Suchergebnisse

Services involve cocreation, such that businesses often treat consumers as partial employees to help boost productivity. However, not all consumers are intrinsically motivated to engage in the effort required to produce a service. Hence, service providers offer monetary incentives to compensate consumers for their effort by using cocreation options where consumers can either spend their own effort in exchange for extra savings or have service providers perform such options and incur additional cost. Consumers are likely to evaluate such options by determining the price that they would be willing to pay and the amount that they expect to save if they were to perform such options. In eight studies, this research shows that consumers seek more compensation for their effort than the amount that they are willing to pay a service provider. However, characteristics of the service option (expected vs. not expected), the service provider (fit with effort), the service itself (cost of labor), and consumers (budget constraints, expertise) moderate the differences between willingness to pay and expectations of compensation. Hence, companies that are expanding their markets and pursuing strategies that offer both full service and do-it-yourself service options would need to (a) consider the fit of such options with the positioning of the brand and (b) identify appropriate consumer segments that would be favorably disposed toward such options. Identifying such options and their prices would lead to effective price structures that will provide not only value to consumers but also profitability to firms.

In this research, we develop a comprehensive theoretical model of the consumer response to penalties and the penalty resolution process. Two mechanisms of consumers' response to penalty resolution are proposed: the perceptions of penalty fairness and feelings of gratitude. We delineate and test differences between gratitude and perceived fairness and identify factors differentially affecting them. Factors influencing feeling of entitlement, such as nature of the error, and consumer history and status with the provider, contribute to fairness perceptions. On the other hand, firm-customer interactions influence both gratitude and fairness assessments. Specifically, the penalty outcome provides benefits, hence induces gratitude, and is also perceived as the right thing to do, hence induces perceptions of fairness. However, factors that contribute to benefits received, but do not align with equity, such as type and uniqueness of compensation, influence gratitude only. The findings also confirm that, compared with fairness, gratitude more strongly influences active profirm behaviors, such as advocacy. This research offers important managerial implications. The findings suggest that service providers should consider customer history and relationship status in the penalty resolution process. Meeting customer expectations will enhance fairness perceptions and minimize the negative effect on loyalty. Further, flexible procedures for handling penalties, preferred type of compensation, and selectivity in treatment should stimulate feelings of gratitude and motivate consumers to actively promote the company via positive word of mouth.

Within urban green spaces, tree species diversity is believed to correlate with aboveground biomass, though there is some disagreement within the literature on the strength and directionality of the relationship. Therefore, we assessed the relationship between the biodiversity of woody species and the aboveground biomass of woody plant species in the tropical, coastal city of Haikou in southern China. To accomplish this, we obtained comprehensive tree and site data through field sampling of 190 urban functional units (UFUs, or work units) corresponding to six types of land uses governmental‐institutional, industrial‐commercial, park‐recreational, residential, transport infrastructure, and undeveloped area. Based on our field data, we investigated the relationship between tree species diversity and aboveground biomass using multiple regression, which revealed significant relationships across all five types of land uses. Aboveground biomass in green spaces was also correlated with anthropogenic factors, especially time since urban development, or site age, annual maintenance frequency by human caretakers, and human population density. Among these factors, maintenance is the strongest predictor of aboveground biomass in urban green space. Therefore, this study highlights the critical role of maintenance of urban green space in promoting both aboveground biomass and woody biodiversity in urban ecosystems and, consequently, on urban ecosystem services. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the ecosystem services provided by communities of woody plant species in urban areas.

AbstractNerve growth factor (NGF) has been verified to be expressed with higher level in adenomyosis uteri, and its neutralizing antibody has a strong inhibitory influence on inflammation. The present study aimed to explore the effect of anti-NGF on the expression of proteins in uteri of mice-induced adenomyosis and assessed its potential role in improving pregnancy rate. In this study, we established a mouse model of adenomyosis and administrated NGF-neutralizing antibody into mice. The mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of the uteri during the implantation window was performed to explore the essential proteins participating in therapy. Besides, embryos of healthy mice were transferred into the uteri to assess the implantation rate. The results of MS analysis demonstrated that 119 proteins were changed in the adenomyosis group compared with control group, and 126 proteins were differentially expressed in the anti-NGF group compared with the adenomyosis group (fold change > 1.5, P < 0.05. After performing cluster analysis using Mfuzz package, we found that a group of proteins participated in cell-cell adhesion and metabolic processes, which were attenuated in the adenomyosis group, while those were successfully recovered by anti-NGF treatment. Western blotting confirmed that the expression levels of integrin alpha-1 (ITGA1), integrin beta-1 (ITGB1), laminin subunit gamma-1 (LAMC1), and creatine kinase M-type (CKM) were decreased in adenomyosis group, whereas those levels were elevated after anti-NGF treatment. Embryo implantation rate in the adenomyosis group was significantly decreased compared with that in the control group (2.31% vs. 26.15%, P < 0.001) and anti-NGF treatment slightly enhanced the embryo implantation rate in mice with experimentally induced adenomyosis (9.23% vs. 2.31%, P = 0.017). Our results revealed that anti-NGF therapy can improve fertility of mice with experimentally induced adenomyosis, possibly through promoting integrin-related proteins.

To achieve the End Tuberculosis (TB) Strategy, it is important to understand the characteristics of TB in China, which may provide the government with important clues for controlling TB by 2030. Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (GBD 2015) and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) were reviewed and analysed. The age-standardized death rate decreased by 83.79% [95% uncertainty interval (UI) 73.06–87.10] from 1990 to 2015. The age-standardized prevalence of TB in males decreased steadily by 33.88% (95% UI 29.35–37.67) but nearly increased by 6.24% (95% UI -2.02–15.07) in females from 1990 to 2015. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were higher in males than in females, and the highest TB burden was found in the elderly (70+ years of age). Over the period 1990–2015, the attributable age-standardized DALY rates for smoking decreased by 12.98% (95% UI 2.40–24.27), but increased for alcohol use and high fasting plasma glucose (HFPG). Greater attention should be paid to females especially in the under 5 years of age group, and more latent reasons explaining TB DALYs should be explored in future studies.