Vipiz Is Fast, Vopoz Is Slow: Phonetic Symbolism Is the Way to Go!

We examine the effect of phonological awareness (ability to identify sounds in words) on children's product evaluations, following exposure to a phonetically manipulated brand name (e.g., Vipiz/Vopoz). We demonstrate that priming children to undertake soundbased processing of marketing stimuli will enhance phonetic symbolism effects for those with low phonological awareness

Arguing with experts: strategies in children with Asperger

La descripción de las habilidades lingüísticas de los niños condición Asperger (CA) da cuenta de que sus discursos poseen solidez gramatical y denotan el dominio precoz de ciertos usos léxicos complejos. No obstante, experimentan dificultades lingüísticas para identificar y asignar estados mentales a otros. Así, muchos de sus usos comunicativos se tornan falentes, especialmente aquellos que implican articular o comprender usos comunicativos estratégicos. En este trabajo, caracterizamos los usos argumentativos de niños CA en instancias de interacción con un adulto, comparando estas secuencias con las de pares neurotípicos (NT). Se analiza la disposición de secuencias polémicas y el uso de dos tipos de conectores (‘pero’ y ‘porque’). El objetivo es comprender las estrategias argumentativas dispuestas en términos dinámicos considerando especialmente si los niños CA atienden a los argumentos que les ofrecen sus oponentes. Los resultados indican que los niños CA son más reacios que los NT a polemizar sobre tópicos que están fuera de su interés y que sus enunciados presentan más encadenamientos de carácter inferencial. En cuanto a los usos de los conectores, se observó que los niños CA los utilizan con más frecuencia que los niños NT. Predominan los usos en posición inicial e intermedia (vinculando cláusulas), lo que indicaría su uso adecuado como operadores de encadenamiento argumentativo. Por otro lado, resulta predominante el uso del conector de co-orientación (‘porque’) en posición intermedia. Los usos de ‘pero’ (conector de anti-orientación) son menos frecuentes, aunque el análisis cualitativo permite observar que su uso introduce una mayor variedad de funciones pragmáticas.The description of linguistic skills in children with Asperger condition (AC) reports that their speech shows a broad grammatical knowledge that reveals an earlier mastering of complex lexical resources. Nevertheless AC children face some difficulties when they have to linguistically identify and assign mental states to others. These problems turn unsatisfactories somo of their communicative, mainly those that require articulate or understanding communicative strategic uses. In this work we characterize the AC argumentative uses in conversational settings with an adult, comparing these sequences with those produced by Neurotypical children (NT), paired with AC children in Age and Social level. We analyze the polemic sequences and the use of two types of grammatical connectors (‘but’ and ‘because’). The aim is to understand the argumentative strategies used by children in a dynamic perspective, considering if AC children can cope with the arguments presented by their opponents.The results show that AC children are more reluctant to argue over topics that were out of their focus of interests and, also, their utterances, in a great amount of uses, show more inferential chaining than the NT’s utterances. If we take into account the grammatical connectors, we observed that AC children use them more frequently than NT children. The most common uses are in the initial and intermediate positions (linking clauses) and it seems to indicate that AC children master properly their functions as argumentative chaining operators. ‘Because´ is the most frequent connector in co-orientation uses, it is when it occurs in an intermediate position. The uses of ´but´ (anti-orientation connector) are less frequent although the qualitative analysis allows us to observe a more range of pragmatic functions.Facultad de Psicologí

Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer.

All cancers are caused by somatic mutations; however, understanding of the biological processes generating these mutations is limited. The catalogue of somatic mutations from a cancer genome bears the signatures of the mutational processes that have been operative. Here we analysed 4,938,362 mutations from 7,042 cancers and extracted more than 20 distinct mutational signatures. Some are present in many cancer types, notably a signature attributed to the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, whereas others are confined to a single cancer class. Certain signatures are associated with age of the patient at cancer diagnosis, known mutagenic exposures or defects in DNA maintenance, but many are of cryptic origin. In addition to these genome-wide mutational signatures, hypermutation localized to small genomic regions, 'kataegis', is found in many cancer types. The results reveal the diversity of mutational processes underlying the development of cancer, with potential implications for understanding of cancer aetiology, prevention and therapy

A practical guide to single-cell RNA-sequencing for biomedical research and clinical applications.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a genomic approach for the detection and quantitative analysis of messenger RNA molecules in a biological sample and is useful for studying cellular responses. RNA-seq has fueled much discovery and innovation in medicine over recent years. For practical reasons, the technique is usually conducted on samples comprising thousands to millions of cells. However, this has hindered direct assessment of the fundamental unit of biology-the cell. Since the first single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) study was published in 2009, many more have been conducted, mostly by specialist laboratories with unique skills in wet-lab single-cell genomics, bioinformatics, and computation. However, with the increasing commercial availability of scRNA-seq platforms, and the rapid ongoing maturation of bioinformatics approaches, a point has been reached where any biomedical researcher or clinician can use scRNA-seq to make exciting discoveries. In this review, we present a practical guide to help researchers design their first scRNA-seq studies, including introductory information on experimental hardware, protocol choice, quality control, data analysis and biological interpretation

Consumer values of corporate and celebrity brand associations

Purpose-This study aims to explore consumer brand associations and values derived from a corporate brand and a celebrity brand endorser prior to their endorsement. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses both hierarchical value mapping and brand concept mapping (BCM) to identify brand attributes that translate to personal meaning for consumers and then to identify whether these attributes are encompassed by a specific brand. Findings-Results from brand concept maps and hierarchical value maps show consumers value accessibility and customer service in financial corporate brands. Consumers value expertise in celebrity brands and respect success in both corporate and celebrity brands. A central finding is the importance of brand authenticity. Corporate brand authenticity establishes a sense of security and assists in the development of brand relationships. Celebrity brand authenticity creates consumer attention and enhances celebrity trustworthiness aiding in the development of a consumer-celebrity brand relationship. Research limitations/implications-The findings have implications for corporate brands utilizing celebrity endorsers. In terms of strategic positioning, corporate brands need to center their marketing communications on desired brand associations at the core of both the corporate and celebrity brand that translate to personal meaning for consumers. Originality/value-This study uses a combined theoretical and methodological approach, drawing on associative network theory and means-end chain theory, and BCM and hierarchical value mapping methods, respectively, to understand and uncover personal meaning or value derived from brand associations.24 page(s

Celebrity co-branding partners as irrelevant brand information in advertisements

This study examines the effect of irrelevant information presented in marketing communications by a celebrity co-branding partner on consumer judgments of a partner brand. Three experimental conditions manipulate the relevancy of information: relevant information, irrelevant information, and relevant plus irrelevant information. Findings from this study suggest that when a celebrity co-branding partner does not provide information about the partner brand nor brand benefits, consumer judgments in the ability of the partner brand to deliver benefits, their purchase intent and their match-up perceptions become less positive. Consumer brand benefit beliefs and purchase intentions show evidence of a dilution effect only when consumers perceive a mismatch between the celebrity and brand and when presented with irrelevant information supplied by a celebrity in addition to relevant brand information. Interestingly, not only the relevant celebrity characteristics associated with the brand but also the irrelevant information provided by the celebrity in the advertisement influence perceptions of match-up or congruence. Brand managers should ensure a celebrity co-branding partner does not provide irrelevant brand information within advertisements to avoid brand benefit belief, purchase intent and match-up dilution.1 page(s