An Experimental study of differences in reading photo books by presentation media: print vs. screen

As photography technology changes, the penetration of digital cameras is increasing, especially among young users. Compared to conventional camera users who print most of their images, digital camera users print about one-third of their digital images (PMA, 2009b, p. 10). Moreover, only 5 percent of camera phone users make photo prints (Henning, 2008, p. 4). One popular photo-finishing product is the photo book. The objective of this research was to determine whether people interacted differently with photographic content presented in print versus on screen. This research was focused on: 1. Time spent interacting with photo books. 2. Differences of recall and recognition by presentation modality. 3. Choices of medium preference. An experimental study was administered at RIT with 64 participants. Half were shown the printed book, and half were shown the PDF displayed on a computer monitor. The results showed that: 1. The average time spent interacting with the book was approximately 5 minutes for both printed book and screen views. There were no differences in the amount of time spent interacting with photographic content presented in print versus on screen. 2. There were no differences in how much participants remembered with photographic content presented on print versus on screen. 3. Overall, 74 percent of participants preferred to keep the printed book. However, relatively more participants selected the PDF when shown a PDF, even though the majority of participants overall selected the book

Print versus screen—presentation medium-dependent picture consumption

Part I: The use of digital technologies has forever changed how consumers are capturing, sharing, and storing their pictures. The long-term objective of Part I of this study is to obtain an overall picture of the current state of consumer photographers’ practices. While digital camera owners are taking more photos than ever before, most are not printing them. However, experiments conducted on the presentation mediumdependent differences in picture consumption showed that a majority of the participants prefer printed images to images viewed on a screen. Regardless of this preference, participants did not print images very often for a variety of reasons, including lack of time or money. In addition, results showed that the most commonly used printing tools included Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Shutterfly, and Flickr. Finally, participants cited Photoshop, Lightroom, and Picasa as the primary editing tools, with Facebook being mentioned as the main sharing tool. Parts II & III: The advent of digital print engines capable of achieving high image quality has opened up many new and exciting print product opportunities, including the short-run printing of magazines. However, content available for magazines is also readily available on-line. It is not immediately obvious that the capability of creating a short-run magazine translates into a viable business model; just because they can be printed does not necessarily mean that it makes sense to do so. The objective of this project was to take the first steps toward identifying and understanding the differences in how information is consumed from print on paper versus computer display and which characteristics of these media are particularly relevant in this comparison. Longer-term, it is intended to explore how such differences affect the efficacy of magazine advertising. This evaluation involved an assessment of differences for several metrics, including information retention, time taken to view images, preference for visually consuming information, and distribution of visual gaze as measured by eyetrackers. Experimentation was conducted that focused on the first three of these four factors (Part II). Experimentation in Part III generally confirmed the results of this study: specifically, that people preferred the hard copy rendition over a PDF when given the choice (for reasons of image accessibility and tangibility), and that neither the time used to view the photo books nor information retention as measured by image recognition and information recall were affected by the medium in which the photo book was seen. The results of this study also agreed with earlier research findings that observers tend to fixate first and most often in the central areas of images. This research also found, however, important differences between how the observers viewed the printed and screen versions of the photo book, with the screen group having more fixations per image for many of the images early in the book (though not spending more time with these images), while the print group switched more often between images. While the work conducted in Part II suggested that there were no important differences between the print and screen groups of observers, the results of Part III hint at differences that may be important with regard to individual images or image layouts. Further work involving image content with a more balanced mix of text and pictorial imagery might prove useful in exploring these findings further

TPMD: a database and resources of microsatellite marker genotyped in Taiwanese populations

Taiwan Polymorphic Marker Database (TPMD) (http://tpmd.nhri.org.tw/) is a marker database designed to provide experimental details and useful marker information allelotyped in Taiwanese populations accompanied by resources and technical supports. The current version deposited more than 372 000 allelotyping data from 1425 frequently used and fluorescent-labeled microsatellite markers with variation types of dinucleotide, trinucleotide and tetranucleotide. TPMD contains text and map displays with searchable and retrievable options for marker names, chromosomal location in various human genome maps and marker heterozygosity in populations of Taiwanese, Japanese and Caucasian. The integration of marker information in map display is useful for the selection of high heterozygosity and commonly used microsatellite markers to refine mapping of diseases locus followed by identification of disease gene by positional candidate cloning. In addition, our results indicated that the number of markers with heterozygosity over 0.7 in Asian populations is lower than that in Caucasian. To increase accuracy and facilitate genetic studies using microsatellite markers, we also list markers with genotyping difficulty due to ambiguity of allele calling and recommend an optimal set of microsatellite markers for genotyping in Taiwanese, and possible extension of genotyping in other Mongoloid populations

Imperatorin ameliorates pulmonary fibrosis via GDF15 expression

Background: Pulmonary fibrosis features in damaged pulmonary structure or over-produced extracellular matrix and impaired lung function, leading to respiratory failure and eventually death. Fibrotic lungs are characterized by the secretion of pro-fibrotic factors, transformation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, and accumulation of matrix proteins.Hypothesis/purpose: Imperatorin shows anti-inflammatory effects on alveolar macrophages against acute lung injury. We attempt to evaluate the properties of imperatorin on the basis of fibroblasts.Methods: In in vitro, zymosan was introduced to provoke pro-fibrotic responses in NIH/3T3 or MRC-5 pulmonary fibroblasts. Imperatorin was given for examining its effects against fibrosis. The mice were stimulated by bleomycin, and imperatorin was administered to evaluate the prophylactic potential in vivo.Results: The upregulated expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and collagen protein due to zymosan introduction was decreased by imperatorin in fibroblasts. Zymosan induced the activity of transglutaminase 2 (TGase2) and lysyl oxidase (LOX), which was also inhibited by the administration of imperatorin. Imperatorin alone enhanced sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) activity and growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) secretion in fibroblasts via LKB1/AMPK/CREB pathways. In addition, GDF15 exerted a beneficial effect by reducing the protein expression of CTGF, α-SMA, and collagen and the activities of TGase and LOX. Moreover, orally administered imperatorin showed prophylactic effects on bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice.Conclusion: Imperatorin reduces fibrotic marker expression in fibroblasts and also increases GDF15 secretion via the LKB1/AMPK/CREB pathway, attenuating pro-fibrotic responses in vitro. Imperatorin also alleviates pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin in vivo

Pro-angiogenic effects of chalcone derivatives in zebrafish embryos in vivo

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MRE11 promotes oral cancer progression through RUNX2/CXCR4/AKT/FOXA2 signaling in a nuclease-independent manner

MRE11, the nuclease component of RAD50/MRE11/NBS1 DNA repair complex which is essential for repair of DNA double-strand-breaks in normal cells, has recently garnered attention as a critical factor in solid tumor development. Herein we report the crucial role of MRE11 in oral cancer progression in a nuclease-independent manner and delineate its key downstream effectors including CXCR4. MRE11 expression in oral cancer samples was positively associated with tumor size, cancer stage and lymph node metastasis, and was predictive of poorer patient survival and radiotherapy resistance. MRE11 promoted cell proliferation/migration/invasion in a nuclease-independent manner but enhanced radioresistance via a nuclease-dependent pathway. The nuclease independent promotion of EMT and metastasis was mediated by RUNX2, CXCR4, AKT, and FOXA2, while CXCR4 neutralizing antibody mitigated these effects in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, MRE11 may serve as a crucial prognostic factor and therapeutic target in oral cancer, displaying dual nuclease dependent and independent roles that permit separate targeting of tumor vulnerabilities in oral cancer treatment