Brand message strategies and consumer motivations to respond

The overarching purpose of this dissertation is to first provide a theoretical and empirical background for research on motivation and branding strategies; a review of the literature on social media, social media marketing, and brand association is provided for context. From this, three research questions are presented. Chapter 3 describes the procedures, methodology, results and discussion briefs of two studies. Finally, Chapter 4 discusses the expected theoretical and managerial contributions of this study and directions for future research. The primary goals of this research are to provide an exploratory analysis investigating how global brands currently use social media to share brand messages and build relationships with consumers, and the social and psychological motivational factors that lead consumers to engage with commercial brands on SNS, particularly the platform of Instagram in this early stage of social media marketing. Specifically, this study: (1) analyzes corporate account marketing messages on Instagram to understand how global brands are using Instagram for purposes of interacting with and building relationships with consumers, (2) identifies social and psychological motives that lead consumers to engage with commercial brands on Instagram, and (3) examines the relationships between identified motives and consumer-brand relationship outcome variables. To accomplish these, two studies are conducted. Study 1, that is a content analysis, examines the global brand Instagram accounts of the top 100 most valuable global brands, based on the brand associations by Aarker (1996). Building on the Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G), Study 2 explores the underlying process of consumers’ motivations to follow a brand account by conducting a survey study of 318 Instagram brand account followers in the United States. Within the theoretical framework of U&G, this research also examines how varying degrees of consumer motivation to follow a brand account on Instagram influences consumer engagement outcomes (i.e., frequency of electronic word-of-mouth and attitude toward following brands) and outcomes related to relationship building (i.e., trust, satisfaction, intention to pass along brand’s messages, and willingness to buy). The findings of Study 1 revealed that Instagram marketers often are not using the strategies that generate the highest consumer engagement. Study 2 examined seven consumer motivations for following Instagram brand accounts. Motivations related to social interaction and brand love were the strongest motivations. Directions for future research, for example, understanding why a brand follows other account on Instagram, are providedAdvertisin

Discovery and function of polyomaviral microRNAs

textPolyomaviruses are small, DNA tumor viruses that establish persistent infections in their natural hosts. Several members of the virus family are associated with human pathologies such as Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML), trichodysplasia spinulosa and Merkel cell carcinoma. Polyomaviruses are one of the first virus family known to encode miRNAs. These polyomaviral miRNAs are located antisense to the early transcripts and hence, mediate the autoregulation of the viral early proteins, the T antigens. There are two major questions in the field of polyomaviral miRNAs – What is the biological significance of this miRNA-mediated autoregulation of the early transcripts? Are there other biological significant targets for these polyomaviral miRNAs? This work addressed these two questions through an evolutionary approach. First, examination of SV40 and JCV variants indicated the high conservation of the miRNAs and their autoregulatory functions. Second, miRNA-mediated autoregulation of the early transcripts is conserved in a newly discovered, evolutionarily divergent viruses, the Bandicoot papillomatosis and Carcinomatosis viruses (BPCVs). Third, by inspecting divergent members of the polyomavirus family, we have shown that some non-human polyomaviruses encode miRNAs, with the function to autoregulate the early transcripts conserved. The conservation of miRNAs both among variants of individual member and across divergent members of the polyomavirus family implies importance. More importantly, a conserved function of autoregulating the early transcript further emphasized the biological relevance of the miRNAs in polyomavirus biology. Yet, the lack of replicative differences between miRNA-expressing and miRNA-null SV40 strains during lytic infections suggests a role for the polyomaviral miRNAs under a different setting, perhaps in the establishment of persistent infection of their natural hosts. This work represents an evolutionary study of polyomaviral miRNAs that has demonstrated the conserved nature of miRNA-mediated autoregulation of the early transcripts among various members of the polyomavirus and polyoma-like virus families. These results have implicated a potential role for the polyomaviral miRNAs in the establishment of persistent infection and raised the possibility of using the JCV miRNAs as potential biomarkers as a non-invasive form of diagnostic for PML.Biochemistr

Ferromagnetic resonance in periodic particle arrays

We report measurements of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra of arrays of submicron size periodic particle arrays of permalloy produced by electron-beam lithography. In contrast to plane ferromagnetic films, the spectra of the arrays show a number of additional resonance peaks, whose position depends strongly on the orientation of the external magnetic field and the interparticle interaction. Time-dependent micromagnetic simulation of the ac response show that these peaks are associated with coupled exchange and dipolar spin wave modesComment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Comparisons of physique, body composition, and somatotype by weight division between male and female collegiate taekwondo athletes

The aim of the study was to compare the physique, body composition and somatotype between male and female collegiate taekwondo athletes and specially focus on differences by weight division. 60 collegiate taekwondo athletes (male: 29, female: 31) voluntarily participated in the study. They were divided into four Olympic weight divisions (male for -58 kg, -68 kg, -80 kg, +80 kg, female for -49 kg, -57 kg, -67 kg, +67 kg). Anthropometric measurements included body weight, height, sitting height, body circumferences (relaxed arm, flexed arm, chest, waist, hip, thigh, and calf), bone widths (humerus and femur), and skinfold thicknesses (triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, thigh, and calf) were measured. The three somatotype components were assessed by Heath-Carter anthropometric method (Carter & Heath, 1990). Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied to analyze difference of dependent variables. Significant level was set at .05. Male athletes were taller and heavier than female athletes. However, sum of skinfold thickness was significantly higher in female athletes than male athletes. The three somatotype components for male athletes were 3.4-3.5-3.1 and characterized with balanced mesomorphy. On the other hand, the somatotype of female athletes were 6.1-3.4-2.6 and characterized with mesomorphic endomorph. In male athletes -80 kg and +80 kg weight divisions were higher mesomorphy, but lower ectomorphy than -58 kg and -68 kg weight divisions. In female, -57 kg, -67 kg and +67 kg weight divisions were higher endomorphy and mesomorphy, but lower ectomorphy than -49 kg weight divisions. In conclusion, male athletes had higher anthropometric characteristics than female athletes except for the skinfold thickness. Female athletes had higher endomorphy, whereas male athletes had higher ectomorphy. Physique and somatotype were different between weight divisions both male and female athletes. This study provides a reference data of morphological characteristics of collegiate elite taekwondo athletes

What makes social media influencers authentic? Understanding perceived authenticity of social media influencers

This research explores how consumers’ perception of social media influencers’ (SMI) authenticity is constructed. To that end, a measurement scale that hinges on consumers’ authenticity cues is developed to delve into the structure of perceived SMI authenticity. Additionally, the role of perceived SMI authenticity on consumer behavior variables is examined. To develop and validate the scale, a mixed methods research design is used in which qualitative responses were collected via an open-ended survey and quantitative data were collected via two online surveys. Results suggest perceived SMI authenticity is a multidimensional construct consisting of: Sincerity, Transparent Endorsements, Visibility, Expertise and Uniqueness. Each of the five dimensions had varying effects on consumers’ evaluation of a SMI, willingness to follow a SMI and intention to purchase products they recommend. This research extends theoretical work on authenticity by shedding light onto the construct of perceived SMI authenticity and provides practical implications for marketers and social media influencers.Advertisin

Real-time detection of malicious network activity using stochastic models

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-122).This dissertation develops approaches to rapidly detect malicious network traffic including packets sent by portscanners and network worms. The main hypothesis is that stochastic models capturing a host's particular connection-level behavior provide a good foundation for identifying malicious network activity in real-time. Using the models, the dissertation shows that a detection problem can be formulated as one of observing a particular "trajectory" of arriving packets and inferring from it the most likely classification for the given host's behavior. This stochastic approach enables us not only to estimate an algorithm's performance based on the measurable statistics of a host's traffic but also to balance the goals of promptness and accuracy in detecting malicious network activity. This dissertation presents three detection algorithms based on Wald's mathematical framework of sequential analysis. First, Threshold Random Walk (TRW) rapidly detects remote hosts performing a portscan to a target network. TRW is motivated by the empirically observed disparity between the frequency with which connections to newly visited local addresses are successful for benign hosts vs. for portscanners. Second, it presents a hybrid approach that accurately detects scanning worm infections quickly after the infected local host begins to engage in worm propagation.(cont.) Finally, it presents a targeting worm detection algorithm, Rate-Based Sequential Hypothesis Testing (RBS), that promptly identifies high-fan-out behavior by hosts (e.g., targeting worms) based on the rate at which the hosts initiate connections to new destinations. RBS is built on an empirically-driven probability model that captures benign network characteristics. It then presents RBS+TRW, a unified framework for detecting fast-propagating worms independently of their target discovery strategy. All these schemes have been implemented and evaluated using real packet traces collected from multiple network vantage points.by Jaeyeon Jung.Ph.D

Acoustic articulatory evidence for quantal vowel categories : the features [low] and [back]

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2009.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-142).In recent years, research in human speech communication suggested that the inventory of sound units that are observed in vowels across languages is strongly influenced by the acoustic properties of the human subglottal system. That is, there is a discrete set of possible vowel features that are constrained by the interaction of the acoustic/articulatory properties of the vowels and a small set of attributes that are observed in the subglottal region. This thesis tests the hypothesis that subglottal resonances govern vowel feature boundaries for three populations: adult speakers of English; adult speakers of Korean; and children learning English. First, we explored the relations among F1 of vowels, the first subglottal resonances (SubF1) and the feature [low] in English. For the diphthong [??], F1 peaks for vowels showed an acoustic irregularity near the speaker' s SubF1. For monophthongs, analysis of F1 frequency distributions shows a boundary between [+low] and [-low] vowels at the speakers' SubF1. Second, we studied the relations among F2 of Korean vowels, SubF2 and the feature [back], to test whether the relation between subglottal resonances and the feature boundary, demonstrated earlier for English, also can be applied to other languages. Results show that the F2 boundary between [back] and [front] vowels was placed near SubF2 in Korean, as in English. Third, we explored the development of vowel formants in relation to subglottal resonances for 10 children in the age range of 2;6-3;9 years using the database of Imbrie (2005). Results show that at the earlier ages, formant values deviated from the expected relations, but during the six month period in which the measurements were made, there was considerable movement toward the expected values.(cont.)The transition to the expected relations appeared to occur by the age of 3 years for most of these children, in a developmental pattern that was inconsistent with an account in terms of simple anatomical increase. These three sets of observations provide evidence that subglottal resonances play a role in defining vowel feature boundaries, as predicted by Stevens' (1972) hypothesis that contrastive phonological features in human languages have arisen from quantal discontinuities in articulatory-acoustic space.by Youngsook Jung.Ph.D

Atomic Scale Memory at a Silicon Surface

The limits of pushing storage density to the atomic scale are explored with a memory that stores a bit by the presence or absence of one silicon atom. These atoms are positioned at lattice sites along self-assembled tracks with a pitch of 5 atom rows. The writing process involves removal of Si atoms with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. The memory can be reformatted by controlled deposition of silicon. The constraints on speed and reliability are compared with data storage in magnetic hard disks and DNA.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Nanotechnolog

Fast methods for inverse wave scattering problems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-137).Inverse wave scattering problems arise in many applications including computerized/diffraction tomography, seismology, diffraction/holographic grating design, object identification from radar singals, and semiconductor quality control. Efficient algorithms exist for some inverse wave scattering problems in the low- and high-frequency regime or with weak scatterers. However, inverse wave scattering problems in the resonance regime with strong scatterers still pose many challenges. This thesis proposes algorithms for inverse wave scattering problems in the resonance regime with strong scatterers. These problems are part of, for instance, grating design, object identification, and semiconductor quality control. The proposed methods are (a) a spectrally convergent Nyström method for periodic structures in 2-D; (b) a fast Jacobian approximation method accompanying a Nyström method; (c) a fast and accurate method for evaluating the potential integrals in the 3-D mixed-potential integral operator with the Rao-Wilton-Glisson basis function; and (d) optimization with parameterized reduced-order models. The Nyström method and the method to evaluate the potential integrals accelerate scattered field evaluations by solving integral equations efficiently. The Jacobian approximation method and optimization with parameterized reduced-order models efficiently couple algorithms to evaluate scattered fields due to a guess of the scatterer and optimization methods to improve the guess. The Nyström and the Jacobian approximation methods are used to identify the parameters characterizing a periodic dielectric grating in 2-D. The method to evaluate the potential integrals and optimization with parameterized reduced-order models are applied to the problem of identifying simple discrete geometries in 3-D.by Jung Hoon Lee.Ph.D

LHC Predictions from a Tevatron Anomaly in the Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry

We examine the implications of the recent CDF measurement of the top-quark forward-backward asymmetry, focusing on a scenario with a new color octet vector boson at 1-3 TeV. We study several models, as well as a general effective field theory, and determine the parameter space which provides the best simultaneous fit to the CDF asymmetry, the Tevatron top pair production cross section, and the exclusion regions from LHC dijet resonance and contact interaction searches. Flavor constraints on these models are more subtle and less severe than the literature indicates. We find a large region of allowed parameter space at high axigluon mass and a smaller region at low mass; we match the latter to an SU(3)xSU(3)/SU(3) coset model with a heavy vector-like fermion. Our scenario produces discoverable effects at the LHC with only 1-2 inverse femtobarns of luminosity at 7-8 TeV. Lastly, we point out that a Tevatron measurement of the b-quark forward-backward asymmetry would be very helpful in characterizing the physics underlying the top-quark asymmetry.Comment: 35 pages, 10 figures, 4 table