• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2016

An extensive body of research on the effects of country-of-origin has emerged in the international marketing and business literature streams. Nonetheless, extant studies do not satisfactorily demonstrate whether and how a foreign firm's choice of market entry mode influences consumers' purchase intentions of its product in country-related affect contexts. Using a survey and an experimental design, we aimed to provide evidence of the effects of the choice on consumers' evaluation and attitude of its product in an animosity context and in a national image context. Through the survey, we collected data regarding consumer animosity, national image, product evaluation, and product attitude from 185 university students and tested the hypotheses that consumer animosity and national image have effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude. The results of the survey research show that personal animosity has a negative effect on consumers' evaluation of foreign products and that a country's image regarding economics has positive effects on consumers' attitude toward foreign products as well as consumers' evaluation of foreign products. In the experimental design, we divided subjects into four groups and exposed them to several descriptions of hypothetical purchase situations. Conducting a 2 (market entry modes)${\times}2$ (country-of-origin) ANOVA, we tested the hypothesis that a market entry mode influences foreign product evaluation and attitude. The results of the experimental study reveal that in a high country-related product association (Germany), market entry modes have insignificant effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude. In addition, in a low country-related product association (China), international partnership has more positive effects on foreign product evaluation and attitude than does exporting.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.277-290
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• 2020

This paper presents an elastic-plastic solution for the circular tunnel of elastic-strain softening behavior considering the pressure-dependent Young's modulus and the nonlinear dilatancy. The proposed solution is verified by the results of the field measuring and numerical simulation from a practical project, and a published closed-form analysis solution. The influence of each factor is discussed in detail, and the ability of Young's modulus and dilatancy characterizing the mechanical response of surrounding rock is investigated. It is found that, in low levels of support pressure, adopting the constant Young's modulus model will seriously misestimate the surrounding rock deformation. Using the constant dilatancy model will underestimate the surrounding rock deformation. When adopting the constant dilatancy model, as the dilation angle increases, the range of the plastic region increases, and the surrounding rock deformation weakens. When adopting the nonlinear dilatancy, the plastic region range and the surrounding rock deformation are the largest. The surrounding rock deformation using pressure-dependent Young's modulus model is between those resulted from two constant Young's modulus models. The constant α of pressuredependent Young's modulus model is the main factor affecting the tunnel displacement. The influence of α using a constant dilatancy model is much more apparent than that using a nonlinear dilatancy model.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.471-476
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• 2007

Little is known about the origin and genetic diversity of swamp buffaloes in China. To obtain more knowledge on genetics of the water buffalo in China, the complete mitochondrial D-loop sequences of 30 samples from 6 native types were investigated. The results revealed 12 mitochondrial haplotypes with 50 polymorphic sites. Among these polymorphic sites, there were 49 transitions and 1 transversion. The average nucleotide diversity and haplotype diversity estimated from mtDNA D-loop region in 6 Chinese water buffalo types were 0.00684 and 0.798, respectively, showing rather abundant mitochondrial genetic diversity. The Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree of mtDNA of Chinese water buffaloes was constructed according to the 12 haplotypes. The NJ tree indicated two lineages being designated lineage A and lineage B, in which lineage A was predominant, and lineage B was at low frequency. The new lineage B was first discovered and defined in 6 Chinese water buffalo types. These results showed that two different maternal lineages were involved in the origin of domestic swamp buffaloes in China and the lineage B was probably an introgression from Southeast Asian buffaloes.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.677-686
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• 2013

Edible canna is a productive starch source in some tropical and semitropical regions. In these regions, water deficit stress is one of factors that limit the crop yield. In the present study, we investigated seven physiological indexes and photosynthetic responses of three edible canna (Canna edulis Ker.) cultivars ('PLRF', 'Xingyu-1', and 'Xingyu-2') under 35 days drought stress. Our results indicated that drought treatment caused visible wilting symptoms in all cultivars, especially in 'Xingyu-1'. Coupled with the increase of wilting symptoms, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll content decreased progressively, malondialdehyde (MDA) content gradually increased, and key antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) activities increased first and then decreased in all three cultivars. The effect of water stress was more pronounced in 'Xingyu-1' than in 'PLRF' and 'Xingyu-2', and in lower leaves than in upper leaves. In addition, 35 days drought stress also significantly reduced the photosynthetic capacity. Consistent with antioxidant parameters, photosynthetic changes of 'Xingyu-2' were less than those of the other cultivars under water deficit stress. Drought stress caused a significant increase of water use efficiency (WUE) in 'Xingyu-2', but little in 'PLRF', and obvious decrease in 'Xingyu-1'. These results indicated that 'Xingyu-2' was more tolerant to drought stress than 'PLRF' and 'Xingyu-1' by maintaining lower lipid peroxidation and higher antioxidant enzyme activities.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.353-362
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• 2019

Soil-rock mixture (S-RM) is an inhomogeneous geomaterial that is widely encountered in nature. The mechanical and physical properties of S-RM are important factors contributing towards different deformation characteristics and unstable modes of the talus slope. In this paper, the equivalent substitution method was employed for the preparation of S-RM test samples, and large-scale triaxial laboratory tests were conducted to investigate their mechanical parameters by varying the water content and confining pressure. Additionally, a simplified geological model based on the finite element method was established to compare the stability of talus slopes with different strength parameters and in different excavation and support processes. The results showed that the S-RM samples exhibit slight strain softening and strain hardening under low and high water content, respectively. The water content of S-RM also had an effect on decreasing strength parameters, with the decrease in magnitude of the cohesive force and internal friction angle being mainly influenced by the low and high water content, respectively. The stability of talus slope decreased with a decrease in the cohesion force and internal friction angle, thereby creating a new shallow slip surface. Since the excavation of toe of the slope for road construction can easily cause a landslide, anti-slide piles can be used to effectively improve the slope stability, especially for shallow excavations. But the efficacy of anti-slide piles gradually decreases with increasing water content. This paper can act as a reference for the selection of strength parameters of S-RM and provide an analysis of the instability of the talus slope.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2021

Pile foundation is a typical form of bridge foundation and viaduct, and large-diameter rock-socketed piles are typically adopted in bridges with long span or high piers. To investigate the effect of a mountain slope with a deep overburden layer on the bearing characteristics of large-diameter rock-socketed piles, four centrifuge model tests of single piles on different slopes (0°, 15°, 30° and 45°) were carried out to investigate the effect of slope on the bearing characteristics of piles. In addition, three pile group tests with different slope (0°, 30° and 45°) were also performed to explore the effect of slope on the bearing characteristics of the pile group. The results of the single pile tests indicate that the slope with a deep overburden layer not only accelerates the drag force of the pile with the increasing slope, but also causes the bending moment to move down owing to the increase in the unsymmetrical pressure around the pile. As the slope increases from 0° to 45°, the drag force of the pile is significantly enlarged and the axial force of the pile reduces to beyond 12%. The position of the maximum bending moment of the pile shifts downward, while the magnitude becomes larger. Meanwhile, the slope results in the reduction in the shaft resistance of the pile, and the maximum value at the front side of the pile is 3.98% less than at its rear side at a 45° slope. The load-sharing ratio of the tip resistance of the pile is increased from 5.49% to 12.02%. The results of the pile group tests show that the increase in the slope enhances the uneven distribution of the pile top reaction and yields a larger bending moment and different settlements on the pile cap, which might cause safety issues to bridge structures.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.515-527
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• 2022

The application of fibers in concrete obviously enhances the properties of concrete, also the application of natural fibers in concrete is raising due to the availability, low cost and environmentally friendly. Besides, predicting the mechanical properties of concrete in general and shear strength in particular is highly significant in concrete mixture with fiber nanocomposite reinforced concrete (FRC) in construction projects. Despite numerous studies in shear strength, determining this strength still needs more investigations. In this research, Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) have been employed to determine the strength of reinforced concrete with fiber. 180 empirical data were gathered from reliable literature to develop the methods. Models were developed, validated and their statistical results were compared through the root mean squared error (RMSE), determination coefficient (R²), mean absolute error (MAE) and Pearson correlation coefficient (r). Comparing the RMSE of PSO (0.8859) and ANFIS (0.6047) have emphasized the significant role of structural parameters on the shear strength of concrete, also effective depth, web width, and a clear depth rate are essential parameters in modeling the shear capacity of FRC. Considering the accuracy of our models in determining the shear strength of FRC, the outcomes have shown that the R² values of PSO (0.7487) was better than ANFIS (2.4048). Thus, in this research, PSO has demonstrated better performance than ANFIS in predicting the shear strength of FRC in case of accuracy and the least error ratio. Thus, PSO could be applied as a proper tool to maximum accuracy predict the shear strength of FRC.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.487-509
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze classroom discourse in the math classroom of middle school in China, which has a unique math classroom background of entrance examination for high school. To this end, this study analyzed teacher question statistics and episodes by teacher question type as starting speech in mathematics classroom discourse, and five IRF subtypes were especially identified by class discourse structure analysis. The data were analyzed focusing on a total of 15 transcripts of math classes recorded by three math teachers at H School in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China, and written interviews of teachers. According to the results of this study, an average of 20 teacher questions were observed for each class, and the teacher question type was classified into confirmation question (understanding confirmation question, explanation request question, and double check question) and information question (information presentation question). In addition, according to classroom discourse analysis, the IRF discourse structure was divided into fragmentary evaluation, evaluation+reason, evidence of explanation, evaluation+student response re-statement, guidance on other thoughts or solutions, and student answer correction or teacher opinion presentation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.475-485
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• 2017

The present study aimed to explore the neuroprotective effect and possible mechanisms of rhGLP-1 (7-36) against transient ischemia/reperfusion injuries induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in type 2 diabetic rats. First, diabetic rats were established by a combination of a high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) (30 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). Second, they were subjected to MCAO for 2 h, then treated with rhGLP-1 (7-36) (10, 20, $40{\mu}g/kg$ i.p.) at the same time of reperfusion. In the following 3 days, they were injected with rhGLP-1 (7-36) at the same dose and route for three times each day. After 72 h, hypoglycemic effects were assessed by blood glucose changes, and neuroprotective effects were evaluated by neurological deficits, infarct volume and histomorphology. Mechanisms were investigated by detecting the distribution and expression of the nuclear factor erythroid-derived factor 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) in ischemic brain tissue, the levels of phospho-PI3 kinase (PI3K)/PI3K ratio and heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-l), as well as the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA). Our results showed that rhGLP-1 (7-36) significantly reduced blood glucose and infarction volume, alleviated neurological deficits, enhanced the density of surviving neurons and vascular proliferation. The nuclear positive cells ratio and expression of Nrf2, the levels of P-PI3K/PI3K ratio and HO-l increased, the activities of SOD increased and the contents of MDA decreased. The current results indicated the protective effect of rhGLP-1 (7-36) in diabetic rats following MCAO/R that may be concerned with reducing blood glucose, up-regulating expression of Nrf2/HO-1 and increasing the activities of SOD.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.163-176
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• 2009

Investigating endophyte distribution, naturally occurring in native grasses, is important for understanding endophyte-grass associations and using the beneficial effects of endophytes in cultivated plants. The goal of this study was to investigate endophytes from natural Festuca spp. in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan Provinces of China, and to study the compatibility between the endophytes and turf type tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) which is widely used for lawn and athletic fields in that region. Of 628 accessions in F. ovina, 421 had endophytes identified in leaf sheath from on-site microscopic examination. From Festuca spp, three isolates were obtained from the seeds and ninety isolates were obtained from seedlings established from the collected seeds. The isolates from F. ovina and F. stapfii were tentatively identified as Neotyphodium typhinum and Neotyphodiumstarii, respectively. We tested compatibility of the two fungal species with seven tall fescue cultivars, Little Hero, Sub Boy, Eldorado, Arid III, Millennium, Crossfire, and Fawn. N. typhinum or N. starii did not infect 'Fawn' with either seed injection or seed soaking method. The highest infection rate byboth N. typhinum and N. starii was in 'Sun Boy' and 'Eldorado'. There were significant interaction effects between tall fescue cultivar and type of endophyte on infection.