Online Auction Buyers’ Brain Images When Making Purchasing Decisions Involving Different Types of Rewards

In the past year, online auction sales on sites such as eBay and Yahoo!Auction have increased over 100 percent due to the pandemic, and the growth opportunities for the global online auction market are anticipated to continue until 2028 (Absolute Markets Insights 2020). When online auction buyers have a demand for a product, they usually buy it by going through a process of bidding behaviors to ensure that the final bidding price is commensurable to the product attributes. As indicated in prior studies, most consumers are sensitive to discounts and promotions, such as coupons and rebates (Akar and Nasir 2015; Dominique-Ferreira et al. 2016). More specifically, coupons are distributed in various forms, such as membership coins or points, and free or express delivery services. These different discount mechanisms influencing consumers’ purchasing decision-making processes can be generally categorized into two types of rewards: price-related and not price-related. The purpose of the current experimental study is to explore which type of rewards significantly influences online buyers’ purchasing intention in the context of bidding. The participants, who have experience in purchasing products on auction websites, are placed in a simulated online bidding context. Since brain imaging techniques have been validated in many research fields, this study’s participants’ brain images are also scanned and recorded during the entire experiment to further determine the significant level of neuron activities related to decision-making tasks in certain brain regions (i.e., medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex/nucleus accumbens, and insula). Other brain regions, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, are also observed to find any significant activation during the experiment (Dimoka 2012; Knutson et al. 2007). Each bidding product (ranging from 8 to 30 USD) gives 1% of the product price as membership coins (price-related) or points (not price-related) to the participants while they view different types of products presented on the screen. The participants have to click on a yes-no button to indicate whether they have the intention to purchase the product. After the experiment, face-to-face interviews are carried out to verify their neural and behavioral responses. This study expects to make contributions to the e-commerce and neuromarketing fields

Bifid mandibular canals and their cortex thicknesses: A comparison study on images obtained from cone-beam and multislice computed tomography

AbstractBackground/purposeHigh prevalence of bifid mandibular canals has been visualized with various types of computerized tomography (CT). Along the canals, a various ranged corticalization was recently reported. The depiction of the fine anatomic structures on multislice and cone-beam CT images was compared.Material and methodsThe presence or absence of the bifid canal was assessed on 327 images obtained by multislice CT (MSCT; n = 173) or by cone-beam CT (CBCT; n = 154), according to the configuration. The cortex thickness and distribution were also assessed.ResultsThe prevalence of bifid canal detected by CBCT was significantly greater than that detected by MSCT (42.2% vs. 18.7% for hemi-mandibles and 58.4% vs. 30.6% for patients). Cortical thickness recorded by CBCT was significantly thinner than that recorded by MSCT (0.48 mm vs. 0.65 mm, P < 0.001); however, the distributions of corticalization detected by the two tomography methods were similar. There was a significant association of cortex thickness with CT type and corticalization degree (R2 = 0.530, P < 0.001).ConclusionThinner cortices, but greater prevalence of bifid canals recorded by CBCT, compared to MSCT, suggests that clinicians should be cautious when using CT to interpret this fine anatomic structure

A Standardized Wedelia chinensis Extract Overcomes the Feedback Activation of HER2/3 Signaling upon Androgen-Ablation in Prostate Cancer

Crosstalk between the androgen receptor (AR) and other signaling pathways in prostate cancer (PCa) severely affects the therapeutic outcome of hormonal therapy. Although anti-androgen therapy prolongs overall survival in PCa patients, resistance rapidly develops and is often associated with increased AR expression and upregulation of the HER2/3-AKT signaling pathway. However, single agent therapy targeting AR, HER2/3 or AKT usually fails due to the reciprocal feedback loop. Previously, we reported that wedelolactone, apigenin, and luteolin are the active compounds in Wedelia chinensis herbal extract, and act synergistically to inhibit the AR activity in PCa. Here, we further demonstrated that an herbal extract of W. chinensis (WCE) effectively disrupted the AR, HER2/3, and AKT signaling networks and therefore enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of androgen ablation in PCa. Furthermore, WCE remained effective in suppressing AR and HER2/3 signaling in an in vivo adapted castration-resistant PCa (CRPC) LNCaP cell model that was insensitive to androgen withdrawal and second-line antiandrogen, enzalutamide. This study provides preclinical evidence that the use of a defined, single plant-derived extract can augment the therapeutic efficacy of castration with significantly prolonged progression-free survival. These data also establish a solid basis for using WCE as a candidate agent in clinical studies

Significance of Coronary Calcification for Prediction of Coronary Artery Disease and Cardiac Events Based on 64-Slice Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography

This work aims to validate the clinical significance of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) in predicting coronary artery disease(CAD) and cardiac events in 100 symptomatic patients (aged 37–87 years, mean 62.5, 81 males) that were followed up for a mean of 5 years. Our results showed that patients with CAD and cardiac events had significantly higher CACS than those without CAD and cardiac events, respectively. The corresponding data were 1450.42 ± 3471.24 versus 130 ± 188.29 (P 1000. Increased CACS (>100)was also associated with an increased frequency of multi-vessel disease. Nonetheless, 3 (20%) out of 15 patients with zero CACS had single-vessel disease. Significant correlation (P < 0.001) was observed between CACS and CAD on a vessel-based analysis for coronary arteries. It is concluded that CACS is significantly correlated with CAD and cardiac events

Trophic plasticity of scleractinian corals under contrasted environmental conditions: evidence from stable isotope analysis

Most scleractinian corals can derive nutrition either autotrophically or heterotrophically, which allows them to use diverse trophic pathways. Therefore, when facing environmental changes, these organisms are expected to demonstrate an intrinsic ability to acclimatise through trophic plasticity. Despite the ecological importance of these corals, our understanding of their trophic plasticity is currently impaired by a lack of rigorous research approaches; a failure to consider the intraspecific variability of coral species and an oversimplification of the proxies of heterotrophic habits (e.g. corallite diameter). In order to understand how trophic plasticity could allow them to acclimatise, this study proposed to assess the trophic plasticity of morphologically contrasted coral species (e.g. Stylophora pistillata, Porites sp, Isopora palifera). We determined the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in the coral host tissues and algal symbionts and compared these in corals inhabiting areas around Taiwan characterised by contrasted temperature (from high to low latitudes) and light levels (from shallow to mesophotic waters). For each area, we evaluated the intraspecific trophic variability by estimating and comparing coral isotopic niches as a proxy for trophic niches. Our results on Stylophora pistillata revealed no overlap of the isotopic niches for the host and symbiont from different locations, suggesting that these coral colonies are supported by different core resources. Moreover, the isotopic niche of higher latitude coral colonies was larger than those from the lower latitudes, highlighting a certain trophic plasticity that may be related to more variable environmental conditions in the higher latitudes. Analyses of additional species and locations will provide essential insights into the trophic plasticity of scleractinian corals and how these species might adjust their nutrition in response to environmental changes