Why context matters in a changing social media environment: The role of placement prominence as a moderator of disclosure effects in sponsored influencer content

Social media influencers have marked a significant change in advertising in recent years. By integrating sponsored content from advertisers into their feeds, they create awareness and favorable attitudes for products and brands. The effectiveness of this sponsored content builds on close adaptation to the original content of the specific media platform. To ensure transparency, influencers are required to disclose sponsored content. While effects of such disclosure labels and disclaimers have been widely examined, less attention has been paid to context factors that may influence these effects, such as placement prominence. Building on the propositions of the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this study aims to investigate the role of placement prominence as a moderator of disclosure effects. Results of an experimental study revealed that prominent placements support disclosure labels in reducing perceived deceptiveness of sponsored content, which positively affects influencer credibility and recipients’ attitudes toward the promoted brand. In contrast, disclosure effects on perceived persuasive intent vanished, when placement prominence was high. The results emphasize the importance of context factors in the processing of sponsored content and disclosures in a constantly changing social media environments

Space QUEST mission proposal: experimentally testing decoherence due to gravity

Models of quantum systems on curved space-times lack sufficient experimental verification. Some speculative theories suggest that quantum properties, such as entanglement, may exhibit entirely different behavior to purely classical systems. By measuring this effect or lack thereof, we can test the hypotheses behind several such models. For instance, as predicted by Ralph and coworkers [T C Ralph, G J Milburn, and T Downes, Phys. Rev. A, 79(2):22121, 2009, T C Ralph and J Pienaar, New Journal of Physics, 16(8):85008, 2014], a bipartite entangled system could decohere if each particle traversed through a different gravitational field gradient. We propose to study this effect in a ground to space uplink scenario. We extend the above theoretical predictions of Ralph and coworkers and discuss the scientific consequences of detecting/failing to detect the predicted gravitational decoherence. We present a detailed mission design of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space QUEST (Space - Quantum Entanglement Space Test) mission, and study the feasibility of the mission schema.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, included radiation damage to detectors in appendi

Metal-Free Aryl Cross-Coupling Directed by Traceless Linkers

The metal-free, highly selective synthesis of biaryls poses a major challenge in organic synthesis. We report the scope and mechanism of a promising new approach to (hetero)biaryls by the photochemical fusion of aryl substituents tethered to a traceless linker (photosplicing). Interrogating photosplicing with varying reaction conditions and comparison of diverse synthetic probes (40 examples, including a suite of heterocycles) showed that the reaction has a surprisingly broad scope and involves neither metals nor radicals. Quantum chemical calculations revealed that the C–C bond is formed by an intramolecular photochemical process that involves an excited singlet state and the traverse of a five-membered transition state, thus warranting consistent ipso‑ipso‑coupling fidelity. These results demonstrate that photosplicing is a unique aryl cross-coupling method in the excited state that can be applied to synthesize a broad range of biaryls. </div

Semifluorinated Alkane Eye Drops for Treatment of Dry Eye Disease Due to Meibomian Gland Disease

Purpose: Meibomian gland disease is generally accepted as the leading cause for evaporative dry eye disease (DED). In a previous study, perfluorohexyloctane, a semifluorinated alkane, has been demonstrated to significantly increase tear film breakup time and to reduce corneal fluorescein staining in patients with evaporative DED, thereby vastly reducing dry eye-related symptoms. This study was set up to evaluate perfluorohexyloctane in a larger population of patients with Meibomian gland dysfunction. Methods: Seventy-two patients with Meibomian gland disease and associated dry eye received 1 drop of perfluorohexyloctane 4 times daily during an observational, prospective, multicenter, 6-8-week study. Clinical assessment included best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure, Schirmer test I, tear film breakup time, anterior and posterior blepharitis assessment, number of expressible Meibomian glands, meibum quality and quantity, ocular surface fluorescein staining, lid margin and symptom assessment, and Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI (c)). Results: From the 72 patients recruited, 61 completed the trial per protocol. Nine patients did not apply the medication as recommended and 2 patients were lost to follow-up. Tear film breakup time, corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining, number of expressible Meibomian glands, and severity of anterior and posterior blepharitis significantly improved after 6-8 weeks of perfluorohexyloctane application. In addition, symptoms improved as demonstrated by a significant decrease of OSDI-values from 37 (13) to 26 (+/- 16). Conclusions: In concordance with previous findings, 6-8 weeks of topical application of perfluorohexyloctane significantly improves clinical signs of Meibomian gland disease and associated mild to moderate DED