Antecedents and Consequences of Mobile Advertising Intrusiveness

Consumers’ negative perceptions toward mobile advertising have been a major impediment to its wider acceptance. This study examines the effects of perceived value of the mobile advertising and consumer privacy violation would have on consumers’ perceived mobile advertising intrusiveness, as well as the relationships of intrusiveness with perceived ad irritation and ad avoidance behavior. Results from a survey of 103 Chinese mobile consumers suggest that informativeness of mobile advertising reduces perceived intrusiveness, consumer privacy concern positively affects intrusiveness, while a higher level of perceived intrusiveness positively impacts ad irritation and ad avoidance behavior

An Empirical Study of the Impact of Trial Experiences on the Continued Usage of Mobile Newspapers

This study explores the effects of trial experiences on users’ continued mobile data services usage intention. Using the context of a mobile service with trial option, this research proposes a conceptual model by integrating perceived fee with the expectation-confirmation model of IT continuance (ECM-IT). Data was collected from 192 mobile newspaper trial users in China. Results suggest that the extent of confirmation with initial expectation affects post-adoption expectations while post-adoption expectations and confirmation positively impact satisfaction. Next, expectations, satisfaction with prior trial experience, and perceived fee positively impact continued usage of mobile newspaper. Overall, this study provides an understanding of how consumers make their purchase decision of mobile data services. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed

Nutrient supplemented serum-free medium increases cardiomyogenesis efficiency of human pluripotent stem cells.

AIM: To development of an improved p38 MAPK inhibitor-based serum-free medium for embryoid body cardiomyocyte differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells. METHODS: Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) differentiated to cardiomyocytes (CM) using a p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) based serum-free medium (SB media). Nutrient supplements known to increase cell viability were added to SB medium. The ability of these supplements to improve cardiomyogenesis was evaluated by measurements of cell viability, total cell count, and the expression of cardiac markers via flow cytometry. An improved medium containing Soy hydrolysate (HySoy) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) (SupSB media) was developed and tested on 2 additional cell lines (H1 and Siu-hiPSC). Characterization of the cardiomyocytes was done by immunohistochemistry, electrophysiology and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: hESC cell line, HES-3, differentiating in SB medium for 16 d resulted in a cardiomyocyte yield of 0.07 +/- 0.03 CM/hESC. A new medium (SupSB media) was developed with the addition of HySoy and BSA to SB medium. This medium resulted in 2.6 fold increase in cardiomyocyte yield (0.21 +/- 0.08 CM/hESC). The robustness of SupSB medium was further demonstrated using two additional pluripotent cell lines (H1, hESC and Siu1, hiPSC), showing a 15 and 9 fold increase in cardiomyocyte yield respectively. The age (passage number) of the pluripotent cells did not affect the cardiomyocyte yields. Embryoid body (EB) cardiomyocytes formed in SupSB medium expressed canonical cardiac markers (sarcomeric alpha-actinin, myosin heavy chain and troponin-T) and demonstrated all three major phenotypes: nodal-, atrial- and ventricular-like. Electrophysiological characteristics (maximum diastolic potentials and action potential durations) of cardiomyocytes derived from SB and SupSB media were similar. CONCLUSION: The nutrient supplementation (HySoy and BSA) leads to increase in cell viability, cell yield and cardiac marker expression during cardiomyocyte differentiation, translating to an overall increase in cardiomyocyte yield.published_or_final_versio

Interlocked chiral/polar domain walls and large optical rotation in Ni3TeO6

Chirality, i.e., handedness, pervades much of modern science from elementary particles, DNA-based biology to molecular chemistry; however, most of the chirality-relevant materials have been based on complex molecules. Here, we report inorganic single-crystalline Ni3TeO6, forming in a corundum-related R3 structure with both chirality and polarity. These chiral Ni3TeO6 single crystals exhibit a large optical specific rotation (alpha)-1355 degrees dm(-1) cm(3) g(-1). We demonstrate, for the first time, that in Ni3TeO6, chiral and polar domains form an intriguing domain pattern, resembling a radiation warning sign, which stems from interlocked chiral and polar domain walls through lowering of the wall energy. (C) 2015 Author(s)open0

Learning to Generate Image Embeddings with User-level Differential Privacy

Small on-device models have been successfully trained with user-level differential privacy (DP) for next word prediction and image classification tasks in the past. However, existing methods can fail when directly applied to learn embedding models using supervised training data with a large class space. To achieve user-level DP for large image-to-embedding feature extractors, we propose DP-FedEmb, a variant of federated learning algorithms with per-user sensitivity control and noise addition, to train from user-partitioned data centralized in the datacenter. DP-FedEmb combines virtual clients, partial aggregation, private local fine-tuning, and public pretraining to achieve strong privacy utility trade-offs. We apply DP-FedEmb to train image embedding models for faces, landmarks and natural species, and demonstrate its superior utility under same privacy budget on benchmark datasets DigiFace, EMNIST, GLD and iNaturalist. We further illustrate it is possible to achieve strong user-level DP guarantees of $\epsilon<2$ while controlling the utility drop within 5%, when millions of users can participate in training

Epigenetic dysregulation of enhancers in neurons is associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology and cognitive symptoms

Epigenetic control of enhancers alters neuronal functions and may be involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we identify enhancers in neurons contributing to AD by comprehensive fine-mapping of DNA methylation at enhancers, genome-wide. We examine 1.2 million CpG and CpH sites in enhancers in prefrontal cortex neurons of individuals with no/mild, moderate, and severe AD pathology (n = 101). We identify 1224 differentially methylated enhancer regions; most of which are hypomethylated at CpH sites in AD neurons. CpH methylation losses occur in normal aging neurons, but are accelerated in AD. Integration of epigenetic and transcriptomic data demonstrates a pro-apoptotic reactivation of the cell cycle in post-mitotic AD neurons. Furthermore, AD neurons have a large cluster of significantly hypomethylated enhancers in the DSCAML1 gene that targets BACE1. Hypomethylation of these enhancers in AD is associated with an upregulation of BACE1 transcripts and an increase in amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and cognitive decline

Knowledge, attitude regarding osteoporosis, dietary calcium intake and food sources of calcium among Chinese young adults in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Background Osteoporosis is a major public health issue with huge socioeconomic implications. Adequate knowledge and a positive attitude regarding osteoporosis with sufcient dietary calcium intake are important to prevent osteoporosis, especially in young adults. Nonetheless, data on the knowledge and attitude regarding osteoporosis, dietary calcium intake and its food sources among the high-risk population, including Malaysian Chinese are limited. Objective The study aimed to determine the knowledge and attitude regarding osteoporosis, dietary calcium intake, and food sources of calcium among young Malaysian Chinese. Methods A total of 130 Malaysian Chinese aged 18 to 26 years living in Klang Valley were recruited. Knowledge and attitude regarding osteoporosis were assessed using the Osteoporosis Prevention and Awareness Tool (OPAAT) and Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS). Dietary calcium intake and food sources were obtained from a 7-day diet history. Results Participants had low knowledge regarding osteoporosis (48.8%±16.6), but moderate knowledge (53.2%±17.9) regarding preventive measures of osteoporosis. The median dietary calcium intake was 546 mg/day and only 6.2% of the participants achieved the Recommended Nutrients Intake (RNI). There was a discernible weak positive correlation between knowledge and dietary calcium intake (r=0.192, p=0.029). Conclusion Young Malaysian Chinese adults exhibited low knowledge about osteoporosis and reported inadequate dietary calcium intake. Thus, there is a need for community-based health education programs focusing on osteoporosis awareness among Malaysian young adults