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PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to investigate what affects a customer's decision to use the hotel smartphone applications when he/she makes a room reservation.Design/methodology/approachA total of 266 usable data was collected through an online survey. The research model was tested using confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling.FindingsThis study revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived credibility, perceived equipment risk, and perceived change risk affected customers' intention to book a hotel room using hotel smartphone apps. Perceived ease of use did not have a significant effect on behavioral intention.Originality/valueThis study extended TAM and the existing literature of mobile technology in the lodging industry. This article explored both existing variables and new variables in studying customers' intention to use hotel smartphone apps when booking a hotel room.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine customer intentions to download mobile applications in the hospitality industry. Even though major hospitality companies offer the mobile applications, many customers have not utilized them. The results showed what encouraged customers to download mobile applications in the hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachThe Technology Acceptance Model was applied for this research to explain customer intentions. College students were the target population of this study because they understand and adopt the technology well. Therefore, mobile applications will become a popular way to purchase goods and services when university students will have purchasing power.FindingsEven though major hospitality companies offer mobile applications, more than a half of respondents responded that they had not used mobile applications from the hospitality firms. The results showed that promotion information was not an only reason to download mobile applications; however, the results also showed that consumers who enjoy using smartphones and who are confident in themselves are more likely to download the mobile applications.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected in a university; therefore, generalizability is one of the limitations of this research. Multiple regressions only verify the relationship between dependant and independent variables. University students may not have a chance to plan their trips so they may not need the mobile applications.Originality/valueThis study employed the TAM to examine the reasons why customers download mobile applications offered by companies in the hospitality industry. Literature discussing mobile applications in the hospitality industry is very scarce. This research will assist managements in utilizing their mobile applications.

Superconducting high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) has advantages to treat wastewater because it can generate high magnetic field and achieve rapid purification. In this study superconducting HGMS was applied to remove impurities from the condenser water in thermal power plant. The condenser water contained mainly hematite and maghemite and it was highly magnetized than hematite. In the HGMS tests using a 6-T cryo-cooled Nb-Ti superconducting magnet, the turbidity of the condenser water was effectively reduced up to 99.6% and the result showed better performance than that of the 0.5-T permanent magnet test. The higher magnetic field was applied in the range of 1-6T, the more iron oxides were removed. The effect of magnetic filter configuration on the condenser water treatment was also investigated. Consequently superconducting HGMS system can be applicable to remove iron oxide impurities from condenser water in thermal power plant.

It is environmentally important to recycle the wastewater, since paper factories use a large amount of water and equivalent amount of wastewater is generated. Conventional water treatment facilities like precipitation process need large-scale equipment and wide space to purify the wastewater of paper factory. In case of massive waste water, high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) parts are more effective to purify it rapidly and to occupy relatively small space, since large voids at filter with HGMS are adopted. In this respect, we prepared two types of superconducting magnets in order to apply HGMS parts for wastewater purification process. We made cryo-cooled Bi-2223 (HTS) superconducting magnet parts with room temperature bore in diameter of 70 mm and 200 mm in height. Also, cryo-cooled Nb-Ti superconducting magnet with room temperature bore in diameter of 100 mm and 600 mm in height was used for magnetic separator. Magnetic filters were designed by the analysis of magnetic field distribution at superconducting magnets. The faster wastewater's flow rate was, the worse the degree of clarity in treated water was. The ability of wastewater treatment in the case of magnetic separation used with 10 of magnetite particles was better than that in the case of 5 of magnetite particles.

Iron oxide is widely used for the adsorption of oxyanion and anionic pollutants in water. Incorporation of aluminum expands available Fe oxide surface that can contact with pollutants because amorphous Al oxide exhibits extremely large surface area with porous morphology. Magnetic Fe-Al binary oxide was prepared by adjusting temperature during sintering of the oxides and investigated the feasibility of the magnetic adsorbent for chromate removal from aqueous solution with permanent and superconducting magnets. The Fe-Al oxide was highly magnetized (31.4 emu/g) after sintering at 500 °C. It is considered that the highly magnetized Fe-Al oxide with comparably large surface area can be a good magnetic adsorbent. The initial chromate solution with the adsorbent had 110 NTU of turbidity. After the superconducting magnetic separation with 0.5, 1, and 4 T, the turbidity of the solution decreased to 31.8, 12.3, and 7.7 NTU, respectively. The Fe-Al oxide is an effective magnetic adsorbent that can not only adsorb anionic pollutants, but also be separated by superconducting magnetic separation system.