Dismantling the Black Box: Understanding Consumers\u27 Motivations for the Usage of Live Streaming Shopping Platform

Capturing consumers’ motivations for using the live streaming shopping platform (LSSP) can help guide the optimization of the platform and enhance shopping experience of consumers while watching live videos. Previous studies on user motivation typically explored technical and psychological antecedents of usage by considering the platform holistically. However, this black-box like treatment to the platform blurs the finer-grained details of consumer usage. This study takes a micro-level approach, disassembling the LSSP into 13 representative design features, and refines nine user motivations based on the uses and gratifications theory. Through collecting 237 questionnaires and employing regression analysis, we reveal the nuanced relationship between platform design features and consumer motivations. Our findings show that different design features are driven by distinct motivations, diverging from overall LSSP usage motivations. This research broadens the scope of LSSP studies, improves platform functionality, and offers practical insights for service providers

cDNA-AFLP analysis reveals differential gene expression in compatible interaction of wheat challenged with Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Puccinia striiformis </it>f. sp. <it>tritici </it>is a fungal pathogen causing stripe rust, one of the most important wheat diseases worldwide. The fungus is strictly biotrophic and thus, completely dependent on living host cells for its reproduction, which makes it difficult to study genes of the pathogen. In spite of its economic importance, little is known about the molecular basis of compatible interaction between the pathogen and wheat host. In this study, we identified wheat and <it>P. striiformis </it>genes associated with the infection process by conducting a large-scale transcriptomic analysis using cDNA-AFLP.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the total 54,912 transcript derived fragments (TDFs) obtained using cDNA-AFLP with 64 primer pairs, 2,306 (4.2%) displayed altered expression patterns after inoculation, of which 966 showed up-regulated and 1,340 down-regulated. 186 TDFs produced reliable sequences after sequencing of 208 TDFs selected, of which 74 (40%) had known functions through BLAST searching the GenBank database. Majority of the latter group had predicted gene products involved in energy (13%), signal transduction (5.4%), disease/defence (5.9%) and metabolism (5% of the sequenced TDFs). BLAST searching of the wheat stem rust fungus genome database identified 18 TDFs possibly from the stripe rust pathogen, of which 9 were validated of the pathogen origin using PCR-based assays followed by sequencing confirmation. Of the 186 reliable TDFs, 29 homologous to genes known to play a role in disease/defense, signal transduction or uncharacterized genes were further selected for validation of cDNA-AFLP expression patterns using qRT-PCR analyses. Results confirmed the altered expression patterns of 28 (96.5%) genes revealed by the cDNA-AFLP technique.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results show that cDNA-AFLP is a reliable technique for studying expression patterns of genes involved in the wheat-stripe rust interactions. Genes involved in compatible interactions between wheat and the stripe rust pathogen were identified and their expression patterns were determined. The present study should be helpful in elucidating the molecular basis of the infection process, and identifying genes that can be targeted for inhibiting the growth and reproduction of the pathogen. Moreover, this study can also be used to elucidate the defence responses of the genes that were of plant origin.</p

Entering the Era of Earth Observation-Based Landslide Warning Systems: A novel and exciting framework

Landslide early warning remains a grand challenge due to the high human cost of catastrophic landslides globally and the difficulty of identifying a diverse range of landslide triggering factors. There have been only a very limited number of success stories to date. However, recent advances in earth observation (EO) from ground, aircraft and space have dramatically improved our ability to detect and monitor active landslides and a growing body of geotechnical theory suggests that prefailure behavior can provide clues to the location and timing of impending catastrophic failures. In this paper, we use two recent landslides in China as case studies, to demonstrate that (i) satellite radar observations can be used to detect deformation precursors to catastrophic landslide occurrence, and (ii) early warning can be achieved with real-time in-situ observations. A novel and exciting framework is then proposed to employ EO technologies to build an operational landslide early warning system.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants 41801391, 41874005, and 41929001; the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars of China under grant 41622206; the Fund for International Cooperation under grant NSFCRCUK_NERC; Resilience to Earthquake-Induced Landslide Risk in China under grant 41661134010; the open fund of State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics (SKLGED2018-5-3-E); Sichuan Science and Technology Plan Project under grant 2019YJ0404; State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection Independent Research Project under grant SKLGP2018Z019; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the State Agency of Research, and the European Funds for Regional Development under projects TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P and TIN2014-55413-C2-2-P; and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport under project PRX17/00439. This work was also partially supported by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council through the Center for the Observation and Modeling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tectonics under come30001 and the Looking Inside the Continents From Space and Community Earthquake Disaster Risk Reduction in China projects under NE/K010794/1 and NE/N012151/1, respectively, and by the European Space Agency through the ESA-MOST DRAGON-4 project (32244 [4]). Roland Bürgmann acknowledges support by the NASA Earth Surface and Interior focus area

Trait evaluation and trial cultivation of Dongfang No. 2, the hybrid of a male gametophyte clone of Laminaria longissima (Laminariales, Phaeophyta) and a female one of L. japonica

Direct cultivation of the first filial generation of gametophyte clones from different Laminaria species is a highly effective way of utilizing kelp heterozygous vigor (heterosis). A male gametophyte clone of L. longissima Miyabe and a female one of L. japonica Areschoug were hybridized, generating Dongfang No. 2 hybrid kelp. This hybrid kelp was used directly in trial cultivation, and its agronomical traits were evaluated. L. longissima and L. japonica are obviously different and complement each other in their morphological characteristics and ecological performances. The hybrid of their gametophyte clones, Dongfang No. 2, showed 56.8% heterozygous vigor in yield. It also showed increased yields of 41.0 and 76.4% compared to the widely used commercial kelps Variety 1 and Variety 2, respectively. In large-scale cultivation trials at different locations and in different years, Dongfang No. 2 attained significantly higher yields than Varieties 1 and 2, increasing yield by 26.4% on average over Variety 1 and by 65.0% over the other. Dongfang No. 2 has a robust holdfast and a wide, long and deep-brown uniform blade, which shows a distinct middle groove. In addition to yield, Dongfang No. 2 also demonstrates obvious heterozygous vigor in other agronomic traits. It is resistant to strong irradiance, as the two commercial varieties are, has an appropriate vegetative maturation time, and adapts well to a range of different culture conditions. The parentage analysis using AFLP of total DNA and SNP of the ITS region of ribosomal RNA transcription unit showed that Dongfang No. 2 is the real hybrid of L. japonica and L. longissima

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in ZZ-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against a $Z$ boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 $< p_{\textrm{T}} < 100$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $2.5 < \eta < 4$. The data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb$^{-1}$. Triple differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb public pages

Study of the B−→Λc+Λˉc−K−B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-} decay

The decay $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ is studied in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. In the $\Lambda_{c}^+ K^{-}$ system, the $\Xi_{c}(2930)^{0}$ state observed at the BaBar and Belle experiments is resolved into two narrower states, $\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}$ and $\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}$, whose masses and widths are measured to be $$m(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = 2924.5 \pm 0.4 \pm 1.1 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ m(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = 2938.5 \pm 0.9 \pm 2.3 \,\mathrm{MeV}, \\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2923)^{0}) = \phantom{000}4.8 \pm 0.9 \pm 1.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},\\ \Gamma(\Xi_{c}(2939)^{0}) = \phantom{00}11.0 \pm 1.9 \pm 7.5 \,\mathrm{MeV},$$ where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are consistent with a previous LHCb measurement using a prompt $\Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ sample. Evidence of a new $\Xi_{c}(2880)^{0}$ state is found with a local significance of $3.8\,\sigma$, whose mass and width are measured to be $2881.8 \pm 3.1 \pm 8.5\,\mathrm{MeV}$ and $12.4 \pm 5.3 \pm 5.8 \,\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. In addition, evidence of a new decay mode $\Xi_{c}(2790)^{0} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} K^{-}$ is found with a significance of $3.7\,\sigma$. The relative branching fraction of $B^{-} \to \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{\Lambda}_{c}^{-} K^{-}$ with respect to the $B^{-} \to D^{+} D^{-} K^{-}$ decay is measured to be $2.36 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.25$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the branching fractions of charm hadron decays.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-028.html (LHCb public pages

Measurement of the ratios of branching fractions R(D∗)\mathcal{R}(D^{*}) and R(D0)\mathcal{R}(D^{0})

The ratios of branching fractions $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})\equiv\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}\to D^{*}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})\equiv\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\tau^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(B^{-}\to D^{0}\mu^{-}\bar{\nu}_{\mu})$ are measured, assuming isospin symmetry, using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb${ }^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. The tau lepton is identified in the decay mode $\tau^{-}\to\mu^{-}\nu_{\tau}\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$. The measured values are $\mathcal{R}(D^{*})=0.281\pm0.018\pm0.024$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^{0})=0.441\pm0.060\pm0.066$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The correlation between these measurements is $\rho=-0.43$. Results are consistent with the current average of these quantities and are at a combined 1.9 standard deviations from the predictions based on lepton flavor universality in the Standard Model.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-039.html (LHCb public pages

Effect of Liposomal Transfection of UCH-L1 siRNA on Proliferation and Apoptosis of Lung Cancer Cell Line H157

Background and objective Several reports demonstrated that the ubiquitin C terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) has been found to be an oncogene in malignant tumors such as esophageal carcinoma, lung cancer and breast cancer. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of liposomal transfection of UCH-L1 siRNA on the proliferation and apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma cell lines H157. Methods UCH-L1 siRNA was synthesized and transfected into H157 cell by liposome. Cell morphological change was observed with microscope, and cell proliferation and apoptosis index detected by flow cytometry, UCH-L1 mRNA expression was determined by RT-PCR and protein level of UCH-L1 was determined by Western blot. Results For the H157 cell transfected with siRNA, cell proliferation was inhibited significantly, cell apoptosis appeared obviously, the expression of UCH-L1 mRNA and protein level of UCH-L1 significantly decreased. Conclusion UCH-L1 siRNA is able to inhibit the proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma cell lines H157 and induce the apoptosis. UCH-L1 might become a new target for lung carcinoma gene therapy