Social Media Influencers: Exploratory Analysis on the Relationships Between Female Millennials and Influencers

2019 dissertation for MSc. Purpose – Firstly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the motivations of female millennials to interact with social media influencers (SMIs). Furthermore, it aims to explore how the commercial side of influencers impacts female millennials’ trust towards the influencer. Ultimately, the study aims to explore the relationships created between female millennials and social media influencers. Design/Methodology/Approach – A exploratory design and an interpretivist approach was followed. In order to gain insight into participants’ attitudes and behaviours, a qualitative approach for data collection was followed. To successfully answer the research questions, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings – Findings suggest that female millennials create para-social relationships with social media influencers. Further, it was found that commercial activities conducted by the influencer do not negatively affect trust. Motivations found for female millennials to engage with SMIs were: gaining information and inspiration, entertainment and emotional enhancement, fantasising, social comparison, construction of self-image and a sense of community and belonging. Research Implications – The research found that female millennials create para-social relationships with social media influencers and further identified key motivations behind the relationship, offering an explanation for the nature of the relationships. Practical Implications – The results have practical results for organisations and marketing professional to incorporate social media influencers into their practices. Further, the results have practical implications for social media influencers to frame and implement strategies to grow their brand. Originality/Value – The study addresses a gap in literature. While literature previously addressed relationships created between consumers and social media influencers, this study is context-specific as it focuses on female millennials

Bladder outlet obstruction in painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis

Aims Obstructive symptoms such as slow stream, dribbling and straining are often reported by painful bladder syndrome and interstitial cystitis (PBS/IC) patients. Our hypothesis was that some patients with PBS/IC have an associated measurable bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) secondary to dysfunctional voiding and that those patients with more severe PBS/IC are more likely to have BOO. Methods This is a retrospective chart review of female patients diagnosed with PBS/IC based on the NIDDK research definition. Charts were reviewed for clinical symptom severity, ulcer or non-ulcer PBS/IC on cystoscopy, and pressure-flow urodynamics (UDPF). Patients were excluded if they had a urinary infection at the time of urodynamics or did not meet study entry requirements. The cut-off values of ≤12 ml/sec and ≥25 cm of water was used to define BOO. Results Of the 231 women: 38 had ulcer PBS/IC and 193 had non-ulcer PBS/IC. MCC was 269 ml in non-ulcer PBS/IC and 200 ml in ulcer PBS/IC ( P  = 0.006). One hundred eleven women (48%) met criteria for obstruction. MCC was 298 ml in the non-obstructed group and 214 ml in the obstructed group ( P  < 0.0001). The maximum flow with non-ulcer PBS/IC was 11.0 ml/sec and in ulcer PBS/IC 8.9 ml/sec ( P  = 0.04) Detrusor pressure at maximum flow was 33.3 cm H 2 O, in non-ulcer, and 37.4 cm H 2 O in ulcer PBS/IC ( P  = 0.01). Conclusions Forty-eight percent of our PBS/IC patients have BOO, and increasing severity of PBS/IC is associated with higher voiding pressure. Neurourol. Urodynam. 28:944–948, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64338/1/20729_ftp.pd

Comparison of dichotomized and distributional approaches in rare event clinical trial design: a fixed Bayesian design

Accepted 14 July 2016This research was motivated by our goal to design an efficient clinical trial to compare two doses of docosahexaenoic acid supplementation for reducing the rate of earliest preterm births (ePTB) and/or preterm births (PTB). Dichotomizing continuous gestational age (GA) data using a classic binomial distribution will result in a loss of information and reduced power. A distributional approach is an improved strategy to retain statistical power from the continuous distribution. However, appropriate distributions that fit the data properly, particularly in the tails, must be chosen, especially when the data are skewed. A recent study proposed a skew-normal method. We propose a three-component normal mixture model and introduce separate treatment effects at different components of GA. We evaluate operating characteristics of mixture model, beta-binomial model, and skew-normal model through simulation. We also apply these three methods to data from two completed clinical trials from the USA and Australia. Finite mixture models are shown to have favorable properties in PTB analysis but minimal benefit for ePTB analysis. Normal models on log-transformed data have the largest bias. Therefore we recommend finite mixture model for PTB study. Either finite mixture model or beta-binomial model is acceptable for ePTB study.Yang Lei, Susan Carlson, Lisa N. Yelland, Maria Makrides, Robert Gibson and Byron J. Gajewsk

Homeotic Genes Autonomously Specify the Anteroposterior Subdivision of the Drosophila Dorsal Vessel into Aorta and Heart

AbstractThe embryonic dorsal vessel in Drosophila possesses anteroposterior polarity and is subdivided into two chamber-like portions, the aorta in the anterior and the heart in the posterior. The heart portion features a wider bore as compared with the aorta and develops inflow valves (ostia) that allow the pumping of hemolymph from posterior toward the anterior. Here, we demonstrate that homeotic selector genes provide positional information that determines the anteroposterior subdivision of the dorsal vessel. Antennapedia (Antp), Ultrabithorax (Ubx), abdominal-A (abd-A), and Abdominal-B (Abd-B) are expressed in distinct domains along the anteroposterior axis within the dorsal vessel, and, in particular, the domain of abd-A expression in cardioblasts and pericardial cells coincides with the heart portion. We provide evidence that loss of abd-A function causes a transformation of the heart into aorta, whereas ectopic expression of abd-A in more anterior cardioblasts causes the aorta to assume heart-like features. These observations suggest that the spatially restricted expression and activity of abd-A determine heart identities in cells of the posterior portion of the dorsal vessel. We also show that Abd-B, which at earlier stages is expressed posteriorly to the cardiogenic mesoderm, represses cardiogenesis. In light of the developmental and morphological similarities between the Drosophila dorsal vessel and the primitive heart tube in early vertebrate embryos, these data suggest that Hox genes may also provide important anteroposterior cues during chamber specification in the developing vertebrate heart

Evidence for a common physical description of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in f-electron systems

The non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior observed in the low temperature specific heat $C(T)$ and magnetic susceptibility $\chi(T)$ of f-electron systems is analyzed within the context of a recently developed theory based on Griffiths singularities. Measurements of $C(T)$ and $\chi(T)$ in the systems $Th_{1-x}U_{x}Pd_{2}Al_{3}$, $Y_{1-x}U_{x}Pd_3$, and $UCu_{5-x}M_{x}$ (M = Pd, Pt) are found to be consistent with $C(T)/T \propto \chi(T) \propto T^{-1+\lambda}$ predicted by this model with $\lambda <1$ in the NFL regime. These results suggest that the NFL properties observed in a wide variety of f-electron systems can be described within the context of a common physical picture.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Battery Study for the Shuttle Orbiter EAPU Upgrade

The use of Electric Auxiliary Power Unit (EAPU) in commercial, and military aviation, and in commercial electric automobiles, is reviewed. The specifications of the battery to be used in the space shuttle are reviewed, and the possible vendors discussed. The testing activity and the reliability and the safety features are presented

Risk constraint measures developed for the outcome-based strategy for tank waste management

This report is one of a series of supporting documents for the outcome-based characterization strategy developed by PNNL. This report presents a set of proposed risk measures with risk constraint (acceptance) levels for use in the Value of Information process used in the NCS. The characterization strategy has developed a risk-based Value of Information (VOI) approach for comparing the cost-effectiveness of characterizing versus mitigating particular waste tanks or tank clusters. The preference between characterizing or mitigating in order to prevent an accident depends on the cost of those activities relative to the cost of the consequences of the accident. The consequences are defined as adverse impacts measured across a broad set of risk categories such as worker dose, public cancers, ecological harm, and sociocultural impacts. Within each risk measure, various {open_quotes}constraint levels{close_quotes} have been identified that reflect regulatory standards or conventionally negotiated thresholds of harm to Hanford resources and values. The cost of consequences includes the {open_quotes}costs{close_quote} of exceeding those constraint levels as well as a strictly linear costing per unit of impact within each of the risk measures. In actual application, VOI based-decision making is an iterative process, with a preliminary low-precision screen of potential technical options against the major risk constraints, followed by VOI analysis to determine the cost-effectiveness of gathering additional information and to select a preferred technical option, and finally a posterior screen to determine whether the preferred option meets all relevant risk constraints and acceptability criteria