What Drives Consumers in China to Buy Clothing Online? Application of the Technology Acceptance Model

An enormous number of Internet users have made China a profitable e-commerce marketplace, and clothing is one of the most frequently purchased items. This study explores the predictors of consumers’ motivation to buy clothing online in China by extending the technology acceptance model. Data were collected via an online questionnaire, resulting in 504 returned responses. The results indicate that perceived usefulness has a significant effect on consumers’ intention to buy clothing online; however, no direct relationship between perceived ease of use and buying intention was found. Furthermore, perceived convenience, perceived money saving, and perceived time-saving can explain why consumers perceive buying clothing online as useful, and these perceptions have positive effects on buying intention. Additionally, the findings imply that fashion innovativeness and friend circles significantly influence consumers’ intention to purchase clothing online. This article discusses the results and provides recommendations for implication and future research

The Effect of macroeconomic variables on the growth of guarantee insurance

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2011As world economy has shown dynamic reaction to the changes of market leading indicator including exchange rate changes, stock price, current account and GDP, economic growth also has given impact on numerous industries directly as well as indirectly. In recent years, a number of researchers conducted studies on the relationship between the growth of economy and financial sector. However, the research on the insurance industry development has been done infrequently even if insurance is one of the important sectors of the financial industry. This paper covers how much impact of economic indicators is given to the development of surety and credit insurance in Korea, one of the non-life insurance classes. According to the monthly premium income and the economic factors during the first decade of this century, each economic indicator has different effects to the development of each surety and credit insurance product, as well as, total premium income. This article uses ADF tests, Granger causality test and cointegration test, and introduces the impulse response analysis to observe responses of surety and credit insurance industry to economic shocks.masterpublishedby Min Young Hong

Bioreactor systems are essentially required for stem cell bioprocessing

As stem cell technologies have rapidly advanced, the stem cell therapy market has been forecast to reach hundreds of millions of USD in market value within the next 5 years. Regulatory frameworks throughout the stem cell market have been concurrently established, which will encourage the advent of a variety of stem cell products in our society. Given the circumstances, stem cell bioprocessing has emerged as one of the most critical fields of research to address a number of issues that currently exist in manufacturing clinical-grade stem cells at an industrial scale. Highly specialized bioreactor designs are at the center of essentially required technologies in the field of stem cell bioprocessing, which ultimately aim for automated, standardized, traceable, cost-effective, safe, and regulatory-compliant manufacture of stem cell-based products. In this review, recently developed bioreactor designs to introduce important regulatory factors to three-dimensional stem cell culture are exemplified, and prerequisites for the ideal bioreactor systems for stem cell bioprocessing are discussed

An Annular Array MPT for Enhanced Generation of Omnidirectional SH Waves in a Plate

If guided wave transducers are fabricated in an annular array type, the excitation and measurement of target guided wave modes could be considerably enhanced (see, e.g., [1]). Accordingly, various annular array transducers have been developed, including those generating omnidirectional Lamb waves in a plate. Here, we newly consider an annular array type MPT (magnetostrictive patch transducer) to generate enhanced SH (shear-horizontal) waves in a plate. This annular array MPT is based on our earlier development of an omnidirectional SH wave MPT [2]. For wave field analysis by the annular array SH wave MPT, the strain response in a plate due to wave excitation by the MPT is calculated by using the Green’s function approach [3]. Using the analysis, an optimal configuration of the annular array MPT which can maximize the transducer output at the given frequency is determined. For the validation of numerical predictions, a series of experiments with varying frequencies were carried out and the numerical results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results

Crude Extracts of Caenorhabditis elegans Suppress Airway Inflammation in a Murine Model of Allergic Asthma

Epidemiological studies suggest an inverse relationship between helminth infections and allergic disease, and several helminth-derived products have been shown to suppress allergic responses in animals. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of a crude extract of Caenorhabditis elegans on allergic airway inflammation in a murine model of asthma. Allergic airway inflammation was induced in BALB/c mice by sensitization with ovalbumin. The effect of the C. elegans crude extract on the development of asthma and on established asthma was evaluated by analyzing airway hyperresponsiveness, serum antibody titers, lung histology and cell counts and cytokine levels in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. The role of IFN-γ in the suppression of asthma by the C. elegans crude extract was investigated in IFN-γ knockout and wild-type mice. When mice were sensitized with ovalbumin together with the crude extract of C. elegans, cellular infiltration into the lung was dramatically reduced in comparison with the ovalbumin-treated group. Treatment of mice with the C. elegans crude extract significantly decreased methacholine-induced airway hyperresponsiveness and the total cell counts and levels of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid but increased the levels of IFN-γ and IL-12. Sensitization with the C. elegans crude extract significantly diminished the IgE and IgG1 responses but provoked elevated IgG2a levels. However, the suppressive effect of the C. elegans crude extract was abolished in IFN-γ knockout mice, and the Th2 responses in these mice were as strong as those in wild-type mice sensitized with ovalbumin. The crude extract of C. elegans also suppressed the airway inflammation associated with established asthma. This study provides new insights into immune modulation by the C. elegans crude extract, which suppressed airway inflammation in mice not only during the development of asthma but also after its establishment by skewing allergen-induced Th2 responses to Th1 responses

Analysis of benzo[c] phenanthridine alkaloids in Eschscholtzia californica cell culture using HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS

Effective HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-MS/MS methods have been developed for the analysis of eight benzo[c] phenanthridine alkaloids (sanguinarine, chelirubine, macarpine, chelerythrine, dihydrosanguinarine, dihydrochelirubine, dihydromacarpine and dihydrochelerythrine), which are important metabolites in Eschscholtzia californica cell culture. By adopting a ternary gradient pump system, the dihydro-form alkaloids hardly separable from each other could be successfully separated, and all the target alkaloids could be simultaneously quantified with the LOD values of 0.01-0.79 mu g/mL and the LOQ values of 0.03-3.59 mu g/mL. This HPLC-DAD method was further confirmed by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS system in multiple reaction monitoring mode. Each separated HPLC peak was identified as the target alkaloid, showing its relevant ionized molecule and selected fragment ion. By applying the established method, alkaloid production during the E. californica cell culture could be successfully monitored and some valuable information on its metabolism could be deduced.11Ysciescopu