Consumer’s Symbol-consumption and Brand Management

As a key driving factor of brand equity, brand image is a research hotspot in the field of consumer behavior and brand marketing. The management over brand image is regarded as a key activity in the field of enterprise marketing. In addition, symbol consumption with the sense of self is another research hotspot in the field of consumer behavior. Brand image management of enterprises is faced with a new important topic, i.e. how to link symbol consumption with brand image management. This paper conducts in-depth research on the degree of consistency between actual self of consumers and brand image and that between their social self and brand image with product type as research variable by introducing self-concept theory based on the integration of existing symbol consumption research achievements. The research finds that the degree of consistency between actual self-concept and brand image of products in private is significantly higher than that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in public; that between social self-concept and brand image of products in public is significantly higher than that between social self-concept and brand image of products in private; that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in private is significantly higher than that between social self-concept and brand image of products in private; that between social self-concept and brand image of products in public is significantly higher than that between actual self-concept and brand image of products in public

The Impact of Online Third-party Product Reviews on Consumer Adoption of a New Product

Research has discovered that the third-party product review (TPPR) can influence consumer adoption of a new product. However, the specific influence mechanism needs further deep explorations. In this study, effects of different types of TPPR on consumer adoption of different new products were tested from the perspective of consumer knowledge. Based on two experimental designs, it is reported that the TPPR in the recommendation format and comparison format influence the intentions of new consumers to use really new products mostly. The TPPR in the description format and independent format influence the intentions of expert consumers to incremental new products. Moreover, the source of TPPR is vital. Consumers trust the TPPR in professional product evaluation websites more compared with public media. In other words, TPPR in professional product evaluation websites can facilitate consumer adoption of new products. The research conclusions here further enrich researches concerning TPPR and adoption of new productions

The Positive Effect of Negative Word-of-mouth on Consumers’ Purchase Intention Towards Experience Goods

The purpose of the present study is to examine the positive effect of negative word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intention towards an experience good. By introducing consumer’s need for closure as a moderator, the results of two situation-based experiments reveal that negative word-of-mouth of a well-known experience good would increase the purchase intention of consumers with a high-level need for closure (Vs. a low-level need for closure); the same effect would not happen to an unknown experience good; and the positive effect of negative word-of-mouth on the purchase intention of consumers with a high-level need for closure towards a well-known experience good only happens in the case of negative word-of-mouth for the first time (Vs. the second time). The findings contribute to the literature on online review and word-of-mouth from a new perspective

Chinese Consumer Insecurity in the Digital Age: Theoretical Construction of Scale Development

Consumer Insecurity is a new research topic in consumer psychology domain in recent years. It focuses on consumer insecurity perception and consuming behavior outcomes, which are influenced by individual’s internal and external factors. However, the concept of insecurity has just been introduced into consumer behavior research which is urgent to compare with the individual insecurity in traditional psychology area. These studies focus on the concept, structure of consumer insecurity in the digital age of China as its background and develop a multi dimension scale with reliability and validity testing to measure the new variable

Neural Document Expansion with User Feedback

This paper presents a neural document expansion approach (NeuDEF) that enriches document representations for neural ranking models. NeuDEF harvests expansion terms from queries which lead to clicks on the document and weights these expansion terms with learned attention. It is plugged into a standard neural ranker and learned end-to-end. Experiments on a commercial search log demonstrate that NeuDEF significantly improves the accuracy of state-of-the-art neural rankers and expansion methods on queries with different frequencies. Further studies show the contribution of click queries and learned expansion weights, as well as the influence of document popularity of NeuDEF's effectiveness.Comment: The 2019 ACM SIGIR International Conference on the Theory of Information Retrieva

The Impact of Online Word-of-mouth and Negative Media Exposure on Consumer Habitual Skepticism: The Mediating Effect of Attribution

How did habitual skepticism come into being? In this research，the causes of consumer habitual skepticism are explored from the perspective of attribution. We put forward two important antecedent variables, negative online word-of-mouth and negative media exposure. The study results show that the higher the negative word-of-mouth perception is, the higher the stability and controllability of consumer attribution will be, and the higher the degree of consumer habitual skepticism will be. The higher the intensity of negative media exposure is, the higher the stability and controllability of consumer attribution will be, and the higher the degree of consumer habitual skepticism will be. We test this framework through two experiments. Study 1 investigates the influence of negative word-of-mouth spread and media exposure on consumer habitual skepticism. Study 2 investigates the effect of two independent variables on consumer habitual skepticism from an overall point of view and explore the mediation effect of attribution

Fatigue Detection for Ship OOWs Based on Input Data Features, from The Perspective of Comparison with Vehicle Drivers: A Review

Ninety percent of the world’s cargo is transported by sea, and the fatigue of ship officers of the watch (OOWs) contributes significantly to maritime accidents. The fatigue detection of ship OOWs is more difficult than that of vehicles drivers owing to an increase in the automation degree. In this study, research progress pertaining to fatigue detection in OOWs is comprehensively analysed based on a comparison with that in vehicle drivers. Fatigue detection techniques for OOWs are organised based on input sources, which include the physiological/behavioural features of OOWs, vehicle/ship features, and their comprehensive features. Prerequisites for detecting fatigue in OOWs are summarised. Subsequently, various input features applicable and existing applications to the fatigue detection of OOWs are proposed, and their limitations are analysed. The results show that the reliability of the acquired feature data is insufficient for detecting fatigue in OOWs, as well as a non-negligible invasive effect on OOWs. Hence, low-invasive physiological information pertaining to the OOWs, behaviour videos, and multisource feature data of ship characteristics should be used as inputs in future studies to realise quantitative, accurate, and real-time fatigue detections in OOWs on actual ships

Expressão não equilibrada do receptor de hidrocarboneto arílico nos linfócitos T CCR6+ CD4+ e CD4+ CD25+ do sangue periférico na artrite reumatoide

ResumoObjetivoAnalisar o papel do receptor de hidrocarboneto arílico (AhR) nos linfócitos T CCR6+ CD4+ e CD4+ CD25+ no sangue periférico de pacientes com artrite reumatoide (AR).MétodosFoi aplicada citometria de fluxo para determinar a proporção de células AhR positivas em linfócitos CCR6+ CD4+ e CD4+ CD25+ do sangue periférico e células mononucleares periféricas de cada indivíduo. Os níveis de expressão relativa de ácido ribonucleico mensageiro (do inglês ribonucleic acid, RNAm,) de AhR e RNAm de enzima de primeiro estágio essencial para o AhR (CYP1A1) foram testados por reação em cadeia de polimerase (do inglês polymerase chain reaction, PCR,) em tempo real.ResultadosA percentagem de células AhR positivas nas células mononucleares do sangue periférico foi maior no grupo com AR do que nos indivíduos saudáveis [(35,23±10,71)% vs. (18,83±7,32)%, (p<0,01)]. Os níveis de expressão de AhR e CYP1A1 estavam aumentados em pacientes com AR quando comparados com os controles [(3,71±1,63) vs. (2,00±1,27), p=0,002; (2,62±2,08) vs. (0,62±0,29), p<0,01, respectivamente]. Em pacientes com AR, a percentagem de células AhR positivas nos linfócitos T CD4+ CD25+ foi significativamente inferior à dos controles [17,90 (6,10±80,10)]% vs. (52,49±19,18)%, p < 0,01]; em controles saudáveis, a percentagem de células AhR positivas nos linfócitos T CD4+ CD25+ foi significativamente mais elevada do que nos linfócitos T CCR6+ CD4+ e também foi significativamente maior do que nas células mononucleares do sangue periférico (do inglês peripheral blood mononuclear cells, PBMC,) [(52,49±19,18)% vs. (23,18±5,62)% vs. (18,06±7,80)%, X 2=24,03, p < 0,01]; em pacientes com AR, a percentagem de células AHR positivas nos linfócitos T CCR6+ CD4+ era significativamente maior em comparação com os linfócitos T CD4+ CD25+ e PBMC (46,02±14,68)% vs. [17,90 (6,10±80.10)]% vs. (34,22±10,33)%, X 2=38,29, p<0,01]; no entanto, não foi encontrada correlação estatisticamente significativa entre os dados clínicos e células AhR positivas em linfócitos T CCR6+ CD4+ e CD4+ CD25+.ConclusãoO Ahr pode participar do progresso patológico da AR ao controlar a diferenciação de linfócitos Th17 e Treg no sangue periférico.AbstractObjectiveThe goal of this study was to analyze the role of aryl hydrocarbon receptor in peripheral blood CCR6+ CD4+ and CD4+ CD25+T cells of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.MethodsFlow cytometry was applied to determine the proportion of AhR positive cells in CCR6+ CD4+T, CD4+ CD25+T and peripheral blood peripheral mononuclear cells from each subject. AhR mRNA and CYP1A1 mRNA relative expression levels were tested by real‐time PCR.ResultsThe percentage of AhR positive cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells was higher in RA group than that in healthy cases [(35.23±10.71) % vs. (18.83±7.32) %, (p<0.01)]. The expression levels of AhR and CYP1A1 were both increased in patients with RA while compared to controls [(3.71±1.63) vs. (2.00±1.27), p=0.002; (2.62±2.08) vs. (0.62±0.29), p<0.01, respectively]. In RA patients, the percentage of AhR positive cells in CD4+CD25+T cells was significantly lower than that from controls [17.90(6.10±80.10)]% vs. (52.49±19.18)%, p<0.01]; In healthy controls, the percentage of AhR positive cells in CD4+CD25+T cells was significantly higher than that in CCR6+CD4+T cells, and was also significantly higher than that in PBMCs [(52.49±19.18)% vs. (23.18±5.62)% vs. (18.06±7.80)%, X2=24.03, p<0.01]; in RA patients, the percentage of AhR positive cells in CCR6+CD4+T cells was significantly increased than that in CD4+CD25+T cells and PBMCs (46.02±14.68)% vs. [17.90 (6.10±80.10)] %vs. (34.22±10.33)%, X2=38.29, p<0.01]; Nevertheless, no statistically significant relationship was found between clinical data and AhR positive cells in CCR6+CD4+T and CD4+ CD25+T cells.ConclusionAhR may participate in the pathological progress of RA by controlling the differentiation of Th17 and Treg cells in peripheral blood

MS1, a direct target of MS188, regulates the expression of key sporophytic pollen coat protein genes in Arabidopsis

© 2020 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Sporophytic pollen coat proteins (sPCPs) derived from the anther tapetum are deposited into pollen wall cavities and function in pollen-stigma interactions, pollen hydration, and environmental protection. In Arabidopsis, 13 highly abundant proteins have been identified in pollen coat, including seven major glycine-rich proteins GRP14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and GRP-oleosin; two caleosin-related family proteins (AT1G23240 and AT1G23250); three lipase proteins EXL4, EXL5 and EXL6, and ATA27/BGLU20. Here, we show that GRP14, 17, 18, 19, and EXL4 and EXL6 fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) are translated in the tapetum and then accumulate in the anther locule following tapetum degeneration. The expression of these sPCPs is dependent on two essential tapetum transcription factors, MALE STERILE188 (MS188) and MALE STERILITY 1 (MS1). The majority of sPCP genes are up-regulated within 30 h after MS1 induction and could be restored by MS1 expression driven by the MS188 promoter in ms188, indicating that MS1 is sufficient to activate their expression; however, additional MS1 downstream factors appear to be required for high-level sPCP expression. Our ChIP, in vivo transactivation assay, and EMSA data indicate that MS188 directly activates MS1. Together, these results reveal a regulatory cascade whereby outer pollen wall formation is regulated by MS188 followed by synthesis of sPCPs controlled by MS1