Towards an international understanding of the power of celebrity persuasions: a review and a research agenda

Research into advertising using celebrity has been undertaken for nearly 40 years. It has principally used surveys and experiments to explore how consumers respond to celebrity advertisements. A recent meta-study of 32 papers has demonstrated that different populations respond in different ways to celebrity endorsements. Specifically, both US subjects and college students are more likely to respond in a significant way to the presence of celebrity than subjects who are not from the US, or who are not studying at college. Given that the nationality and student status of subjects matter, this article explores the make up of the samples that have been used to examine celebrity advertising. The article finds that these samples are not representative of US populations (because so many are students), nor of populations outside the US (because so few live beyond it). Furthermore, the history of dominance of US-based student samples, and the citation practices which keep them circulating in academia, suggests that theories of celebrity advertising have for a long time been excessively influenced by ideas tested on this unrepresentative group. This fact will limit the applicability of research into celebrity advertising to the wider world. I explore whether this matters, and how deficiencies might be addressed in further research

Formation and Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes

The correlation between the mass of supermassive black holes in galaxy nuclei and the mass of the galaxy spheroids or bulges (or more precisely their central velocity dispersion), suggests a common formation scenario for galaxies and their central black holes. The growth of bulges and black holes can commonly proceed through external gas accretion or hierarchical mergers, and are both related to starbursts. Internal dynamical processes control and regulate the rate of mass accretion. Self-regulation and feedback are the key of the correlation. It is possible that the growth of one component, either BH or bulge, takes over, breaking the correlation, as in Narrow Line Seyfert 1 objects. The formation of supermassive black holes can begin early in the universe, from the collapse of Population III, and then through gas accretion. The active black holes can then play a significant role in the re-ionization of the universe. The nuclear activity is now frequently invoked as a feedback to star formation in galaxies, and even more spectacularly in cooling flows. The growth of SMBH is certainly there self-regulated. SMBHs perturb their local environment, and the mergers of binary SMBHs help to heat and destroy central stellar cusps. The interpretation of the X-ray background yields important constraints on the history of AGN activity and obscuration, and the census of AGN at low and at high redshifts reveals the downsizing effect, already observed for star formation. History appears quite different for bright QSO and low-luminosity AGN: the first grow rapidly at high z, and their number density decreases then sharply, while the density of low-luminosity objects peaks more recently, and then decreases smoothly.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, review paper for Astrophysics Update

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Not AvailableThe sandy/ sandy loam Alfisols supporting FCV tobacco in Northern light soils (NLS) region of Andhra Pradesh have low native soil nutrient reserves and nutrient leaching problems require soil amendment like biochar that holds nutrients and meet the crop nutrient requirement. Oil palm plantations generate huge quantity of lignocellulosic biomass waste comprising oil palm empty fruit bunches (OEFB), oil palm fronds (OF) and oil palm trunks (OT) during oil extraction and cultivation that pose a major disposal problem. In general, these biomass generated from plantations are either unutilized or underutilized. Conversion of this oilpalm biomass waste into a biochar, a carbon – rich product, is an effective waste management approach for carbon sequestering, soil health improvement and enhancing crop productivity and soil quality. A field experiment with flue cured tobacco (Kanchan) was conducted for two consecutive years during rabi 2018-20 at CTRI-RS Jeelugumilli in NLS region. Pooled analysis results indicated that all the three biochars applied along with the 100% RDF significantly increased the yield compared to 100 % RDF alone. The highest green leaf yield (GLY) and cured leaf yield (CLY) was recorded with 100 % RDF + OEFB Biochar 1 t ha-1 with 12,409 kg ha-1 and 2,227 kg ha-1 GLY and CLY, respectively over 100 % RDF alone with 11268 kg ha-1 GLY and 2019 kg ha-1CLY. Application of OEFB Biochar has improved the potassium uptake and soil available potassium content. All the chemical quality parameters viz., nicotine, reducing sugars and chlorides were within the acceptable limits. Hence, oilpalm waste can be effectively converted into biochar and can be used as a soil amendment for FCV tobacco growing light textured Alfisols for improving the nutrient use efficiency thereby productivity, nutrient uptake and soil available potassium.Not Availabl