Undergraduates’ attitudes toward mobile advertising

Cep telefonları gibi mobil araçların hızla yaygınlaşması, pazarlama için yeni bir iletişim kanalı ortaya çıkarmıştır. Günümüzde cep telefonları ile çoğunlukla kısa mesaj (KM) reklâmcılığı yapılmaktadır. Bu çalışma, üniversite öğrencilerinin KM reklâmcılığına karşı tutumlarını belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre, genç tüketicilerin KM reklâmcılığına karşı tutumlarını belirlemeye yönelik faktörler; eğlendirme, bilgilendirme, sinirlendirme, güvenilirlik, genel tutum, izinli reklâmcılık ve ödüllü reklâmcılık olarak belirlenmiştir. Öğrenciler KM reklâmlarını eğlendirici, bilgilendirici ve güvenilir bulmamaktadırlar. Aynı zamanda da sinir bozucu olduklarını düşünmektedirler. Öğrencilerin KM reklâmlarına karşı genel tutumları olumsuzdur. Ancak izinli veya ödüllü reklâmlara karşı tutumları olumludur. Bu nedenle, potansiyel tüketicilere izinsiz veya ödülsüz KM reklâmı göndermek iyi bir pazarlama stratejisi olmayabilir.The rapid proliferation of mobile devices such as cellular phones has created a new communication channel for marketing. Currently, cellular phones are mostly used for Short Messaging Service (SMS) advertising. The aim of this study is to explore the factors that underline undergraduates’ attitudes toward SMS advertising. The results obtained indicated factors such as entertainment, informativeness, irritation, reliability, general attitude and permission and incentive-based advertising. The undergraduates do not perceive SMS advertisements to be entertaining, informative and reliable. Moreover, they find SMS advertisements annoying. It was also found that the students as consumers generally have negative attitudes toward SMS advertisements. However, they have positive attitudes toward permission or incentive based SMS advertising. Thus, sending SMS advertisements to potential customers without prior permission or incentive doesn’t seem to be a good marketing strategy

A study on the reasons of why the internet banking is not used widely by consumers

Ülkemizdeki bankaların çoğunluğu ürünlerinin tamamına yakınını internet üzerinden, ya tamamen bedava ya da çok cüzi tutara tüketicilerin hizmetine sunmalarına rağmen, internet bankacılığı (İB) kullanımının hala çok düşük olduğu görülmektedir. Veriler, internet kullanan yetişkinlerin sadece %20-30'unun internet bankacılığından yararlandığını göstermektedir. Bu araştırma, internet kullanan tüketicilerin İB kullanmama nedenlerini belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Anket yöntemi ile elde edilen sonuçlar, İB kullanmamanın en önemli nedeni olarak, tüketicilerin paralarını sanal aleme teslim etme konusunda duydukları "güvenlik kaygıları" olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. İlişki testleri, tüketicilerin güvenlik kaygılarının önem derecesinin, demografik değişkenlerden (cinsiyet hariç) ve internet kullanma alışkanlıklarından (internet'e giriş yeri hariç) etkilenmediğini göstermektedir. İşlem maliyetlerini azaltarak rekabette avantajı sağlamak isteyen bankaların, İB'nin güvenliği, kullanımı, faydaları ve işlem maliyetleri hakkında tüketicileri bilgilendirmeyi pazarlama programlarına almaları gerekir.Although the majority of the banks in Turkey offers their products completely or almost free via Internet to consumers, it is a fact that the use of IB is still very low. The data shows that only 20-30 % of the adults using the Internet benefit from IB. This paper aims to explore the reasons why Internet using consumers do not use Internet banking (IB). According to the results obtained from our questionnaire study the most important reason for not using IB is the consumers' "security concerns" about conducting their banking transactions in cyberspace. Chi-square and correlation tests show that the degree of impotance given by the consumers' to the security concerns has nothing to do with demographic variables (except for gender) and Internet using habits (except for the place where the users enter Internet). Banks aiming at having an advantage over their rivals in competition by decreasing the transaction costs, need to take the security, the use , the benefits and the transaction costs of the IB into account when formulating their marketing programs to increase the awareness of consumers

Metabolic Patterning on a Chip: Towards in vitro Liver Zonation of Primary Rat and Human Hepatocytes

An important number of healthy and diseased tissues shows spatial variations in their metabolic capacities across the tissue. The liver is a prime example of such heterogeneity where the gradual changes in various metabolic activities across the liver sinusoid is termed as “zonation” of the liver. Here, we introduce the Metabolic Patterning on a Chip (MPOC) platform capable of dynamically creating metabolic patterns across the length of a microchamber of liver tissue via actively enforced gradients of various metabolic modulators such as hormones and inducers. Using this platform, we were able to create continuous liver tissues of both rat and human origin with gradually changing metabolic activities. The gradients we have created in nitrogen, carbohydrate and xenobiotic metabolisms recapitulated an in vivo like zonation and zonal toxic response. Beyond its application in recapitulation of liver zonation in vitro as we demonstrate here, the MPOC platform can be used and expanded for a variety of purposes including better understanding of heterogeneity in many different tissues during developmental and adult stages

Progressive Hypoxia-on-a-chip: An In Vitro Oxygen Gradient Model for Capturing the Effects of Hypoxia on Primary Hepatocytes in Health and Disease

Oxygen is vital to the function of all tissues including the liver and lack of oxygen, that is, hypoxia can result in both acute and chronic injuries to the liver in vivo and ex vivo. Furthermore, a permanent oxygen gradient is naturally present along the liver sinusoid, which plays a role in the metabolic zonation and the pathophysiology of liver diseases. Accordingly, here, we introduce an in vitro microfluidic platform capable of actively creating a series of oxygen concentrations on a single continuous microtissue, ranging from normoxia to severe hypoxia. This range approximately captures both the physiologically relevant oxygen gradient generated from the portal vein to the central vein in the liver, and the severe hypoxia occurring in ischemia and liver diseases. Primary rat hepatocytes cultured in this microfluidic platform were exposed to an oxygen gradient of 0.3–6.9%. The establishment of an ascending hypoxia gradient in hepatocytes was confirmed in response to the decreasing oxygen supply. The hepatocyte viability in this platform decreased to approximately 80% along the hypoxia gradient. Simultaneously, a progressive increase in accumulation of reactive oxygen species and expression of hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α was observed with increasing hypoxia. These results demonstrate the induction of distinct metabolic and genetic responses in hepatocytes upon exposure to an oxygen (/hypoxia) gradient. This progressive hypoxia‐on‐a‐chip platform can be used to study the role of oxygen and hypoxia‐associated molecules in modeling healthy and injured liver tissues. Its use can be further expanded to the study of other hypoxic tissues such as tumors as well as the investigation of drug toxicity and efficacy under oxygen‐limited conditions

Views of Instructors and Students Regarding Online Measurement and Evaluation Applications

The purpose of this article was to describe online measurement applications in Turkey by using opinions of instructors as practitioners and students about online measurement. The study group of this qualitative research consisted of 8 instructors offering courses in distance education and 46 students of distance education from Karadeniz Technical University and the University of Cumhuriyet. Answers of lecturers and students were often found to be in parallel. This study finds out that one outstanding difference between participants' answers that students found online measurement practices reliable whereas instructors disagreed. Students' opinions about online measuring applications seem more positive than instructors. Our recommendations include taking measures to solve the problems of internet connection, utilizing different types of materials besides multiple-choice items, and preparing of items considering item writing rules regardless of the type of items

Dolarizasyon Endeksleri : Turkiye’deki Dolarizasyon Surecine Iliskin Gostergeler

Dollarization, which can be considered as a wide-spread characteristic of the emerging market economies, is caused by economic units’ holding assets in foreign currency to prevent the value of their financial assets from the risk of devaluation of the national currency and to diversify their portfolio when the asset side of the balance sheets is considered. On the other hand, when the liability side of the balance sheets are considered, firms’, households’ and the government’s borrowing in foreign currency both from domestic and foreign sources causes dollarization. This paper constructs asset, liability and composite dollarization indices as indicators of the lasting dollarization process in Turkey, proposing measures for the degree of dollarization of the Turkish economy. All indices justify the success of the stabilization program that has been conducted since 2002, in reversing the dollarization trend.composite dollarization index, asset dollarization, liability dollarization

Modelo de negocio para Urbana Bikes

El presente documento es el trabajo de grado) realizado por los autores con el fin de optar al título de magíster en Administración (MBA) de la Universidad EAFIT -- Está fundamentado en un estudio comparativo entre los diferentes conceptos de negocio, metodologías de modelos de negocios, planes de negocios y los diversos métodos de abastecimiento -- Arrojó como resultado que la técnica más adecuada para ser aplicada a las características propias de un prototipo de negocio basado en la oportunidad de mercado identificada en el área metropolitana del valle de Aburrá, como son las bicicletas de los tipos fixies, urbanas y eléctricas, es la ontología de modelo de negocios propuesta por Alexander Osterwalder -- Gracias a esta técnica se identificaron, desde el punto de vista estratégico, los elementos de generación de valor del negocio a partir del análisis de la propuesta de valor, los canales de distribución, las relaciones con los futuros clientes, las asociaciones clave, la segmentación del mercado y la estructura de costos, entre otros; además, se establece la forma óptima de abastecimiento de bicicletas para su comercialización -- Cabe resaltar que dichas bicicletas poseen elementos diferenciadores de estilo, confort y practicidad sobre las demás comercializadas en la ciudad y se han convertido en la última tendencia de dicho tipo de vehículos en las principales ciudades del mundo y han llegado a crear un estilo identificado de ciclistas urbanos -- Lo anterior se alinea con un plan estratégico del Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá que busca incentivar el uso de la bicicleta como medio de transporte alternativ

Extended π-conjugated pyrene derivatives: structural, photophysical and electrochemical properties

This article presents a set of extended π-conjugated pyrene derivatives, namely 1,3-di(arylethynyl)-7-tert-butylpyrenes, which were synthesized by a Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira coupling reaction of 1,3-dibromo-7-tert-butylpyrenes with the corresponding arylethynyl group in good yields. Despite the presence of the tert-butyl group located at the 7-position of pyrene, X-ray crystallographic analyses show that the planarity of the Y-shaped molecules still exhibits strong face-to-face π-π stacking in the solid state; all of the compounds exhibit blue or green emission with high quantum yields (QYs) in dichloromethane. DFT calculations and electrochemistry revealed that this category of compound possesses hole-transporting characteristics. In addition, with strong electron-donating (-N(CH₃)₂) or electron-withdrawing (-CHO) groups in 2 d or 2 f, these molecules displayed efficient intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) emissions with solvatochromic shifts from blue to yellow (green) on increasing the solvent polarity. Furthermore, the compounds 2 d and 2 f possess strong CT characteristics