Brand Value Co-Creation in the Social Commerce Era: Empirical Evidence From Iran

Brand value co-creation occurs when customers provide informational input to brand owners, which can be used to develop, refine or extend brands. Brand co-creation is an attractive and inexpensive marketing strategy for firms entering new markets and developing new brand meanings. The upward trend in social media use has transformed e-commerce by adding social support and information sharing features, resulting in social commerce. This research tests a framework that examines the e-commerce opportunities for firms from a branding perspective. Using a survey of Iranian consumers, SEM- PLS was used to analyse the data. Results provide new insights for a strategic approach to social media use in relation to the firm’s value co-creation objective. The results confirm the research model and emphasise the importance of social commerce constructs, social support, and relationship quality in brand value co-creation. The theoretical and practical implications are provided

The Entrepreneurial University: A Exploration of a value-creation in a non-Management department

Purpose: This study highlights the strategies undertaken by “entrepreneurial” universities to leverage their bottom-line especially in response to withdrawals of public funding. Internationalisation has been the most prominent from setting-up overseas branch campuses to aggressive recruitment drives for international students; and more recently, the launch of new programmes to attract a wider market. Design/Methodology/Approach: Based on a documentary analysis, this study explores the future of curriculum development in entrepreneurial universities, using narratives around an “unconventional course” launch as a case illustration. Findings: The findings reveal an interesting interaction of innovation, opportunity recognition, risk taking, and proactiveness at play within a university environment. The study also highlights how instructors have, in the past, based their syllabi on celebrities – from Georgetown University to the University of South Carolina, University of Missouri and Rutgers University cutting across departments from English through sociology to Women’s and Gender Studies. Research limitations/implications: Practical implications: Overall this study captures the relationship between hip-hop artistry and poetry, as well as meeting the demands of society – societal impacts – not the least, bringing “street cred” into the classroom. Social implications: The case illustration of a course launch at the University of Missouri linking hip-hop artists to curriculum development and pedagogy, opens up the discourse on the future trajectory of teaching and learning in higher education, with its attendant social implications – not the least for life after graduation. Originality/value: This study provides fresh insights into the entrepreneurial potential of universities in co-branded/ marketing activities with the hip-hop industry

Improvement in Fluid Loss Control and Viscosity of Water-based drilling Mud under High Temperature and Sodium Chloride Salt Conditions using Nanohydroxyapatite

It is difficult to drill efficiently with bentonite (BN)-based mud (BN-WBM) or water-based muds (WBMs) in high-salt electrolytes and deep wells. This is because the fluid's rheological parameters and filtration properties change in undesirable ways, affecting the well's production efficiency. To fix this, a high-salt and high-temperature-resistant nanohydroxyapatite (nanoHAp) additive was designed using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). 0.1 to 0.5 wt% nanoHAp was added to WBMs, and a salt-resistant BN-WBM with nanoHAp was formulated with 4.8 wt% BN, 5.0 wt% sodium chloride (NaCl), and 0.5 wt% nanoHAp. At 25, 150, 180, and 210° C, the filtration and rheological characteristics of the drilling muds were evaluated. The findings revealed that between 25 and 210° C, nanoHAp increased the viscosity of the WBM by 15–139% at a 1021 s-1 shear rate. It also controlled the fluid loss of the WBM from 12.1-44.6 mL to 6.7-21.8 mL at all temperatures. It serves as an anti-salt agent by decreasing the NaCl-contaminated BN's viscosity by 57% compared to the reference value of 20.8 mPa. s at a shear rate of 1021 s-1. Further, it reduced the fluid loss by 56.8%, from 169 mL to 73 mL at 210° C. The nanoHAp surface has anionic sulphate head groups of SDS that efficiently attach to the BN surface. This keeps the Na+ ions from attacking the plate-like structure of the BN. This study reveals that nanoHAp has the capacity to inhibit BN coalescence and flocculation under saturated Na+ solutions and at high temperatures

Effect of Nanoparticles in Drilling Fluids on the Transportation of Different Cutting Sizes in a Rotating Horizontal Pipe

: Cutting transport is difficult in horizontal borehole regions due to the limited axial velocity distribution. This causes transported cuttings to gravitate to the bottom, generating cutting beds and leading to drilling mishaps. Water-based mud (WBM) that includes nanoparticles (NPs) to determine the cutting transport ratio (CTR) performance using copper II oxide (CuO), aluminium oxide (Al2O3), magnesium oxide (MgO), and silicon dioxide (SiO2) in a horizontal borehole needs further investigation. These NPs ability to transport 0.80–3.60 mm cutting sizes was tested using concentrations of 1.0 and 2.0 g circulated through a horizontal annulus at 3.5 m/s and 120 rpm. With 2.0 g, MgO lowered the viscosity by 60%, whereas SiO2, CuO, and Al2O3 increased it by 49%, 10%, and 87%, respectively. CuO NP decreased the fluid loss (FLAPI) the best, followed by MgO, SiO2, and Al2O3. The FLAPI of the WBM, which was 9.4 mL, dropped to 4.8, 5.1, 7.4, and 8.2 mL with CuO, MgO, SiO2, and Al2O3 NPs, respectively. The CTR performance of the NPs increased with concentration and decreased with increasing cutting size. CuO, having less viscosity than Al2O3 and SiO2, carried the most cutting at all concentrations and sizes. It increased the CTR by 28.8–31.1%, whereas Al2O3 and SiO2 increased it by 22.7–26.7% and 16.7–22.2%, respectively. The lowest increase was 13.6–17.8% for MgO NP. This study demonstrates the favourable impact of NP concentrations on the performance of drilling fluids while presenting many choices for the selection of NPs

Measurement Campaign on 5G Indoor Millimeter Wave and Visible Light Communications Multi Component Carrier System

European Commission on the Horizon 2020 Internet of Radio-Light IoRL (Grant Number: 761992

Network-on-Chip Topologies: Potentials, Technical Challenges, Recent Advances and Research Direction

Integration technology advancement has impacted the System-on-Chip (SoC) in which heterogeneous cores are supported on a single chip. Based on the huge amount of supported heterogeneous cores, efficient communication between the associated processors has to be considered at all levels of the system design to ensure global interconnection. This can be achieved through a design-friendly, flexible, scalable, and high-performance interconnection architecture. It is noteworthy that the interconnections between multiple cores on a chip present a considerable influence on the performance and communication of the chip design regarding the throughput, end-to-end delay, and packets loss ratio. Although hierarchical architectures have addressed the majority of the associated challenges of the traditional interconnection techniques, the main limiting factor is scalability. Network-on-Chip (NoC) has been presented as a scalable and well-structured alternative solution that is capable of addressing communication issues in the on-chip systems. In this context, several NoC topologies have been presented to support various routing techniques and attend to different chip architectural requirements. This book chapter reviews some of the existing NoC topologies and their associated characteristics. Also, application mapping algorithms and some key challenges of NoC are considered

Amphipathic anionic surfactant modified hydrophilic polyethylene glycol-nanosilica composite as effective viscosifier and filtration control agent for water-based drilling muds

Highly stabilized and dispersible composites of polyethylene glycol and silica nanoparticle in aqueous drilling mud can provide desirable rheological and filtration properties for drilling jobs. Therefore, high-quality hydrophilic polyethylene glycol-nanosilica composite modified by amphipathic anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (PEG-SiO2 NC-SDS) to improve the rheological and filtration properties of water-based muds (WBMs) was submitted. Test of zeta potential, functional groups, morphology, elemental composition, and temperature stability together with rheology and filtration tests were undertaken to assess the wide-ranging mud properties of the SDS modified PEG-SiO2 NC drilling muds. Zeta potential, FTIR, FESEM, EDX, and TGA results indicate that the SDS modified PEG-SiO2 NC was effectively formed and modified, it embodies exceptional thermal stability and is efficiently dispersed. The SDS modified PEG-SiO2 NC has a narrow size distribution range between 82 nm and 410 nm, and a specific surface area of 41.4 m2/g that is sufficiently high for particle-molecule interactions. Its rheological variables are notably shear-thinning and did not undergo notable fluctuation. The filtrate loss of 1.5 g SDS bearing PEG-SiO2 NC at 78 °F and 250 °F was only 5.4 ml and 9.6 ml, against 10.2 ml and 20.5 ml of the WBMs, respectively. High dispersion stability and high thermal stability aided its excellent viscosity and filtration control performance. Moreover, optimum rheological properties for the SDS modified PEG-SiO2 NC drilling muds with Bingham plastic and Ostwald-de-Waele models occurred with mud composition CD3 (CD3 = 1.5 g SDS modified PEG-SiO2 NC + WBM). Thus, this study can help to understand the applications of this nanocomposite as a potential viscosifier and filtrate loss control material for WBMs

Understanding client satisfaction with a health insurance scheme in Nigeria: factors and enrollees experiences

Abstract Background Health insurance schemes have been widely introduced during this last decade in many African countries, which have strived for improvements in health service provision and the promotion of health care utilization. Client satisfaction with health service provision during the implementation of health insurance schemes has often been neglected since numerous activities take place concurrently. The satisfaction of enrollees and its influencing factors have been providing evidence which have assisted in policy and decision making. Our objective is to determine the enrollee's satisfaction with health service provision under a health insurance scheme and the factors which influence the satisfaction. Methods This retrospective, cross-sectional survey took place between May and September 2008. Two hundred and eighty (280) enrollees insured for more than one year in Zaria-Nigeria were recruited using two stage sampling. Enrollee's satisfaction was categorized into more satisfied and less satisfied based on positive responses obtained. Satisfaction, general knowledge and awareness of contribution were each aggregated and assessed as composite measure. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze factors that influenced the satisfaction of enrollees. Results A high satisfaction rate with the health insurance scheme was observed (42.1%). Marital status (p Conclusions This study highlighted the potential effects of general health insurance knowledge and awareness of contributions by end-users (beneficiaries) of such new program on client satisfaction which have significant importance. The findings provided evidence which have assisted the amendment and re-prioritization of the medium term strategic plan of operations for the scheme. Future planning efforts could consider the client satisfaction and the factors which influenced it regularly.</p

Rheological and filtration control performance of water-based drilling muds at different temperatures and salt contaminants using surfactant-assisted novel nanohydroxyapatite

Today, the high-performance rheological and filtration properties of nanosized particles (NPs) in water-based muds (WBMs) are continuously reported. Nevertheless, NP's properties performance at different temperatures and salt environments, specifically the salt-screening process, needs additional knowledge. Hence, this study developed a WBM system using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-assisted nanohydroxyapatite (Nano-HAp) for different temperatures and salt contaminants. The impacts of the newly-produced Nano-HAp on the density, pH, rheology, and filtration characteristics of WBM at 298 K and 353 K were examined. The effects of salt cations (Ca2+/Na+) on a bentonite-based suspension (BN-WBM) at 298 K and 393 K and SDS-aided Nano-HAp as a salt-tolerant ingredient in drilling muds were also examined. The Herschel-Buckley and Power law models best described SDS-aided Nano-HAp drilling mud's rheology at 298 K and 353 K, respectively. Nano-HAp improved the rheological and filtration capabilities in salt and water solutions at 298 K, 353 K, and 393 K, making it a perfect field additive. 1.0 g of SDS-aided Nano-HAp is recommended, and it is thermally very stable, according to the thermal gravimetric analysis findings. It increased the viscosity performance by 78.6% at 298 K and by 79.2% at 353 K, provided desirable shear stress between 1.0 and 1000 s−1 shear rates, and decreased the fluid loss by 31.8% (≤ 8 mL) at 298 K and 25% (≤ 11 mL) at 353 K. In BN-WBM, it decreased the viscosity of the BN-salt solution from a 35-fold increase to less than a 5-fold increase and made the BN-based suspension less salt-reliant. It operated by attaching to the BN platelets' positive edge and negative face surfaces, shielding Ca2+/Na+ cations from the BN's ion-susceptible regions to decrease the viscosity and filtration of the BN-based suspension. This study demonstrates the possible use of Nano-HAp particles as effective filtration and rheological control additives in WBMs. It further demonstrates that Nano-HAp was appropriate for enhancing the drilling performance of BN-WBMs while increasing their resistance to salt cation contamination

Multitasking, but for what benefit? The dilemma facing Nigerian university students regarding part-time working.

Students working part-time while studying for a full-time university degree are commonplace in many Western countries. This paper however, examines the historically uncommon part-time working activities and career aspirations among Nigerian university students. In particular, how working is perceived to contribute to developing employability skills, and whether it is influenced by their self-efficacy. Survey data from 324 questionnaires was collected from a federal university, although the data analysis used a mixed-method. The findings indicate that despite low levels of part-time working generally among students, older, more experienced, higher level and female students, place a premium on the skills that part-time work can develop. Moreover, self-efficacy and being female, is a significant predictor in understanding part-time work and career aspirations. This study offers originality by focusing on students’ part-time work, the value working provides, and its link with career aspirations, within a relatively unexplored context of Nigeria