The effect of social exclusion on consumer preference for anthropomorphized products

Prior research has mainly examined the effect of social exclusion on individuals' interactions with other people or on their product choices as an instrument to facilitate interpersonal connection. The current research takes a novel perspective by proposing that socially excluded consumers would be more motivated to establish a relationship with a brand (rather than using the brand to socially connect with other people) when the brand exhibits human-like features. Based on this premise, we predict and find support in three studies that socially excluded consumers, compared with non-excluded consumers, exhibit greater preference for anthropomorphized brands (studies 1–3). This effect is mediated by consumers' need for social affiliation and is moderated by the opportunity for social connection with other people (study 2). Furthermore, socially excluded consumers differ in the types of relationships they would like to build with anthropomorphized brands, depending on their attributions about the exclusion. Specifically, consumers who blame themselves (others) for being socially excluded show greater preference for anthropomorphized partner (fling) brands (study 3)

First direct observation of the Van Hove singularity in the tunneling spectra of cuprates

In two-dimensional lattices the electronic levels are unevenly spaced, and the density of states (DOS) displays a logarithmic divergence known as the Van Hove singularity (VHS). This is the case in particular for the layered cuprate superconductors. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) probes the DOS, and is therefore the ideal tool to observe the VHS. No STM study of cuprate superconductors has reported such an observation so far giving rise to a debate about the possibility of observing directly the normal state DOS in the tunneling spectra. In this study, we show for the first time that the VHS is unambiguously observed in STM measurements performed on the cuprate Bi-2201. Beside closing the debate, our analysis proves the presence of the pseudogap in the overdoped side of the phase diagram of Bi-2201 and discredits the scenario of the pseudogap phase crossing the superconducting dome.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Is the Equivalence Principle violated by Generalized Uncertainty Principles and Holography in a brane-world?

It has been recently debated whether a class of generalized uncertainty principles that include gravitational sources of error are compatible with the holographic principle in models with extra spatial dimensions. We had in fact shown elsewhere that the holographic scaling is lost when more than four space-time dimensions are present. However, we shall show here that the validity of the holographic counting can be maintained also in models with extra spatial dimensions, but at the intriguing price that the equivalence principle for a point-like source be violated and the inertial mass differ from the gravitational mass in a specific non-trivial way.Comment: 5 pages, latex fil

Safety and efficacy of umbilical cord-derived Wharton's jelly compared to hyaluronic acid and saline for knee osteoarthritis: study protocol for a randomized, controlled, single-blind, multi-center trial.

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder in the United States of America (USA) with a fast-rising prevalence. Current treatment modalities are limited, and total knee replacement surgeries have shown disadvantages, especially for grade II/III OA. The interest in the use of biologics, including umbilical cord (UC)-derived Wharton's jelly (WJ), has grown in recent years. The results from a preliminary study demonstrated the presence of essential components of regenerative medicine, namely growth factors, cytokines, hyaluronic acid (HA), and extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, in WJ. The proposed study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intra-articular injection of UC-derived WJ for the treatment of knee OA symptoms. METHODS: A randomized, controlled, single-blind, multi-center, prospective study will be conducted in which the safety and efficacy of intra-articular administration of UC-derived WJ are compared to HA (control) and saline (placebo control) in patients suffering from grade II/III knee OA. A total of 168 participants with grade II or III knee OA on the KL scale will be recruited across 53 sites in the USA with 56 participants in each arm and followed for 1 year post-injection. Patient satisfaction, Numeric Pain Rating Scale, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36), and 7-point Likert Scale will be used to assess the participants. Physical exams, X-rays, and MRI with Magnetic Resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue score will be used to assess improvement in associated anatomy. DISCUSSION: The study results will provide valuable information into the safety and efficacy of intra-articular administration of Wharton's jelly for grade II/III knee osteoarthritis. The results of this study will also add to the treatment options available for grade II/III OA as well as help facilitate the development of a more focused treatment strategy for patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04711304 . Registered on January 15, 2021

Anti-müllerian hormone is not associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in adolescent females

<p>Objectives: Epidemiological evidence for associations of Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) with cardiometabolic risk factors is lacking. Existing evidence comes from small studies in select adult populations, and findings are conflicting. We aimed to assess whether AMH is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in a general population of adolescent females.</p> <p>Methods: AMH, fasting insulin, glucose, HDLc, LDLc, triglycerides and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured at a mean age 15.5 years in 1,308 female participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Multivariable linear regression was used to examine associations of AMH with these cardiometabolic outcomes.</p> <p>Results: AMH values ranged from 0.16–35.84 ng/ml and median AMH was 3.57 ng/ml (IQR: 2.41, 5.49). For females classified as post-pubertal (n = 848) at the time of assessment median (IQR) AMH was 3.81 ng/ml (2.55, 5.82) compared with 3.25 ng/ml (2.23, 5.05) in those classed as early pubertal (n = 460, P≤0.001). After adjusting for birth weight, gestational age, pubertal stage, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic position, adiposity and use of hormonal contraceptives, there were no associations with any of the cardiometabolic outcomes. For example fasting insulin changed by 0% per doubling of AMH (95%CI: −3%,+2%) p = 0.70, with identical results if HOMA-IR was used. Results were similar after additional adjustment for smoking, physical activity and age at menarche, after exclusion of 3% of females with the highest AMH values, after excluding those that had not started menarche and after excluding those using hormonal contraceptives.</p> <p>Conclusion: Our results suggest that in healthy adolescent females, AMH is not associated with cardiometabolic risk factors.</p&gt

Local alignment of two-base encoded DNA sequence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA sequence comparison is based on optimal local alignment of two sequences using a similarity score. However, some new DNA sequencing technologies do not directly measure the base sequence, but rather an encoded form, such as the two-base encoding considered here. In order to compare such data to a reference sequence, the data must be decoded into sequence. The decoding is deterministic, but the possibility of measurement errors requires searching among all possible error modes and resulting alignments to achieve an optimal balance of fewer errors versus greater sequence similarity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present an extension of the standard dynamic programming method for local alignment, which simultaneously decodes the data and performs the alignment, maximizing a similarity score based on a weighted combination of errors and edits, and allowing an affine gap penalty. We also present simulations that demonstrate the performance characteristics of our two base encoded alignment method and contrast those with standard DNA sequence alignment under the same conditions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The new local alignment algorithm for two-base encoded data has substantial power to properly detect and correct measurement errors while identifying underlying sequence variants, and facilitating genome re-sequencing efforts based on this form of sequence data.</p

Preparing for Life: Plasma Proteome Changes and Immune System Development During the First Week of Human Life.

Neonates have heightened susceptibility to infections. The biological mechanisms are incompletely understood but thought to be related to age-specific adaptations in immunity due to resource constraints during immune system development and growth. We present here an extended analysis of our proteomics study of peripheral blood-plasma from a study of healthy full-term newborns delivered vaginally, collected at the day of birth and on day of life (DOL) 1, 3, or 7, to cover the first week of life. The plasma proteome was characterized by LC-MS using our established 96-well plate format plasma proteomics platform. We found increasing acute phase proteins and a reduction of respective inhibitors on DOL1. Focusing on the complement system, we found increased plasma concentrations of all major components of the classical complement pathway and the membrane attack complex (MAC) from birth onward, except C7 which seems to have near adult levels at birth. In contrast, components of the lectin and alternative complement pathways mainly decreased. A comparison to whole blood messenger RNA (mRNA) levels enabled characterization of mRNA and protein levels in parallel, and for 23 of the 30 monitored complement proteins, the whole blood transcript information by itself was not reflective of the plasma protein levels or dynamics during the first week of life. Analysis of immunoglobulin (Ig) mRNA and protein levels revealed that IgM levels and synthesis increased, while the plasma concentrations of maternally transferred IgG1-4 decreased in accordance with their in vivo half-lives. The neonatal plasma ratio of IgG1 to IgG2-4 was increased compared to adult values, demonstrating a highly efficient IgG1 transplacental transfer process. Partial compensation for maternal IgG degradation was achieved by endogenous synthesis of the IgG1 subtype which increased with DOL. The findings were validated in a geographically distinct cohort, demonstrating a consistent developmental trajectory of the newborn's immune system over the first week of human life across continents. Our findings indicate that the classical complement pathway is central for newborn immunity and our approach to characterize the plasma proteome in parallel with the transcriptome will provide crucial insight in immune ontogeny and inform new approaches to prevent and treat diseases

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign: results of an international guideline-based performance improvement program targeting severe sepsis

Objective: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC or “the Campaign”) developed guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock. A performance improvement initiative targeted changing clinical behavior (process improvement) via bundles based on key SSC guideline recommendations on process improvement and patient outcomes. Design and setting: A multifaceted intervention to facilitate compliance with selected guideline recommendations in the ICU, ED, and wards of individual hospitals and regional hospital networks was implemented voluntarily in the US, Europe, and South America. Elements of the guidelines were “bundled” into two sets of targets to be completed within 6 h and within 24 h. An analysis was conducted on data submitted from January 2005 through March 2008. Main results: Data from 15,022 subjects at 165 sites were analyzed to determine the compliance with bundle targets and association with hospital mortality. Compliance with the entire resuscitation bundle increased linearly from 10.9% in the first site quarter to 31.3% by the end of 2 years (P < 0.0001). Compliance with the entire management bundle started at 18.4% in the first quarter and increased to 36.1% by the end of 2 years (P = 0.008). Compliance with all bundle elements increased significantly, except for inspiratory plateau pressure, which was high at baseline. Unadjusted hospital mortality decreased from 37 to 30.8% over 2 years (P = 0.001). The adjusted odds ratio for mortality improved the longer a site was in the Campaign, resulting in an adjusted absolute drop of 0.8% per quarter and 5.4% over 2 years (95% CI, 2.5–8.4%). Conclusions: The Campaign was associated with sustained, continuous quality improvement in sepsis care. Although not necessarily cause and effect, a reduction in reported hospital mortality rates was associated with participation. The implications of this study may serve as an impetus for similar improvement efforts.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00134-009-1738-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Measurement of the branching fraction and CP content for the decay B(0) -> D(*+)D(*-)

This is the pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the links below. Copyright @ 2002 APS.We report a measurement of the branching fraction of the decay B0→D*+D*- and of the CP-odd component of its final state using the BABAR detector. With data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.4  fb-1 collected at the Υ(4S) resonance during 1999–2000, we have reconstructed 38 candidate signal events in the mode B0→D*+D*- with an estimated background of 6.2±0.5 events. From these events, we determine the branching fraction to be B(B0→D*+D*-)=[8.3±1.6(stat)±1.2(syst)]×10-4. The measured CP-odd fraction of the final state is 0.22±0.18(stat)±0.03(syst).This work is supported by DOE and NSF (USA), NSERC (Canada), IHEP (China), CEA and CNRS-IN2P3 (France), BMBF (Germany), INFN (Italy), NFR (Norway), MIST (Russia), and PPARC (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the A.P. Sloan Foundation, Research Corporation, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation