Tea: Transfer of Mycotoxins from the Spiked Matrix into an Infusion

Recent surveys report the occurrence of Aspergillus and Penicillium metabolites (aflatoxins (AFLs), ochratoxin A (OTA), cyclopiazonic and mycophenolic acids (MPA), sterigmatocystin (STC), citrinin), Fusarium (trichothecenes, zearalenone (ZEA), fumonisins (FBs), enniatins (ENNs)) and Alternaria (alternariol (AOH), its methyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TE), and tenuazonic acid (TNZ)) toxins in dry Camellia sinensis and herbal tea samples. Since tea is consumed in the form of infusion, correct risk assessment needs evaluation of mycotoxins’ transfer rates. We have studied the transfer of AFLs, OTA, STC, deoxynivalenol (DON), ZEA, FBs, T-2, and HT-2 toxins, AOH, AME, TE, ENN A and B, beauvericin (BEA), and MPA from the spiked green tea matrix into an infusion under variation of preparation time and water characteristics (total dissolved solids (TDS) and pH). Analytes were detected by HPLC-MS/MS. The main factors affecting transfer rate proved to be mycotoxins’ polarity, pH of the resulting infusion (for OTA, FB2, and MPA) and matrix-infusion contact period. The concentration of mycotoxins increased by 20–50% within the first ten minutes of infusing, after that kinetic curve changed slowly. The concentration of DON and FB2 increased by about 10%, for ZEA, MPA, and STC it stayed constant, while for T-2, TE, AOH, and AFLs G1 and G2 it went down. Maximum transfer correlated well with analytes polarity. Maximum transfer of ENNs, BEA, STC, ZEA, and AOH into infusion was below 25%; AFLs—25–45%; DON, TE, and T-2 toxins 60–90%, FB1—80–100%. The concentration of OTA, MPA, and FB2 in the infusion depended on its pH. At pH about four, 20%, 40%, and 60% of these toxins transferred into an infusion, at pH about seven, their concentrations doubled. Water TDS did not affect transfer significantly.

Enhancing Transfer of Learning from Seminary Classes to Pastoral Ministry

The author provides an overview of the research on transfer of learning and makes application to theological education and pastoral training. The author defines the concept and contextualizes it for clergy education as: the effective and continuing application by student pastors to their performance of ministry of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs gained through seminary learning activities. The author surveys several of the most significant models of learning transfer, including Baldwin & Ford’s (1988) seminal model, and discusses the three broad variables that affect transfer: individual learner characteristics, the design of the educational program, and the context of the work and ministry environment. The article concludes with ten recommendations for enhancing transfer of learning from seminary classes to pastoral ministry.

Regulatory fit/nonfit and in-game advertising effectiveness on children

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to see whether children’ regulatory fit/nonfit can moderate the implicit influence of in-game advertising. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was done with 418 children (aged 7–11) from three primary schools in a middle-size city in China that voluntarily took part in the experiment. Children were randomly allocated to the following four conditions: playing a game without any brands (a control group), playing the same game and exposed to a subtle in-game advertising (a test control group), playing the same branded game with regulatory fit (regulatory fit group) and playing the same branded game with regulatory nonfit (regulatory nonfit group). Findings The results first suggest exposure to in-game advertising makes children more likely to choose it afterward, despite most of them are not aware being exposed to it. The results further suggest children’s regulatory fit does not further increase children’s choice of the focal brand, suggesting linking the focal brand to fun and engaging game experiences is sufficient to influence their brand choice. However, children’s regulatory nonfit attenuates the implicit influence of in-game advertising. Originality/value By focusing on children’s game strategy, this research complements the extant literature that only focuses on advertising features and/or game character to document the implicit influence of in-game advertising. In addition, by focusing on regulatory fit/nonfit, this paper provides initial evidence how contextual factors such as children’s game strategy may help them cope with advertising influence built on affect transfer.

Transfer: A Review for Biology and the Life Sciences

Transfer of knowledge from one context to another is crucial in education, but difficult for students to achieve. This review discusses how different factors such as learner abilities, taught material, and lesson characteristics affect transfer performance in biology and life sciences education and offers practical advice for teachers.

A Meta-Analysis of When and How Advertising Creativity Works

Although creativity is often considered a key success factor in advertising, the marketing literature lacks a systematic empirical account of when and how advertising creativity works. The authors use a meta-analysis to synthesize the literature on advertising creativity and test different theoretical explanations for its effects. The analysis covers 93 data sets taken from 67 papers that provide 878 effect sizes. The results show robust positive effects but also highlight the importance of considering both originality and appropriateness when investing in advertising creativity. Moderation analyses show that the effects of advertising creativity are stronger for high- (vs. low-) involvement products, and that the effects on ad (but not brand) reactions are marginally stronger for unfamiliar brands. An empirical test of theoretical mechanisms shows that affect transfer, processing, and signaling jointly explain these effects, and that originality mainly leads to affect transfer, whereas appropriateness leads to signaling. The authors also call for further research connecting advertising creativity with sales and studying its effects in digital contexts.

The Effect of Share Ownership Concentration and Company Operation Complexity towards Transfer Pricing Decisions

This research aims to examine the effect of share ownership concentration and company operation complexity on transfer pricing decisions. The transfer pricing decision in this research is measured by the total indicators of related party transactions of the company. The population in this research are all companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2017 to 2018. The sample selection technique used is purposive sampling and hence, 116 companies have been obtained. The data used in this research were obtained from financial statement data. The data analysis method used in the research is the multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that share ownership concentration did not affect transfer pricing decisions, whereas company operation complexity projected by multinationality had a significant positive effect on transfer pricing decisions. Research shows that multinational companies are considered to have more significant opportunities by taking advantage of the differences in tax rates.

Consumers’ Responses to Tie-In Brand Purchase Intention in Event Sponsorships

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test a conceptual model showing the effect of consumer responses (cognitive and emotion) towards tie-in brand purchase intention in event sponsorships. Tie-in brand refers to the brand which is sponsoring any event. Consumer responses are generated towards both event and tie-in brand simultaneously as both brand and event are connected. In the model, the cognition and emotion generated by both event and brand are modelled as the major antecedents to develop consumer’s hedonic experience and utilitarian value judgements which in turn direct consumer’s purchase behaviour towards the tie-in brand. Data was collected through structured questionnaire-based surveys from spectators aged 18 and above, at two major events held in India. Structural Equation Modelling was employed to validate and test the conceptual model. The study findings show that in event sponsorships spectators’ cognitive and emotional responses towards both the events and the sponsoring brands play a key role in the formation of hedonic-utilitarian value judgements. The hedonic-utilitarian evaluation of event further leads to the development of affective and cognitive evaluation of the brand, which in turn predicts consumer’s purchase intention towards the brand. A model showing the mechanism of spectators’ cognition-affect transfer from event to sponsor brand is relatively scarce and inconclusive in the prior literature. Thus, this study is the first attempt to show how spectators’ cognition-affect transfer can occur in event sponsorships, and provide the marketers with insights about the psychological process through which event sponsorship would generate spectators’ purchase intentions toward the tie-in brands.

Transfer in L3 cognate language acquisition: The role of language background on instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition

Research on L3 acquisition has highlighted the importance of cross-linguistic influence in adult language acquisition. Specifically, the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) for L3 acquisition predicts full transfer from the most structurally similar background language at the initial stages of acquisition. However, it is unclear how language background might affect transfer. Furthermore, it is not known how applicable the TPM is to instructed L3 language acquisition. Consequently, this study examines Spanish/English bilinguals, their knowledge of mood distinctions in subjunctive-dominant contexts in Spanish and their transfer of that knowledge at the beginning stages of instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition. Data from eight L1 Spanish, 22 L2 Spanish, and 38 Spanish heritage bilinguals were analyzed to determine if the groups differed in their knowledge of mood distinctions, first in Spanish and subsequently in Portuguese. Results indicate a significant role of language background on all tasks.