A cultural approach to brand equity: The role of brand mianzi and brand popularity in China

International marketers face a challenge in applying Western-derived theory in emerging markets such as China where there has been rapid economic growth and sociocultural transition. This study develops “culturally contextualized” determinants of brand equity in China. A qualitative approach consisting of 30 interviews revealed two new factors linking to brand equity: brand popularity and brand mianzi. A quantitative questionnaire survey with a sample of 321 Chinese smartphone users was conducted to test the hypotheses. The quantitative study’s findings further revealed that brand popularity and country of origin image affect brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand mianzi. Additionally, the effects of brand popularity and country of origin image on brand equity were mediated by the four determinants. Finally, brand mianzi was found to be the second most important determinant of brand equity after brand loyalty, highlighting the importance of cultural factors in branding activities in emerging markets

Protein hydrolysates supplement in the nutrient solution of soilless grown fresh peppermint and spearmint as a tool for improving product quality

7openInternationalInternational coauthor/editorThe present study investigated the potential of fresh peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.) and spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) production on a floating raft system combined with a commercial protein hydrolysate supplement (Amino16®) in a nutrient solution aiming to improve plant product quality. Three levels of the protein hydrolysate solution (0, 0.25 and 0.50%) were added in the nutrient solution, and the plants were harvested after twenty-four days. Plant growth characteristics were recorded, and nutritional, essential oil and polyphenolic composition were determined in fresh tissue. The addition of protein hydrolysates did not affect the fresh or dry weight but reduced plant height. Nitrate content significantly decreased, while total chlorophyll and essential oil content increased in both species. Moreover, the protein hydrolysate solution further increased total antioxidant capacity, total soluble phenol and carotenoid contents in spearmint plants, while it did not affect the essential oil and polyphenolic composition in both species. In conclusion, protein hydrolysates solution may be added in the nutrient solution, to improve the quality of peppermint and spearmint grown in a floating system, without adverse effects on crop yield or the essential oil and polyphenolic profile.openAktsoglou, D.; Kasampalis, D.; Sarrou, E.; Tsouvaltzis, P.; Chatzopoulou, P.; Martens, S.; Siomos, A.Aktsoglou, D.; Kasampalis, D.; Sarrou, E.; Tsouvaltzis, P.; Chatzopoulou, P.; Martens, S.; Siomos, A

Predicting your next OLAP query based on recent analytical sessions

International audienceIn Business Intelligence systems, users interact with data warehouses by formulating OLAP queries aimed at exploring multidimensional data cubes. Being able to predict the most likely next queries would provide a way to recommend interesting queries to users on the one hand, and could improve the efficiency of OLAP sessions on the other. In particular, query recommendation would proactively guide users in data exploration and improve the quality of their interactive experience. In this paper, we propose a framework to predict the most likely next query and recommend this to the user. Our framework relies on a probabilistic user behavior model built by analyzing previous OLAP sessions and exploiting a query similarity metric. To gain insight in the recommendation precision and on what parameters it depends, we evaluate our approach using different quality assessments

Chemical and Biological Characterization of the Anticancer Potency of \u3ci\u3eSalvia fruticosa\u3c/i\u3e in a Model of Human Malignant Melanoma

Malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of skin cancer with an increasing incidence worldwide. Thus, the development of innovative therapeutic approaches is of great importance. Salvia fruticosa (SF) is known for its anticancer properties and in this context, we aimed to investigate its potential anti-melanoma activity in an in vitro model of human malignant melanoma. Cytotoxicity was assessed through a colorimetric-based sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay in primary malignant melanoma (A375), non-malignant melanoma epidermoid carcinoma (A431) and non-tumorigenic melanocyte neighbouring keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells. Among eight (8) different fractions of S. fruticosa extracts (SF1-SF8) tested, SF3 was found to possess significant cytotoxic activity against A375 cells, while A431 and HaCaT cells remained relatively resistant or exerted no cytotoxicity, respectively. In addition, the total phenolic (Folin–Ciocalteu assay) and total flavonoid content of SF extracts was estimated, whereas the antioxidant capacity was measured via the inhibition of tert-butyl hydroperoxide-induced lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation levels. Finally, apoptotic cell death was assessed by utilizing a commercially available kit for the activation of caspases - 3, - 8 and - 9. In conclusion, the anti-melanoma properties of SF3 involve the induction of both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathway(s), as evidenced by the increased activity levels of caspases - 8, and - 9, respectively

Ofeleein i mi Vlaptin-Volume II: Immunity Following Infection or mRNA Vaccination, Drug Therapies and Non-Pharmacological Management at Post-Two Years SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

The persistence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered research into limiting transmission, morbidity and mortality, thus warranting a comprehensive approach to guide balanced healthcare policies with respect to people's physical and mental health. The mainstay priority during COVID-19 is to achieve widespread immunity, which could be established through natural contact or vaccination. Deep knowledge of the immune response combined with recent specific data indicates the potential inferiority of induced immunity against infection. Moreover, the prevention of transmission has been founded on general non-pharmacological measures of protection, albeit debate exists considering their efficacy and, among other issues, their socio-psychological burden. The second line of defense is engaged after infection and is supported by a plethora of studied agents, such as antibiotics, steroids and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, antiviral medications and other biological agents that have been proposed, though variability in terms of benefits and adverse events has not allowed distinct solutions, albeit certain treatments might have a role in prevention and/or treatment of the disease. This narrative review summarizes the existing literature on the advantages and weaknesses of current COVID-19 management measures, thus underlining the necessity of acting based on the classical principle of "ofeleein i mi vlaptin", that is, to help or not to harm

Improving risk communication: a proof-of-concept randomised control trial assessing the impact of visual aids for neurosurgical consent

IntroductionInformed consent is a fundamental component in the work-up for surgical procedures. Statistical risk information pertaining to a procedure is by nature probabilistic and challenging to communicate, especially to those with poor numerical literacy. Visual aids and audio/video tools have previously been shown to improve patients' understanding of statistical information. In this study, we aimed to explore the impact of different methods of risk communication in healthy participants randomized to either undergo the consent process with visual aids or the standard consent process for lumbar puncture.Material and methodsHealthy individuals above 18 years old were eligible. The exclusion criteria were prior experience of the procedure or relevant medical knowledge, lack of capacity to consent, underlying cognitive impairment and hospitalised individuals. After randomisation, both groups received identical medical information about the procedure of a lumbar puncture in a hypothetical clinical scenario via different means of consent. The control group underwent the standard consent process in current clinical practice (Consent Form 1 without any illustrative examples), whereas the intervention group received additional anatomy diagrams, the Paling Palette and the Paling perspective scale. Anonymised questionnaires were received to evaluate their perception of the procedure and its associated risks.ResultsFifty-two individuals were eligible without statistically significant differences in age, sex, professional status and the familiarity of the procedure. Visual aids were noted to improve the confidence of participants to describe the risks by themselves (p = 0.009) and participants in the intervention group felt significantly less overwhelmed with medical information (p = 0.028). The enhanced consent process was found to be significantly more acceptable by participants (p = 0.03). There was a trend towards greater appropriateness (p = 0.06) and it appeared to have “good” usability (median SUS = 76.4), although this also did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.06)ConclusionVisual aids could be an appropriate alternative method for medical consent without being inferior regarding the understanding of the procedure, its risks and its benefits. Future studies could possibly compare or incorporate multiple interventions to determine the most effective tools in a larger scale of population including patients as well as healthy individuals

Integrated genomics and proteomics define huntingtin CAG length-dependent networks in mice.

To gain insight into how mutant huntingtin (mHtt) CAG repeat length modifies Huntington's disease (HD) pathogenesis, we profiled mRNA in over 600 brain and peripheral tissue samples from HD knock-in mice with increasing CAG repeat lengths. We found repeat length-dependent transcriptional signatures to be prominent in the striatum, less so in cortex, and minimal in the liver. Coexpression network analyses revealed 13 striatal and 5 cortical modules that correlated highly with CAG length and age, and that were preserved in HD models and sometimes in patients. Top striatal modules implicated mHtt CAG length and age in graded impairment in the expression of identity genes for striatal medium spiny neurons and in dysregulation of cyclic AMP signaling, cell death and protocadherin genes. We used proteomics to confirm 790 genes and 5 striatal modules with CAG length-dependent dysregulation at the protein level, and validated 22 striatal module genes as modifiers of mHtt toxicities in vivo

Edge-centric queries stream management based on an ensemble model

The Internet of things (IoT) involves numerous devices that can interact with each other or with their environment to collect and process data. The collected data streams are guided to the cloud for further processing and the production of analytics. However, any processing in the cloud, even if it is supported by improved computational resources, suffers from an increased latency. The data should travel to the cloud infrastructure as well as the provided analytics back to end users or devices. For minimizing the latency, we can perform data processing at the edge of the network, i.e., at the edge nodes. The aim is to deliver analytics and build knowledge close to end users and devices minimizing the required time for realizing responses. Edge nodes are transformed into distributed processing points where analytics queries can be served. In this paper, we deal with the problem of allocating queries, defined for producing knowledge, to a number of edge nodes. The aim is to further reduce the latency by allocating queries to nodes that exhibit low load (the current and the estimated); thus, they can provide the final response in the minimum time. However, before the allocation, we should decide the computational burden that a query will cause. The allocation is concluded by the assistance of an ensemble similarity scheme responsible to deliver the complexity class for each query. The complexity class, thus, can be matched against the current load of every edge node. We discuss our scheme, and through a large set of simulations and the adoption of benchmarking queries, we reveal the potentials of the proposed model supported by numerical results

Genetic prediction of ICU hospitalization and mortality in COVID-19 patients using artificial neural networks

There is an unmet need of models for early prediction of morbidity and mortality of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). We aimed to a) identify complement-related genetic variants associated with the clinical outcomes of ICU hospitalization and death, b) develop an artificial neural network (ANN) predicting these outcomes and c) validate whether complement-related variants are associated with an impaired complement phenotype. We prospectively recruited consecutive adult patients of Caucasian origin, hospitalized due to COVID-19. Through targeted next-generation sequencing, we identified variants in complement factor H/CFH, CFB, CFH-related, CFD, CD55, C3, C5, CFI, CD46, thrombomodulin/THBD, and A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS13). Among 381 variants in 133 patients, we identified 5 critical variants associated with severe COVID-19: rs2547438 (C3), rs2250656 (C3), rs1042580 (THBD), rs800292 (CFH) and rs414628 (CFHR1). Using age, gender and presence or absence of each variant, we developed an ANN predicting morbidity and mortality in 89.47% of the examined population. Furthermore, THBD and C3a levels were significantly increased in severe COVID-19 patients and those harbouring relevant variants. Thus, we reveal for the first time an ANN accurately predicting ICU hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients, based on genetic variants in complement genes, age and gender. Importantly, we confirm that genetic dysregulation is associated with impaired complement phenotype