On-line surveys in international marketing research: pros and cons

In a recent article on conducting international marketing research in the 21st century (Craig and Douglas 2001) the application of new (electronic) technology for data collection was encouraged. Email and web-based data collection methods are attractive to researchers particularly in international marketing, because of low costs and fast response rates. Yet the conventional wisdom is that, as some people still do not have access to email and the Internet, such data collection techniques may often result in a sample of respondents that is not representative of the population in question. In this article we evaluate multimode strategies of data collection that include web-based, email and postal methods, as a means for the international marketing researcher to obtain survey data from a representative sample. An example is given of a multimode strategy applied to the collection of survey data from a sample of respondents across 100 countries

The changing role of central banks in market economies

Among the main reasons for the emergence of central banks in Europe were the wars that ravaged the continent from the 17th century onwards and the consequent pressure this exerted on government finance. In brief, governments granted monopoly power over the note issue to a commercial bank and in return were given privileged borrowing facilities. This marked the beginning of the 'special relationship' between governments and their central bank. However, in most cases, recent years have witnessed enormous changes in the nature of this relationship. In particular, since the beginning of the 1990s, many governments have become convinced that the way to ensure price stability is to sever the institutional links between government and the central bank, leaving the latter to manage monetary policy free from political interference. The focus of this paper is on the historical developments, which have underpinned this new monetary orthodoxy

Archival Information Package (AIP) Pilot Specification

This report presents the E-ARK AIP format specification as it will be used by the pilots (implementations in pilot organizations). The deliverable is a follow-up version of E-ARK deliverable D4.2. The report describes the structure, metadata, and physical container format of the E-ARK AIP, a container which is the result of converting an E-ARK Submission Information Package (SIP) into the E-ARK Archival Information Package (AIP). The conversion will be implemented in the Integrated Platform as part of the component earkweb

Technical documentation of the infrastructure supporting the E-ARK Faceted Query Interface and Application Programming Interface (API)

The E-ARK Work package 6 (WP6) - Archival Storage, Services, and Integration, is developing a scalable open-source reference implementation for ingesting, searching, and accessing E-ARK information packages. A major task in this context is the development of a faceted query interface for searching archived content which can be utilized by end-users as well as external software components. The reference implementation aims at providing an archiving and search prototype that is flexible in regard to the type and volume of the ingested payloads. The reference implementation is designed to scale from a single host out to a cluster deployment by employing technologies like Apache Hadoop, Solr, and the Lily repository, supporting different types of input data ranging from text-based files and structured records to office documents and binary content. This report provides technical documentation of the infrastructure supporting the E-ARK Faceted Query Interface and Application Programming Interface (API). It provides a description of the underlying software components utilized for the development of the search functionality of the E-ARK reference implementation and discusses the required interactions to work as an integrated solution. Furthermore, technical documentation of the developed software and system configuration is provided. The document describes also methods to customize the faceted query interface and provides examples for its utilization

E‐ARK Dissemination Information Package (DIP) Final Specification

The primary aim of this report is to present the final version of the E-ARK Dissemination Information Package (DIP) formats. The secondary aim is to describe the access scenarios in which these DIP formats will be rendered for use

A multi-national European cross-sectional study of feline calicivirus epidemiology, diversity and vaccine cross-reactivity

Background Feline calicivirus (FCV) is an important pathogen of cats for which vaccination is regularly practised. Long-term use of established vaccine antigens raises the theoretical possibility that field viruses could become resistant. This study aimed to assess the current ability of the FCV-F9 vaccine strain to neutralise a randomly collected contemporary panel of FCV field strains collected prospectively in six European countries. Methods Veterinary practices (64) were randomly selected from six countries (UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy). Oropharyngeal swabs were requested from 30 (UK) and 40 (other countries) cats attending each practice. Presence of FCV was determined by virus isolation, and risk factors for FCV shedding assessed by multivariable logistic regression. Phylogenetic analyses were used to describe the FCV population structure. In vitro virus neutralisation assays were performed to evaluate FCV-F9 cross-reactivity using plasma from four vaccinated cats. Results The overall prevalence of FCV was 9.2%. Risk factors positively associated with FCV shedding included multi-cat households, chronic gingivostomatitis, younger age, not being neutered, as well as residing in certain countries. Phylogenetic analysis showed extensive variability and no countrywide clusters. Despite being first isolated in the 1950s, FCV-F9 clustered with contemporary field isolates. Plasma raised to FCV-F9 neutralized 97% of tested isolates (titres 1:4 to 1:5792), with 26.5%, 35.7% and 50% of isolates being neutralized by 5, 10 and 20 antibody units respectively. Conclusions This study represents the largest prospective analysis of FCV diversity and antigenic cross-reactivity at a European level. The scale and random nature of sampling used gives confidence that the FCV isolates used are broadly representative of FCVs that cats are exposed to in these countries. The in vitro neutralisation results suggest that antibodies raised to FCV-F9 remain broadly cross-reactive to contemporary FCV isolates across the European countries sampled