114 research outputs found
An updated estimate of the economic costs of human illness due to food borne Salmonella in the United States
The Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S Department of Agriculture updated earlier estimates of the medical costs and productivity losses due to foodbome Salmonella infections in the United States. The update is based on a new estimate of annual salmonellosis cases by the Foodbome Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) and new data on medical care for salmonellosis from a medical claims database. Using this information, ERS estimated that the annual economic costs of human illness due to foodbome Salmonella infections are 0.1-0.2 billion
The Dynamics of Viral Marketing
We present an analysis of a person-to-person recommendation network,
consisting of 4 million people who made 16 million recommendations on half a
million products. We observe the propagation of recommendations and the cascade
sizes, which we explain by a simple stochastic model. We analyze how user
behavior varies within user communities defined by a recommendation network.
Product purchases follow a 'long tail' where a significant share of purchases
belongs to rarely sold items. We establish how the recommendation network grows
over time and how effective it is from the viewpoint of the sender and receiver
of the recommendations. While on average recommendations are not very effective
at inducing purchases and do not spread very far, we present a model that
successfully identifies communities, product and pricing categories for which
viral marketing seems to be very effective
Crystal structures and magnetic order of La{0.5+delta}A{0.5-delta}Mn{0.5+epsilon}Ru{0.5-epsilon}O{3} (A= Ca, Sr, Ba): Possible orbital glass ferromagnetic state
The crystallographic and magnetic properties of
La{0.5+delta}A{0.5-delta}Mn{0.5+epsilon}Ru{0.5-epsilon}O{3} (A= Ca, Sr, Ba)
were investigated by means of neutron powder diffraction. All studied samples
show the orthorhombic perovskite crystal structure, space group Pnma, with
regular (Mn,Ru)O{6} octahedra and no chemical ordering of the Mn3+ and Ru4+
ions. Ferromagnetic spin structures were observed below Tc ~ 200-250 K, with an
average ordered moment of ~ 1.8-2.0 Bohr magnetons per (Mn,Ru). The observation
of long-range ferromagnetism and the absence of orbital ordering are
rationalized in terms a strong Mn-Ru hybridization, which may freeze the
orbital degree of freedom and broaden the eg valence band, leading to an
orbital-glass state with carrier-mediated ferromagnetism
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The cultural side of value creation
The question of how organizations create value has become a central question for understanding inter-firm competition and performance differentials. Much of the work on the topic emphasizes the importance of technological innovation for improving operational efficiency and/or product functionality . Accordingly, much of the work in the area has focused on understanding the development of technological capabilities and the dynamics of competition among different technologies.
Whereas this line of research has contributed greatly to our understanding of value creation through technology performance improvement, it has also left unexplored the strategies for differentiating products on the basis of their cultural significance. Yet, research in a wide variety of disciplines ranging from anthropology, to cultural sociology, and consumer behavior shows that consumers value products not only for their functional and technical performance, but also for their cultural meanings. The infusion of products with cultural meanings enables consumers to use these products to make statements about their personal and social identity and status. It is therefore well understood that consumers derive value not only from what products do (functional value), but also from what they signify in a given social group (symbolic value).
While strategy scholars recognize that product meanings are a source of differentiation and generate price premia (Porter, 1980), they also tend to view the activities that generate them – e.g. branding – as a part of the marketing strategy of the firm. More generally, strategy research has been criticized for its reluctance to delve into the demand side of value-creation. Rooted in disciplinary assumptions about atomistic consumers with idiosyncratic preferences, strategy researchers view demand as largely exogenous and ignore its cultural embeddedness in social conventions that define the cultural meanings of objects and shape consumption choices. As a result, they have given limited attention to the question of how firms can strategically manage the symbolic value of their products.
In this paper we propose a cultural perspective on value creation that can direct strategic organization research toward the systematic investigation of how producers engage with the cultural meaning systems that supply frameworks for interpretation and valuation of goods. To guide research in this direction we first discuss how products acquire cultural significance and then outline three core implications of these ideas for the strategy and organization of firms. First, we discuss how recognizing the cultural significance of products shifts attention from technological innovation that alters product functionality to cultural innovation that alters their cultural significance. Second, we explain the need to develop distinct cultural resources that enable firms to identify and exploit opportunities for cultural innovation. Third, we draw attention to the need for cultural intent defined as developing an explicit strategy for utilizing cultural resources to achieve specific cultural positioning for the firm’s products
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Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL-76-88 Part 3
Annual report of the Argonne National Laboratory Radiological and Environmental Research Division regarding activities related to ecology. This report includes studies of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and trace elements entering the environment from the combustion of fossil fuels, and investigations of radionuclides, which could be discharged from nuclear energy facilities
Genetic Analysis of a Novel Human Adenovirus with a Serologically Unique Hexon and a Recombinant Fiber Gene
In February of 1996 a human adenovirus (formerly known as Ad-Cor-96-487) was isolated from the stool of an AIDS patient who presented with severe chronic diarrhea. To characterize this apparently novel pathogen of potential public health significance, the complete genome of this adenovirus was sequenced to elucidate its origin. Bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses of this genome demonstrate that this virus, heretofore referred to as HAdV-D58, contains a novel hexon gene as well as a recombinant fiber gene. In addition, serological analysis demonstrated that HAdV-D58 has a different neutralization profile than all previously characterized HAdVs. Bootscan analysis of the HAdV-D58 fiber gene strongly suggests one recombination event
Toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services
The marketing discipline’s knowledge about the drivers of service customers’ repeat purchase behavior is highly fragmented. This research attempts to overcome that fragmented state of knowledge by making major advances toward a theory of repeat purchase drivers for consumer services. Drawing on means–end theory, the authors develop a hierarchical classification scheme that organizes repeat purchase drivers into an integrative and comprehensive framework. They then identify drivers on the basis of 188 face-to-face laddering interviews in two countries (USA and Germany) and assess the drivers’ importance and interrelations through a national probability sample survey of 618 service customers. In addition to presenting an exhaustive and coherent set of hierarchical repeat-purchase drivers, the authors provide theoretical explanations for how and why drivers relate to one another and to repeat purchase behavior. This research also tests the boundary conditions of the proposed framework by accounting for different service types. In addition to its theoretical contribution, the framework provides companies with specific information about how to manage long-term customer relationships successfully
Selected Spectral Characteristics of Turbulence over an Urbanized Area in the Centre of Łódź, Poland
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