The Use of Social Media within the Austrian Supply Chain for Food and Beverages

In addition to traditional marketing communication instruments, social media marketing has become a powerful tool of interaction with participants within supply chains. An increasing number of com-panies, especially in the US, are using social media platforms not only to market their products and manage their customer relationships, but also to initiate active interaction and communication with current and prospective customers. One core objective of this study was to evaluate certain content and contact features, as well as social media activities of companies of the Austrian food and bever-age industry. The evaluation of the content and interactivity possibilities on corporate websites was carried out with a set of criteria that had been elaborated according to research literature. Another objective was to gain insights into threats, risks, and opportunities for companies when interacting with customers by means of social media. This was done by a qualitative survey amongst Austrian business leaders.The research study clearly shows that a minority of the Austrian food and beverage industry actively uses social media platforms for marketing purposes and interaction with present and potential cus-tomers. Usually the platforms are not applied for active customer relationship management but for distributing exactly the same advertising messages already broadcasted via traditional mass media. The basics of a successful customer relationship management by use of social media are frankness, willingness to engage in dialogue, truthfulness and a short reaction time. In this case, potentials can be activated, while risks are minimized. The results imply that social media applications are innova-tive alternatives for implementing effective customer relationship management initiating a true dia-logue with customers. However, more knowledge on how to properly use social media marketing seems to be necessary within the food sector

Interaction with customers: The Application of Social Media within the Austrian Supply Chain for Food and Beverages

Social media marketing has become a powerful tool of interaction with stakeholders. An increasing number of companies are using social media platforms to initiate active interaction and communication with current and prospective customers. Within this study, certain content and contact features, as well as social media activities of companies of the Austrian food and beverage industry were evaluated. Empirical findings concerning the threats, risks, and opportunities connected with the application of social media are presented. The results imply that social media applications are innovative alternatives for customer relationship management. However, more knowledge on how to properly use social media marketing seems to be necessary

Evaluation of the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship of praziquantel in the Schistosoma mansoni mouse model

After more than 40 years of use, Praziquantel (PZQ) still remains the drug of choice for the treatment of intestinal and urogenital schistosomiasis. Its anti-parasitic activity resides primarily in the (R)-enantiomer. Hitherto neither the molecular target nor the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship have been fully elucidated. Here we investigated the efficacy and pharmacokinetics of PZQ in the Schistosoma mansoni mouse model to determine the key factors that drive its efficacy. Dose-response studies with racemic PZQ with or without addition of an irreversible pan-cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibitor, 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT), were performed. In addition, efficacy of PZQ in the presence of the CYP inducer, dexamethasone (DEX), was determined. Plasma samples were obtained by tail vein bleeding at 4 time points. The (R)-PZQ levels were determined using a LC-MS/MS method. Non-compartmental pharmacokinetic analysis was performed using PKsolver. In addition, experiments using an enhanced in vitro assay were conducted. We found that the use of ABT increased (R)-PZQ plasma exposures in the systemic circulation by ~10 to 20 fold but the latter were not predictive of efficacy. The use of DEX decreased plasma exposures of (R)-PZQ in the systemic circulation by ~10 fold without reducing efficacy. We extrapolated the (R)-PZQ concentrations in mouse portal vein / mesenteric veins from the systemic exposures and found that a free exposure of (R)-PZQ of ~ 20 μM*h in the portal vein was needed to obtain a worm burden reduction >60%. It is suggested that the high (R)-PZQ concentrations available before the hepatic first pass metabolism drive the efficacy against S. mansoni adult worms residing in the mesenteric veins. It is then possible that the current dosing regimen of 40 mg/kg in preventive chemotherapy programs may provide suboptimal concentrations in low-weight patients such as children, due to smaller total amounts of drug administered, and may consequently result in lower cure rates

LIPIcs

The semantics of concurrent data structures is usually given by a sequential specification and a consistency condition. Linearizability is the most popular consistency condition due to its simplicity and general applicability. Nevertheless, for applications that do not require all guarantees offered by linearizability, recent research has focused on improving performance and scalability of concurrent data structures by relaxing their semantics. In this paper, we present local linearizability, a relaxed consistency condition that is applicable to container-type concurrent data structures like pools, queues, and stacks. While linearizability requires that the effect of each operation is observed by all threads at the same time, local linearizability only requires that for each thread T, the effects of its local insertion operations and the effects of those removal operations that remove values inserted by T are observed by all threads at the same time. We investigate theoretical and practical properties of local linearizability and its relationship to many existing consistency conditions. We present a generic implementation method for locally linearizable data structures that uses existing linearizable data structures as building blocks. Our implementations show performance and scalability improvements over the original building blocks and outperform the fastest existing container-type implementations

Proton- and ammonium-sensing by histaminergic neurons controlling wakefulness

The histaminergic neurons in the tuberomamillary nucleus (TMN) of the posterior hypothalamus are involved in the control of arousal. These neurons are sensitive to hypercapnia as has been shown in experiments examining c-Fos expression, a marker for increased neuronal activity. We investigated the mechanisms through which TMN neurons respond to changes in extracellular levels of acid/CO2. Recordings in rat brain slices revealed that acidification within the physiological range (pH from 7.4 to 7.0), as well as ammonium chloride (5 mM), excite histaminergic neurons. This excitation is significantly reduced by antagonists of type I metabotropic glutamate receptors and abolished by benzamil, an antagonist of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) and Na+/Ca2+ exchanger, or by ouabain which blocks Na+/K+ ATPase. We detected variable combinations of 4 known types of ASICs in single TMN neurons, and observed activation of ASICs in single dissociated TMN neurons only at pH lower than 7.0. Thus, glutamate, which is known to be released by glial cells and orexinergic neurons, amplifies the acid/CO2-induced activation of TMN neurons. This amplification demands the coordinated function of metabotropic glutamate receptors, Na+/Ca2+ exchanger and Na+/K+ ATPase. We also developed a novel HDC-Cre transgenic reporter mouse line in which histaminergic TMN neurons can be visualized. In contrast to the rat, the mouse histaminergic neurons lacked the pH 7.0-induced excitation and displayed only a minimal response to the mGluR I agonist DHPG (0.5 μM). On the other hand, ammonium-induced excitation was similar in mouse and rat. These results are relevant for the understanding of the neuronal mechanisms controlling acid/CO2-induced arousal in hepatic encephalopathy and obstructive sleep apnoea. Moreover, the new HDC-Cre mouse model will be a useful tool for studying the physiological and pathophysiological roles of the histaminergic system

Changes in Motoric, Exploratory, and Emotional Behaviours and Neuronal Acetylcholine Content and 5-HT Turnover in Histidine Decarboxylase-KO Mice

Histamine has been implicated, inter alia, in mechanisms underlying arousal, exploratory behaviour and emotionality. Here, we investigated behavioural and neurochemical parameters related to these concepts, including open-field activity, rotarod performance and anxiety, as well as brain acetylcholine and 5-HT concentrations of mice deficient for the histidine decarboxylase (HDC) gene. These mice are unable to synthesize histamine from its precursor histidine. The HDC-knockout mice showed reduced exploratory activity in an open-field, but normal habituation to a novel environment. They behaved more anxious than the controls, as assessed by the height–fear task and the graded anxiety test, a modified elevated plus-maze. Furthermore, motor coordination on the rotarod was superior to controls. Biochemical assessments revealed that the HDC-knockout mice had higher acetylcholine concentrations and a significantly higher 5-HT turnover in the frontal cortex, but reduced acetylcholine levels in the neostriatum. These results are suggestive of important interactions between neuronal histamine and these site-specific neurotransmitters, which may be related to the behavioural changes found in the HDC-deficient animals