Channels, consumers and communication: online and offline communication in service consumption

This paper reports on a study that investigated consumer use of e-services in a multichannel context. To develop a deeper understanding of what makes consumers decide to use the online channel, and contrary to most HCI studies on the use of e-services that focus on the use of the online channel in relative isolation, this study examined consumer channel-choice beyond the instances of internet use. The consumption behaviour of its participants was investigated across channels in an in-depth qualitative study. The analysis of the elicited rich data focused specifically on the investigation of voluntary consumer movements between online and offline channels during the course of a consumption process. The results indicate that participants often use multiple channels in parallel and frequently switch between channels. Literature from marketing and consumer research was used as the perspective to explore the rationale for the complex and dynamic reported consumer behaviour

Chimera states in heterogeneous networks

Chimera states in networks of coupled oscillators occur when some fraction of the oscillators synchronise with one another, while the remaining oscillators are incoherent. Several groups have studied chimerae in networks of identical oscillators, but here we study these states in a heterogeneous model for which the natural frequencies of the oscillators are chosen from a distribution. We obtain exact results by reduction to a finite set of differential equations. We find that heterogeneity can destroy chimerae, destroy all states except chimerae, or destabilise chimerae in Hopf bifurcations, depending on the form of the heterogeneity.Comment: Revised text. To appear, Chao

The cytochrome P450 family in the parasitic nematode <i>Haemonchus contortus</i>

&lt;i&gt;Haemonchus contortus&lt;/i&gt;, a highly pathogenic and economically important parasitic nematode of sheep, is particularly adept at developing resistance to the anthelmintic drugs used in its treatment and control. The basis of anthelmintic resistance is poorly understood for many commonly used drugs with most research being focused on mechanisms involving drug targets or drug efflux. Altered or increased drug metabolism is a possible mechanism that has yet to receive much attention despite the clear role of xenobiotic metabolism in pesticide resistance in insects. The cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are a large family of drug-metabolising enzymes present in almost all living organisms, but for many years thought to be absent from parasitic nematodes. In this paper, we describe the CYP sequences encoded in the &lt;i&gt;H. Contortus&lt;/i&gt; genome and compare their expression in different parasite life-stages, sexes and tissues. We developed a novel real-time PCR approach based on partially assembled CYP sequences “tags” and confirmed findings in the subsequent draft genome with RNA-seq. Constitutive expression was highest in larval stages for the majority of CYPs, although higher expression was detected in the adult male or female for a small subset of genes. Many CYPs were expressed in the worm intestine. A number of &lt;i&gt;H. Contortus&lt;/i&gt; genes share high identity with &lt;i&gt;Caenorhabditis elegans&lt;/i&gt; CYPs and the similarity in their expression profiles supports their classification as putative orthologues. Notably, &lt;i&gt;H. Contortus&lt;/i&gt; appears to lack the dramatic CYP subfamily expansions seen in &lt;i&gt;C. elegans&lt;/i&gt; and other species, which are typical of CYPs with exogenous roles. However, a small group of &lt;i&gt;H. Contortus&lt;/i&gt; genes cluster with the &lt;i&gt;C. elegans&lt;/i&gt; CYP34 and CYP35 subfamilies and may represent candidate xenobiotic metabolising genes in the parasite

Chimeras in networks of planar oscillators

Chimera states occur in networks of coupled oscillators, and are characterized by having some fraction of the oscillators perfectly synchronized, while the remainder are desynchronized. Most chimera states have been observed in networks of phase oscillators with coupling via a sinusoidal function of phase differences, and it is only for such networks that any analysis has been performed. Here we present the first analysis of chimera states in a network of planar oscillators, each of which is described by both an amplitude and a phase. We find that as the attractivity of the underlying periodic orbit is reduced chimeras are destroyed in saddle-node bifurcations, and supercritical Hopf and homoclinic bifurcations of chimeras also occur.Comment: To appear, Phys. Rev.

Multifrequency VLA observations of the FR I radio galaxy 3C 31: morphology, spectrum and magnetic field

We present high-quality VLA images of the FR I radio galaxy 3C 31 in the frequency range 1365 to 8440 MHz with angular resolutions from 0.25 to 40 arcsec. Our new images reveal complex, well resolved filamentary substructure in the radio jets and tails. We also use these images to explore the spectral structure of 3C 31 on large and small scales. We infer the apparent magnetic field structure by correcting for Faraday rotation. Some of the intensity substructure in the jets is clearly related to structure in their apparent magnetic field: there are arcs of emission where the degree of linear polarization increases, with the apparent magnetic field parallel to the ridges of the arcs. The spectral indices are significantly steeper (0.62) within 7 arcsec of the nucleus than between 7 and 50 arcsec (0.52 - 0.57). The spectra of the jet edges are also slightly flatter than the average for their surroundings. At larger distances, the jets are clearly delimited from surrounding larger-scale emission both by their flatter radio spectra and by sharp brightness gradients. The spectral index of 0.62 in the first 7 arcsec of 3C 31's jets is very close to that found in other FR I galaxies where their jets first brighten in the radio and where X-ray synchrotron emission is most prominent. Farther from the nucleus, where the spectra flatten, X-ray emission is fainter relative to the radio. The brightest X-ray emission from FR I jets is therefore not associated with the flattest radio spectra, but with a particle-acceleration process whose characteristic energy index is 2.24. The spectral flattening with distance from the nucleus occurs where our relativistic jet models require deceleration, and the flatter-spectra at the jet edges may be associated with transverse velocity shear. (Slightly abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Investigating affordances of virtual worlds for real world B2C e-commerce

Virtual worlds are three-dimensional (3D) online persistent multi-user environments where users interact through avatars. The literature suggests that virtual worlds can facilitate real world business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. However, few real world businesses have adopted virtual worlds for B2C e-commerce. In this paper, we present results from interviews with consumers in a virtual world to investigate how virtual worlds can support B2C e-commerce. A thematic analysis of the data was conducted to uncover affordances and constraints of virtual worlds for B2C e-commerce. Two affordances (habitability and appearance of realness) and one constraint (demand for specialised skill) were uncovered. The implications of this research for designers are (1) to provide options to consumers that enable them to manage their online reputation, (2) to focus on managing consumers’ expectations and (3) to facilitate learning between consumers

Observation of quantum interference as a function of Berry's phase in a complex Hadamard optical network

Emerging models of quantum computation driven by multi-photon quantum interference, while not universal, may offer an exponential advantage over classical computers for certain problems. Implementing these circuits via geometric phase gates could mitigate requirements for error correction to achieve fault tolerance while retaining their relative physical simplicity. We report an experiment in which a geometric phase is embedded in an optical network with no closed-loops, enabling quantum interference between two photons as a function of the phase.Comment: Comments welcom

Love is . . . an abstract word: the influence of phonological and semantic factors on verbal short-term memory in Williams syndrome

It has been claimed that verbal short-term memory in Williams syndrome is characterised by an over-use of phonological coding alongside a reduced contribution of lexical semantics. We critically examine this hypothesis and present results from a memory span task comparing performance on concrete and abstract words, together with a replication of a span task using phonologically similar and phonologically dissimilar words. Fourteen participants with Williams syndrome were individually matched to two groups of typically developing children. The first control group was matched on digit span and the second on vocabulary level. Significant effects were found for both the semantic and the phonological variables in the WS group as well as in the control groups, with no interaction between experimental variable and group in either experiment. The results demonstrate that, despite claims to the contrary, children and adults with WS are able to access and make use of lexical semantics in a verbal short-term memory task in a manner comparable to typically developing individuals