Involvement, Tate and me

The involvement construct has been explored in relation to products, services and leisure but not in an art museum context. The purpose of this paper is to address this theoretical gap by drawing on the marketing and leisure literature to understand members’ consumption of Tate using the involvement construct. Tate, a portfolio of four art museums in the UK has more than 90,000 members that receive a benefits package in return for a membership fee. Data were collected using an interpretive, qualitative approach. 59 face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with Tate Members during spring 2008. The narratives expose the complexity in exploring the involvement construct and the analysis revealed six new involvement characteristics: 1) Centrality and Pleasure; 2) Desire to Learn; 3) Escapism: Spirituality and Creativity; 4) Sense of Belonging and Prestige; 5) Physical; and 6) Drivers of Involvement. These are discussed in the context of previous studies into museum consumption, services and leisure involvement literature. The authors discuss how these findings may be transferred to other settings and the managerial implications for marketers and membership managers are considered

Strengthening the Campus Leadership Team through Effective Principal and Counselor Relationships: Implications for Training

Campuses with successful leadership teams have a better opportunity to meet the ever-increasing and complex needs of the students they serve (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann, 2002). These successful campuses are strengthened when they include strong principals and counseling teams with shared mutual trust and understanding that permeates the school climate (DeVoss & Andrews, 2006). A review of the literature revealed a paucity of studies examining the nature of successful principal-counselor relations and the impact of this relationship on student success, effective campus leadership teams, and an effective school climate that promotes learning. Meaningful dialogue and discussion of this critical professional relationship also were found lacking in the major counseling and educational leadership professional journals

Judge John Minor Wisdom: Our Friend and Mentor

Tribut

Higher Twist, ξw\xi_w Scaling, and Effective LOPDFsLO PDFs for Lepton Scattering in the Few GeV Region

We use a new scaling variable $\xi_w$, and add low $Q^2$ modifications to GRV98 leading order parton distribution functions such that they can be used to model electron, muon and neutrino inelastic scattering cross sections (and also photoproduction) at both very low and high energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be published in J. Phys. G (Conf. Proceedings) based on two talks by Arie Bodek at the NuFact$'02$ conference, Imperial College, London, England, July 200

Planning a Family:priorities and concerns in rural Tanzanmia

A fertility survey using qualitative and quantitative techniques described a high fertility setting (TFR 5.8) in southern Tanzania where family planning use was 16%. Current use was influenced by rising parity, educational level, age of last born child, breastfeeding status, a\ud preference for longer than the mean birth interval (32 months), not being related to the household head, and living in a house with a tin roof. Three principal concerns amongst women were outlined from the findings. First, that there is a large unmet need for family planning services in the area particularly among teenagers for whom it is associated with induced abortion. Second, that family planning is being used predominantly for spacing but fears\ud associated with it often curtail effective use. Third, that service provision is perceived to be lacking in two main areas — regularity of supply, and addressing rumours and fears associated with family planning. Reproductive health interventions in the area should ultimately be more\ud widespread and, in particular, abortion is highlighted as an urgent issue for further research.\ud The potential for a fast and positive impact is high, given the simplicity of the perceived needs of\ud women from this study. (Afr J Reprod Health 2004; 8[2]:111-123)\u

Orthosis reduces breast pain and mechanical forces through natural and augmented breast tissue in women lying prone

BACKGROUND: Breast implant displacement or rupture can cause aesthetic problems and serious medical complications. Activities with prone positioning and loading of the anterior chest wall, such as massage, chiropractic or osteopathic therapies may increase the risk of implant failure and can also cause discomfort in women with natural breast tissue. Here we test the effectiveness of a newly developed orthosis on pain, mechanical pressure and displacement of breast tissue in women with cosmetic augmentation, post-mastectomy reconstruction, lactating or natural breast tissue. METHODS: Thirty-two females volunteers, aged 25–56 years with augmented, reconstructed, natural or lactating breast tissue and cup sizes B-F, participated in this open-label clinical trial. We measured pain perception, peak pressure, maximum force, and breast tissue displacement using different sizes of the orthosis compared to no orthosis. Different densities of the orthosis were also tested in a subgroup of women (n = 7). Pain perception was rated using a validated 11-point visual-analogue scale. Peak pressure and maximum force were assessed using a bilateral set of capacitance-pliance® sensor strips whilst participants were load bearing in a prone position, and breast displacement was measured by magnetic-resonance-imaging. RESULTS: The orthosis significantly reduced pain, breast displacement and mechanical pressures in women with natural and augmented breast tissue in prone position. Greater relief of pain and greater reduction in mechanical forces were found with increased size and density of the orthosis. Use of the orthosis improved overall comfort by 64-100%, lowered peak pressure by up to 85% and maximum force by up to 96%. Medio-lateral displacement of breast tissue was reduced by 16%, resulting in a 51% desirable increase of breast tissue height. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the newly developed orthosis significantly reduced pain, mechanical pressure and breast tissue displacement in women with augmented and natural breast tissue when lying prone. Our findings are of clinical significance, potentially reducing the risk of complication from prone activities in women with breast augmentation or reconstruction, as well as improving comfort whilst undergoing prone procedures. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register, ACTRN12613000541707

Singular solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic equations and applications

We study the properties of solutions of fully nonlinear, positively homogeneous elliptic equations near boundary points of Lipschitz domains at which the solution may be singular. We show that these equations have two positive solutions in each cone of $\mathbb{R}^n$, and the solutions are unique in an appropriate sense. We introduce a new method for analyzing the behavior of solutions near certain Lipschitz boundary points, which permits us to classify isolated boundary singularities of solutions which are bounded from either above or below. We also obtain a sharp Phragm\'en-Lindel\"of result as well as a principle of positive singularities in certain Lipschitz domains.Comment: 41 pages, 2 figure

An algorithm for the weighting matrices in the sampled-data optimal linear regulator problem

The sampled-data optimal linear regulator problem provides a means whereby a control designer can use an understanding of continuous optimal regulator design to produce a digital state variable feedback control law which satisfies continuous system performance specifications. A basic difficulty in applying the sampled-data regulator theory is the requirement that certain digital performance index weighting matrices, expressed as complicated functions of system matrices, be computed. Infinite series representations are presented for the weighting matrices of the time-invariant version of the optimal linear sampled-data regulator problem. Error bounds are given for estimating the effect of truncating the series expressions after a finite number of terms, and a method is described for their computer implementation. A numerical example is given to illustrate the results

Bound Chains of Tilted Dipoles in Layered Systems

Ultracold polar molecules in multilayered systems have been experimentally realized very recently. While experiments study these systems almost exclusively through their chemical reactivity, the outlook for creating and manipulating exotic few- and many-body physics in dipolar systems is fascinating. Here we concentrate on few-body states in a multilayered setup. We exploit the geometry of the interlayer potential to calculate the two- and three-body chains with one molecule in each layer. The focus is on dipoles that are aligned at some angle with respect to the layer planes by means of an external eletric field. The binding energy and the spatial structure of the bound states are studied in several different ways using analytical approaches. The results are compared to stochastic variational calculations and very good agreement is found. We conclude that approximations based on harmonic oscillator potentials are accurate even for tilted dipoles when the geometry of the potential landscape is taken into account.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Few-body Systems special issue on Critical Stability, revised versio