A Model of Internet Consumer Satisfaction: Focusing on the Web-site design

Since the trend of doing business on line has become more and more common among different sizes of companies and industries, measuring the antecedents of web site design is important to both practitioners and researchers. Achieving customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of electronic commerce so to guarantee on line purchases. Based on the research models and factors proposed by previous studies on customer satisfaction and Web interface design, a new model is developed in this paper. This model shows how various antecedent factors affect consumer satisfaction towards Internet shopping through the intermediate construct of a successful Web- site design

A Digital Inclusive Society Study - Understanding the Social Impacts of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Usage in China

This paper discusses the role of self-efficacy to computer novices through a longitudinal study. The researchers conducted this study by collaborating with three non-government organizations (NGOs) for which funding was received from one government unit and a large local charitable organization. A new model was developed to examine the influence of Internet self-efficacy and outcome expectations on usage intention and perceived user competence. Behavioral modeling training courses were offered to matured adults aged 50 and above in two separate studies over a year. Questionnaires and cognitive knowledge assessments were distributed. In general, the findings in the two studies validated the impacts and antecedents of Internet self-efficacy and outcome expectations on usage intention. Limitations and implications of this study are provided following the sections on research model and hypotheses, design and discussion on findings

Chiral carbene–borane adducts: precursors for borenium catalysts for asymmetric FLP hydrogenations

The carbene derived from (1R,3S)-camphoric acid was used to prepare the borane adduct with Piers’ borane 7. Subsequent hydride abstraction gave the borenium cation 8. Adducts with 9-BBN and the corresponding (1R,3S)-camphoric acid-derived carbene bearing increasingly sterically demanding N-substituents (R = Me 9, Et 10, i-Pr 11) and the corresponding borenium cations 12–14 were also prepared. These cations were not active as catalysts in hydrogenation, although 9–11 were shown to undergo carbene ring expansion reactions at 50 °C to give species 15–17. The IBOX-carbene precursors 18 and 19 derived from amino alcohols (S)-valinol and (S)-tert-leucinol (R = i-Pr, t-Bu) were used to prepare borane adducts 20–23. Reaction of the carbenes 1,3-dimethylimidazol-2-ylidene (IMe), 1,3-di-iso-propylimidazol-2-ylidene (IPr) 1-benzyl-3-methylimidazol-2-ylidene (IBnMe), 1-methyl-3-phenylimidazol-2-ylidene (IPhMe) and 1-tert-butyl-3-methylimidazol-2-ylidene (ItBuMe) with diisopinocampheylborane (Ipc2BH) gave chiral adducts: (IMe)(Ipc2BH) 24, (IPr)(Ipc2BH) 25, (IBnMe)(Ipc2BH) 26, (IPhMe)(Ipc2BH) 27, and (ItBuMe)(Ipc2BH) 28. Triazolylidene-type adducts including the (10)-phenyl-9-borabicyclo [3.3.2]decane adduct of 1,3,4-triphenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazolium, rac-29 and the 9-BBN derivative of (S)-2-amino-2′-methoxy-1,1′-binaphthalene-1,2,3-triazolium 34a/b were also prepared. In catalytic studies of these systems, while several species were competent catalysts for imine reduction, in general, low enantioselectivities, ranging from 1–20% ee, were obtained. The implications for chiral borenium cation catalyst design are considered

Boron-based Lewis Acids: Towards Intramolecular Frustrated Lewis Pairs and Enantioselective Catalysis

A rapid development of metal-free, main group compounds for small molecule activation and as hydrogenation catalysts was triggered after the disclosure of H2 activation by sterically hindered Lewis acids and bases over a decade ago. The combination of a Lewis acid and base with unquenched reactivity was later coined as a “frustrated Lewis pair” (FLP). In this research, boron-based Lewis acids were studied for their application as catalysts in FLP chemistry, with an emphasis on exploring the production of chiral FLPs and intramolecular FLPs. In the exploration towards enantioselective catalysis, 3,5-bicyclic aryl piperidines were synthetically modified to produce B/N FLPs and were shown to activate dihydrogen, demonstrating the potential for expanding chiral FLP templates beyond the typical chiral ligands used in transition metal complexes. Chiral borenium cations were generated from different families of carbene-borane adducts, in which their chirality resides on either the carbene or the borane. Catalytic studies found that they were able to effect imine reduction without epimerisation of the resulting chiral amine, and the reactivity and enantioselectivity of these cations were found to be inversely proportional to steric demands. In the exploration towards a cationic intramolecular FLP, a borenium cation with a pendant phosphine was synthesized through hydroboration of a phosphinoalkene with an isolable B-H borenium cation, and its FLP reactivity was investigated. Finally, initial efforts towards the production of a bisborane-carbene as a tri-functionalized FLP were documented.Ph.D

Synthesis and oxidation of phosphine cations

Cationic phosphines of the form [(L)PPh2]+ are prepared from Ph2PCl and carbenes (L), including a chiral bis(oxazoline)-based carbene, a cyclic(alkyl)(amino) carbene, and a 1,2,3-triazolium-derived carbene. A related dication was prepared from PhPCl2 and a bis-carbene. The monocations, but not the dication, can be oxidized with XeF2.</p

Marketing Applications: UBC Sustainability Office

Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”Business, Sauder School ofUnreviewedUndergraduat

Binding of a dimeric manganese porphyrin to serum albumin: towards a gadolinium-free blood-pool T1 MRI contrast agent

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00775-013-1073-6.As the first clinically approved gadolinium-based blood-pool MRI contrast agent, gadofosveset was designed to bind to human serum albumin (HSA) reversibly, extending the circulation time in the bloodstream. This valuable pharmacokinetic property required for vasculature imaging, however, raises the risk of release and accumulation of gadolinium in vivo. The binding of gadofosveset to HSA significantly increases the relaxivity at low field, which decreases drastically when the magnetic field increases, limiting the applications of gadofosveset at fields of 3 T and higher. To address those challenges, we evaluated a novel dimeric manganese(III) porphyrin (MnP2) in vitro and in vivo as a potential gadolinium-free blood-pool agent. Through multiple spectroscopic studies, we demonstrated that MnP2 binds to HSA tightly. MnP2 exhibits a moderate relaxivity decrease on HSA binding. Nevertheless, owing to the unique field-dependent relaxation behaviors and the dimeric construct (two Mn(III) ions per complex), MnP2-HSA has a molar relaxivity twice that of the gadofosveset-HSA complex at 3 T. Through intravenous injection in rats, MnP2 exhibits long retention and significant contrast enhancement in the vascular compartment, as tested in a 3-T high-field clinical MRI scanner. Taken together, these data demonstrate that MnP2 represents a new class of gadolinium-free blood-pool agents suitable for both regular and high-field applications.This work was mainly supported by NSERC through a Discovery Grant to X-a.Z, who also acknowledges support from the University of Toronto Scarborough. H-L.C. is supported by NSERC through a Discovery Grant and by the SickKids Foundation. T.J.S. acknowledges financial support from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Investigator Award) and NSERC (Discovery Grant)