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A high-entropy oxide nanocomposite with Ag(CuZn)(AlCr)2O4and CuO phases is fabricated to form an abundantly hierarchical wrinkled surface. Application of a mechanical force to the nanocomposite resulted in a nonhomogeneous strain gradient at the interface between the Ag(CuZn)(AlCr)2O4and CuO phases, changing the local charge distribution and creating flexoelectric polarization that delayed electron/hole recombination. Transmission electron microscopy energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping revealed that the Ag, Cu, Zn, Al, Cr, and O elements were highly distributed throughout the nanocomposite. The nanocomposite produced 2116 μmol·g–1h–1of H2without external light irradiation, which is 980% higher than the H2produced by the same nanocomposite under the photocatalytic process. A strong electrical field is observed at the interface between the Ag(CuZn)(AlCr)2O4and CuO phases, demonstrating that a flexoelectric potential (flexopotential) is established at the structural boundaries because the strain gradient is localized at these interfaces. The nanocomposite is a promising approach for environmentally friendly energy production.

Purpose: This study investigates the role of source familiarity in moderating the effect of service adaptive behavior (SAB) on customer satisfaction. Applying the accessibility–diagnosticity framework and situated cognition theory as the theoretical basis, this research hypothesizes that when customers are familiar with the source that provides the service (i.e. brand familiarity for Study 1 and personal familiarity for Study 2), customer satisfaction responses to SAB would be more moderate than when customers are not familiar with the source. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Design/methodology/approach: Two experiments manipulating SAB and the brand name familiarity (Study 1) and personal familiarity with the service staff (Study 2) as the source familiarity were conducted. Customer satisfaction as a function of source familiarity was measured to test the hypothesis that source familiarity moderates the relationship between SAB and customer satisfaction. Findings: Compared to unfamiliar sources, familiar sources generated a more moderate response in customer satisfaction as a function of SAB. High familiarity with the brand and service staff induced top-down, memory-based processing that overrides external stimuli as the basis of satisfaction judgment; bottom-up, stimulus-based processing relying on SAB for judgment kicked in only when the source familiarity is low. Practical implications: From a practical point of view, this study indicates the importance of SAB, especially for brands with low awareness, and alludes to the comparative importance of relationship building in service delivery processes. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by validating the role of contextual factors in influencing the impact of SAB on customer satisfaction.

Graduate youth unemployment has recently substantially increased, and the learning-application gap is a major problem. Universities are crucial for addressing this gap. An adaptive career-consultation mobile application (ACCMA) integrating student capabilities and interests was developed to help students connect what they are learning at university with workplace needs. With a questionnaire, 475 senior university students were surveyed. The ACCMA was significantly more beneficial than general career counselling at assisting students in understanding their capabilities and interests and planning their future careers. Additionally, students were more satisfied with this method of career consultation. It is suggested that the learning-application gap can be reduced by using mobile technology to provide students with information and by assessing students' capabilities and interests, and how they may fit in the current employment market. This will enhance their employability and competitiveness and reinforce their future career development.

Nucleofection of chondrocytes has been shown to be an adequate method of transfection. Using Amaxa’s nucleofection system, transfection efficiencies up to 89% were achievable for vector (pmaxGFP) and 98% for siRNA (siGLO) into passaged chondrocytes. However, such methods rely on costly commercial kits with proprietary reagents limiting its use in basic science labs and in clinical translation. Bovine-passaged chondrocytes were plated in serum reduced media conditionsand then nucleofected using various in laboratory-produced buffers. Cell attachment, confluency, viability, and transfection efficiency was assessed following nucleofection. For each parameter the buffers were scored and a final rank for each buffer was determined. Buffer denoted as 1M resulted in no significant difference for cell attachment, confluency, and viability as compared to non-nucleofected controls. Nucleofection in 1M buffer, in the absence of DNA vectors, resulted in increased col2, ki67, ccnd1 mRNA levels, and decreased col1 mRNA levels at 4 days of culture. Flow cytometry revealed that the transfection efficiency of 1M buffer was comparable to that obtained using the Amaxa commercial kit. siRNA designed against lamin A/C resulted in an average reduction of lamin A and C proteins to 19% and 8% of control levels, respectively. This study identifies a cost-effective, efficient method of nonviral nucleofection of bovine-passaged chondrocytes using known buffer formulations. Human-passaged chondrocytes could also be successfully nucleofected in 1M buffer. Thus this method should facilitate cost-efficient gene targeting of cells used for articular cartilage repair in a research setting.

As test data continues to grow quickly, test cost also increases. For the sake of decreasing the test cost, this article presents a new data dependency compression scheme for large circuit which is based on multiple scan chains. We propose new compression architecture with fixed length for running tests. In results, when the complexity of a VLSI circuit is growing, the number of input pins for testing is very low. Since test data in power aware is not changed frequently, we use a selector to filter the unnecessary status and buffers to hold the back data. We also propose a new algorithm to assign multiple scan chains and an improved linear dependency compute method to find the hidden dependency between scan chains. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce both test data volume and shift-in power.

The introduction and use of fuzzy logic has strengthened knowledge representation and reasoning capability in expert systems; nevertheless, it also increases the complexity and difficulty of knowledge verification, which is known to be an important issue for building reliable and high performance expert systems. In the past decade, knowledge verification problems, e.g., redundancy, conflict, circularity and incompleteness of knowledge, have been widely discussed from the viewpoint of using binary logic; nevertheless, the issue of verifying fuzzy knowledge is seldom discussed. In this paper, we attempt to detect potential structural errors among fuzzy rules by proposing a fuzzy verification algorithm. Moreover, a system for verifying fuzzy knowledge base has been developed based on the novel approach.

In developing traditional learning materials, quality is the key issue to be considered. However, for high technical e-training courses, not only the quality of the learning materials but also the efficiency of developing the courses needs to be taken into consideration. It is a challenging issue for experienced engineers to develop up-to-date e-training courses for inexperienced engineers before further new technologies are proposed. To cope with these problems, a concept relationship-oriented approach is proposed in this paper. A system for developing e-training courses has been implemented based on the novel approach. Experimental results showed that the novel approach can significantly shorten the time needed for developing e-training courses, such that engineers can receive up-to-date technologies in time.