Less Is More? Two Essays on Consumer Perceptions of Simplicity and Complexity

Marketers like simplicity in marketing, and think consumers do too. Trying to get consumers to associate a brand or product with the idea of simplicity is a very popular marketing strategy. However, the effect this strategy might have on consumers' perceptions of those brands and products has never been formally tested. Furthermore, whereas practitioners have touted this simplicity strategy as something approaching a panacea, this dissertation demonstrates that such a strategy comes with hidden pitfalls. Essay 1 argues that when marketing is successful at convincing consumers that a brand is simple, their perceptions of the likelihood of product or service failures is lowered, which leads to significant dissatisfaction and anger in the event of a failure. Essay 2 demonstrates that consumer perceptions of the simplicity or complexity of products can also be manipulated by marketing, and tests whether consumers' believe there is a tradeoff between product reliability and maximum performance, as a function of product complexity. Essay 2 concludes by comparing consumers' default mental models of product complexity against real-world models of complexity (and their associated levels of risk and performance), in order to test the appropriateness of consumers' complexity-to-risk and complexity-to-performance inferences.</p

Knowledge overconfidence is associated with anti-consensus views on controversial scientific issues

Public attitudes that are in opposition to scientific consensus can be disastrous and include rejection of vaccines and opposition to climate change mitigation policies. Five studies examine the interrelationships between opposition to expert consensus on controversial scientific issues, how much people actually know about these issues, and how much they think they know. Across seven critical issues that enjoy substantial scientific consensus, as well as attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and mitigation measures like mask wearing and social distancing, results indicate that those with the highest levels of opposition have the lowest levels of objective knowledge but the highest levels of subjective knowledge. Implications for scientists, policymakers, and science communicators are discussed

A catchment-scale assessment of stream temperature response to contemporary forest harvesting in the Oregon Coast Range

Historical forest harvesting practices were reviewed in the original Alsea Watershed Study where they found increased energy loading to the stream and produced higher stream temperatures. This was an important early research site that led to the development of contemporary forest management practices to protect water quality and fish habitat in Oregon and elsewhere. Here we present an analysis of 6 years (3 years pre-harvest and 3 years post-harvest) of summer stream temperature data from a reference (Flynn Creek) and a harvested catchment (Needle Branch). The collected parameters include air temperature, the mean and max, stream temperature, mean and max, and the diel (daily) temperature fluctuations (max minus the minimum temperature)

Allelic expression mapping across cellular lineages to establish impact of non-coding SNPs

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

The diagnostic impact of UK regional variations in age‐specific prostate‐specific antigen guidelines

The ideal prostate cancer diagnostic pathway would maximise detection of clinically-significant prostate cancer (csPCa) while avoiding unnecessary biopsies and other investigations. The introduction of pre-biopsy MRI has done much to aid this goal. However, referrals into the image-based diagnostic pathway still depends on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing performed in primary care and interpreted using referral guidelines. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) only provides guidance on PSA thresholds for men aged 50-69 years (PSA ≥3.0 ng/mL) [1]. For other age groups, PSA thresholds are set by regional cancer networks without any national consensus. Here we explored if different regional guidelines impacted csPCa detection in modern image-based pathways

Clinical features of spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy is an X-linked motor neuron disease caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the androgen receptor gene. To characterize the natural history and define outcome measures for clinical trials, we assessed the clinical history, laboratory findings and muscle strength and function in 57 patients with genetically confirmed disease. We also administered self-assessment questionnaires for activities of daily living, quality of life and erectile function. We found an average delay of over 5 years from onset of weakness to diagnosis. Muscle strength and function correlated directly with serum testosterone levels and inversely with CAG repeat length, age and duration of weakness. Motor unit number estimation was decreased by about half compared to healthy controls. Sensory nerve action potentials were reduced in nearly all subjects. Quantitative muscle assessment and timed 2 min walk may be useful as meaningful indicators of disease status. The direct correlation of testosterone levels with muscle strength indicates that androgens may have a positive effect on muscle function in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy patients, in addition to the toxic effects described in animal models

Alsea watershed study revisited: unpublished temperature datasets from pre-harvest 2006 to 2010

These data contain temperature readings from dataloggers launched in Deer Creek, Flynn Creek, and Needle Branch from 2006 to 2010. These loggers were apart of the Alsea Watershed Revisisted Study Revisited articles, but the data was incomplete due to logging gaps, temperature spikes, or other issues. The "Thermistor Functionality" datasets indicate whether dataloggers launched in each stream have complete datasets or not. Despite these data not being complete, they help tell the data collection story for the Alsea Watershed Study Revisited

Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ): Rationale and Study Design of the Largest Global Prospective Cohort Study of Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

This article describes the rationale, aims, and methodology of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia (AMP® SCZ). This is the largest international collaboration to date that will develop algorithms to predict trajectories and outcomes of individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis and to advance the development and use of novel pharmacological interventions for CHR individuals. We present a description of the participating research networks and the data processing analysis and coordination center, their processes for data harmonization across 43 sites from 13 participating countries (recruitment across North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America), data flow and quality assessment processes, data analyses, and the transfer of data to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) for use by the research community. In an expected sample of approximately 2000 CHR individuals and 640 matched healthy controls, AMP SCZ will collect clinical, environmental, and cognitive data along with multimodal biomarkers, including neuroimaging, electrophysiology, fluid biospecimens, speech and facial expression samples, novel measures derived from digital health technologies including smartphone-based daily surveys, and passive sensing as well as actigraphy. The study will investigate a range of clinical outcomes over a 2-year period, including transition to psychosis, remission or persistence of CHR status, attenuated positive symptoms, persistent negative symptoms, mood and anxiety symptoms, and psychosocial functioning. The global reach of AMP SCZ and its harmonized innovative methods promise to catalyze the development of new treatments to address critical unmet clinical and public health needs in CHR individuals

Allele-Specific HLA Loss and Immune Escape in Lung Cancer Evolution

Immune evasion is a hallmark of cancer. Losing the ability to present neoantigens through human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loss may facilitate immune evasion. However, the polymorphic nature of the locus has precluded accurate HLA copy-number analysis. Here, we present loss of heterozygosity in human leukocyte antigen (LOHHLA), a computational tool to determine HLA allele-specific copy number from sequencing data. Using LOHHLA, we find that HLA LOH occurs in 40% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) and is associated with a high subclonal neoantigen burden, APOBEC-mediated mutagenesis, upregulation of cytolytic activity, and PD-L1 positivity. The focal nature of HLA LOH alterations, their subclonal frequencies, enrichment in metastatic sites, and occurrence as parallel events suggests that HLA LOH is an immune escape mechanism that is subject to strong microenvironmental selection pressures later in tumor evolution. Characterizing HLA LOH with LOHHLA refines neoantigen prediction and may have implications for our understanding of resistance mechanisms and immunotherapeutic approaches targeting neoantigens. Video Abstract [Figure presented] Development of the bioinformatics tool LOHHLA allows precise measurement of allele-specific HLA copy number, improves the accuracy in neoantigen prediction, and uncovers insights into how immune escape contributes to tumor evolution in non-small-cell lung cancer