VALUE-BASED PERCEPTION OF FAKE MOBILE PHONES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

With the recent rapid growth of fake mobile phones in China’s mobile market, the objective of this study is to address this important issue by exploring the specific antecedents of consumers’ perception of value, as drawn from value-based theory. Perceived risks, which are modelled by four risk dimensions (physical, performance, social, and warranty), and value for money, are highlighted as the two key precursors of the perceived value and, further, relationships among these dimensions are examined by Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. The results of this empirical research, as expected, support the dimension of perceived risk consisting of the four types of perceived risk, and the impact on perceived value and value for money. Furthermore, the influence of value perceived as value for money is also confirmed to have a positive correlation

Restarted Hessenberg method for solving shifted nonsymmetric linear systems

It is known that the restarted full orthogonalization method (FOM) outperforms the restarted generalized minimum residual (GMRES) method in several circumstances for solving shifted linear systems when the shifts are handled simultaneously. Many variants of them have been proposed to enhance their performance. We show that another restarted method, the restarted Hessenberg method [M. Heyouni, M\'ethode de Hessenberg G\'en\'eralis\'ee et Applications, Ph.D. Thesis, Universit\'e des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France, 1996] based on Hessenberg procedure, can effectively be employed, which can provide accelerating convergence rate with respect to the number of restarts. Theoretical analysis shows that the new residual of shifted restarted Hessenberg method is still collinear with each other. In these cases where the proposed algorithm needs less enough CPU time elapsed to converge than the earlier established restarted shifted FOM, weighted restarted shifted FOM, and some other popular shifted iterative solvers based on the short-term vector recurrence, as shown via extensive numerical experiments involving the recent popular applications of handling the time fractional differential equations.Comment: 19 pages, 7 tables. Some corrections for updating the reference

An Empirical Evaluation Of User Satisfaction With A School Nursing Information System

The adoption of a school nursing information system is considered one of the most efficient ways in which to document health records as well as monitor health conditions electronically. However, despite the importance of computerized health records in school nursing practice, few studies have examined user satisfaction of a school nursing information system. The aim of this study is to investigate the critical factors effecting school nurses’ satisfaction with a school nursing information system Utilizing a survey approach, questionnaires are distributed to nurses working in a primary or high school which introduces a new school nursing information system. The findings show several factors, including perceived usefulness, perceived of ease of use, training and workload are significant with user satisfaction. These results suggest that school nursing information system designers should comprehensively understand users’ demands and perceptions about the system, which will further facilitate user satisfaction, decrease their workload, and ultimately enhance job performance

CCN2 Enhances Resistance to Cisplatin-Mediating Cell Apoptosis in Human Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common form of malignant bone tumor and is an aggressive malignant neoplasm exhibiting osteoblastic differentiation. Cisplatin is one of the most efficacious antitumor drugs for osteosarcoma patients. However, treatment failures are common due to the development of chemoresistance. CCN2 (also known as CTGF), is a secreted protein that binds to integrins, modulates the invasive behavior of certain human cancer cells. However, the effect of CCN2 in cisplatin-mediated chemotherapy is still unknown. Here, we found that CCN2 was upregulated in human osteosarcoma cells after treatment with cisplatin. Moreover, overexpression of CCN2 increased the resistance to cisplatin-mediated cell apoptosis. In contrast, reduction of CCN2 by CCN2 shRNA promoted the chemotherapeutic effect of cisplatin. We also found that CCN2 provided resistance to cisplatin-induced apoptosis through upregulation of Bcl-xL and survivin. Knockdown of Bcl-xL or survivin removed the CCN2-mediated resistance to apoptosis induced by cisplatin. On the other hand, CCN2 also promoted FAK, MEK, and ERK survival signaling pathways to enhance tumor survival during cisplatin treatment. In a mouse xenograft model, overexpression of CCN2 promoted resistance to cisplatin. However, knockdown of CCN2 increased the therapeutic effect of cisplatin. Therefore, our data suggest that CCN2 might be a critical oncogene of human osteosarcoma for cisplatin-resistance and supported osteosarcoma cell growth in vivo and in vitro

Controlling periodic Fano resonances of quantum acoustic waves with a giant atom coupled to microwave waveguide

Nanoscale Fano resonances, with applications from telecommunications to ultra-sensitive biosensing, have prompted extensive research. We demonstrate that a superconducting qubit, jointly coupled to microwave waveguides and an inter-digital transducer composite device, can exhibit acoustic Fano resonances. Our analytical framework, leveraging the Taylor series approximation, elucidates the origins of these quantum acoustic resonances with periodic Fano-like interference. By analyzing the analytical Fano parameter, we demonstrate that the Fano resonances and their corresponding Fano widths near the resonance frequency of a giant atom can be precisely controlled and manipulated by adjusting the time delay. Moreover, not just the near-resonant Fano profiles, but the entire periodic Fano resonance features can be precisely modulated from Lorentz, Fano to quasi-Lorentz shapes by tuning the coupling strength of the microwave waveguide. Our analytical framework offers insights into the control and manipulation of periodic Fano resonances in quantum acoustic waves, thereby presenting significant potential for applications such as quantum information processing, sensing, and communication.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure