Mobike’s Bike-Share Battle in India

Mobike’s Bike-Share Battle in India: An International Marketing Case Study Amber Cranston, Savannah Rubio, Sam Kroll, Austin Tudor, Eric Jacobs, Evan Coulter, and Miguel Pereira Abstract Mobike, the world’s first cashless and station-free bicycle service, launched in Shanghai in 2016 and now operates in over 19 countries including India (Khanna, 2017). Growing urbanization has led to increasing traffic congestion and pollution in most large cities around the world. Recently, there have been increasing calls for more sustainable transportation methods and one solution that is becoming popular is bike-sharing. The global bike ride-sharing market is projected to be worth around $8.6 billion in 2019 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 6.5$22 billion a year (Tandon, 2018). Despite the need for short and mid-distance mobility in urban areas in India, Mobike is facing major challenges to adoption such as competition, sustainability issues due to the littering of broken bike parts, government regulations, etc. Moreover, Indian consumers perceive biking to be for the poor (Chen, 2018). This case study examines the economic and cultural context of the bike share market in India to propose changes in Mobike’s marketing strategy to help it succeed. Keywords: Bike ridesharing, India, Marketing Strategy, Sustainability, Connectivity, Transportation, Quality, Cashless, Station-free, Emerging Markets, International Marketing, Case Study. Note: References available on reques

Occurrence of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in a Sanitary Sewer System: Implications for Assessing Vapor Intrusion Alternative Pathways

Sewer systems have been recently recognized as potentially important exposure pathways to consider during vapor intrusion assessments; however, this pathway has not been well-characterized and there is need for additional information about the occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sewer systems. This paper reports the results of sewer gas sampling conducted in a sanitary sewer over the years of 2014–2017. Sewer gas samples were collected and analyzed using several different techniques, including TO-15 (grab), TO-17 (passive), Radiello® (passive) and a novel continuous monitoring technique, the Autonomous Rugged Optical Multigas Analyzer (AROMA). The applicability of each of the different approaches used in this study is discussed in the context of investigating sanitary sewers as a vapor intrusion alternative pathway. The data confirmed that trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations in sewer gas were detected adjacent to and extending hundreds of feet away from a previously defined vapor intrusion area, where TCE was a primary contaminant. TCE concentrations detected in sewer gas ranged from non-detect to 1600 μg/m3. Temporal variability was observed in TCE concentrations over timescales that ranged from minutes to months to years at discrete sampling locations. Spatial variability in sewer gas concentrations was also observed throughout the study area. Temporal and spatial variability may be caused by groundwater contamination sources in the study area, as well as sewer gas transport mechanisms

A multicenter retrospective study of childhood brucellosis in Chicago, Illinois from 1986 to 2008

SummaryObjectivesTo determine risk factors in children for the acquisition of Brucella, clinical presentation, treatment, and disease outcomes.MethodsA retrospective multicenter chart review was undertaken of children identified with brucellosis from 1986 to 2008 at three tertiary care centers in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The charts were reviewed for data regarding risk factors for acquisition, clinical presentation, and outcomes.ResultsTwenty-one charts were available for review. The median age was 6.5 years (range 2–14 years); 62% were female. Ethnic background was 67% Hispanic and 24% Arabic. Risk factors included travel to an endemic area (86%), particularly Mexico, and consumption of unpasteurized milk products (76%). Common findings included fever (95%), bacteremia (86%), elevated liver transaminases (80%), constitutional symptoms (76%), splenomegaly (60%), and hepatomegaly (55%). Relapse occurred in three of six subjects started on single drug treatment, but in only one of 15 subjects who started on two or more drugs (p=0.053). No relapses occurred in children whose initial therapy included rifampin or those administered three-drug regimens.ConclusionsBrucella is an infrequent pathogen but should be considered in children with compatible epidemiologic and clinical characteristics. Blood cultures should be obtained, and initial therapy with two or more drugs may decrease the risk of relapse

SAFETY OF TRANSRADIAL CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH END-STAGE LIVER DISEASE

The current study adopted McAdams’ multilayer framework as the basis to develop a psychological portrait of an elite athlete who was identified as being particularly “mentally tough.” The aim was to use this single case as an exemplar to demonstrate the utility of McAdams’ framework for understanding the complexity of sport performers across three domains of personality: dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and narrative identity. We operationalised these domains through the development of specific research questions and, subsequently, the collection and integration of the participant’s Big Five traits, personal strivings, coping strategies, and response to a life story interview. The results offered a comprehensive insight into the nature of one athlete’s personality that, in turn, informed conceptual perspectives of mental toughness in sport psychology literature and qualitatively supported emerging evidence of the validity of a three-layer framework in personality psychology. Specifically, the study’s design showed how a holistic approach to personality analysis can lead to a more complete psychological representation of competitors in sport, and people generally. It demonstrated how motivational, sociocultural, and meaning-making aspects of personality can complement a trait profile to achieving a satisfying assessment of the whole person

Attack Rates Assessment of the 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Influenza A in Children and Their Contacts: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The recent H1N1 influenza A pandemic was marked by multiple reports of illness and hospitalization in children, suggesting that children may have played a major role in the propagation of the virus. A comprehensive detailed analysis of the attack rates among children as compared with their contacts in various settings is of great importance for understanding their unique role in influenza pandemics. Methodology/Principal Findings: We searched MEDLINE (PubMed) and Embase for published studies reporting outbreak investigations with direct measurements of attack rates of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza A among children, and quantified how these compare with those of their contacts. We identified 50 articles suitable for review, which reported school, household, travel and social events. The selected reports and our meta-analysis indicated that children had significantly higher attack rates as compared to adults, and that this phenomenon was observed for both virologically confirmed and clinical cases, in various settings and locations around the world. The review also provided insight into some characteristics of transmission between children and their contacts in the various settings. Conclusion/Significance: The consistently higher attack rates of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza A among children, as compared to adults, as well as the magnitude of the difference is important for understanding the contribution of children to disease burden, for implementation of mitigation strategies directed towards children, as well as more precise mathematical modeling and simulation of future influenza pandemics

High-rate electron detectors to study Compton scattering in non-perturbative QED

Research in non-perturbative QED in strong-field backgrounds has gained interest in recent years, due to advances in high-intensity laser technologies that make extreme fields accessible in the laboratory. One key signature of strong-field QED is non-linear Compton scattering in collisions between a relativistic electron beam and a high-intensity laser pulse. In the vicinity of strong fields, the electron gains a larger effective mass, which leads to a laser-intensity-dependent shift of the kinematic Compton edge and the appearance of higher-order harmonics in the energy spectrum. One of the challenges of measuring the Compton energy spectrum in laser-electron-beam collisions is the enormous flux of outgoing Compton-scattered electrons and photons, ranging from $10^3$ to $10^9$ particles per collision. We present a combined detector system for high-rate Compton electron detection in the context of the planned LUXE experiment, consisting of a spatially segmented gas-filled Cherenkov detector and a scintillator screen imaged by an optical camera system. The detectors are placed in a forward dipole spectrometer to resolve the electron energy spectrum. Finally, we discuss techniques to reconstruct the non-linear Compton electron energy spectrum from the high-rate electron detection system and to extract the features of non-perturbative QED from the spectrum