As people feel more comfortable using the Internet, online hotel bookings has become popular in recent years. Understanding the drivers of online booking intention and behavior can help hotel managers to apply corresponding strategies to increase hotel booking rates. Thus the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the use intention and behavioral intention of online hotel booking. The proposed model has assimilated factors from the extended Unified theory of Acceptance and use of Technology (UTAUT2) along with age, gender, and experience as moderators. Data were collected by conducting a field survey questionnaire completed by 488 participants. The results showed that behavioral intention is significantly and positively influenced by performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit behavior. Use behavior is positively influenced by facilitating condition and hedonic motivation. As for moderators, gender moderates the relationships between performance expectancy, social influence, and behavioral intention. Age moderates the relationships between effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation, and behavioral intention. Experience moderates the relationships between social influence, price value, and behavioral intention and between habit behavior and use behavior. Based on the results, recommendations for hotel managers are proposed. Furthermore, research limitations and future directions are discussed.
Because only a handful of agrochemicals can manage bacterial
infections,
the discovery and development of innovative, inexpensive, and high-efficiency
antibacterial agents targeting these infections are challenging. Herein,
a series of novel epimeric and chiral 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid
(GA) ester derivatives with various tertiary amine pendants were designed,
synthesized, and screened for pharmacological activity. Results showed
that some of the title compounds were conferred with significantly
enhanced antibacterial activity toward phytopathogens Xanthomonas
oryzae pv oryzae (A
2
, B
1
–B
3
, and C
1
, EC50 values within 3.81–4.82 μg/mL)
and Xanthomonas axonopodis pv citri (B
1
, EC50 = 3.18
μg/mL; B
2
, EC50 = 2.76 μg/mL). These activities are superior to those of GA
(EC50 > 400 μg/mL), thiodiazole copper, and bismerthiazol.
Pharmacophore studies revealed that the synergistic combination of
GA skeleton and tertiary amine scaffolds contributed to the biological
actions. In vivo experiments displayed their promising applications
in controlling bacterial infections. Antibacterial mechanism studies
revealed that the title compounds could trigger apoptosis in the tested
pathogens, evident by bacteria morphological changes observed in scanning
electron microscopy images. This outcome should motivate the development
of various apoptosis inducers against plant bacterial diseases by
a novel mode of action compared to that of existing agricultural chemicals.
Nanoparticles (NPs) which target specific agents could effectively recognize the target cells and increase the stability of chemical agents by encapsulation. As such, NPs have been widely used in cancer treatment research. Recently, over 90% of treatment failure cases in patients with metastatic cancer were attributed to resistance to chemotherapy. Surface-exposed glucose-regulated protein of 78 kDa (GRP78) is expressed highly on many tumor cell surfaces in many human cancers and is related to the regulation of invasion and metastasis. Herein, we report that NPs conjugated with antibody against GRP78 (mAb GRP78-NPs) inhibit the adhesion, invasion, and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and promote drug delivery of 5-fluorouracil into GRP78 high-expressed human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Our new findings suggest that mAb GRP78-NPs could enhance drug accumulation by effectively transporting NPs into cell surface GRP78-overexpressed human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and then inhibit cell proliferation and viability and induce cell apoptosis by regulating caspase-3. In brief, mAb GRP78-NPs effectively inhibit cancer cell invasion and enhance antitumor efficiency by targeted drug delivery.
Compared to men, the sports participation of women is lower, especially in the East. Not many studies have compared the impacts of locus of control, agents of socialization, and sport socialization situations on the sports participation of women. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the contributing factors which may promote the sports participation of women in Taiwan. To do this, 450 structured questionnaires were distributed to women in Chiayi, Taiwan, with an 89.3% return rate. The study found that internal locus of control, agents of socialization, and sport socialization situation had positive impacts on the sports participation of women. In line with these results, the study suggests the strengthening of the internal locus of control of women, making the best use of socialization agents, and improvement of sport socialization situations, in order to promote sports participation in women.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.