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This study seeks to extend the notion of the art infusion effect to an artistic intervention in a service context, and specify its mechanisms. Dual mediation by immersion and aesthetic experience may explain the experiential art infusion effect on brands. As a test of this prediction, this study investigates groups of customers who experience an artistic intervention in different conditions, characterised by two types of music (art-congruent vs. brand-congruent) and an artist's performance. Experiencing one of these artistic interventions increased brand attachment, relative to a control condition. Immersion and aesthetic experience (positive emotions) exerted a significant dual mediation effect on brand attachment when comparing the art-congruent music and the performance conditions. Interestingly, immersion and negative emotions did not reveal any mediating influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of understanding of new products' positioning is one of the reasons proposed for their failure. Through a process of semantic transformation, product design can communicate a new product's positioning to consumers. Drawing on the theoretical foundations of implicit cognition and the results of an empirical study, this article demonstrates that the Semantic Priming Task is a valuable tool to evaluate perceived product positioning conveyed by product design and to help practitioners in their decision-making with regard to product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous experiments we were able to separate, using a nondestructive separation technique, culturable and nonculturable bacteria, from a Luria-Bertani (LB) medium culture of Escherichia coli incubated for 48 h. We observed in the nonculturable bacterial population an increase in oxidative damage and up-induction of most defenses against reactive oxygen species (ROS), along with a decrease in cytoplasmic superoxide dismutases. In this study, using the same separation technique, we separated into two subpopulations a 10-h LB medium culture containing only culturable bacteria. For the first time, we succeeded in associating physical separation with physiological differences. Although the levels of defense against ROS (RpoS, RpoH, OxyR, and SoxRS regulons) and oxidative damage (carbonyl contents) were apparently the same, we found that bacteria in one subpopulation were more sensitive to LB medium starvation and to various stresses, such as phosphate buffer starvation, heat shock, and hydrogen peroxide exposure. Based on these results, we suggest that these physiological differences reflect uncharacterized bacterial modifications which do not directly involve defenses against ROS.

Many physiological functions, such as the digestive function, are broad, complex scientific topics. Therefore, to build relevant, accessible claims about functional foods that relate to these functions, marketers need to understand what consumers know about them, in terms of the associated symptoms, diseases and health benefits. Such knowledge cannot be captured effectively through direct questioning; it requires implicit testing that can limit biases and reveal unconscious knowledge. For this study, 240 consumers were invited to participate in an implicit lexical decision task via an online platform, and their responses reveal that the concept of 'immunity' is associated in mothers' minds with three symptoms related to their personal experiences with their children. By measuring associations that emerge without pre-existing rational processes, this implicit measure offers a more precise picture of the semantic network for immunity, which consumers could not express explicitly in response to direct questioning. Thus the recommended protocol is not only new to market research but also adds substantial value to the tests that currently serve to dig into consumers' minds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to understand the first events that occur when cells grown exponentially in liquid medium are transferred to a solid medium. The results indicate that in order to grow on plates, bacteria must not only adapt to new conditions but also perceive a real stress.