“Does your backyard nurture loyal customers?”: The role of personal reciprocity in the relationship between satisfaction with an e-retailer sponsored virtual community and customer loyalty

An e-retailer sponsored virtual community (ESVC), as the backyard of an e-commerce website, provides consumers with an online platform to play with each other. It also facilitates consumer-to-e-retailer communications. How to drive value from consumer participation in ESVC becomes important in this context. In this research, the role of personal reciprocity as the mediator between a consumer’s satisfaction with ESVC and consumer loyalty toward e-retailers was investigated. Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey. A pilot analysis was performed based on limited data collection. Results, limitations and future directions are discussed. Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey. A pilot analysis was performed based on limited data collection. Results, limitations and future directions are discussed

Influences of E-Retailer Sponsored Virtual Community on Consumer Loyalty: An Exploration of Underlying Mechanisms

An e-retailer sponsored virtual community (ESVC), as the backyard of an e-commerce website, provides consumers with an online platform to play with each other. Different from transactional e-commerce platform, ESVC assembles consumers together to fulfil their social needs. In recent years, with the popular of Web 2.0 information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-retailers also start to integrate social media within ESVC. This greatly increases consumers’ online community participation, as social media facilitate information sharing and interactions among community members with a social flavour. Moreover, social media provide a variety of IT artefacts to visualize the interactions between consumers and e-retailer, which reshapes the relationship between e-retailer and customer as a triad model. However, in this new context, the influences of ESVC characteristics and IT artefacts on e-retailer-customer relationship were not well investigated. Some researchers have made effort to open the “black box” between ESVC with social media investment and customer loyalty, but still lack theoretical foundations. This research explores the underlying mechanisms from a new perspective, and proposes a theoretical framework based on reciprocal theory

m-Government in China: Observations and Reflections

Mobile and wireless technologies (MWTs), such as wireless laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), mobile phones, smart phones, etc., have deeply penetrated our lives. Government agencies use MWTs to enhance their managerial effectiveness and provide high-level services to citizens taking advantage of its characteristics of mobility, ubiquity, provision of other location-based government services, and on-time information delivery. Mobile government (m- Government) is forming diversely within (as well as between) different countries. China currently has 738.57 million mobile phone users and 29 cities are deploying “Wireless City” projects. Within this context, we chose six different cities in China to examine m-Government maturity and assess the deployment of m-Government services. We further explored mobile and wireless technology (MWT) application and implications in conjunction with a special project in Beijing. Results are discussed and conclusions are drawn

Investigation of magnesium hydroxide functionalized by polydopamine/transition metal ions on flame retardancy of epoxy resin.

Aiming to impart epoxy resin (EP) with flame retardancy, magnesium hydroxide (MDH) was sequentially functionalized with four transition metals and polydopamine (PDA) to prepare MDH@M-PDA (M includes Fe3+, Co2+, Cu2+, Ni2+). Compared with MDH, MDH@M-PDA presented better dispersion in EP matrix. The results illustrated that a 30 mass% of MDH@Fe-PDA imparted the EP matrix with best fire retardancy and thermal stability. Specifically, the resultant EP/MDH/MDH@Fe-PDA composites remarkably reduced flammability, which is reflected by high LOI value of 29.3% and UL-94 V-0 ratings. The peak heat release rate (PHRR) and total smoke production (TSP) were reduced by 52% and 21%, respectively. Moreover, the impact and tensile strength of EP/MDH/MDH@M-PDA composites are improved compared with EP/MDH due to the better chemical compatibility of PDA in the EP matrix. Notably, this work provided a feasible design for organo-modified MDH and enriched its practical applications of MDH as functional fillers to polymers.post-print2133 K

Public involvement in setting a national research agenda

<p>(A) Graphical map of the BLAST results showing nucleotide identity between <i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i> mitogenome and 15 related species listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0136297#pone.0136297.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>, as generated by the CGView comparison tool (CCT). CCT arranges BLAST result in an order where sequence that is most similar to the reference (<i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i>) is placed closer to the outer edge of the map. The rings labelled 1 to17 indicate BLAST results of <i>A</i>. <i>fasciata</i> mitogenome against <i>A</i>. <i>chrysaetos</i>, <i>N</i>. <i>nipalensis</i>, <i>N</i>. <i>alboniger</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>cheela</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>monachus</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>lagopus</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>buteo</i>, <i>B</i>. <i>buteo burmanicus</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>soloensis</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>virgatus</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>gentilis</i>, <i>A</i>. <i>nisus</i>, <i>P</i>. <i>haliaetus</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>serpentarius</i>, <i>C</i>. <i>aura</i>, <i>P</i>. <i>badius</i>, and <i>S</i>. <i>leptogrammica</i>, respectively. (B) Nucleotide-based phylogenetic tree of 16 Accipitriformes species, with two Strigiformes birds as outgroups. This analysis is based on 13PCGs. Both ML and Bayesian analyses produced identical tree topologies. The ML bootstrap and Bayesian posterior probability values for each node are indicated.</p

Identifying circRNA–miRNA–mRNA Regulatory Networks in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a frequent and severe side effect of first-line chemotherapeutic agents. The association between circular RNAs (circRNAs) and CIPN remains unclear. In this study, CIPN models were constructed with Taxol, while 134 differentially expressed circRNAs, 353 differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs, and 86 differentially expressed messenger RNAs (mRNAs) were identified utilizing RNA sequencing. CircRNA-targeted microRNAs (miRNAs) were predicted using miRanda, and miRNA-targeted mRNAs were predicted using TargetScan and miRDB. The intersection of sequencing and mRNA prediction results was selected to establish the circRNA–miRNA–mRNA networks, which include 15 circRNAs, 18 miRNAs, and 11 mRNAs. Functional enrichment pathway analyses and immune infiltration analyses revealed that differentially expressed mRNAs were enriched in the immune system, especially in T cells, monocytes, and macrophages. Cdh1, Satb2, Fas, P2ry2, and Zfhx2 were further identified as hub genes and validated by RT-qPCR, correlating with macrophages, plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and central memory CD4 T cells in CIPN. Additionally, we predicted the associated diseases, 36 potential transcription factors (TFs), and 30 putative drugs for hub genes using the DisGeNET, TRRUST, and DGIdb databases, respectively. Our results indicated the crucial role of circRNAs, and the immune microenvironment played in CIPN, providing novel insights for further research