Building brands through experiential events: when entertainment meets education

Experiential marketing is increasingly getting companies’ attention as a strategy to interact with consumers and engage them to better convey their brand image and positioning. However, its effects are still unclear both at the aggregate and at the individual levels. This paper addresses this topic and presents a field experiment investigating the effects of experiential marketing on brand image in retailing. Two similar consumer electronics stores with different strategies – traditional vs. experiential – constitutes the setting in which a field experiment has been run. Two similar samples of consumers took part in our study by visiting one of these two stores, and answering a questionnaire before and after the visit with the primary goal to investigate the brand image and its changes due to the shopping visit. Brand image was measured as the overall brand attitude – via four items – and five specific desired brand claims that the company wanted to convey to consumers. Findings show that engaged consumers through the multisensory and interactive event arranged in the experiential store register higher levels of both brand attitude and all brand claims than those visiting the traditional store, and that the increase in both the dependent variables after the visit of the experiential store is higher than the increase in the traditional store. Thus, experiential stores are not only able to entertain consumers, but they are also able to educate them, by conveying them a set of brand claims more effectively than the traditional stor

Realism And Fantasy In Motion Pictures: Transportation Under Debate

Transportation is commonly presented in the context of realistic narratives. An important facet of transportation, which means being absorbed into the written narrative flow of a story, relies on its capacity to influence individuals’ beliefs. This research examines whether (i) the effects of transportation is replicable with movies; (ii) an individual difference, such as fantasy proneness, shapes the relationship between the realism of the movie and the transportation level of the individual. Two studies show that (a) movies have an impact on individuals’ transportation; (b) realistic movies have a greater impact on transportation than fantastic movies; (c) fantasy proneness increases the level of transportation; (d) transported individuals better evaluate movies

Occurrence of Fipronil in residential house dust in the presence and absence of pets: a hint for a comprehensive toxicological assessment

The presence of the insecticide Fipronil and its main products of toxicological relevance, namely Sulfone and Desulfinyl, was assessed in 161 residential house dust samples in the absence (N = 101) and presence (N = 60) of cats and dogs in Italy. High-resolution mass spectrometry analysis revealed a significant difference (p < 0.001) in the dust contamination in the presence of pets (median: 467 vs. 24 ng/g dry weight), even if the highest value was found in the absence of pets (82,069 vs. 67,799 ng/g dry weight). Fipronil intake estimates from dust in toddlers, computed according to US-EPA and EU-ECHA guidelines, ranged from 333 to 556 and from 20 to 34 ng/kg per day for acute and chronic scenario, respectively. Dust seemed not able itself to lead to Fipronil overexposure with respect to acute and chronic toxicity health-based guidance values. Kittens were potentially overexposed to Fipronil under both acute (26,076 ng/kg per day) and chronic (1,633 ng/kg per day) scenarios. The mild symptomatology associated with acute intoxication could possibly determine case underreporting within pharmacosurveillance schemes. Its administration was estimated in 7.3\u20139.7 tons per year. Such a range suggests its prudent use under strict veterinary control to prevent pest resistance and ecotoxicological outcomes

Combined esophageal intraluminal impedance, pH and skin conductance monitoring to detect discomfort in GERD infants

BACKGROUND: The clinical significance of weakly acidic reflux in infants is unclear. Skin conductance is a novel not-invasive method to evaluate discomfort. The aim of our study was to evaluate reflux-induced discomfort in infants with gastroesophageal reflux disease using simultaneously combined skin conductance and esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance and pH monitoring. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Infants with gastroesophageal reflux symptoms were investigated for almost 20 hours divided into 120-second intervals. Temporal relationships between refluxes and discomfort were evaluated calculating the symptom association probability. Twelve infants aged 17-45 days were studied. Out of 194.38 hours of adequate artifact-free MII/pH and skin conductance monitoring, 584 reflux events were observed; 35.78% were positive for stress, of which 16.27% were acid and 83.73% weakly acidic. A significant association between refluxes and discomfort (p<0.05) was present in all infants. The intervals with reflux events showed increased skin conductance values compared to reflux-free intervals (p<0.001); SC values were similar for acid and weakly acidic reflux events. CONCLUSION/SIGNFICANCE: Discomfort was significantly associated with reflux events and did not differ between weakly acidic and acid refluxes. Our results may raise concerns about the over-prescription use of antacid drugs in the management of gastroesophageal reflux symptoms in infancy

Evidence for Non-Essential Salt Bridges in the M-Gates of Mitochondrial Carrier Proteins

Mitochondrial carriers, which transport metabolites, nucleotides, and cofactors across the mitochondrial inner membrane, have six transmembrane α-helices enclosing a translocation pore with a central substrate binding site whose access is controlled by a cytoplasmic and a matrix gate (M-gate). The salt bridges formed by the three PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs located on the odd-numbered transmembrane α-helices greatly contribute to closing the M-gate. We have measured the transport rates of cysteine mutants of the charged residue positions in the PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs of the bovine oxoglutarate carrier, the yeast GTP/GDP carrier, and the yeast NAD+ transporter, which all lack one of these charged residues. Most single substitutions, including those of the non-charged and unpaired charged residues, completely inactivated transport. Double mutations of charged pairs showed that all three carriers contain salt bridges non-essential for activity. Two double substitutions of these non-essential charge pairs exhibited higher transport rates than their corre-sponding single mutants, whereas swapping the charged residues in these positions did not increase activity. The results demonstrate that some of the residues in the charged residue positions of the PX[DE]XX[KR] motifs are important for reasons other than forming salt bridges, probably for playing specific roles related to the substrate interaction-mediated conformational changes leading to the M-gate opening/closing

Iron Deficiency and Iron Deficiency Anemia in Children

Iron deficiency anemia is considered the most common and widespread nutritional form of anemia in childhood. Red cells are hypochromic and microcytic with low mean corpuscular volume (MCV), low mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and low reticulocyte hemoglobin content (CHr). Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is increased. Serum iron is reduced, transferrin is increased and serum ferritin is decreased. Prematurity, decreased dietary source, malabsorption and blood loss represent the most common causes of iron deficiency. Recommended oral dose of elemental iron is 2–6 mg/kg/day; when normal hemoglobin values are reached, treatment must be generally continued for 3 months in order to replenish iron stores. Rarely intravenous therapy is required. The pediatricians and other health care providers should strive to prevent and eliminate iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia