The influence of user-generated content on traveler behavior: An empirical investigation on the effects of e-word-of-mouth to hotel online bookings

The increasing use of web 2.0 applications has generated numerous online user reviews. Prior studies have revealed the influence of user-generated reviews on the sales of products such as CDs, books, and movies. However, the influence of online user-generated reviews in the tourism industry is still largely unknown both to tourism researchers and practitioners. To bridge this knowledge gap in tourism management, we conducted an empirical study to identify the impact of online user-generated reviews on business performance using data extracted from a major online travel agency in China. The empirical findings show that traveler reviews have a significant impact on online sales, with a 10 percent increase in traveler review ratings boosting online bookings by more than five percent. Our results highlight the importance of online user-generated reviews to business performance in tourism.     

耳机放大器设计：品质VS效率

在最近几年中,D类放大器因其体积小,效率高,已经进入了消费类音频电子产品、汽车以及便携式音频产品市场.它的效率帮助减小了汽车放大器以及便携式媒体扩展插槽的尺寸,并以较小的波形因子提供了更大的功率,有助实现新式的消费类音频设备.     

A practical evaluation of spectrum-based fault localization

Spectrum-based fault localization (SFL) shortens the test–diagnose–repair cycle by reducing the debugging effort. As a light-weight automated diagnosis technique it can easily be integrated with existing testing schemes. Since SFL is based on discovering statistical coincidences between system failures and the activity of the different parts of a system, its diagnostic accuracy is inherently limited. Using a common benchmark consisting of the Siemens set and the space program, we investigate this diagnostic accuracy as a function of several parameters (such as quality and quantity of the program spectra collected during the execution of the system), some of which directly relate to test design. Our results indicate that the superior performance of a particular similarity coefficient, used to analyze the program spectra, is largely independent of test design. Furthermore, near-optimal diagnostic accuracy (exonerating over 80% of the blocks of code on average) is already obtained for low-quality error observations and limited numbers of test cases. In addition to establishing these results in the controlled environment of our benchmark set, we show that SFL can effectively be applied in the context of embedded software development in an industrial environment.     

A heuristic to manage perishable inventory with batch ordering,positive lead-times,and time-varying demand

So far the literature on inventory control for perishable products has mainly focused on (near-) optimal replenishment policies for a stylized environment, assuming no lead-time, no lot-sizing, stationary demand, a first in first out withdrawal policy and/or product life time equal to two periods. This literature has given fundamental insight in the behavior and the complexity of inventory systems for perishable products. In practice, many grocery retailers have recently automated the inventory replenishment for non-perishable products. They recognize they may need a different replenishment logic for perishable products, which takes into account e.g. the age of the inventory in the system. Due to new information technologies like RFID, it now also becomes more economically feasible to register this type of information. This paper suggests a replenishment policy for perishable products which takes into account the age of inventories and which requires only very simple calculations. It will be shown that in an environment, which contains important features of the real-life retail environment, this new policy leads to substantial cost reductions compared with a base policy that does not take into account the age of inventories.     

When groups are more competitive than individuals: The domain of the discontinuity effect.

The related goals of the research were to delineate the domain of discontinuity, 1st by demonstrating its occurrence in a nonmatrix situation and, 2nd, by establishing the antecedent outcome conditions necessary for producing a discontinuity effect. The 1st goal was met by designing a mixed motive situation involving the production of origami products. Under these conditions, the magnitude of the discontinuity effect did not significantly differ from that in a matrix-only condition. The 2nd goal was met by a separate experiment that used H. H. Kelley and J. W. Thibaut's (1978) analysis of degree of noncorrespondence of outcomes. This experiment demonstrated that as noncorrespondence increased, so did the rate of competitive responding by groups but not by individuals. This pattern was qualified by an interaction with gender such that competitiveness was more markedly affected by noncorrespondence for groups of women than for groups of men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New anionic surface‐active agent derived from wool proteins for hair treatment

An anionic surface‐active agent derived from wool proteins was developed as an alternative to the anionic surfactants extensively used in shampoo formulations. The physicochemical properties of this new surface‐active agent prepared form wool proteins and its application for human hair treatments were studied. This new product could be considered a new mild anionic surface‐active agent, as evidenced by the results found by the evaluation of its physicochemical properties. The new wool anionic surface‐active agent was shown to be very substantive to hair, coating the fiber surface, giving rise to a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of the hair fibers, and providing a certain damage‐prevention effect on the hair. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Pulse profile and metal transfer in pulsed gas metal arc welding: droplet formation,detachment and velocity

The influence of current profile and pulse parameters on droplet formation and transfer was investigated. One profile has an exponential ramp up and down in the current pulse shape, while the second is nearly square shaped. High-speed photography, synchronised with a high-speed data acquisition system, was used to monitor the droplet formation and transfer. It was found that for long-tail current profile, most of droplet formation and detachment occurs before background current is reached. While, for the nearly square pulse, most of droplet formation and transfer occurs during background current, giving a stable and smooth metal transfer. The arc attachment position was found to vary for the different profiles. Droplet speed was measured, and it was found that it is proportional to the peak current and inversely proportional to background current. Dimensionless process parameters were defined and used to predict droplet speed using a neural networks algorithm.