Search results for: consumer attitudes

Authors: W. F. Ribeiro, J. L. N. Góes

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The industrial process adds to engineering wood products features absent in solid wood, with homogeneous structure and reduced defects, improved physical and mechanical properties, bio-deterioration, resistance and better dimensional stability, improving quality and increasing the reliability of structures wood. These features combined with using fast-growing trees, make them environmentally ecological products, ensuring a strong consumer market. The wood I-joists are manufactured by the industrial profiles bonding flange and web, an important aspect of the production of wooden I-beams is the adhesive joint that bonds the web to the flange. Adhesives can effectively transfer and distribute stresses, thereby increasing the strength and stiffness of the composite. The objective of this study is to evaluate different resins in a shear strain specimens with the aim of analyzing the most efficient resin and possibility of using national products, reducing the manufacturing cost. First was conducted a literature review, where established the geometry and materials generally used, then established and analyzed 8 national resins and produced six specimens for each.

Keywords: Engineered wood products, structural resin, wood i-joist.

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Authors: Lina Salim

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Modern retailers such as hypermarket/supermarket need to be more customer-oriented in order to survive in today-s competitive business world. As a result, the investigation of determinant factors of store loyalty becomes important issue for modern retailing players. This study suggests that consumers- store loyalty in the modern retailing market (hypermarkets and supermarkets) is influenced by environmental factors (such as store image, store personnel). Using a model of stimulus-organismresponse (S-O-R), this research examines S-R relationship of store loyalty. S-O-R framework is derived from the existence literature and tested empirically based on Indonesian consumers- experience. The stimuli for this study are store image, store personnel, satisfaction and culture factors. Affect, or the consumers- liking to modern retailing stores, mediates the chosen environmental factors on consumer-s store loyalty. The findings showed that store image, store satisfaction and culture have significant positive relationship to store loyalty via affect.

Keywords: Affect, Culture, Store Image, Store Loyalty, StorePersonnel, Store Satisfaction

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Authors: Ioannis Manikas

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The increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly production and distribution practices and the stricter environmental regulations turned environmental aspects into important criteria in business decision-making. On the other hand, Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) has evolved dramatically during the last decades in theory and practice serving as a reference point for exchanging experiences among all agents involved in programs and projects to fostering policy and strategy development. Global pressures make it more important than ever to gain a better understanding of the contribution that agrifood businesses make to FNS and to examine ways to make them more resilient in an increasingly globalized and uncertain world. This study extends the standard three-dimensional model of sustainability to include two more dimensions: A technological dimension and a policy/political dimension. Apart from the economic, environmental and social dimensions regularly used in sustainability literature, the extended model will accurately represent the measures and policies addressing food and nutrition security.

Keywords: Food and nutrition security, sustainability, food safety, resilience.

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Authors: Mohammed G. Montasser, Rehab Y. Zoweil

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There is no doubt that Internet technology is widely used by hotels and its demand is constantly booming. Hotels have largely adopted website information services through using different interactive tools, dimensions and attributes to achieve excellence in functionality and usability but these do not necessary equate with website effectiveness. One way to investigate the effectiveness of hotel website is from the perspective ofe-consumers. This exploratory research is to investigate the perceived importance of websites effectiveness of some selected independent small and medium-sized hotels (SMHs) located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from the perspective of Omanie-consumers by using non-random sampling method. From 400 questionnaire addressed to respondents in 27 organizations in Muscat the capital city of Oman, 173 are valid. Findings of this study assist SMHs management in Dubai with the reallocation of their resources and efforts in order to supportebusiness development and to sustain a competitive advantage.

Keywords: Dubai's SMHs, Hotel websites, Omani e-consumer perception, weight and performance evaluation.

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Authors: Pui-Lai To, E-Ping Sung

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With the flourishing development of online shopping, an increasing number of customers see online shopping as an entertaining experience. Because the online consumer has a double identity as a shopper and an Internet user, online shopping should offer hedonic values of shopping and Internet usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate hedonic online shopping motivations from the perspectives of traditional hedonic value and flow theory. The study adopted a focus group interview method, including two online and two offline interviews. Four focus groups of shoppers consisted of online professionals, online college students, offline professionals and offline college students. The results of the study indicate that traditional hedonic values and dimensions of flow theory exist in the online shopping environment. The study indicated that online shoppers seem to appreciate being able to learn things and grow to become competitive achievers online. Comparisons of online hedonic motivations between groups are conducted. This study serves as a basis for the future growth of Internet marketing.

Keywords: Flow theory, hedonic motivation, internet shopping.

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Authors: Abdelhakam A. Noreldien, Sakhr B. Abudarag, Muslim S. Eltoum, Salih O. Osman

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This paper presents an analytical study of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) dynamic stability derivatives. Simulating SUAV dynamics and analyzing its behavior at the earliest design stages is too important and more efficient design aspect. The approach suggested in this paper is using the wind tunnel experiment to collect the aerodynamic data and get the dynamic stability derivatives. AutoCAD Software was used to draw the case study (wildlife surveillance SUAV). The SUAV is scaled down to be 0.25% of the real SUAV dimensions and converted to a wind tunnel model. The model was tested in three different speeds for three different attitudes which are; pitch, roll and yaw. The wind tunnel results were then used to determine the case study stability derivative values, and hence it used to calculate the roots of the characteristic equation for both longitudinal and lateral motions. Finally, the characteristic equation roots were found and discussed in all possible cases.

Keywords: Model, simulating, SUAV, wind tunnel.

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Authors: Mina Najafi, Mustafa Kamal Bin Mohd Shariff

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Place is a where dimension formed by people-s relationship with physical settings, individual and group activities, and meanings. 'Place Attachment', 'Place Identity'and 'Sense of Place' are some concepts that could describe the quality of people-s relationships with a place. The concept of Sense of place is used in studying human-place bonding, attachment and place meaning. Sense of Place usually is defined as an overarching impression encompassing the general ways in which people feel about places, senses it, and assign concepts and values to it. Sense of place is highlighted in this article as one of the prevailing concepts among place-based researches. Considering dimensions of sense of place has always been beneficial for investigating public place attachment and pro-environmental attitudes towards these places. The creation or preservation of Sense of place is important in maintaining the quality of the environment as well as the integrity of human life within it. While many scholars argued that sense of place is a vague concept, this paper will summarize and analyze the existing seminal literature. Therefore, in this paper first the concept of Sense of place and its characteristics will be examined afterward the scales of Sense of place will be reviewed and the factors that contribute to form Sense of place will be evaluated and finally Place Attachment as an objective dimension for measuring the sense of place will be described.

Keywords: Place, Place Attachment, Sense of place

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Authors: Bo-Wun Huang, Jao-Hwa Kuang, J.-G. Tseng, Yan-De Wu

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An investigation of noise in a micro stepping motor is considered to study in this article. Because of the trend towards higher precision and more and more small 3C (including Computer, Communication and Consumer Electronics) products, the micro stepping motor is frequently used to drive the micro system or the other 3C products. Unfortunately, noise in a micro stepped motor is too large to accept by the customs. To depress the noise of a micro stepped motor, the dynamic characteristics in this system must be studied. In this article, a Visual Basic (VB) computer program speed controlled micro stepped motor in a digital camera is investigated. Karman KD2300-2S non-contract eddy current displacement sensor, probe microphone, and HP 35670A analyzer are employed to analyze the dynamic characteristics of vibration and noise in a motor. The vibration and noise measurement of different type of bearings and different treatment of coils are compared. The rotating components, bearings, coil, etc. of the motor play the important roles in producing vibration and noise. It is found that the noise will be depressed about 3~4 dB and 6~7 dB, when substitutes the copper bearing with plastic one and coats the motor coil with paraffin wax, respectively.

Keywords: micro motor, noise, vibration

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Juraj Camaj, Jaroslav Masek

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This contribution is focused on the methodology for identifying levels of quality and improving quality through new logistics model in railway transport. It is oriented on the application of dynamic quality models, which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected, and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process within logistics chain can be taken into account. Various models describe the improvement of the quality which emphases the time factor throughout the whole transportation logistics chain. Quality of services in railway transport can be determined by the existing level of service quality, by detecting the causes of dissatisfaction employees but also customers, to uncover strengths and weaknesses. This new logistics model is able to recognize critical processes in logistic chain. It includes service quality rating that must respect its specific properties, which are unrepeatability, impalpability, their use right at the time they are provided and particularly changeability, which is significant factor in the conditions of rail transport as well. These peculiarities influence the quality of service regarding the constantly increasing requirements and that result in new ways of finding progressive attitudes towards the service quality rating.

Keywords: Logistics model, quality, railway transport.

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Authors: Ehsan Vaziri Goodarzi, Mahmood Houshmand, Omid Fatahi Valilai, Vahidreza Ghezavati, Shahrooz Bamdad

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One important paradigm of industry 4.0 is Cloud Manufacturing (CM). In CM everything is considered as a service, therefore, the CM platform should consider all service provider's capabilities and tries to integrate services in an equilibrium state. This research develops a framework for implementing manufacturing cloud service composition in the equilibrium state. The developed framework using well-known tools called axiomatic design (AD) and game theory. The research has investigated the factors for forming equilibrium for measures of the manufacturing cloud service composition. Functional requirements (FRs) represent the measures of manufacturing cloud service composition in the equilibrium state. These FRs satisfied by related Design Parameters (DPs). The FRs and DPs are defined by considering the game theory, QoS, consumer needs, parallel and cooperative services. Ultimately, four FRs and DPs represent the framework. To insure the validity of the framework, the authors have used the first AD’s independent axiom.

Keywords: Axiomatic design, manufacturing cloud service composition, cloud manufacturing, Industry 4.0.

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Authors: Szilvia Gergely Seuss, Mihaela Nistor, Lilla Csáky, Péter Molnár

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In the frame of the European Union project entitled EU-Families and Adolescents Quit Tobacco (www.eufaqt.eu) focus group analysis has been carried out in Hungary to acquire qualitative information on attitudes towards smoking in groups of adolescents, parents and educators, respectively. It rendered to identify methods for smoking prevention/ intervention with family approach. The results explored the role of the family in smoking behaviour. Teachers do not feel responsibility in prevention or cessation of smoking. Adolescents are not aware of the addictive effect of the cigarette. Water pipe is popular among adolescent, therefore spreading of more information needed on the harmful effects of water pipe. We outlined the requirement for professionals to provide interventions. Partnership of EU-FAQT project has worked out antismoking interventions for adolescents and their families conducted by psychologists to ensure skill development to prevent and quit tobacco.

Keywords: Smoking of adolescents, family approach, focus group analysis, water pipe.

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Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari

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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.  

Keywords: Energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach.

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Authors: Sarika Bahadure

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Sustainability starts with conserving resources for future generations. Since human’s existence on this earth, he has been consuming natural resources. The resource consumption pace in the past was very slow, but industrialization in 18^th century brought a change in the human lifestyle. New inventions and discoveries upgraded the human workforce to machines. The mass manufacture of goods provided easy access to products. In the last few decades, the globalization and change in technologies brought consumer oriented market. The consumption of resources has increased at a very high scale. This overconsumption pattern brought economic boom and provided multiple opportunities, but it also put stress on the natural resources. This paper tries to put forth the facts and figures of the population growth and consumption of resources with examples. This is explained with the help of the mathematical expression of doubling known as exponential growth. It compares the carrying capacity of the earth and resource consumption of humans’ i.e. ecological footprint and bio-capacity. Further, it presents the need to conserve natural resources and re-examine sustainable resource use approach for sustainability.

Keywords: Consumption, exponential growth, population, resources, sustainability.

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Authors: Indre Brazauskaite, Vilte Auruskeviciene

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The paper explores the Stage-Gate framework application for innovation maturity among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovation management becomes an essential business survival process for all sizes of organizations that can be evaluated and audited systemically. This research systemically defines and assesses the innovation process from the perspective of the company’s top management. Empirical research explores attitudes and existing practices of innovation management in SMEs in Baltic countries. It structurally investigates the current innovation management practices, level of standardization, and potential challenges in the area. Findings allow to structure of existing practices based on an institutionalized model and contribute to a more advanced understanding of the innovation process among SMEs. Practically, findings contribute to advanced decision-making and business planning in the process.

Keywords: innovation measure, innovation process, small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, stage-gate framework.

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Authors: W. A. D. P. Wanigasundera, P. C. B. Alahakoon

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Kandy district in Sri Lanka, has small scale and rain-fed paddy farming, and highly vulnerable to climate change. In this study, the status of climate change was assessed using meteorological data and compared with the perceptions of paddy farming community. Factors affecting the adaptation to the climate smart farming were also assessed.

 Meteorological data for 33 years were collected and the changes over time compared with the perceptions of farmers. The temperature, rainfall and number of rainy days have increased in both locations. The onset of rains also has shifted. The perceptions of the majority of the farmers were in line with the actual changes. The knowledge and attitudes about the causes of climate change and adaptation were medium and related to level of adoption. Formulating effective communication strategies, and a collaborative approach involving state, private sector, civil society to make Sri Lankan agriculture ‘climate-smart’ is urgently needed.

Keywords: Adaptation of climate-smart technology, climate change, perception, rain-fed paddy.

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Authors: Jana Feldmane, Pavels Semjonovs, Inga Ciprovica

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Consumer demand for products with low fat or sugar content and low levels of food additives, as well as cost factors, make exopolysaccharides (EPS) a viable alternative. EPS remain an interesting tool to modulate the sensory properties of yoghurt. This study was designed to evaluate EPS production potential of commercial yoghurt starter cultures (Yo-Flex starters: Harmony 1.0, TWIST 1.0 and YF-L902, Chr.Hansen, Denmark) and their influence on an apparent viscosity of yoghurt samples. The production of intracellularly synthesized EPS by different commercial yoghurt starters varies roughly from 144,08 to 440,81 mg/l. Analysing starters’ producing EPS, they showed large variations in concentration and supposedly composition. TWIST 1.0 had produced greater amounts of EPS in MRS medium and in yoghurt samples but there wasn’t determined significant contribution to development of texture as well as an apparent viscosity of the final product. YF-L902 and Harmony 1.0 starters differed considerably in EPS yields, but not in apparent viscosities (p>0.05) of the final yoghurts. Correlation between EPS concentration and viscosity of yoghurt samples was not established in the study.

Keywords: Exopolysaccharides, yoghurt starters, apparent viscosity.

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Authors: Şule Turhan, Özlem Turan

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Permanence in the international markets for many global companies is about being known as having effective logistics which targets customer satisfaction management and lower costs. Under competitive conditions, the necessity of providing the products to customers quickly and on time for the companies which constantly aim to improve their profitability increased the strategic importance of the logistics concept. Food logistic is one of the most difficult areas in logistics. In the process from manufacturer to final consumer, quality and hygiene standards must be provided constantly. In food logistics, reliable and extensive service network has great importance and on time delivery is the target. Developing logistics industry provide the supply of foods in the country and the development of export markets more quickly and has an important role in providing added value to the country's economy. Turkey that creates a bridge between the east and the west is an attractive market for logistics companies. In this study, by examining both the place and the importance of logistics in Turkish food sector, recommendations will be made for the food industry.

Keywords: Logistics, Turkish food industry, competition, food industry.

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Authors: F. Zarrabi, J. R. Brown

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Although English is not a second language in Iran, it has become an inseparable part of many Iranian people’s lives and is becoming more and more widespread. This high demand has caused a significant increase in the number of private English language institutes in Iran. Although English is a compulsory course in schools and universities, the majority of Iranian people are unable to communicate easily in English. This paper reviews the current state of teaching and learning English as an international language in Iran. Attitudes and motivations about learning English are reviewed. Five different aspects of using English within the country are analysed, including: English in public domain, English in Media, English in organizations/businesses, English in education, and English in private language institutes. Despite the time and money spent on English language courses in private language institutes, the majority of learners seem to forget what has been learned within months of completing their course. That is, when they are students with the support of the teacher and formal classes, they appear to make progress and use English more or less fluently. When this support is removed, their language skills either stagnant or regress. The findings of this study suggest that a dependant approach to learning is potentially one of the main reasons for English language learning problems and this is encouraged by English course books and approaches to teaching.

Keywords: English in Iran, English language learning, English language teaching, evaluation.

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Authors: Kari Björn

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Introduction of games has expanded the application area of computer-aided learning tools to wide variety of age groups of learners. Serious games engage the learners into a real-world -type of simulation and potentially enrich the learning experience. Institutional background of a Bachelor’s level engineering program in Information and Communication Technology is introduced, with detailed focus on one of its majors, Health Technology. As part of a Customer Oriented Software Application thematic semester, one particular course of “eHealth Business and Solutions” is described and reflected in a gamified framework. Learning a consistent view into vast literature of business management, strategies, marketing and finance in a very limited time enforces selection of topics relevant to the industry. Health Technology is a novel and growing industry with a growing sector in consumer wearable devices and homecare applications. The business sector is attracting new entrepreneurs and impatient investor funds. From engineering education point of view the sector is driven by miniaturizing electronics, sensors and wireless applications. However, the market is highly consumer-driven and usability, safety and data integrity requirements are extremely high. When the same technology is used in analysis or treatment of patients, very strict regulatory measures are enforced. The paper introduces a course structure using gamification as a tool to learn the most essential in a new market: customer value proposition design, followed by a market entry game. Students analyze the existing market size and pricing structure of eHealth web-service market and enter the market as a steering group of their company, competing against the legacy players and with each other. The market is growing but has its rules of demand and supply balance. New products can be developed with an R&D-investment, and targeted to market with unique quality- and price-combinations. Product cost structure can be improved by investing to enhanced production capacity. Investments can be funded optionally by foreign capital. Students make management decisions and face the dynamics of the market competition in form of income statement and balance sheet after each decision cycle. The focus of the learning outcome is to understand customer value creation to be the source of cash flow. The benefit of gamification is to enrich the learning experience on structure and meaning of financial statements. The paper describes the gamification approach and discusses outcomes after two course implementations. Along the case description of learning challenges, some unexpected misconceptions are noted. Improvements of the game or the semi-gamified teaching pedagogy are discussed. The case description serves as an additional support to new game coordinator, as well as helps to improve the method. Overall, the gamified approach has helped to engage engineering student to business studies in an energizing way.

Keywords: Engineering education, integrated curriculum, learning experience, learning outcomes.

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Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. El Etreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman

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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012.Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with intention to adopt those practices. Strategies of creating opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, Level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors.

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Authors: Jasmine Adela Mutang, Rosnah Ismail, Chua Bee Seok, Ferlis Bahari, Lailawati Madlan, Walton Wider, Rickless Das

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Public participation in recycling domestic waste is still very low in Malaysia. Only 10.5% of solid waste was recycled up to now which is far below than of in developed countries. Therefore, understanding public motivations towards recycling domestic waste are important to improve current recycling rate. Thus, this study attempts to identify what are the possible motivations and hindrances for the public to recycle. Open-ended questions format were administered to 484 people in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Two specific questions we asked to explore their general determinants and barriers in practicing recycling: “What motivates you to recycle?” and “What are the barriers you encountered in doing recycling activities?” Thematic was conducted on the open-ended questions in which themes were created with the raw comments. It was found that the underlying recycling motivations are (i) awareness’ towards the environment; (ii) benefits to the society and individual; and (iii) social influence. Non participations are influence by (i) attitudes; (ii) commitment; (iii) facilities; (iv) knowledge; (v) inconvenience; and (vi) enforcement.

Keywords: Recycling motivation, recycling barrier, sustainable, household waste.

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Authors: Vivian Guo, Yan Qu

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Online marketplaces are not only digital places where consumers buy and sell merchandise, and they are also destinations for brands to connect with real consumers at the moment when customers are in the shopping mindset. For many marketplaces, brands have been important partners through advertising. There can be, however, a risk of advertising impacting a consumer’s shopping journey if it hurts the use experience or takes the user away from the site. Both could lead to the loss of transaction revenue for the marketplace. In this paper, we present user-based methods for cannibalization control by selectively turning off ads to users who are likely to be cannibalized by ads subject to business objectives. We present ways of measuring cannibalization of advertising in the context of an online marketplace and propose novel ways of measuring cannibalization through purchase propensity and uplift modeling. A/B testing has shown that our methods can significantly improve user purchase and engagement metrics while operating within business objectives. To our knowledge, this is the first paper that addresses cannibalization mitigation at the user-level in the context of advertising.

Keywords: Cannibalization, machine learning, online marketplace, revenue optimization, yield optimization.

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Authors: J.-P. Skön, M. Johansson, O. Kauhanen, M. Raatikainen, K. Leiviskä, M. Kolehmainen

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The building sector is the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitter in the European Union (EU) and therefore the active reduction of energy consumption and elimination of energy wastage are among the main goals in it. Healthy housing and energy efficiency are affected by many factors which set challenges to monitoring, control and research of indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy consumption, especially in old buildings. These challenges include measurement and equipment costs, for example. Additionally, the measurement results are difficult to interpret and their usage in the ventilation control is also limited when taking into account the energy efficiency of housing at the same time. The main goal of this study is to develop a cost-effective building monitoring and control system especially for old buildings. The starting point or keyword of the development process is a wireless system; otherwise the installation costs become too high. As the main result, this paper describes an idea of a wireless building monitoring and control system. The first prototype of the system has been installed in 10 residential buildings and in 10 school buildings located in the City of Kuopio, Finland.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, Indoor air quality, Monitoring system, Building automation

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Authors: Khairul Nizam Tahar, Anuar Ahmad

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This paper has introduced a slope photogrammetric mapping using unmanned aerial vehicle. There are two units of UAV has been used in this study; namely; fixed wing and multi-rotor. Both UAVs were used to capture images at the study area. A consumer digital camera was mounted vertically at the bottom of UAV and captured the images at an altitude. The objectives of this study are to obtain three dimensional coordinates of slope area and to determine the accuracy of photogrammetric product produced from both UAVs. Several control points and checkpoints were established Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) in the study area. All acquired images from both UAVs went through all photogrammetric processes such as interior orientation, exterior orientation, aerial triangulation and bundle adjustment using photogrammetric software. Two primary results were produced in this study; namely; digital elevation model and digital orthophoto. Based on results, UAV system can be used to mapping slope area especially for limited budget and time constraints project.

Keywords: Slope mapping, 3D, DEM, UAV, Photogrammetry, image processing.

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Authors: C. Adam, G. Henri, T. Levent, J.-B. Mauro, A. -L. Mayet

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This paper is concerning the application of a deterministic decisional pattern to a multi-agent system which would provide intelligence to a distributed energy smart grid at local consumer level. Development of multi-agent application involves agent specifications, analysis, design and realization. It can be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach to control the smart grid system in a decentralized competitive approach. The proposed algorithmic solution results from a deterministic dichotomous approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative process to solve automatic learning problems. Through memory of collected past tries, the algorithm monotonically converges to very steep system operation point in attraction basin resulting from weak system nonlinearity. In this sense, system is given by (local) constitutive elementary rules the intelligence of its global existence so that it can self-organize toward optimal operating sequence.

Keywords: Decentralized Competitive System, Distributed Smart Grid, Multi-Agent System

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Authors: C. Adam, G. Henri, T. Levent, J-B Mauro, A-L Mayet

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Energy Efficiency Management is the heart of a worldwide problem. The capability of a multi-agent system as a technology to manage the micro-grid operation has already been proved. This paper deals with the implementation of a decisional pattern applied to a multi-agent system which provides intelligence to a distributed local energy network considered at local consumer level. Development of multi-agent application involves agent specifications, analysis, design, and realization. Furthermore, it can be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach for a decisional pattern involving a multi-agent system to control a distributed local energy network in a decentralized competitive system. The proposed solution is the result of a dichotomous approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative process to solve automatic learning problems and converges monotonically very fast to system attracting operation point.

Keywords: Energy Efficiency Management, Distributed Smart- Grid, Multi-Agent System, Decisional Decentralized Competitive System.

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Authors: Anirban Chowdhury, Sougata Karmakar, Swathi Matta Reddy, Sanjog J., Subrata Ghosh, Debkumar Chakrabarti

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Brand name plays a vital role for in-shop buying behavior of consumers and mutated brand name may affect the selling of leading branded products. In Indian market, there are many products with mutated brand names which are either orthographically or phonologically similar. Due to presence of such products, Indian consumers very often fall under confusion when buying some regularly used stuff. Authors of the present paper have attempted to demonstrate relationship between less attention and false recognition of mutated brand names during a product selection process. To achieve this goal, visual attention study was conducted on 15 male college students using eye-tracker against a mutated brand name and errors in recognition were noted using questionnaire. Statistical analysis of the acquired data revealed that there was more false recognition of mutated brand name when less attention was paid during selection of favorite product. Moreover, it was perceived that eye tracking is an effective tool for analyzing false recognition of brand name mutation.

Keywords: Brand Name Mutation, Consumer Behavior, Visual Attention, Orthography

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Authors: J. Berčík, A. Mravcová, J. Gálová, K. Neomániová

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In an era when everything is increasingly digital, consumers are always looking for new options in solutions to their everyday needs. In this context, mobile apps are developing at an exponential pace. One of the fastest growing segments of mobile technologies is, obviously, e-commerce. It can be predicted that mobile commerce will record nearly three times the global growth of e-commerce across all platforms, which indicates its importance in the given segment. The current coronavirus pandemic is also changing many of the existing paradigms both socially, economically, and technologically, which has a major impact on changing consumer behavior and the emphasis on simplification and clarity of mobile solutions. This is the area that User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designers deal with. Their task is to design a sufficiently attractive and interesting solution that will be available on all mobile devices and at the same time will be easy enough for the customer/visitor to get to the destination or to get the necessary information in a few clicks. The basis for changes in UX design can now be obtained not only through online analytical tools, but also through neuromarketing, especially in the case of mobile devices. The paper highlights possibilities for testing UX design applications on mobile devices using a special platform that combines a stationary eye camera (eye tracking) and facial analysis (facial coding).

Keywords: Emotions, mobile design, user experience, visual attention.

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Authors: Razan Salem

Abstract:

Men and women have different approaches towards investing, both in terms of strategies and risk attitudes. This study aims to focus mainly on investigating the financial risk behaviors of Arab women investors and to examine the financial risk tolerance levels of Arab women relative to Arab men investors. Using survey data on 547 Arab men and women investors, the results of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank (One-Sample) test Mann-Whitney U test reveal that Arab women are risk-averse investors and have lower financial risk tolerance levels relative to Arab men. Such findings can be explained by the fact of women's nature and lower investment literacy levels. Further, the current political uncertainty in the Arab region may be considered as another explanation of Arab women’s risk aversion behavior. The study's findings support the existing literature by validating the stereotype of “women are more risk-averse than men” in the Arab region. Overall, when it comes to investment and financial behaviors, women around the world behave similarly.

Keywords: Arab region, financial risk behavior, gender differences, women investors.

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Authors: Zuhal Hussein, Nabsiah Abdul Wahid, Norizan Saad

Abstract:

In line with changes of consumers modern lifestyle has call for the advertising strategy to change. This research is to find out how game with telepresence and product experience embedded in the computer game to affect users- intention to purchase. Game content developers are urging to consider of placing product message as part of game design strategy that can influence the game player-s intention to purchase. Experiment was carried out on two hundred and fifty undergraduate students who volunteered to participate in the Internet game playing activities. A factor analysis and correlation analysis was performed on items designed to measure telepresence, attitudes toward telepresence, and game player intention to purchase the product advertise in the game that respondents experienced. The results indicated that telepresence consist of interactive experience and product experience. The study also found that product experience is positively related to the game players- intention to purchase. The significance of product experience implies the usefulness of an interactive advertising in the game playing to attract players- intention to purchase the advertised product placed in the creative game design.

Keywords: Purchase intention, telepresence, product experience, interactive experience.

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