"Lose 30lbs in 30 days" : assigning responsibility for deceptive advertising of weight-loss products

Purpose &ndash; The aim of this paper is to outline key social marketing issues apparent in deceptive weight-loss advertising, from the perspective of government policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers. The purpose is to examine the complexity of one aspect of the obesity battle and provide a framework for coordinated and integrated social marketing initiatives from a multiple stakeholder perspective.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The results of deceptive weight-loss advertising are framed using the harm chain model, and the paper offers recommended solutions based on a framework of marketing, education and policy changes across the network of stakeholders.Findings &ndash; This paper concludes that a resolution to the harm created by deceptive weight-loss advertising can be achieved by the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution to this important health and policy issue. This networked approach must involve all aspects of harm in a multi-stakeholder solution, including both upstream and downstream integration. Specific recommendations are made for policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers to achieve this goal.Social implications &ndash; From a marketing perspective, analyzing the issue of deceptive weight-loss advertising using the harm chain allows for the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution involving stakeholders in all aspects of harm for this important health and policy issue.Originality/value &ndash; This research examines the problem of obesity and weight-loss advertising from the unique perspective of the harm chain framework. The authors make unified recommendations for various stakeholders including industry, media, government and consumers, in order to direct integrated social marketing and consumer-oriented strategies within this industry.<br /

The development of a novel vaccine against avian influenza H7N9 virus

Influenza A viruses (IAV) are classified into the Orthomyxoviridae family and are composed of segmented, negative-sense, single-stranded ribonucleic acid (ssRNA) genomes in an enveloped particle. IAV is capable of infecting a wide variety of species, including but not limited to humans, birds, pigs, bats, and sea mammals. Up until 2013, H7N9 IAV was only prevalent in poultry; however, at this time H7N9 began infecting humans in China. Since 2013, China has seen six epidemic waves of the H7N9 virus, with human cases and deaths totaling 1,568 and 616, respectively, as of March 4, 2020. Although this virus presents high morbidity and mortality rates in humans, the majority of human cases have been a result of close contact to poultry in live poultry markets (LPMs). Fortunately, the change for sustained human-to-human transmission has not yet been acquired in this virus. However, due to IAVs evolutionary mechanisms of antigenic shift and antigenic drift, H7N9 could gain sustained transmission among humans at any time, which poses a severe threat to public health. Therefore, preventive control methods must be developed in an effort to control the spread of this influenza virus. Vaccination is currently the main method for controlling the spread and preventing influenza infection. Currently, the two available types of vaccines are the inactivated influenza vaccines (IIV) and the live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV). IIVs are composed of either whole influenza virions or portions of its virion produced in large volumes, followed by inactivation of the virus with either β-propiolactone or formaldehyde. IIVs are commonly administered intramuscularly, and sometimes include adjuvants to boost their immune responses. IIVs have been countlessly demonstrated to be highly safe for all populations. LAIVs on the other hand, are composed of live viruses of which their virulence is reduced through limited replication in the vaccinated host. LAIVs are administered intranasally and do not require an adjuvant because they are capable of stimulating stronger immune responses compared to IIVs. However, one common drawback towards the use of LAIVs is the possibility of virulence reversion. On the contrary, replication-defective virus vaccines are made up of viruses defective in either viral replication, synthesis, or assembly. These replication-defective virus vaccines, therefore, consist of very limited replication in the vaccinated host and have been found to possess the advantages of both IIVs and LAIVs. These advantages include the high safety profile due to the low risk of virulence reversion, as well as the ability to induce a strong immune response. To date, no commercial vaccine is available for the H7N9 influenza viruses. The first step in the influenza replication cycle is the binding of the virus to the host cell, which is followed by receptor-mediated endocytosis. After endocytosis occurs, in order for influenza virus to become infective, cleavage of the hemagglutinin (HA) precursor form, HA0, into HA1 and HA2 must occur. This cleavage is most often mediated by trypsin-like host proteases, inducing fusion between the viral and endosomal membranes. Therefore, this particular step is essential for determining viral pathogenicity. For this Masters project, the goal was to generate a replication-defective virus vaccine derived from H7N9 IAV, that is composed of an altered HA cleavage site that can only be cleaved and thus activated in vitro by the exogenous protease elastase which is not readily available in the respiratory tract. This replication-defective virus vaccine would, therefore, be inactive during natural infection, but active in vitro if the appropriate protease was provided. Previous studies have proven this replication-defective nature through the mutation of the HA cleavage site from a trypsin-sensitive motif to an elastase-sensitive motif. However, these studies have only been performed with the swine influenza virus (SIV) H1N1, a human-derived H7N7 HPAI, a mouse-adapted human-derived H1N1 virus, as well as an influenza B virus (IBV) (Babiuk et al., 2011; Gabriel et al., 2008; Mamerow et al., 2019; Masic et al., 2009; Masic et al., 2010; Masic et al., 2013; Stech et al., 2011; Stech et al., 2005). Using the technique of reverse genetics, we generated a recombinant mutant H7N9 virus, BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8), derived from the human isolate A/British Columbia/01/2015 (H7N9) [BC15 (H7N9)] with a backbone from A/Puerto Rico/8 (H1N1) [PR8 (H1N1)]. This recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus possesses a mutant HA composed of three mutations at the HA cleavage site: lysine to glutamine at amino acid (aa) 337 (Lys-Gln), glycine to threonine at aa 338 (Gly-Thr), and arginine to valine at aa 339 (Arg-Val). In addition to the mutant HA, this recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus also contains the neuraminidase (NA) from BC15 (H7N9) and the six internal proteins from PR8 (H1N1). In the first part of our study, we established a mouse model of BC15 (H7N9) influenza virus. BALB/c mice were intranasally infected with various doses of BC15 (H7N9) (103 PFU, 104 PFU, and 105 PFU), and were monitored daily for 14 days post-infection (d.p.i.). In this study, we found BC15 (H7N9) to affect mice in a dose-dependent manner: the 103 dose killing all mice by 8 d.p.i.; the 104 dose by 6 d.p.i.; and the 105 dose by 5 d.p.i. In addition, all doses were capable of inducing high viral replication, pathology, and proinflammatory cytokine induction in the mouse lung. From this study, we concluded 103 PFU to be the chosen dose for future experiments. In the second part of this study, we developed and characterized the recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus, which showed this virus to be entirely dependent on elastase for its replication, contain similar growth properties to its wild-type counterpart, and be genetically stable in vitro. In addition, when this recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus was intranasally administered in BALB/c mice, it was found to be non-virulent and replication-defective, evident by a lack of body weight loss, 100% survival rate, and no viral replication detected in the mouse lung. Since we established this recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus to be replication-defective in mice, in order to consider this virus as a replication-defective virus vaccine candidate, we needed to test the immunogenicity and protective efficacy in BALB/c mice. To do this, we intranasally vaccinated mice twice with this recombinant mutant BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus and then challenged the mice with a lethal dose of BC15 (H7N9). In this study, we reported that the intranasally administered BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus induced significantly elevated levels of antigen-specific IFN-γ and IL-5 secreting cells in the splenocytes, which is evidence of a strong cell-mediated response. In addition, this virus increased the levels of neutralizing antibodies in the mouse serum, evident by both the hemagglutinin inhibition (HAI) and serum virus neutralization (SVN) assays, as well as heightened the levels of antigen-specific IgG, IgG1, and IgG2a in the mouse serum. Once the mice were challenged with BC15 (H7N9), our data showed that two intranasal vaccinations with BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) were sufficient to provide complete protection of the mice from a homologous challenge. This complete protection was evident by the lack of body weight loss, 100% survival rate, lack of viral replication detected in the mouse lung, as well as the complete abolishment of proinflammatory cytokine induction in the mouse lung associated with the influenza disease. Taken together, this study demonstrates the strong potential the BC15-HA/QTV/NA (PR8) virus possesses to serve as a replication-defective virus vaccine candidate against H7N9 influenza viruses

For a good cause : the effects of cause important, cause proximity, congruency and participation effort on consumers\u27 evaluation of cause related marketing

In the past several years, companies have discovered the importance of strategic social alliances, particularly in the form of cause related marketing (CRM) programs. Varadarajan and Menon (1988) describe the key feature of CRM as is that the firm’s contribution is linked to consumers’ engagement in revenue producing transactions with the firm. It is essentially a way for a firm to “do well by doing good” and provides several benefits to both the firm and the non-profit organizations receiving the donations. In general, academic researchers have found favorable consumer attitudes toward the firm, products and the non-profit organization involved. Consumers were more likely to switch brands and retailers to support socially responsible companies. Other researchers have examined several elements of a CRM campaign such as product type, donation size, gender, and perceived motivation of the firm. This dissertation examines prosocial behavior and the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) to explain consumers’ decision to participate in the CRM offer. In addition, this research examines several factors that potentially influence a consumers’ decision to participate in CRM programs including cause importance, cause proximity, congruence and participation effort. Two pilot studies and one main study tests the influence of the four independent variables on attitudes and intentions. They examine the influence of these variables using skin cancer as the cause and fictitious brands. Results from student subjects provide evidence of the relationship between cause importance and cause proximity to affect elaboration. Additionally, congruency is perceived as more effective and a segment of consumers is identified based on their participation level. The main study uses bone cancer and fictitious brands. Results from non-student subjects provide further evidence of the relationship between cause importance and cause proximity and highlights the effect of elaboration and congruency on consumer attitudes. Additionally, the research finds an initial point where consumers consider participation effort to be too high. Overall, this research should help firms determine the best partners for strategic social alliances and how to best design them for maximum participation. It offers insight into variables that have mixed results and the identification and study of a new variable – participation effort

Ever True and Loyal: Mary Todd Lincoln as a Kentuckian

This paper considers Mary Todd Lincoln from the perspective of her relationship with her home state of Kentucky. Utilizing her own writings and those of her contemporaries, as well as secondary studies, this paper argues that Mary Todd Lincoln\u27s life and relationships embodied many of the same contradictions of her home state and that important aspects of her public and private life were influenced by her upbringing in antebellum Kentucky. Particular emphasis is placed on her views of slavery and on her relationship with the Todd family during the Civil War

Republicans, Rivers, and Racism: The French Revolution and the Early American South

This paper examines the political impact of the French Revolution and related events on the development of the American South in the early republic, roughly from 1789-1815. This paper argues that the French Revolution and its offshoots helped to sharpen early Southern sectionalism by reinforcing three characteristics that would soon define the region: republicanism, expansionism, and white racism

AFMC Civilian Retention: Forecasting Policy on the Future of the Civilian Workforce

The Department of Defense\u27s (DoD) achievement of its mission is dependent in large part on the skills and expertise of its civilian workforce. DoD\u27s civilian workforce develops policy, provides intelligence, manages finances, and acquires and maintains weapon systems, to name a few areas of work. During its downsizing in the early 1990s, DoD did not focus on reshaping the civilian workforce in a strategic manner. This resulted in a workforce characterized by a growing gap between older, experienced employees and younger, less experienced ones. With more than 60 percent of its civilian personnel becoming eligible to retire by 2010, DoD will have difficulty filling certain mission-critical jobs with qualified personnel. This study focuses on the DoD, Air Force, and Air Force Material Command\u27s (AFMC) human capital management approach to the long-term career progression of civilian employees. As of November 2005, there were three DoD directives that addressed the long-term career progression of its civilian workers. This thesis uses assumptional analysis to evaluate DoD, Air Force, and AFMC civilian workforce career progression using the eight organizational variables of knowledge transfer, pay, performance, opportunities for promotion, workplace environment, education, leave, and motivation. The author proposes an exit survey to help DoD capture the thoughts of senior civilian workers, both those who are staying and those who are leaving, regarding the above-mentioned organizational variables. It is hoped that results from this survey will help the DoD implement creative solutions to retaining and recruiting future civilian employees

Strategies for Small U.S. Software Companies to Reduce Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Employee Turnover

Voluntary turnover during the merger and acquisition (M&A) process can affect the success of the M&A, resulting in company failure and the inability of employees to experience associated financial and career growth opportunities, a problem for employees, managers, and executives. Grounded in Eisenberger et al.’s organizational support theory, the purpose of this generic qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to explore strategies executive leaders of small U.S. software companies use that promote employee engagement throughout the M&A process and reduce voluntary turnover. Six executive leaders of small U.S. software companies who successfully employed strategies to reduce or eliminate voluntary turnover during the M&A process participated in this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, literature on employee engagement and M&A, interview notes, and public websites. Using thematic data analysis, four key themes emerged: (a) communicate openly and honestly, (b) establish trust in leadership, (c) include employees in the decision-making process, and (d) clearly explain expectations in the post-M&A company. A key recommendation is that executive leaders experiencing an M&A receive effective communications training. The implications for positive social change include the potential for local communities to flourish from job and economic growth when M&A success is not hindered by voluntary turnover