Single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides are two-dimensional (2D) direct-bandgap semiconductors with degenerate, but inequivalent, 'valleys' in the electronic structure that can be ...selectively excited by polarized light. Coherent superpositions of light and matter, exciton-polaritons, have been observed when these materials are strongly coupled to photons, but these hybrid quasiparticles do not harness the valley sensitivity of the monolayer semiconductors. Here, we observe valley-polarized exciton-polaritons in monolayers of MoS2 embedded in a dielectric microcavity. These light-matter quasiparticles emit polarized light with spectral Rabi splitting and anticrossing indicative of strongly coupled exciton-polaritons in the topologically separate spin-coupled valleys. The interplay of intervalley depolarization and cavity-modified exciton dynamics in the high-cooperativity regime causes valley-polarized exciton-polaritons to persist at room temperature, distinct from the vanishing polarization in bare monolayers. Achieving polarization-sensitive polaritonic devices operating at room temperature presents a pathway for manipulating novel valley degrees of freedom in coherent states of light and matter.
Substance use has been one of the most alarming public health problems worldwide, particularly among younger generations.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a web-based substance use ...prevention intervention targeted at adults aged 20-29 years.
The intervention materials comprised 5 sets of infographics and 1 animation, all of which focused on mixed themes: (1) the concept of substance use and its harmful effects on health; (2) misinformation regarding new psychoactive substances; (3) regulation of illicit drugs, particularly marijuana; (4) the brain disease model of addiction; (5) critical thinking skills that improve health literacy; and (6) decision-making and communication skills that help people refuse illegal drugs. The study assigned eligible participants into experimental and control groups on the basis of the parity of their participant numbers. These participants completed web-based baseline and follow-up questionnaires that assessed their knowledge, behavioral intention, self-efficacy, and life skills related to substance use prevention. Knowledge was assessed using 8 questions concerning understanding of substance use harms and the regulation of illicit drugs. Behavioral intention and self-efficacy were assessed using 5-point Likert-type scales. Participants' ability to apply life skills to avoid substance use was assessed using 3 testing scenarios regarding substance use. The study used generalized estimating equations to examine the intervention's effectiveness.
A total of 1065 participants (539 control and 526 experimental) completed the intervention and questionnaires in 2019. The average ages of the experimental and control groups were 25.68 (SD 2.71) and 25.66 (SD 2.69) years, respectively. The study observed no significant differences in the demographic variables between the 2 groups. The results of the generalized estimating equation analyses indicated that the intervention significantly improved participants' knowledge (P<.001), behavioral intention (P<.001), and self-efficacy (P<.001) but not their life skills (P=.61) related to substance use prevention. Participants in the experimental group responded to a satisfaction survey with positive feedback on the intervention.
The web-based intervention was effective in improving participants' knowledge, behavioral intention, and self-efficacy concerning substance use prevention. The findings support continued efforts to use web-based interventions to prevent substance use among young adults.
Genetic alterations for epithelial ovarian cancer are insufficiently characterized. Previous studies are limited regarding included histologies, gene numbers, copy number variant (CNV) detection, and ...interpretation of pathway alteration patterns of individual patients.
We sequenced 410 genes to analyze mutations and CNV of 82 ovarian carcinomas, including high-grade serous (n = 37), endometrioid (n = 22) and clear cell (n = 23) histologies. Eligibility for targeted therapy was determined for each patient by a pathway-based approach. The analysis covered DNA repair, receptor tyrosine kinase, PI3K/AKT/MTOR, RAS/MAPK, cell cycle, and hedgehog pathways, and included 14 drug targets.
Postulated PARP, MTOR, and CDK4/6 inhibition sensitivity were most common. BRCA1/2 alterations, PTEN loss, and gain of PIK3CA and CCND1 were characteristic for high-grade serous carcinomas. Mutations of ARID1A, PIK3CA, and KRAS, and ERBB2 gain were enriched in the other histologies. PTEN mutations and high tumor mutational burden were characteristic for endometrioid carcinomas. Drug target downstream alterations impaired actionability in all histologies, and many alterations would not have been discovered by key gene mutational analysis. Individual patients often had more than one actionable drug target.
Genetic alterations in ovarian carcinomas are complex and differ among histologies. Our results aid the personalization of therapy and biomarker analysis for clinical studies, and indicate a high potential for combinations of targeted therapies.
We explore whether firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities provide added value to capital market participants through seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). SEOs represent cleaner ...exogenous activity alleviating the reverse causality issue plaguing many prior studies examining the relation between firm performance and CSR. Using a large sample of U.S. SEOs, we find high-CSR issuers experience fewer negative market reactions to SEO announcements. We also show ethical issuers have incentive to provide extensive and informative disclosures, which mitigate the degree of information asymmetry, thereby decreasing SEO underpricing. Among CSR categories, we find issuers engaging in community and environmental CSR activities and improving the rights of women and minorities are more effective at reducing SEO negative announcement returns and underpricing. Our findings remain robust after controlling for possible self-selection bias and endogeneity problems. Overall, our findings support the stakeholder value maximization view of stakeholder theory and ethical theory.
Purpose
Music has a priming effect on product selection. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding on this issue using an experimental design incorporating behavioural and ...brainwave data.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment with 40 participants was conducted to explore how and why wine tasting preferences would be primed by different genres of musical stimuli. Electroencephalographic measurement was adopted to measure participant brainwave activity in two experiments, each involving two rounds of wine tasting, and the treatment was administered between the two rounds.
Findings
Significant associations between the musical stimulus genre and participant change in wine selection were found, and the musical stimuli resulted in different brainwave activities because participant β and γ wave activities significantly differed in the first and second wine tasting rounds. Correlational analyses indicated that α, β and γ wave activities generated by the musical stimuli were significantly but negatively correlated with α wave activity. α wave activity in the musical stimulus phases was significantly negatively correlated with β wave activity in the second round of wine tasting, and the other associations were significant and positive.
Originality/value
This study highlighted the priming effect of musical stimuli in wine tasting. Empirical evidence derived from experimental research was analysed with behavioural and brainwave data. This study’s original contribution is that it explored wine tasting preferences from a neuromarketing perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use music in marketing strategies.
•Subliminal advertising is found to be significantly influential to consumers’ selection of hotels.•Emoji smiling face as a subliminal message does affect consumers’ hotel choice.•Consumers’ theta ...band would significantly increase while viewing hotel videos with subliminal message.•Consumers’ beta brainwaves are significantly lower when watching video with a smiling face emoji as subliminal stimuli embedded in the hotel video.
This study aims to understand how hotel videos embedded with a smiling face emoji as a subliminal message affect consumers’ selection of hotels, with their brain activities measured and collected while they watched the videos. Data was collected from sixteen participants who completed two rounds of experiments. A chi-square test of homogeneity, paired sample t-test, and Bayes factor were performed to address the two proposed research questions. The results of this study reveal that participants’ selection of hotels would be significantly affected by the subliminal stimuli of a smiling face emoji. Meanwhile, neuroscientific data identifies significant differences between participants’ two (theta and beta) out of five bands of brainwaves while they were viewing hotel videos with and without the subliminal message. Suggestions for future studies and practical operations are also discussed.
通过测量和收集消费者在观看视频时的大脑活动, 这项研究旨在了解嵌入笑脸表情作为潜意识信息的酒店视频如何影响消费者对酒店的选择.数据来自16名参与者, 他们完成了两轮实验.本研究采用卡方齐性检验,配对样本t检验及贝叶斯因子来解决上述两个研究问题.研究结果显示, 微笑表情的潜意识刺激会显著影响参与者对酒店的选择.与此同时, 神经科学数据表明, 当参与者在观看带有和不带有潜意识信息的酒店视频时, 五种波段中的两种 (theta和beta) 的脑电波有显著差异.本文对未来研究和实际操作的建议也进行了讨论.
In recent decades, the global incidence of dengue has increased. Affected countries have responded with more effective surveillance strategies to detect outbreaks early, monitor the trends, and ...implement prevention and control measures. We have applied newly developed machine learning approaches to identify laboratory-confirmed dengue cases from 4,894 emergency department patients with dengue-like illness (DLI) who received laboratory tests. Among them, 60.11% (2942 cases) were confirmed to have dengue. Using just four input variables age, body temperature, white blood cells counts (WBCs) and platelets, not only the state-of-the-art deep neural network (DNN) prediction models but also the conventional decision tree (DT) and logistic regression (LR) models delivered performances with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves areas under curves (AUCs) of the ranging from 83.75% to 85.87% for DT, DNN and LR: 84.60% ± 0.03%, 85.87% ± 0.54%, 83.75% ± 0.17%, respectively. Subgroup analyses found all the models were very sensitive particularly in the pre-epidemic period. Pre-peak sensitivities (<35 weeks) were 92.6%, 92.9%, and 93.1% in DT, DNN, and LR respectively. Adjusted odds ratios examined with LR for low WBCs ≤ 3.2 (x103/μL), fever (≥38°C), low platelet counts < 100 (x103/μL), and elderly (≥ 65 years) were 5.17 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.96-6.76, 3.17 95%CI: 2.74-3.66, 3.10 95%CI: 2.44-3.94, and 1.77 95%CI: 1.50-2.10, respectively. Our prediction models can readily be used in resource-poor countries where viral/serologic tests are inconvenient and can also be applied for real-time syndromic surveillance to monitor trends of dengue cases and even be integrated with mosquito/environment surveillance for early warning and immediate prevention/control measures. In other words, a local community hospital/clinic with an instrument of complete blood counts (including platelets) can provide a sentinel screening during outbreaks. In conclusion, the machine learning approach can facilitate medical and public health efforts to minimize the health threat of dengue epidemics. However, laboratory confirmation remains the primary goal of surveillance and outbreak investigation.
PurposeVisual stimulation affects the taste of food and beverages. This study aimed to understand how latte art affects coffee consumption by collecting participants' brainwave data and their taste ...responses.Design/methodology/approachSeventy subjects participated in a two-stage experiment. Electroencephalography (EEG) was employed to measure brainwave activity. With an interval of one week, each stage involved coffee consumption with and without latte art. The responses to the taste of the coffee were also collected for analysis.FindingsSignificant differences were found in the participants' alpha and beta brainwave bands. When drinking coffee with latte art, the participants' alpha bands were significantly lower, whereas the beta bands were higher. These findings were supported by Bayesian statistics. A significant increase was found in the participants' taste of sweetness and acidity with latte art, and Bayesian statistics confirmed the results for sweetness although the evidence on the increase in acidity was anecdotal. No difference was found in the taste of bitterness.Originality/valueThis study highlights the effect of latte art on coffee consumption. The authors analysed the empirical evidence from this two-stage experimental study in the form of the participants' brainwave data and their responses to taste. This study's original contribution is that it explored the crossmodal effects of latte art on consumers' taste of coffee from a neuroscientific perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use latte art in practical business environments.
Recently, perovskite (PV) oxides with ABO3 structures have attracted considerable interest from scientists owing to their functionality. In this study, CaFeOx is introduced to reveal the resistive ...switching properties and mechanism of oxygen vacancy transition in PV and brownmillerite (BM) structures. BM‐CaFeO2.5 is grown on an Nb‐STO conductive substrate epitaxially. CaFeOx exhibits excellent endurance and reliability. In addition, the CaFeOx also demonstrates an electroforming‐free characteristic and multilevel resistance properties. To construct the switching mechanism, high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy is used to observe the topotactic phase change in CaFeOx. In addition, scanning TEM and electron energy loss spectroscopy show the structural evolution and valence state variation of CaFeOx after the switching behavior. This study not only reveals the switching mechanism of CaFeOx, but also provides a PV oxide option for the dielectric material in resistive random‐access memory (RRAM) devices.
A complex oxide CaFeOx (CFO) is introduced as the dielectric layer in resistive random‐access memory (RRAM), demonstrating excellent RRAM properties, such as electroforming‐free and multilevel data storage. This study provides not only the switching mechanism of the CFO RRAM devices, but also the novel aspect for the RRAM dielectric materials.
The blue luminous events (BLEs) recorded by ISUAL (Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning) radiate unambiguous middle ultraviolet to blue emissions (230–450 nm) but contain dim red ...emissions (623–754 nm). The BLE appears to be dot‐like on one ISUAL image with an integration time of 29 ms. A few BLEs develop upward into blue jets/starters or type II gigantic jets (GJs). The associated sferics of the BLEs in the extremely low frequency to very low frequency band and in the low‐frequency band exhibit similar patterns to the narrow bipolar events (NBEs) identified in the very low frequency and low‐frequency band. The ISUAL BLEs are conjectured to be the accompanied light emissions of the NBEs. Both upward and downward propagating current obtained from the associated sferics of the BLEs have been found. The source heights of the six BLEs related to negative NBEs are estimated in the range of 16.2–17.8 km. These six events are suggested to occur between the upper positive charge layer and the negative screen charge layer on the top of the normally electrified thunderstorm. The six blue starters, one blue jet, and one type II GJ are inferred to be positive upward discharges from their associated sferics in the extremely low frequency to very low frequency band. Based on the simultaneous radio and optical observations, a NBE is conjectured to be the initiation discharge with rapidly flowing current within the thunderstorm, while a blue jet/starter or a type II GJ is suggested to be the ensuing discharge with slowly varying current propagating upward from the thunderstorm.
Key Points
ISUAL blue luminous events are the accompanied light emissions of narrow bipolar events
A few BLEs related to negative NBEs develop upward and form the blue jets/starters or type II GJs
A NBE is the initiation of the electrical discharge within thunderstorm, while an upward jet is the ensuing discharge
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