Why it is so hard to predict our partner's product preferences : the effect of target familiarity on prediction accuracy.

Many buying decisions require predictions of another person's product attitudes. Yet, consumers are often inaccurate predictors, even for familiar others. We provide strong evidence that target familiarity can even hurt accuracy in the presence of attitude feedback. Although overprojection and lack of product-specific attitude information have been identified as possible reasons for prediction in accuracy, our results suggest a retrieval explanation. When presented with product-specific attitude feedback, predictors adapted their level of projection and encoded the attitude information, but they did not use this information. Instead, they retrieved less diagnostic, pre-stored information about the familiar target stop redict their product attitudes.(pro-environmental) attitudes; Behavior; Self-perception theory; Ecological consumer; Ego depletion; Social marketing;

Can externally activated trait concepts affect person judgments after encoding?,.

Current knowledge accessibility research assumes primed trait concepts to have no biasing effects beyond the encoding stage. In a series of studies, we challenge this assumption. We predict that trait concepts still can influence the person judgments of a predictor who previously stored the target person information through selective retrieval of trait congruent information. Our results consistently reveal assimilation effects when participants are primed with traits at judgment. Moreover, we identify two boundary conditions provide further evidence of the underlying selective retrieval process. First, assimilation effects only occur when stored target person instances apply to the externally activated knowledge and, second, when no prior target person impression is formed.Studies; Prisoner's dilemma game; Real life; Behavior; Altruism; Costly signaling; Research; Judgments; Knowledge; Effects; Information; Processes;

Elastic turbulence in shear banding wormlike micelles

We study the dynamics of the Taylor-Couette flow of shear banding wormlike micelles. We focus on the high shear rate branch of the flow curve and show that for sufficiently high Weissenberg numbers, this branch becomes unstable. This instability is strongly sub-critical and is associated with a shear stress jump. We find that this increase of the flow resistance is related to the nucleation of turbulence. The flow pattern shows similarities with the elastic turbulence, so far only observed for polymer solutions. The unstable character of this branch led us to propose a scenario that could account for the recent observations of Taylor-like vortices during the shear banding flow of wormlike micelles

Time scales in shear banding of wormlike micelles

Transient stress and birefringence measurements are performed on wormlike micellar solutions that "shear band", i.e. undergo flow-induced coexistence of states of different viscosities along a constant stress "plateau". Three well-defined relaxation times are found after a strain rate step between two banded flow states on the stress plateau. Using the Johnson-Segalman model, we relate these time scales to three qualitatively different stages in the evolution of the bands and the interface between them: band destabilization, reconstruction of the interface, and travel of the fully formed interface. The longest timescale is then used to estimate the magnitude of the (unknown) "gradient" terms that must be added to constitutive relations to explain the history independence of the steady flow and the plateau stress selection

Cell wall arabinan is essential for guard cell function

Stomatal guard cells play a key role in the ability of plants to survive on dry land, because their movements regulate the exchange of gases and water vapor between the external environment and the interior of the plant. The walls of these cells are exceptionally strong and must undergo large and reversible deformation during stomatal opening and closing. The molecular basis of the unique strength and flexibility of guard cell walls is unknown. We show that degradation of cell wall arabinan prevents either stomatal opening or closing. This locking of guard cell wall movements can be reversed if homogalacturonan is subsequently removed from the wall. We suggest that arabinans maintain flexibility in the cell wall by preventing homogalacturonan polymers from forming tight associations

Monitoring enteral nutrition efficacy in ICU patients: is there a place for the Brix value-derived fraction of enteral formula in gastric residual volume?

status: publishe

Correlation between multiple modulation instability side lobes in dispersion oscillating fiber

We investigate numerically and experimentally the spectral correlation between multiple modulation instability (MI) side lobes in a dispersion oscillating fiber. By leveraging the dispersive Fourier transformation, we acquire instantaneous spectra and investigate the energy correlation between individual MI sidebands through scattergrams. We found that conjugate MI side lobes are strongly correlated while other combinations experience a very low degree of correlation, revealing that parametric processes related to each side lobe pair act quasi-independently.published_or_final_versio

Combined paclitaxel and gemcitabine as first-line treatment in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer: a multicentre phase II study

The efficacy and toxicity of combined paclitaxel and gemcitabine was evaluated in 54 chemotherapy-naive patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Gemcitabine i.v. 1000 mg/m2was administered on days 1 and 8 and paclitaxel 200 mg/m2as a continuous 3-hour infusion on day 1. Treatment was repeated every 21 days. Patients had a median age of 53 years. ECOG performance status was 0 or 1 in 48 patients. 41 patients (75.9%) had initial stage IV disease; histology was mainly adenocarcinoma (46.3%). 2 patients (4.3%) achieved a complete response and 15 (31.9%) achieved a partial response giving an overall response rate of 36.2% (95% CI: 22.4–49.9%); 19 patients (40.4%) had stable disease and 10 (21.3%) had progressive disease. The median survival time was 51 weeks (95% CI: 46.5–59.3), with a 1-year survival probability of 0.48 (95% CI: 0.34–0.63). Grade 3/4 neutropenia and febrile neutropenia occurred in 15.2% and 2.2% of courses, respectively. Grade 3/4 thrombocytopenia was rare (1.8% of courses). Peripheral neurotoxicity developed in 25 patients (47.2%), mostly grade 1/2. Arthalgia/myalgia was observed in 30 patients (56.6%), generally grade 1 or 2. Grade 3 abnormal levels of serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT) occurred in 5 patients (9.4%) and 1 patient (1.9%), respectively. Combined paclitaxel and gemcitabine is an active and well-tolerated regimen for the treatment of advanced NSCLC, and warrants further investigation in comparative, randomized trials. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Simulating Plasmon Resonances of Gold Nanoparticles with Bipyramidal Shapes by Boundary Element Methods

Computational modeling and accurate simulations of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption properties are reported for gold nanobipyramids (GNBs), a class of metal nanoparticle that features highly tunable, geometry-dependent optical properties. GNB bicone models with spherical tips performed best in reproducing experimental LSPR spectra while the comparison with other geometrical models provided a fundamental understanding of base shapes and tip effects on the optical properties of GNBs. Our results demonstrated the importance of averaging all geometrical parameters determined from transmission electron microscopy images to build representative models of GNBs. By assessing the performances of LSPR absorption spectra simulations based on a quasi-static approximation, we provided an applicability range of this approach as a function of the nanoparticle size, paving the way to the theoretical study of the coupling between molecular electron densities and metal nanoparticles in GNB-based nanohybrid systems, with potential applications in the design of nanomaterials for bioimaging, optics and photocatalysis

Vorticity Banding During the Lamellar-to-Onion Transition in a Lyotropic Surfactant Solution in Shear Flow

We report on the rheology of a lamellar lyotropic surfactant solution (SDS/dodecane/pentanol/water), and identify a discontinuous transition between two shear thinning regimes which correspond to the low stress lamellar phase and the more viscous shear induced multi-lamellar vesicle, or ``onion'' phase. We study in detail the flow curve, stress as a function of shear rate, during the transition region, and present evidence that the region consists of a shear banded phase where the material has macroscopically separated into bands of lamellae and onions stacked in the vorticity direction. We infer very slow and irregular transformations from lamellae to onions as the stress is increased through the two phase region, and identify distinct events consistent with the nucleation of small fractions of onions that coexist with sheared lamellae.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure