Different word categories have distinct impacts on consumers' perceptions of a good or a service. Through 3 studies, this article tests the use of verbs, nouns, and adjectives among bilingual ...consumers. Study 1 examines word category use among bilinguals who speak both English and Chinese through an open-ended questionnaire. Study 2 measures the participants' reactions toward advertisements which are composed of different word categories. In Study 3, two experiments test the word category effect in the service domain. The findings indicate that: (1) to describe a good or a service, bilinguals prefer adjectives and nouns in general, while using more verbs in Chinese contexts; (2) English advertisements are perceived as more informative than Chinese ones, and noun-composed advertisements are perceived as more informative than the ones with verbs or adjectives; (3) the interaction effect of language and word category on purchase intentions is true for both advertisements and services; specifically, noun-composed messages are more efficient in affecting bilinguals' purchase decisions in Chinese contexts, while adjective-composed advertisements work better in English contexts; and (4) in the service domain, the interaction of language and word category has an impact on positive word-of-mouth and website use experience satisfaction. Conceptual and managerial implications are provided.
While prior research shows that atmospheric cues such as visual design trigger customers' cognition and emotions, thus leading to approach-avoidance responses, this article proposes self-congruity as ...a mediator, paralleling cognitive evaluation (i.e., perceived quality). More specifically, this article, situated in the context of the coffee shop industry in China, investigates how perceived luxuriousness, reflected from the service provider's visual design, affects customers' willingness to pay a price premium (WTPP). The findings show that perceived luxuriousness leads to customers' inferences of high quality of the coffee and high self-congruity, thus increasing WTPP. Further, cosmopolitanism moderates the effect of perceived luxuriousness only via self-congruity, but not via perceived quality. This article contributes to the existing literature on atmospherics, self-congruity, brand equity, and cosmopolitanism. More importantly, this article provides managerial implications for global coffee/food brands that aim to set up their chain outlets and expand rapidly in China, one of the largest emerging markets.
This paper examines the role of Internet atmospherics cues on the behavior of surfers and their impact on variables such as site attitudes, site involvement, exploratory behavior, pre-purchase and ...purchase intentions. Atmospherics cues are central (structure, organization, informativeness, effectiveness and navigational characteristics) and peripheral (entertainment). A conceptual model is developed based on a review of existing findings and tested with a large sample of consumers who responded to a questionnaire after navigating through an existing pharmaceutical web site. Structural equations modeling was used to test 10 major hypotheses. Among the key findings, all atmospherics cues were impacting the other constructs, with the central cues mostly affecting site involvement and exploratory behavior, while entertainment affected site involvement and site attitudes. These findings contribute to the theoretical and managerial understanding of the role of Internet atmospherics on the navigation behavior of visitors.
Objectives
A multicentric randomized, 3-year prospective study was conducted to determine for how long Biodentine, a new biocompatible dentine substitute, can remain as a posterior restoration.
...Materials and methods
First, Biodentine was compared to the composite Z100®, to evaluate whether and for how long it could be used as a posterior restoration according to selected United States Public Health Service (USPHS)’ criteria (mean ± SD). Second, when abrasion occurred, Biodentine was evaluated as a dentine substitute combined with Z100®.
Results
A total of 397 cases were included. This interim analysis was conducted on 212 cases that were seen for the 1-year recall. On the day of restoration placement, both materials obtained good scores for material handling, anatomic form (0.12 ± 0.33), marginal adaptation (0.01 ± 0.10) and interproximal contact (0.11 ± 0.39). During the follow-up, both materials scored well in surface roughness (≤1) without secondary decay and post-operative pain. Biodentine kept acceptable surface properties regarding anatomic form score (≤1), marginal adaptation score (≤2) and interproximal contact score (≤1) for up to 6 months after placement. Resistance to marginal discoloration was superior with Biodentine compared to Z100®. When Biodentine was retained as a dentine substitute after pulp vitality control, it was covered systematically with the composite Z100®. This procedure yielded restorations that were clinically sound and symptom free.
Conclusions
Biodentine is able to restore posterior teeth for up to 6 months. When subsequently covered with Z100®, it is a convenient, efficient and well tolerated dentine substitute.
Clinical relevance
Biodentine as a dentine substitute can be used under a composite for posterior restorations.
This research tests the notion that consumers misattribute feelings of certainty about their attitudes, or more broadly their ‘feeling right,’ to their attitudes about objects. Specifically, high (as ...compared to low) levels of website cultural congruity may induce greater certainty about consumers' attitudes toward retail websites, which affects the extremity of their attitudes toward the site as well as their purchase intentions. We test this issue experimentally by differentiating: (a) types of internet access devices (regular computers vs. touchscreen devices) and (b) reactions of ethnic majority (French) and ethnic minority (Maghrebian) consumers in France. The findings show that attitude certainty acts as a key mediator between website cultural congruity, attitudes toward the site and purchase intentions. The effects of website cultural congruity are stronger when consumers use touchscreen devices than regular computers, and stronger for French ethnic majority than for Maghrebian ethnic minority consumers.
We content analyzed 4155 Chinese, French, and Canadian print ads to examine how fear advertising differs across countries or cultures. Findings show that advertisers use fear appeals more frequently ...in Canada and China than in France. Moreover, fear appeals appear in all three countries more frequently for convenience than for shopping-type products, and more frequently for shopping than for search-type products. Beauty and personal care products, as well as drugs and medical products are more prone to fear appeals than all other product categories. However, the frequency of fear appeals in relation to the product category varies across countries. We also find variations in relation to types of fear appeals. Social and self-esteem fear appeals appear most frequently in China, while physical fear appeals are most dominant in France and Canada, and economic fear appeals most frequent in France.
Presymptomatic carriers of chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) mutation, the most frequent genetic cause of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, represent the ...optimal target population for the development of disease-modifying drugs. Preclinical biomarkers are needed to monitor the effect of therapeutic interventions in this population.
To assess the occurrence of cognitive, structural, and microstructural changes in presymptomatic C9orf72 carriers.
The PREV-DEMALS study is a prospective, multicenter, observational study of first-degree relatives of individuals carrying the C9orf72 mutation. Eighty-four participants entered the study between October 2015 and April 2017; 80 (95%) were included in cross-sectional analyses of baseline data. All participants underwent neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging; 63 (79%) underwent diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. Gray matter volumes and diffusion tensor imaging metrics were calculated within regions of interest. Anatomical and microstructural differences between individuals who carried the C9orf72 mutation (C9+) and those who did not carry the C9orf72 mutation (C9-) were assessed using linear mixed-effects models. Data were analyzed from October 2015 to April 2017.
Differences in neuropsychological scores, gray matter volume, and white matter integrity between C9+ and C9- individuals.
Of the 80 included participants, there were 41 C9+ individuals (24 59% female; mean SD age, 39.8 11.1 years) and 39 C9- individuals (24 62% female; mean SD age, 45.2 13.9 years). Compared with C9- individuals, C9+ individuals had lower mean (SD) praxis scores (163.4 6.1 vs 165.3 5.9; P = .01) and intransitive gesture scores (34.9 1.6 vs 35.7 1.5; P = .004), atrophy in 8 cortical regions of interest and in the right thalamus, and white matter alterations in 8 tracts. When restricting the analyses to participants younger than 40 years, compared with C9- individuals, C9+ individuals had lower praxis scores and intransitive gesture scores, atrophy in 4 cortical regions of interest and in the right thalamus, and white matter alterations in 2 tracts.
Cognitive, structural, and microstructural alterations are detectable in young C9+ individuals. Early and subtle praxis alterations, underpinned by focal atrophy of the left supramarginal gyrus, may represent an early and nonevolving phenotype related to neurodevelopmental effects of C9orf72 mutation. White matter alterations reflect the future phenotype of frontotemporal lobar degeneration/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, while atrophy appears more diffuse. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the preclinical phase of C9orf72 disease and of the respective contribution of magnetic resonance biomarkers.
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02590276.
BACKGROUNDRelatives of ADHD probands are known to be at increased risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, suggesting shared genetic factors. In this study, we aim to identify shared common risk ...variants (i.e., Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms, SNPs) between ADHD and schizophrenia, and between ADHD and bipolar disorder.METHODSWith the summary data from three GWAS, one on ADHD (20,183 cases with ADHD and 35,191 controls), another on schizophrenia (76,755 cases with schizophrenia and 243,649 controls) and another on bipolar disorder (41,917 cases with bipolar disorder and 371,549 controls), we used colocalization analysis to identify SNPs shared by ADHD and schizophrenia, and SNPs shared by ADHD and bipolar disorder. Functional genomic analyses were then conducted on these two sets of shared common genetic variants.RESULTSWe found that three of the 12 SNPs associated with ADHD colocalized with schizophrenia SNPs and one of the 12 SNPs associated with ADHD colocalized with bipolar disorder. Only 0.4% of the SNPs associated with schizophrenia (2 out of 431) and 2.3% of the SNPs associated with bipolar disorder (2 out of 86), colocalized with ADHD SNPs. Some genes mapped to these shared genetic variants (SCN2A and UNC5D) are involved in the development of the nervous system.CONCLUSIONSUsing colocalization analysis, the present study uncovers shared genetic variants associated with ADHD and schizophrenia as well as ADHD and bipolar disorder, and may at least partially explain the increased risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in relatives of ADHD probands.
Important questions remain about the profile of cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders across adulthood and illness stages. The age-associated profile of familial impairments also remains ...unclear, as well as the effect of factors, such as symptoms, functioning, and medication. Using cross-sectional data from the EU-GEI and GROUP studies, comprising 8455 participants aged 18 to 65, we examined cognitive functioning across adulthood in patients with psychotic disorders (n = 2883), and their unaffected siblings (n = 2271), compared to controls (n = 3301). An abbreviated WAIS-III measured verbal knowledge, working memory, visuospatial processing, processing speed, and IQ. Patients showed medium to large deficits across all functions (ES range = -0.45 to -0.73, p < 0.001), while siblings showed small deficits on IQ, verbal knowledge, and working memory (ES = -0.14 to -0.33, p < 0.001). Magnitude of impairment was not associated with participant age, such that the size of impairment in older and younger patients did not significantly differ. However, first-episode patients performed worse than prodromal patients (ES range = -0.88 to -0.60, p < 0.001). Adjusting for cannabis use, symptom severity, and global functioning attenuated impairments in siblings, while deficits in patients remained statistically significant, albeit reduced by half (ES range = -0.13 to -0.38, p < 0.01). Antipsychotic medication also accounted for around half of the impairment in patients (ES range = -0.21 to -0.43, p < 0.01). Deficits in verbal knowledge, and working memory may specifically index familial, i.e., shared genetic and/or shared environmental, liability for psychotic disorders. Nevertheless, potentially modifiable illness-related factors account for a significant portion of the cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders.
The neurotrophin receptors are known to promote growth and proliferation of glioblastoma cells. Their functions in spreading glioblastoma cell aggressiveness to the microenvironment through exosome ...release from glioblastoma cells are unknown. Considering previous reports demonstrating that YKL-40 expression is associated with undifferentiated glioblastoma cancer stem cells, we used YKL-40-silenced cells to modulate the U87-MG differentiated state and their biological aggressiveness. Herein, we demonstrated a relationship between neurotrophin-receptors and YKL-40 expression in undifferentiated cells. Differential functions of cells and derived-exosomes were evidenced according to neurotrophin receptor content and differentiated cell state by comparison with control pLKO cells. YKL-40 silencing of glioblastoma cells impairs proliferation, neurosphere formation, and their ability to induce endothelial cell (HBMEC) migration. The modulation of differentiated cell state in YKL-40-silenced cells induces a decrease of TrkB, sortilin and p75NTR cellular expressions, associated with a low-aggressiveness phenotype. Interestingly, TrkB expressed in exosomes derived from control cells was undetectable in exosomes from YKL-40 -silenced cells. The transfer of TrkB-containing exosomes in YKL-40-silenced cells contributed to restore cell proliferation and promote endothelial cell activation. Interestingly, in U87 MG xenografted mice, TrkB-depleted exosomes from YKL-40-silenced cells inhibited tumor growth in vivo. These data highlight that TrkB-containing exosomes play a key role in the control of glioblastoma progression and aggressiveness. Furthermore, TrkB expression was detected in exosomes isolated from plasma of glioblastoma patients, suggesting that this receptor may be considered as a new biomarker for glioblastoma diagnosis.
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