Social media usage and organizational performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers

Social media usage among organizations is growing tremendously. Organizations are now building and maintaining social media public pages to improve their social network salience, enhance interest in their organizations, and build relationships with the online public. The majority of the studies on social media usage are based on the individual perspective while some are from the organizational perspective. However, not many studies have investigated the actual impact of social media usage on organizational performance. Therefore, using the qualitative approach, this study investigates the various purposes of social media usage and its impact on organizational performance. This study however, focuses only on the social media managers’ views. The senior managers of six organizations that are using social media are interviewed from which we find that social media is used for various purposes in organizations, such as advertising and promotion, branding, information search, building customer relations and many more. The results also show that social media has a greater impact on the performance of organizations in terms of enhancement in customer relations and customer service activities, improvement in information accessibility and cost reduction in terms of marketing and customer service.     

The role of advertisements in the marketing of gated communities as a new Western suburban lifestyle: a case study of the Greater Cairo Region, Egypt

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the marketing of the Greater Cairo Region’s (GCR) newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case, selling the Egyptian dream home, draws upon specific landscape offerings and values. It shows how aspects of globalization interact with processes of urbanization in the GCR to create new landscapes of housing consumption. The globalization of mass media has influenced consumption preferences and brought new consumption choices to the GCR’s residents. This study concludes that the demand for gated communities in the GCR, in large part, has been created by developers who foster an image of these areas as symbols of ‘modernism’ and Western lifestyles. Underlying these sales efforts is the common assumption held by developers, potential buyers and segments of the larger society that the lifestyles of Western urbanization should naturally emerge as the result of economic development.     

Natural Palm Olein Polyol as a Replacement for Polyether Polyols in Viscoelastic Polyurethane Foam

The impact of replacing three polyether polyols with different levels of a single palm olein‐based natural oil polyol (NOP) was systematically correlated with the changes in foaming reactivity, cell structure, physico‐mechanical properties, and morphology of viscoelastic (VE) foams. The data show that replacing the polyether polyols with the NOP slightly increased the rate of the foaming reactivity. Increasing the NOP content resulted in increased cell size and cells remained fully open. Increased NOP content contributed to higher load bearing properties of VE foam, which can be attributed to higher functionality of NOP compared to polyether polyols. Addition of the NOP slightly increased the resilience of the foams, however, the hysteresis which is the measure of energy absorption remained mostly unaffected. Age properties, characterized by dry and humid compression sets, were mostly unaffected by the replacement of the polyether polyol with the NOP. The addition of NOP did not impact the morphology of the VE foam polymer matrix, which appears to retain a low degree of hard and soft segment domain separation. Overall, the results demonstrate a feasibility that the NOP can be used to partially replace the polyether polyols in VE polyurethane foams without significant impact on the functional performance.     

Urethane‐forming reaction kinetics and catalysis of model palm olein polyols: Quantified impact of primary and secondary hydroxyls

Model palm olein natural oil polyols (NOPs) with varying ratios of primary to secondary hydroxyls were synthesized, characterized, and evaluated in reaction kinetics study with isocyanate in formation of polyurethanes. Reaction rate constants and activation energies associated with primary and secondary hydroxyls of NOPs were quantified. The kinetic study in toluene shows that the NOP containing primary hydroxyls have three times higher reaction rate constants in noncatalyzed reaction with 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate (4,4′‐MDI) compared to the model NOP containing only secondary hydroxyls, which is associated with higher activation energy of secondary hydroxyls. However, the difference in reaction rate constants of primary and secondary hydroxyls in NOPs diminished in the reactions catalyzed with dibutyltin dilaurate. Bulk polymerization reaction confirms the kinetics results in toluene, showing that the model NOP containing primary hydroxyls reached gel time at a faster rate. Evaluation of elastomers from bulk polymerization shows low degree of phase separation of hard and soft segments for elastomers based on the model NOPs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 42955.     

A novel stimuli-responsive magnetic hydrogel based on nature-inspired tragacanth gum for chemo/hyperthermia treatment of cancerous cells

Journal of Polymer Research - Derivatives of formyl pyrazole were synthesized by the reaction of acetophenone, 4-methyl acetophenone, 3-acetyl furan, 3-acetyl thiophen and phenyl hydrazine...     

Issues and Requirements for Aluminum Alloys Used in Aircraft Components: State of the Art

Russian Journal of Non-Ferrous Metals - Aluminum alloys have always been the material of choice for the aircraft industry owing to their versatile attributes, such as excellent strength to weight...     

Suspension stability and sintering influence on yttria-stabilized zirconia fabricated by colloidal processing

The stability of nano-zirconia 3YSZ powder in suspension was extensively studied by the colloidal method, and the optimum sintering temperature of the green sample fabricated through slip casting was determined. Zirconia suspensions with 10 vol% powder loading were prepared with distilled water, and HNO₃ was used to adjust the pH of the suspension to pH 1–6. All of the suspensions were subjected to sedimentation test, and the results showed that the suspensions adjusted to pH 2 had the lowest sediment volume. This finding indicates that a suspension with pH 2 produces higher packing density. Viscosity test was carried out for the suspensions added with dispersant ranging from 0.3 wt% to 0.7 wt% polyethyleneimine (PEI) with and without pH adjustment. The suspension containing 0.5 wt% PEI with pH 2 adjustment produced the lowest viscosity because of interparticle bond breakage in the aggregates, thus forming colloidally stable suspensions. The zirconia suspension containing 0.5 wt% PEI and whose pH was adjusted to pH 2 was chosen to be slip casted into cylindrical shape. Green samples were sintered at various sintering temperatures that ranged from 1100 °C to 1500 °C through a two-step sintering method. The sample sintered at 1500 °C was found to be porosite-free, and its highest relative density was 99.6% of the theoretical density. Morphological studies detected pores in the microstructure of the samples sintered at low sintering temperatures (1100 and 1200 °C). By contrast, the samples sintered at 1400 and 1500 °C were fully densified. However, the grain size of the sample sintered at 1500 °C was 230 nm, which indicated excessive grain growth. The Vickers hardness of the sample sintered at 1400 °C was found to be highest (12.9 GPa) and comparable to results found in the literature.     

Influence of Chemical Reaction on Mass Transport in Yield Stress Exhibiting Flow Regime

Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering - In this study, the simulations for first-order chemical reactions (constructive and destructive) in the flow of the Casson fluid with...     

EAPB0503, an Imidazoquinoxaline Derivative Modulates SENP3/ARF Mediated SUMOylation,and Induces NPM1c Degradation in NPM1 Mutant AML

Nucleophosmin-1 (NPM1) is a pleiotropic protein involved in numerous cellular processes. NPM1 shuttles between the nucleus and the cytoplasm, but exhibits a predominant nucleolar localization, where its fate and functions are exquisitely controlled by dynamic post-translational modifications (PTM). Sentrin/SUMO Specific Peptidase 3 (SENP3) and ARF are two nucleolar proteins involved in NPM1 PTMs. SENP3 antagonizes ARF-mediated NPM1 SUMOylation, to promote ribosomal biogenesis. In Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), NPM1 is frequently mutated, and exhibits an aberrant cytoplasmic localization (NPM1c). NPM1c mutations define a separate AML entity with good prognosis in some AML patients, rendering NPM1c as a potential therapeutic target. SENP3-mediated NPM1 de-SUMOylation induces resistance to therapy in NPM1c AML. Here, we demonstrate that the imidazoquinoxaline EAPB0503 prolongs the survival and results in selective reduction in the leukemia burden of NPM1c AML xenograft mice. Indeed, EAPB0503 selectively downregulates HDM2 expression and activates the p53 pathway in NPM1c expressing cells, resulting in apoptosis. Importantly, we unraveled that NPM1c expressing cells exhibit low basal levels of SUMOylation paralleled with high SENP3 and low ARF basal levels. EAPB0503 reverted these molecular players by inducing NPM1c SUMOylation and ubiquitylation, leading to its proteasomal degradation. EAPB0503-induced NPM1c SUMOylation is concurrent with SENP3 downregulation and ARF upregulation in NPM1c expressing cells. Collectively, these results provide a strong rationale for testing therapies modulating NPM1c post-translational modifications in the management of NPM1c AML.     

Oxidation stability and compositional characteristics of oils from microwave roasted pumpkin seeds during thermal oxidation

The oxidative stability and compositional characteristics of the pumpkin seed oil (PSO) exposed to microwaves were studied during heating at 170°C. The oxidative indices such as free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (p-AV), TOTOX, specific extinctions and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value of oils were significantly increased, and the increments were found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) in unroasted seed oil as compared to roasted seed oil. The relative contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were decreased to 84.7%, and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) were increased to 119.5% in unroasted sample, after 9 h of heating. On the other hand, in 12 min roasted samples, the relative contents of PUFAs were decreased to 97.0%, and SFAs were increased to 102.6% after 9 h of heating. The triacylglycerol species LLL and OLL levels were decreased as a consequence of increased heating time, and the reduction tended to be significantly higher in unroasted samples as compared to roasted ones. The oxidation products formed were also investigated by FTIR. The present results indicated that microwave roasting of pumpkin seeds markedly enhanced the oxidative stability of the oils during heating.