Who said what: The effects of cultural mindsets on perceptions of endorser-message relatedness

© 2015. The cultural lens through which an ad is viewed can affect the extent to which an endorser of the product in an ad and the message s(he) communicates are thought about in relation to one another. Consumers with a collectivist mindset tend to think about information relationally. Consequently, they consider the endorsement in relation to the endorser and this affects their memory for both. It also affects recipients' concern with the fit between the endorser's message and the endorser and consequently influences their judgments of both the ad and the product being advertised. When people have an individualist mindset, on the other hand, they appear to treat the endorser and the endorsement as independent pieces of information and are less sensitive to their fit. Four studies support these conclusions and provide insights into how endorser-message relatedness impacts persuasion under different cultural mindset conditions

Role and Relevance of Mast Cells in Fungal Infections

In addition to their detrimental role in allergic diseases, mast cells (MCs) are well known to be important cells of the innate immune system. In the last decade, they have been shown to contribute significantly to optimal host defense against numerous pathogens including parasites, bacteria, and viruses. The contribution of MCs to the immune responses in fungal infections, however, is largely unknown. In this review, we first discuss key features of mast cell responses to pathogens in general and then summarize the current knowledge on the function of MCs in the defense against fungal pathogens. We especially focus on the potential and proven mechanisms by which MCs can detect fungal infections and on possible MC effector mechanisms in protecting from fungal infections

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF AERIAL PARTS OF TRICHODESMA INDICUM R. BR.

Objective: This study was undertaken to carry out pharmacognostical studies and phytochemical studies on aerial parts of Trichodesma indicum R. Br belonging to the family Boraginaceae.Methods: The aerial parts of plant leaf and stem were evaluated for pharmacognostical studies such as macroscopy, microscopy, powder study, and quantitative microscopy. The powder was evaluated for proximate analysis like ash vale, extracting value, moisture content, swelling index, elemental analysis, fluorescence analysis, and preliminary phytochemical studies.Results: Transverse section of leaf of T. indicum R. Br. showed presence of covering trichomes with bulbous base upper and lower epidermis, collenchyma, prisms of calcium oxalate, vascular bundle and palisade cells. Surface preparation showed the presence of wavy epidermal cells, anomocytic stomata, anisocytic stomata, trichomes. Transverse section of Stem of Trichodesma indicum R. Br showed the presence of trichomes with, epidermis, hypodermis, cortex, xylem and pith. Powder study of aerial parts of T. indicum R. Br showed the presence of trichomes, xylem vessels, parenchyma, epidermal cells, fibres, calcium oxalate crystals. The powder of aerial parts was evaluated for proximate analysis such as ash value, extractive value, moisture content, total solid content, and the swelling index, which give idea about the presence of siliceous material, and amount of constituents extracted into different solvent. The elemental analysis of aerial parts showed that plant was free from heavy metal contamination i.e. arsenic, lead. The fluorescence analysis of plant powder showed that plant contains phenolic compounds. Qualitative chemical examination showed that the aerial parts of Trichodesma indicum R. Br, is credited with phytosterol, triterpenoids, tannins, phenolic compounds, carbohydrates, fixed oil, fatty acids mucilage.Conclusion: The study reveals specific identifying characteristics for the particular crude drug which will be of significant use in identification and control to adulteration of the raw drug and can serve as a reference for any further investigations.Â

Storage Induced Changes in Sensory Characteristics and Viscosity of Cocoa and Whey Protein Enriched Functional Dairy Drink

The functional dairy drink product developed in the present study was packaged in LDPE pouches stored at refrigeration temperature 4±1°C. The results of storage studies depict that the product can be stored upto 18 days at 4±1°C without significantly affecting its sensory qualities. Overall acceptability scores decreased from initial 93.0 to 69.2 after 18 days of storage at 4±1°C for the drink enriched with whey protein; for the drink enriched with whey protein and cocoa, the scores decreased from 93.4 to 72.4. The consistency score of the product decreased from 27.5 to 19.5 for whey protein enhanced drink and from 27.7 to 20.6 in case of cocoa & whey protein enriched product after 18 days of storage at 4±1°C in LDPE pouch. The Color and appearance score decreased from 18.6 to 14.1 for the whey protein enriched drink and to 15.3 for the product enriched with cocoa & whey protein. The study clearly depicted that the sensory attributes viz. overall acceptability, flavor, taste, consistency and color & appearance scores between 15th and 18th day of storage of both the products differed significantly; indicating that the products were shelf stable upto 15th day when stored at 4±1°C

Operating Different Displays in Military Fast Jets Using Eye Gaze Tracker

This paper investigated the use of an eye-gaze-controlled interface in a military aviation environment. We set up a flight simulator and used the gaze-controlled interface in three different configurations of displays (head down, head up, and head mounted) for military fast jets. Our studies found that the gaze-controlled interface statistically significantly increased the speed of interaction for secondary mission control tasks compared to touchscreen- and joystick-based target designation system. Finally, we tested a gaze-controlled system inside an aircraft both on the ground and in different phases of flight with military pilots. Results showed that they could undertake representative pointing and selection tasks in less than two seconds, on average