Consumers’ Attitudes towards Online Advertising: A Model of Personalization, Informativeness, Privacy Concern and Flow Experience

Online personalized advertising has been widely adopted in China in the recent years, leading to both positive and negative results. This study endeavors to examine the impact of perceived personalization of online advertising on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising. A total of 472 questionnaires were administered and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results show that perceived personalization exerts a positive impact through perceived informativeness, and a negative impact through privacy concerns. However, the positive effect was determined to be stronger and thus perceived personalization had an overall positive impact. Additionally, the results showed that both effects were mediated by flow experience. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings were discussed

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and leadership: validation of a multi-factor framework in the United Kingdom (UK)

Global surveys indicate that employee engagement costs nearly £70 billion per year in the UK alone with nascent improvement from 2011 to this date. Recognising employee disengagement as a threat to global socio-economic sustainability, experts and scholars offer CSR and employee-centric leadership as practical solutions. Visionary and servant leadership incite superior employee efforts through fair and ethical work values, but past theory and research show limited research on micro-processes that link CSR to employee outcomes. This study tested a value-centered model to examine if the two leadership styles and overall fairness can explain the positive relationship between CSR and extra effort. Data analysis of 512 employee self-reports using the structural equation modelling (SEM), the PROCESS approach and other techniques showed that executive’s CSR values cue to employee visionary and servant leadership, which influence extra effort both directly and indirectly (through overall fairness). Even though employees strongly endorsed the positive influence of universal visionary prototype, overall fairness was more strongly perceived in servant leadership. The paper offers practical implications for organizational theorists and practitioners

Mapping winter wheat with combinations of temporally aggregated Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data in Shandong Province, China

Winter wheat is one of the major cereal crops in China. The spatial distribution of winter wheat planting areas is closely related to food security; however, mapping winter wheat with time-series finer spatial resolution satellite images across large areas is challenging. This paper explores the potential of combining temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data available via the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for mapping winter wheat in Shandong Province, China. First, six phenological median composites of Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI reflectance measures were generated by a temporal aggregation technique according to the winter wheat phenological calendar, which covered seedling, tillering, over-wintering, reviving, jointing-heading and maturing phases, respectively. Then, Random Forest (RF) classifier was used to classify multi-temporal composites but also mono-temporal winter wheat development phases and mono-sensor data. The results showed that winter wheat could be classified with an overall accuracy of 93.4% and F1 measure (the harmonic mean of producer’s and user’s accuracy) of 0.97 with temporally aggregated Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data were combined. As our results also revealed, it was always good to classify multi-temporal images compared to mono-temporal imagery (the overall accuracy dropped from 93.4% to as low as 76.4%). It was also good to classify Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI imagery combined instead of classifying them individually. The analysis showed among the mono-temporal winter wheat development phases that the maturing phase’s and reviving phase’s data were more important than the data for other mono-temporal winter wheat development phases. In sum, this study confirmed the importance of using temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data combined and identified key winter wheat development phases for accurate winter wheat classification. These results can be useful to benefit on freely available optical satellite data (Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI) and prioritize key winter wheat development phases for accurate mapping winter wheat planting areas across China and elsewhere

Experimental Study on Bonding Performance between Prestressed Concrete Pipe Piles and Core Grout

To make the bearing capacity tests safer and more affordable for prestressed high-strength concrete (PHC) piles, this paper proposes a reaction device for anchor piles filled with core grout based on the geometric and mechanical characteristics of PHC piles. The proposed reaction device has the advantages of convenient construction, strong controllability of the connection quality and low cost. In addition, the pile will not experience prestress unloading or tensile stress under the effect of the upward pulling load. To promote the application of the reaction device developed for PHC pile bearing capacity tests, experimental studies are conducted on the bonding performance between the core grout and the inner wall of the PHC pile. The influence of various factors such as the strength of the core grout, the grouting length, the curing time, and the inner diameter of the PHC pile on the bond strength between the core grout and the inner wall of the PHC pile are investigated. Results show that as the inner diameter of the PHC pile increases, the bond strength between the core grout and the inner wall of the PHC pile decreases with a maximum difference of 5%. The bond strength decreases as the grouting length increases, and gradually stabilizes, with a difference of no more than 10% between the maximum and minimum bond strength values. The higher the strength of the grout is, the greater the bond strength between the core grout and the inner wall of the PHC pile is. The bond strength between the core grout and the inner wall of the PHC pile increases with the increase of the curing time within 28 days of curing, and the bond strength at 3 days meets the requirements of the PHC pile bearing capacity test

adaptive bandwidth mean shift object tracking

In this paper, a novel adaptive bandwidth mean shift algorithm toward 2D object tracking is proposed. It can simultaneously tracks the scale and orientation besides position in real time. The feature histogram weighted by a kernel with adaptive bandwidt

Research on Surface Water Quality Assessment and Its Driving Factors: A Case Study in Taizhou City, China

It is necessary to assess and analyze the factors that influence surface water since they are crucial to human activities such as agriculture, raising livestock, and industry. Previous research has mostly focused on how land use and landscape patterns affect the quality of surface waters; it has seldom addressed the industrial and agricultural production activities that are directly connected to human society. Therefore, the research area’s surface water quality was assessed by single factor index (SFI) and composite water quality index (WQI), divided into flood and non-flood periods, and water quality indicators with severe pollution and significant seasonal variations were selected; A total of 28 indicators were selected from three main factors-topography, socio-economic, and land use type-and analyzed using the Spearman correlation coefficient model. (1) SFI data reveal substantial seasonal changes in pH, DO, NH3-N, TN, and TP water quality indicators. The well-developed agricultural and aquaculture in the studied region is the primary cause of the excess TN and NH3-N concentrations; (2) The sample points’ water quality index (WQI) scores range from 50 to 80, with 62% of them having “medium” water quality; (3) The study area’s seasonal variation in water quality is primarily caused by human socio-economic activities (GDP, industrial effluent discharge, COD discharge, aquatic product quality, and the proportion of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries), as well as land use type (forest, shrubland, and cropland). Topography has little effect on the study area’s surface water quality. This study offers a fresh viewpoint on surface water quality management and driver analysis, and a new framework for managing and safeguarding aquatic ecosystems

UV/Advanced Oxidation Process for Removing Humic Acid from Natural Water: Comparison of Different Methods and Effect of External Factors

Humic acid (HA) is an organic compound naturally present in aquatic environments. It has been found to have detrimental effects on water color, the transport of heavy metals, and the elimination of disinfection by-products (DBPs), thereby exerting an impact on human health. This study introduced four synergistic ultraviolet/advanced oxidation processes (UV/AOPs) systems aimed at eliminating HA from water. The research explored the effect of solution pH, duration of illumination, initial reactant concentration, and oxidant concentration on the degradation of HA. The results indicated that the mineralization rate achieved by individual UV or oxidant systems was less than 15%, which is significantly lower compared to UV/AOPs systems. Among these methods, the UV/peroxymonosulfate (UV/PMS) process demonstrated the highest effectiveness, achieving a mineralization rate of 94.15%. UV/peroxydisulfate (UV/PDS) and UV/sodium percarbonate (SPC) were subsequently implemented, with UV/sulfite (S(IV)) demonstrating the lowest effectiveness at 19.8%. Optimal degradation efficiency was achieved when the initial concentration of HA was 10 mg/L, the concentration of PMS was 3 mmol/L, and the initial pH was set at 5, with an illumination time of 180 min. This experimental setup resulted in high degradation efficiencies for chemical oxygen demand (COD), UV254, and HA, reaching 96.32%, 97.34%, and 92.09%, respectively. The energy efficiency of this process (EE/O) was measured at 0.0149 (kWh)/m3, indicating the capability of the UV/PMS system to efficiently degrade and mineralize HA in water. This offers theoretical guidance for the engineered implementation of a UV/PAM process in the treatment of HA

Cell Membrane Surface Potential (ψ0) Plays a Dominant Role in the Phytotoxicity of Copper and Arsenate1[W]

Negative charges at cell membrane surfaces (CMS) create a surface electrical potential (ψ0) that affects ion concentrations at the CMS and consequently affects the phytotoxicity of metallic cations and metalloid anions in different ways. The ζ potentials of root protoplasts of wheat (Triticum aestivum), as affected by the ionic environment of the solution, were measured and compared with the values of ψ0 calculated with a Gouy-Chapman-Stern model. The mechanisms for the effects of cations (H+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+) on the acute toxicity of Cu2+ and As(V) to wheat were studied in terms of ψ0. The order of effectiveness of the ions in reducing the negativity of ψ0 was H+ > Ca2+ ≈ Mg2+ > Na+ ≈ K+. The calculated values of ψ0 were proportional to the measured ζ potentials (r2 = 0.93). Increasing Ca2+ or Mg2+ activities in bulk-phase media resulted in decreased CMS activities of Cu2+ ({Cu2+}0) and increased CMS activities of As(V) ({As(V)}0). The 48-h EA50{Cu2+}b ({Cu2+} in bulk-phase media accounting for 50% inhibition of root elongation over 48 h) increased initially and then declined, whereas the 48-h EA50{As(V)}b decreased linearly. However, the intrinsic toxicity of Cu2+ (toxicity expressed in terms of {Cu2+}0) appeared to be enhanced as ψ0 became less negative and the intrinsic toxicity of As(V) appeared to be reduced. The ψ0 effects, rather than site-specific competitions among ions at the CMS (invoked by the biotic ligand model), may play the dominant role in the phytotoxicities of Cu2+ and As(V) to wheat

Graphene Oxide Adsorption Enhanced by Attapulgite to Remove Pb (II) from Aqueous Solution

To improve the adsorption and separation efficiency of lead-containing wastewater by graphene oxide (GO), attapulgite (ATP) was used through a simple hydrothermal reaction. The prepared GO was characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR, and XPS. The adsorption properties of the prepared GO were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity of Pb2+ on as-prepared GO at pH 5 and 25 °C was 450.9 mg/g. It is concluded that the as-prepared GO can be used as a high-efficiency adsorbent for lead-containing wastewater

Experimental Study on Bonding Properties between Finishing Rolled Rebar and Grouting Material

In bearing capacity testing of prestressed concrete pipe piles, grouting material is filled up to the bottom of the pipe pile, which is equipped with a finishing rolled rebar. The reaction force of the reaction beam is transferred to the anchor pile through the bonding force between the finishing rolled rebar and grouting material. Therefore, investigating the bonding properties between the finishing rolled rebar and grouting material is essential to remove barriers to the application of the anchor pile method in bearing capacity testing of the prestressed concrete pipe pile. In this study, the bonding properties of 11 groups of specimens were studied through pull-out tests, and the effects of the cover thickness, diameter, and anchorage length of reinforcement on the bond strength between finishing rolled rebar and grouting material as well as on the bond stress-slip curve were explored. The test results showed that the bond stress-slip curve between finishing rolled rebar and grouting material can be divided into two stages, i.e., slip stage and splitting failure stage. In the slip stage, a linear relationship exists between bond stress and slip amount, and microcracks appear in the grouting material around the finishing rolled rebar. In the splitting failure stage, the slip amount increases rapidly under uplift load. Finally, the grouting material around the finishing rolled rebar forms a failure zone, and splitting failure occurs. The bonding capacity and bond strength between finishing rolled rebar and grouting material increase with the increasing cover thickness of the rebar. The bond strength is the maximum for a relative cover thickness of 3.0, and the difference between the maximum and minimum values is more than 9%. The bonding capacity between rebar and grouting material increases slightly with the increasing rebar diameter, but the bond strength decreases with the diameter, and the difference between the maximum and minimum bond strengths is more than 21%. As the contact area between finishing rolled rebar and grouting material increases, the bonding capacity between them increases with the increasing anchorage length of the rebar. However, the bond strength first increases, then decreases, and finally stabilizes with the increasing anchorage length, and the difference between the maximum and minimum bond strengths exceeds 14.64%