The Moderating Role of Mindfulness in New Product Evaluation

Mindfulness has the potential to affect new product evaluation since consumers with a higher propensity for mindfulness are more likely to notice and accept differences between existing and new products. This research references piecemeal/category-based processing theory to study the moderating effect of individual mindfulness on information processing in the presence of product category knowledge. We find that mindfulness does not have a direct effect on processing style. However, mindfulness does moderate the relationship between product category knowledge and processing style. Understanding underlying factors during information processing provides important insights for marketers as they implement marketing strategies

Adiposity and weight change in mid-life in relation to healthy survival after age 70 in women: prospective cohort study

Objective: To examine the hypothesis that mid-life adiposity is associated with a reduced probability of maintaining an optimal health status among those who survive to older ages. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: The Nurses’ Health Study, United States. Participants: 17 065 women who survived until at least the age of 70, provided information on occurrence of chronic disease, cognitive function, physical function, and mental health at older ages, and were free from major chronic diseases at mid-life (mean age was 50 at baseline in 1976). Main outcome measures: Healthy survival to age 70 and over was defined as having no history of 11 major chronic diseases and having no substantial cognitive, physical, or mental limitations. Results: Of the women who survived until at least age 70, 1686 (9.9%) met our criteria for healthy survival. Increased body mass index (BMI) at baseline was significantly associated with linearly reduced odds of healthy survival compared with usual survival, after adjustment for various lifestyle and dietary variables (P<0.001 for trend). Compared with lean women (BMI 18.5-22.9), obese women (BMI ≥30) had 79% lower odds of healthy survival (odds ratio 0.21, 95% confidence interval 0.15 to 0.29). In addition, the more weight gained from age 18 until mid-life, the less likely was healthy survival after the age of 70. The lowest odds of healthy survival were among women who were overweight (BMI ≥25) at age 18 and gained ≥10 kg weight (0.18, 0.09 to 0.36), relative to women who were lean (BMI 18.5-22.9) and maintained a stable weight. Conclusions: These data provide evidence that adiposity in mid-life is strongly related to a reduced probability of healthy survival among women who live to older ages, and emphasise the importance of maintaining a healthy weight from early adulthood

Light Scattering by Pure Seawater: Effect of Pressure

The Zhang et al. model [Optics Express,17, 5698-5710 (2009)] for calculating light scattering by seawater doesnot account for pressure, which should, theoretically, affect molecular scattering. While negligible in nearsurface waters, the error associated with this approximation could be significant when backscattering is mea-sured directly in the deep ocean, by deep CTD casts or biogeochemical-Argo floats, for example. We updated theparameterization in the Zhang et al. model using (1) the Millard and Seaver equation for the refractive index ofseawater [Deep Sea Research Part A,37, 1909-1926 (1990)] and (2) the Feistel equation for Gibbs free energyfor seawater thermodynamics [Deep-Sea Research I,55, 1639-1671 (2008)]. As these equations include theeffect of pressure as well as salinity and temperature, our new parameterization allows us to investigate thepotential effect of pressure on scattering. Increasing pressure suppresses the random motion of molecules, re-ducing the fluctuations in both density and concentration, which in turn causes an overall decrease in lightscattering by seawater. For pure water and seawater with a salinity of 34 PSU, the decreases are approximately13% and 12%, respectively, with a 100-MPa (approximately the pressure of seawater at 10000 m) increase inpressure. Below the thermocline and/or halocline where temperature and salinity change slowly, the steadyincrease of pressure is the dominant factor affecting the light scattering by seawater. At depths where back-scattering is typically dominated by molecular scattering by seawater, particulate backscattering would beunderestimated if the effect of pressure on molecular scattering were not considered

Innovative Web 2.0 Technologies to Support Struggling Readers

Most Web 2.0 technologies are either free or inexpensive, making them accessible for teachers to use for instructional purposes, especially to assist diverse students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This article discusses the qualitative findings of a mixed-methods study that investigated how a group of candidates in a reading licensure graduate program responded to Web 2.0 technology integration when working with struggling readers, including their perceptual reaction and their implemented practice. The results from the study may help K-12 classroom teachers and teacher educators better understand how to include technologies in working with teacher candidates and assist them in designing instructional practices to support all learners

Age-related changes to macrophages are detrimental to fracture healing in mice.

The elderly population suffers from higher rates of complications during fracture healing that result in increased morbidity and mortality. Inflammatory dysregulation is associated with increased age and is a contributing factor to the myriad of age-related diseases. Therefore, we investigated age-related changes to an important cellular regulator of inflammation, the macrophage, and the impact on fracture healing outcomes. We demonstrated that old mice (24 months) have delayed fracture healing with significantly less bone and more cartilage compared to young mice (3 months). The quantity of infiltrating macrophages into the fracture callus was similar in old and young mice. However, RNA-seq analysis demonstrated distinct differences in the transcriptomes of macrophages derived from the fracture callus of old and young mice, with an up-regulation of M1/pro-inflammatory genes in macrophages from old mice as well as dysregulation of other immune-related genes. Preventing infiltration of the fracture site by macrophages in old mice improved healing outcomes, with significantly more bone in the calluses of treated mice compared to age-matched controls. After preventing infiltration by macrophages, the macrophages remaining within the fracture callus were collected and examined via RNA-seq analysis, and their transcriptome resembled macrophages from young calluses. Taken together, infiltrating macrophages from old mice demonstrate detrimental age-related changes, and depleting infiltrating macrophages can improve fracture healing in old mice

Selection of Most Appropriate Procedures for Seismic Evaluation of Levees Based on Case Histories

The current methodology for embankment dams evaluation is not appropriate for levees of low heights, which have little effect on the stress state of the foundation soil and, therefore, on its response to the seismic action. In many cases the liquefaction potential of the alluvial deposits is not affected by the levee presence, although is the main factor in levee degradation. Lateral spreading of liquefiable foundation is the main cause of small levee cracking and settlement induced by earthquakes. On the other part, the procedures recommended for evaluation of lateral spreading are not directly applicable to the analysis of levees. In this paper both categories of procedures (for dams and for free field affected by lateral spreading) are applied comparatively for evaluation of a case history. This paper summarizes results of different procedures on a case history, where a California levee was severely damaged during Loma Prieta earthquake. Recommendations are made for the analysis of various categories of levees

A Survey on Securing Personally Identifiable Information on Smartphones

With an ever-increasing footprint, already topping 3 billion devices, smartphones have become a huge cybersecurity concern. The portability of smartphones makes them convenient for users to access and store personally identifiable information (PII); this also makes them a popular target for hackers. This survey shares practical insights derived from analyzing 16 real-life case studies that exemplify: the vulnerabilities that leave smartphones open to cybersecurity attacks; the mechanisms and attack vectors typically used to steal PII from smartphones; the potential impact of PII breaches upon all parties involved; and recommended defenses to help prevent future PII losses. The contribution of this research is recommending proactive measures to dramatically decrease the frequency of PII loss involving smartphones

A Study of Existing Cross-Site Scripting Detection and Prevention Techniques Using XAMPP and VirtualBox

Most operating websites experience a cyber-attack at some point. Cross-site Scripting (XSS) attacks are cited as the top website risk. More than 60 percent of web applications are vulnerable to them, and they ultimately are responsible for over 30 percent of all web application attacks. XSS attacks are complicated, and they often are used in conjunction with social engineering techniques to cause even more damage. Although prevention techniques exist, hackers still find points of vulnerability to launch their attacks. This project explored what XSS attacks are, examples of popular attacks, and ways to detect and prevent them. Using knowledge gained and lessons-learned from analyzing prior XSS incidents, a simulation environment was built using XAMPP and VirtualBox. Four typical XSS attacks were launched in this virtual environment, and their potential to cause significant damage was measured and compared using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Calculator. Recommendations are offered for approaches to impeding XSS attacks including solutions involving sanitizing data, whitelisting data, implementing a content security policy and statistical analysis tools

Within-person reproducibility of urinary bisphenol A and phthalate metabolites over a 1 to 3 year period among women in the Nurses’ Health Studies: a prospective cohort study

Background: Associations of bisphenol A and phthalates with chronic disease health outcomes are increasingly being investigated in epidemiologic studies. The majority of previous studies of within-person variability in urinary bisphenol A and phthalate metabolite concentrations have focused on reproducibility over short time periods. Long-term reproducibility data are needed to assess the potential usefulness of these biomarkers for prospective studies, particularly those examining risk of diseases with long latency periods. Low within-person reproducibility may attenuate relative risk estimates and reduce statistical power to detect associations with disease. Therefore, we assessed within-person reproducibility of bisphenol A, eight phthalate metabolites, and phthalic acid in spot urine samples over 1 to 3 years among women enrolled in two large cohort studies. Methods: Women in the Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II provided two spot urine samples, 1 to 3 years apart (n = 80 women for analyses of bisphenol A; n = 40 women for analyses of phthalate metabolites; n = 34 women for analyses of phthalic acid). To measure within-person reproducibility, we calculated Spearman rank correlation coefficients and intraclass correlation coefficients for creatinine-adjusted concentrations of bisphenol A, phthalate metabolites, and phthalic acid. Results: Over 1 to 3 years, within-person variability of bisphenol A was high relative to total variability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.14) and rankings of bisphenol A levels between time-points were weakly correlated (Spearman correlation = 0.19). Seven of the eight phthalate metabolites and phthalic acid demonstrated moderate within-person stability over time (Spearman correlation or intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.39-0.55). Restricting analyses to first-morning urine samples did not alter results. Conclusions: Single measurements of bisphenol A in spot urine samples were highly variable within women over 1 to 3 years, indicating that investigation of associations between a single urinary bisphenol A measurement and disease risk may be challenging in epidemiologic studies. The majority of urinary phthalate metabolites and phthalic acid appeared moderately reproducible within women over time, suggesting single measurements may be useful in epidemiologic studies, although observed relative risks can be substantially attenuated

Novel liquid crystalline organic semiconducting oligomers incorporating N-heterocyclic carbazole moieties for fluorescent OLEDs

A novel class of nematic liquid crystalline organic semiconducting oligomers incorporating N-heterocyclic carbazole moieties has been synthesised using simple and highly efficient reaction pathways. The electroluminescent colour of these novel oligomers can be varied in a controlled manner by molecular design. The values of the ionization potential and the electron affinity of these electroluminescent oligomers can also be matched by structural design to the HOMO energy level of the electron-blocking layer and the LUMO energy level of electron-transporting layer in the OLEDs to create low charge-injection barriers for electrons and holes, respectively leading to electroluminescence with an efficacy up to 4.1 cd A-1