Brandsnyltning - Branding med bitter eftersmak

Branding definieras i denna uppsats som alla marknadsföringsaktiviteter ett varumärke använder för att synas, stärka, definiera och särskilja sig samt den goodwill som erhålls av dessa marknadsföringsåtgärder. Detta innefattar således reklam, events, utskick, sponsring etcetera. Att skapa ett starkt varumärke är mycket kostsamt och en långsiktig investering. Det krävs därför stora resurser för att skapa sig ett starkt varumärke. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka under vilka förutsättningar snyltning på ett varumärkes branding kan innebära renommésnyltning eller vilseledande efterbildning Marknadsföringslagen, genom främst generalklausulen och katalogsbestämmelsen om vilseledande efterbildning, ger ett brett skydd mot snyltning på annan näringsidkares goodwill. Generalklausulen täcker genom sin utformning flera otillbörliga metoder såsom marknadsföring som obehörigt associerar till en annan näringsidkares verksamhet, varumärke, firma eller andra kännetecken. Ett sådant utnyttjande är enligt praxis också ägnat att skada den utsatte näringsidkaren och försämra konsumenternas marknadsöversikt. Generalklausulen bör kunna användas för att angripa brandsnyltning. Snyltning på annan näringsidkares branding måste ses som marknadsföring som otillbörligt associerar med annan näringsidkares varumärke. Däremot finns inget stöd för detta i praxis. Då förbudet har formen av en generalklausul är praxis en viktig rättskälla. Detta innebär således att brandsnyltning inte går att angripa genom generalklausulen. Bestämmelsen om vilseledande efterbildning ligger nära besläktad med renommésnyltning och behandlas ofta i samma avgöranden. Vilseledande efterbildning föreligger när en näringsidkare vid sin marknadsföring använder efterbildningar som är vilseledande genom att de lätt kan förväxlas med en annan näringsidkares kända och särpräglade produkter. För att vilseledande efterbildning skall anses föreligga krävs att originalprodukten är särpräglad, känd och att det finns risk för förväxling. Förutsättningarna är således tydliga och stödjer inte branding i någon större utsträckning. Vissa beståndsdelar såsom estetiskt särpräglad reklam kan dock skyddas. Marknadsföringslagen ger därmed inte branding något större skydd. Detta är dock till nackdel främst för de stora aktörerna på marknaden. Ett utökat skydd skulle troligtvis snedvrida konkurrensen och skapa hinder för nya aktörer på marknaden

Discovering Many Diverse Solutions with Bayesian Optimization

Bayesian optimization (BO) is a popular approach for sample-efficient optimization of black-box objective functions. While BO has been successfully applied to a wide range of scientific applications, traditional approaches to single-objective BO only seek to find a single best solution. This can be a significant limitation in situations where solutions may later turn out to be intractable. For example, a designed molecule may turn out to violate constraints that can only be reasonably evaluated after the optimization process has concluded. To address this issue, we propose Rank-Ordered Bayesian Optimization with Trust-regions (ROBOT) which aims to find a portfolio of high-performing solutions that are diverse according to a user-specified diversity metric. We evaluate ROBOT on several real-world applications and show that it can discover large sets of high-performing diverse solutions while requiring few additional function evaluations compared to finding a single best solution

A stochastic mixed effects model to assess treatment effects and fluctuations in home-measured peak expiratory flow and the association with exacerbation risk in asthma

Home-based measures of lung function, inflammation, symptoms, and medication use are frequently collected in respiratory clinical trials. However, new statistical approaches are needed to make better use of the information contained in these data-rich variables. In this work, we use data from two phase III asthma clinical trials demonstrating the benefit of benralizumab treatment to develop a novel longitudinal mixed effects model of peak expiratory flow (PEF), a lung function measure easily captured at home using a hand-held device. The model is based on an extension of the mixed effects modeling framework to incorporate stochastic differential equations and allows for quantification of several statistical properties of a patient\u27s PEF data: the longitudinal trend, long-term fluctuations, and day-to-day variability. These properties are compared between treatment groups and related to a patient\u27s exacerbation risk using a repeated time-to-event model. The mixed effects model adequately described the observed data from the two clinical trials, and model parameters were accurately estimated. Benralizumab treatment was shown to improve a patient\u27s average PEF level and reduce long-term fluctuations. Both of these effects were shown to be associated with a lower exacerbation risk. The day-to-day variability was neither significantly affected by treatment nor associated with exacerbation risk. Our work shows the potential of a stochastic model-based analysis of home-based lung function measures to support better estimation and understanding of treatment effects and disease stability. The proposed analysis can serve as a complement to descriptive statistics of home-based measures in the reporting of respiratory clinical trials

Alternative promoter usage of the membrane glycoprotein CD36

BACKGROUND: CD36 is a membrane glycoprotein involved in a variety of cellular processes such as lipid transport, immune regulation, hemostasis, adhesion, angiogenesis and atherosclerosis. It is expressed in many tissues and cell types, with a tissue specific expression pattern that is a result of a complex regulation for which the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. There are several alternative mRNA isoforms described for the gene. We have investigated the expression patterns of five alternative first exons of the CD36 gene in several human tissues and cell types, to better understand the molecular details behind its regulation. RESULTS: We have identified one novel alternative first exon of the CD36 gene, and confirmed the expression of four previously known alternative first exons of the gene. The alternative transcripts are all expressed in more than one human tissue and their expression patterns vary highly in skeletal muscle, heart, liver, adipose tissue, placenta, spinal cord, cerebrum and monocytes. All alternative first exons are upregulated in THP-1 macrophages in response to oxidized low density lipoproteins. The alternative promoters lack TATA-boxes and CpG islands. The upstream region of exon 1b contains several features common for house keeping gene and monocyte specific gene promoters. CONCLUSION: Tissue-specific expression patterns of the alternative first exons of CD36 suggest that the alternative first exons of the gene are regulated individually and tissue specifically. At the same time, the fact that all first exons are upregulated in THP-1 macrophages in response to oxidized low density lipoproteins may suggest that the alternative first exons are coregulated in this cell type and environmental condition. The molecular mechanisms regulating CD36 thus appear to be unusually complex, which might reflect the multifunctional role of the gene in different tissues and cellular conditions

Opportunistic Traffic Sensing Using Existing Video Sources (Phase II) Final Report

The objective of this project was to produce accurate vehicle counts and turn counts from opportunistically acquired video sources such as surveillance, red light, and other traffic cameras, using computer vision techniques. The project scope included algorithm design, software development, and a web portal for practitioner use.IDOT-R27-169Ope

Opportunistic Traffic Sensing Using Existing Video Sources (Phase II) Final Report

The objective of this project was to produce accurate vehicle counts and turn counts from opportunistically acquired video sources such as surveillance, red light, and other traffic cameras, using computer vision techniques. The project scope included algorithm design, software development, and a web portal for practitioner use.IDOT-R27-169Ope

Att gilla eller inte gilla

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur konsumenter ur Generation Y resonerar kring att “gilla” ett varumärkes Facebook-sida och därmed bidra med en djupare förståelse kring hur dessa konsumenter använder “gilla”-knappen för att visa identitet. Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av begreppen Generation Y och Sociala Medier, som definieras för att avgränsa sammanhanget studien avser belysa. Vidare används CCT som synsätt för att tolka och förstå hur teorierna kring varumärken och självbild genom eWoM kopplas ihop som centrala delar

Probing the 5f Electrons in Am-I by Hybrid Density Functional Theory

The ground states of the actinides and their compounds continue to be matters of considerable controversies. Experimentally, Americium-I (Am-I) is a non-magnetic dhcp metal whereas theoretically an anti-ferromagnetic ground state is predicted. We show that hybrid density functional theory, which admixes a fraction of exact Hartree-Fock (HF) exchange with approximate DFT exchange, can correctly reproduce the ground state properties of Am. In particular, for a 0.40 fraction of HF exchange we obtain a non-magnetic ground state with equilibrium atomic volume, bulk modulus, 5f electron population, and the density of electronic states all in good agreement with experimental data. We argue that the exact HF exchange corrects the overestimation of the approximate DFT exchange interaction.Comment: 1 table, 4 figures. Chemical Physics Letters, in press (2009