Consumer involvement profiles: An application of consumer involvement in mobile industry

This paper investigates consumer involvement profile among people who intend to purchase mobile devises. The study considers the effects of various factors influencing on purchase intention including consumers’ personal characteristics such as age, gender, income as well as some external factors including advertisement. The study uses a questionnaire in Likert scale, originally developed by O’Cass (2000) [O’Cass, A. (2000). An assessment of consumers' product, purchase decision, advertising and consumption involvement in fashion clothing. Journal of Economic Psychology, 21, 545-576.]. The questionnaire has been distributed among 385 people, randomly who purchased mobile devices from a mall in city of Tehran, Iran. Using Pearson correlation test, the study has concluded that oral advertisement as well as consumer purchase involvement have positive and strong relationship with consumer’s purchase intention. In terms of age, people aged 20-30 maintained the highest purchase intention. In addition, in terms of gender, men had more purchase involvement than women did

Molecular Identification of Leishmania Species in a Re-Emerged Focus of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Varamin District, Iran

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is one of the most important neglected tropical diseases and a major public health challenge in Iran caused by Leishmania spp and transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. The number of CL cases has shown an increasing pattern all over the country, including the district of Varamin, southeast of Tehran, Iran. This study aimed to identify the Leishmania spp isolated from CL patients using molecular methods in Varamin during 2012–2013. Methods: Exudate materials collected from the swollen edge of the skin lesions of 44 parasitological positive CL patients by disposable lancet. They were referred to Varamin Health Center by physician. The samples were sub­jected to molecular method for Leishmania species identification. Results: The digestion pattern of restriction enzyme revealed that 37 (84.1%) CL patients were infected with L. ma­jor and 7 (15.9%) were infected with L. tropica. They were mostly male than female. More than half of the patients (58%) had multiple lesions, and they were mostly observed on extremities, 34.1% on legs and 29.5% on hands. Le­sions were mostly of wet ulcerative type. Conclusion: Dominancy of L. major provides more evidence that Varamin District probably could be considered as Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) areas. More investigation on other epidemiological aspects of disease is needed.