Social Media Strategies Used in Marketing Custom Bicycle Framebuilding Companies

Social media is a cost-effective marketing tool, and in a 2014 survey, 75% of small business owners reported that they used social media to market. However, many of these businesses merely set up social media profiles and do not use social media to its full potential. Microenterprise owners face barriers such as lack of time, financial resources, and marketing knowledge, preventing them from adopting social media as a marketing tool. This multiple case study explored what strategies microenterprise owners in the artisan economy need to market using social media. Data were collected from 5 custom bicycle framebuilders in a Southwestern U.S. state through semistructured interviews with open-ended questions. Company documents and social media reviews were also used for data collection and triangulation. The diffusion of innovations theory was the conceptual framework of this study to aid understanding of framebuilders\u27 social media adoption process and social media usage. Thematic analysis identified 7 themes that emerged from the data: technological competence, the establishment of social media presence, effective utilization of social media platforms, effective communication skills, the establishment of brand identity, time management, and acquisition of external support. The study findings are expected to help artisan microenterprise owners harness social media and, in turn, improve business practices, increase sales, and promote their crafts, which may lead to positive social outcomes. The results of the study will assist artisan microenterprise owners source materials locally from other small businesses, a process that prevents money from leaving the local economy and helps to build strong communities

Improved scale-down model development case study for raw materials screening

The lack of an adequate scale-down model for the cell culture stages of legacy processes is an ongoing issue across the industry. This presentation will describe an existing scale-down model, the modifications made to it, and an example of the utility of the new model. The scale-down model for Process X was originally developed based on power per unit volume, with minimal modification to accommodate other input parameters. This scale-down model performed significantly differently from the manufacturing-scale process with respect to cell growth, metabolites, and productivity. For example, the productivity in the scale-down model was 3 to 4 times higher than at the manufacturing scale, and the peak viable cell density (PVCD) for the scale-down model was two times the PVCD of the manufacturing scale, while cell viability was also consistently higher in the scale-down model. There was a clear need to develop a scale-down model that takes into account additional scaling parameters and better mimics manufacturing scale to increase understanding of the manufacturing-scale process. Analysis of mixing and sparging parameters indicates that the manufacturing scale results differed significantly from the model. The scale-down model was therefore modified to reduce air flow rates, increase the total volume, and to over-sparge air early in the process to better mimic the manufacturing-scale behavior and trends. These changes resulted in a scale-down model which closely matches the large-scale growth, viability, and metabolite profiles. This scale-down model has been used to successfully screen raw materials which are known to impact the manufacturing-scale process. This improved scale-down model will enable process improvement studies, effective satellite runs, improve understanding of manufacturing-scale results, address deviations, and will help ensure robust production

PedLER: Pediatric Longitudinal Experience with Residents

Pediatric Longitudinal Experience with Residents (PedLER) is a unique program at the University of Toronto, designed to foster formal mentorship between pediatric residents and first-year medical students

Transgenic Alfalfa That Accumulates Piceid (Trans-Resveratrol-3-O−β-D-glucopyranoside) Requires the Presence of β -Glucosidase to Inhibit the Formation of Aberrant Crypt Foci in the Colon of CF-1 Mice

Plants have been genetically enhanced to produce a number of products for agricultural, industrial and pharmaceutical purposes. This technology could potentially be applied to providing chemoprevention strategies to the general population. Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxystilbene) is a compound that has been shown to have protective activity against a number of cancers and could be an ideal candidate for such an application. Alfalfa that was genetically modified to express resveratrol-synthase was used as a model in applying biotechnological approaches to cancer prevention. The transgenic alfalfa, which accumulates resveratrol as a glucoside (piceid = trans-resveratrol-3-O−β-D-glucopyranoside) (152 ± 17.5 μ g piceid/g dry weight), was incorporated into a standard mouse diet at 20% of the diet by weight and fed for 5 wk to 6-wk-old, female CF-1 mice (N = 17–30) that were injected with a single dose of azoxymethane (5 mg/kg body weight). While the addition of resveratrol-aglycone (20 mg/kg diet) to the basal diet reduced the number of aberrant crypt foci/mouse, the transgenic alfalfa did not inhibit the number, size, or multiplicity of aberrant crypt foci in the colon of the CF-1 mice relative to control alfalfa which does not accumulate resveratrol-glucoside. However, diets containing transgenic alfalfa with an exogenous β -glucosidase (860 U/kg diet) did significantly inhibit the number of aberrant crypt foci in the distal 2 cm of the colon of the mice relative to mice fed diets containing the transgenic alfalfa without the enzyme (P \u3c 0.05; Fisher\u27s Combination of p-values). The β -glucosidase alone appeared to have no effect on the inhibition of aberrant crypt foci. These results suggest that piceid in transgenic piceid-accumulating alfalfa was not bioavailable

Dietary energy restriction, in part through glucocorticoid hormones, mediates the impact of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on jun D and fra-1 in sencar mouse epidermis

Dietary energy restriction (DER, 40% calorie reduction from fat and carbohydrate) inhibited mouse skin carcinogenesis and decreased 12-O-tetradecanoyl-13-phorbol acetate (TPA)-induced activator protein-1 (AP-1):DNA binding previously. This study measured protein levels of c-jun, jun B, jun D, c-fos, fra-1, and fra-2 and examined their contribution to AP-1:DNA binding by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) with supershift analysis in the epidermis of control and DER Sencar mice exposed to TPA. TPA significantly increased c-jun, jun B, c-fos, fra-1, and fra-2 and decreased jun D within 3–6 h after treatment. AP-1:DNA binding reached a maximum 2.5-fold induction over controls 4 h after TPA treatment and antibodies to jun B, jun D, and fra-2 in the EMSA binding reaction resulted in supershifts in both acetone- and TPA-treated mice 1–6 h after treatment. The effect of corticosterone (CCS) and DER on the AP-1 proteins and on the composition of the AP-1:DNA complex was measured in adrenalectomized (adx) mice. DER reduced the TPA impact on jun D and enhanced the induction of fra-1. In addition, CCS-supplemented groups had significantly lower jun D and higher fra-2 than adx groups and sham groups. While sham animals treated with either acetone or TPA contained jun B, jun D, and fra-2 proteins in the AP-1:DNA complex by supershift analysis, fra-2 was no longer seen in adx DER animals. In summary, our study supports potential roles for jun D, jun B, and fra-1 in the DER regulation of AP-1 function in the Sencar mouse skin carcinogenesis model

Development and qualification of a scale-down model of a commercial mammalian cell culture bioreactor using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques can be used to develop and/or optimize a scale-down model to investigate mixing, oxygen mass transfer characteristics and turbulence, strain rate, and bubble size distribution in laboratory-scale stirred-tank bioreactors. In this work, CFD was used to test and modify a laboratory-scale bioreactor model of a manufacturing-scale bioreactor. The laboratory-scale model was originally established based on power per volume (P/V) and volume of gas per bioreactor volume per minute (vvm). CFD simulations of mixing time, power input, and gas volume hold-up were performed to demonstrate comparability between the laboratory-scale model and the manufacturing-scale bioreactor. These simulations were verified with experimental measurement of mixing time and gas hold-up. The results were used to propose sparge rate and impeller agitation as factors in a Design of Experiments (DoE) study in laboratory-scale bioreactors. The impact of sparge rate and impeller agitation on cell growth, productivity, and product quality attributes were evaluated in the DOE study. The laboratory-scale production bioreactor model was compared to the manufacturing-scale production bioreactor. The results confirmed that CFD techniques could be used to establish sparge rate and impeller agitation to improve a scale-down model

Attributionally More Complex People Show Less Punitiveness and Racism

Based on past findings that attributionally more complex people make less fundamental attribution error, it was hypothesized that they would show less punitiveness and racism. In a study of 102 undergraduates, this hypothesis received robust support. The effect of attributional complexity was significant in 2 different punitiveness measures, a rehabilitation support measure, and 2 different racism measures. Also, this effect still held when demographic variables, crime victimization history, and need for cognition were statistically controlled. Moreover, attributional complexity mediated the effect of need for cognition and gender on punitiveness and racism. Theoretical implications are discussed

Bis[(1S*,2S*)-trans-1,2-bis­(diphenyl­phosphin­oxy)cyclo­hexa­ne]chlorido­ruthenium(II) trifluoro­methane­sulfonate dichloro­methane disolvate

The crystal structure of a racemic mixture of the title ruthenium(II) complex, [RuCl(C30H30O2P2)2]CF3SO3·2CH2Cl2, reveals that the coordination geometry about the coordinatively unsaturated metal centre is approximately trigonal-pyramidal, with the chlorine atom occupying one of the equatorial positions. The axial Ru—P bonds are longer than the equatorial Ru—P bonds and there is an acute P—Ru—P angle

Conformist Opinion Shift as an Accommodation-Motivated Cognitive Experience in Strong and Weak Situations

Singapore Management Universit