When brands come to life: experimental research on the vividness effect of Virtual Reality in transformational marketing communications

Mobile Virtual Reality provides a gateway for marketers to innovatively reach consumers. This study examines the impact of Virtual Reality in the context of transformational brand experience appeals, focussing specifically on the determining role of vividness. A three-dimensional conceptual framework is presented, offering a systematic review of the literature on vividness effects in marketing communications, revealing the major gap that most available studies only focus on informational messages. We conducted an experiment to address this gap and demonstrate in the context of a transformational ad that Virtual Reality generates higher perceptions of vividness and presence than a regular two-dimensional video, with vividness positively affecting attitude toward the ad, both directly and indirectly via presence. Our study also reveals that vividness in turn elicits a positive effect on brand attitudes which stimulates consumers’ purchase intentions. As such, the strategic potential of Virtual Reality for marketing communications is highlighted.     

A groundwater perspective on the river basin management plan for central Portugal - developing a methodology to assess the potential impact of N fertilizers on groundwater bodies

The Water Framework Directive establishes that the river basin management plans must have a summary of the pressures and impacts of human activities, such as agriculture, on the chemical and quantitative status of groundwater bodies. In order to identify those areas where a potential impact from agricultural activities on groundwater bodies exists, but currently lacking groundwater monitoring data, a methodology was developed that combines the use of gross nitrogen balance values with the results of a specific vulnerability assessment index. A farm management efficiency parameter is added, to identify the factors that contribute to nitrogen use efficiency and to assess the near-future scenarios. This methodology allows the identification of significant pressures that may be responsible for a groundwater body failing good status where there is no representative monitoring network.     

Energy Production in Water Distribution Networks: A PAT Design Strategy

Pump operating as turbine (PAT) is an effective source of reducing the equipment cost in small hydropower plants. However, the manufacturers provide poor information on the PAT performance thus representing a limit for its wider diffusion. Additional implementation difficulties arise under variable operating conditions, characteristic of water distribution networks (WDNs). WDNs allow to obtain widespread and globally significant amount of produced energy by exploiting the head drop due to the network pressure control strategy for leak reductions. Thus a design procedure is proposed that couples a parallel hydraulic circuit with an overall plant efficiency criteria for the market pump selection within a WDN. The proposed design method allows to identify the performance curves of the PAT that maximizes the produced energy for an assigned flow and pressure-head distribution pattern. Finally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is shown as a suitable alternative for performance curve assessment covering the limited number of experimental data.     

Hematopoietic progenitor constituents and adherent cell progenitor morphology isolated from black-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta prymnolopha, Wagler 1831) bone marrow

Stem cells are present in the adult tissues of most diverse species. Bone marrow is recognized to be the most exploited site to obtain stem cells and cell progenitors. The objective of the present study was to characterize hematopoietic progenitor (HP) morphology and analyze the performance of adherent cell progenitors (ACPs) cultivated in vitro from black‐rumped agouti bone marrow (Dasyprocta prymnolopha). Bone marrow aspirates were obtained from tibia crest and used to prepare histological slides and identify cell morphology. Cells were also scattered on culture plates for later isolation, expansion, and quantification. Smears obtained from bone marrow demonstrated HPs at different stages of maturity. In culture, these cells showed fibroblastoid morphology and a strong tendency to form colonies, demonstrated by the presence of cell aggregates, cytoplasmic elongations lying side by side. An 80% cell confluence was observed at 18 days in culture and progressive reduction in the percentage of nonadherent mononuclear cells. After eight passes, a mean cell viability of 96.07% was observed, from a pool of 1.6 × 10⁷ cells (ACP). Thirteen 25‐cm² culture bottles were trypsinized, resuspended in freezing medium, stored in 14 criotubes at a concentration of 1 × 10⁶ cells per milliliter, and placed in liquid nitrogen at ?196°C. Agouti bone marrow demonstrated high plasticity, moreover different HP lines, and a population of adherent cells demonstrated morphology similar to mesenchymal stem cells in culture. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Participatory and decentralized water resources management: challenges and perspectives for the North Paraíba River Basin committee - Brazil

The Brazilian Water Resources Policy (Law 9433/1997) establishes participatory and decentralized management, involving civil society, water users and governmental bodies, with the basin committees as the basis of this process. Fifteen years after its implementation, it is possible to perceive accomplishments, but, at the same time, there are some difficulties in regards to the operation of the basin committees in the country. Considering the North Paraíba River Basin - which is completely included in the State of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil, and presents great social and economic importance for the state - this article analyzes the process of formation, installation and functioning of its Basin Committee (CBH-PB), focusing on its composition, the reasons for the mobilization and demobilization of its members, the intra-relations between segments, and the inter-relations between the CBH-PB and other entities of the State Water Management System (the Water Executive Agency and the State Water Resources Council). The level of decentralization and the quality of participatory management (as it is being performed at the CBH-PB) are discussed and guidelines are suggested in order to allow greater effectiveness to the committee.     

Impact of computer training courses on reduction of loneliness of older people in Finland and Slovenia

Previous research has shown loneliness as a threat for the quality of life of older people; therefore the goal of the intervention in a quasi-experimental study was to evaluate and discuss the self-reported level of loneliness of older people in Finland and Slovenia before and after a computer intervention. Intervention in a quasi-experimental study was conducted among 58 older participants at the baseline (M = 72.4 years) and 45 older participants at the follow-up research study (M = 72.9 years). Inferential statistics showed a significant difference in the reduction of loneliness between the countries, and a decreased level of loneliness of older people after completing the computer training course. Although older people experience many age-related problems which may reduce their interest in learning information and communication technology (ICT) skills, it is important that they are computer-proficient, because computer engagement can reduce the level of loneliness of older people and in this way has a positive effect on their quality of life.     

Enhanced default risk models with SVM+

Default risk models have lately raised a great interest due to the recent world economic crisis. In spite of many advanced techniques that have extensively been proposed, no comprehensive method incorporating a holistic perspective has hitherto been considered. Thus, the existing models for bankruptcy prediction lack the whole coverage of contextual knowledge which may prevent the decision makers such as investors and financial analysts to take the right decisions. Recently, SVM+ provides a formal way to incorporate additional information (not only training data) onto the learning models improving generalization. In financial settings examples of such non-financial (though relevant) information are marketing reports, competitors landscape, economic environment, customers screening, industry trends, etc. By exploiting additional information able to improve classical inductive learning we propose a prediction model where data is naturally separated into several structured groups clustered by the size and annual turnover of the firms. Experimental results in the setting of a heterogeneous data set of French companies demonstrated that the proposed default risk model showed better predictability performance than the baseline SVM and multi-task learning with SVM.     

Psychosocial and health consequences of adolescent depression in Black and White young adult women.

Depression in adolescent girls may result in negative consequences in young adulthood. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to 1,727 Black and White girls ages 16 to 18 years who participated in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study. Three years later, women in the depressed groups were more likely to be current smokers, had attained a lower level of education, and reported lower self-worth relative to the nondepressed group. Body dissatisfaction, eating concerns, and loneliness were greater in the depressed groups. Relative to Black women, White women who were moderately depressed during adolescence reported more health care services utilization in young adulthood. Prevention efforts for depressed adolescents should be broadly focused to improve young adult outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Post-cracking behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete

Recently, RILEM TC 162-TDF has proposed equivalent,f _eq , and residual,f _R , flexural tensile strength parameters to characterize and simulate the post-cracking behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) structures. In the current work, more than two hundred flexural tests are carried out according to the RILEM TC 162-TDF recommendations and the corresponding values off _eq andf _R parameters are evaluated. In series of specimens reinforced with fibres of a distinct length/diameter ratio, similar values off _eq andf _R parameters were obtained in these series. Although a strong correlation betweenf _eq andf _R was determined, a larger scatter off _R values was observed thereby revealingf _eq to be more appropriate for design purposes. A numerical strategy involving a cross sectional layered model and an inverse analysis was developed to evaluate the post-cracking stress-strain and the stress-crack opening diagrams for the tested SFRC. This strategy was also used to determine a relation between the post-cracking strain, ɛ ^pcr , and the crack opening displacement,w, (ɛ ^pcr =w/L _p ) which is useful for evaluating the crack opening when numerical strategies based on a stress-strain approach are used. The obtainedL _p values range from half the specimen cross section height to half the distance between the tip of the notch and the top of the cross section.

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Résumé Récemment, pour caractériser et simuler le comportement post-fissuration en traction du béton renforcé des fibres d'acier, la Commission Technique 162-TDF de la RILEM a proposé des paramètres désignés par résistance équivalente, f_eq, et résistance résiduelle, f_R, à la contrainte en flexion. Dans le travail présent, des valeurs de ces paramètres sont obtenues sur plus de deux cents essais de flexion effectués en accord avec les recommandations du TC 162-TDF de la RILEM. Des valeurs semblables de f_eq et f_R ont été obtenues dans des séries d'éprouvettes renforcées avec des fibres d'un rapport longueur/diamètre distinct. Bien qu'une forte corrélation entre f_eq et f_R ait été déterminée, une plus grande dispersion de valeurs du f_R a été observée, en démontrant que f_eq est plus approprié pour les buts du projet. Pour évaluer les diagrammes contrainte-déformation et contrainte-ouverture après fissuration, une stratégie numérique a été développée, en utilisant un modèle de section et en effectuant une analyse inverse. Cette stratégie a aussi été utilisée pour déterminer une relation entre la contrainte après fissuration, ɛ ^pcr , et l'ouverture de fissure, w, (ɛ ^pcr =w/L _p ) utile pour évaluer l'ouverture de la fissure quand les stratégies numériques sont basées sur une approche contrainte-déformation. Les valeurs de L_p obtenues ont varié entre la demi-hauteur de la section de l'éprouvette et la demi-distance entre l'extrémité de l'entaille et le sommet de la section.