Fabric speciality stores: travel behaviour of female customers
This consumer travel behaviour study examined (i) the distance female customers travel from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shop in, and (ii) the effects of selected factors on the travel behaviour of these customers. The procedure was to select 10 fabric speciality stores at random in the Phoenix (Arizona) metropolitan area and have 25 female customers complete the questionnaire at each store. The 250 questionnaires were analysed by examining the distances the respondents travelled in various situations and by chi-square tests to determine the relationships among the variables. 
 
 
 
The results indicated that the majority of respondents travelled 3 miles or less (oneway) from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shopped in; however, the actual number of miles travelled in this situation was found to be dependent on the respondents' level of education. It was also found that many respondents were willing to travel farther than the distance from their home to the fabric speciality store they most often shopped in to (i) purchase a specific fabric; or (ii) seek a greater variety of fabrics and related items, lower fabric prices and helpful/knowledgeable salespeople.
Fabric speciality stores: customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction with information‐source attributes
The purpose of this research was to determine customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction with information-source attributes supplied by fabric speciality stores. After constructing a theoretical framework of information-source attributes and a questionnaire, a survey of fabric speciality store customers was conducted in eight Midwestern cities in the U.S. The results indicated that salespeople, store layout/displays and fabric-bolt labels caused more dissatisfaction than store advertising, special services and free printed literature. It was also found that variables, such as the respondent's age, were related to the respondent's degree of satisfaction/dissatisfaction with fabric speciality store informations-source attributes.
Ceramic microwave antennas for mobile applications
Due to their medium to high permittivity values, ceramic microwave materials are attractive as building blocks for miniaturised antenna solutions. Further advantages are low dielectric losses and an excellent temperature stability of standard ceramic materials. Yet, the permittivity of the ceramic material also has a strong influence on the radiation efficiency and bandwidth of the antenna. This implies that in the design process a suitable compromise has to be found between the degree of miniaturisation on the one hand and the antenna efficiency and bandwidth on the other. We describe two approaches towards efficient miniaturised ceramic microwave antennas: the dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) with partial metallisation and the shorting post patch antenna. We focus on design steps taken to ensure both a high degree of miniaturisation and high values of the radiation efficiency, the choice of the ceramic material and the experimental performance of the antennas.