19,325 research outputs found
The impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Emotional vs. Ethical Decision-Making Process - A Norwegian Case Study
The climate for business is changing. In today’s competitive market environment, corporate social responsibility (CSR) represents a high-profile notion that has strategic importance to many companies. CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed. It can be a source of opportunity, innovation, and competitive advantage. To make CSR a competitive advantage it is essential to understand how CSR influences consumer decision-making process. This paper has attempted to distinguish perspectives on CSR between emotional and rational purchase decisions within Norwegian consumers. The methodology utilised two organisational interviews and two focus groups, all conducted in Stavanger, Norway, aimed at understanding actual behaviour. The findings of this paper suggested some advantages of CSR efforts to be brand attitude, purchase intentions, differentiation strategy, financial performance, and employee’s motivation. Furthermore, the findings suggested that emotional products are more likely to have a higher direct effect on consumers purchase behaviour in correlation to companies’ CSR efforts. This is a result of consumer perception of rational and high involvement products being too important to be influenced by external factors, in this case CSR efforts
Pseudo-Goldstone Boson Effects in Top-Antitop Productions at High Energy Hadron Colliders and Testing Technicolor Models
We study the top quark pair production process p+p(anti-p)-->top+antitop in
various kinds of technicolor (TC) models at the Fermilab Tevatron Run II and
the CERN LHC. The s-channel neutral pseudo-Goldstone bosons (PGB's) contribute
dominately to the production amplitudes from its coupling to the gluons through
the triangle loops of techniquarks and the top quark. Cross sections in
different TC models with s-channel PGB contributions are calculated. It is
shown that the PGB effects can be experimentally tested and different TC models
under consideration can be distinguished at the LHC. Therefore, the
p+p-->top+antitop process at the LHC provides feasible tests of the TC models.Comment: 10 pages in RevTex and 4 PS-files for the figures. Paramemter range
is changed, and some references are added. Version for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Coating thickness and coverage effects on the forces between silica nanoparticles in water
The structure and interactions of coated silica nanoparticles have been
studied in water using molecular dynamics simulations. For 5 nm diameter
amorphous silica nanoparticles we studied the effects of varying the chain
length and grafting density of polyethylene oxide (PEO) on the nanoparticle
coating's shape and on nanoparticle-nanoparticle effective forces. For short
ligands of length and repeat units, the coatings are radially
symmetric while for longer chains () the coatings are highly
anisotropic. This anisotropy appears to be governed primarily by chain length,
with coverage playing a secondary role. For the largest chain lengths
considered, the strongly anisotropic shape makes fitting to a simple radial
force model impossible. For shorter ligands, where the coatings are isotropic,
we found that the force between pairs of nanoparticles is purely repulsive and
can be fit to the form where is the separation
between the center of the nanoparticles, is the radius of the
silica core, and is measured to be between 2.3 and 4.1.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
Oocyte cryopreservation as an adjunct to the assisted reproductive technologies
The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included. See page 2 of PDF for this item.Keith L Harrison, Michelle T Lane, Jeremy C Osborn, Christine A Kirby, Regan Jeffrey, John H Esler and David Mollo
Scotin, a novel p53-inducible proapoptotic protein located in the ER and the nuclear membrane
p53 is a transcription factor that induces growth arrest or apoptosis in response to cellular stress. To identify new p53-inducible proapoptotic genes, we compared, by differential display, the expression of genes in spleen or thymus of normal and p53 nullizygote mice after γ-irradiation of whole animals. We report the identification and characterization of human and mouse Scotin homologues, a novel gene directly transactivated by p53. The Scotin protein is localized to the ER and the nuclear membrane. Scotin can induce apoptosis in a caspase-dependent manner. Inhibition of endogenous Scotin expression increases resistance to p53-dependent apoptosis induced by DNA damage, suggesting that Scotin plays a role in p53-dependent apoptosis. The discovery of Scotin brings to light a role of the ER in p53-dependent apoptosis
Effectiveness of slow motion video compared to real time video in improving the accuracy and consistency of subjective gait analysis in dogs
Objective measures of canine gait quality via force plates, pressure mats or kinematic analysis are considered superior to subjective gait assessment (SGA). Despite research demonstrating that SGA does not accurately detect subtle lameness, it remains the most commonly performed diagnostic test for detecting lameness in dogs. This is largely because the financial, temporal and spatial requirements for existing objective gait analysis equipment makes this technology impractical for
use in general practice. The utility of slow motion video as a potential tool to augment SGA is currently untested. To evaluate a more accessible way to overcome the limitations of SGA, a slow motion video study was undertaken. Three experienced veterinarians reviewed video footage of 30 dogs, 15 with a diagnosis of primary limb lameness based on history and physical examination, and 15 with no indication of limb lameness based on history and physical examination. Four different videos were made for each dog, demonstrating each dog walking and trotting in real time, and then again walking and trotting in 50% slow motion. For each video, the veterinary raters assessed both the degree of lameness, and which limb(s) they felt represented the source of the lameness. Spearman’s rho, Cramer’s V, and t-tests were performed to determine if slow motion video increased either the accuracy or consistency of raters’ SGA relative to real time video. Raters demonstrated no significant increase in consistency or accuracy in their SGA of slow motion video relative to real time video. Based on these findings, slow motion video does not increase the consistency or accuracy of SGA values. Further research is required to determine if slow motion video will benefit SGA in other ways
Resonant and Non-Resonant Effects in Photon-Technipion Production at Lepton Colliders
Lepton collider experiments can search for light technipions in final states
made striking by the presence of an energetic photon: e+e- \to
\photon\technipion. To date, searches have focused on either production
through anomalous coupling of the technipions to electroweak gauge bosons or on
production through a technivector meson (\technirho, \techniomega) resonance.
This paper creates a combined framework in which both contributions are
included. This will allow stronger and more accurate limits on technipion
production to be set using existing data from LEP or future data from a
higher-energy linear collider. We provide explicit formulas and sample
calculations (analytic and Pythia) in the framework of the Technicolor Straw
Man Model, a model that includes light technihadrons.Comment: 11 pages, including title page, 3 figures; version 2: references
adde
Space shuttle: Determination of the static stability characteristics of the 0.00285-scale MDAC parallel burn launch configuration
Aerodynamic force and moment coefficient data for parallel burn vehicle launch configurations tested in trisonic wind tunnel for static stabilit
Composite Scalars at LEP: Constraining Technicolor Theories
LEPI and LEPII data can be used to constrain technicolor models with light,
neutral pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, Pa. We use published limits on branching
ratios and cross sections for final states with photons, large missing energy,
jet pairs, and b bbar pairs to constrain the anomalous Pa Z0 Z0, Pa Z0 photon,
and Pa photon photon couplings. From these results, we derive bounds on the
size of the technicolor gauge group and the number of technifermion doublets in
models such as Low-scale Technicolor.Comment: 27 pages (including title page), 15 figures, 6 tables. version 2: In
addressing PRD referee comments, we have significantly expanded our
manuscript, to include detailed discussion of limits from LEP II data, as
well as expanding the number or specific models to which we apply our
results. As a result, we have changed the title from "Z0 decays to composite
scalars: constraining technicolor theories
The Collider Phenomenology of Technihadrons in the Technicolor Straw Man Model
We discuss the phenomenology of the lightest SU(3)_C singlet and non-singlet
technihadrons in the Straw Man Model of low-scale technicolor (TCSM). The
technihadrons are assumed to be those arising in topcolor--assisted technicolor
models in which topcolor is broken by technifermion condensates. We improve
upon the description of the color--singlet sector presented in our earlier
paper introducing the TCSM (hep-ph/9903369). These improvements are most
important for subprocess energies well below the masses of the technirho and
techniomega, and, therefore, apply especially to e+e- colliders such as LEP and
a low--energy linear collider. In the color--octet sector, we consider mixing
of the gluon, the coloron V_8 from topcolor breaking, and four isosinglet
color--octet technirho mesons. We assume, as expected in walking technicolor,
that these technirhos decay into qbar-q, gg, and g-technipion final states, but
not into technipion pairs. All the TCSM production and decay processes
discussed here are included in the event generator Pythia. We present several
simulations appropriate for the Tevatron Collider, and suggest benchmark model
lines for further experimental investigation.Comment: 42 pages, 7 figure
- …