Mobile travel services: A three-country study into the impact of local circumstances

In this paper we explore the difference in acceptance patterns of mobile services that are related to travelling in three countries: Finland, The Netherlands and New Zealand. The objective of this paper is to understand differences in the use of Mobile Travel Services in three countries that differ with regard to national travel patterns. This paper also contributes to the discussion of the relevance of the Technology Acceptance Model for mobile applications by focusing on the importance of context characteristics, such as the degree of mobility of the user, the social situation people are in, and their need for social interaction. Based on surveys in the three countries as executed in 2009, we use structural equation modelling to find differences in patterns. The paper concludes that context factors have an impact on the relation between the core concepts as used in TAM and DOI approach, and that t here is a clear need for closer research in the moderating effect of physical (e.g. mobile and fixed context) and social context, as well as the need for social interaction. Moreover it is clear that country specific characteristics play a role in the acceptance of mobile travel services. As we pointed out in many of our research projects before the acceptance and use of mobile services requires deep understanding from individual, context and technology related characteristics and their mutual interactions

Mobile travel services: the effect of moderating context factors

This article has two objectives: (1) to draw an international comparison regarding the acceptance of mobile travel services in three countries with different profiles when it comes to travelling and mobile telecommunications, and (2) to extend relevant literature on mobile applications, more specifically travel services, by including context-related concepts, taking moderating factors like location, mobility of users, physical, and social context into account. Based on surveys that were carried out in 2009, structural equation modelling is used to identify differences in patterns in the use of mobile travel services and in the role of context-related variables. the conclusion of this article is that context-related factors, that is, mobility and (physical and social) context, have an impact on the relationship between the core concepts of technology Acceptance model (TAM) and Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) research. many studies on the acceptance and use of mobile services indicate that a deep understanding is needed of individual, context-related, and technological characteristics and the way they interact. this is also highly relevant to the travel industry, which wants to utilize the opportunities provided by mobile technology

Undirected singing rate as a non-invasive tool for welfare monitoring in isolated male zebra finches

Research on the songbird zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) has advanced our behavioral, hormonal, neuronal, and genetic understanding of vocal learning. However, little is known about the impact of typical experimental manipulations on the welfare of these birds. Here we explore whether the undirected singing rate can be used as an indicator of welfare. We tested this idea by performing a post hoc analysis of singing behavior in isolated male zebra finches subjected to interactive white noise, to surgery, or to tethering. We find that the latter two experimental manipulations transiently but reliably decreased singing rates. By contraposition, we infer that a high-sustained singing rate is suggestive of successful coping or improved welfare in these experiments. Our analysis across more than 300 days of song data suggests that a singing rate above a threshold of several hundred song motifs per day implies an absence of an acute stressor or a successful coping with stress. Because singing rate can be measured in a completely automatic fashion, its observation can help to reduce experimenter bias in welfare monitoring. Because singing rate measurements are non-invasive, we expect this study to contribute to the refinement of the current welfare monitoring tools in zebra finches.Fil: Yamahachi, Homare. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Zai, Anja T.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Tachibana, Ryosuke O.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Stepien, Anna E.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Rodrigues, Diana I.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Cavé Lopez, Sophie. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Lorenz, Corinna. Universite Paris Saclay; Francia. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Arneodo, Ezequiel Matías. Universitat Zurich; Suiza. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Giret, Nicolas. Universite Paris Saclay; FranciaFil: Hahnloser, Richard H. R.. Universitat Zurich; Suiz

The Effect of Compositional Changes Due to Seasonal Variation on Milk Density and the Determination of Season-Based Density Conversion Factors for Use in the Dairy Industry

peer-reviewedThe objective of this study was to determine the effect of seasonal variation on milk composition and establish an algorithm to predict density based on milk composition to enable the calculation of season-based density conversion calculations. A total of 1035 raw whole milk samples were collected from morning and evening milking of 60 spring-calving individual cows of different genetic groups, namely Jersey, Elite HF (Holstein–Friesian) and National Average HF, once every two weeks for a period of 9 months (March–November, 2018). The average mean and standard deviation for milk compositional traits were 4.72 ± 1.30% fat, 3.85 ± 0.61% protein and 4.69 ± 0.30% lactose and density was estimated at 1.0308 ± 0.002 g/cm3 . The density of the milk samples was evaluated using three methods: a portable density meter, DMA 35; a standard desktop version, DMA 4500M; and an Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) method using 100-mL glass pycnometers. Statistical analysis using a linear mixed model showed a significant difference in density of milk samples (p < 0.05) across seasonal and compositional variations adjusted for the effects of days in milk, parity, the feeding treatment, the genetic group and the measurement technique. The mean density values and standard error of mean estimated for milk samples in each season, i.e., spring, summer and autumn were 1.0304 ± 0.00008 g/cm3 , 1.0314 ± 0.00005 g/cm3 and 1.0309 ± 0.00007 g/cm3 , respectively.Enterprise Irelan

Transgenic expression of the dicotyledonous pattern recognition receptor EFR in rice leads to ligand-dependent activation of defense responses

Plant plasma membrane localized pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) detect extracellular pathogen-associated molecules. PRRs such as Arabidopsis EFR and rice XA21 are taxonomically restricted and are absent from most plant genomes. Here we show that rice plants expressing EFR or the chimeric receptor EFR::XA21, containing the EFR ectodomain and the XA21 intracellular domain, sense both Escherichia coli- and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo)-derived elf18 peptides at sub-nanomolar concentrations. Treatment of EFR and EFR::XA21 rice leaf tissue with elf18 leads to MAP kinase activation, reactive oxygen production and defense gene expression. Although expression of EFR does not lead to robust enhanced resistance to fully virulent Xoo isolates, it does lead to quantitatively enhanced resistance to weakly virulent Xoo isolates. EFR interacts with OsSERK2 and the XA21 binding protein 24 (XB24), two key components of the rice XA21-mediated immune response. Rice-EFR plants silenced for OsSERK2, or overexpressing rice XB24 are compromised in elf18-induced reactive oxygen production and defense gene expression indicating that these proteins are also important for EFR-mediated signaling in transgenic rice. Taken together, our results demonstrate the potential feasibility of enhancing disease resistance in rice and possibly other monocotyledonous crop species by expression of dicotyledonous PRRs. Our results also suggest that Arabidopsis EFR utilizes at least a subset of the known endogenous rice XA21 signaling components

First analysis of anisotropic flow with Lee--Yang zeroes

We report on the first analysis of directed and elliptic flow with the new method of Lee--Yang zeroes. Experimental data are presented for Ru+Ru reactions at 1.69 AGeV measured with the FOPI detector at SIS/GSI. The results obtained with several methods, based on the event-plane reconstruction, on Lee--Yang zeroes, and on multi-particle cumulants (up to 5th order) applied for the first time at SIS energies, are compared. They show conclusive evidence that azimuthal correlations between nucleons and composite particles at this energy are largely dominated by anisotropic flow.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C Rapid Co

RNAi-Based Functional Genomics Identifies New Virulence Determinants in Mucormycosis

Mucorales are an emerging group of human pathogens that are responsible for the lethal disease mucormycosis. Unfortunately, functional studies on the genetic factors behind the virulence of these organisms are hampered by their limited genetic tractability, since they are reluctant to classical genetic tools like transposable elements or gene mapping. Here, we describe an RNAi-based functional genomic platform that allows the identification of new virulence factors through a forward genetic approach firstly described in Mucorales. This platform contains a whole-genome collection of Mucor circinelloides silenced transformants that presented a broad assortment of phenotypes related to the main physiological processes in fungi, including virulence, hyphae morphology, mycelial and yeast growth, carotenogenesis and asexual sporulation. Selection of transformants with reduced virulence allowed the identification of mcplD, which encodes a Phospholipase D, and mcmyo5, encoding a probably essential cargo transporter of the Myosin V family, as required for a fully virulent phenotype of M. circinelloides. Knock-out mutants for those genes showed reduced virulence in both Galleria mellonella and Mus musculus models, probably due to a delayed germination and polarized growth within macrophages. This study provides a robust approach to study virulence in Mucorales and as a proof of concept identified new virulence determinants in M. circinelloides that could represent promising targets for future antifungal therapies

Evaluating the 2014 Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax in Chile : An Observational Study in Urban Areas

Background In October 2014, Chile implemented a tax modification on SSBs called the Impuesto Adicional a las Bebidas Analcohólicas (IABA). The design of the tax was unique, increasing the tax on soft drinks above 6.25 grams of added sugar per 100 millilitres and decreasing the tax for those below this threshold. Methods and Findings This study evaluates Chile’s sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) tax, which was announced in March 2014 and implemented in October 2014. We used household level grocery purchasing data from 2011 to 2015, for 2,836 households living in cities and representative of the urban population of Chile. We employed a fixed-effects econometric approach and estimated the before-after change in purchasing of SSBs controlling for seasonality, general time trend, temperature, economic fluctuations as well as time invariant household characteristics. Results showed significant changes in purchasing for the statistically preferred model: while there was a barely significant decrease in the volume of all soft drinks, there was a highly significant decrease in the monthly purchased volume of the higher taxed, sugary soft drinks by 21.6%. The direction of this reduction was robust to different empirical modelling approaches, but the statistical significance and the magnitude of the changes varied considerably. The reduction in soft drink purchasing was most evident amongst higher socioeconomic groups and higher pre-tax purchasers of sugary soft drinks. There was no systematic, robust pattern in the estimates by households’ obesity status. After tax implementation, the purchase prices of soft drinks decreased for the items where the tax rate was reduced, but remained unchanged for sugary items, for which the tax was increased. However, the purchase prices increased for sugary soft drinks at the time of the policy announcement. The main limitations include a lack of a randomized design limiting the extent of causal inference possible, and the focus on purchasing data, rather than consumption or health outcomes. Conclusions The results of sub-group analyses suggest that the policy may have been partially effective, though not necessarily in ways that are likely to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in diet-related health. It remains unclear, whether the policy has had a major, overall population level impact. Additionally, since the present study examined purchasing of soft drinks for only one year, a longer-term evaluation, ideally including an assessment of the consumption and health impacts, should be conducted in future research

Who Smokes in Europe? Data From Twelve European Countries in the TackSHS Survey (2017-2018)

Background: Population data on tobacco use and its determinants require continuous monitoring and careful inter-country comparison. We aimed to provide the most up-to-date estimates on tobacco smoking from a large cross-sectional survey, conducted in selected European countries. Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, a face-to-face survey on smoking was conducted in 2017–2018 in 12 countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain, representing around 80% of the 432 million European Union (EU) adult population. In each country, a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged 15 years and older was interviewed, for a total of 11,902 participants. Results: Overall, 25.9% of participants were current smokers (31.0% of men and 21.2% of women, P \u3c 0.001), while 16.5% were former smokers. Smoking prevalence ranged from 18.9% in Italy to 37.0% in Bulgaria. It decreased with increasing age (compared to Conclusions: These smoking prevalence estimates represent the most up-to-date evidence in Europe. From them, it can be derived that there are more than 112 million current smokers in the EU-28. Lower socio-economic status is a major determinant of smoking habit in both sexes