I'll Have Fries with That: Increasing Choice Complexity Promotes Indulgent Food Choices

Three studies showed that the way that options are presented in a choice set—as combinations of intersecting attributes or in a more sequential “a la carte” choice format—affects the degree to which consumers adhere to their goals in the consumption setting. Specifically, using the context of food consumption and healthy eating, results showed that consumers were more likely to make double indulgent choices, the choice of both an indulgent entrée and an indulgent side item, when choosing from a menu consisting of predetermined “combination meals” than when selecting among the same entrée and side options in an a la carte fashion. Studies 2 and 3 implicated a goal distraction mechanism in driving the effect; the combination format, with its cross‐cutting of product choices into various combinations, reduces the salience of goal‐related constructs on implicit measures. In showing that different product presentation formats can affect the degree to which consumers make goal‐consistent choices, the current work adds to work on the effects of environmental influences on goal progress and goal achievement. Implications for encouraging goal‐consistent behavior in the context of healthy eating as well as other important consumer goal contexts are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/122406/1/mar20893.pd

Confrontation-coping : A psychological approach to developing market exporting firms’ intentions to adopt emerging technologies

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Tgif1 Counterbalances The Activity Of Core Pluripotency Factors In Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Core pluripotency factors, such as Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog, play important roles in maintaining embryonic stem cell (ESC) identity by autoregulatory feedforward loops. Nevertheless, the mechanism that provides precise control of the levels of the ESC core factors without indefinite amplification has remained elusive. Here, we report the direct repression of core pluripotency factors by Tgif1, a previously known terminal repressor of TGF beta/activin/nodal signaling. Overexpression of Tgif1 reduces the levels of ESC core factors, whereas its depletion leads to the induction of the pluripotency factors. We confirm the existence of physical associations between Tgif1 and Oct4, Nanog, and HDAC1/2 and further show the level of Tgif1 is not significantly altered by treatment with an activator/inhibitor of the TGF beta/activin/nodal signaling. Collectively, our findings establish Tgif1 as an integral member of the core regulatory circuitry of mouse ESCs that counterbalances the levels of the core pluripotency factors in a TGF beta/activin/nodal-independent manner.Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) R1106Molecular Bioscience

Baryonic Matter in the Hidden Local Symmetry Induced from Holographic QCD Models

Baryonic matter is studied in the Skyrme model by taking into account the roles of $\pi,$ $\rho$, and $\omega$ mesons through the hidden local symmetry up to $\mathcal{O}(p^4)$ terms including the homogeneous Wess-Zumino (hWZ) terms. Using the master formulas for the low energy constants derived from holographic QCD models the skyrmion matter properties can be quantitatively calculated with the input values of the pion decay constant $f_\pi$ and the vector meson mass $m_\rho^{}$. We find that the hWZ terms are responsible for the repulsive interactions of the $\omega$ meson. In addition, the self-consistently included $\mathcal{O}(p^4)$ terms with the hWZ terms is found to increase the half skyrmion phase transition point above the normal nucleon density.Comment: Contribution to SCGT12 "KMI-GCOE Workshop on Strong Coupling Gauge Theories in the LHC Perspective", 4-7 Dec. 2012, Nagoya Universit