The extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) incorporates environmental concern, a critical variable in green marketing literature, intending to achieve triple bottom line (TBL). In this context, ...this study aims to validate TPB and its extended form (mediating role of TPB variables), as well as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), to predict Indian consumers’ green product purchase intention. We collected primary data from 521 respondents as input, establishing validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Our empirical results of structural equation modeling (SEM) show that extended TPB has higher predictability than TPB and TRA in green marketing settings. Consumer attitude and perceived behavioral control significantly predicts purchase intention whereas subjective norm does not. Our findings also suggest that TPB mediates the relationship between environmental concern and green products purchase intention. An additional construct in the new model considerably contributes to improving the understanding of green products purchase intention formation and could become a sustainable mainstream variable.
•The extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has higher utility over TPB and TRA as a research framework in explaining purchase intention.•Environmental concern has equal and significant effect on attitude and perceived behavioral control.•Subjective norm does not predict purchase intention for green products in India.
This research provides a comprehensive delineation of the process that leads to the formation of green behavior by including the role played by media and attitude towards environment-friendly ...packaging, along with ecological concern and perceived consumer effectiveness. The study offers a parsimonious framework that measures the major antecedents of environmental attitude divided into inward and outward orientation. Moreover, it also measures the effects of these environmental attitudes and attitude towards green packaging on green purchase intention. A total of 308 usable questionnaires were obtained from Indian consumers and data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results show that inward environmental attitude and attitude towards green packaging play a pivotal role in shaping green purchase intention. Surprisingly, outward environmental attitude was found to be non-significant. Findings offer implications for marketing managers and public policy makers, as well as reveal fruitful avenues for further research.
•Media influences environmental concern positively and inward environmental attitude negatively.•Inward environmental attitude impacts green purchasing.•Perceived consumer effectiveness emerged as strong predictor of inward environmental attitude compared to outward environmental attitude.•Environmental concern impact outward environmental attitude more compared to inward environmental attitude and attitude towards EF packaging.
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•Faster hydrogen removal technology than conventional rotary degassing methods.•Effective elimination of oxide bi-films by innovative rotor-stator design.•High technology efficiency ...as very low gas flow and rotor speed required.•No covering flux required to maintain good melt quality for long periods after degassing.•Improved casting integrity and mechanical properties due to enhanced melt quality.
The degassing of aluminium alloy melts is a crucial step in the production of high-quality casting products, as the presence of dissolved hydrogen and oxide bi-films is detrimental to the mechanical properties. Current rotary degassing techniques are effective, but they lack efficiency because of the high gas flow and long processing times required. This study aims to solve this problem by presenting an innovative rotor-stator degassing technology, that combines controlled inert gas injection with intensive melt shearing. It has been applied to the liquid metal treatment of an aluminium cast alloy to evaluate the effect on melt cleanliness, casting integrity and mechanical properties. The optimum conditions for an efficient bubble dispersion have been obtained by water modelling. The melt quality during and after degassing has been assessed by in-situ measurement of hydrogen concentration and by reduced pressure test sampling for oxide bi-films and porosity content evaluation. This new technology is faster, requires less gas flow consumption and produces higher melt quality than the existing degassing techniques, due to a characteristic combination of distributive and dispersive mixing flow. In addition, re-gassing is minimised, maintaining a high melt quality for longer time after processing. This results in castings with less defects and better mechanical properties. The improved degassing efficiency of this technology makes it an excellent alternative in industry to increase melt quality and casting productivity.
Metabotropic glutamate receptors are class C G-protein-coupled receptors which respond to the neurotransmitter glutamate. Structural studies have been restricted to the amino-terminal extracellular ...domain, providing little understanding of the membrane-spanning signal transduction domain. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 is of considerable interest as a drug target in the treatment of fragile X syndrome, autism, depression, anxiety, addiction and movement disorders. Here we report the crystal structure of the transmembrane domain of the human receptor in complex with the negative allosteric modulator, mavoglurant. The structure provides detailed insight into the architecture of the transmembrane domain of class C receptors including the precise location of the allosteric binding site within the transmembrane domain and key micro-switches which regulate receptor signalling. This structure also provides a model for all class C G-protein-coupled receptors and may aid in the design of new small-molecule drugs for the treatment of brain disorders.
Aims: This study aims to compare clinical outcomes in patients of recurrent implantation failure (RIF), who had embryo transfer (ET) following a receptive (R) endometrial receptivity array (ERA) and ...a personalized embryo transfer (pET) after a nonreceptive (NR) ERA. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective observational study. Study Period: July 2013-September 2017. Subjects and Methods: Two hundred and forty-eight patients having unexplained RIF who underwent ERA test were included in the study. Clinical outcomes were compared between patients having a receptive (R) ERA and those having a NR ERA who underwent a pET-based on ERA. Statistical Analysis Used: Chi-square and t-test. Results: ERA predicted receptive (R) endometrium at P + 5 in 82.3% (204/248) patients and NR in 17.7% (44/248) patients. Average failed previous in vitro fertilization cycles were 3.67 ± 1.67 among receptive ERA patients and 4.09 ± 1.68 among NR ERA patients. Pregnancy rate (PR), clinical PR, implantation rate (IR), abortion rate (AR), ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR), and cumulative PR were comparable between patients having receptive ERA who had a routine Embryo Transfer (ET) and those with an NR ERA who underwent a pET. Conclusions: ERA is helpful in identifying the window of implantation (WOI) through genetic expressions of the endometrium to pinpoint embryo transfer timing. pET guided by ERA in patients of RIF with displaced WOI improves IRs and OPRs.
Salmonella enterica, the cause of food poisoning and typhoid fever, has evolved sophisticated mechanisms to modulate Rho family guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) to mediate specific cellular ...responses such as actin remodeling, macropinocytosis, and nuclear responses. These responses are largely the result of the activity of a set of bacterial proteins (SopE, SopE2, and SopB) that, upon delivery into host cells via a type III secretion system, activate specific Rho family GTPases either directly (SopE and SopE2) or indirectly (SopB) through the stimulation of an endogenous exchange factor. We show that different Rho family GTPases play a distinct role in Salmonella-induced cellular responses. In addition, we report that SopB stimulates cellular responses by activating SH3-containing guanine nucleotide exchange factor (SGEF), an exchange factor for RhoG, which we found plays a central role in the actin cytoskeleton remodeling stimulated by SALMONELLA: These results reveal a remarkable level of complexity in the manipulation of Rho family GTPases by a bacterial pathogen.
The impact of high shear melt conditioning on the morphology and distribution of Fe intermetallic compounds was investigated in the processing of recycled AA6111 alloy by the twin roll casting ...process. The optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograph studies were carried out on twin roll casting (TRC) and melt conditioning twin roll casting (MC-TRC) samples. The microstructural analysis showed fine and uniformly distributed Fe-rich intermetallic phases for MC-TRC strips compared with the TRC strips. There was a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of MC-TRC strips after applying melt conditioning. The as-cast MC-TRC samples showed 18.7%, 19.2% and 9.8% increases in elongation, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength, respectively, in the longitudinal direction, while in the transverse section, the MC-TRC samples showed 32.3%, 2.2% and 3.8% increases in elongation, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength, respectively.
Energy-efficient equipment appliances (EEEAs) offer great potential for domestic energy saving. This study aims to explore the direct influence of TPB constructs (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, and ...perceived behavioral control), eco labels, and green trust on the intention to buy EEEAs with green environmental concern as moderator. We employed quantitative methodology to test the relationship in the proposed model with an Indian sample of 321 respondents. Both Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used for data analysis with AMOS 22.0. The findings reveal that eco-labels and green trust fully mediate the relationship between attitude and PBC to intention to buy EEEAs. The results also suggest that eco-labels and green trust play a positive and vital role in leading to purchase sustainable appliances. Through this study, we contribute to literature encompassing energy-efficient product consumption, achieved through heightened eco-labels perceptions and green trust. The EEEAs purchases can be stimulated among the consumers with higher green environmental concern.
A continuous high-shear melt conditioning twin-roll casting process has been developed for production of recycled aluminum alloy strip with minimum casting defects. High-shear melt conditioning is ...applied to increase the impurities tolerance of recycled aluminum. The results of this study showed that solidification during twin-roll casting can be controlled by using intensive melt conditioning prior to casting, which can promote equiaxed growth with minimal defects and result in improved sheet quality. Melt-conditioned twin-roll cast (MC-TRC) AA5754 alloy exhibited fine equiaxed grains and homogenized matrix structure while centerline segregation was eliminated. As-cast melt-conditioned twin-roll cast AA5754 strips showed clear grain recrystallization after thermomechanical treatment at 430°C for 30 min, representing an improvement over conventional twin-roll casting. The MC-TRC strip showed 57.2% higher elongation and 4.1% higher ultimate tensile strength compared with the TRC strip after applying melt conditioning with thermomechanical treatment.
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