Chinese consumers\u27 perceptions of country design, assembly and parts capabilities : does country considered or consumer acculturation matter?

Chinese consumers are facing a diverse range of choices in regards to products produced wholly or in part overseas or by overseas corporations based in China. This study examines how consumers from China, both residing at home and abroad, perceived capability of Germany, Japan, US and China in regard to three dimensions of country capabilities- design, assembly and parts/components. The findings show that consumers have different perceptions concerning country capabilities and that Chinese consumers residing overseas appear to have more positive perceptions of foreign countries&rsquo; capabilities.<br /

The impact of consumer ethnocentrism and country of origin sub-components for high involvement products on young Chinese consumers\u27 product assessments

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of country of origin (COO) sub-components (i.e. design, assembly and parts), as well as the extent to which consumer ethnocentrism tendencies interact with these COO sub-components for young Chinese consumers with regards to product quality assessments and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; A 2?&times;?2?&times;?2 factorial experimental design was used to examine the effects of the three sub-components of COO with two levels of sourcing location &ndash; Home (China) and Foreign (Germany), for two high involvement products (an automobile and a digital camera). Chinese students in China represented the sample of 272 respondents. MANOVA was used to examine the direct effects and interactions of the three COO components, as well as ethnocentrism, measured using the CETSCALE. Findings &ndash; It was found that the three COO sub-components did not influence young Chinese consumers&rsquo; evaluation of product quality or purchase intentions. In addition, consumers&rsquo; level of ethnocentrism also did not have a direct effect on perceived product quality or purchase intentions. There was only one statistically significant interaction effect between ethnocentrism and country of parts for one of the two products. As such, COO dimensions and young Chinese consumers&rsquo; ethnocentrism appears to have limited influence on their assessments of product quality or purchase intentions. This may occur because young Chinese consumers perceive that hybrid products are the norm for high involvement products in China as these products are all these consumers have experienced. Originality/value &ndash; The findings of this research dispute the commonly held belief and evidence that sub-components of COO have an impact on the perceptions of product quality and purchase intentions. Young Chinese consumers may be different to consumers from western countries because they have been extensively exposed to hybrid products. Given the size and growth potential of China, young Chinese are an important, under-researched segment within the Chinese market.<br /

An Investigation of Factors Involved in Hall Thruster Wall Erosion Modeling

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76234/1/AIAA-2006-4657-608.pd

Automatic Configuration Recognition Methods in Modular Robots

Recognizing useful modular robot configurations composed of hundreds of modules is a significant challenge. Matching a new modular robot configuration to a library of known configurations is essential in identifying and applying control schemes. We present three different algorithms to address the problem of (a) matching and (b) mapping new robot configurations onto a library of known configurations. The first method solves the problem using graph isomorphisms and can identify configurations that share the same underlying graph structure, but have different port connections amongst the modules. The second approach compares graph spectra of configuration matrices to find a permutation matrix that maps a given configuration to a known one. The third algorithm exploits the unique structure of the problem for the particular robots used in our research to achieve impressive gains in performance and speed over existing techniques, especially for larger configurations. With these three algorithms, this paper presents novel solutions to the problem of configuration recognition and sheds light on theoretical and practical issues for long-term advances in this important area of modular robotics. Results and examples are provided to compare the performance of the three algorithms and discuss their relative advantages

An Evaluation of Sources of Erosion in Hall Thrusters

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76799/1/AIAA-2005-3530-604.pd

Calculation of Boron Nitride Sputter Yields Under Low Energy Xenon Ion Bombardment

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77064/1/AIAA-2007-5313-409.pd

Ferromagnetic Alloys in the System Cu-Mn-Zn

The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether ferromagnetic alloys exist in the ternary sys­tem Cu-Mn-Zn analogous to the other Heusler alloys. The work in this thesis is a preliminary investi­gation on these alloys using a common metallographic re­search technique and augmented with X-ray methods

GPS Position and Heading Circuitry for Ships

Circuit boards that contain radio-frequency (RF) and digital circuitry have been developed by NASA to satisfy a requirement of the Port of Houston Authority for relatively inexpensive Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers that indicate the azimuthal headings as well as the positions of ships. The receiver design utilizes the unique architecture of the Mitel commercial chip-set, which provides for an accurate GPS-based heading-determination device. The major components include two RF front ends (each connected to a separate antenna), a surface-acoustic-wave intermediate-frequency filter between second- and third-stage mixers, a correlator, and a reduced-instruction- set computer. One of the RF front ends operates as a master, the other as a slave. Both RF front ends share a 10-MHz sinusoidal clock oscillator, which provides for more accurate carrier phase measurements between the two antennas. The outputs of the RF front ends are subjected to conventional GPS processing. The commercial-based chip-set design approach provides an inexpensive open architecture GPS platform, which can be used in developing and implementing unique GPS-heading and attitude-determination algorithms for specific applications. The heading is estimated from the GPS position solutions of the two antennas by an algorithm developed specifically for this application. If a third (and preferably a fourth) antenna were added, it would be possible to estimate the attitude of the GPS receiver in three dimensions instead of only its heading in a horizontal plane

Operational Status of the International Space Station Plasma Contactor Hollow Cathode Assemblies from July 2011 to May 2013

The International Space Station has onboard two Aerojet Rocketdyne developed plasma contactor units that perform the function of charge control. The plasma contactor units contain NASA Glenn Research Center developed hollow cathode assemblies. NASA Glenn Research Center monitors the onorbit operation of the flight hollow cathode assemblies. As of May 31, 2013, HCA.001-F has been ignited and operated 123 times and has accumulated 8072 hours of operation, whereas, HCA.003-F has been ignited and operated 112 times and has accumulated 9664 hours of operation. Monitored hollow cathode ignition times and anode voltage magnitudes indicate that they continue to operate nominally