Building a local identity through sellout crowds: the impact of brand popularity, brand similarity, and brand diversity of music festivals

Festival organizations must often balance commercial and artistic priorities when providing a platform for creative expression and regional identity building. However, research on the complex relationship between festival brand metrics and visitor attendance is limited. This relationship is particularly relevant to local governments, tourism boards, and festival organizers because, without reach and visitors, regional branding and identity building are likely to fall on deaf ears. Using data collected from 136 Dutch music festivals, as well as hierarchical regression analysis, this study confirms that a balancing act is necessary with respect to brand popularity, brand similarity, and brand diversity and that being too unique as a festival brand can become a double-edged sword. This finding is particularly relevant because many festival organizers often highlight innovativeness and uniqueness in their requests for funding, regional marketing support, and community engagement. The implications for festival organizers, destination marketers, and local governments are discussed

Reward Processing in the Brain: A Prerequisite for Movement Preparation?

In the last decade, expanding animal studies on the cerebral organization of reward processing toward human in vivo situations has become possible. In this review, we define some of the concepts associated with reward, summarize the crucial importance of the dopaminergic system, and discuss the currently available neuroimaging studies in man. We will show that abstract concepts of human behavior like emotions, drive, arousal, and reinforcement are now open for further exploration in man at the level of neuronal circuit organization. The cerebral dopaminergic neurotransmitter circuitry does play an important role in the organization of both the motor and motivational system

The Effect of PEO Ratio on Degradation, Calcification and Bone Bonding of PEO/PBT Copolymer (Polyactive)

In this study, we evaluated the effect of PEO/ PBT proportion on the behavior of a range of PEO/ PBT segmented copolymers (Polyactive) during subcutaneous and intrabony implantation in the rat. It was demonstrated that varying the PEO proportion affected degradation, calcification and bone-bonding. The PEO/PBT 70/30 and 60/40 showed extensive degradation after 1 year, PEO/PBT 55145 an intermediate degradation, and the 40/60 and 30170 copolymers showed little and hardly any degradation respectively. PEO content also affected the degree of calcification . PEO/PBT 70/30 showed extensive and early calcification whereas almost no calcification was seen with PEO/PBT 30170. Since calcified sites at the periphery of the polymeric implants were locations of preference for bone-bonding to occur, PEO/PBT proportion also influenced bone/PEO/PBT interactions. The materials with the highest PEO content most frequently showed morphological indications of bone-bonding , while the material with 30 % PEO showed no bone/biomaterial contact. The differences in bone-bonding activity were also reflected by the occurrence of an electron. dense zone at the bone-biomaterial interface which was morphologically similar to that observed for calcium phosphate ceramics

Origin and outcome of metastatic tumours to the testes:a nationwide study

ObjectivesTo perform a retrospective cohort analysis for metastatic tumours in the testes to explore the timing, presentation and prognosis of this particular type of metastases and the factors that influence outcome.Patients and methodsA nationwide retrospective review of pathology reports of patients with pathologically confirmed metastases to the testis between 1991 and 2021 was performed. Data were collected from the Dutch nationwide pathology databank (PALGA) and the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Log-rank testing and Kaplan–Meier analyses were used to assess overall survival (OS), and Cox proportional hazard models were used for multivariate survival analysis.ResultsA total of 175 patients with a testicular metastasis were included. The median (range) age at diagnosis of testicular metastasis was 67 (3–88) years. Testicular metastases originated from a variety of primary tumours, although most frequently from the prostate (40.6%), kidney (13.7%), colon (10.3%), bladder (7.4%) and skin (5.7%). Synchronous testicular metastasis was detected in 53 cases, while 114 metachronous lesions were found after a median (interquartile range) interval of 22 (1–53) months after the original cancer diagnosis. OS after the diagnosis of a testicular metastasis was poor, with a median survival of 14.2 months (95% confidence interval 10.2–18.3). Primary tumour origin was an independent factor for survival, with worst survival for patients with primary skin, bladder and colon cancer.ConclusionTesticular metastases are very uncommon and arise mainly from primary tumours anatomically close to the testes. Most patients develop metachronous testicular metastasis at an oligometastatic disease stage. These metastases are invariably associated with poor survival

20 puzzelstukjes voor de KRW; een bloemlezing uit het onderzoek van Wageningen UR voor de Europese Kaderrichtlijn Water

In 2000 is de Europese Kaderrichtlijn Water (KRW) van kracht geworden. Deze richtlijn heeft als doel om duurzaam gebruik van water te bevorderen en om de kwaliteit van watersystemen te beschermen en waar nodig te verbeteren. De implementatie van deze richtlijn leidt tot tal van keuzen die terdege onderbouwd moeten zijn. Dit boekje bevat 21 afzonderlijke onderzoeksresultaten van Wageningen UR over KRW. Bijvoorbeeld: Aquarein; fosfaatpilot Limburg; waterpakt Lankheet; Versterking zelfreinigend vermogen; Aquaherstel; MKBA maakt besluit over doelen mogelijk; boeren voor natuur in Biesland; monitoren van nutriëntenstromen en polders et

A Comparative Study of the Interactions of Two Calcium Phosphates, PEO/PBT Copolymer (Polyactive) and a Silicone Rubber with Bone and Fibrous Tissue

In this study, hydroxyapatite, tetracalcium phosphate, HPEO/PBT 55145 copolymer, PEO/PBT 55!45 copolymer (Polyactive) and silicone rubber were implanted as dense blocks, subcutaneously and. into the tibia of rats. Biocompatibility and degradation were investigated but most attention was directed to .the bone/biomaterial interactions. None of the materials showed any significant adverse tissue reactions. With exception of the silicone rubber, all materials sho~ed bone bonding phenomena based on both morphological and mechanical evaluations. (H)PEO/PBT 55145 copolymer is the first polymer reported to be bonded by bone and thus widens the spectrum of bone bonding materials with a low modulus, degradable, elastomer in contrast to the high modulus glasses and ceramics that are available to date. The possible associated bone-bonding mechanism is briefly discussed

Southeast of What? Reflections on SEALS\u27 Success

In epidemiologic studies, measurement error in dietary variables often attenuates association between dietary intake and disease occurrence. To adjust for the attenuation caused by error in dietary intake, regression calibration is commonly used. To apply regression calibration, unbiased reference measurements are required. Short-term reference measurements for foods that are not consumed daily contain excess zeroes that pose challenges in the calibration model. We adapted two-part regression calibration model, initially developed for multiple replicates of reference measurements per individual to a single-replicate setting. We showed how to handle excess zero reference measurements by two-step modeling approach, how to explore heteroscedasticity in the consumed amount with variance-mean graph, how to explore nonlinearity with the generalized additive modeling (GAM) and the empirical logit approaches, and how to select covariates in the calibration model. The performance of two-part calibration model was compared with the one-part counterpart. We used vegetable intake and mortality data from European Prospective Investigation on Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. In the EPIC, reference measurements were taken with 24-hour recalls. For each of the three vegetable subgroups assessed separately, correcting for error with an appropriately specified two-part calibration model resulted in about three fold increase in the strength of association with all-cause mortality, as measured by the log hazard ratio. Further found is that the standard way of including covariates in the calibration model can lead to over fitting the two-part calibration model. Moreover, the extent of adjusting for error is influenced by the number and forms of covariates in the calibration model. For episodically consumed foods, we advise researchers to pay special attention to response distribution, nonlinearity, and covariate inclusion in specifying the calibration model