Quality Expectations of Social Networking Sites: A Comparative Study Between New Zealand and Vietnam

Online Social Networking (OSN) websites have been growing fast and their success is decided by customers’ satisfaction. User satisfaction can be measured using a number of popular frameworks such as SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, SiteQual, and WebQual. These frameworks are often used as guidelines when designing, implementing, and assessing quality of websites in general and can also be used to measure the quality of online social networking websites. Besides, there are additional factors that should be taken into consideration when assessing user satisfaction such as demographic differences and cultural differences. The present research project aims to investigate and test the linkage between culture and user satisfaction on the online social networking websites. This is achieved by conducting an analysis on the basis of a survey in two different countries – New Zealand and Vietnam. The research project’s principal component analysis follows Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and the modified framework of assessing online social networking sites quality conducted by Rizavi, Ali, and Rizavi in 2011. The results suggest that users’ quality expectation of Social Networking Sites (SNS) in New Zealand and in Vietnam may be influenced by cultural differences

Canada Oak (Sandwich)

Title Variation Canadian Oak Publication Dates 1850 - 1856? Frequency Weekly Online Holdings 1853: June 24 (Vol. 3: no. 3) 4p.https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/essexcountyontarionewspapers/1005/thumbnail.jp

Political Authority in Vietnam: Is the Vietnamese Communist Party a Paper Leviathan?

In a contribution to the political analysis of contemporary Vietnam - a single-party state often wrongly assumed to be an author of reform and deploying considerable and varied powers - this paper seeks to provide an understanding of the Vietnamese term ‘authority’ (uy) and its relationship to power. Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan serves as a reference to the notion of authority in Vietnam and is compared to data: what the Vietnamese thought their word best translated as authority meant. The paper concludes that in the ‘two-way street’ of social contracts, the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) actually has little authority. This helps to explain the chronic problems the VCP has faced in securing state capacity and generalised ability to implement policy. It high-lights gaps between the current anachronistic use of Soviet-style power in Vietnam and what could be done if the regime deployed new powers based on authority. The authors conclude that, given the identified lack of authority, the VCP is no real Leviathan. Although more research is needed, this conclusion implies that proactive political tactics in Vietnam may move towards a search for acquiring authority in a ‘two-way street’ relationship within the Vietnamese political community. Enhanced state capacity and Party authority could follow

Building trust in e-commerce

Bibliography : leaves B1-B8.This study primarily investigates the processes and capabilities which are important for building and developing trust in e-Commerce. The main area of focus of this study is on the factors and enablers which can be applied by online retailers to build trust and communicate trustworthiness to online consumers. Throughout the study these factors and enablers are commonly referred to as the 'building blocks of trust in e-Commerce'. It is argued that without trust, e-Commerce cannot reach its full potential and that the building blocks of trust in e-Commerce can be applied to build and develop trust in e-Commerce. This study further investigates consumer perceptions of e-Commerce, and the deterrents to online shopping. Special emphasis was placed on important e-Commerce issues, central to building and developing trust in e-Commerce, such as privacy, security and fulfilment. As part of the recommendations, a conceptual model for building trust In e-Commerce is presented, which maps out the online trust building process with the general building blocks of trust in e-Commerce at its core

Global-Local Nonlinear Model Reduction for Flows in Heterogeneous Porous Media

Many problems in engineering and science are represented by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with high contrast parameters and multiple scales. Solving these equations involves expensive computational cost because the fine-grid needs to resolve smallest scales and high contrast. In such cases, reduced-order methods are often needed. Reduced-order methods can be divided into local reduction methods and global reduction methods. Local reduced-order methods such as upscaling, Multiscale Finite Element Method (MsFEM) and Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) divide the computational domain into coarse grids, where each grid contains small-scale heterogeneities and high contrast, and represents the computations for macroscopic simulations. In local model reduction, reduced-order models are constructed in each coarse region. Some known approaches, such as homogenization and numerical homogenization, are developed for problems with and without scale separation, respectively. Global reduced-order models, such as Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), construct the reduced-order models via global finite element basis functions. These basis functions are constructed by solving many forward problems that can be expensive. In this dissertation, we propose global-local model reduction methods. The idea of global-local model reduction methods is to approximate the global basis functions locally and adaptively. However, in the case of nonlinear systems, additional interpolation techniques are required, such as Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method (DEIM). We propose a general global-local approach that uses the GMsFEM to construct adaptive approximation for the global basis functions. The developments of these methods require adaptive offline and adaptive online reduced-order model strategies, which we pursue in this work. We consider the applications to nonlinear ow problems, such as nonlinear Forch-heimer flow. In this case, we construct multiscale basis functions for the velocity field following mixed GMsFEM. In addition, we present a local online adaptive method for the basis enrichment of the function space based on an error indicator depending on the local residual norm. Finally, we propose a global online adaptive method to add new global basis functions to the POD subspace. We use local error indicators and solve the global residual problem using the GMsFEM, with local online adaptation

Synthesis, characterisation and properties of novel dendrimers

A new family of aliphatic, polyurethane dendritic macromolecules has been designed, synthesised and characterised. The convergent route to dendrimers and the reactions of the selective coupling agent, carbonyl diimidazole (GDI) were employed. The method was successful in the preparation of first, second and third generation dendrimers and dendrons of the first to fourth generations. The structure of the termini of these branched macromolecules was varied to consist of r-butyl, benzhydryl, cyclohexyl or 4-heptyl groups. The dendrons were also coupled to a trifunctional aromatic core unit to create another series of dendrimers with an innermost layer of ester functions. The compounds prepared were soluble in most common organic solvents and insoluble in water. The physical state of the materials ranged from sticky oils to hard, amorphous solids depending on the nature of the end groups and the molecular weight of the macromolecules. The synthesis of the second generation dendrimer with (-butyl end groups was adapted to make a series of six codendrimers with differing arrangements of concentric layers of urethane and carbonate functions as well as the polycarbonate analogue. These second-generation dendrimers varied in their physical state from oils of low viscosity to hard amorphous solids depending on the proportion of carbonate and urethane functions in the molecule. The hydrogen bonding interactions in solution of some of the dendritic compounds were investigated by (^1)H NMR and infrared spectroscopy. From the analysis it was concluded that the hydrogen bonding was intramolecular rather than intermolecular in nature and that the degree of hydrogen bonding was dependent on the generation and the terminal groups of the structures. In addition, the degree of hydrogen bonding of the urethane functions was observed to be dependent on the location of the urethane layers in the second generation poly(urethane-carbonate) codendrimers. The thermal properties of the dendrimers were investigated and the materials observed to have a single glass transition. The glass transition temperatures of the dendritic families with different termini were found to be dependent on the composition of the end group and the molecular weight of the molecule. The glass transition temperatures of the codendrimers were dependent on the proportion of urethane and carbonate links in the structure and also the relative location of the layers. In a preliminary study, it was shown that blends of two different dendrimers were characterised by only one glass transition

Lovington Leader, 06-02-1916

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/lovington_leader_news/1233/thumbnail.jp

Studies of organonitrogen groups in metal carbonyl systems

Not availabl