The Marketing Concept and BYOD in the University Classroom:

For decades marketing educators have espoused the marketing concept and consumer oriented business strategies in university classrooms. In recent years, there has been a movement away from the ‘sage on the stage’ to experiential, active learning pedagogies. Those newer pedagogies often involve the use of mobile devices, including smart phones, laptops, and e-readers as academic tools for students. While such mobile devices are nearly ubiquitous on college and university campuses, an ongoing debate revolves on the distinction between owning mobile devices and whether or not students bring them to campus and use them as educational tools. In this study, we surveyed students in order to assess their attitudes towards and perceptions of a proposed BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program on campus

Destructive Selling: An Empirical View from the Perspective of University Level Business Students

Preliminary evidence indicates that salespeople working in a variety of industries hold the perception that destructive selling (defined as the intentional use of unethical tactics including lying, misrepresenting product/service performance, misleading the client, spreading rumors about the competition, etc. by professional salespeople) does occur in the professional selling discipline. A rich history of related research provides further evidence that university students exhibit negative perceptions and attitudes towards professional selling. In the work reported in this manuscript, the authors employed the survey research method to empirically study the perceptions held by university level pre-business and business students regarding the presence of destructive selling tactics in the world of professional selling. Results indicated that respondents believed that both B2B and B2C professional salespeople are intentionally engaging in destructive selling behaviors and tactics and that some firms are training their sales forces in the use of those tactics. Implications, limitations and future research avenues are presented

International Food Safety Regulation and processed food exports from developing countries: the policy context, and the purpose and scope of the research project

The purpose of this paper is to place the research project in the context of the ongoing global policy debate with a view to obtaining feedback from the interested parties in shaping the research strategy and facilitating their participation in the process of project implementation. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 surveys the emerging trends and patterns of processed food exports and their implications for development policy in agricultural-resource rich developing countries. Section 3 paints a broad-brush picture of the current state of the debate on trade-impeding effects of international food-safety standards and the relation world trade rules. Section 4 presents preliminary results from a study-in-progress on inter-country differences in the incidents of import detentions by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and the underlying cause of detention. These results aim to inform the discussion on designing appropriate methods and strategies for studying the problems faced by exporting firms in India and Thailand in meeting food-safety standards and designing institutional capabilities to facilitate redressing these problems. A brief survey of the existing literature on the subject is undertaken in Section 5, with a view to placing the present study in context. The research project is discussed in the final section, focusing in turn on its objectives, approach and methodology, and the expected output

Antibacterial effectiveness of natural products alone and in combination with Calcium Hydroxide as Intracanal Medicaments : An In-Vitro Microbiological Study

Major objective of root canal treatment is disinfection of the root canal system and elimination of microbiota. Various intracanal medicaments as an adjunct to mechanical disinection and irrigation have been used but due to the harmful effects of the commercially available agents, a need for natural alternatives is felt over the time. This in-vitro study aims to evaluate the antibacterial effectiveness of natural agents Septillin and Aloe vera with Calcium hydroxide and without Calcium hydroxide on the Streptococcus mitis, E. Faecalis and Candida albicans using agar well diffusion method. The antibacterial activity was assessed by the diameter of zone of inhibition seen as clear zone around the wells. The study showed that Septillin in combination with Calcium hydroxide and alone showed considerable antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus mitis, Enterococcus faecalis and Candida albicans where as Aloe vera with Calcium hydroxide showed to be mildly effective against all three but not as effective as Septillin and Calcium hydroxide when tested alone

Chemotherapy-related complications in the kidneys and collecting system: an imaging perspective

Nephrotoxicity is a common adverse effect of many chemotherapeutic agents. The agents most commonly associated with chemotherapy-associated nephrotoxicity are methotrexate, semustine, streptozocin, mithramycin, and cisplatin. Certain chemotherapeutic agents have adverse effects on the kidneys and urothelium that can be visualized radiographically, including cystic change, interstitial nephritis, papillary necrosis, urothelial changes, haemorrhagic cystitis, acute tubular necrosis, and infarction. This review focuses on imaging features identifying complications of chemotherapy in the kidneys and collecting system and provides didactic cases to alert referring clinicians

Selecting a change and evaluating its impact on the performance of a complex adaptive health care delivery system

Complexity science suggests that our current health care delivery system acts as a complex adaptive system (CAS). Such systems represent a dynamic and flexible network of individuals who can coevolve with their ever changing environment. The CAS performance fluctuates and its members’ interactions continuously change over time in response to the stress generated by its surrounding environment. This paper will review the challenges of intervening and introducing a planned change into a complex adaptive health care delivery system. We explore the role of the “reflective adaptive process” in developing delivery interventions and suggest different evaluation methodologies to study the impact of such interventions on the performance of the entire system. We finally describe the implementation of a new program, the Aging Brain Care Medical Home as a case study of our proposed evaluation process

Real-time Detection of Seat Occupancy and Hogging

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under International Research Centre @ Singapore Funding Initiativ

Chemotherapy induced liver abnormalities: an imaging perspective

Treating patients undergoing chemotherapy who display findings of liver toxicity, requires a solid understanding of these medications. It is important for any clinician to have an index of suspicion for liver toxicity and be able to recognize it, even on imaging. Cancer chemotherapy has evolved, and newer medications that target cell biology have a different pattern of liver toxicity and may differ from the more traditional cytotoxic agents. There are several hepatic conditions that can result and keen clinical as well as radiographic recognition are paramount. Conditions such as sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, steatosis, and pseudocirrhosis are more commonly associated with chemotherapy. These conditions can display clinical signs of acute hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and even liver failure. It is important to anticipate and recognize these adverse reactions and thus appropriate clinical action can be taken. Often times, patients with these liver manifestations can be managed with supportive therapies, and liver toxicity may resolve after discontinuation of chemotherapy

Comparative evaluation of equine mesenchymal stem cells derived from amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising therapeutic tools for the treatment of tendon rupture and other musculoskeletal injuries in horses. Although MSCs from bone marrow and adipose tissues are commonly used for therapeutic purpose in equines, umbilical cord blood (UCB) and amniotic fluid (AF) are potential non-invasive sources of MSCs. We collected AF and UCB from twenty mares during foaling for isolation of MSCs and evaluated them for the differences in isolation rates, proliferation capacity, expression of MSC markers and multi-lineage differentiation ability. The plastic adherent colonies were observed in 60% AF and 65% UCB samples. The mean doubling time for AF cells was significantly lower than that of UCB cells. The AF-MSCs proliferated till passage 36 whereas UCB-MSCs till passage 20 only. Both AF and UCB derived cells expressed CD29, CD44, CD73, CD90 and CD105 and were negative for haematopoietic and leukocytic markers (CD14, CD34 and CD45). The CD90 and CD73 expression was significantly higher in AF derived cells as compared to UCB-MSCs. On the other hand, CD29 expression was significantly lower in AF derived cells as compared to UCB derived cells. The UCB-MSCs differentiated poorly to adipogenic lineage compared to AF-MSCs. These results suggested that equine AF yields more MSCs with greater in vitro proliferation and differentiation capacities and is better non-invasive source of MSCs for regenerative therapies in equines