PREDICTING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED INFLUENCE, BRAND ENGAGEMENT, BRAND EXPECTED VALUE AND INTENTION PURCHASE: AN EMPRICAL STUDY

The purpose of this study is to predict the relationship between  perceived influence, brand engagement, brand expected value, and intention to purchase. The data were gathered from online respondents. The research questionnaire was built from previous research and  the research variables were measured by 5-point Likert scales. Before analyzing data for testing hypotheses, reliability and validity tests are performed first. Hypothesis testing is conducted by using structural equation modeling.The results show that there are four out of six hypotheses that are supported. This paper provides research discussion, limitation, and recommendation for future researc

pH-, thermo- and electrolyte-responsive polymer gels derived from a well-defined, RAFT-synthesized, poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone) homopolymer via one-pot post-polymerization modification

Well-defined stimulus-responsive polymer gels were prepared from poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlatone) (PVDMA) via one-pot post-polymerization modification. VDMA homopolymers were reacted with diamine crosslinking agents and functional 1° or 2° amines to form polymer gels that swelled in organic solvents and, in many cases, aqueous solutions. A series of functional amine reagents, including N,N-dimethylethylenediamine (DMEDA), N,N-diethylethylenediamine (DEEDA), morpholine, 3-morpholinopropylamine (MPPA) and tetrahydrofurfurylamine (THFA), were chosen as functional amines to produce polymer gels containing environmentally sensitive species. 13C solid-state NMR and FTIR spectroscopic measurements confirmed complete conversion of the reactive scaffolds. pH-dependent swelling behavior at ambient temperature was observed in DMEDA-, DEEDA- and MPPA-modified hydrogels. Kinetic studies showed the swelling behaviors of DMEDA-modified hydrogels were regulated by cross-linker type and concentration in acidic water (pH = 4) at ambient temperature. The swelling ratio of hydrogels modified by DEEDA, MPPA and THFA also depended strongly on temperature, indicating successful synthesis of thermoresponsive gels. Furthermore, the concentration of added sodium sulfate played a significant role with respect to the swelling properties of MPPA-modified hydrogels. These smart materials may be of interest in the biomedical field as well as in other applications

Sr2+ binding to the Ca2+ binding site of the synaptotagmin 1 C2B domain triggers fast exocytosis without stimulating SNARE interactions

Sr2+ triggers neurotransmitter release similar to Ca2+, but less efficiently. We now show that in synaptotagmin 1 knockout mice, the fast component of both Ca2+- and Sr2+-induced release is selectively impaired, suggesting that both cations partly act by binding to synaptotagmin 1. Both the C(2)A and the C2B domain of synaptotagmin 1 bind Ca2+ in phospholipid complexes, but only the C2B domain forms Sr2+/phospholipid complexes; therefore, Sr2+ binding to the C2B domain is sufficient to trigger fast release, although with decreased efficacy. Ca2+ induces binding of the synaptotagmin C, domains to SNARE proteins, whereas Sr2+ even at high concentrations does not. Thus, triggering of the fast component of release by Sr2+ as a Ca2+ agonist involves the formation of synaptotagmin/ phospholipid complexes, but does not require stimulated SNARE binding

Foundation of Statistical Mechanics under experimentally realistic conditions

We demonstrate the equilibration of isolated macroscopic quantum systems, prepared in non-equilibrium mixed states with significant population of many energy levels, and observed by instruments with a reasonably bound working range compared to the resolution limit. Both properties are fulfilled under many, if not all, experimentally realistic conditions. At equilibrium, the predictions and limitations of Statistical Mechanics are recovered.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Second moment of the Husimi distribution as a measure of complexity of quantum states

We propose the second moment of the Husimi distribution as a measure of complexity of quantum states. The inverse of this quantity represents the effective volume in phase space occupied by the Husimi distribution, and has a good correspondence with chaoticity of classical system. Its properties are similar to the classical entropy proposed by Wehrl, but it is much easier to calculate numerically. We calculate this quantity in the quartic oscillator model, and show that it works well as a measure of chaoticity of quantum states.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures. to appear in PR

Equilibration of isolated macroscopic quantum systems

We investigate the equilibration of an isolated macroscopic quantum system in the sense that deviations from a steady state become unmeasurably small for the overwhelming majority of times within any sufficiently large time interval. The main requirements are that the initial state, possibly far from equilibrium, exhibits a macroscopic population of at most one energy level and that degeneracies of energy eigenvalues and of energy gaps (differences of energy eigenvalues) are not of exceedingly large multiplicities. Our approach closely follows and extends recent works by Short and Farrelly [2012 New J. Phys. 14 013063], in particular going beyond the realm of finite-dimensional systems and large effective dimensions.Comment: 19 page

Quantum statistical information contained in a semi-classical Fisher--Husimi measure

We study here the difference between quantum statistical treatments and semi-classical ones, using as the main research tool a semi-classical, shift-invariant Fisher information measure built up with Husimi distributions. Its semi-classical character notwithstanding, this measure also contains information of a purely quantal nature. Such a tool allows us to refine the celebrated Lieb bound for Wehrl entropies and to discover thermodynamic-like relations that involve the degree of delocalization. Fisher-related thermal uncertainty relations are developed and the degree of purity of canonical distributions, regarded as mixed states, is connected to this Fisher measure as well.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; chenged conten

Alternation of Sound Location Induces Visual Motion Perception of a Static Object

Background: Audition provides important cues with regard to stimulus motion although vision may provide the most salient information. It has been reported that a sound of fixed intensity tends to be judged as decreasing in intensity after adaptation to looming visual stimuli or as increasing in intensity after adaptation to receding visual stimuli. This audiovisual interaction in motion aftereffects indicates that there are multimodal contributions to motion perception at early levels of sensory processing. However, there has been no report that sounds can induce the perception of visual motion. Methodology/Principal Findings: A visual stimulus blinking at a fixed location was perceived to be moving laterally when the flash onset was synchronized to an alternating left-right sound source. This illusory visual motion was strengthened with an increasing retinal eccentricity (2.5 deg to 20 deg) and occurred more frequently when the onsets of the audio and visual stimuli were synchronized. Conclusions/Significance: We clearly demonstrated that the alternation of sound location induces illusory visual motion when vision cannot provide accurate spatial information. The present findings strongly suggest that the neural representations of auditory and visual motion processing can bias each other, which yields the best estimates of externa

Dust observations of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 at the time of the Deep Impact

On 4 July 2005 at 05:52 UT, the impactor of NASA's Deep Impact (DI) mission crashed into comet 9P/Tempel 1 with a velocity of about 10 km/s. The material ejected by the impact expanded into the normal coma, produced by ordinary cometary activity. The characteristics of the non-impact coma and cloud produced by the impact were studied by observations in the visible wavelengths and in the near-IR. The scattering characteristics of the "normal" coma of solid particles were studied by comparing images in various spectral regions, from the UV to the near-IR. For the non-impact coma, a proxy of the dust production has been measured in various spectral regions. The presence of sublimating grains has been detected. Their lifetime was found to be about 11 hours. Regarding the cloud produced by the impact, the total geometric cross section multiplied by the albedo was measured as a function of the color and time. The projected velocity appeared to obey a Gaussian distribution with the average velocity of the order of 115 m/s. By comparing the observations taken about 3 hours after the impact, we have found a strong decrease in the cross section in J filter, while that in Ks remained almost constant. This is interpreted as the result of sublimation of grains dominated by particles of sizes of the order of some microns.Comment: Accepted by A&

Canonical thermalization

For quantum systems that are weakly coupled to a much 'bigger' environment, thermalization of possibly far from equilibrium initial ensembles is demonstrated: for sufficiently large times, the ensemble is for all practical purposes indistinguishable from a canonical density operator under conditions that are satisfied under many, if not all, experimentally realistic conditions