The Mediating Effect Of Perceived Quality on The Customer Loyalty in Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in The Mobile Phone Sector in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)- Vietnam

This paper is to analyze the relationship of branding on perceived quality of the service enterprises towards customer loyalty in marketing managementrsquos perspective in Vietnam particular in the retail market in a time of intense competition for the products or service supplied by the SMEs in the mobile sector. In the business organization, the primary target of enterprises is to convince customers to buy products or services in the long-term relationship. Nowadays, the most important issue for the business organization is to create an advantage of sustainable competition. In addition, brand is a vital asset of any business organization because it leads to the customerrsquos loyalty. Hence, the customer loyalty is the most important factor to enhance the competitive advantage in any enterprises. Besides, perceived quality of customers on their products or services when they purchase remains one of the most significant values in marketing management. There are two reasons why the perceived quality is important for the mediating role between in customers and branding firstly, the perceived quality determines the success or failure of business secondly, it influences the rate of acceptance of the products or service for the business organization. Therefore, this paper aimed to explore the mediating effect on customersrsquo perceived quality towards their loyalty the branding in the SMEs in the mobile sector. In the first stage, the study has applied the expertrsquos opinion to analyze the factors effect on the customerrsquos loyalty. In the second one, the researcher applied the qualitative method to interview around 10 buyers who regularly purchase in The Gioi Di Dongrsquos Shops and Vien Thong Arsquos Shops in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) with the convenient method to observe the process of service to get the close ideas of service to build the questions for the observed variables in the SMEs in mobile phone sector as well as enhance customersrsquo loyalty. In general, the author composed 5 factors including 34 observed variables from total of 50 observed variables chosen to build the questionnaire scale such as (1) Brand trust, (2) Service Organization, (3) Brand Awareness, (4) Perceived Quality, and (5) Customerrsquos Loyalty to study in Vietnamese SMEs in mobile phone sector in HCMC, Vietnam.nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbspnbs

Curved, Precast, Pretensioned Concrete I-Girder Bridges

Modern highway construction frequently requires bridges with horizontally curved alignments. Such bridges can be created by superimposing a curved deck slab onto straight girders or by splicing segmental straight girders on the chords of a curved roadway. Of these two methods, a curved superstructure usually results in simpler construction and better appearance

Purification and characterization of a DNA helicase from pea chloroplast that translocates in the 3'-to-5' direction

An ATP-dependent DNA hecase has been purified to near homogeneity from pea chloroplasts. The enzyme is a homodimer of 68-kDa subunits. The purified enzyme shows DNA-dependent ATPase activity and is devoid of DNA polymerase, DNA topoisomerase, DNA gase or nuclease activities. The enzyme requires Mg2+ or Mn2+ for its maximum activity. ATP is the most favoured cofactor for this enzyme while other NTP or dNTP are poorly utized. Pea chloroplast DNA hecase can unwind a 17-bp duplex whether it has unpaired single-stranded tails at both the 5' end and 3' end, at the 5' end or at the 3' end only, or at neither end. However, it fails to act on a blunt-ended 17-bp duplex DNA. The enzyme moves unidirectionally from 3' to 5' along the bound strand. The unwinding activity is inhibited by the intercalating drugs nogalamycin and daunorubicine

Constraining the Variability and Binary Fraction of Galactic Center Young Stars

We present constraints on the variability and binarity of young stars in the central 10 arcseconds (~0.4 pc) of the Milky Way Galactic Center (GC) using Keck Adaptive Optics data over a 12 year baseline. Given our experiment's photometric uncertainties, at least 36% of our sample's known early-type stars are variable. We identified eclipsing binary systems by searching for periodic variability. In our sample of spectroscopically confirmed and likely early-type stars, we detected the two previously discovered GC eclipsing binary systems. We derived the likely binary fraction of main sequence, early-type stars at the GC via Monte Carlo simulations of eclipsing binary systems, and find that it is at least 32% with 90% confidence.Comment: Accepted for publication in Proceedings of IAU Symposium 322: The Multi-Messenger Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre, 2 pages, 1 figur

Nano strain-amplifier: making ultra-sensitive piezoresistance in nanowires possible without the need of quantum and surface charge effects

This paper presents an innovative nano strain-amplifier employed to significantly enhance the sensitivity of piezoresistive strain sensors. Inspired from the dogbone structure, the nano strain-amplifier consists of a nano thin frame released from the substrate, where nanowires were formed at the centre of the frame. Analytical and numerical results indicated that a nano strain-amplifier significantly increases the strain induced into a free standing nanowire, resulting in a large change in their electrical conductance. The proposed structure was demonstrated in p-type cubic silicon carbide nanowires fabricated using a top down process. The experimental data showed that the nano strain-amplifier can enhance the sensitivity of SiC strain sensors at least 5.4 times larger than that of the conventional structures. This result indicates the potential of the proposed strain-amplifier for ultra-sensitive mechanical sensing applications.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

The fluctuation energy balance in non-suspended fluid-mediated particle transport

Here we compare two extreme regimes of non-suspended fluid-mediated particle transport, transport in light and heavy fluids ("saltation" and "bedload", respectively), regarding their particle fluctuation energy balance. From direct numerical simulations, we surprisingly find that the ratio between collisional and fluid drag dissipation of fluctuation energy is significantly larger in saltation than in bedload, even though the contribution of interparticle collisions to transport of momentum and energy is much smaller in saltation due to the low concentration of particles in the transport layer. We conclude that the much higher frequency of high-energy particle-bed impacts ("splash") in saltation is the cause for this counter-intuitive behavior. Moreover, from a comparison of these simulations to Particle Tracking Velocimetry measurements which we performed in a wind tunnel under steady transport of fine and coarse sand, we find that turbulent fluctuations of the flow produce particle fluctuation energy at an unexpectedly high rate in saltation even under conditions for which the effects of turbulence are usually believed to be small

End Zone Reinforcement for Pretensioned Concrete Girders

In this study, a literature review was conducted to establish the background of current specifications and to evaluate the applicability of various theories and methods for design of end zone reinforcement. Analytical methods reviewed in this paper include finite element analysis, strut-and-tie modeling, and the Gergely-Sozen equivalent beam method. Previous experimental work combined with work conducted as part of this study was used to correlate between various theoretical and experimental results. This paper illustrates that no single theoretical method adequately represents the complex behavior at the end of a pretensioned concrete member. A general semi-empirical design procedure is proposed here. It is based on theoretical behavior and experimental observation. Standard reinforcement details are given. The proposed procedure could result in significant reduction in the amount of reinforcement while maintaining acceptable crack control at the member end. Application of the proposed procedure to highly pretensioned bridge girders is demonstrated