Electronic word-of-mouth and online reviews in tourism services: the use of twitter by tourists

Lately, the online social media have revolutionized communications and consequently the marketing of tourism destinations and businesses. The area is rapidly evolving and the challenges and opportunities arising from it for tourism industry are already apparent. Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and online reviews/recommendations are increasingly used regarding tourism services that are high involvement services. The purpose of the present study is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the foundations of digital communication and empirically investigate its validity by examining the factors influencing the tourism consumer behavior. This study adopts a conceptual model of e-WOM and explores the use of Twitter by the tourists. Findings revealed the factors affecting tourists’ decision-making and indicated that this social medium is not a panacea; it is another marketing channel to be wisely used in integrated communications marketing of tourism services.     

Design and implementation of a MAC controller for the IEEE802.11 wireless LAN

IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs have a tremendous market potential, as they support high data rates, work in the world-wide licence free 2.4 GHz ISM band and have high performance in terms of range and power consumption. Hence, the development of a communication processor that supports the IEEE 802.11 MAC functions has a significant potential, making very important the concept of having an ASIC ‘right from the first time’, in order to minimize development cost and to meet short time-to-market requirements. This paper presents the methodology of developing such a component with emphasis on the rapid prototyping approach. The chip architecture, which is based on an ARM processor core, is described in detail, focusing on the implementation of the protocol functions using custom hardware modules. Finally, the paper presents experimental results on the ASIC implementation.     

Synergistic effects of buffer layer processing additives for enhanced hole carrier selectivity in inverted Organic Photovoltaics

Solution based inverted Organic Photovoltaic (OPVs) usually use Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) derivatives combined with pristine processing additives as hole selective contact on top of the hydrophobic conjugated polymer:fullerene active layer. In this study, PEDOT:PSS based hole selective contact is treated with two different boiling point additives, 2,5,8,11-tetramethyl-6-dodecyn-5,8-diol ethoxylate (Dynol) and Zonyl FS-300 fluorosurfactant (Zonyl). Although corresponding inverted OPVs using the above PEDOT:PSS:Additives show similar power conversion efficiency (PCE) values, the mechanisms of their implementation on inverted OPV operation are not identical. By understanding the synergistic effects of PEDOT:PSS processing additives on the hole selectivity of inverted OPVs we demonstrate a novel combination of PEDOT:PSS additives mixture as an effective route to further increase the hole selectivity, reliability andpower conversion efficiency of inverted OPVs.     

Amorphous metals for hard-tissue prosthesis

Owing to a unique atomic structure lacking microstructural defects, glassy metals demonstrate certain universal properties that are attractive for load-bearing biomedical-implant applications. These include a superb strength, which gives rise to very high hardness and a potential for minimizing wear and associated adverse biological reactions, and a relatively low modulus, which enables high elasticity and holds a promise for mitigating stress shielding. There are, however, other non-universal properties specific to particular amorphous metal alloys that are inferior to presently used biometals and may be below acceptable limits for hard-tissue prosthesis. In this article, features of the performance of amorphous metals relevant to hard-tissue prosthesis are surveyed and contrasted to those of the current state of the art, and guidelines for development of new biocompatible amorphous metal alloys suitable for hard-tissue prosthesis are proposed.     

Mass transfer coefficient and concentration boundary layer thickness for a dissolving NAPL pool in porous media

Analytical expressions for the time invariant, average mass transfer coefficient and the concentration boundary layer thickness applicable to dissolving single-component nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) pools in two-dimensional, saturated, homogeneous and isotropic porous formations are derived. Good agreement between predicted and experimentally determined time invariant average mass transfer coefficients is observed.