Economic and social ramifications of trends in the Israeli hi-tech industry

Израильская индустрия высоких технологий превратилась в один из самых важных секторов экономики страны настолько, что сейчас она известна, как «страна - Start-up». В статье представлены последние тенденции в индустрии высоких технологий Израиля. Обсуждаются некоторые последствия этих тенденций для экономики Израиля. Кроме того, статья показывает, что ускорение развития технологий приводит к некоторым социальным эффектам, которые не всегда носят позитивный характер.The Israeli Hi-Tech industry has evolved to become one of the most important sectors of the Israeli economy to the extent that the country is now labeled as the “start-up Nation”. The present paper presents recent trends in the Israeli Hi-Tech industry. The ramifications of these trends to the Israeli economy are discussed. In addition, the paper shows that the accelerated technological development has some social effects, not all positive

A novel approach : the propensity to propagate (PTP) method for controlling for host factors in studying the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

RATIONALE: Understanding the genetic variations among Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains with differential ability to transmit would be a major step forward in preventing transmission. OBJECTIVES: To describe a method to extend conventional proxy measures of transmissibility by adjusting for patient-related factors, thus strengthening the causal association found with bacterial factors. METHODS: Clinical, demographic and molecular fingerprinting data were obtained during routine surveillance of verified MTB cases reported in the Netherlands between 1993 and 2011, and the phylogenetic lineages of the isolates were inferred. Odds ratios for host risk factors for clustering were used to obtain a measure of each patient's and cluster's propensity to propagate (CPP). Mean and median cluster sizes across different categories of CPP were compared amongst four different phylogenetic lineages. RESULTS: Both mean and median cluster size grew with increasing CPP category. On average, CPP values from Euro-American lineage strains were higher than Beijing and EAI strains. There were no significant differences between the mean and median cluster sizes among the four phylogenetic lineages within each CPP category. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding that the distribution of CPP scores was unequal across four different phylogenetic lineages supports the notion that host-related factors should be controlled for to attain comparability in measuring the different phylogenetic lineages' ability to propagate. Although Euro-American strains were more likely to be in clusters in an unadjusted analysis, no significant differences among the four lineages persisted after we controlled for host factors.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (SFRH/BD/33902/2009 to HN-G). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Magnetic correlations and quantum criticality in the insulating antiferromagnetic, insulating spin liquid, renormalized Fermi liquid, and metallic antiferromagnetic phases of the Mott system V_2O_3

Magnetic correlations in all four phases of pure and doped vanadium sesquioxide V_2O_3 have been examined by magnetic thermal neutron scattering. While the antiferromagnetic insulator can be accounted for by a Heisenberg localized spin model, the long range order in the antiferromagnetic metal is an incommensurate spin-density-wave, resulting from a Fermi surface nesting instability. Spin dynamics in the strongly correlated metal are dominated by spin fluctuations in the Stoner electron-hole continuum. Furthermore, our results in metallic V_2O_3 represent an unprecedentedly complete characterization of the spin fluctuations near a metallic quantum critical point, and provide quantitative support for the SCR theory for itinerant antiferromagnets in the small moment limit. Dynamic magnetic correlations for energy smaller than k_BT in the paramagnetic insulator carry substantial magnetic spectral weight. However, the correlation length extends only to the nearest neighbor distance. The phase transition to the antiferromagnetic insulator introduces a sudden switching of magnetic correlations to a different spatial periodicity which indicates a sudden change in the underlying spin Hamiltonian. To describe this phase transition and also the unusual short range order in the paramagnetic state, it seems necessary to take into account the orbital degrees of freedom associated with the degenerate d-orbitals at the Fermi level in V_2O_3.Comment: Postscript file, 24 pages, 26 figures, 2 tables, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Helical spin-density wave in doped V2O3

Recent neutron scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments have revealed that the low temperature phase of doped V_{2-y}O_3 is an itinerant antiferromagnet with a helical spin structure. We use a band structure calculation as the point of departure to show that these experiments are in agreement with mean field results for an Overhauser spin-density wave state. The influences of a finite life-time and of dilute magnetic impurities are discussed.Comment: 6 pages RevTex incl. 7 postscript figures, to be published by PR

The semiology of changing brand image

This article considers the attempted change to the image of an established brand by studying the semiotics within the brand’s historical advertising campaigns. The use of semiotics to study the interpretation of messages is discussed, and the link between interpretation of messages and advertising effectiveness in changing brand image is explored. The authors deconstruct advertisements of a brand to provide a model containing opposing dialectics that may aid managers by highlighting alternative symbolic messages contained in advertisements. Oncwe identified, these alternative symbolic messages may be used to help change brand image and influence advertising effectiveness. Although the study focuses upon a major brand of beer, this is an industry in which there are numerous small firms, and many of those have constrained marketing budgets, and thus need to make sure that their advertising is effective. Equally, entrepreneurial marketing is not to found only in the small firm, and the case study discusses a radical and imaginative brand repositioning of a well established product

Exploring perceptions of advertising ethics: an informant-derived approach

Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research

How Global are Global Brands? An Empirical Brand Equity Analysis

The term 'global brand' has become widely used by the media and by consumers. Business week publishes annually its widely known ranking of the 'Best Global Brands' (with Coca-Cola as number 1 in the past years) and consumers on summer vacations purchase brands such as Heineken or Marlboro they are familiar with from their home country. Although media and consumers call these brands 'global' and centralized marketing departments manage these brands globally - are these 'global brands' really global? Are they really perceived everywhere in the same way by the customers? Can we talk about truly global brand equity? And if there were brand image differences between countries, which factors causes them? The authors conducted an empirical research during May and June 2009 with similarly aged University students (bachelor students at business school) in Germany (n=426) and Mexico (n=296). The goal was to identify if brand awareness rates differ between Germans and Mexicans, if the brand image of Apple iPod is perceived in the same way in Germany and in Mexico and what influencing factors might have an impact on any brand image discrepancy between the countries. Results prove that brand recall rates differ between the two countries (with higher rates in Mexico) as well as brand image attributes vary significantly (28 out of 34 brand image attributes are significantly different between Germany and Mexico), with Mexico showing higher levels of favorable brand image attributes. Key influencing factors on the different brand image perceptions are perceived quality, satisfaction and the influence of reference groups (such as friends and family). The results suggest that so-called 'global brands' are not perceived the same way in Germany and Mexico. As a consequence, brand management using standardized marketing instruments for its presumable 'global brands' might be better off with a more differentiated approach that takes account a specific local brand image