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Does social media information credibility influence social commerce purchase intention of skincare products? Evidence from Facebook
Social commerce is transforming consumer purchasing behaviours by blending social media interactivity with e-commerce functionalities, and most purchases today are evidently facilitated through social media platforms with ease. Recognising the importance of credibility in skin-related purchases, this study aims to examine how social media information credibility factors, specifically source credibility and electronic word of mouth (e WOM) credibility, influence consumers’ purchase intentions for skincare products on Facebook, considering the mediating roles of trust in online communities and perceived privacy risk. Primary data were collected through a structured survey from 384 skincare purchasers who made their purchases via Facebook, and the model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Further, the results reveal that source credibility, e WOM credibility, and trust in online communities positively influence social commerce purchase intention (SCPI), while perceived risk has a negative effect. Trust in online communities also reduces perceived risk and mediates the relationship between information credibility and purchase intention. Hence, these findings highlight the pivotal roles of trust and risk perceptions in shaping online consumer behaviour in the social commerce space, especially within the skincare market. The study emphasises the need for businesses to leverage credible information sources and build trustworthy online communities to enhance consumer confidence and engagement. Moreover, it contributes to the growing literature on social commerce by offering insights from an emerging market context, Sri Lanka, and suggests future research into broader dimensions of credibility and cultural comparisons to deepen the understanding of social commerce.
Ir(III) Pincer Complex with Solo Coordinatively Active Site as a Surrogate for Half-Sandwich Catalysts: Enabling Asymmetric Acylnitrenoid Transfer and Structure–Activity Relationship Studies
Linear and weakly nonlinear stability analyses of Darcy Bénard convection with feedback control
Assessing the effects of prosthetic foot stiffness and foot preference on stability, balance confidence, and satisfaction in transtibial prosthesis users: Protocol for a randomized, participant-masked crossover trial using a ‘test-drive’ strategy
Introduction With an appropriate prescription, the use of a lower limb prosthesis can help mitigate mobility limitations and increased risk of falling for people with lower limb amputation. Prosthetic feet cannot replicate all the functions of a biological foot-ankle. Different feet have different designs and properties, and therefore there are functional trade-offs. There is insufficient evidence as to the effects these different prosthetic foot properties have on users’ stability and balance, which would be helpful to guide clinical prosthesis prescription. Prosthesis users also rarely have opportunities to try walking with different prosthetic feet to give experiential input during the prescription process. Therefore, this study aims to determine 1) the effects of prosthetic foot stiffness on stability in lower limb prosthesis users while walking on varying terrains, and 2) whether a brief ‘test-drive’ strategy for selecting prosthetic feet can be used to predict longer term stability, balance confidence, and foot preference outcomes in lower limb prosthesis users. Methods and Materials In this multisite, participant-masked, randomized cross-over study, participants with unilateral, transtibial amputation will walk on different treadmill conditions (flat, incline, cross-slopes, uneven ground) with a variety of commercially-available prosthetic feet (‘ actual ’) and corresponding ‘ emulated ’ prosthetic feet in the laboratory. Participants will also wear the actual prosthetic feet at home and in the community for one week at a time. After each community trial, participants will return to the laboratory to complete walking trials on different terrains and at a range of speeds while we collect kinematic data. We will assess the effect of prosthetic foot stiffness on biomechanical and self-reported measures of stability. We will also assess how well brief ‘test-drive’ trials of walking with different prosthetic feet can predict longer-term self-reported measures of stability, balance confidence and preference. Trial registration This study was prospectively registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (Clinical Trials Study ID: NCT05473065). Study start date: March 1, 2024.
Real-Time Untargeted Monitoring of Intracellular Metabolism in Live Cells Using <sup>1</sup> H NMR and Extracellular Signal Suppression
Application of CO2 - MICP technology on deep water formation drilling
Work together, move together—Cooperation and rapport promote interpersonal synchrony
Human movement synchrony is one fundamental driving force for social bonding and yet not all individuals are equally likely to engage in interpersonal synchrony. Movement synchrony increases collaboration and feelings of rapport, but it remains unclear whether cooperative interactions between two individuals also result in greater interpersonal synchrony. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether cooperating in one task increased spontaneous movement synchrony in a subsequent unrelated task. Thirty-four same-gender dyads first worked on a jigsaw puzzle – either collaboratively or individually – and subsequently jumped on trampolines facing each other. Additionally, we investigated the potential effects of the participants’ rapport and mood during the experiment. As predicted, dyads who had worked on the puzzle collaboratively displayed greater movement synchrony when later jumping on trampolines than dyads who had worked individually. When we tested for the additional influence of the participants’ initial rapport and mood, however, the effect of the collaborative treatment was qualified by a stronger effect of initial rapport. The results of the current study provide evidence that collaborative interactions and initial rapport are important stepping stones towards interpersonal synchrony and add to the growing body of evidence suggesting that human cooperation and interpersonal synchrony are essentially connected.
Cleavable Hydrophobic Anchors Optimize Immunomodulatory Effects of Oligonucleotides
Network pharmacological prediction of chemical constituents and endophyte metabolites of medicinal plant Shengli grass
Correction: Rational engineering unlocks the therapeutic potential of WHP1: A revolutionary peptide poised to advance wound healing
Synergistic Rh/La Codoping Enables Trap-Mediated Charge Separation in Layered Perovskite Photocatalysts
Magnetic and electric polar regions in the magnetoelectric composite microstructure
Abstract Magnetoelectric (ME) composites containing lead-free oxides with high dielectric constant and switchable electric polarization are required for use in devices in integrated microelectronics and memory storage. Introduction of random local heterogeneity originally meant to enhance ferroelectric polarization is employed in ME composite to generate ME response through simulation and experiment. Using a combination of continuum simulations, atomic force microscopy, and screen printing of ME composite we demonstrate robust magnetoelectric coupling in environmentally benign lead-free rare earth substituted SrTiO $$_3$$ –CoFe $$_2$$ O $$_4$$ system. Distinct from other reports, the locations of polar magnetic regions (PMRs) and electric regions -that are critical for information storage- in the microstructure are identified in this system. Antiparallel local magnetic field vectors dots the microstructure of the composite. Detection of local stress/strain formations in accordance with magnetostriction is a prime validation of the robustness of computational model. Besides, the computed averages of polarization and magnetization along the applied field direction are found to be in good agreement with the measurements. Histograms of local strains were mapped in order to go incisively into the composite microstructure. Substantial build-up of electrical potential (a measure of the abundance of piezoelectric charges) induced by the external magnetic field is one of the key features observed.
LSR-YOLO: A lightweight and fast model for retail products detection
Advanced computer vision techniques, particularly deep learning–based object detection, are enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of product identification in retail settings, driving the integration of intelligent systems within urban environments and smart cities. To address the high computational cost and slow detection speed of existing methods, this study proposes LSR-YOLO, a lightweight object detection framework based on YOLOv8n, designed for deployment in robots and intelligent devices. The model introduces architectural optimizations, including the CSPHet-CBAM attention module, to strengthen feature representation, followed by a channel pruning algorithm tailored to the new architecture to reduce redundancy while maintaining accuracy. Experiments on the Locount dataset demonstrate that LSR-YOLO achieves an inference speed of 357.1 FPS with mAP50 of 72.2% and mAP50-95 of 47.8%. Compared with the baseline YOLOv8n, LSR-YOLO increases inference speed by 246.7 FPS, making it substantially faster and more suitable for real-time retail applications. With only 2,114,768 parameters and 6.6 GFLOPs, it is also significantly lighter than advanced models such as YOLOv11. Furthermore, validation on the COCO dataset confirms the model’s superior generalization ability, underscoring its advantages in both accuracy and computational efficiency.
The Boroxine–Boronic Acid Equilibrium
Medicinal plant leaf disease classification using optimal weighted features with dilated adaptive DenseNet and attention mechanism
Monitoring of Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm formation on platelet storage bag surfaces
Platelet concentrates (PCs) are stored at 20–24˚C in a biologically favorable environment that may support bacterial growth. Staphylococcus epidermidis , a typical contaminant, can form biofilms in PCs, complicating detection and increasing the risk of transfusion-transmitted bacterial infections. The material composition and surface texture of PC storage bags may influence biofilm formation. The impact of different PC storage bag materials on S. epidermidis biofilm formation was evaluated using the ISO 4768:2023(E) crystal violet (CV) assay. Four surface conditions were tested: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plasticized with n-butyryl-tri(n-hexyl)-citrate (BTHC) – both smooth and rough sides, PVC plasticized with tri-(2-ethylhexyl)-trimellitate (TEHTM) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). Coupons and bags made from each material were used in the experiments. Biofilm-positive S. epidermidis was cultured in tryptic soy broth (TSB), PCs and plasma and added on plastic coupons under static conditions or directly in the bags with agitation. Bacterial enumeration and CV assay were performed on days 2, 5, and 7. In TSB, EVA coupons significantly formed more biofilm than the smooth side of PVC-BTHC or TEHTM over seven days. In PCs, more biofilm formed on the rough side of PVC-BTHC coupons than the smooth side, with no other differences between plastics, suggesting similar biofilm amount across PC bag materials in the presence of platelets. No biofilm was detected on coupons in plasma. Under continuous agitation and reduced oxygen levels, only the rough side of PVC-BTHC showed significant biofilm formation in TSB in PC storage bags over seven days. These findings highlight the need for standardized biofilm testing and suggest that some plastics are more conducive to biofilm formation under static conditions. However, during blood bank storage (i.e., continuous agitation and reduced oxygen levels), biofilm formation is limited, regardless of the platelet bag material, thereby reducing the risk of undetected bacterial contamination.
Rapid multiplexed nanopore amplicon sequencing to distinguish Plasmodium falciparum recrudescence from new infection in antimalarial drug trials
Abstract Evaluation of antimalarial drug efficacy against Plasmodium falciparum requires molecular correction to distinguish recrudescence from new infections by comparing parasite genotypes before treatment and in recurrent infections. We aimed to assess the utility of nanopore sequencing in providing rapid corrected drug efficacy estimates, particularly in patients from high-transmission settings where polyclonal infections are common. We optimized a multiplexed AmpSeq panel targeting six microhaplotypes to achieve high and uniform coverage. The assay’s sensitivity and specificity for detecting minority clones in polyclonal infections and its reproducibility were evaluated using a range of mixtures of four P. falciparum laboratory strains at defined ratios. Genetic diversity across the microhaplotype markers was assessed using 20 paired patient samples from a clinical trial. A custom bioinformatics workflow was used to infer haplotypes from polyclonal infections, including minority clones, applying rigorous cutoff criteria for accurate haplotype calling. The nanopore AmpSeq assay provided uniform and high read coverage across all six microhaplotype markers in both laboratory strain mixtures and patient samples. It demonstrated high sensitivity in detecting minority clones (as low as 1:100:100:100 in the 3D7:K1:HB3:FCB1 strain mixtures), high specificity (false-positive haplotypes < 0.01%), and robust reproducibility (intra-assay: 98%; inter-assay: 97%). The markers exhibited high genetic diversity (highest for cpmp with H E =0.99 and 28 unique haplotypes). Across the paired patient samples, the assay consistently distinguished recrudescence from new infections in 17/20 cases (85%) for all six markers. Our study demonstrates the feasibility and robustness of nanopore AmpSeq for distinguishing recrudescence from new infections in paired samples from clinical drug trials, offering a promising tool to obtain rapid corrected estimates of drug failure.