135 research outputs found

    Marketing Healthful Eating to Children: The Effectiveness of Incentives, Pledges, and Competitions

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    This research examines how school administrators can motivate children to make more healthful food choices using incentives, pledges, and competitions as interventions. A six-month field study was conducted across 55 elementary and middle schools, and the authors analyzed the data using a two-level Bayesian hierarchical linear model. All three interventions increased the choice of fruits and vegetables (the proportion of children choosing additional servings increased 3 to 24 percentage points) ten weeks after the interventions ended. However, younger (Grades 1 and 2) and older (Grades 3–8) children responded differently to the interventions. Although both younger and older children responded more favorably to the competition intervention than to the pledge or incentive interventions, the effects of the competition and incentive interventions were more pronounced among the younger children. A second field study, also with schoolchildren, examined the role of pledge reminders on adherence to the pledge. The presence of a visible reminder of a pledge resulted in significantly better outcomes than no reminder of a pledge

    The Roles of Gratitude and Guilt on Customer Satisfaction in Perceptions of Service Failure and Recovery

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    When service providers make an effort to recover from service failures, customers may respond more favorably at certain times as compared to other times. This article attempts to explain psychological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. The results of a scenario experiment show that customer perception of successful recovery strategy can boost customer satisfaction to a higher level when customers believe the service failure outcome is due to self-behavior (i.e., have an internal locus of control) as compared to when they believe that is due to providers’ behavior. In this situation, satisfaction is developed via 1) customers’ feelings of gratitude toward the provider’s recovery efforts and 2) their guilt derived from an internal locus of control. Findings provide evidence that both gratitude and guilt can motivate customers to adopt behaviors that encourage cultivation of good relationships with businesses

    When Good Consumers Turn Bad: Psychological Contract Breach in Committed Brand Relationships

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    To better understand the conditions under which committed consumers continue to support their preferred brand after a transgression versus turn against the brand and the underlying theoretical process, we study the interplay between brand commitment and specific types of transgressions. Across three scenario‐based and field studies, we show that consumers have psychological contracts with brands, which dictate the terms of the relationship, and for committed consumers, violations of any aspect in (out of) the contract results in a negative (indifferent) response. Furthermore, we demonstrate that consumer trust is the underlying mechanism: committed consumers exhibit more negative responses to in‐contract transgressions as a result of their lower trust in the brand

    Beneficial effects of methanolic extract of Indigofera linnaei Ali. on the inflammatory and nociceptive responses in rodent models

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    Indigofera linnaei Ali pertence à família Leguminosae e é utilizada para o tratamento de várias doenças na medicina tradicional. No presente estudo, os efeitos benéficos do extrato metanólico da planta inteira de I. linnaei (MEIL) foram avaliados em respostas inflamatórias e nocicepção em modelos de roedores. Testes in vitro de atividade inibitória do óxido nítrico (NO), lipoxigenase (LOX) e ciclooxigenase (COX) também foram realizados para compreender o modo de ação. MEIL nas doses de 200 e 400 mg/kg, p.o. inibiu significativamente o volume da pata de rato induzido por carragenana e reduziu o peso do granuloma no modelo de pélete de algodão. Os resultados obtidos foram comparáveis ao do fármaco padrão, aceclofenaco. O efeito anti-nociceptivo de MEIL foi avaliado em camundongos no modelo de placa quente e de contorção induzida por ácido acético. O extrato da planta reduziu significativamente o número de contorções e o efeito analgésico foi maior do que o do fármaco padrão, ácido acetilsalicílico. Porém, o extrato não conseguiu aumentar o período de latência no método da placa quente, sugerindo que este produz nocicepção por atividade periférica. O extrato produziu efeito inibitório sobre o NO, LOX e COX dependente da concentração. O extrato exibiu inibição acentuada e seletiva da COX-2. No seu conjunto, estes resultados sugerem que o extrato metanólico de Indigofera linnaei poderia ser considerado como agente anti-inflamatório e analgésico potencial.Indigofera linnaei Ali. (Tamil Name: Cheppu Nerinjil) belongs to the family Fabaceae, used for the treatment of various ailments in the traditional system of medicine. In the present study, the beneficial effects of methanol extract of whole plant of I. linnaei (MEIL) were evaluated on inflammation and nociception responses in rodent models. In vitro nitric oxide (NO), lipoxygenase (LOX) and cyclooxygense (COX) inhibitory activities were also performed to understand the mode of action. MEIL at the dose of 200 & 400 mg/kg, p.o. significantly inhibited carrageenan induced rat paw volume and reduced the weight of granuloma in cotton pellet granuloma model. The results obtained were comparable with the standard drug aceclofenac. The anti-nociceptive effect of MEIL in mice was evaluated in hot plate and acetic acid induced writhing model. The plant extract significantly reduced the number of writhes and the analgesic effect was higher than that of the standard drug aspirin. However, the extract fails to increase the latency period in hot plate method suggesting that the extract produce nociception by peripheral activity. The extract produced inhibitory effect on NO, LOX and COX in concentration dependent manner. The extract exhibited pronounced and selective COX-2 inhibition. Altogether, these results suggested that the methanol extract of Indigofera linnaei could be considered as a potential anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent

    Biomineralisation performance of bacteria isolated from a landfill in China

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    We report an investigation of microbially-induced carbonate precipitation by seven indigenous bacteria isolated from a landfill in China. Bacterial strains were cultured in a medium supplemented with 25 mM calcium chloride and 333 mM urea. The experiments were carried out at 30 °C for 7 days with agitation by a shaking table at 130 rpm. Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses showed variations in calcium carbonate polymorphs and mineral composition induced by all bacterial strains. The amount of carbonate precipitation was quantified by titration. The amount of carbonate precipitated in the medium varied among isolates with the lowest being Bacillus aerius rawirorabr15 (LC092833) precipitating around 1.5 times more carbonate per unit volume than the abiotic (blank) solution. Pseudomonas nitroreducens szh_asesj15 (LC090854) was found to be the most efficient, precipitating 3.2 times more carbonate than the abiotic solution. Our results indicate that bacterial carbonate precipitation occurred through ureolysis and suggest that variations in carbonate crystal polymorphs and rates of precipitation were driven by strain-specific differences in urease expression and response to the alkaline environment. These results and the method applied provide benchmarking/screening data for assessing the bioremediation potential of indigenous bacteria for containment of contaminants in landfills

    Next-generation sequencing showing potential leachate influence on bacterial communities around a landfill in China

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    The impact of contaminated leachate on groundwater from landfills is well known but specific effects on bacterial consortia are less well-studied. Bacterial communities in landfill and an urban site located in Suzhou, China were studied using Illumina high-throughput sequencing. A total number of 153944 good quality reads were produced and sequences assigned to 6388 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Bacterial consortia consisted of up to 16 phyla including Proteobacteria (31.9 to 94.9% at landfill, 25.1 to 43.3% at urban sites), Actinobacteria (0 to 28.7% at landfill, 9.9 to 34.3% at urban sites), Bacteroidetes (1.4 to 25.6% at landfill, 5.6 to 7.8% at urban sites), Chloroflexi (0.4 to 26.5% at urban sites only) and unclassified bacteria. Pseudomonas was the dominant (67-93%) genus in landfill leachate. Arsenic concentrations in landfill raw leachate (RL) (1.11x103 µg/L) and fresh leachate (FL2) (1.78x103 µg/L), and mercury concentrations in RL (10.9 µg/L) and FL2 (7.37 µg/L) were higher than Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) standards for leachate in landfills. Shannon diversity index and Chao 1 richness estimate showed RL and FL2 lacked richness and diversity when compared with other samples. This is consistent with stresses imposed by elevated arsenic and mercury and has implications for ecological site remediation by bioremediation or natural attenuation

    Ligand Based Multi-Targeted Molecular Docking Analysis o f Terpenoid Phytoconstituents as Potential Chemotherapeutic Agents Against Breast Cancer: An In Silico Approach

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    Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women all around the world and is a dominant cause of deaths occurring all around the globe. The available potent drugs for breast cancer show adverse effects and resistance and are found to be ineffective in patients. The high cost of currently available cancer therapy and certain limitations of current treatment make it necessary to search for novel, cost-effective and efficient methods of cancer treatment. Phytochemicals are directly involved in treatment or precursors to synthesize useful drugs. Therefore, in the current investigation, 500 terpenoid phytoconstituents and five proteins associated with breast cancer including EGFR, ERα, HER2, NF-κB and Topo IIa were selected from various databases. Selected compounds were screened for their molecular properties based on Lipinski's rule of five resulting in 235 compounds exclusion. Drug-likeness and PAINS alert properties were predicted using pkCSM and SwissADME web servers which led to the omission of 43 compounds. The remaining 222 compounds were screened to predict their ADMET properties and based on these results, 117 compounds were selected to predict the anti-breast cancer potential. Finally, 73 compounds, which showed anti-breast cancer activity prediction, were virtually screened and the top four best-scoring compounds were selected as lead-like molecules and docked with the five respective breast cancer targets. The results showed that the top four lead-like molecules exhibited greater binding affinity and lesser toxicity than the standard drugs namely 4–Hydroxytamoxifen, Daunorubicin, Erlotinib and Lapatinib. Keywords: ADMET, Breast cancer, Chemotherapeutic agents, In silico analysis, Molecular docking, Terpenoid

    Diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and their relationship with nutrients and land use of the inflow rivers of Taihu Lake.

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    Taihu Lake is the third largest freshwater lake in China and an important source for drinking water, flood protection, aquaculture, agriculture, and other activities. This lake is connected to many principal and small rivers with inflow from west and outflow on the eastern side of the lake and these inflow rivers are believed to significantly contribute to the water pollution of the lake. This study was aimed at assessing the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and their relationship with water quality parameters and land use patterns. Water samples were collected from 10 major inflow rivers and the source water protection area of the Taihu Lake in spring and summer 2019. High-throughput profiling was used to detect and quantify 384 ARGs and MGEs and in addition, 11 water quality parameters were analyzed. The results showed that the number of ARGs/MGEs detected in each inflow river ranged from 105 to 185 in spring and 107 to 180 in summer. The aminoglycoside resistance genes were the most dominant types ARGs detected followed by beta-lactam resistance, multidrug resistance, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB) resistance genes, which contributed to 65% of the ARGs. The water quality parameters showed significant correlation with absolute abundance of ARGs. Furthermore, significant correlation between ARGs and MGEs were also observed which demonstrates potential gene transfer among organisms through horizontal gene transfer via MGEs. ARGs showed strong positive correlation with cultivated and industrial lands whereas, negative correlation was observed with river, lake, forest, land for green buffer, and land for port and harbor. The overall results indicate that the inflow rivers of Taihu Lake are polluted by various sources including multiple nutrients and high abundance of ARGs, which needs attention for better management of the inflow rivers of this lake

    Silver Complexes as Anticancer Agents: A Perspective Review

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    Metal complexes gained more attention in the medical field, particularly cancer treatment, due to their enhanced potential and redox ability. These complexes exhibited more significant antiproliferation potential by triggering the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), altering cell membrane, changing cell redox potential and by DNA replication inhibition. Platinum-based metal complex Cisplatin was prepared. It was widely used in treating lung, breast, ovarian and testicular cancers; however, these complexes showed many adverse effects such as renal insufficiency and electrolyte abnormalities, neurotoxicity, ototoxicity, nausea, vomiting and drug resistance. To overcome these side effects and drug resistance mechanisms, silver metal is highly employed as a cytotoxic agent by DNA binding through the formation of disulphide bonds. Moreover, silver complexes exhibited more significant cytotoxicity with the lowest toxicity. This review highlighted silver complexes' anticancer and cytotoxic potential with various bioactive ligands
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