Survey of respiratory sounds in infants

Background: Over the last decade there has been an apparent increase in childhood wheeze. We speculated that much of the reported increase may be attributed to the term wheeze being adopted by parents to describe a variety of other forms of noisy breathing. Aims: To investigate terminology used by parents to describe their children’s breath sounds. Methods: An interview was carried out with the parents of 92 infants with noisy breathing, beginning with an open question and then directed towards a more detailed description. Finally, the parents were asked to choose from a wheeze, ruttle, and stridor on imitation by the investigator and video clips of children. Results: Wheeze was the most commonly chosen word on initial questioning (59%). Only 36% were still using this term at the end of the interview, representing a decrease of one third, whereas the use of the word ruttles doubled. Conclusions: Our results reflect the degree of inaccuracy involved in the use of the term wheeze in clinical practice, which may be leading to over diagnosis. Imprecise use of this term has potentially important implications for therapy and clinical trials

The marketing firm and co‐creation: The case of co‐creation by LEGO

This article discusses the marketer and customer co‐creation process within the context of bilateral contingencies. Bilateral contingencies occur when the marketers' behavior is reinforced (and/or punished) by the customers' behavior, whereas the behavior of the customers is reinforced (and/or punished) by the marketers' actions. Using the example of the LEGO community, we discuss how the marketers in the organization can respond to behaviors resulting from co‐creational customer– customer exchanges. This paper fills the knowledge gap by presenting a behavior analysis framework (theory of the marketing firm) for the empirical measurement of the co‐creation process.The marketing firm and co‐creation: The case of co‐creation by LEGOacceptedVersio

Factors influencing online flight ticket purchasing

In spite of the rapid growth in Internet purchasing of products and services in Korea, the buying rate of online flight ticketing remains low. This research investigates the factors that influence online ticket purchasing through a survey of Internet consumers to determine the relationships between convenience, willingness to purchase and trust. From these, the present satisfaction levels can be assessed and future upgrades and requirements can be planned. It is also necessary to determine the background factors that influence Internet-using consumers who visit websites, with a view to simplifying procedures and encouraging repeat visits to the sites

Force-matched embedded-atom method potential for niobium

Large-scale simulations of plastic deformation and phase transformations in alloys require reliable classical interatomic potentials. We construct an embedded-atom method potential for niobium as the first step in alloy potential development. Optimization of the potential parameters to a well-converged set of density-functional theory (DFT) forces, energies, and stresses produces a reliable and transferable potential for molecular dynamics simulations. The potential accurately describes properties related to the fitting data, and also produces excellent results for quantities outside the fitting range. Structural and elastic properties, defect energetics, and thermal behavior compare well with DFT results and experimental data, e.g., DFT surface energies are reproduced with less than 4% error, generalized stacking-fault energies differ from DFT values by less than 15%, and the melting temperature is within 2% of the experimental value.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 7 table

The theory of the marketing firm

The theory of the marketing firm locates the rationale of the modern business enterprise that lies in its responding profitably to the imperatives of marketing orientation. Economic theories of the firm generally fail to recognize these imperatives, enhanced consumer choice and sophistication, which entail marketing orientation as the rationale of the firm. The paper propose a competence theory of the firm as a metacontingency and examines the bilateral contingencies by which firms link to their consumerates, which indicate their capacities for customer orientation. The marketing firm emerges as a means of encapsulating entrepreneurship, economizing on transaction costs, and enabling the management of marketing specialization

The Marketing Firm: Retailer and consumer contingencies

acceptedVersionpublishedVersio

Does excessive use of smartphones and apps make us more impulsive? An approach from behavioural economics

Purpose Problematic smartphone use has been associated with negative effects in work and school environments. This study proposes the application of a behavioural economics perspective to establish whether heavy smartphone users show a tendency to devalue the consequences of their behaviour in the long term. To address this proposition, the study sought to establish how an objective measurement of usage time of smartphones and apps might help to predict, firstly, participants’ choice behaviour and, secondly, their perceived dependence levels. Design/methodology/approach An objective measurement of the usage time of smartphones and apps was conducted over four weeks (N = 560 data points), and a computer-based intertemporal choice task and the Spanish version of the Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) were applied. The participants were twenty undergraduate college students. Findings Although the usage time of devices and apps failed to predict the choice behaviour, a correlation was found between the total usage time of smartphones and WhatsApp and Facebook apps and users’ dependence level. On the other hand, dependence had a positive effect on the average selection of the impulsive choice. Originality/value This paper proposes the application of a behavioural economics perspective to explore the relationship between objectively measured usage time of smartphone and apps, choice behaviours in an intertemporal task and users’ perceived dependence levels. This allows us to consider an alternative to the traditional psychiatric approach in an environment of increasing access to and use of mobile digital platforms

A Test of a Strong Ground Motion Prediction Methodology for the 7 September 1999, Mw=6.0 Athens Earthquake

We test a methodology to predict the range of ground-motion hazard for a fixed magnitude earthquake along a specific fault or within a specific source volume, and we demonstrate how to incorporate this into probabilistic seismic hazard analyses (PSHA). We modeled ground motion with empirical Green's functions. We tested our methodology with the 7 September 1999, Mw=6.0 Athens earthquake, we: (1) developed constraints on rupture parameters based on prior knowledge of earthquake rupture processes and sources in the region; (2) generated impulsive point shear source empirical Green's functions by deconvolving out the source contribution of M < 4.0 aftershocks; (3) used aftershocks that occurred throughout the area and not necessarily along the fault to be modeled; (4) ran a sufficient number of scenario earthquakes to span the full variability of ground motion possible; (5) found that our distribution of synthesized ground motions span what actually occurred and their distribution is realistically narrow; (6) determined that one of our source models generates records that match observed time histories well; (7) found that certain combinations of rupture parameters produced ''extreme'' ground motions at some stations; (8) identified that the ''best fitting'' rupture models occurred in the vicinity of 38.05{sup o} N 23.60{sup o} W with center of rupture near 12 km, and near unilateral rupture towards the areas of high damage, and this is consistent with independent investigations; and (9) synthesized strong motion records in high damage areas for which records from the earthquake were not recorded. We then developed a demonstration PSHA for a source region near Athens utilizing synthesized ground motion rather that traditional attenuation. We synthesized 500 earthquakes distributed throughout the source zone likely to have Mw=6.0 earthquakes near Athens. We assumed an average return period of 1000 years for this magnitude earthquake in the particular source zone, thereby having simulated a catalog of ground motion for a period of 500,000 years. The distribution of traditional ground motion parameters of peak acceleration or spectral ordinates then becomes the synthesized record from which we develop hazard curves in the form of the annual probability of exceedance. This approach replaces the aleatory uncertainty that current PSHA studies estimate by regression of empirical parameters from the worldwide database with epistemic uncertainty on what specific sources actually do at specific sites. This is a fundamental change for PSHA and eliminates the need to extrapolate current empirical data that was gathered over about 50 years to represent values for 10{sup -3} annual probability of exceedance or less. This difference becomes especially significant for very sensitive structures that require estimates for 10{sup -5} or less exceedance