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Drawing from the social-functional perspective, this research explored the differences in consumers’ responses to two types of spokesperson’s smile: broad and slight. The authors identified two boundary conditions: consumer self-construal (independent versus interdependent) and relationship norm (communal versus exchange). The results from two studies show that a spokesperson’s broad smile is more persuasive for consumers with interdependent self-construal in the communal relationship. By contrast, a spokesperson’s slight smile is more persuasive for consumers with independent self-construal in the exchange relationship. Processing fluency serves as the underlying mechanism. The results provide implications for marketers regarding how to use a spokesperson’s smile effectively.

Despite the popular use of cuteness in product designs, especially for foods, little is known about how cuteness influences consumption. This article contributes to the evolving stream of research on cuteness by designing two experiments based on the compatibility principle to examine the contextual factors that moderate the effect of cuteness on food consumption (i.e., food type and consumption motivation). We found that cute food induced more consumption when the food is perceived as vice or under hedonic motivation, whereas neutral food induced more consumption when the food is perceived as virtue or under utilitarian motivation.

Food companies that choose to differentiate themselves by marketing their products as organic assume that the organic label tells consumers that the food is healthy. This research examines whether the organic label on a food product always increases consumer consumption of that product. Two moderators are considered: food type (virtue vs. vice) and consumer differences in health locus-of-control (HLOC) (externals vs. internals). Study 1 indicates that an organic label enhances consumers’ intention to consume vice food, but eliminates their intention to consume virtue food. Study 2 suggests that the joint effect of the organic label and food type differs for externals and internals. The results for externals are consistent with those in Study 1: an organic label increases vice food intake but reduces virtue food intake. Different results are observed for the food intake of people with an internal HLOC: an organic label actually eliminates vice food intake but has no effect on the intake of virtue food. These results show that an organic label can either increase or decrease food consumption depending on food type and HLOC, simultaneously. The findings provide managerial implications for food companies and public policy makers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how quality dimensions in independently owned online brand communities influence purchase intentions via uncertainty reduction and the role of involvement. Design/methodology/approach This work validates the model and hypotheses through non-probabilistic sampling. The online questionnaire was made on the website of MySurvey and an invitation letter was posted to the forums. The respondents received the questionnaire items translated into Chinese. The final survey sample consisted of 235 respondents. Findings Empirical results confirm that as for independently owned online brand communities, their information quality and relationship quality are effective tools for influencing purchase intentions via uncertainty reduction. In addition, the authors demonstrate that involvement has a positively moderating influence on the relationship between uncertainty reduction and purchase intentions. Originality/value The current study moves beyond uncertainty reduction to demonstrate that information quality and relationship quality of forums influenced purchase intention via uncertainty reduction and the moderating variable such as involvement.

This study examines how justifications that are offered by service providers affect the impacts of inferred motives and negative emotions on perceived fairness after service failure. Some researchers have indicated that justifications enhance perceived fairness, whereas others argue that they decrease the post-recovery satisfaction. After analyzing 270 responses, this study found that justifications mitigate the negative effects of inferences regarding service providers’ motives on perceived fairness, while they amplify the effects of negative emotions. Furthermore, when the affective relationship strength between service providers and consumers is greater, justifications effectively minimize the negative consequences of inferred motives and negative emotions.

Recent research suggests that there are increasing opportunities for customer-firm co-production as a means to achieve competitive advantage. This study proposes a model of co-production and investigates the link between co-production and its antecedent factors in a financial services context. The model is empirically tested in a survey of 288 customers of banks (or financial holding companies). Support is found for a contingency model involving customer expertise, service provider expertise, communication and interpersonal relationships along with perceived importance of service and dependence. Theoretical and managerial implications of findings are discussed.

Does visual art enhance the prestige of luxury brands? To test the integration effect of luxury brands and art, we conduct two studies using the Louis Vuitton (LV) brand. This paper shows that visual art enhances consumers’ perceived prestige value, including perceived conspicuous value, perceived unique value, perceived quality value, and perceived hedonic value, but that it has no effect on perceived extended self. Further, this effect is strengthened when the price of the product is between 25 and 50 % higher than the price of a comparable product.

To understand why adolescents pursue state-of-the-art cell phones, this study examines the role of materialism in affecting purchase intentions. The vanity traits of adolescents, peer groups, innovativeness, sales promotion, and advertising and celebrity endorsements were considered as antecedents of materialism to examine how they influence purchasing intentions. The findings reveal that materialism is a crucial personal value that motivates adolescents to purchase state-of-the-art cell phones. In addition, the vanity traits of adolescents, peer groups, innovativeness, and sales promotions strengthen materialism. The implications of the findings in relation to the conceptualization and management of adolescents’ materialism are briefly discussed.

Most of the studies on bundling have focused on pure bundles; the literature has paid little attention to mixed bundles, in which the bundle item could be bought separately. Our research fills the literature gap by conducting a field study and a computer interactive experimental design. The results show that the prices of the focal item and the tie-in item have asymmetric effects on consumers' purchase intentions in regard to the whole bundle. Specifically, a price discount on the focal item is more effective in enhancing purchase intentions than on the tie-in. Also, a high priced tie-in may result in bundle choice deferral. Finally, when consumers choose the tie-in, content preference is more important than brand preference in CD bundle choices. The findings suggest that CD retailers should offer a high price discount on the focal item rather than on the tie-in, in their pricing and product strategies for bundling promotion.

This paper applies a disaggregated approach to segment industrial markets under competitive structures taking the air-freight market for the high-technology product industry in Taiwan as a case study. Data from firms is used to examine the structure of the air freight industry and we find that carriers are clustered into two strategic groups, express and forwarder. Pricing is a leading strategy recognized by customers for forwarders, whereas service punctuality and freight security are the winning strategies for express. The high-tech freight market is classifiable by shipment destination and size.

Synthetic biology has shown its potential and promising applications in the last decade. However, many synthetic gene networks cannot work properly and maintain their desired behaviors due to intrinsic parameter variations and extrinsic disturbances. In this study, the intrinsic parameter uncertainties and external disturbances are modeled in a non-linear stochastic gene network to mimic the real environment in the host cell. Then a non-linear stochastic robust matching design methodology is introduced to withstand the intrinsic parameter fluctuations and to attenuate the extrinsic disturbances in order to achieve a desired reference matching purpose. To avoid solving the Hamilton-Jacobi inequality (HJI) in the non-linear stochastic robust matching design, global linearization technique is used to simplify the design procedure by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). As a result, the proposed matching design methodology of the robust synthetic gene network can be efficiently designed with the help of LMI toolbox in Matlab. Finally, two in silico design examples of the robust synthetic gene network are given to illustrate the design procedure and to confirm the robust model matching performance to achieve the desired behavior in spite of stochastic parameter fluctuations and environmental disturbances in the host cell.

Retailing environments have gone through physical changes and the Internet revolution which intensifies price search and comparison behaviour, however, what customer characteristics – demographics or psychographics – affect price searching and recall? Further, what changes the relationship between the price-searching tendency and price recall? This research develops a framework that integrates the views of the economics of information and psychosocial returns to address these questions. Through point-of-purchase surveys, this study finds that psychographics affect the price-searching tendency directly while demographics do so indirectly through psychographics. In addition, the price-searching tendency has a positive effect on price recall and this relationship is stronger when consumers buy discounted products. Finally, in contrast to previous research, consumers' high tendency to search for price and price recall accuracy and confidence are found.

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine perceptions of unfairness and accompanying cognitive and emotional outcomes exhibited by present versus prospective customers when faced with targeted promotions. The targeted promotions were designed to be alternatively advantageous or disadvantageous to the targeted group.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment was conducted with a two (customers categories: present /prospective customer) × two (inequality conditions: advantaged/disadvantaged condition) between‐subject design. A total of 104 valid questionnaires were completed with a minimum of 24 participants per cell.FindingsPresent customers perceive higher unfairness than prospective customers when faced with disadvantaged conditions. However, perceived unfairness was not significantly different when faced with advantaged conditions. Further, perceived unfairness cognitively and affectively influences purchase intentions through perceived value and negative emotions.Practical implicationsAlthough prospective customers are price‐sensitive, targeted promotions should favor present customers instead of prospective customers to lower the perceived price unfairness of present customers. In addition, when relatively low prices are necessary to attract prospective customers, firms should create a type of “segmentation fence”, where present customers are exposed as little as possible to special offers designed to attract prospective customers.Originality/valueThis research contributes to three streams of literature. The first is related to perceived reference price unfairness, focusing on self/other comparisons (present versus prospective customers) rather than self/self comparisons. The second contribution is related to the outcomes of perceived price unfairness. The mediating effect of perceived value (i.e. cognitive outcomes) and negative emotions (i.e. affective outcomes) between perceived price unfairness and purchase intentions is examined concurrently. The third contribution is that this research raises echoes with the perspective of customer relationship management.

Endoreduplication, the replication of nuclear DNA without subsequent mitosis and cell division is an important component of organ development and is often related to plant cell size. Little is known, however, about the effect of sub-optimal temperatures on the endoreduplication and floral development. We analyzed ploidy levels, cell weight and cell number during flower development in Phalaenopsis aphrodite and Oncidium varicosum grown at 25 and 15 °C. Low temperature decreased the growth rate and the endoreduplication transition rate. A longer growth period compensated for the decreased growth rate so that the distribution of ploidy levels similar at both growth temperatures. Low temperature decreased growth rates and endoreduplication transition rates for both orchid species. These results are consistent with previous studies that endoreduplication cycle may use the same molecular machinery for their DNA replication as that used during the S-phase of the mitotic cell cycle. In both species, the average C value is positively correlated with the average cell fresh weight. However, 15 °C increased the ratio of average C value to average cell fresh weight in P. aphrodite but decreased the ratio in O. varicosum. Although ploidy level plays a role in final cell size, growth temperature modulates the effect ploidy level on final cell weight.

In this study, SnO 2 /TiO 2 thin films are fabricated on SiO 2 /Si and Corning glass 1737 substrates using a R.F. magnetron sputtering process. The gas sensing properties of these films under an oxygen atmosphere with and without UV irradiation are carefully examined. The surface structure, morphology, optical transmission characteristics, and chemical compositions of the films are analyzed by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and PL spectrometry. It is found that the oxygen sensitivity of the films deposited on Corning glass 1737 substrates is significantly lower than that of the films grown on SiO 2 /Si substrates. Therefore, the results suggest that SiO 2 /Si is an appropriate substrate material for oxygen gas sensors fabricated using thin SnO 2 /TiO 2 films.

The role of small heat shock proteins (sHsps) in the cellular chaperone system was examined with application of the feedback control technique widely used in engineering for stabilizing a specific system. We proposed a dynamic feedback control model for the thermotolerance machinery of sHsps from the system biology perspective, and for the first time verified that a system stabilization feedback control scheme is involved in the chaperone protecting activity under heat shock conditions. In the dynamic model of the chaperone protection system, the defense mechanism of sHsps is a sigmoid function and the influence of environment temperatures is a bell-shaped function. The close fit of the system dynamic behaviors to the kinetic data suggests that our system stabilization control model matches the protective mechanism conveyed by sHsps. Furthermore, the temporal changes of the unfolded intermediates and the sHsp-substrate complexes can be predicted by the proposed dynamic stabilization model, which are not easily measured in biochemical experiments. The identified feedback control matrix can be viewed as a biochemical interaction for measuring the protective activity of sHsps qualitatively and quantitatively. Our work introduces an innovative approach for analysis and detecting the kinetics of sHsps to resist protein aggregation from the system stabilization point of view.

The aim of this study is to find the effects of oxygen flow rate during manufacturing on the sensitivity of SnO 2 (tin oxide) thin films to ethanol (C 2 H 5 OH). In this study, an RF sputtering process was employed to fabricate the SnO 2 thin films. The SnO 2 was deposited on gold electrode silicon microchips. A target composed of SnO 2 doped with 1 at.% Li was used with a working pressure of 3 mTorr. The RF power was fixed at 150 W. The reaction gas was a mixture of argon and oxygen. The total flow rate was constant at 50 sccm with the O 2 /Ar ratio varying from 0.2 to 0.8. An annealing heat treatment was employed at 400 °C for 1 h to stabilize the properties of the films. The sensitivity of the film to ethanol was tested by placing the micro-reactor device on a hot plate, heated to 300 °C, and measuring the variation of electrical resistivity of the film with and without the presence of ethanol. The results show that an O 2 /Ar flow ratio of 0.2 produces films with the highest ethanol sensitivity. Before heat treating, the ethanol sensitivity was 126. After heat treating at 400 °C for 1 h, the sensitivity decreased to 104.

Flow cytometry is widely applied in the determination of nuclear DNA content and ploidy level in many organisms. However, a difficulty with flow cytometry is the method's intrinsic inability to tolerate large particles that associate with the isolated nuclei. A suspension of plant nuclei can often contain a high level of crystalline calcium oxalate, which blocks the fluidics system of the flow cytometer. We designed a cotton column and added polyvinylpyrrolidone-40 to the buffer to remove phenolic impurities and cytoplasmic compounds from plant nuclei, making the suspension suitable for flow cytometry. This simple and highly efficient protocol enables isolation of intact nuclei from plant tissues containing high levels of polysaccharides, calcium oxalate crystals and other metabolites. Our protocol resulted in the isolation of intact nuclei from mature orchid leaves. This method can be used on recalcitrant tissues and is particularly effective on plants containing calcium oxalate crystals.

TiO2 thin films when irradiated by UV light with a wavelength of 365 nm is investigated. The results indicate that the annealed samples have higher oxygen sensitivities than the as-deposited samples. The sensitivity of the non-annealed samples increases from 0.70 to 1.15 under UV irradiation, while the sensitivity of the annealed samples increases from 7.17 to 10.60. Therefore, it is clear that UV irradiation causes the sensitivity of the SnO2/TiO2 thin films to increase significantly. Finally, it is found that the oxygen sensitivity of the SnO2/TiO2 thin films increases as the SnO2/TiO2 ratio is reduced.

Motivation: Genome-wide gene expression programs have been monitored and analyzed in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but how cells regulate global gene expression programs in response to environmental changes is still far from being understood. We present a systematic approach to quantitatively characterize the transcriptional regulatory network of the yeast cell cycle. For the interpretative purpose, 20 target genes were selected because their expression patterns fluctuated in a periodic manner concurrent with the cell cycle and peaked at different phases. In addition to the most significant five possible regulators of each specific target gene, the expression pattern of each target gene affected by synergy of the regulators during the cell cycle was characterized. Our first step includes modeling the dynamics of gene expression and extracting the transcription rate from a time-course microarray data. The second step embraces finding the regulators that possess a high correlation with the transcription rate of the target gene, and quantifying the regulatory abilities of the identified regulators. Results: Our network discerns not only the role of the activator or repressor for each specific regulator, but also the regulatory ability of the regulator to the transcription rate of the target gene. The highly coordinated regulatory network has identified a group of significant regulators responsible for the gene expression program through the cell cycle progress. This approach may be useful for computing the regulatory ability of the transcriptional regulatory networks in more diverse conditions and in more complex eukaryotes. Supplementary information: Matlab code and test data are available at http://www.ee.nthu.edu.tw/~bschen/quantitative/regulatory_network.htm

Endoreduplication, a process to amplify nuclear DNA without cell division, is widespread in plants. This study aims to formulate endoreduplication process as a dynamic system using orchid flowers in favor of their slow growth rate. We analyzed the ploidy levels during orchid flower development and proposed an improved model to describe the relationship between endoreduplication and cell growth. Our model combined a logistic growth model with an endoreduplication model of Schweizer et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 92 (1995) 7070]. We found that using the Fermi function to describe the transition rates from one C value to next higher C value significantly improved simulation of changes in growth and endoreduplication. The growth rate, endoreduplication transition rates, and nuclei number of each C level at different developmental stages were computed. Our results indicated that cells with higher C values had lower transition rates and less potential for further endoreduplication, and the time that endoreduplication stopped occurred at the same time flower fresh weight stopped increasing. In addition, average cell fresh weight was positively correlated to average C value, suggesting that endoreduplication is a contributing factor to cell growth.

This study investigates the sources of the comovement of the Taiwan and U.S. stock market. The empirical evidence shows that both economic fundamentals and equity risk premiums can act as transmission mechanisms of both markets. In the meantime, the financial integration is much stronger than real economic integration. Moreover, the deregulation of foreign investments in Taiwan and the Southeast Asian financial crisis in 1997 did not alter the transmission mechanisms of real economic and equity risk premium factors.

Two new linear tri-nickel(II) complexes with an infinite polymeric chain, [Ni 3 (μ 3 -dpa) 4 (C 4 O 4 Me)](BF4) 1 and [Ni 3 (μ 3 -dpa)4(N3)](PF6) 2, [dpa - = di(α-pyridyl)amido anion], have been synthesized and their structures were determined by X-ray diffraction. Compound 1 crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group C 2/c, with a = 19.9078(3), b = 13.2986(2), c = 37.6622(5) A, β = 94.091(1)°, Z = 8. Compound 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P 2 1 /n, with a = 13.323(4), b = 23.217(3), c = 17.528(5) A, β = 94.42(3)°, Z = 4. The two complexes are described as one-dimensional systems with the (C 4 O 4 Me) - , 1, or N 3 - , 2, serving as a μ-(1,3) bridged ligand at the two axial sites of each [Ni 3 (μ 3 -dpa) 4 ] 2 + fragment. The Ni-Ni distances of 2.400(1) and 2.402(1) in 1 and 2.389(2), 2.385(2) in 2 are obviously shorter than those of 2.4325(7), 2.4356(7) in the monomeric complex [Ni 3 (μ 3 -dpa) 4 (N 3 ) 2 ] 3. The magnetic properties of complexes 2 and 3 were studied by susceptibility measurements vs temperature. The Χ M vs T plots of both complexes show a strong antiferromagnetic behavior. The simulated J 1 3 values are -95 cm - 1 and -97 cm - 1 for 2 and 3, respectively.

Nuclear DNA contents were estimated by flow cytometry in 18 Phalaenopsis Blume species and Doritis pulcherrima Lindl. DNA amounts differed 6.07-fold, from 2.74 pg/diploid nuclear DNA content (2C) in P. sanderiana Rchb.f. to 16.61 pg/2C in P. parishii Rchb.f. Nuclear DNA contents of P. aphrodite Rchb.f. clones, W01-38 (2n = 2x = 38), W01-41 (2n = 3x = 57), and W01-22 (2n = 4x = 76), displayed a linear relationship with their chromosome numbers, indicating the accuracy of flow cytometry. Our results also suggest that the 2C-values of the Phalaenopsis sp. correlate with their chromosome sizes. The comparative analyses of DNA contents may provide information to molecular geneticists and systematists for genome analysis in Phalaenopsis. Endoreduplication was found in various tissues of P. equestris at different levels. The highest degree of endoreduplication in P. equestris was detected in leaves.

The linear pentanuclear chromium complexes [CrII5(μ5-tpda)4Cl2] (1), [CrII5(μ5-tpda)4(NCS)2] (2), [CrIIICrII4(μ5-tpda)4F2](BF4) (3), and [CrIIICrII4(μ5-tpda)4F(OTf)](OTf) (4), with four all-syn tri(α-pyridyl)diamido dianion (tpda2–) ligands, have been prepared and structurally characterized. Compounds 1 and 2 possess a delocalized Cr(II)–Cr(II)–Cr(II)–Cr(II)–Cr(II) five-centred metal–metal bond of order 1.5. In both 1 and 2 two values for CrII–CrII bond lengths are found both; the outer ones connected with axial ligands are 2.284(1) and 2.285(2) A, and the inner ones are 2.2405(8) and 2.246(1) A, for 1 and 2, respectively. When compound 1 reacts with 2 equiv. of AgBF4 or Ag(OTf), a oxidation reaction takes place and one of the terminal chromium(II) ions is oxidized to produce [CrIIICrII4(μ5-tpda)4F2]BF4 (3) or [CrIIICrII4(μ5-tpda)4F(OTf)](OTf) (4). Two short Cr–Cr distances [1.969(2) and 2.138(2) A for 3, 1.846(1) and 1.922(1) A for 4] are found, with the presence of two quadruple bonds among four adjacent CrII ions. The fifth CrIII ion, which is separated from the neighboring CrII ion by 2.487(2) A for 3 and 2.610(1) A for 4, is simply a square pyramidal unit with no metal–metal bonding interaction.

Motivation: Synthetic biology aims to develop the artificial gene networks with desirable behaviors using systematic method. These networks with desired behaviors could be constructed using diverse biological parts, which may limit the development to complex synthetic gene networks. Fortunately, some well-characterized promoter libraries for engineering gene networks are widely available. Thus, a synthetic gene network can be constructed by selecting adequate promoters from promoter libraries to achieve the desired behaviors. However, the present promoter libraries cannot be directly applied to engineer a synthetic gene network. In order to efficiently select adequate promoters from promoter libraries for a synthetic gene network, promoter libraries are needed to be redefined based on the dynamic gene regulation. Results: Based on four design specifications, a library-based search method is proposed to efficiently select the most adequate promoter set from the redefined promoter libraries by a genetic algorithm (GA) to achieve optimal reference tracking design. As the number and size of promoter libraries increase, the proposed method can play an important role in the systematic design of synthetic biology. Contact: g883743@alumni.nthu.edu.tw; bschen@ee.nthu.edu.tw Supplementary Information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Motivation: Synthetic biology is to engineer artificial biological systems to investigate natural biological phenomena and for a variety of applications. However, the development of synthetic gene networks is still difficult and most newly created gene networks are non-functioning due to uncertain initial conditions and disturbances of extra-cellular environments on the host cell. At present, how to design a robust synthetic gene network to work properly under these uncertain factors is the most important topic of synthetic biology. Results: A robust regulation design is proposed for a stochastic synthetic gene network to achieve the prescribed steady states under these uncertain factors from the minimax regulation perspective. This minimax regulation design problem can be transformed to an equivalent stochastic game problem. Since it is not easy to solve the robust regulation design problem of synthetic gene networks by non-linear stochastic game method directly, the Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model is proposed to approximate the non-linear synthetic gene network via the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique through the Robust Control Toolbox in Matlab. Finally, an in silico example is given to illustrate the design procedure and to confirm the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed robust gene design method. Availability: http://www.ee.nthu.edu.tw/bschen/SyntheticBioDesign_supplement.pdf Contact: bschen@ee.nthu.edu.tw Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Three novel oligo-α-pyridylamino ligands, tripyridyldi-amine (H2tpda), tetrapyridyltriamine (H3teptra), pentapyridyltetramine (H4peptea) are synthesized; the crystal structures of their metal complexes with the all-anti configuration of the chelating ligands are reported.