A systematic review of consumer information search in online and offline environments

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify major themes and potential research opportunities in online and offline consumer search. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review was conducted based on 118 articles identified from prevalent journal databases. Keywords frequency analysis was carried out to identify the major themes. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out to verify the generated themes. Findings – Results show that uncertainty, knowledge, perceived risk, price, experience and involvement are the major themes associated with consumer information search. Uncertainty, one of the major themes of offline search, has not been studied in the online search context. Similarly, the previous experience needs to be explored in the context of the offline search. Finally, potential research opportunities for future research has been summarized based on the retrieved themes. Research limitations/implications – The systematic review provides an in-depth understanding on the current research on information search literature with future research directions. Practical implications – This study helps retailers to understand the key elements that motivate consumers to perform external information searches from online and offline sources and to curate targeted information provision strategies to influence purchase decisions. Social implications – Consumers with limited internet availability may access channels prior to decisionmaking. The themes identified in this study can aid policymakers to design affordable access to these channels. Originality/value – This study adds to the sparse literature on systematic reviews on consumer search for online and offline channels

eveloping a Suitability Assessment Criteria for Software Developers: Behavioral Assessment Using Psychometric Test

A suitability assessment instrument for software developers was created using a psychometric criteria that identify the impact of behavior on the performance of software engineers. The instrument uses a questionnaire to help both individuals and IT recruiters to identify the psychological factors that affect the working performance of software engineers. Our study identifies the relationship between the behavioral drivers and the programming abilities of the subjects. In order to evaluate the instrument, a total of 100 respondents were compared on the basis of their programming skills and nine behavioral drivers. It was concluded that there is a direct relationship between certain human qualities, such as “Attention to Detail,” and the programming style of the students, while the “Locus of Control” factor was observed to have a negative correlation with performance in programming

The role of multinational and trading enterprises in employment and the gender pay gap: evidence from Finland

This paper constructs and analyses a set of novel indicators on gender equality in the business sector, which focus on multinational enterprises and foreign traders in Finland. The descriptive analysis reveals large differences in the share of women and men employed in the best paying professions, especially in multinationals. Dynamic analysis shows that foreign investment typically results in pay increases for males, while this is not true for women. These disparities are strongest among managers and professionals working in the most profitable firms. A blueprint is provided for linking business statistics and social statistics to enable analyses of gender inequalities in the labour marke

Mean Profiles of the NEO Personality Inventory

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R, Costa & McCrae, 1992) and its latest version, the NEO-PI-3, were designed to measure 30 distinctive personality traits, which are grouped into Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness domains. The mean self-rated NEO-PI-R scores for 30 subscales have been reported for 36 countries or cultures (McCrae, 2002, Appendix 1). As a follow-up, this study reports the mean scores of the NEO-PI-R/3 for 71,334 participants from 76 samples and 62 different countries or cultures and 37 different languages. Mean differences in personality traits across countries and cultures were about 8 times smaller than differences between any two individuals randomly selected from any of these samples. Nevertheless, systematic differences can be observed in the aggregate personality profiles, in which Anglophonic and Nordic countries are distinguished from the rest of the world. This study provides further evidence that country/culture mean scores in personality are replicable and can provide reliable information about personality dispositions

Green and cool roofs to mitigate urban heat island effects in the Chicago metropolitan area: evaluation with a regional climate model

The effects of urban heat islands (UHIs) have a substantial bearing on the sustainability of cities and environs. This paper examines the efficacy of green and cool roofs as potential UHI mitigation strategies to make cities more resilient against UHI. We have employed the urbanized version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (uWRF) model at high (1 km) resolution with physically-based rooftop parameterization schemes (conventional, green and cool), a first-time application to the Chicago metropolitan area. We simulated a hot summer period (16–18 August 2013) and assessed (i) UHI reductions for different urban landuse with green/cool roofs, (ii) the interaction of lake breeze and UHI, and (iii) diurnal boundary layer dynamics. The performance of uWRF was evaluated using sensible heat flux and air temperature measurements from an urban mini-field campaign. The simulated roof surface energy balance captured the energy distribution with respective rooftop algorithms. Results showed that daytime roof temperature reduced and varied linearly with increasing green roof fractions, from less than 1 °C for the case of 25% green roof to ~3 °C during peak daytime for 100% green roof. Diurnal transitions from land to lake breeze and vice versa had a substantial impact on the daytime cycle of roof surface UHI, which had a 3–4 hour lag in comparison to 2 m UHI. Green and cool roofs reduced horizontal and vertical wind speeds and affected lower atmosphere dynamics, including reduced vertical mixing, lower boundary layer depth, and weaker convective rolls. The lowered wind speeds and vertical mixing during daytime led to stagnation of air near the surface, potentially causing air quality issues. The selection of green and cool roofs for UHI mitigation should therefore carefully consider the competing feedbacks. The new results for regional land-lake circulations and boundary layer dynamics from this study may be extended to other urbanized areas, particularly to coastal areas

Hyaluronic acid hydrogels reinforced with laser spun bioactive glass micro- and nanofibres doped with lithium

The repair of articular cartilage lesions in weight-bearing joints remains as a significant challenge due to the low regenerative capacity of this tissue. Hydrogels are candidates to repair lesions as they have similar properties to cartilage extracellular matrix but they are unable to meet the mechanical and biological requirements for a successful outcome. Here, we reinforce hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels with 13-93-lithium bioactive glass micro- and nanofibres produced by laser spinning. The glass fibres are a reinforcement filler and a platform for the delivery of therapeutic lithium-ions. The elastic modulus of the composites is more than three times higher than in HA hydrogels. Modelling of the reinforcement corroborates the experimental results. ATDC5 chondrogenic cells seeded on the composites are viable and more proliferation occurs on the hydrogels containing fibres than in HA hydrogels alone. Furthermore, the chondrogenic behavior on HA constructs with fibres containing lithium is more marked than in hydrogels with no-lithium fibres.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431B 2016/042Xunta de Galicia | Ref. POS-A/2013/161Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481D 2017/010Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481B 2016/047-

Molecular changes during extended neoadjuvant letrozole treatment of breast cancer: distinguishing acquired resistance from dormant tumours

Abstract Background The risk of recurrence for endocrine-treated breast cancer patients persists for many years or even decades following surgery and apparently successful adjuvant therapy. This period of dormancy and acquired resistance is inherently difficult to investigate; previous efforts have been limited to in-vitro or in-vivo approaches. In this study, sequential tumour samples from patients receiving extended neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy were characterised as a novel clinical model. Methods Consecutive tumour samples from 62 patients undergoing extended (4–45 months) neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy with letrozole were subjected to transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, representing before (≤ 0), early (13–120 days), and long-term (> 120 days) neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy with letrozole. Patients with at least a 40% initial reduction in tumour size by 4 months of treatment were included. Of these, 42 patients with no subsequent progression were classified as “dormant”, and the remaining 20 patients as “acquired resistant”. Results Changes in gene expression in dormant tumours begin early and become more pronounced at later time points. Therapy-induced changes in resistant tumours were common features of treatment, rather than being specific to the resistant phenotype. Comparative analysis of long-term treated dormant and resistant tumours highlighted changes in epigenetics pathways including DNA methylation and histone acetylation. The DNA methylation marks 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine were significantly reduced in resistant tumours compared with dormant tissues after extended letrozole treatment. Conclusions This is the first patient-matched gene expression study investigating long-term aromatase inhibitor-induced dormancy and acquired resistance in breast cancer. Dormant tumours continue to change during treatment whereas acquired resistant tumours more closely resemble their diagnostic samples. Global loss of DNA methylation was observed in resistant tumours under extended treatment. Epigenetic alterations may lead to escape from dormancy and drive acquired resistance in a subset of patients, supporting a potential role for therapy targeted at these epigenetic alterations in the management of resistance to oestrogen deprivation therapy

Whole-genome SNP association analysis of reproduction traits in the Finnish Landrace pig breed

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Good genetic progress for pig reproduction traits has been achieved using a quantitative genetics-based multi-trait BLUP evaluation system. At present, whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) panels provide a new tool for pig selection. The purpose of this study was to identify SNP associated with reproduction traits in the Finnish Landrace pig breed using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Association of each SNP with different traits was tested with a weighted linear model, using SNP genotype as a covariate and animal as a random variable. Deregressed estimated breeding values of the progeny tested boars were used as the dependent variable and weights were based on their reliabilities. Statistical significance of the associations was based on Bonferroni-corrected <it>P</it>-values.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Deregressed estimated breeding values were available for 328 genotyped boars. Of the 62 163 SNP in the chip, 57 868 SNP had a call rate > 0.9 and 7 632 SNP were monomorphic. Statistically significant results (<it>P</it>-value < 2.0E-06) were obtained for total number of piglets born in first and later parities and piglet mortality between birth and weaning in later parity, and suggestive associations (<it>P</it>-value < 4.0E-06) for piglet mortality between birth and weaning in first parity, number of stillborn piglets in later parity, first farrowing interval and second farrowing interval. Two of the statistically significant regions for total number of piglets born in first and later parities are located on chromosome 9 around 95 and 79 Mb. The estimated SNP effect in these regions was approximately one piglet between the two homozygote classes. By combining the two most significant SNP in these regions, favourable double homozygote animals are expected to have 1.3 piglets (<it>P</it>-value = 1.69E-08) more than unfavourable double homozygote animals. A region on chromosome 9 (66 Mb) was statistically significant for piglet mortality between birth and weaning in later parity (0.44 piglets between homozygotes, <it>P</it>-value = 6.94E-08).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Three separate regions on chromosome 9 gave significant results for litter size and pig mortality. The frequencies of favourable alleles of the significant SNP are moderate in the Finnish Landrace population and these SNP are thus valuable candidates for possible marker-assisted selection.</p

Association of Spermatogenic Failure with the b2/b3 Partial AZFc Deletion

Infertility affects around 1 in 10 men and in most cases the cause is unknown. The Y chromosome plays an important role in spermatogenesis and specific deletions of this chromosome, the AZF deletions, are associated with spermatogenic failure. Recently partial AZF deletions have been described but their association with spermatogenic failure is unclear. Here we screened a total of 339 men with idiopathic spermatogenic failure, and 256 normozoospermic ancestry-matched men for chromosome microdeletions including AZFa, AZFb, AZFc, and the AZFc partial deletions (gr/gr, b1/b3 and b2/b3)