Best-Worst Scaling: A simple method to determine drinks and wine style preferences

Wine marketers are continually involved with measuring consumer preferences usually by means of surveys or consumer purchase panel data. In this paper we provide initial results using a relatively new and very straightforward method for measuring consumer preferences. The best-worst scaling method (also called max-diffs) simply asks consumers to look at sets of products, attributes, or other factors to be compared and choose from each set the best/most favourable and the worst/least favourable. A simple count and manipulation results in a single preference scale, where the differences may be compared as distances rather than rank order. Managerial implications of the importance of wine attributes that influence consumer drinks purchasing and wine style selection are discussed as well as suggestions for future research. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the practical and a scholarly usefulness of this approach and present a call for replication in other markets in an ongoing manner.Steven Goodman, Larry Lockshin and Eli Cohe

Using the best-worst method to examine market segments and identify different influences of consumer choice

Wine marketers use market segmentation to target different products to different segments in order to increase sales, often with little evidence about what influences choice within or between segments. In this paper we provide initial results using a relatively new and very straightforward method for measuring consumer preferences. The best-worst scaling method (also called max-diffs) simply asks consumers to look at sets of products, attributes, or other factors to be compared and choose from each set the best/most favourable and the worst/least favourable. A simple count and manipulation results in a single preference scale, where the differences may be compared as distances rather than rank order. This paper shows how segmenting the consumers using factors such as gender, frequency of consumption, wine involvement and age produce segments with similar preferences for different varietal wines. Two country examples are used, Israel and Australia, to show the ability of the Best-Worst method to develop ‘maps’ of segments across markets based on patterns of choice. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the practical and a scholarly usefulness of this approach and to show the method for a larger cross-national study across major wine consuming markets.Steven Goodman, Larry Lockshin and Eli Cohenhttp://academyofwinebusiness.com/?page_id=33

Herbicide damage to sensitive crops

"Over the past several decades in Missouri and other states, the greatest and most widespread uses of herbicides have been in the production of row-crops and forages and in the clearing of brush for pasture improvement."--First page.John Lower and Larry Lockshin (Department of Horticulture) and L.E. Anderson (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture)New 5/84/10

Do Respondents use Extra Information Provided in Online Best-Worst Choice Experiments?

An issue of interest to researchers is the amount of explanatory information one needs to give respondents making decisions in choice tasks. One way to resolve this issue is to let people select only relevant information from interactive information sources. This resolution poses unanswered questions: e.g., will respondents use the extra information, and potential systematic differences in information users and non-users. To shed some light on this issue, we let respondents access optional descriptive information about attributes in the form of partial (verbal) and full (verbal plus visual) glossaries associated with a Best-Worst (BW) web survey. Only a small minority with higher subjective product knowledge accessed the glossary information. We found no significant difference between verbal and visual information in attractiveness of use or impact on choice

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death

Stat3 controls cell death during mammary gland involution by regulating uptake of milk fat globules and lysosomal membrane permeabilization.

We have previously demonstrated that Stat3 regulates lysosomal-mediated programmed cell death (LM-PCD) during mouse mammary gland involution in vivo. However, the mechanism that controls the release of lysosomal cathepsins to initiate cell death in this context has not been elucidated. We show here that Stat3 regulates the formation of large lysosomal vacuoles that contain triglyceride. Furthermore, we demonstrate that milk fat globules (MFGs) are toxic to epithelial cells and that, when applied to purified lysosomes, the MFG hydrolysate oleic acid potently induces lysosomal leakiness. Additionally, uptake of secreted MFGs coated in butyrophilin 1A1 is diminished in Stat3-ablated mammary glands and loss of the phagocytosis bridging molecule MFG-E8 results in reduced leakage of cathepsins in vivo. We propose that Stat3 regulates LM-PCD in mouse mammary gland by switching cellular function from secretion to uptake of MFGs. Thereafter, perturbation of lysosomal vesicle membranes by high levels of free fatty acids results in controlled leakage of cathepsins culminating in cell death.This work was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council programme grant no. MR/J001023/1 (T.J.S. and B. L-L.) and a Cancer Research UK Cambridge Cancer Centre PhD studentship (H.K.R.).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing at http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ncb3043.html

Coronary disease in staveley, derbyshire with an international comparison with three towns in marion county, west virginia

A survey of coronary disease has been carried out in a sample of men aged 35-74 living in Staveley, United Kingdom. The prevalence of cardiac pain based on standard questions and the frequency of certain electrocardiographic abnormalities was compared in miners and exminers, foundry and exfoundry workers, mixed dust and other exposure groups, and men who had never worked in dust or fumes. The findings have been compared with a similar survey conducted in three communities in Marion County, West Virginia, United States.No striking occupational differences were found, though the prevalence of probable cardiac pain was slightly less in miners and exminers than in the other occupational groups. The prevalence of cardiac pain was twice as high in the United States as in the United Kingdom population. T wave inversion and left complete bundle-branch block occurred more frequently in the U.S. group. But abnormal Q waves, flat T waves, ST depression and other E.C.G. changes were equally common in each country. The American men were nearly 5 cm taller and 5 kg heavier than the British men.Of the etiological factors examined, weight and smoking were associated to a small amount with coronary disease. But the most striking association was with blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure was roughly 20 mm Hg higher and diastolic blood pressure 10 mm Hg higher in the coronary compared with the other group.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34014/1/0000289.pd

A comprehensive characterization of the caspase gene family in insects from the order Lepidoptera

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cell suicide pathway of apoptosis is a necessary event in the life of multicellular organisms. It is involved in many biological processes ranging from development to the immune response. Evolutionarily conserved proteases, called caspases, play a central role in regulating apoptosis. Reception of death stimuli triggers the activation of initiator caspases, which in turn activate the effector caspases. In Lepidoptera, apoptosis is crucial in processes such as metamorphosis or defending against baculovirus infection. The discovery of p35, a baculovirus protein inhibiting caspase activity, has led to the characterization of the first lepidopteran caspase, Sf-Caspase-1. Studies on Sf-Caspase-1 mode of activation suggested that apoptosis in Lepidoptera requires a cascade of caspase activation, as demonstrated in many other species.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In order to get insights into this gene family in Lepidoptera, we performed an extensive survey of lepidopteran-derived EST datasets. We identified 66 sequences distributed among 27 species encoding putative caspases. Phylogenetic analyses showed that Lepidoptera possess at least 5 caspases, for which we propose a unified nomenclature. According to homology to their <it>Drosophila </it>counterparts and their primary structure, we determined that Lep-Caspase-1, -2 and -3 are putative effector caspases, whereas Lep-Caspase-5 and -6 are putative initiators. The likely function of Lep-Caspase-4 remains unclear. Lep-Caspase-2 is absent from the silkworm genome and appears to be noctuid-specific, and to have arisen from a tandem duplication of the Caspase-1 gene. In the tobacco hawkmoth, 3 distinct transcripts encoding putative Caspase-4 were identified, suggesting at least 2 duplication events in this species.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The basic repertoire of five major types of caspases shared among Lepidoptera seems to be smaller than for most other groups studied to date, but gene duplication still plays a role in lineage-specific increases in diversity, just as in Diptera and mammals.</p

Steroid Hormone Control of Cell Death and Cell Survival: Molecular Insights Using RNAi

The insect steroid hormone ecdysone triggers programmed cell death of obsolete larval tissues during metamorphosis and provides a model system for understanding steroid hormone control of cell death and cell survival. Previous genome-wide expression studies of Drosophila larval salivary glands resulted in the identification of many genes associated with ecdysone-induced cell death and cell survival, but functional verification was lacking. In this study, we test functionally 460 of these genes using RNA interference in ecdysone-treated Drosophila l(2)mbn cells. Cell viability, cell morphology, cell proliferation, and apoptosis assays confirmed the effects of known genes and additionally resulted in the identification of six new pro-death related genes, including sorting nexin-like gene SH3PX1 and Sox box protein Sox14, and 18 new pro-survival genes. Identified genes were further characterized to determine their ecdysone dependency and potential function in cell death regulation. We found that the pro-survival function of five genes (Ras85D, Cp1, CG13784, CG32016, and CG33087), was dependent on ecdysone signaling. The TUNEL assay revealed an additional two genes (Kap-α3 and Smr) with an ecdysone-dependent cell survival function that was associated with reduced cell death. In vitro, Sox14 RNAi reduced the percentage of TUNEL-positive l(2)mbn cells (p<0.05) following ecdysone treatment, and Sox14 overexpression was sufficient to induce apoptosis. In vivo analyses of Sox14-RNAi animals revealed multiple phenotypes characteristic of aberrant or reduced ecdysone signaling, including defects in larval midgut and salivary gland destruction. These studies identify Sox14 as a positive regulator of ecdysone-mediated cell death and provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the ecdysone signaling network governing cell death and cell survival