Is Self-Esteem Important to Marketing Literature Branding Perspective from Nike’s Sport Wear Industry in Kish Island

The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of variables which create a special value for sport brands like the Nike brand. In other words, the research sought to answer the question of whether customer self-esteem was important for marketing literature. How can it be improved? In addition, for the first time, we examine the relationship between self-esteem and brand addiction in marketing literature. The research method is descriptive-analytical and the research is applied in terms of purpose, which is done by using library studies and field studies from the interview and filling in the questionnaire. The statistical population of the study is 240 of Nike trainers, athletes, customers and sellers in Kish Island. Smart PLS software was used for modeling structural equations and hypothesis testing. The research findings showed that brand attachment has a positive and significant effect on brand love. Brand trust has a positive and significant effect on brand love. Brand love has a positive and significant effect on brand addiction. Brand addiction has a positive and significant effect on consumer self-esteem and also, brand attachment has a positive and significant effect on consumer self-esteem. This paper highlights that brand attachment not only influences the Brand Trust, Brand Love and Self-esteem, but also on negative behaviors, such as Brand Addictio

Spatial Analysis of The Effects of Distributive Justice Indices on Rural Areas Resilience to Drought (Case Study: Rural Areas in West of Urmia Lake)

Due to a better understanding of the status of resilience and optimal management of distribution services, it will be essential to analysis of spatial resilience patterns and examine the spatial relationships between resilience and influencing factors, including distributive justice. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive-analytical study is to investigate distributive justice and its effect on the resilience of villages west of Lake Urmia to drought. The statistical population of the present study was all villages located within 10 km of the shore of Lake Urmia, which were selected 53 villages as a research environment and finally 380 households as the human analysis units using the Cochran's formula and by multi-stage random sampling method. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this study, the effective factors (distributive justice indices) on the resilience of the studied villages were investigated by geographic weighted regression (GWR). The results of GWR regression showed that the variables entered in the model explain 47.8% of the dependent variable. Also, the results of regression model (OLS) showed that infrastructure, trade-service and economic indicators have the greatest impact on the resilience to drought in the studied villages

Wastewater treatment using integrated anaerobic baffled reactor and Bio-rack wetland planted with Phragmites sp. and Typha sp.

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential use of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by Bio-rack wetland planted with Phragmites sp. and Typha sp. for treating domestic wastewater generated by small communities (751 mg COD/L, 500 SCOD mg/L, 348 mg BOD(5)/L). Two parallel laboratory-scale models showed that the process planted with Phragmites sp. and Typha sp. are capable of removing COD by 87% & 86%, SCOD by 90% & 88%, BOD(5) by 93% & 92%, TSS by 88% & 86%, TN by 79% & 77%, PO(4)-P by 21% & 14% at an overall HRT of 21 (843 g COD/m(3)/day & 392 g BOD(5)/m(3)/day) and 27 (622 g COD/m(3)/day & 302 g BOD(5)/m(3)/day) hours, respectively. Microbial analysis indicated a high reduction in the MPN of total coliform and TVC as high as 99% at the outlet end of the processes. The vegetated system using Phragmites sp. showed significantly greater (p <0.05) pollutant removal efficiencies due to its extensive root and mass growth rate (p <0.05) of the plant compared to Typha sp. The Phragmites sp. indicated a higher relative growth rate (3.92%) than Typha sp. (0.90%). Microorganisms immobilized on the surface of the Bio-rack media (mean TVC: 2.33 × 10(7) cfu/cm(2)) were isolated, identified and observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This study illustrated that the present integrated processes could be an ideal approach for promoting a sustainable decentralization, however, Phragmites sp. would be more efficient rather than Typha sp

The Big Five personality traits and online gaming: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Online gaming has become an essential form of entertainment with the advent of technology and a large sway of research has been undertaken to understand its various permutations. Previous reviews have identified associations between the Big Five personality traits and online gaming, but a systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between these constructs has yet to be undertaken. In the current study we aimed to fill this gap in the literature through a systematic review and meta-analysis comprising of 17 studies and 25,634 individuals (AgeMean = 26.55, males = 75%). The findings showed that agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, and neuroticism were not ubiquitously associated with online gaming. The findings showed that only conscientiousness, across samples, had a protective role in online gaming. Furthermore, there were non-significant variations in the Big Five personality traits associations with online gaming when comparing gamers to the general population, younger versus older participants, casual versus 'hardcore' gamers, and high versus low traits (with the exception of neuroticism). As a result of our observations, the underlying mechanisms of individual differences in online gaming remain unclear. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed

The hypoglycemic effect of Juglans regia leaves aqueous extract in diabetic patients: A first human trial

BACKGROUND: Juglans regia L. (J. regia ) is one of the medicinal plants traditionally used for treatment of diabetes in Iranian medicine. The effect of this plant has already been investigated on animal models; however, this is the first study conducted on human subjects. The aim of this study is to investigate the hypoglycemic effect of J. regia leaves aqueous extract in type 2 diabetes patients. Fifty eight Iranian male and female patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled. The patients were randomly allocated into two groups. One group (n = 30) received J. regia leaves extract while the other group (n = 28) received placebo. Fasting blood samples were collected at the beginning of the study and after two months for determination of HbA1c and blood glucose level as a main outcome and insulin, SGOT, SGPT, and ALP level as secondary outcome. RESULTS: Our analysis showed that serum fasting HbA1C and blood glucose levels were significantly decreased and the insulin level was increased in patients in the J. regia arm. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that J. regia aqueous extract favorably affects blood levels of glucose, insulin and HbA1C in type 2 diabetic patients

Remote ischemic preconditioning in lower limb surgery; the hemodynamic and respiratory effects

Aim and Background: Remote Ischemic Preconditioning introduces brief episodes of ischemia and reperfusion which reduces long term ischemia in orthopaedic surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate hemodynamic and respiratory effects of remote ischemic preconditioning in lower extremity orthopaedic surgeries.Methods: In this clinical trial 40 patients scheduled for lower extremity surgery with pneumatic tourniquet were randomly allocated to remote ischemic preconditioning (RIP group, n=20) and control group (n=19). Patients in RIP group received three “5 minutes” cycles of ischemia, alternating with 5 minutes of reperfusion before extended use of tourniquet. Hemodynamic variables prior to inflation of tourniquet, every 30 minutes during the surgery and 10 minutes after tourniquet deflation and also arterial blood gas sample prior to and after surgery were recorded and compared between groups.Results: During operation blood pressure dropped in the RIP group and variations in heart rate, respiratory rate and pulse oximeter measurements after surgical tourniquet release were not significantly different between two groups. Changes in blood gas parameters were significantly less pronounced in the RIP group.Conclusion: Remote ischemic preconditioning may not attenuate most of the adverse effects of surgical tourniquet deflation including variations in heart rate, respiratory rate and arterial oxygen saturation as well as blood pressure drops. However, RIP may reduce increases in systolic blood pressure and acidosis following tourniquet application.Key Words: Remote Ischemic Preconditioning; Orthopedic, surgery, blood pressure, tourniquet, oxygenatio

IPA: Inference Pipeline Adaptation to Achieve High Accuracy and Cost-Efficiency

Efficiently optimizing multi-model inference pipelines for fast, accurate, and cost-effective inference is a crucial challenge in ML production systems, given their tight end-to-end latency requirements. To simplify the exploration of the vast and intricate trade-off space of accuracy and cost in inference pipelines, providers frequently opt to consider one of them. However, the challenge lies in reconciling accuracy and cost trade-offs. To address this challenge and propose a solution to efficiently manage model variants in inference pipelines, we present IPA, an online deep-learning Inference Pipeline Adaptation system that efficiently leverages model variants for each deep learning task. Model variants are different versions of pre-trained models for the same deep learning task with variations in resource requirements, latency, and accuracy. IPA dynamically configures batch size, replication, and model variants to optimize accuracy, minimize costs, and meet user-defined latency SLAs using Integer Programming. It supports multi-objective settings for achieving different trade-offs between accuracy and cost objectives while remaining adaptable to varying workloads and dynamic traffic patterns. Extensive experiments on a Kubernetes implementation with five real-world inference pipelines demonstrate that IPA improves normalized accuracy by up to 35% with a minimal cost increase of less than 5%

Investigating the relationship between carotid intima-media thickness, flow-mediated dilatation in brachial artery and nuclear heart scan in patients with rheumatoid arthritis for evaluation of asymptomatic cardiac ischemia and atherosclerotic changes

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death worldwide. In order to prevent and treat heart diseases, we need to estimate the trend of non-cardiac diseases with the cardiovascular system. Arthritis Rheumatoid is a chronic immune/inflammatory process which leads to subclinical atherosclerosis and increases cardiovascular disease. We examined the patients who referred to our nuclear medicine center for MPI and correlated their findings with flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in arthritis rheumatoid patients. Material and methods: A total 30 known cases with arthritis rheumatoid were referred to our department for MPI and the single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging were visually and quantitatively evaluated by two nuclear medicine physicians and the correlation of the measured FMD and CIMT were evaluated and compared with ultrasonography data. Demographic information such as gender, age and sex and medical history (risk factors, cardiovascular sign and symptoms, lab findings, medication etc…) were recorded in questionnaire sheets and were analyzed by SPSS.20. Chi-square and student t-test were used for further analysis. Results: The mean CIMT (R = 0.452 ± 0.07, L = 0.447 ± 0.08) and %FMD (R = 7.22 ± 8.66, L = 6.42 ± 11.88) were measured for all subjects. Age was the only parameter correlated with both right and left CIMT (P = 0.033 and P = 0.024, respectively). Among the patients, 26.7% had mild ischemia (SSS &lt; 8) and 3 of them suffered from active arthritis rheumatoid. All patients with RA showed normal ventricular ejection fraction and normal volumes and among them, 93.3% had normal functional performance (normal wall motion…). Moreover, the mean CIMT and %FMD were not significantly different in ischemic and non-ischemic patients. Among ischemic patients, just the course of the disease was associated with CIMT and none of the parameters was correlated with FMD. Conclusions: There is no significant statistical difference between ischemic and non-ischemic patients and also the functional performance with values of CIMT and FMD. Among all populations, the parameter of age, and in ischemic group, the course of disease were found as the only variable correlated with CIMT