Crossing the Rubicon: A Generic Intelligent Advisor

Recommender systems (RS) are being used by an increasing number of e-commerce sites to help consumers find the personally best products. We define here the criteria that a RS should satisfy, drawing on concepts from behavioral science, computational intelligence, and data mining. We present our conclusions from building the WiseUncle RS and give its general description. Rather than being an advisor for a particular application, WiseUncle is a generic RS, a platform for generating application-specific advisors

Identifying Misleading Advertising

A procedure for identifying misleading advertising is presented, based solely on measured consumer beliefs. An advertisement is misleading if an exposed group holds more false beliefs than a comparison group. When ten allegedly misleading advertisements were tested, two were identified as incrementally misleading, and four others were shown to be exploitively misleading

Preference-driven biases in decision makers’ information search and evaluation

While it is well established that the search for information after a decision is biased toward supporting that decision, the case of preference-supporting search before the decision remains open. Three studies of consumer choices consistently found a complete absence of a pre-choice bias toward searching for preference-supporting information. The absence of this confirming search bias occurred for products that were both hedonic and utilitarian, both expensive and inexpensive, and both high and low in expected brand loyalty. Experiment 3 also verified the presence of the expected post-choice search bias to support the chosen alternative. Therefore the absence of a pre-choice search bias in all three studies was not likely to be due to our using a method that was so insensitive that a search bias would not be observed under any circumstances. In addition to the absence of an effect of prior preferences on information selection, subjects’ self-reported search strategies exhibited a clear tendency toward a balance of positive and negative information. Across the three studies, we also tested for the presence of a preference-supporting bias in the evaluation of the information acquired in the search process. This evaluation bias was found both pre- and post-choice

Selective-exhaust gas recirculation for CO2 capture using membrane technology

Membranes can potentially offer low-cost CO2 capture from post-combustion flue gas. However, the low partial pressure of CO2 in flue gases can inhibit their effectiveness unless methods are employed to increase their partial pressure. Selective-Exhaust Gas Recirculation (S-EGR) has recently received considerable attention. In this study, the performance of a dense polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane for the separation of CO2/N2 binary model mixtures for S-EGR application was investigated using a bench-scale experimental rig. Measurements at different pressures, at different feeding concentrations and with nitrogen as sweep gas revealed an average carbon dioxide permeability of 2943 ± 4.1%RSD Barrer. The bench-scale membrane module showed high potential to separate binary mixtures of N2 and CO2 containing 5–20% CO2. The permeability was slightly affected by feed pressures ranging from 1 to 2.4 bar. Furthermore, the separation selectivity for a CO2/N2 mixture of 10%/90% (by volume) reached a maximum of 10.55 at 1.8 bar. Based on the results from the bench-scale experiments, a pilot-scale PDMS membrane module was tested for the first time using a real flue gas mixture taken from the combustion of natural gas. Results from the pilot-scale experiments confirmed the potential of the PDMS membrane system to be used in an S-EGR configuration for capture of CO2

Electrostatically confined Quantum Rings in bilayer Graphene

We propose a new system where electron and hole states are electrostatically confined into a quantum ring in bilayer graphene. These structures can be created by tuning the gap of the graphene bilayer using nanostructured gates or by position-dependent doping. The energy levels have a magnetic field ($B_{0}$) dependence that is strikingly distinct from that of usual semiconductor quantum rings. In particular, the eigenvalues are not invariant under a $B_0 \to -B_0$ transformation and, for a fixed total angular momentum index $m$, their field dependence is not parabolic, but displays two minima separated by a saddle point. The spectra also display several anti-crossings, which arise due to the overlap of gate-confined and magnetically-confined states.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Nano Letter

Non-Conscious Influences on Consumer Choice

While consumer choice research has dedicated considerable research attention to aspects of choice that are deliberative and conscious, only limited attention has been paid to aspects of choice that occur outside of conscious awareness. We review relevant research that suggests that consumer choice is a mix of conscious and nonconscious influences, and argue that the degree to which nonconscious influences affect choice is much greater than many choice researchers believe. Across a series of research domains, these influences are found to include stimulus that are not consciously perceived by the consumer, nonconscious downstream effects of a consciously perceived stimuli or thought process, and decision processes that occur entirely outside of awareness

Evaluation of Sidewalk Autonomous Delivery Robot Interactions with Pedestrians and Bicyclists [Research Brief]

69A3551747109Information and communication technology advancements and an increased demand for contactless deliveries following the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak resulted in the growing adoption of automated delivery services. In this research project, we examine the impacts that sidewalk autonomous delivery robots (SADRs) have on the objective safety and perceived comfort of pedestrians and bicyclists who share pathways with this last-mile food delivery service that has been deployed on college campuses

Translational control analysis by translationally active RNA capture/microarray analysis (TrIP–Chip)

We have developed a new approach to systematically study post-transcriptional regulation in a small number of cells. Actively translating mRNAs are associated with polysomes and the newly synthesized peptide chains are closely associated with molecular chaperones such as hsp70s, which assist in the proper folding of nascent polypeptides into higher ordered structures. These chaperones provide an anchor with which to separate actively translating mRNAs associated with polysomes from free mRNAs. Affinity capture beads were developed to capture hsp70 chaperones associated with the polysome complexes. The isolated actively translating mRNAs were used for high-throughput expression profiling analysis. Feasibility was demonstrated using an in vitro translation system with known translationally regulated mRNA transcript thymidylate synthase (TS). We further developed the approach using HCT-116 colon cancer cells with both TS and p53 as positive controls. The steady-state levels of TS and p53 mRNAs were unaltered after 5-fluorouracil treatment as assessed by real-time qRT-PCR analysis. In contrast, the protein expression and polysome-associated mRNA levels of both genes were increased. These differences in translational rate were revealed with our new approach from 500 cells. This technology has the potential to make investigation of translational control feasible with limited quantities of clinical specimens

Evaluation of Sidewalk Autonomous Delivery Robot Interactions with Pedestrians and Bicyclists

69A3551747109Information and communication technology advancements and an increased demand for contactless deliveries after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak have resulted in the growing adoption of automated delivery services. Across university campuses, the deployment of sidewalk autonomous delivery robots (SADRs) has provided students, staff, and faculty a convenient last-mile delivery option. However, SADRs traverse campuses on paths designed for pedestrians and bicyclists, which could potentially result in conflicts among different pathway users and unsafe travel conditions. This report\u2014comprising two studies\u2014offers evidence on the objective safety and perceived comfort experienced by pedestrians and bicyclists interacting with SADRs on multi-use paths. In the first study, SADR interactions with human pathway users observed via field-recorded video collected at Northern Arizona University (NAU) campus were examined by employing the surrogate safety measure of post-encroachment time. The second study analyzed the reported comfort of SADR-involved interactions filmed from pedestrian and bicyclist perspectives and collected via the administration of a survey instrument to an NAU population with experience in the adoption of automated food delivery services and SADR-involved interactions. This report\u2019s findings are intended to help inform new facility management strategies that support the safe introduction of SADRs on shared-use facilities in current and future settings