What Should be Known to Conduct in the Travel Industry? Extending to Knowledge-based View

The purpose of this study is to explore what market knowledge of the travel industry involves. Although there has been consensus that market knowledge is drawn from the market orientation theory, little insight into the nature and issue of market knowledge from the knowledge-based view is identified. Thus, our aim is to fill this gap in the market knowledge of tourism literature. To this end, this study adopts the discovery-oriented approach of qualitative study to delineate the domain of the market knowledge construct in the travel industry setting. The study interviewed two companies and summarized four categories of 4C market knowledge: Knowledge of external customer (customer) including customer profile, traveler’s psychology and behavior, and customer relationships management; internal customer (employee) including employee equity, workforce management, and performance control; competitor, including competitive status and competitive response; and partner client (supplier and distributor), including partners’ characteristics and supply chain management. This study provides operational definitions and a legible framework of market knowledge for directing future research

The Effectiveness of Corporate Advertising in a Collegiate Fitness Center

The purpose of this research is to examine the effectiveness of the corporate advertisements in a collegiate fitness center in Hong Kong. In this study, a survey questionnaire was utilized to examine whether participants’ demographic information influenced the consumers’ attitude and purchase intention toward the product. A total of 112 valid samples were collected. The result showed there was a significant difference between genders in product purchase intention. And the research also found that participants’ exercise time can make a significant difference on the attitude and purchase intention toward the products. Compared with non-sport product, the sport related products received higher scores of attitude and purchase intention from participants in the collegiate sport center. There existed some limitations (sample size, time, gender ratio) during the research process. The result indicated there is potential commercial value hidden in the Hong Kong collegiate fitness clubs

Photodynamic Therapy in the Treatment of Choroidal Neovascularization Complicating Central Serous Chorioretinopathy

We report the favorable anatomic and functional outcome of photodynamic therapy with verteporfin in a case of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy complicated with choroidal neovascularization (CNV). This 37-year-old Chinese male with bilateral chronic central serous chorioretinopathy presented with central scotoma, reduced vision and metamorphopsia in his right eye. Fluorescein angiography (FA) disclosed macular hemorrhage, exudate and subfoveal classic CNV. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin was applied to the CNV according to standard protocol with 2.2-mm spot size. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improved from 6/20 to 6/10 1 month after PDT. BCVA recovered to 6/7.5 without leakage on FA 3 months after PDT. Neither recurrent CNV lesion nor new hemorrhage was noted over 12 months of follow-up. Short-term results suggest that PDT with verteporfin for CNV secondary to central serous chorioretinopathy is a safe and effective treatment modality

A new sulfur bioconversion process development for energy- and space-efficient secondary wastewater treatment

Harvesting organic matter from wastewater is widely applied to maximize energy recovery; however, it limits the applicability of secondary treatment for acceptable effluent discharge into surface water bodies. To turn this bottleneck issue into an opportunity, this study developed oxygen-induced thiosulfatE production duRing sulfATe reductiOn (EARTO) to provide an efficient electron donor for wastewater treatment. Typical pretreated wastewater was synthesized with chemical oxygen demand of 110 mg/L, sulfate of 50 mg S/L, and varying dissolved oxygen (DO) and was fed into a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR). The MBBR was operated continuously with a short hydraulic retention time of 40 min for 349 days. The formation rate of thiosulfate reached 0.12-0.18 g S/(m2.d) with a high produced thiosulfate-S/TdS-S ratio of 38-73% when influent DO was 2.7-3.6 mg/L. The sludge yield was 0.23-0.29 gVSS/gCOD, much lower than it was in conventional activated sludge processes. Then, batch tests and metabolism analysis were conducted to confirm the oxygen effect on thiosulfate formation, characterize the roles of sulfate and microbial activities, and explore the mechanism of oxygen-induced thiosulfate formation in ERATO. Results examined that oxygen supply promoted the thiosulfate-Sproduced/TdS-Sproduced ratio from 4% to 24-26%, demonstrated that sulfate and microbial activities were critical for thiosulfate production, and indicated that oxygen induces thiosulfate formation through two pathways: 1) direct sulfide oxidation, and 2) indirect sulfide oxidation, sulfide is first oxidized to S0 (dominant) which then reacts with sulfite derived from oxygen-regulated biological sulfate reduction. The proposed compact ERATO process, featuring high thiosulfate production and low sludge production, supports space- and energy-efficient secondary wastewater treatment.Comment: Written by Chu-Kuan Jiang; edited by Yang-Fan Deng, Hongxiao Guo, Guang-Hao Chen, Di Wu; Corresponding authors: Guang-Hao Chen, Di Wu; Last author (team leader): Guang-Hao Che

Experimental demonstration of performance-enhanced MIMO-OFDM visible light communications

We experimentally demonstrate individual OCT precoding and SVD-based adaptive loading to boost the capacity of MIMO-OFDM VLC systems. For 1.5-Gbit/s 1-m transmission, the average BER can be reduced from 1.7×10−2 to 4.1×10−3 and 4.7×10−4, respectively