Perceived risk and trust associated with purchasing at electronic marketplaces

Understanding consumer behaviour is of vital importance to consumer-oriented e-business models today. In this paper, we study the relationships between consumer perceptions of risk and trust and the attitude towards purchasing at a consumer-to-consumer electronic marketplace (EM). Typical for EM settings is that consumer behaviour is subject to perceptions of the selling party as well as of the institutional structures of the intermediary that is operating the EM. Building upon the well-established literature of trust, we consider the concepts of intermediary trust and seller trust. We extend this categorisation by introducing the concepts of intermediary risk and seller risk. We developed measurement instruments for intermediary risk and seller risk. All measurement scales have acceptable alphas and are unidimensional. An empirical study is conducted to explore the relationships between the risk and trust types and consumer purchase attitude. The results reveal significant, direct effects of seller trust and seller risk. Second-order effects of intermediary trust and intermediary risk are investigated and reported. The paper concludes with general observations and recommendations for research and practice.     

消费品说明中警示信息有效性的工效学研究(Ⅰ)——警示信息对消费者危险感受与商品危险性之间关系的影响

该研究采用问卷法，通过对３０种消费品的调查，分析了消费者对消费品说明中警示信息的阅读倾向性，消费者的危险感受、消费者安全使用商品的自信度、遵守警示信息的可能性、主观危险估计和客观危险性这几项因素之间的关系。结果表明：消费者的危险感受与阅读警示信息的倾向性、遵守警告的要求之间存在高度的一致性；且与自信度呈负相关，所以可以通过研究消费者的危险感受来研究警示信息的有效性；消费者的危险感受、主观危险估计常与商品的客观危险性不一致，所以必须采取一些措施来矫正消费者的危险感受，以确保警示信息发挥应有的安全保障作用     

Modeling of current-voltage characteristics for strained andlattice matched HEMT's on InP substrate using a variational chargecontrol model

A model for the calculation of the current-voltage characteristics of strained In_0.52Al_0.48As/In_xGa_1-xAs on InP substrate High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT's), based on a variational charge control model, is presented. A polynomial fit of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density is used for the calculation of the current-voltage characteristics. The effect of strain is introduced into the 2DEG density versus gate voltage relation. Very good agreement between the calculated and measured I-V characteristics was obtained. In addition, our results show that, for an indium mole fraction of the In_xGa_1-xAs channel in the range 0.53-0.60, increasing the indium mole fraction lowers the threshold voltage and hence increases the drain current at the same gate bias     

Electrical properties and positron annihilation study of (Ba<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Ho<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>)TiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> ceramics

DC resistivity, dielectric constant, dielectric loss and positron annihilation spectra of (Ba_1−x Ho _x )TiO₃ ceramics have been measured as a function of holmium concentration x. It has been found that the DC resistivity of (Ba_1−x Ho _x )TiO₃ is strongly dependent on the Ho content: it decreases three orders of magnitude and reaches a minimum at x = 0.4%. Doping with 0.6% holmium increases the permittivity of BaTiO₃ by approximately three times (from ∼1,300 to ∼4,000), with only a slight increase in the corresponding dielectric loss. The local electron density and defect concentration estimated using positron annihilation technique conforms well to the features found in the dielectric and resistivity measurements. The results have been discussed in terms of a mixed compensation model.     

A Study of Integrated Document and Connection Caching in the WWW

Document caching and connection caching are extensively studied problems. In document caching, one has to maintain caches containing documents accessible in a network. In connection caching, one has to maintain a set of open network connections that handle data transfer. Previous work investigated these two problems separately while in practice the problems occur together: In order to load a document, one has to establish a connection between network nodes if the required connection is not already open. In this paper we present the first study that integrates document and connection caching. We first consider a very basic model in which all documents have the same size and the cost of loading a document or establishing a connection is equal to 1. We present deterministic and randomized online algorithms that achieve nearly optimal competitive ratios unless the size of the connection cache is extremely small. We then consider general settings where documents have varying sizes. We investigate a FAULT model in which the loading cost of a document is 1 as well as a BIT model in which the loading cost is equal to the size of the document.     

Non-redundant data clustering

Data clustering is a popular approach for automatically finding classes, concepts, or groups of patterns. In practice, this discovery process should avoid redundancies with existing knowledge about class structures or groupings, and reveal novel, previously unknown aspects of the data. In order to deal with this problem, we present an extension of the information bottleneck framework, called coordinated conditional information bottleneck, which takes negative relevance information into account by maximizing a conditional mutual information score subject to constraints. Algorithmically, one can apply an alternating optimization scheme that can be used in conjunction with different types of numeric and non-numeric attributes. We discuss extensions of the technique to the tasks of semi-supervised classification and enumeration of successive non-redundant clusterings. We present experimental results for applications in text mining and computer vision.     

液态混合有机标准物质研究

本研究采用重量法配制有机液态混合标样 ,并对配制方法、混合标样的均匀性、稳定性及影响不确定度的因素进行了研究 ,并用气相色谱法进行了比对分析。经稳定性监测 ,稳定度大于等于一年 ,不确定度小于± 2 %。     

Preliminary<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> and<Emphasis Type="Italic">in vivo</Emphasis> characterizations of a sol-gel derived bioactive glass-ceramic system

This study investigates quantitatively and qualitatively the sol-gel derived bioactive glass-ceramic system (BGS)—apatite-wollastonite (AW) type granules in the size range of 0.5–1 mm, as an effective graft material for bone augmentation and restoration. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the sintered granules revealed the rough material surface with micropores in the range 10–30 μm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the granules revealed the presence of crystalline phases of the hydroxyapatite and wollastonite, and the functional groups of the silicate and phosphates were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Thein vitro cell culture studies with L929 mouse fibroblast cell line showed very few cells adhered on the BGS disc after 24 h. This could be due to the highly reactive surface of the disc concomitant with the crystallization but not due to the cytotoxicity of the material, since the cellular viability (MTT assay) with the material was 80‰ Cytotoxicity and cytocompatibility studies proved that the material was non-toxic and biocompatible. After 12 weeks of implantation of the BGS granules in the tibia bone of New Zealand white rabbits, the granules were found to be well osteointegrated, as observed in the radiographs. Angiogram with barium sulphate and Indian ink after 12 weeks showed the presence of microcapillaries in the vicinity of the implant site implicating high vascularity. Gross observation of the implant site did not show any inflammation or necrosis. SEM of the implanted site after 24 weeks revealed good osteointegration of the material with the newly formed bone and host bone. New bone was also observed within the material, which was degrading. Histological evaluation of the bone healing with the BGS granules in the tibial defect at all time intervals was without inflammation or fibrous tissue encapsulation. After 2 weeks the new bone was observed as a trabeculae network around the granules, and by 6 weeks the defect was completely closed with immature woven bone. By 12 weeks mature woven bone was observed, and new immature woven bone was seen within the cracks of the granules. After 24 weeks the defect was completely healed with lamellar bone and the size of the granules decreased. Histomorphometrically the area percentage of new bone formed was 67.77% after 12 weeks and 63.37% after 24 weeks. Less bone formation after 24 weeks was due to an increased implant surface area contributed by the material degradation and active bone remodeling. The osteostimulative and osteoconductive potential of the BGS granules was established by tetracycline labelling of the mineralizing areas by 2 and 6 weeks. This sol-gel derived BGS granules proved to be bioactive and resorbable which in turn encouraged active bone formation.