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Whilst the rapid advancement of technology in the 21st century has facilitated the online collection, storage, retrieval, manipulation, and transmission of individuals' personal information, it has also led to a concomitant rise in privacy concerns amongst e‐commerce users. Although privacy concerns have received considerable attention in the e‐commerce literature, to date, empirical research has tended to report somewhat erratic and inconsistent findings in the context of consumer privacy. Accordingly, the relationships between the antecedents, privacy concerns, and the outcome variables in e‐commerce contexts remains unclear. To remedy such deficiencies in the literature, this study adopts the meta‐analytic approach to gather and make sense of the inconsistent and mixed empirical findings reported in the literature. The findings show that risk perceptions trigger privacy concerns while benefit perceptions, familiarity, reputation, privacy policy, and trust mitigate privacy concerns which in turn affect customer attitude and usage of e‐commerce platforms. To investigate the possible reasons for inconsistent findings, we performed a moderation analysis which suggests that methodological moderators, that is, type of article, research methods, and sample type; and contextual moderators, i.e. country where the study was carried out, and gender dominance in a sample set, can cause inconsistencies in the findings. Theoretically, this meta‐analysis contributes to the Antecedents; Privacy Concerns; Outcome variables (APCO) Model, and the literature on consumer privacy in the context of e‐commerce. Practically, the findings provide guidelines to e‐commerce businesses to effectively address customers' privacy concerns.

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Regeneration of immunosensors is a longstanding challenge. We have developed a re-usable troponin-T (TnT) immunoassay based on localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) at gold nanorods (GNR). Thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAM) was functionalised with anti-TnT to control the affinity interaction with TnT. The LSPR was extremely sensitive to the dielectric constant of the surrounding medium as modulated by antigen binding after 20 min incubation at 37 °C. Computational modelling incorporating molecular docking, molecular dynamics and free energy calculations was used to elucidate the interactions between the various subsystems namely, IgG-antibody (c.f., anti-TnT), PNIPAAM and/or TnT. This study demonstrates a remarkable temperature dependent immuno-interaction due to changes in the PNIPAAM secondary structures, i.e., globular and coil, at above or below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). A series of concentrations of TnT were measured by correlating the λLSPR shift with relative changes in extinction intensity at the distinct plasmonic maximum (i.e., 832 nm). The magnitude of the red shift in λLSPR was nearly linear with increasing concentration of TnT, over the range 7.6 × 10−15 to 9.1 × 10−4 g/mL. The LSPR based nano-immunoassay could be simply regenerated by switching the polymer conformation and creating a gradient of microenvironments between the two states with a modest change in temperature.

A stimuli-responsive homopolymer poly(ILBr) is fabricated via a "two-phase" atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process, where ILBr stands for the reactive ionic liquid surfactant, 1-[11-acryloylundecyl]-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide. An extraordinarily wide molecular weight distribution (PDI = 6.0) was obtained by introducing the initiator (4-bromomethyl methyl benzoate) in a heterogeneous two-phase process. The molecular weight distribution of poly(ILBr) was characterized by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). The resulting homopolymer was found to be surface active and stimuli responsive. Poly(ILBr) films coated on quartz exhibit stimuli-responsive dewetting after ion exchange of Br(-) by PF(6)(-). This dewetting phenomenon can be understood in chain segmental terms as a stimuli-induced structural relaxation and appears to be the first such reported stimuli-responsive polymeric dewetting. Titrating aqueous poly(ILBr) with aqueous bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate induces nanophase separation and results in the condensation of nanoparticles 30-60 nm in diameter.

New polymer materials, including thin films, soft gels, and hollow capsules, consisting of composite polymer nanofilms were prepared by the Cu(I)-catalyzed Huisgen click reaction between lipophilic polymers or between lipophilic and hydrophilic polymers. Because the lipophilic polymer, or hydrophilic polymer and copper catalyst were present in the oil or aqueous phase, respectively, the crosslinking reaction proceeded only at the phase interface. The combination of lipophilic and hydrophilic polymers produced “Janus” nanofilms with both hydrophilic and lipophilic surfaces.

Abstract. Functionalization of indigenous materials improves inherent physicochemical properties that depend mainly on their fabrication techniques. Here, pH triggered biocomposites using different proportions of kaolinite and chitosan were fabricated. It was revealed that the biocomposites were formed in 1M acetic acid and stabilized after dropwise addition of the mixture of kaolinite and chitosan solution in 3M NaOH. Binding of kaolinite and chitosan at their interface through functional groups was studied using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The average particle size of the biocomposite in aqueous system having 80% w/w kaolinite and 20% w/w chitosan was determined to be 400.8 nm. Crystallinity disappearance of chitosan in the biocomposite, as shown in x-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum, supports the wrapping of kaolinite with soft and flexible chitosan. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed the thermal stability of the biocomposites and it was found that the biocomposite fabricated from 50% w/w kaolinite and 50% w/w chitosan was stabled up to 318 o C. Morphological studies were carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), where a progressive tendency towards granular morphology was evidenced with increase in kaolinite content. These functionalized materials in bionanocomposite structure would play a vital role in advanced research in analytical and environmental science.

This study investigated the effects of processing parameters, namely particle mixing ratios, press temperatures, and time for the manufacturing of jute stick binderless particleboard (JBPB). Different ratios of fine and coarse particles, press temperature (160 to 240 °C) and press time (4 to 10 min) were used for JBPB fabrication with a target density of 0.9 g/cm3. The dimensional stability and mechanical properties of JBPB were determined according to Japanese Industrial Standard JIS A 5908 (2003). The result shows that the most favorable pressing conditions in the manufacturing process were press temperature of 220 °C for 6 min with a mixing ratio of 50:50 (fine: coarse). The modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), and internal bonding (IB) of JBPB was 16.35 N/mm2, 3872.99 N/mm2, and 1.07 N/mm2, respectively, which met the minimum requirement for type-18 of particleboard JIS A 5908 (2003) except for the value of MOR. The bonding mechanism was analyzed by the chemical changes in the raw materials after the fabrication of JBPBs. The pentosans present in the raw material decreased with the increased press temperatures. In this study, the hemicellulose was decomposed which may accelerate the self-bonding of the JBPB at high temperatures. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the JBPB showed good thermal stability with the increase of press temperatures. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra indicated that the removal of hydroxyl groups which increased the dimensional stability of JBPBs. Hence, it could be concluded that by controlling particle mixing ratio (50:50) at high press temperature with proper press time, high-performance jute stick binderless particleboard could be successfully developed which has a variety of applications.