. In addition, perceived gratification from information seeking has a stronger influence on consumers’ social commerce intentions in females than in males, while perceived gratification from expressive information sharing has a stronger influence on consumers’ social commerce intentions in males than in females. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper

Rapid Method for the Determination of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural and Levulinic Acid Using a Double-Wavelength UV Spectroscopy

This study reports on a rapid method for the determination of levulinic acid (LA) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in acid hydrolyze system of glucose based on UV spectroscopy. It was found that HMF and LA have a maximum absorption at the wavelengths of 284 nm and 266 nm, respectively, in a water medium, and the absorptions of HMF and LA at 284 nm and 266 nm follow Beer’s law very well. However, it was found that a major spectral interference species will arise in the quantification of HMF and LA; nonetheless, this interference can be eliminated through the absorption treatment of charcoal. Therefore, both HMF and LA can be quantified with a double-wavelength technique. The repeatability of the method had a relative standard deviation of less than 4.47% for HMF and 2.25% for LA; the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.017 mmol/L for HMF and 4.68 mmol/L for LA, and the recovery ranged from 88% to 116% for HMF and from 94% to 105% for LA. The present method is simple, rapid, and accurate. It is suitable to use in the research of the preparation of HMF and LA in biorefinery area.</jats:p

Arsenic accumulation and speciation in the submerged macrophyte Ceratophyllum demersum L.

Ceratophyllum demersum L. is a widespread submerged macrophyte in aquatic environments. Simulation experiments were conducted in the laboratory to investigate arsenic (As) accumulation, speciation, and efflux of C. demersum exposed to arsenate and arsenite solutions. Plant shoots showed a significant accumulation of As with a maximum of 862 and 963 mu g As g(-1) dry weight after 4 days of exposure to 10 mu M arsenate and arsenite, respectively. Regardless of whether arsenate or arsenite was supplied to the plants, arsenite was the predominant species in plant shoots. Furthermore, a dramatically higher influx rate of arsenate compared with arsenite was observed in C. demersum exposed to As solutions without the addition of phosphate (P). Arsenate uptake was considerably inhibited by P in this study, suggesting that arsenate is taken up by C. demersum via the phosphate transporters. However, arsenite uptake was unaffected by P and markedly reduced in the presence of glycerol and antimonite (Sb), indicating arsenite shares the aquaporin transport pathway. In addition, C. demersum rapidly reduces arsenate to arsenite in the shoot of the plant and extrudes most of them (> 60 %) to the external solutions. The efflux of arsenite was much higher than that of arsenate; the former is supposed to be both active and passive processes, and the latter through passive leakage. C. demersum is a strong As accumulator and an interesting model plant to study As uptake and metabolism due to the lack of a root-to-shoot translocation barrier

Optimization of rigid-flexible coupling skin scheme for continuous variable curvature trailing edge wing

Variable camber wing structure is a hot topic in many scientific research institutions. In order to improve the deformation accuracy of the continuously variable trailing edge structure, it is necessary to design a more reasonable structure. The corresponding mathematical model is established for the rigid-flexible coupling continuously variable bending trailing edge structure. The Latin hypercube sampling method is used to perform the stratified sam pling of the parameters. The correlation vector machine algorithm is adopted to build the model, and the the model is optimized by the differential evolution algorithm. The correlation coefficient of each variable to the deformation error is analyzed, and the variables that have a greater impact on the overall design are determined. The results show that the deformation accuracy of the optimized rigid-flexible coupling skin is improved by about 67% compared with the initial state

Laparoscopic spleen-preserving hilar lymph node dissection through pre-pancreatic and retro-pancreatic approach in patients with gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: The conventional radical resection of proximal gastric cancer is even more risky when performed laparoscopically, though this technique is widely used in gastrointestinal surgery and is accepted as the superior method. This paper explores the feasibility of laparoscopic spleen-preserving hilar lymph node dissection using a retro-pancreatic approach for the treatment of proximal gastric cancer. METHODS: Two cadavers were dissected for examination of and the pre-pancreatic and retro-pancreatic spaces. Following the dissection of the cadavers, ten live patients with proximal gastric cancer from May 2008 to May 2013 at Nanfang Hospital, Guangzhou, China, were given total gastrectomy and adjuvant splenic hilar lymph node clearance through pre-pancreatic and retro-pancreatic approach on the precondition of preserving the pancreas and spleen. The clinicopathologic characteristics, as well as the intraoperative and postoperative variables affecting the procedure, were observed and analyzed. RESULTS: Anatomy of the space anterior and posterior to the pancreas in the two cadavers demonstrated the feasibility of pre-pancreatic and retro-pancreatic approach. The surgeries were all successfully performed laparoscopically; conversion to laparotomy was not necessary for any of the ten patients. The overall mean operative time was 243.6 ± 45 min. The mean estimated blood loss was 232 ± 80 ml. At the time of follow-up (median 12 months post-surgery), there had been neither local recurrence nor mortality in any of the patients. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic spleen- and pancreas-preserving splenic hilar lymph node dissection during total gastrectomy, using both pre-pancreatic and retro-pancreatic approaches, is indicated as a safe and feasible method for the treatment of proximal gastric cancer

Methods for conducting international Delphi surveys to optimise global participation in core outcome set development: a case study in gastric cancer informed by a comprehensive literature review

Copyright © 2021, The Author(s) Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Background: Core outcome sets (COS) should be relevant to key stakeholders and widely applicable and usable. Ideally, they are developed for international use to allow optimal data synthesis from trials. Electronic Delphi surveys are commonly used to facilitate global participation; however, this has limitations. It is common for these surveys to be conducted in a single language potentially excluding those not fluent in that tongue. The aim of this study is to summarise current approaches for optimising international participation in Delphi studies and make recommendations for future practice. Methods: A comprehensive literature review of current approaches to translating Delphi surveys for COS development was undertaken. A standardised methodology adapted from international guidance derived from 12 major sets of translation guidelines in the field of outcome reporting was developed. As a case study, this was applied to a COS project for surgical trials in gastric cancer to translate a Delphi survey into 7 target languages from regions active in gastric cancer research. Results: Three hundred thirty-two abstracts were screened and four studies addressing COS development in rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, vascular malformations and polypharmacy were eligible for inclusion. There was wide variation in methodological approaches to translation, including the number of forward translations, the inclusion of back translation, the employment of cognitive debriefing and how discrepancies and disagreements were handled. Important considerations were identified during the development of the gastric cancer survey including establishing translation groups, timelines, understanding financial implications, strategies to maximise recruitment and regulatory approvals. The methodological approach to translating the Delphi surveys was easily reproducible by local collaborators and resulted in an additional 637 participants to the 315 recruited to complete the source language survey. Ninety-nine per cent of patients and 97% of healthcare professionals from non-English-speaking regions used translated surveys. Conclusion: Consideration of the issues described will improve planning by other COS developers and can be used to widen international participation from both patients and healthcare professionals.This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Research Fellowship Grant (DRF-2015-08-023). JMB is partially funded by the NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre and the MRC ConDUCT-II Hub for Trials Methodology Research. PRW was funded by the MRC North West Hub for Trials Methodology Research (Grant ref: MR/K025635/01).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio