How do salespeople help make buyer’s resources available?

Purpose of the paper and literature addressed There is great emphasis by researchers on the issue of co-creation of value across business-to-business buyer-seller relationships because co-creation is the source of much development of improved products, processes, and relationship value outcomes. Therefore an important issue for managers in a selling organization is how they can ensure good access to the resources of their buyers, as it is the interaction between buyer and seller and the resultant integration of resources that is the basis for co-creation. This paper deals with a closely related concern: how do salespeople facilitate availability of a buyer’s important and useful resources to effect positive outcomes for the firm? The study utilizes the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing integration and network concepts and the sales literature to identify a set of dimensions of the activities into which a salesperson should put his or her efforts in order to facilitate the availability of customers’ resources to the sellers’ firm and thereby aid value creation. The study then tests the validity of these dimensions through several steps. Research method The study first reviews the literature to identify six activities to test as dimensions of a “salesperson’s level of effort” in facilitating availability of the buyer’s resources to the seller. The researchers next interview senior company executives to further develop the dimensions and help identify measures. A survey then collects quantitative data and analyzes it using correlations and confirmatory factor analysis. Research findings After purification of some items out of the scales, the study’s measurement model has good fit statistics and the dimensions of the “salesperson’s level of effort” construct show good reliability and validity. The six dimensions are effort by the salesperson in: learning about the buyer; learning about the seller (their own firm); customer contact; providing service; selling; co-ordination. Main contribution The study develops a set of measures for level of salesperson’s effort in relationship development and the ability of the seller to access its buyer’s resources. By doing so, the study provides the basis for further research into relations between salesperson’s effort, availability of buyer’s resources, and relationship outcomes which research can assess in terms of value and performance

Dietary factors and Type 2 diabetes in the Middle East : what is the evidence for an association? - A systematic review.

This review aims to search and summarise the available evidence on the association between dietary factors and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Middle Eastern populations, where diabetes prevalence is among the highest in the world. Electronic databases were searched; authors, libraries, and research centres in the Middle East were contacted for further studies and unpublished literature. Included studies assessed potential dietary factors for T2DM in Middle Eastern adults. Two reviewers assessed studies independently. Extensive searching yielded 17 studies which met the inclusion criteria for this review. The findings showed that whole-grain intake reduces the risk of T2DM, and potato consumption was positively correlated with T2DM. Vegetables and vegetable oil may play a protective role against T2DM. Dietary patterns that are associated with diabetes were identified, such as Fast Food and Refined Grains patterns. Two studies demonstrated that lifestyle interventions decreased the risk of T2DM. In summary, the identified studies support an association between some dietary factors and T2DM; however, many of the included studies were of poor methodological quality so the findings should be interpreted with caution. The review draws attention to major gaps in current evidence and the need for well-designed studies in this area

MSI-CIEC: MSI Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment Coalition and the TeraGrid

Paper written as a collaboration of the following institutions and presented at the 2006 TeraGrid Conference, Indianapolis, IN June 12-16: 1. University of Houston Downtown 2. NAFEO: National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education 3. SDSC: San Diego Supercomputer Center 4. Indiana University, Computer Science Department 5. AIHEC: The American Indiana Highter Education Consortium 6. HACU: Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universitie

SpikingLab: modelling agents controlled by Spiking Neural Networks in Netlogo

The scientific interest attracted by Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) has lead to the development of tools for the simulation and study of neuronal dynamics ranging from phenomenological models to the more sophisticated and biologically accurate Hodgkin-and-Huxley-based and multi-compartmental models. However, despite the multiple features offered by neural modelling tools, their integration with environments for the simulation of robots and agents can be challenging and time consuming. The implementation of artificial neural circuits to control robots generally involves the following tasks: (1) understanding the simulation tools, (2) creating the neural circuit in the neural simulator, (3) linking the simulated neural circuit with the environment of the agent and (4) programming the appropriate interface in the robot or agent to use the neural controller. The accomplishment of the above-mentioned tasks can be challenging, especially for undergraduate students or novice researchers. This paper presents an alternative tool which facilitates the simulation of simple SNN circuits using the multi-agent simulation and the programming environment Netlogo (educational software that simplifies the study and experimentation of complex systems). The engine proposed and implemented in Netlogo for the simulation of a functional model of SNN is a simplification of integrate and fire (I&F) models. The characteristics of the engine (including neuronal dynamics, STDP learning and synaptic delay) are demonstrated through the implementation of an agent representing an artificial insect controlled by a simple neural circuit. The setup of the experiment and its outcomes are described in this work

Cultural Identity and Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

Connection with Country, community, and culture lies at the heart of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health and wellbeing. Although there is some evidence on the role of cultural identity on the mental health of Indigenous adults, this relationship is relatively unexplored in the context of Indigenous Australian children. Robust empirical evidence on the role of cultural identity for social and emotional wellbeing is necessary to design and develop effective interventions and approaches for improving the mental health outcomes for Indigenous Australian children. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), we explore social and emotional wellbeing in Indigenous Australian children and assesses whether cultural identity protects against social-emotional problems in Indigenous children. The results show that Indigenous children with strong cultural identity and knowledge are less likely to experience social and emotional problems than their counterparts. Our work provides further evidence to support the change from a deficit narrative to a strengths-based discourse for improved health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australian children

On three-point connectivity in two-dimensional percolation

We argue the exact universal result for the three-point connectivity of critical percolation in two dimensions. Predictions for Potts clusters and for the scaling limit below p_c are also given.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Boundary RG Flow Associated with the AKNS Soliton Hierarchy

We introduce and study an integrable boundary flow possessing an infinite number of conserving charges which can be thought of as quantum counterparts of the Ablowitz, Kaup, Newell and Segur Hamiltonians. We propose an exact expression for overlap amplitudes of the boundary state with all primary states in terms of solutions of certain ordinary linear differential equation. The boundary flow is terminated at a nontrivial infrared fixed point. We identify a form of whole boundary state corresponding to this fixed point.Comment: 54 page

Constraints on the redshift evolution of astrophysical feedback with Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect cross-correlations

An understanding of astrophysical feedback is important for constraining models of galaxy formation and for extracting cosmological information from current and future weak lensing surveys. The thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, quantified via the Compton-y parameter, is a powerful tool for studying feedback, because it directly probes the pressure of the hot, ionized gas residing in dark matter halos. Cross-correlations between galaxies and maps of Compton-y obtained from cosmic microwave background surveys are sensitive to the redshift evolution of the gas pressure, and its dependence on halo mass. In this work, we use galaxies identified in year one data from the Dark Energy Survey and Compton-y maps constructed from Planck observations. We find highly significant (roughly 12σ) detections of galaxy-y cross-correlation in multiple redshift bins. By jointly fitting these measurements as well as measurements of galaxy clustering, we constrain the halo bias-weighted, gas pressure of the Universe as a function of redshift between 0.15≲z≲0.75. We compare these measurements to predictions from hydrodynamical simulations, allowing us to constrain the amount of thermal energy in the halo gas relative to that resulting from gravitational collapse