ROI of Online Press Releases

Press releases used to be one of the basic tools of the public relations profession, used by PR practitioners to communicate news directly to journalists. With the advent of new online communication channels, the goals, target audiences, and overall scope of press releases have evolved, transforming press releases themselves into a new communication tool used by public relations and marketing professionals alike.The purpose of this research study was to identify and analyze current patterns in the uses of online press releases. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to identify:Goals of online press releases;Target audiences of online press releases;Criteria for evaluating the success of online press releases; as well asTactics, opportunities and challenges of using online press releases.Ultimately, the goal of the study is to examine the changing roles of public relations and marketing in the context of how the press release is being used as a tool used not only by PR professionals but also by marketing professionals and small business owners for a wide variety of purposes and objectives. Based on the study's results, the SNCR Fellows have compiled a list of recommendations about the use and evaluation of online press releases and some observations about this evolving communications profession

Asymptotically minimax Bayes predictive densities

Given a random sample from a distribution with density function that depends on an unknown parameter $\theta$, we are interested in accurately estimating the true parametric density function at a future observation from the same distribution. The asymptotic risk of Bayes predictive density estimates with Kullback--Leibler loss function $D(f_{\theta}||{\hat{f}})=\int{f_{\theta} \log{(f_{\theta}/ hat{f})}}$ is used to examine various ways of choosing prior distributions; the principal type of choice studied is minimax. We seek asymptotically least favorable predictive densities for which the corresponding asymptotic risk is minimax. A result resembling Stein's paradox for estimating normal means by the maximum likelihood holds for the uniform prior in the multivariate location family case: when the dimensionality of the model is at least three, the Jeffreys prior is minimax, though inadmissible. The Jeffreys prior is both admissible and minimax for one- and two-dimensional location problems.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053606000000885 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

How Easy Is It to Pay Taxes in Croatia?

In 2009, Croatia ranked 42nd among 183 economies on the ease of paying taxes by small and medium-sized enterprises. Despite this still high position, Croatia went down from 2008, when its score was 39. This suggests a need for reforms, such as the simplification of regulations governing the payment of social insurance contributions

Of Discovery and Dread: The Importance of Work Challenges for International Business Travelers’ Thriving and Global Role Turnover Intentions

As frequent travel across international borders has become common for an ever‐increasing number of workers, it is essential to understand what helps these international business travelers (IBTs) thrive and embrace their global work responsibilities. This study's purpose is to examine the role of developmental opportunities (i.e., work role challenges) in helping IBTs see frequent travel as a predominantly beneficial experience. By integrating two theories of motivation—conservation of resources theory and the challenge‐hindrance demands framework—I build a moderated mediation model of IBTs’ intent to cease their global work responsibilities (i.e., global role turnover intentions). Using latent moderated structural equation modeling (LMS) I test the model on a sample of 204 IBTs collected at two time‐points. Results show that, through the psychological state of thriving at work, travel frequency has a negative indirect association with IBTs’ global role turnover intentions when IBTs’ work roles are challenging and a positive association when their work lacks challenge. This is primarily the case regarding the challenge of being responsible for others at work. The novelty of IBTs’ work tasks is also a salient challenge but to a lesser extent. This study contributes to literatures on global work, work role design, and thriving

Magnetization transfer effect on T1 relaxometry on 1.5T vs. 3T

PURPOSE: To assess the variability of incidental magnetization transfer effect (MT) by the number of slices and the magnetic field strength. METHODS: Various magnetic resonance images (MRI) were obtained with a phantom containing a series of solutions of gadolinium (Gd) and sucrose in distilled water, agarose gel and two vials with olive oil and distilled water. A diffusion weighted image (DWI) sequence was acquired to determine diffusion coefficient for each component of the phantom. Several inversion recovery (IR) sequences having different TI values were run for single-slice and used to calculate T1 relaxation time with maximum precision and minimizing magnetization transfer effect. The T1 relaxation value resulting from processing IR sequences was used as reference value. The mixed-TSE sequences were used to calculate T1, T2 and PD values and to assess MT effect for single-slice as for multi-slice acquisition. All the DICOM MR images were processed using various algorithms programmed in Mathcad (version 2001i, PTC Needham, MA) by Dr. Hernan Jara. According with the potential of each sequences the programs generated the qMRI maps and values of T1, T2, PD were obtained for all the components of the phantom. Values resulted from Mathcad calculation were used for analysis. All the acquisitions, calculations and measurements were performed for 1.5T and 3T field strength

A New Direction in University. Teaching between Solidarity, Complexity and Media Education

At the time of an abundance of media o ers and the reduced prestige of the institutions, teaching became strategic to maintaining and rede ning the authority and professional recognition of teachers. It has therefore become advisable to activate a process of self-re ection on the part of universities on the dimensions of didactic innovation and new demands placed on university professors, starting from the reformulation of the mission of the University of the ird Millennium. Areas in need of consideration include: educating to educate (old and new trends in the mode of transmission of knowledge, considering the continuous access to the contents and the new media and cultural behaviours of the students); educating towards an interdisciplinary perspective; educating towards internationalization; educating for integration and solidarity; educating to divulge the results of scienti c research, national and global problems and evolutions in terms of technology and human value; educating with and about the digital media. All these dimensions are explored in the paper, with particular a ention given to the multiple dimensions of Media Literacy for university teachers with regard to overcoming physical, cultural and generational barriers between teachers and students and to up-to-date and democratize the quality university education