Trust considerations on attitudes towards online purchasing: The moderating effect of privacy and security concerns

The research examines the relationships between three common trust considerations (vendor, Internet and third parties) and attitudes towards online purchasing. The study incorporates privacy and security concerns as a moderating variable and finds that these relationships vary depending on the level of concerns a consumer has when purchasing online. The study suggests that "fears" surrounding the Internet as a place to do business still hinder the use of it for e-commerce purposes, but that the presence of a reputable agent might in some manner mitigate this risk. In the context of business to consumer relationships trust in the vendor is important for the consumer to accept any risk associated with a transaction. Theoretical implications for online customer behavior theory are also discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Inc.

Understanding online customer repurchasing intention and the mediating role of trust - an empirical investigation in two developed countries

Although e-commerce adoption and customers initial purchasing behavior have been well studied in the literature, repeat purchase intention and its antecedents remain understudied. This study proposes a model to understand the extent to which trust mediates the effects of vendor-specific factors on customers intention to repurchase from an online vendor. The model was tested and validated in two different country settings. We found that trust fully mediates the relationships between perceived reputation, perceived capability of order fulfillment, and repurchasing intention, and partially mediates the relationship between perceived website quality and repurchasing intention in both countries. Moreover, multi-group analysis reveals no significant between-country differences of the model with regards to the antecedents and outcomes of trust, except the effect of reputation on trust. Academic and practical implications and future research are discussed. © 2009 Operational Research Society Ltd.

Factors That Impact Technology Innovation Adoption Among Irish Professional Service Sector SMEs

This paper disseminates the findings from a study into the factors impacting technological innovation adoption and diffusion specific to the deployment of electronic-commerce strategies within professional service sector SMEs in Ireland. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed and seven factors relating to a firm's external/internal environment were found to underpin adoption. These are: electronic-commerce capability; willingness to change/rate of response to new technologies; technological opportunity recognition; customer orientation; sensitivity to competitive/customer environments; perceptions of technology feasibility; and e-skills development mechanisms. t-tests revealed differences between adopters and non-adopters, and forward stepwise logistic regression is used to assess the extent to which these seven factors actually predict electronic-commerce adoption. It was found that electronic-commerce capability and the willingness to change/rate of response to new technologies are the two most important factors affecting adoption behaviours. © Imperial College Press.

The electrochemical oxidation of catechol and dopamine on platinum in 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([C(2)mim][NTf2]) and 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([C(4)mim][BF4]): Adsorption effects in ionic liquid voltammetry

The electrochemical oxidation of catechol and dopamine has been studied at a platinum micro-electrode (10 pm diameter) in two room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs): 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([C(2)mim][NTf2]) and 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([C(4)mim][BE4]). For catechol in [C(2)mim][NTf2], an electrochemically quasi-reversible oxidation peak was observed at 1.1 V vs. Pt with a back peak at 0.4 V vs. Pt. This is assigned to the two-electron oxidation of catechol to doubly protonated o-benzoquinone. Double-step chronoamperometry gave a diffusion coefficient for the catechol and the oxidised species which is 3.8 x 10(-11) m(2) s(-1) for both. For catechol in [C(4)mim][BF4], a two-electron oxidation wave was observed at 1.0 V vs. Pt with no back peak. Another peak at less positive potential was also observed at 0.6 V vs. Pt in [C(4)mim][BF4] but not in [C(2)mim][NTf2] which is assigned to the adsorption of electrochemically formed neutral o-benzoquinone on the platinum electrode. The oxidised protonated o-benzoquinone is suggested to be deprotonated by the [BF4](-) anion, but not by the [NTf2](-) anion: hence adsorption of the neutral species at the platinum electrode, not the charged species. For dopamine in both RTILs, two chemically irreversible oxidation peaks were observed at 0.75 V and 1.1 V vs. Pt, and assigned to the oxidation of dopamine to the corresponding semi-quinone and the quinone. Potential-step chronoamperometry was carried out on the oxidation waves of dopamine in [C(2)mim][NTf2] and the diffusion coefficient of species in solution was calculated to be 6.85 x 10(-12) m(2) s(-1) and confirmed that the waves corresponded to one and two electron processes. A third wave was observed at 1.8 V vs. Pt which is attributed to the oxidation of the amine group to a radical cation with likely subsequent follow up chemistry. In [C(4)mim][BF4] a peak at less positive potential was observed for dopamine, similar to catechol which is assigned to the adsorption of the neutral quinone species on the platinum electrode formed by the reaction of the removal of protons from the oxidised dopamine with the [BF4](-) anion. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selecting Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids to Optimize Voltammetric Responses: The Oxidation of NADH

The electrochemistry of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in its reduced form was examined in two room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs): 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis-(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([C(2)mim][NTf2]) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophos-phate ([C(4)mim][PF6]). NADH oxidation has previously been studied in aqueous solution where it follows the pathway: one-electron oxidation to the NADH(center dot+) radical cation, deprotonation to produce the neutral NAD(center dot) radical, then oxidation to the NAD(+) cation. The electrochemistry of NADH was examined in [C(2)mim][NTf2] and [C(4)mim][PF6] at the bare Pt electrode (10 mu m diameter): In [C(2)mim][NTf2], no oxidation was observed; in [C(4)mim][PF6], an oxidative signal was observed, which likely followed the pathway described above, where upon formation of the NADH(center dot+) radical cation, the [PF6](-) anion (unlike the [NTf2](-) anion) reacts with the proton to form HPF6, which decomposes. This demonstrates the tunability of RTILs, whereby the choice of one anion in an RTIL over another can promote a reaction. Poly(vinylferrocene) (PVF) was studied as a mediator for the NADH detection in both RTILs to attempt to lower the potential of NADH detection. The Pt electrode was modified with PVF, and the oxidation of PVF to PVF+ was observed in [C(2)mim][NTf2] and [C(4)mim][PF6], but no mediation of the NADH oxidation was observed.

The health of children with cerebral palsy and stress in their parents

Aim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe the health of children with cerebral palsy and investigate predictors of stress in their parents. Background.  Children with severe cerebral palsy tend to have poorer health than their able-bodied peers, and their parents are more likely to be stressed and have poorer health. Method.  A cross-sectional survey with home visits using standard questionnaires was administered to parents in 2004–05. A total of 102/199 (51%) children and parents participated. The children were compared with a normative sample. Results.  Children with cerebral palsy had poorer physical health, and 79% of parents reported that their child had moderate to severe pain. Their poorer health, in comparison with the normal sample and measured by the Child Health Questionnaire, was related to feeding problems and seizures, general health perceptions to intellectual and feeding impairment, and family activities with severe motor, intellectual and feeding impairment. Poorer psychological well-being on the hyperactivity domain of the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire was related to feeding difficulties, on the prosocial domain to more severe forms of all child impairments, and on the social impairment scale to intellectual impairment. Children with psychological problems had statistically significantly increased odds (OR = 7·2, 95% CIs 2·6–20·3) of having parents with high stress. Conclusion.  Children with cerebral palsy and associated impairments are at higher risk of poorer health and family well-being. A family-centred approach to the care of children with cerebral palsy and their families is essential to ensure both receive adequate care and support.

On the alignment of debris disks and their host stars' rotation axis -implications for spin-orbit misalignment in exoplanetary systems

It has been widely thought that measuring the misalignment angle between the orbital plane of a transiting exoplanet and the spin of its host star was a good discriminator between different migration processes for hot-Jupiters. Specifically, well-aligned hot-Jupiter systems (as measured by the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect) were thought to have formed via migration through interaction with a viscous disc, while misaligned systems were thought to have undergone a more violent dynamical history. These conclusions were based on the assumption that the planet-forming disc was well-aligned with the host star. Recent work by Lai et al. has challenged this assumption, and proposes that the star-disc interaction in the pre-main sequence phase can exert a torque on the star and change its rotation axis angle. We have estimated the stellar rotation axis of a sample of stars which host spatially resolved debris disks. Comparison of our derived stellar rotation axis inclination angles with the geometrically measured debris-disk inclinations shows no evidence for a misalignment between the two.

Rotation periods of exoplanet host stars

The stellar rotation periods of 10 exoplanet host stars have been determined using newly analysed CaII H&K flux records from the Mount Wilson Observatory and Strömgren b, y photometric measurements from Tennessee State University's automatic photometric telescopes at the Fairborn Observatory. Five of the rotation periods have not previously been reported, with that of HD 130322 very strongly detected at Prot = 26.1 +/- 3.5 d. The rotation periods of five other stars have been updated using new data. We use the rotation periods to derive the line-of-sight inclinations of the stellar rotation axes, which may be used to probe theories of planet formation and evolution when combined with the planetary orbital inclination found from other methods. Finally, we estimate the masses of 14 exoplanets under the assumption that the stellar rotation axis is aligned with the orbital axis. We calculate the mass of HD 92788 b (28 MJ) to be within the low-mass brown dwarf regime and suggest that this object warrants further investigation to confirm its true nature.