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Donor attrition is a major cause of concern for non-profit organisations. Non-profits can improve retention by nurturing donor relationships. Acknowledging or thanking the donor is a vital building block in the non-profit organisation–donor relationship. This paper examines the impact of such acknowledgements on donor relationships. In study 1, we employed cross-sectional data obtained from 478 donors to a regional public television station in the United States. We found that the effect of acknowledgements on the donor relationship is moderated by how frequently the donor gives to the organisation, and that acknowledgements help strengthen the non-profit's relationship with less frequent donors. In study 2, we used an experimental design (111 respondents) to probe the emotional effects of a thank-you note. The findings indicate that acknowledgements enhance positive emotions and alleviate negative emotions; the converse effect is observed when the donor does not get a thank-you note. Thus acknowl...

The stories told by charitable organizations are typically designed to take the consumer through different emotional stages. This research probes the view that following exposure to the inciting incident or problem statement in the appeal for a particular charity, the consumer feels negative emotions. These feelings convert into anticipated positive emotions when the consumer is given the opportunity to help the person in need through a donation. Feedback that donors receive from the charitable organization will help to strengthen the emotional pay-off and enhances future donation intentions. The research utilizes an experimental design and data from 319 undergraduate students in a large U.S. university to confirm these hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are then presented.

This paper proposes a three dichotomies model that encompasses the performance of marketing faculty members in the areas of teaching, research, and service. First, each area is discussed in regard to marketing faculty member performance. Second, employing acceptable/unacceptable performance levels for teaching, research, and service, a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix of eight cells is proposed. One hundred nine chairs, a 24 percent sample response rate, completed a Web survey that addressed four research questions. Chairs rated 930 marketing faculty as being 87 percent effective teachers, 66 percent productive researchers, and 71 percent involved service providers. Forty-seven percent of total faculty performed satisfactorily in all three performance areas. Study results confirmed different performance levels based on institutional mission (teaching, research, or balanced institution), public/private financing, and union/nonunion organizational status. These findings provide insight for marketing faculty members and off...

Approaches to safety regulations-particularly radiation safety regulations-must be founded on the very best science possible. However, radiation safety regulations always lag behind the science for a number of reasons. First, the normal scientific process of peer-review, debate, and confirmation must ensure that the conclusions are indeed correct, the implications of the research are fully understood, and a consensus has been established. Second, in the U.S., there is a well-established, all-inclusive political process that leads to changes in radiation safety regulations. This process can take a very long time, as was demonstrated when the process was initiated to change the Code of Federal Regulations more than 20 y ago in response to International Commission on Radiation Protection Publication 26 and other recommendations. Currently, we find ourselves in a situation where the possibility of a terrorist radiological attack may occur and where the existing body of regulations provides very little guidance. Many international and national bodies, including several federal agencies, have provided recommendations on the appropriate levels of exposure for first-responders and first-receivers, as well as for the general public. However, some agencies provide guidelines based on very conservative dose limits which are not appropriate in situations where there is a substantial chance for the loss of lives and critical infrastructure. It is important that an emergency response is not hampered by overly cautious guidelines or regulations. In a number of exercises the impact of disparate guidelines and training in radiological situations has highlighted the need for clear reasonable limits that maximize the benefit from an emergency response and for any cleanup after the incident. This presentation will focus first on the federal infrastructure established to respond to radiological accidents and incidents. It will review briefly the major recommendations, both international and national, for responders and will attempt, where possible, to establish the scientific foundation for these guidelines. We will also stress the need to clearly and openly communicate the recommendations to the first-responders and the public so that no unnecessary anxiety or associated actions on their part impedes the ability to respond to a disaster. Finally, the use of these guidelines and recommendations by decision-makers at all levels will be discussed. Language: en

In this paper, a theoretical pore geometrical model to mimic a porous body that is fully brine saturated was developed. Analytical equations for porosity and formation resistivity factor, which govern the flow of electricity through the model were derived with no adjustable parameters. The model equations were verified using finite element modelling and the results indicated that pore throat and pore void radii are the most important elements in this model. The porosity of the network model is strongly affected by pore void radius and to a lesser extent by pore throat radius, particularly when pore throat radius is small. The resistivity of the network model when it is fully brine-saturated is strongly affected by pore throat radius and cross-sectional area available to electric current flow and much of the pore void volume can be thought of as electrically dead volume. The formation resistivity factor of the proposed network model is almost entirely controlled by pore throat radius, whereas both pore throat and void radii affect cementation factor. This emphasises that formation resistivity factor and cementation factor are pore geometrical factors only, and more importantly that cementation factor is related to pore geometry rather than cementation.

The RS 2400's cylindrical X-ray source yields dose rates high enough to allow the irradiator to replace widely used gamma irradiators. Except for the leftmost 5 cm, beam uniformity is within 10% at the tube surface. At maximum operating parameters, the beam has HVL(1)=13.66 mm aluminum, HC=0.47, and hv(eq)=88.5 keV. Maximum dose rates to tissue are 65 Gy min(-1)+/-3.1% at tube surface, 37 Gy min(-1)+/-3.1% at center of canisters, 14.1 Gy min(-1)+/-6.5% for thin-shelled oysters, and 12.3 Gy min(-1)+/-6.2% for thick-shelled oysters.

We have developed interviewing techniques for knowledge elicitation based on (1) relevant research and techniques from the social sciences, (2) the nature of expertise, and (3) a desire to avoid reductive bias, one of the pitfalls associated with the acquisition of highly complex knowledge. Our approach consists of four interviewing phases, with guidelines for questions suited to each stage. Descriptive Elicitation reveals important domain concepts as reflected in terms and specialized language. Structured Expansion probes the relationships between these concepts and the organization of the expert's knowledge. Scripting relies on the declarative knowledge found in the two previous stages to uncover procedural knowledge. Validation is important throughout the process of knowledge elicitation to ensure that the knowledge being elicited is correct and adequate to solve the intended class of problems. A prototype “knowledge editor” has been developed to document the knowledge elicited from an expert.

Given institutional accountability and ever-increasing pressure to gain recognition with high-quality research at the highest academic levels, objective performance benchmarks are needed to reward faculty, enhance institutional image, and attract needed funding. Two studies were undertaken to examine advertising scholarship for 1997-2006. The first study examined refereed publications in the top three U. S. advertising journals (Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising), while the second study added a variety of other sources of advertising scholarship. A comprehensive picture of advertising scholarship is developed and suggestions for the discipline are provided.

External competition and marketing have been extensively researched in the for-profit environment and to a lesser extent in the nonprofit environment. However, the concept of competition within a nonprofit organization is indicative of another type of competition, that of ‘internal competition’. Internal competition, operating in the nonprofit's endemic environment of scarce resources, takes place between departments, between individuals, and even within individuals in terms of time and energy spent on differing objectives. Internal competition manifests itself as internal conflicts over not only objectives but also the means for achieving the objectives. This research examines the construct of ‘internal competition’ in the museum portion of the nonprofit sector where marketing is often seen as a ‘necessary but evil’ tool essential for survival. Museum retailing, which has taken on an increasingly vital role in the financial support of museums, offers an opportunity to analyze the nature of internal competition and for developing a scale for measuring internal competition. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Academic work involving nostalgia has shown it to evoke a basket of emotions. This paper proposes a conceptual model that links nostalgia to charitable giving. We argue that the nostalgia evoked by certain NPOs (not-for-profit organizations) is likely to have a bearing on both emotional and familial utility derived by the donor. This in turn is likely to drive the donor commitment to the NPO. Thus by evoking nostalgia, certain NPOs are likely to emotionally engage their current and potential donors, which could facilitate the creation of long-term intimate relationships between them and their donors. However, the extent to which the NPO can evoke nostalgia is likely to depend upon the nostalgia proneness of the donor, the emotional importance of the past experiences evoked by the NPO, and the characteristics of the NPO such as the extent to which the NPO can alleviate the feelings of alienation, discontinuity, and the need for authenticity experienced by the donor. The paper provides a series of research propositions and proposes a research agenda. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An adaptation of a Shakespeare play often employs strategies that simultaneously recover and resist Shakespeare's version, presenting itself, on the one hand, as an adaptation of an original Shakespearean work and, on the other, as an original work daring to use Shakespeare's play as source. Implicit, or explicit, in these adaptations is a declaration of independence from a Shakespearean progenitor that paradoxically reaffirms a Shakespearean allegiance. What could be more Shakespearean than the audacious boast of an upstart crow? Or, in the case of Christine Edzard, little eyases that cry out on the top of question? Indeed, two recent adaptations of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Christine Edzard's The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream and Ed Fraiman and Peter Bowker's d Midsummer Night's Dream (for the Shakespeare Retold series), offer interesting variations of those two strategies, marked by bold redefinitions of space and of audience collaboration. In fact, these two films are not so much adaptations of a Shakespeare play as they are a testing out of Shakespearean and theatrical decorum. Edzard's Dream, as Samuel Crowl, Mark Thornton Burnett and others have observed, challenges not only the opposing structures of theatrical spaces, proscenium and thrust, but the opposing forms of theatrical and cinematic conventions that somehow co-exist interdependently in her film (See, for example, Crowl 163-68 and Burnett 167-68). The Fraiman/ Bowker Dream is set in a Shakespearean theme park called Dream Park. The park not only parodies the structure and imagery of Shakespeare's play but mischievously exploits postmodern critiques of "Shakespeare" as tourist attraction, the spaces of performance--whether festival theaters or bankside Globes or whole communities such as Stratford-upon-Avon--refashioned as theme parks, vacation lands. And yet, for both films, such often rigorous processes of critique and deconstruction frame a celebration of these half-sleep, half-waking energies and delights of Shakespeare's play. In a sense, both the Shakespeare Retold televised version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream are very much about the awkwardness of adaptation, where opposed cinematic and theatrical conventions fight it out for control of this story. Critics such as Michael Hattaway have argued persuasively that one reason comedies have not fared well on film is that the naturalistic and interiorized conventions of film resist the overtly presentational conventions of comedy, especially in the construction of comic character and comic space. As Hattaway notes, "[c]haracters in the comedies ... tend to the typical rather than the individuated and require settings that are neither wholly exterior nor wholly interiorised" (86). But these two productions get their life from such clashing conventions, conventions that, one might think, would have no business operating in the same play, like hot ice and wondrous strange snow. Ed Fraiman and Peter Bowker's BBC television adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream is part of the Shakespeare Retold quartet of Shakespearean adaptations. But "Shakespearean adaptation" is not quite the most useful term to describe these works. As the series title suggests, these stories are not so much dutiful realizations of Shakespeare's texts as they are twice-told tales, ripe for the taking. Each of the four videos is more an adaptation of popular TV series or films or even pop-culture narratives than of a Shakespeare play, despite the fact that the title of each work seems boldly to announce a Shakespearean project. Thus Macbeth, set in a prize-winning restaurant owned by "Executive Chef" Duncan but run by an ambitious head chef, Joe Macbeth, is an adaptation that appropriates not so much Shakespeare's play but two playful adaptations of Macbeth: Joe Macbeth and Scotland, PA. Much Ado About Nothing is set in a TV newsroom, where Beatrice must share an anchor desk with her egotistical former colleague and beau, Benedick. …

Serial diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) during radiochemotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is analyzed to investigate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) as a potential biomarker for tumor response.Ten patients underwent DW-MRI prior to and at three and six weeks during radiochemotherapy. Three methods of contouring primary tumors (PT) were performed to evaluate the impact of tumor heterogeneity on ADC values: PTT: whole tumor volume; PTT-N: PTT-necrosis; PTL: small volume of presumed active tumor with low ADC value. Pretreatment and during-treatment absolute ADC values and ADC value changes were analyzed for PT and involved lymph nodes (LN).ADC values for PTT, PTT-N, PTL and LN increased by 8-14% (PT) and 15% (LN) at three weeks, and 19-26% and 23% at 6 weeks post initial treatment (p=0.04-0.002). Average percent ADC value increase was smaller than tumor volume regression (p=0.06-0.0005). Patients with overall survival12 months had a lower increase of ADC values compared to longer surviving patients (p=0.008 for PTT).Significant ADC value increases during radiochemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer were observed. ADC value change during treatment appears to be an independent marker of patient outcome and warrants further investigation.

This study is the second in a series that analyzes, both independently and in the aggregate, the empirical inter-relationships of financial levels of government support, marketing/development investment and financial health of nonprofit performing arts organizations. Currently in the design stage, this study will build on the previous research to examine those and additional factors—levels of earned/contributed revenue, and artistic and administrative/finance expenses—assessing their correlational and causal inter-relationships with organizational financial health. It also is designed to analyze differences between pre-2008 (pre-recession) data and post-2008 (recession and post-recession) data to assess implications of significant changes in the macro-economic environment for nonprofit arts organizations. This preliminary study examines those factors using data from GuideStar, a database which contains financial reports of nonprofit organizations. The final study will evaluate existing data from the League of American Orchestras robust annual survey of member orchestras.

This study tests the French ad-evoked nostalgia scale in a nomological network of related constructs. Findings reveal significant differences in consumer reactions in France, as compared to earlier research based on American samples. Among the French, nostalgic advertising evokes personal memories and cultural nostalgia, contrasted to reports of past imagery and physiological and emotional reactions in the USA. Further, while cultural nostalgia is an important component of the French personal nostalgic experience, it is the personal memories that are the key to the creation of positive impressions about the ad and brand (brand heritage, brand bonds, and attitudes), as well as drive behavioral intentions.

International audience; The practice of imbuing marketing communications with nostalgic reverie is prevalent in numerous countries. However, scholarly research investigating consumer response to such communication across cultures is lacking. This inquiry follows an emic approach examining and measuring ad-evoked personal nostalgia in France. Findings from five studies (N = 699) reveal significant differences in consumer reactions in France, as compared to earlier research based on American samples. Among the French, nostalgic advertising evokes personal memories and cultural nostalgia, contrasted to reports of past imagery, physiological and positive and negative emotional reactions in the United States. Furthermore, while cultural nostalgia is an important component of the French personal nostalgic experience, it is the personal memories that are the key to the creation of positive impressions about the ad and brand (brand heritage, brand bonds, and attitudes), and driving behavioral intentions. The emic French scale was found to be superior to an etic ad-nostalgia measure, in terms of fit and variance explained of the endogenous variables. The findings contribute to cross-cultural advertising and marketing research, and can be instructive for advertisers targeting the French market.

Nonprofit arts organizations historically have struggled to survive and thrive, since their business models, including their marketing and fund development efforts, often develop reactively rather than being strategically planned and tactically managed to successfully target key stakeholder groups and individuals. In addition, both program ticket sales and contributions from all sources are often affected by changes in economic environments at all levels, which are not directly controllable by arts organizations. The challenges for arts organizations of achieving and maintaining sustainable financial health are serious ones, particularly in many countries which are moving towards government support models which require organizations to become more self-sufficient by improving their fund development and marketing programs.

Charity brands have been found to assist income generation by enhancing donor understanding of an organization and what it stands for. Despite an increasing interest in this topic, few studies have addressed the dimensions of such brands and sought to explore the link (if any) with donor behavior. The authors report the results of a large-scale postal survey of donors to nine national nonprofits and conclude that traits associated with benevolence, progression, and conservatism are incapable of distinguishing between the study's participating brands. Traits associated with emotional engagement, service, voice, and tradition are capable of serving as the basis for differentiation and are also linked to facets of individual giving behavior.

We have shown that dietary fish oil and pectin (FP) protects against radiation-enhanced colon cancer by upregulating apoptosis in colonic mucosa. To investigate the mechanism of action, we provided rats (n = 40) with diets containing the combination of FP or corn oil and cellulose (CC) prior to exposure to 1 Gy, 1 GeV/nucleon Fe-ion. All rats were injected with a colon-specific carcinogen, azoxymethane (AOM; 15 mg/kg), 10 and 17 days after irradiation. Levels of colonocyte apoptosis, prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), PGE(3), microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-2 (mPGES-2), total beta-catenin, nuclear beta-catenin staining (%) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARdelta) expression were quantified 31 weeks after the last AOM injection. FP induced a higher (P0.01) apoptotic index in both treatment groups, which was associated with suppression (P0.05) of antiapoptotic mediators in the cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway (mPGES-2 and PGE(2)) and the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway [total beta-catenin and nuclear beta-catenin staining (%); P0.01] compared with the CC diet. Downregulation of COX and Wnt/beta-catenin pathways was associated with a concurrent suppression (P0.05) of PPARdelta levels in FP-fed rats. In addition, colonic mucosa from FP animals contained (P0.05) a proapoptotic, eicosapentaenoic acid-derived COX metabolite, PGE(3). These results indicate that FP enhances colonocyte apoptosis in AOM-alone and irradiated AOM rats, in part through the suppression of PPARdelta and PGE(2) and elevation of PGE(3). These data suggest that the dietary FP combination may be used as a possible countermeasure to colon carcinogenesis, as apoptosis is enhanced even when colonocytes are exposed to radiation and/or an alkylating agent.

Conjugate gradient methods are appealing for large scale nonlinear optimization problems, because they avoid the storage of matrices. Recently, seeking fast convergence of these methods, Dai and Liao (Appl. Math. Optim. 43:87---101, 2001) proposed a conjugate gradient method based on the secant condition of quasi-Newton methods, and later Yabe and Takano (Comput. Optim. Appl. 28:203---225, 2004) proposed another conjugate gradient method based on the modified secant condition. In this paper, we make use of a multi-step secant condition given by Ford and Moghrabi (Optim. Methods Softw. 2:357---370, 1993; J. Comput. Appl. Math. 50:305---323, 1994) and propose two new conjugate gradient methods based on this condition. The methods are shown to be globally convergent under certain assumptions. Numerical results are reported.

The profitability and morale of many organizations (such as factories, hospitals and airlines) are affected by their ability to schedule their personnel properly. Sophisticated and powerful constraint solvers such as ILOG, CHIP, ECLiPSe, etc. have been demonstrated to be extremely effective on scheduling. Unfortunately, they require non-trivial expertise to use. This paper describes ZDC-rostering, a constraint-based tool for personnel scheduling that addresses the software crisis and fills a void in the space of solvers. ZDC-rostering is easier to use than the above constraint-based solvers and more effective than Microsoft’s Excel Solver. ZDC-rostering is based on an open-source computer-aided constraint programming package called ZDC, which decouples problem formulation (or modelling) from solution generation in constraint satisfaction. ZDC is equipped with a set of constraint algorithms, including Extended Guided Local Search, whose efficiency and effectiveness have been demonstrated in a wide range of applications. Our experiments show that ZDC-rostering is capable of solving realistic-sized and very tightly-constrained problems efficiently. ZDC-rostering demonstrates the feasibility of applying constraint satisfaction techniques to solving rostering problems, without having to acquire deep knowledge in constraint technology.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to address the discrepancy between research that supports the service failure recovery and that which does not by examining customer satisfaction in the event of a service failure empirically.Design/methodology/approachThe objective of the study was achieved by conducting role‐play experiments on undergraduate business students.FindingsAnalysis showed that a service recovery paradox is most likely to occur when the failure is not considered by the customer to be severe, the customer has had no prior failure with the firm, the cause of the failure was viewed as unstable by the customer, and the customer perceived that the company had little control over the cause of the failure.Originality/valueThis information should benefit service managers since service failures are common and typically trigger heightened customer attention. These findings may stimulate future research because the limitations of this study include the use of undergraduate business students and the examination of only one service setting. Nevertheless, this paper does demonstrate that, under the appropriate conditions, a customer can experience a paradoxical satisfaction increase after a service failure.

In single-event Monte Carlo electron transport simulations, elastic scattering events dominate the changes in electron trajectories due to collisions. Classically, the polar scattering angle due to an elastic collision can be sampled efficiently from the screened Rutherford cross section. However, the screened Rutherford cross section fails for both high Z materials and when the incident electron energy becomes too low. Alternatively, improved simulation accuracy for electrons in all energy ranges and through all materials may be obtained by sampling directly from differential data derived from partial-wave-expansion method (PWEM) calculations based on theoretical atomic potential models. While sampling directly from wave calculations will yield simulation results to the best known physical accuracy, it comes at the cost of simulation time. This is due to a sampling process that is typically more involved when compared with using the screened Rutherford cross section. In this work we present a relationship capable of reproducing the moments of the differential cross section derived from PWEM calculations, resulting in good preservation of forward and backscattering peaks. The relationship is directly invertible and is as easily sampled as the Rutherford cross section. Most important, the data presented in this paper in combination with this relationship produce Monte Carlo simulation results which are comparable with those using the exact differential cross section from PWEM calculations for elements Z = 1 to 96 and for incident electron energies from 300,000 down to 50 eV.

This exploratory study researches and analyzes the empirical effects of financial levels of government support and marketing practices on the financial health of nonprofit performing arts organizations. Declining government subsidies and increasing competition from non-traditional sources have presented these organizations with unique opportunities and challenges that call for a market-centered, as well as an art-centered approach. Financial health is critical for the long-term success of a nonprofit performing arts organization. Few empirical studies have examined the interrelationships between these key variables. This study analyzes a sample of 63 American professional symphony orchestras employing 20 years of data. The correlations among financial levels of government support and marketing activities were positive and significant, the correlations among levels of government support and financial health were negative and significant, and the correlations between levels of marketing activity and financial health were negative and varied in significance. Causal analyses were less conclusive, but significant causal relationships were found for large symphony orchestras, indicating that segmentation research may be warranted. Implications and opportunities for future research are presented which have potential application for government agencies, academic researchers, and arts organization managers, boards of directors, and donors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Internal competition and internal cooperation and/or collaboration are constructs that are defined most often in managerial literature. The two constructs are generally seen as having a poor influence on outcomes in the case of internal competition and more positive outcomes in the case of cooperation/collaboration. However, outcomes in the nonprofit world are not so easily defined as in for-profit businesses. Further, the concepts on internal competition and internal cooperation are not well understood in the nonprofit arena. This research explores the concepts using qualitative in-depth interviews from a variety of U.S. non-profit art museums in order to begin the development of a better understanding of how the presence, intensity and nature of internal competition and internal cooperation manifest themselves.

Coopetition (cooperation among organizations and individuals which may, in other contexts, view each other as competitors) is a concept that suggests that organizations with mutual interests can cooperate profitably at one level while competing at another. Ray Noorda, CEO of Novell, coined the term and proposed that often, in order to achieve strategic growth in an organization or industry, “You have to cooperate and compete at the same time.” Coopetition is viewed as an important research area in marketing strategy because of its potential to improve profitability and competitive advantage. This study broadens research on coopetition to an arena in which it has not yet been formally studied and quantitatively assessed - the nonprofit arts subsector, assessing its manifestation in that environment with both qualitative and quantitative studies.

In the current inquiry we add to the emerging research (Ford and Merchant, 2010; Merchant, Ford and Rose, 2011; Zhou, Wildschut, Sedikides, Shi and Feng, 2011) on the influence of nostalgia on charitable donations, by examining the role of childhood icons. We contend that marketers can bank on the value of consumer memories but there are aspects, like icons, that they shouldn’t messed with when trying to appeal to the past, such as PBS’ move to promoting Cookie Monster as Veggie Monster.

The purpose of this study was to determine optimal sets of b-values in diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) for obtaining monoexponential apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) close to perfusion-insensitive intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) model ADC (ADCIVIM) in non-small cell lung cancer. Ten subjects had 40 DW-MRI scans before and during radiotherapy in a 1.5 T MRI scanner. Respiratory triggering was applied to the echo-planar DW-MRI with TR ≈ 4500 ms, TE = 74 ms, eight b-values of 0-1000 μs μm(-2), pixel size = 1.98 × 1.98 mm(2), slice thickness = 6 mm, interslice gap = 1.2 mm, 7 axial slices and total acquisition time ≈6 min. One or more DW-MRI scans together covered the whole tumour volume. Monoexponential model ADC values using various b-value sets were compared to reference-standard ADCIVIM values using all eight b-values. Intra-scan coefficient of variation (CV) of active tumour volumes was computed to compare the relative noise in ADC maps. ADC values for one pre-treatment DW-MRI scan of each of the 10 subjects were computed using b-value pairs from DW-MRI images synthesized for b-values of 0-2000 μs μm(-2) from the estimated IVIM parametric maps and corrupted by various Rician noise levels. The square root of mean of squared error percentage (RMSE) of the ADC value relative to the corresponding ADCIVIM for the tumour volume of the scan was computed. Monoexponential ADC values for the b-value sets of 250 and 1000; 250, 500 and 1000; 250, 650 and 1000; 250, 800 and 1000; and 250-1000 μs μm(-2) were not significantly different from ADCIVIM values (p > 0.05, paired t-test). Mean error in ADC values for these sets relative to ADCIVIM were within 3.5%. Intra-scan CVs for these sets were comparable to that for ADCIVIM. The monoexponential ADC values for other sets-0-1000; 50-1000; 100-1000; 500-1000; and 250 and 800 μs μm(-2) were significantly different from the ADCIVIM values. From Rician noise simulation using b-value pairs, there was a wide range of acceptable b-value pairs giving small RMSE of ADC values relative to ADCIVIM. The pairs for small RMSE had lower b-values as the noise level increased. ADC values of a two b-value set-250 and 1000 μs μm(-2), and all three b-value sets with 250, 1000 μs μm(-2) and an intermediate value approached ADCIVIM, with relative noise comparable to that of ADCIVIM. These sets may be used in lung tumours using comparatively short scan and post-processing times. Rician noise simulation suggested that the b-values in the vicinity of these experimental best b-values can be used with error within an acceptable limit. It also suggested that the optimal sets will have lower b-values as the noise level becomes higher.

This novel display format enables all data in files of any size to be represented on a single screen. The report at the top of the queue or stack in the category of interest is displayed on the right. The numbers in the circles represent the category report count. Reports with critical data are represented in red circles around the inner circle. To improve patient safety and care delivery this structure permits timely critical report acknowledgement and triage of non-critical reports.Display Omitted Invariant single screen EHR visual display.All data within data sets of all sizes represented on a single screen.Data physically partitioned-critical or non-critical for prompt response or work triage.One screen representation of all reports from all EHR systems with interface.Data mining enabled. ObjectiveThe timely acknowledgement of critical patient clinical reports is vital for the delivery of safe patient care. With current EHR systems, critical reports reside on different screens. This leads to treatment delays and inefficient work flows. As a remedy, the R.A.P.I.D. (Root Aggregated Prioritized Information Display) system represents all data on a single screen, and its simple and intuitive "button" array structure allows triaged sign-off/sign-out of critical and non-critical reports. Materials and methodsWith 100 hematology and chemistry reports from each of two EHR systems Meditech (Westwood, MA) and Orchard Labs, Inc. (Carmel, IN), we generated files of the reports in their individual standard display formats (enhanced Meditech-EM and enhanced Orchard-EO). We also displayed the same 200 reports in the R.A.P.I.D. format. We then conducted a randomized trial to compare the time and accuracy of acknowledgement of critical and non-critical results. ResultsThe sign-off times for reviewing the results for physician and non-physician providers, respectively, in seconds (with 95% confidence intervals) were for EM 1.78 (1.40-2.26) and 1.99 (1.72-2.30), for EO 2.69 (2.12-3.42) and 2.78 (2.40-3.21), and for R.A.P.I.D. 0.83 (0.70-0.98) and 1.58 (1.43-1.76). Non-physician providers reassigned system-defined non-critical results as critical with a frequency of 15.2% for EM, 18.4% for EO, and 7.83% for R.A.P.I.D., and critical results as non-critical with a frequency of 14.7%, 5.6%, and 5.8% respectively. DiscussionThe new display system was superior to two standard EHR systems that were significantly enhanced by first collecting the reports from their usual distributed locations and then by creating for each of the two standard EHRs a single file of reports for acknowledgement. ConclusionsFrom a single screen display of all reports, the new display system enables timely acknowledgement of critical reports for patient safety and non-critical report triage for improved provider work flows.

Use of unplanned health care has long been increasing, and not enough is known about which interventions may reduce use. We aimed to review the effectiveness of interventions to reduce the use of unplanned health care by rural populations.The method used was systematic review. Scientific databases (Medline, Embase and Central), grey literature and selected references were searched. Study quality and bias was assessed using Cochrane Risk of Bias and modified Newcastle Ottawa Scales. Results were summarized narratively.A total of 2708 scientific articles, reports and other documents were found. After screening, 33 studies met the eligibility criteria, of which eight were randomized controlled trials, 13 were observational studies of unplanned care use before and after new practices were implemented and 12 compared intervention patients with non-randomized control patients. Eight of the 33 studies reported modest statistically significant reductions in unplanned emergency care use while two reported statistically significant increases in unplanned care. Reductions were associated with preventative medicine, telemedicine and targeting chronic illnesses. Cost savings were also reported for some interventions.Relatively few studies report on unscheduled medical care by specifically rural populations, and interventions were associated with modest reductions in unplanned care use. Future research should evaluate interventions more robustly and more clearly report the results.

Uncertainties persist regarding the assessment of the carcinogenic risk associated with galactic cosmic ray (GCR) exposure during a mission to Mars. The GCR spectrum peaks in the range of 300(-1) MeV n to 700 MeV n(-1) and is comprised of elemental ions from H to Ni. While Fe ions represent only 0.03% of the GCR spectrum in terms of particle abundance, they are responsible for nearly 30% of the dose equivalent in free space. Because of this, radiation biology studies focusing on understanding the biological effects of GCR exposure generally use Fe ions. Acting as a thin shield, the Martian atmosphere alters the GCR spectrum in a manner that significantly reduces the importance of Fe ions. Additionally, albedo particles emanating from the regolith complicate the radiation environment. The present study uses the Monte Carlo code FLUKA to simulate the response of a tissue-equivalent proportional counter on the surface of Mars to produce dosimetry quantities and microdosimetry distributions. The dose equivalent rate on the surface of Mars was found to be 0.18 Sv y(-1) with an average quality factor of 2.9 and a dose mean lineal energy of 18.4 keV μm(-1). Additionally, albedo neutrons were found to account for 25% of the dose equivalent. It is anticipated that these data will provide relevant starting points for use in future risk assessment and mission planning studies.

International audience; The majority of studies of the effectiveness of comparative advertising (CA) have been primarily focused on America and Asia than on European countries. The transferability of comparative advertising practices across markets is still largely unexplored notwithstanding that the effects of CA may vary according to the degree of novelty of comparative advertisements in the country (Nye et al. 2008). This observation is particularly interesting in Europe where countries such as the United Kingdom and Sweden have used CA for a longer period than France (Diannoux and Herrmann 2000). This study examines for the first time the role of opportunity, ability, and motivation to process the message on perceived manipulative intent and consumer evaluations of advertising by proposing a model of effectiveness of direct and indirect comparative advertising.Analyses of responses from participants in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States indicate that direct comparative attacks are not equally embraced by consumers across countries. Furthermore, they tend to generate greater suspicion regarding the manipulative intent than indirect formats. The study provides for the first time evidence that perceived manipulative intent varies according to CA format and evidence of moderating effects in the relationship between motivation to process the message and perceived manipulative intent of Direct Comparative Advertising (DCA). The motivation to process the message reduces perceived manipulative intent only in countries with low familiarity with DCA. The ability to process the message moderates the relationship between processing motivation and perceived manipulative intent.

There is a clear unmet medical need for new pharmacologic therapies with improved efficacy and safety for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Considerable research efforts have been undertaken to discover and develop new safe and effective antiarrhythmic drugs that specifically target atrial K(+) channels. To realize the full value of these novel atrial-specific therapeutic drug targets, demonstration of clinical efficacy and safety is required for a new breed of atrial-selective antiarrhythmic drugs. The reward for demonstrating this in a pivotal phase III trial, on regulatory approval, will be "first-in-class" status. This article reviews the development status of new and novel K channel inhibitors currently in drug development as atrial-selective antiarrhythmics for the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

SummaryPurpose The goal of these studies was to test if local excess of a normal nucleobase substrate prevents the toxicity of protracted 5FU exposure used in human cancer treatment. Methods Messenger RNA expression studies were performed of 5FU activating enzymes in human colon cancer cells lines (CaCo-2, HT-29), primary human gingival cells (HEGP), and normal esophageal and gastric clinical tissue samples. Excess nucleobase was then used in vitro to protect cells from 5FU toxicity. Results Pyrimidine salvage pathways predominate in squamous cells of the gingiva (HEGP) and esophageal tissue. Excess salvage nucleobase uracil but not adenine prevented 5FU toxicity in HEGP cells. Pyrimidine de novo synthesis predominates in columnar Caco-2, HT-29 and gastric tissue. Excess nucleobase adenine but not uracil prevented 5FU toxicity to Caco-2 and HT-29 cells. Conclusion The directed application of the normal nucleobase uracil to the squamous cells of the oral mucosa and palms and soles together with the delivery of the normal nucleobase adenine to the columnar cells of the GI tract may enable the safe delivery of higher 5FU dose intensity. These results also suggest a feature of tissue function where squamous cells grow largely by recycling overlying tissue cell components. Columnar cells use absorbed surface nutrients for de novo growth. A disruption of this tissue function can result in growth derived from an underlying nutrient source. That change would also cause the loss of the region of cell turnover at the tissue surface. Subsequent cell proliferation with limiting nutrient availability could promote oncogenesis in such initiated tissue.

This research assesses the impact of consumer regional affiliation, within a single country, on relationships among various marketing constructs. Secondary qualitative and quantitative data support the premise that decision-making models differ across regional societies in Russia. Primary data were collected from three Russian regions and then employed to assess the invariance of relationships among marketing constructs presented in a structural equations model. Results indicate that perceived relationships among marketing constructs and the model's overall explanatory power differed appreciably among regional societies. This implies that consumer choice models can vary in effectiveness and behave differently across regions within a single country. Another important implication is that a model can produce misleading results when data are generalized to an entire country when gathered in a single location. This research underscores the importance of recognizing regional affiliation within a country and its potential impact upon consumer behavior.

Research on leader-member exchange (LMX) theory typically has measured LMX in a unidimensional manner and has neglected supervisor perceptions of the LMX relationship. The present study developed and validated a multidimensional scale of supervisor LMX based on Liden and Maslyn's (1998) multidimensional subordinate LMX scale. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a multidimensional factor structure for both supervisor and subordinate LMX scales with four distinct dimensions: affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. Results further indicated that these dimensions differentially predicted various criteria indicating that different aspects of the LMX relationship are of greater or lesser importance depending upon the criterion of interest. Additionally, results indicated that multidimensional LMX scales measured from both supervisor and subordinate perspectives predict important individual job attitudes and behaviours above scales that are either unidimensional or measured from just one perspective.

Advancements in parallel and cluster computing have made many complex Monte Carlo simulations possible in the past several years. Unfortunately, cluster computers are large, expensive, and still not fast enough to make the Monte Carlo technique useful for calculations requiring a near real-time evaluation period. For Monte Carlo simulations, a small computational unit called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is capable of bringing the power of a large cluster computer into any personal computer (PC). Because an FPGA is capable of executing Monte Carlo simulations with a high degree of parallelism, a simulation run on a large FPGA can be executed at a much higher rate than an equivalent simulation on a modern single-processor desktop PC. In this paper, a simple radiation transport problem involving moderate energy photons incident on a three-dimensional target is discussed. By comparing the evaluation speed of this transport problem on a large FPGA to the evaluation speed of the same transport problem using standard computing techniques, it is shown that it is possible to accelerate Monte Carlo computations significantly using FPGAs. In fact, we have found that our simple photon transport test case can be evaluated in excess of 650 times faster on a large FPGA than on a 3.2 GHz Pentium-4 desktop PC running MCNP5.

This paper provides the first empirically based marketing model of the perceptions of givers and the resulting impact on donations. Within nonprofit marketing there is a considerable amount of extant research to support the view that both extrinsic and intrinsic variables can be used to separate givers and non-givers to nonprofits. However, they are less useful in explaining the level of support that will be offered. Perceptual factors may offer more utility in this regard. Structural equations models are presented based on a survey of over 1300 donors that link a series of perceptual determinants to the level of the average donation to a specific organization. The potential mediating roles of trust and commitment are also explored. Trust appears unrelated to the direct benefits that accrue to donors as a consequence of their gift. Rather, trust (and indirectly, commitment) is predicated on the perceived benefits supplied to beneficiaries and the manner in which the impact of these benefits is communicated back to donors.

This is a play that celebrates its unities. Every syllable of The Comedy of Errors is spoken in one place, Ephesus, and in one day's time. Not until the end of his career would Shakespeare again lock himself so ruthlessly in the here and now. Yet the language of Ephesus, for all its frenetic, present-tense, comic and commercial activity, resists that unity, haunted by the memory of other times and other places. The long narratives of Egeon and Aemilia that begin and end the play are rooted in thoughts of Syracuse, a lost place made even more inaccessible by the dark backward and abysm that attends the narrative mode used by both of these aged voices. Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse never lose sight of their former home, or of the sea and tides that may bring them back. Indeed, the story of the family's journey from Syracuse to Ephesus is itself a kind of map of place names--what T. W. Baldwin refers to as "the genetics of the geography of Errors" (147)--that includes Corinth, Epidaurus, "farthest Greece" and extends even to "the bounds of Asia" (1.1.93, 132, 133). But the one name that oddly reverberates through this play is none of these, but rather Epidamnum. We hear it mentioned seven times during the play, although its aural resemblance to Epidaurus makes it easy to mistake one city for another, as T. W. Baldwin long ago pointed out (153-54). Sometimes the reference is significant to the Syracusans' "sad stories," a marker of "tragic instance": "A league from Epidamnum had we sailed / Before the always wind-obeying deep / Gave any tragic instance of our harm" (1.1.62-64). But for the most part the references to Epidamnum are more casual. It is the site of "prosperous voyages" that marked Egeon's business successes. It also happens to be the destination of the bark Dromio of Syracuse has secured for their escape. Aemilia relates that she, her son, and servant were rescued, for the moment at least, "[b]y men of Epidamnum" (5.1.355). And the first we see of Antipholus of Syracuse, he is listening to the urgent advice of a merchant: "Therefore give out you are from Epidamnum, / Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate" (1.2.1-2). Throughout the play, the name "Epidamnum," like "Ephesus," is associated with mysterious transformation. It is a site where fortunes and safety are gained and lost, where reputations are achieved and erased. Epidamnum is also, of course, the setting of Plautus's Menaechmi, itself the descendent of some ghostly "Greek original now lost" (Barton 81) and one of the principle sources for the play that achieved for Shakespeare his reputation as a comic dramatist. That Shakespeare would so insistently remind his audience of the source he had transformed was a bold and confident announcement by this upstart crow that Plautus's play, whatever its past identity, had now become The Comedy of Errors. The genesis of Errors's identity, then, was one of adaptation, "the one so like the other / As could not be distinguished but by names" (1.1.51-52). Throughout most of this play's performance history, however, the tide had turned. This play that had so boldly transformed Plautus's work lost its own identity, either through dismissive critical neglect or zealous directorial correction. After two early and celebrated performances, one at Gray's Inn in 1594 and a second in 1604, there is no record of the play being performed again until the mid-eighteenth century. And for the next two hundred and fifty years, the play was often adapted and "improved," sometimes beyond recognition. Charles Whitworth, in his introduction to the Oxford edition of The Comedy of Errors, notes that a large part of the history of the play's production, from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth, with the notable exception of the 1938 Theodor Komisarjevsky production at Stratford-upon-Avon, rested on cynical and dismissive assessments of the play. "Thus," Whitworth concludes, "well into the twentieth century the play's patent feebleness was felt to justify any liberties in production (if produced it must be), just as it always had. …