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Customers increasingly interact with firms across multiple touch points, which influence their overall perceptions and their future choices. Drawing on social capital theory, we investigate the causal paths from different touch points (social influence, customer informational inquiries, and firm-initiated contacts) to non-transactional behaviors, and their impact on customer profitability and customer lifetime value (CLV). To the best of our knowledge, no research to date has simultaneously focused on analyzing three different types of interactions in an empirical way, or their financial and non-financial consequences. We used longitudinal data for a sample of 1990 customers. The results show that social influence is a crucial determinant of non-transactional behaviors. CIIs affect customer participation and provide short-term and long-term benefits, while FICs influence long-term value only. Managerial implications are articulated in four key guidelines for managers: (1) identifying firms’ role; (2) customer selection; (3) leveraging investments in touch points; and, (4) marketing accountability.

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a crucial half-reaction of water splitting to produce possible future energy carrier: H2, which is directly associated with the conversion and storage of clean energy. There is a great demand on efficient earth-abundant electrocatalysts to replace Pt, especially in alkaline medium. Herein, we report Co2Ni alloy anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Co2Ni alloy/N-CNTs) as an efficient alkaline HER electrocatalyst. The alloy is prepared from a straightforward hydrothermal reaction and a post-annealing process in NH3 atmosphere, which in situ reduces the nickel cobalt carbonate hydroxide precursor to alloy and brings N-doping to CNTs without changing original morphology. The as-obtained Co2Ni alloy/N-CNTs hybrids exhibit superior alkaline HER performance with a small Tafel slope of 87 mV dec−1, high exchange current density of 0.8 mA cm−2 and a low overpotential of 100 mV to drive current density of 10 mA cm−2, which is comparable to commercial Pt/C and surpasses numerous reported earth-abundant electrocatalysts. This electrocatalyst can also endure long-time HER process (>24 h). The excellent catalytic performance can be attributed to accelerated charge transfer, more exposed active sites and structural robustness which all benefit from the structural and component configuration that brought by alloy and N-doped CNTs.

It is vital to develop oxygen evolution reaction catalyst with rational designed composition and microstructure to facilitate the overall electrochemical water splitting. In this work, uniform NixFe1-x-P nanosheets arrays are vertically grown on carbon cloth to form an effective oxygen evolution reaction catalyst. Such structure is prepared by phosphorization of the corresponding layered double hydroxide nanosheets. In this synthesis, the hydroxides are converted to phosphide while the porous nature is well retained. The ratio of Ni to Fe in the phosphide is tuned and the optimized synergistic effect between Ni and Fe for oxygen evolution reaction catalytic activity is achieved. The nanoarrays with hierarchical porous structure offer more reaction sites and promote the charge transfer. As a result, low reaction overpotential and small Tafel slope have been realized. In additional, the synthesis strategy can be also applied to prepare Ni5P4 hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst. A full water electrolyzer is demonstrated with the optimized cathode and anode, and remarkable overall water splitting activity is obtained with a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at the potential of 1.53 V.

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-antibody (ab) disease and AQP4-IgG-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) can co-exist with anti-NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor encephalitis (NMDARe).To characterize MOG-ab disease and AQP4-IgG-positive NMOSD during NMDARe.We analyzed all the patients with overlapping MOG-ab disease and NMDARe (MNOS) and patients with AQP4-IgG-positive NMOSD and NMDARe (ANOS) in our hospital and compared those data with data from systematically review of previously published reports.In our cohorts, 11.9% patients with MOG-ab disease and 0.6% patients with NMOSD had overlapping NMDARe (P0.01). After treatment with steroids and/or intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), the median modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of the MNOS group decreased significantly during attacks associated with or without NMDARe (P0.01 for both), while that of the ANOS group did not (attack: P0.05; attack associated with NMDARe: P0.05). Analyzed together with previously reported cases, 6% patients with MNOS and 40% patients with ANOS also used rituximab or cyclophosphamide after steroids and/or IVIg (P0.05) during attacks associated with NMDARe.Compared with NMOSD, MOG-ab disease may more commonly co-exist with NMDARe. MNOS patients respond better to steroids and IVIg than do ANOS patients during attacks associated with NMDARe.

The binder plays a crucial role in maintaining electrode structure and improving the cycling performance in Li S batteries, especially for high–energy–density batteries. Here, a natural biopolymer peach gum (PG) was developed as sulfur cathode binder for the first time. PG binder owns abundant carboxyls and hydroxyls, which can form strong interaction between Li O and further effectively constrain polysulfides from shuttling. Besides, strong adhesion force and superior mechanical behavior of PG help to keep the electrode integrity and good electrical contact. Therefore, PG@S electrode achieves an impressively high discharge areal capacity of 27.10 mAh cm−2 with sulfur loading of 26.3 mg cm−2.

Many studies have found that diabetes increases the risk of some cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma. However, there are few studies on the relationship between the two diseases and their effects on intestinal flora. Therefore, we used streptozotocin and high-fat diet to establish a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, and then inoculated the Huh-7 hepatocellular carcinoma cells to obtain mouse diabetic tumor model. Mice inoculated with Huh-7 cells alone served as control. The tumor size in the diabetic tumor group was significantly higher than that in the tumor group. Our study also showed that the expression levels of inflammation-related factors (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, TLR4 and MCP1) in the diabetic tumor group were significantly higher than that in the tumor group. We found that metformin alleviated blood glucose level, reduced the expressions of inflammation-related factors and retarded xenograft tumor growth in the diabetic tumor group, but it couldn't reduce the tumor growth in the tumor group. Subsequent studies found that the content of some short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) including acetic acid, propionic acid and isobutyric acid decreased significantly in diabetic tumor group. Metformin increased short chain fatty acid levels (acetic acid, butyic acid and valeric acid) and enriched the abundance of SCFA-producing bacterial genera such as Ruminococcaceae, Clostridiales, Anaerovorax, Odoribacter and Marvinbryantia. In conclusion, type 2 diabetes could promote the growth of hepatoma cells in mice. Metformin could inhibit the growth of tumor under the condition of diabetes and play a role in the intestinal homeostasis in mice.

Firms invest in customer experience in the expectation that these investments will ultimately provide positive financial returns. In practice, however, customers are continuously exposed by the changes occurring in their personal perceptions of customer experience and market surrounding. Using a unique and comprehensive dataset containing customer-level and market-level information for a sample of 13,761 customers in the telecom market, we empirically test the proposed framework by applying multilevel modeling techniques. The results offer novel insights into the effects of customer experience, its variability (customer level), and market turbulence (market level) on customer retention, including the moderating effect of relationship age.

This paper presents a modified neural dynamic surface control (DSC) with an adaptive bias torque for the multi-motor servomechanism (MMS) with backlash, friction and other disturbances. By introducing a continuous hybrid differentiator to replace the first-order filter in each step, a modified DSC is developed to improve the load tracking precision of MMS. However, when the MMS enters the backlash band, only DSC cannot guarantee the load tracking performance. Thus, an adaptive bias torque is firstly proposed based on the prescribed performance function technique to compensate the backlash nonlinearity and guarantee the load tracking performance of MMS. In addition, the unknown dynamics including the friction and other disturbances are approximated by using wavelet echo state networks where the weights are all updated online. By means of Lyapunov stability theory, the semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) property of all signals in the closed-loop system is proved. Finally, simulations and experimental results based on a four-motor servomechanism are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Background We sought to identify biological variations in the following tumor markers: pepsinogen I (PGI), pepsinogen II (PGII), carbohydrate antigen 724 (CA724), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199). Methods Serum samples were collected from 20 healthy Chinese individuals over 5 days. Samples were then screened for the presence of the seven aforementioned tumor markers. Within-individual coefficient of variation (CVI), between-individual coefficient of variation (CVG), confidence interval (CI) of biological variations, index of individuality (II), and the reference change value (RCV) of the seven tumor markers were calculated. Results Of the 7 tumor markers, index of individuality was all

One-dimensional (1D) Bi2S3 nanostructures with various morphologies, including nanowires, nanorods, and nanotubes, have been successfully synthesized through a facile ethanol-assisted one-pot reaction. It is found that the size, morphology and structure of the products can be conveniently varied or controlled by simply adjusting the volume ratio of ethanol and water in the reaction system. Further experimental results indicate that sulfur source also plays the other crucial role in determining the product morphology. The synthetic strategy developed in this work is highly efficient in producing 1D Bi2S3 nanostructures with high quality and large quantity. Photocatalysis experiments show the as-prepared 1D Bi2S3 nanostructures possess significantly enhanced photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) when exposed to visible light irradiation. Especially, Bi2S3 nanowires exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity and can be used repeatedly after washed with dilute HCl.

While the proliferation of online channel has promoted consumerś active participation in the value-creation process, affecting the way consumers transact and interact with brands, this increased consumer empowerment also has its dark side. Drawing from social exchange theory, we aim to offer a unifying framework to understand the linkages between customer equity, experience quality and non-transactional behaviors (including co-creation and word-of-mouth) in an e-commerce context. We also suggest that relationship proneness moderates the established links. With the final valid sample for 761 online banking customers obtained via the survey in a European financial services company, we apply partial least squares and develop a multi-group analysis. Customer equity, as a global assessment of brand, is vital for the development of positive customer experience, which consequently promotes the enforcement of non-transactional behaviors. Finally, relationship proneness strengthens the impact of customer equity and customer experience quality. Implications for theory and management are discussed.

α-Fe2O3 hollow spheres with novel multiple porous shells were successfully prepared by a facile solvothermal treatment of carbon spheres and FeCl3⋅6H2O in ethylene glycol at 200 °C for 10 h, followed by calcination in air at 500 °C for 3 h. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the crystalline structure and morphology of the multi-shelled hollow spheres, and a possible growth mechanism of multiple shells was discussed. Furthermore, the as-obtained products exhibit enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) in the presence of H2O2.

Mesoporous graphene and tourmaline co-doped titania composite was prepared using a direct sol–gel co-condensation combined with solvothermal treatment technique. The composite exhibited a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected mesostructure and anatase phase-structure with a large surface area (218 m 2 g − 1 ) and uniform pore size. Compared with pure titania, the photocatalytic activity of the composite was enhanced significantly towards aqueous organic pollutant rhodamine B and norfloxacin degradation under simulated sunlight irradiation. Subsequently, this composite was successfully applied to the actual eutrophic water treatment.