The marketing implications of affective product design

Emotions are compelling human experiences and product designers can take advantage of this by conceptualizing emotion-engendering products that sell well in the market. This study hypothesized that product attributes influence users’ emotions and that the relationship is moderated by the adherence of these product attributes to purchase criteria. It was further hypothesized that the emotional experience of the user influences purchase intention. A laboratory study was conducted to validate the hypotheses using mobile phones as test products. Sixty-two participants were asked to assess eight phones from a display of 10 phones and indicate their emotional experiences after assessment. Results suggest that some product attributes can cause intense emotional experience. The attributes relate to the phone's dimensions and the relationship between these dimensions. The study validated the notion of integrating affect in designing products that convey users’ personalities.     

Removal of fat from Cow's milk decreases the vitamin E contents of the resulting dairy products

The present study was undertaken to determine whether decreases in fat contents result in lower vitamin E contents. Milk samples of varying fat contents (half and half, whole milk, reduced-fat milk low-fat milk, and nonfat milk) were obtained from a local dairy on six different occasions, α-locopherol was the major form of vitamin E (>85%); γ-tocopherol and α-tocotrienol were present to a lesser extent. As the fat contents of milk products decreased from 11 to 0.3%, the vitamin E contents decreased. For example, raw milk as compared to nonfat milk had both higher α-tocopherol contents (45.5+-4.6 vs. 4.5±0.5 μg/100 g; P<-0.0001) and higher total lipids ( 3.46±0.49 vs. 0.30±0.07 g/100 g; P≤0.0001). Vitamin E, cholesterol, and total lipids increased as cream was added back to nonfat milk during production. For every 1 mg cholesterol increase, there was an increase of approximately 4 μg of α-tocopherol; for every 1 g total lipids increase, the α-tocopherol content increased by 17 μg. These data demonstrate that removal of milk fat markedly decreases the vitamin E content of various milk products     

Parametric study of electrostatic separation of South African fine coal

The fact that water requirements are a major problem for present and future developments in material beneficiation, and the construction of a new power plant in South Africa, forms the basis for the utilization of a Rotary Triboelectrostatic Separator (RTS) for beneficiation of South African pulverized coal. The cleaning potential of Majuba and Koorfontein coal was first evaluated using kinetic froth flotation tests on the -177μm coal fraction. The RTS tests were conducted under varied process parameters. Parameters such as applied separating voltage, air injection velocity, particle feed rate and splitter position were investigated. Two stage separation results show that the RTS reduced Majuba coal initially containing about 30% ash to a clean product of 14.30%, or 19.46%, ash at a combustible recovery of 15.10%, or 53.02%, respectively. Similar separation performance was also achieved with the Koorfontein coal. The mineral and organic compositions in the feed, after single stage and after the second stage separations were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis. The results show a better separation for the second stage coal products.     

Empowering Youth: Use of Technology in Advocacy to Affect Social Change

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for integrating technology with youth advocacy efforts to affect social change and influence social determinants of health, particularly in 1) recruiting people to join the cause, 2) organizing collective action, 3) raising awareness and shaping attitudes, 4) raising funds to support the cause, and 5) communicating with decision makers. Making strategic decisions to combine technology and youth advocacy will give youth a voice, arm them with advocacy skills, and increase their self‐efficacy. These youth may become adults who are involved in larger policy‐based decisions that will address the social determinants of health that affect the health status of people in their communities and throughout the world.     

Film forming solutions based on gelatin and poly(vinyl alcohol) blends: Thermal and rheological characterizations

The objective of this work was to study the rheological and thermal properties of film forming solutions (FFS) based on blends of gelatin and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The effect of the PVA concentration and plasticizer presence on the flow behavior, and viscoelastic and thermal properties of FFS was studied by steady-shear flow and oscillatory experiments, and also, by microcalorimetry. The FFS presented Newtonian behavior at 30 °C, and the viscosity was not affected neither by the PVA concentration nor by the plasticizer. All FFS presented a phase transition during tests applying temperature scanning. It was verified that the PVA affected the viscoelastic properties of FFS by dilution of gelatin. This behavior was confirmed by microcalorimetric analysis. The behaviors of the storage (G′) and loss (G″) moduli as a function of frequency of FFS obtained at 5 °C were typical of physical gels; with the G′ higher than the G″. The strength of the gels was affected by the PVA concentration.     

How proficiency testing can improve the quality of analytical data using vitamin analysis as an example

Analysis for vitamins is difficult and many factors affect data quality. Factors include the matrix, whether the vitamin is naturally present within the matrix or is added, the molecular form of the vitamin, vitamin stability and solubility. Uniformity of the vitamin within the sample is also known to affect results in addition to the methodology used.     

Where is the hierarchy of academic self-concept?

The hierarchy of academic self-concept (SC) was examined in 4 studies. In Study 1, a higher order artistic SC factor represented teacher education students' (N?=?298) SCs in 4 art areas. In Study 2, high school students' (N?=?197) perceptions in speaking, reading, and writing in English and in language other than English formed 2 distinct higher order factors showing the domain specificity of their SCs in respective language areas. In Study 3, university students' (N?=?309) SCs in speaking, reading, and writing English as a second language formed a higher order English SC factor that was not distinguishable from an independent global English SC measure. In Study 4, responses of students in a school of commerce (N?=?211) to SC items in accounting, math, economics, English, and Chinese formed a higher order factor that was not distinguishable from a global academic SC measure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using water wisely: New, affordable, and essential water conservation practices for facility and home hemodialysis

Despite a global focus on resource conservation, most hemodialysis (HD) services still wastefully or ignorantly discard reverse osmosis (R/O) "reject water" (RW) to the sewer. However, an R/O system is producing the highly purified water necessary for dialysis, it rejects any remaining dissolved salts from water already prefiltered through charcoal and sand filters in a high-volume effluent known as RW. Although the RW generated by most R/O systems lies well within globally accepted potable water criteria, it is legally "unacceptable" for drinking. Consequently, despite being extremely high-grade gray water, under current dialysis practices, it is thoughtlessly "lost-to-drain." Most current HD service designs neither specify nor routinely include RW-saving methodology, despite its simplicity and affordability. Since 2006, we have operated several locally designed, simple, cheap, and effective RW collection and distribution systems in our in-center, satellite, and home HD services. All our RW water is now recycled for gray-water use in our hospital, in the community, and at home, a practice that is widely appreciated by our local health service and our community and is an acknowledged lead example of scarce resource conservation. Reject water has sustained local sporting facilities and gardens previously threatened by indefinite closure under our regional endemic local drought conditions. As global water resources come under increasing pressure, we believe that a far more responsible attitude to RW recycling and conservation should be mandated for all new and existing HD services, regardless of country or region.     

Destruction of gas-phase trichloroethylene in a modified fuel cell

A conventional fuel cell was used as a catalytic reactor to treat soil vapor extraction (SVE) gases contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE). The SVE gases are fed to the cathode side of the fuel cell, where TCE is reduced to ethane and hydrochloric acid. The results obtained suggest that TCE reduction occurs by a catalytic reaction with hydrogen that is re-formed on the cathode's surface beyond a certain applied cell potential. Substantial conversion of TCE is obtained, even when competing oxygen reduction occurs in the cathode. The process has been modeled successfully by conceptualizing the flow passage in the fuel cell as a plug flow reactor.