Inside the joint sphere of value co-creation

Research on the role of consumers in value creation has advanced the consumer culture theory and added values to the field of marketing (Lanier and Schau, 2007; Lusch and Vargo, 2006). After management scholars Prahalad and Ramaswam began a series of essays suggesting the changing paradigm of firm-consumer interaction (2000), Gronroos further evolved the theory by introducing the concepts of different value creation spheres and had a strong focus on the joint sphere of value co-creation (2013). Joint sphere, by offering a dialogical manner between consumers, allows consumers to possibly cross the boundary into provider sphere and become the co-producers at an early stage. This encourages and facilitates their reflection of “the world”, their expression of multi-realities, and communication with larger audience (including firms) about the alternatives to realities

The orchestra of ideas: Using music to enhance the ‘fuzzy front end’ phase of product innovation

By introducing music composition theory, we offer a new perspective from which to understand the ‘fuzzy front end’ (FFE) phase of product innovation with regard to both value outcomes and the innovation process. Focusing on ideas co-created by consumers, we draw on an ethnographic study to examine how young consumers tackled a real-life challenge to produce a digital product that would engage audiences in classical music. Working with two organizations, one a city symphony orchestra, the other a global technology corporation, this work bridges innovation and aesthetics and challenges the established mind-set of the science-art schism in business management. The findings contribute to innovation theory by introducing a hybrid model that structures FFE activities based around the composing process. We also illuminate how music can facilitate and ensure greater value for consumers as ‘the composers of ideas’. Managerial implications are suggested

Black hole variability and the star formation-active galactic nucleus connection : do all star-forming galaxies host an active galactic nucleus?

We investigate the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) variability on the observed connection between star formation and black hole accretion in extragalactic surveys. Recent studies have reported relatively weak correlations between observed AGN luminosities and the properties of AGN hosts, which has been interpreted to imply that there is no direct connection between AGN activity and star formation. However, AGNs may be expected to vary significantly on a wide range of timescales (from hours to Myr) that are far shorter than the typical timescale for star formation (gsim100 Myr). This variability can have important consequences for observed correlations. We present a simple model in which all star-forming galaxies host an AGN when averaged over ~100 Myr timescales, with long-term average AGN accretion rates that are perfectly correlated with the star formation rate (SFR). We show that reasonable prescriptions for AGN variability reproduce the observed weak correlations between SFR and L AGN in typical AGN host galaxies, as well as the general trends in the observed AGN luminosity functions, merger fractions, and measurements of the average AGN luminosity as a function of SFR. These results imply that there may be a tight connection between AGN activity and SFR over galaxy evolution timescales, and that the apparent similarities in rest-frame colors, merger rates, and clustering of AGNs compared to "inactive" galaxies may be due primarily to AGN variability. The results provide motivation for future deep, wide extragalactic surveys that can measure the distribution of AGN accretion rates as a function of SFR

Clubbing in Dubai: The Making of a “Party Capital”

The aim of this chapter is to assess the changing identity of the city of Dubai to becoming a hub of party entertainment in the Middle East. In 2012, Lonely Planet, named Dubai and Tel Aviv “today’s party capitals of the Middle East.” The juxtaposition of these two very different cities in the Lonely Planet’s world ranking of “Ultimate Party Cities” testifies to the transformation of Dubai’s identity in recent years. Israel has already had a reputation of a party outpost in the region thanks to, among others, a number of music festivals organized there (Best Festivals in Israel, Secret Tel Aviv. Retrieved October 23, 2018 from https://www.secrettelaviv.com/best-festivals-in-israel, n.d.), hence the inclusion of its capital in the ranking testifies to a long-standing tradition of entertainment. But Dubai, thanks to “the swank bars and clubs of the Middle East’s most decadent desert getaway,” (Lonely Planet, Ultimate Party Cities. Retrieved March 1, 2018 from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-tips-and-articles/ultimate-party-cities/40625c8c-8a11-5710-a052-1479d2777622, 2012) has grown its party reputation in the last decade and in the ranking, has outwon Beirut, a top contender traditionally known to be the party capital of the Arab world. This rapid transformation of Dubai’s identity is thus especially interesting to analyze.This study will look in detail into the development of Dubai’s clubbing entertainment, particularly into the growth of the electronic music scene, from the point of view of the development of tourism industry. Electronic music has become in the last decades a global phenomenon, widely popularized on all continents and a major money generating business.This research was conducted collecting data on the ground from nightclubs and through the analysis of their websites and local news starting from 2015. In addition, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with Dubai Brand Manager in 2016 and music producers involved in the clubbing scene in Dubai in 2018. The study builds also upon my past findings about the development of tourism in the Arabian Gulf region

A General Precipitation-Limited L_X-T-R Relation Among Early-Type Galaxies

The relation between X-ray luminosity (L_X) and ambient gas temperature (T) among massive galactic systems is an important cornerstone of both observational cosmology and galaxy-evolution modeling. In the most massive galaxy clusters, the relation is determined primarily by cosmological structure formation. In less massive systems, it primarily reflects the feedback response to radiative cooling of circumgalactic gas. Here we present a simple but powerful model for the L_X-T relation as a function of physical aperture R within which those measurements are made. The model is based on the precipitation framework for AGN feedback and assumes that the circumgalactic medium is precipitation-regulated at small radii and limited by cosmological structure formation at large radii. We compare this model with many different data sets and show that it successfully reproduces the slope and upper envelope of the L_X-T-R relation over the temperature range from ~0.2 keV through >10 keV. Our findings strongly suggest that the feedback mechanisms responsible for regulating star formation in individual massive galaxies have much in common with the precipitation-triggered feedback that appears to regulate galaxy-cluster cores.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 9 pages, 3 figures (v2 fixes a few small typos

The barriers to and enablers of providing reasonably adjusted health services to people with intellectual disabilities in acute hospitals: evidence from a mixed-methods study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors that promote and compromise the implementation of reasonably adjusted healthcare services for patients with intellectual disabilities in acute National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. DESIGN: A mixed-methods study involving interviews, questionnaires and participant observation (July 2011-March 2013). SETTING: Six acute NHS hospital trusts in England. METHODS: Reasonable adjustments for people with intellectual disabilities were identified through the literature. Data were collected on implementation and staff understanding of these adjustments. RESULTS: Data collected included staff questionnaires (n=990), staff interviews (n=68), interviews with adults with intellectual disabilities (n=33), questionnaires (n=88) and interviews (n=37) with carers of patients with intellectual disabilities, and expert panel discussions (n=42). Hospital strategies that supported implementation of reasonable adjustments did not reliably translate into consistent provision of such adjustments. Good practice often depended on the knowledge, understanding and flexibility of individual staff and teams, leading to the delivery of reasonable adjustments being haphazard throughout the organisation. Major barriers included: lack of effective systems for identifying and flagging patients with intellectual disabilities, lack of staff understanding of the reasonable adjustments that may be needed, lack of clear lines of responsibility and accountability for implementing reasonable adjustments, and lack of allocation of additional funding and resources. Key enablers were the Intellectual Disability Liaison Nurse and the ward manager. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence suggests that ward culture, staff attitudes and staff knowledge are crucial in ensuring that hospital services are accessible to vulnerable patients. The authors suggest that flagging the need for specific reasonable adjustments, rather than the vulnerable condition itself, may address some of the barriers. Further research is recommended that describes and quantifies the most frequently needed reasonable adjustments within the hospital pathways of vulnerable patient groups, and the most effective organisational infrastructure required to guarantee their use, together with resource implications

Concentration of atomic hydrogen diffused into silicon in the temperature range 900–1300 °C

Boron-doped Czochralski silicon samples with [B]~1017 cm−3 have been heated at various temperatures in the range 800–1300 °C in an atmosphere of hydrogen and then quenched. The concentration of [H-B] pairs was measured by infrared localized vibrational mode spectroscopy. It was concluded that the solubility of atomic hydrogen is greater than [Hs] = 5.6 × 1018 exp( − 0.95 eV/kT)cm−3 at the temperatures investigated

Differences in Blood Pressure Levels Among Children by Sociodemographic Status

INTRODUCTION: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated its blood pressure (BP) screening guidelines in 2017 to emphasize body weight as a risk factor. We provide contemporary, nationally representative estimates of prevalence of elevated and hypertensive BP among US children and examine sociodemographic prevalence differences, accounting for the influence of weight. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data from children aged 8 to 17 years (N = 5,971; weighted N = 36,612,323) collected from 2011 through 2018 in 4 biennial cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Children\u27s BP was categorized as normal, elevated, or hypertensive. Sociodemographic characteristics included were sex, age, race/ethnicity, family income, and education. Log binomial regression, with and without adjustment for weight (dichotomized at the 85th body mass index percentile), determined prevalence estimates and differences for elevated and hypertensive BPs with 95% CIs. RESULTS: In NHANES data collected from 2011 through 2018, 7.2% (95% CI, 6.3%-8.3%) of US children had elevated BP, and 3.8% (95% CI, 3.3%-4.5%) had hypertensive BP according to 2017 AAP guidelines. Differences in prevalence of weight-adjusted elevated BP indicated higher prevalence among children aged 16 to 17 years compared with children aged 8 to 9 years (prevalence difference, +6.3%; 95% CI, 3.2%-9.4%), among males compared with females (+4.6%; 95% CI, 2.7%-6.4%), and among non-Latino Black children compared with non-Latino White children (+4.0%; 95% CI, 2.2%-5.8%). Crude hypertensive BP prevalence was highest among children aged 8 to 9 years, male children, and Mexican American children. The only difference remaining after weight adjustment was among children aged 8 to 9 years and 13 to 15 years. CONCLUSION: Elevated BP was most prevalent among US children who were older, male, or non-Latino Black. Factors beyond inequalities in body weight may contribute to disparities in elevated BP

A Tale of Two Narrow-Line Regions: Ionization, Kinematics, and Spectral Energy Distributions for a Local Pair of Merging Obscured Active Galaxies

We explore the gas ionization and kinematics, as well as the optical--IR spectral energy distributions for UGC 11185, a nearby pair of merging galaxies hosting obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), also known as SDSS J181611.72+423941.6 and J181609.37+423923.0 (J1816NE and J1816SW, $z \approx 0.04$). Due to the wide separation between these interacting galaxies ($\sim 23$ kpc), observations of these objects provide a rare glimpse of the concurrent growth of supermassive black holes at an early merger stage. We use BPT line diagnostics to show that the full extent of the narrow line emission in both galaxies is photoionized by an AGN and confirm the existence of a 10-kpc-scale ionization cone in J1816NE, while in J1816SW the AGN narrow-line region is much more compact (1--2 kpc) and relatively undisturbed. Our observations also reveal the presence of ionized gas that nearly spans the entire distance between the galaxies which is likely in a merger-induced tidal stream. In addition, we carry out a spectral analysis of the X-ray emission using data from {\em XMM-Newton}. These galaxies represent a useful pair to explore how the [\ion{O}{3}] luminosity of an AGN is dependent on the size of the region used to explore the extended emission. Given the growing evidence for AGN "flickering" over short timescales, we speculate that the appearances and impact of these AGNs may change multiple times over the course of the galaxy merger, which is especially important given that these objects are likely the progenitors of the types of systems commonly classified as "dual AGNs."Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted by the Astrophysical Journa