Warum Werber den Himmel auf Erden versprechen. Über den Einsatz religiöser Elemente in der Werbung

Werbung ist an ihre Rezipienten stets mit dem Ziel adressiert, Aufmerksamkeit für Produkte, Dienstleistungen und Botschaften zu generieren. Dabei knüpft sie an Sinnstrukturen aus anderen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen an, darunter auch Religion. In diesem Beitrag untersucht der Autor diesen Zusammenhang zwischen Werbung und Religion. Es wird zunächst gezeigt, dass Werbung in mindestens drei Weisen Religion und Religiöses nutzt: ähnliche Formen (z. B. Predigt), ähnliche Funktionen (z. B. Kontingenzbewältigung) und ähnliche Inhalte (z. B. Weihnachten, Buddha etc.). Anschließend werden mehrere empirische Studien kurz vorgestellt. Zum Schluss wird diskutiert, ob die Verwendung religiöser Symbole deren Zerstörung oder Bewahrung herbeiführt und ob Werbung als (Ersatz-)Religion betrachtet werden kann.EnglishJeppe Rasmussen: Why PR-People Promise Heaven on Earth. On Using Religious Elements in AdvertisingAdvertisement addresses its recipients in order to generate attention for a product, a service or a message. It thereby ties in with structures of meaning and sense of a given society, among these religion. In this article the author examines this relation between ads and religion. Initially it is shown that advertisement uses religion and religious elements in at least three ways: similar forms (a sermon), similar functions (coping with contingent events) and similar content (Christmas, Buddha etc.). In addition several empiric surveys are presented. Finally, it is discussed whether the use of religious symbols causes their ruin or preservation, and whether advertisement can be seen as a (replacement-)religion.

Instrumenting gait with an accelerometer: A system and algorithm examination

Gait is an important clinical assessment tool since changes in gait may reflect changes in general health. Measurement of gait is a complex process which has been restricted to the laboratory until relatively recently. The application of an inexpensive body worn sensor with appropriate gait algorithms (BWM) is an attractive alternative and offers the potential to assess gait in any setting. In this study we investigated the use of a low-cost BWM, compared to laboratory reference using a robust testing protocol in both younger and older adults. We observed that the BWM is a valid tool for estimating total step count and mean spatio-temporal gait characteristics however agreement for variability and asymmetry results was poor. We conducted a detailed investigation to explain the poor agreement between systems and determined it was due to inherent differences between the systems rather than inability of the sensor to measure the gait characteristics. The results highlight caution in the choice of reference system for validation studies. The BWM used in this study has the potential to gather longitudinal (real-world) spatio-temporal gait data that could be readily used in large lifestyle-based intervention studies, but further refinement of the algorithm(s) is required

FishSizer: Software solution for efficiently measuring larval fish size

Length and depth of fish larvae are part of the fundamental measurements in many marine ecology studies involving early fish life history. Until now, obtaining these measurements has required intensive manual labor and the risk of inter- and intra-observer variability. We developed an open-source software solution to semi-automate the measurement process and thereby reduce both time consumption and technical variability. Using contrast-based edge detection, the software segments images of a fish larva into “larva” and “background.” Length and depth are extracted from the “larva” segmentation while taking curvature of the larva into consideration. The graphical user interface optimizes workflow and ease of usage, thereby reducing time consumption for both training and analysis. The software allows for visual verification of all measurements. A comparison of measurement methods on a set of larva images showed that this software reduces measurement time by 66%–78% relative to commonly used software. Using this software instead of the commonly used manual approach has the potential to save researchers from many hours of monotonous work. No adjustment was necessary for 89% of the images regarding length (70% for depth). Hence, the only workload on most images was the visual inspection. As the visual inspection and manual dimension extraction works in the same way as currently used software, we expect no loss in accuracy.publishedVersio

Instability of standard PCR reference genes in adipose-derived stem cells during propagation, differentiation and hypoxic exposure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For the accurate determination of gene expression changes during growth and differentiation studies on adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), quantitative real-time RT-PCR has become a method of choice. The technology is very sensitive, however, without a proper selection of reference genes, to which the genes of interest are normalized, erroneous results may be obtained.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we have compared the gene expression levels of a panel of twelve widely used reference genes during hypoxic culture, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation, and passaging of primary human ASCs. We found that several of the commonly used reference genes including 18S rRNA, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and beta-actin were unsuitable for normalization in the conditions we tested, whereas tyrosine 3/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein (YMHAZ), TATAA-box binding protein (TBP), beta-glucuronidase (GUSB) were the most stable across all conditions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>When determining gene expression levels in adipose-derived stem cells, we recommend normalizing transcription levels to the geometric mean of YMHAZ, TBP and GUSB.</p