Characterizing and Profiling Global Segments of Responsible Consumers – A Narrative Review

The prime purpose of the paper is to examine and identify the determinants of responsible consumption behaviour by synthesizing the determinants’ structure as available in varied literature. Further, it profiles responsible consumers according to their identified categories of determinants. Content analysis is exercised on wide literature of more than one hundred research papers, articles and reports that narrate, characterize and profile responsible consumers. The identified demography of the responsible consumers includes: females, young, highly educated, academically intelligent, non-business academics, employed in high-status and leadership positions, members of small families and married with children living at home. According to sociological features, responsibles are the children of highly educated parents, get full support from their family, have liberal and democratic political views and hold time and availability to contribute for responsible acts. Viewing from an economic and geographic perspective, these consumers are average in income, satisfied with their income levels, not much wealthier and majority of them lives in urban areas and larger cities. The cultural features support them as collectivists with feeling of universalism. These consumers trust others, open to change, believe in civic-cooperation, like fun, have a network as members of environmental organizations, religious with extreme religiosity and love their country having highest national pride. As far as psychological features are concerned, they originate from a very good psyche, are initiators, internally controlled living indulgent lifestyles, future minded, less sceptic with high civic sense, creative, have harmony and believe in self efficacy. They are also environmentally concerned and settle in balance with nature. The paper will direct marketers in locating and serving the desired segment of responsible consumers. Information on various segmentation dimensions will facilitate easy policy making for STP model and favourable segmentation strategy formulation. The findings in the paper are based on the results of various studies which may be applicable only on the population similar to sample frame of the individual studies. Future researchers thus get a cue for a more refine research to supplement and enlarge the present inference of responsible consumer segments to disparate markets. The paper synthesizes vast varied literature for the first time in an evolving field of responsible consumption behavior. The outcome will provide base in theory formulation

Pair-Interactions of Self-Propelled SiO2-Pt Janus Colloids

Driven by the necessity to achieve a thorough comprehension of the bottom-up fabrication process of functional materials, this experimental study investigates the pair-wise interactions or collisions between chemically active SiO2-Pt Janus Colloids. These collisions are categorized based on the Janus colloids' orientations before and after they make physical contact. In addition to the hydrodynamic interactions, the Janus colloids are also known to affect each other's chemical field, resulting in chemophoretic interactions, which depend on the reactive nature of the metal site. These interactions lead to a noticeable decrease in particle speed and changes in orientation, which depends on the duration of contact, yielding different collision types. Our findings reveal distinct configurations of contact during collisions, whose mechanisms and likelihood is found to be dependent primarily on the chemical interactions. Such estimates of collision and their characterization in dilute suspensions shall have key impact in determining the arrangement and time scales of dynamical structures and assemblies of denser suspensions, and potentially the functional materials of the future.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures

Pancreatic cancer: genetics, disease progression, therapeutic resistance and treatment strategies

Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease and the third-highest cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. It has a very low five-year survival rate (< 5%) in the United States as well as in the world (about 9%). The current gemcitabine-based therapy soon becomes ineffective because treatment resistance and surgical resection also provides only selective benefit. Signature mutations in pancreatic cancer confer chemoresistance by deregulating the cell cycle and promoting anti-apoptotic mechanisms. The stroma-rich tumor microenvironment impairs drug delivery and promotes tumor-specific immune escape. All these factors render the current treatment incompetent and prompt an urgent need for new, improved therapy. In this review, we have discussed the genetics of pancreatic cancer and its role in tumor evolution and treatment resistance. We have also evaluated new treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer, like targeted therapy and immunotherapy

Bacillus cereus causing intratumoral brain abscess

We report a case of intratumoral brain abscess due to Bacillus cereus in an adult male patient, which was managed successfully with excision of lesion and piperacillin-tazobactam for the duration of 5 weeks. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first case report of B. cereus infection leading to intratumoral brain abscess in a patient with a history of steroid administration by the intravenous route

Impact of Family Participatory Care on Neonates- A Non Randomised Interventional Study

Introduction: Family Participatory Care (FPC) is a unique concept which involves parents in caregiving to their admitted babies. It helps in defining the family's role in clinical care delivery to newborns along with doctors and nurses. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is the ideal area for FPC to take place because of the unique and vulnerable nature of the mother-neonate relationship as neonates that are admitted, face immense trials from their first day of life. Aim: To know the effect of FPC on outcome of admitted neonates, analyse the impact of this model on breastfeeding rate and to compare the rate of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) being given to neonates at follow-up. Materials and Methods: It was a non randomised interventional study done from August 2020 to April 2021, in the NICU at Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, Hisar, Haryana, India. Two hundred neonates, who were sequentially admitted and later discharged, were taken into account, out of which, first 100 were taken as controls and next 100 were taken in the intervention group. Routine treatment and care were given to all the admitted neonates. In addition to this, parents of the study group of newborns were given education through four audio-visual sessions, comprising hygiene measures for entry into nursery, correct method of breastfeeding, KMC and then care at home after discharge. Follow-up was done after one week of discharge and at six weeks of age. Outcome measures were breastfeeding rate and KMC rate which were compared between two groups, at discharge and at follow-up of six weeks of age. Results: The mean birth weight of neonates, mean gestational age and the socioeconomic status were comparable in both the groups. Mean duration of hospital stay was 7.13 (±4.95) days in study group and 8.06 (±5.40) days in control group (p=0.206). Mean weight at discharge and that at six weeks was comparable in both groups. However, the average weight gain per day was significantly higher (25.61 g) in the study group than the control group (18.92 g). At discharge, 92 babies in the control group and 87 in the study group were given exclusive breastfeeding or expressed breast milk with spoon feeding. At six weeks follow-up, this number was 91 in the study group and 70 in the control group (p=0.001). KMC was given to all the neonates at discharge who had birth weight less than two kg. Among them, at the time of follow-up, 33/36 in the case group and 5/37 in the control group were receiving KMC (p-value 0.001). Conclusion: FPC is feasible and effective model in terms of better neonatal outcome

Assessment of ownership of smart devices and the acceptability of digital health data sharing

Abstract Smart portable devices- smartphones and smartwatches- are rapidly being adopted by the general population, which has brought forward an opportunity to use the large volumes of physiological, behavioral, and activity data continuously being collected by these devices in naturalistic settings to perform research, monitor health, and track disease. While these data can serve to revolutionize health monitoring in research and clinical care, minimal research has been conducted to understand what motivates people to use these devices and their interest and comfort in sharing the data. In this study, we aimed to characterize the ownership and usage of smart devices among patients from an expansive academic health system in the southeastern US and understand their willingness to share data collected by the smart devices. We conducted an electronic survey of participants from an online patient advisory group around smart device ownership, usage, and data sharing. Out of the 3021 members of the online patient advisory group, 1368 (45%) responded to the survey, with 871 female (64%), 826 and 390 White (60%) and Black (29%) participants, respectively, and a slight majority (52%) age 58 and older. Most of the respondents (98%) owned a smartphone and the majority (59%) owned a wearable. In this population, people who identify as female, Hispanic, and Generation Z (age 18–25), and those completing higher education and having full-time employment, were most likely to own a wearable device compared to their demographic counterparts. 50% of smart device owners were willing to share and 32% would consider sharing their smart device data for research purposes. The type of activity data they are willing to share varies by gender, age, education, and employment. Findings from this study can be used to design both equitable and cost-effective digital health studies, leveraging personally-owned smartphones and wearables in representative populations, ultimately enabling the development of equitable digital health technologies

Maduramicin Inhibits Proliferation and Induces Apoptosis in Myoblast Cells

<div><p>Maduramicin, a polyether ionophore antibiotic derived from the bacterium <i>Actinomadura yumaensis</i>, is currently used as a feed additive against coccidiosis in poultry worldwide. It has been clinically observed that maduramicin can cause skeletal muscle and heart cell damage, resulting in skeletal muscle degeneration, heart failure, and even death in animals and humans, if improperly used. However, the mechanism of its toxic action in myoblasts is not well understood. Using mouse myoblasts (C2C12) and human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD and Rh30) cells as an experimental model for myoblasts, here we found that maduramicin inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell death in a concentration-dependent manner. Further studies revealed that maduramicin induced accumulation of the cells at G₀/G₁ phase of the cell cycle, and induced apoptosis in the cells. Concurrently, maduramicin downregulated protein expression of cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK4 and CDK6), and CDC25A, and upregulated expression of the CDK inhibitors (p21^Cip1 and p27^Kip1), resulting in decreased phosphorylation of Rb. Maduramicin also induced expression of BAK, BAD, DR4, TRADD and TRAIL, leading to activation of caspases 8, 9 and 3 as well as cleavage of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). Taken together, our results suggest that maduramicin executes its toxicity in myoblasts at least by inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptotic cell death.</p></div