3,173 research outputs found
Mind-reading versus neuromarketing: how does a product make an impact on the consumer?
Purpose
– This research study aims to illustrate the mapping of each consumer’s mental processes in a market-relevant context. This paper shows how such maps deliver operational insights that cannot be gained by physical methods such as brain imaging.
Design/methodology/approach
– A marketed conceptual attribute and a sensed material characteristic of a popular product were varied across presentations in a common use. The relative acceptability of each proposition was rated together with analytical descriptors. The mental interaction that determined each consumer’s preferences was calculated from the individual’s performance at discriminating each viewed sample from a personal norm. These personal cognitive characteristics were aggregated into maps of demand in the market for subpanels who bought these for the senses or for the attribute.
Findings
– Each of 18 hypothesized mental processes dominated acceptance in at least a few individuals among both sensory and conceptual purchasers. Consumers using their own descriptive vocabulary processed the factors in appeal of the product more centrally. The sensory and conceptual factors tested were most often processed separately, but a minority of consumers treated them as identical. The personal ideal points used in the integration of information showed that consumers wished for extremes of the marketed concept that are technologically challenging or even impossible. None of this evidence could be obtained from brain imaging, casting in question its usefulness in marketing.
Research limitations/implications
– Panel mapping of multiple discriminations from a personal norm fills three major gaps in consumer marketing research. First, preference scores are related to major influences on choices and their cognitive interactions in the mind. Second, the calculations are completed on the individual’s data and the cognitive parameters of each consumer’s behavior are aggregated – never the raw scores. Third, discrimination scaling puts marketed symbolic attributes and sensed material characteristics on the same footing, hence measuring their causal interactions for the first time.
Practical implications
– Neuromarketing is an unworkable proposition because brain imaging does not distinguish qualitative differences in behavior. Preference tests are operationally effective when designed and analyzed to relate behavioral scores to major influences from market concepts and sensory qualities in interaction. The particular interactions measured in the reported study relate to the major market for healthy eating.
Originality/value
– This is the first study to measure mental interactions among determinants of preference, as well as including both a marketed concept and a sensed characteristic. Such an approach could be of great value to consumer marketing, both defensively and creatively
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The effect of drought on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) release from peatland soil and vegetation sources
Drought conditions are expected to increase in frequency and severity as the climate changes, representing a threat to carbon sequestered in peat soils. Downstream water treatment works are also at risk of regulatory compliance failures and higher treatment costs due to the increase in riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) often observed after droughts. More frequent droughts may also shift dominant vegetation in peatlands from Sphagnum moss to more drought tolerant species. This paper examines the impact of drought on the production and treatability of DOC from four vegetation litters (Calluna vulgaris, Juncus effusus, Molinia caerulea and Sphagnum spp.) and a peat soil. We found that mild droughts caused a 39.6 % increase in DOC production from peat and that this DOC was harder to remove by conventional water treatment processes (coagulation/flocculation). Drought had no effect on DOC production from vegetation litters, however large variation was observed between typical peatland species (Sphagnum and Calluna) and drought tolerant grassland species (Juncus and Molinia), with the latter producing more DOC per unit weight. This would therefore suggest the increase in riverine DOC often observed post-drought is due entirely to soil microbial processes and DOC solubility rather than litter-layer effects. Long term shifts in species diversity may, therefore, be the most important impact of drought on litter layer DOC flux, whereas more immediate effects are observed in peat soils. These results provide evidence in support of catchment management which increases the resilience of peat soils to drought, such as ditch-blocking to raise water-tables
Ethanol Induced Disordering of Pancreatic Acinar Cell Endoplasmic Reticulum: An ER Stress/Defective Unfolded Protein Response Model.
Background & aimsHeavy alcohol drinking is associated with pancreatitis, whereas moderate intake lowers the risk. Mice fed ethanol long term show no pancreas damage unless adaptive/protective responses mediating proteostasis are disrupted. Pancreatic acini synthesize digestive enzymes (largely serine hydrolases) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where perturbations (eg, alcohol consumption) activate adaptive unfolded protein responses orchestrated by spliced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1). Here, we examined ethanol-induced early structural changes in pancreatic ER proteins.MethodsWild-type and Xbp1+/- mice were fed control and ethanol diets, then tissues were homogenized and fractionated. ER proteins were labeled with a cysteine-reactive probe, isotope-coded affinity tag to obtain a novel pancreatic redox ER proteome. Specific labeling of active serine hydrolases in ER with fluorophosphonate desthiobiotin also was characterized proteomically. Protein structural perturbation by redox changes was evaluated further in molecular dynamic simulations.ResultsEthanol feeding and Xbp1 genetic inhibition altered ER redox balance and destabilized key proteins. Proteomic data and molecular dynamic simulations of Carboxyl ester lipase (Cel), a unique serine hydrolase active within ER, showed an uncoupled disulfide bond involving Cel Cys266, Cel dimerization, ER retention, and complex formation in ethanol-fed, XBP1-deficient mice.ConclusionsResults documented in ethanol-fed mice lacking sufficient spliced XBP1 illustrate consequences of ER stress extended by preventing unfolded protein response from fully restoring pancreatic acinar cell proteostasis during ethanol-induced redox challenge. In this model, orderly protein folding and transport to the secretory pathway were disrupted, and abundant molecules including Cel with perturbed structures were retained in ER, promoting ER stress-related pancreas pathology
Is Profound Boredom Boredom?
Martin Heidegger is often credited as having offered one of the most thorough phenomenological investigations of the nature of boredom. In his 1929–1930 lecture course, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, he goes to great lengths to distinguish between three different types of boredom and to explicate their respective characters. Within the context of his discussion of one of these types of boredom, profound boredom [tiefe Langweile], Heidegger opposes much of the philosophical and literary tradition on boredom insofar as he articulates how the experience of boredom can be existentially beneficial to us. In this chapter, we undertake a study of the nature of profound boredom with the aim of investigating its place within contemporary psychological and philosophical research on boredom. Although boredom used to be a neglected emotional experience, it is no more. Boredom’s causal antecedents, effects, experiential profile, and neurophysiological correlates have become topics of active study; as a consequence, a proliferation of claims and findings about boredom has ensued. Such a situation provides an opportunity to scrutinize Heidegger’s claims and to try to understand them both on their own terms and in light of our contemporary understanding of boredom
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Sensitivity of peatland litter decomposition to changes in temperature and rainfall
Changes to climate are projected over the next 50 years for many peatland areas. As decomposition of peatforming vegetation is likely to be intrinsically linked to these changes in climate, a clear understanding of climate-peat dynamics is required. There is concern that increased temperature and decreased precipitation could increase the rate of decomposition and put the carbon sink status of many peatlands at risk, yet few studies
have examined the impact of both climatic factors together. To better understand the sensitivity of peatland decomposition to changes in both temperature and precipitation and their interaction, we conducted a shortterm
laboratory experiment in which plant litters and peat soil were incubated, in isolation, in a factorial design.
Treatments simulated baseline and projected climate averages derived from the latest UK climate change projections (UKCP09) for Exmoor, a climatically marginal peatland in SW England. Regular carbon dioxide flux
measurements were made throughout the simulation, as well as total mass loss and total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leached. The largest effect on carbon loss in this multifactor experiment was from substrate, with
Sphagnum/peat releasing significantly less C in total during the experiment than dwarf shrubs/graminoids.
Climate effects were substrate specific, with the drier rainfall treatment increasing the DOC leaching from
Calluna, but decreasing it from Sphagnum. Partitioning between CO2 and DOC was also affected by climate, but
only for the peat and Sphagnum samples, where the future climate scenarios (warmer and drier) resulted in a
greater proportion of C lost in gaseous form. These results suggest that indirect effects of climate through
changes in species composition in peatlands could ultimately turn out to be more important for litter decomposition
than direct effects of climate change from increased temperatures and decreased rainfall
National health and medical research council statement on electronic cigarettes: 2022 update
Introduction: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use in Australia has rapidly increased since the 2017 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statement on e-cigarettes. The type of products available and the demographic characteristics of people using these products have changed. New evidence has been published and there is growing concern among public health professionals about the increased use, particularly among young people who do not currently smoke combustible cigarettes. The combination of these issues led NHMRC to review the current evidence and provide an updated statement on e-cigarettes. In this article, we describe the comprehensive process used to review the evidence and develop the 2022 NHMRC CEO statement on electronic cigarettes. Main recommendations: E-cigarettes can be harmful; all e-cigarette users are exposed to chemicals and toxins that have the potential to cause adverse health effects. There are no health benefits of using e-cigarettes if you do not currently smoke tobacco cigarettes. Adolescents are more likely to try e-cigarettes if they are exposed to e-cigarettes on social media. Short term e-cigarette use may help some smokers to quit who have been previously unsuccessful with other smoking cessation aids. There are other proven safe and effective options available to help smokers to quit. Changes in management as a result of this statement: The evidence base for the harms of e-cigarette use has strengthened since the previous NHMRC statement. Significant gaps in the evidence base remain, especially about the longer term health harms of using e-cigarettes and the toxicity of many chemicals in e-cigarettes inhaled as an aerosol
Shift invariant preduals of ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ)
The Banach space ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ) admits many non-isomorphic preduals, for
example, C(K) for any compact countable space K, along with many more
exotic Banach spaces. In this paper, we impose an extra condition: the predual
must make the bilateral shift on ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ) weak<sup>*</sup>-continuous. This is
equivalent to making the natural convolution multiplication on ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ)
separately weak*-continuous and so turning ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ) into a dual Banach
algebra. We call such preduals <i>shift-invariant</i>. It is known that the
only shift-invariant predual arising from the standard duality between C<sub>0</sub>(K)
(for countable locally compact K) and ℓ<sub>1</sub>(ℤ) is c<sub>0</sub>(ℤ). We provide
an explicit construction of an uncountable family of distinct preduals which do
make the bilateral shift weak<sup>*</sup>-continuous. Using Szlenk index arguments, we
show that merely as Banach spaces, these are all isomorphic to c<sub>0</sub>. We then
build some theory to study such preduals, showing that they arise from certain
semigroup compactifications of ℤ. This allows us to produce a large number
of other examples, including non-isometric preduals, and preduals which are not
Banach space isomorphic to c<sub>0</sub>
Epidemiology and individual, household and geographical risk factors of podoconiosis in ethiopia: results from the first nationwide mapping
Although podoconiosis is one of the major causes of tropical lymphoedema and is endemic in Ethiopia its epidemiology and risk factors are poorly understood. Individual-level data for 129,959 individuals from 1,315 communities in 659 woreda (districts) were collected for a nationwide integrated survey of lymphatic filariasis and podoconiosis. Blood samples were tested for circulating Wuchereria bancrofti antigen using immunochromatographic card tests. A clinical algorithm was used to reach a diagnosis of podoconiosis by excluding other potential causes of lymphoedema of the lower limb. Bayesian multilevel models were used to identify individual and environmental risk factors. Overall, 8,110 of 129,959 (6.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 6.1-6.4%) surveyed individuals were identified with lymphoedema of the lower limb, of whom 5,253 (4.0%, 95% CI 3.9-4.1%) were confirmed to be podoconiosis cases. In multivariable analysis, being female, older, unmarried, washing the feet less frequently than daily, and being semiskilled or unemployed were significantly associated with increased risk of podoconiosis. Attending formal education and living in a house with a covered floor were associated with decreased risk of podoconiosis. Podoconiosis exhibits marked geographical variation across Ethiopia, with variation in risk associated with variation in rainfall, enhanced vegetation index, and altitude
Private Sector Union Density and the Wage Premium: Past, Present, and Future
The rise and decline of private sector unionization were among the more important features of the U.S. labor market during the twentieth century. Following a dramatic spurt in unionization after passage of the depression-era National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, union density peaked in the mid-1950s, and then began a continuous decline. At the end of the century, the percentage of private wage and salary workers who were union members was less than 10 percent, not greatly different from union density prior to the NLRA
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