Beyond Higher Ed Marketing: Unsanctioned User Generated Conten

The impact of User Generated Content (UGC) on higher-education marketing is an entirely untouched area of marketing research, therefore the current study aims to better understand how widely disseminated this content is among students, how they perceive this content and its impact upon their university, as well as what kinds of students are drawn to participate in and consume this content. A sample of 238 university students at a large public institution were surveyed regarding their engagement with UGC content associated with their school, the reasons for their interest in this content, and the ways in which it may effect their perception of the institution

Utilitarian and Hedonic Shopping Behavior in the Face of Natural Disaster

Terror management theory suggests that events which make one’s mortality salient also lead to compensatory processes and behaviors meant to alleviate existential anxiety. Applications within the field of consumer behavior have led to the proposal that any such event may also impact materialism and consumption decisions as a protectant from such anxiety. With this in mind, the current study sets out to investigate the personal experiences and subsequent shopping behavior of those impacted by Hurricane Matthew in the coastal southeastern region of the United States. While Hurricane Matthew had nowhere near the destructive impact of Katrina within the continental United States, as the most powerful Atlantic tropical storm in nearly a decade, Hurricane Matthew caused widespread disruptions to services and difficulties for consumers over a very large area, to include Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. A survey (n = 268) was administered in this region within two weeks from the time the hurricane subsided, regarding both utilitarian (preparation) shopping and hedonic (enjoyment/stress-reduction) shopping activity, both at times directly before and directly after the hurricane. Several scales such as fear during the storm, general tendency for risk aversion, and present temporal presentation were also administered to investigate the relationships between individual differences and their influences on consumer’s perception about the impact of natural disaster on consumers. Results reveal that respondents in our sample engaged in significantly more utilitarian shopping than hedonic shopping both before and after the hurricane. However, initial findings reveal that groups with higher levels of fear during the storm, general tendency for risk aversion, and those with present temporal presentations were more likely to report feeling that they must purchase more ‘of everything’ during the storm, delay purchase of unnecessary/luxury goods, and show concern about crowded shopping areas and becoming a more conscious shopper than low-fear participants

Seeking Complex Health Services in the Age of Self-referral

This study investigates the relationship between consumers’ information search and service satisfaction, specifically focused on the search for mental health professionals. The selection of a mental health provider is of interest because practitioners work from a highly diverse set of theoretical bases, may hold a wide range of different credentials and provide drastically different therapeutic approaches, therefore making the selection complex and difficult for consumers to self-navigate. Data sampling from patients of mental health suggest that consumers selecting a provider based on self-performed searches, rather than receiving external input (referrals from physicians, relatives, or friends), report lower satisfaction with their mental health provider. The results reveal the importance of understanding the consumer search, particularly the use of the internet as a search tool

Seeking Complex Health Services in the Age of Self-referral

This study investigates the relationship between consumers’ information search and service satisfaction, specifically focused on the search for mental health professionals. The selection of a mental health provider is of interest because practitioners work from a highly diverse set of theoretical bases, may hold a wide range of different credentials and provide drastically different therapeutic approaches, therefore making the selection complex and difficult for consumers to self-navigate. Data sampling from patients of mental health suggest that consumers selecting a provider based on self-performed searches, rather than receiving external input (referrals from physicians, relatives, or friends), report lower satisfaction with their mental health provider. The results reveal the importance of understanding the consumer search, particularly the use of the internet as a search tool

Nanoindentation modeling of a nanodot-patterned surface on a deformable substrate

AbstractA numerical model was developed to simulate the nanoindentation of a Ni nanodot-patterned surface (NDPS) on a deformable Si substrate. Each contacting nanodot on the Si substrate was treated individually in this model and the interaction among the nanodots was considered through the elastic deformation of the Si substrate. The load–deformation relationship for the single-asperity contact between the indenter tip and a nanodot was determined using finite element analysis. A nanoindentation experiment on a Ni NDPS was performed to test the developed model. The simulation and experimental results were found to be in good agreement. The experimentally verified model was used to explore the effects of substrate deformation and surface roughness caused by the Ni nanodots on the nanoindentation behavior. It was found that the effect of the substrate and the effect of roughness must be considered. A detailed study of the substrate deformation shows that the interaction among nanodots, through the substrate, can contribute a considerable portion of the total deformation under a nanodot. The yield strength of the nanodot was found to have a significant effect on the contact deformation, while the elastic modulus was found to have little effect

Organizational professionalism in globalizing law firms.

Are the challenges of globalization, technology and competition exercising a dramatic impact on professional practice whilst, in the process, compromising traditional notions of professionalism, autonomy and discretion? This paper engages with these debates and uses original, qualitative empirical data to highlight the vast areas of continuity that exist even the largest globalizing law firms. Whilst it is undoubted that growth in the size of firms and their globalization bring new challenges, these are resolved in ways that are sensitive to professional values and interests. In particular, a commitment to professional autonomy and discretion still characterises the way in which these firms operate and organize themselves. This situation is explained in terms of the development of an organizational model of professionalism, whereby the large organization is increasingly emerging as a primary locus of professionalization and whereby professional priorities and objectives are increasingly supported by organizational logics, systems and initiatives

A solution for galactic disks with Yukawian gravitational potential

We present a new solution for the rotation curves of galactic disks with gravitational potential of the Yukawa type. We follow the technique employed by Toomre in 1963 in the study of galactic disks in the Newtonian theory. This new solution allows an easy comparison between the Newtonian solution and the Yukawian one. Therefore, constraints on the parameters of theories of gravitation can be imposed, which in the weak field limit reduce to Yukawian potentials. We then apply our formulae to the study of rotation curves for a zero-thickness exponential disk and compare it with the Newtonian case studied by Freeman in 1970. As an application of the mathematical tool developed here, we show that in any theory of gravity with a massive graviton (this means a gravitational potential of the Yukawa type), a strong limit can be imposed on the mass (m_g) of this particle. For example, in order to obtain a galactic disk with a scale length of b ~ 10 kpc, we should have a massive graviton of m_g << 10^{-59} g. This result is much more restrictive than those inferred from solar system observations.Comment: 7 pages; 1 eps figure; to appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Fluctuation-dissipation relation in a sheared fluid

In a fluid out of equilibrium, the fluctuation dissipation theorem (FDT) is usually violated. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study in detail the relationship between correlation and response functions in a fluid driven into a stationary non-equilibrium state. Both the high temperature fluid state and the low temperature glassy state are investigated. In the glassy state, the violation of the FDT is quantitatively identical to the one observed previously in an aging system in the absence of external drive. In the fluid state, violations of the FDT appear only when the fluid is driven beyond the linear response regime, and are then similar to those observed in the glassy state. These results are consistent with the picture obtained earlier from theoretical studies of driven mean-field disordered models, confirming the similarity between these models and real glasses.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 3 ps figure

Renal pericytes: regulators of medullary blood flow

Regulation of medullary blood flow (MBF) is essential in maintaining normal kidney function. Blood flow to the medulla is supplied by the descending vasa recta (DVR), which arise from the efferent arterioles of juxtamedullary glomeruli. DVR are composed of a continuous endothelium, intercalated with smooth muscle-like cells called pericytes. Pericytes have been shown to alter the diameter of isolated and in situ DVR in response to vasoactive stimuli that are transmitted via a network of autocrine and paracrine signalling pathways. Vasoactive stimuli can be released by neighbouring tubular epithelial, endothelial, red blood cells and neuronal cells in response to changes in NaCl transport and oxygen tension. The experimentally described sensitivity of pericytes to these stimuli strongly suggests their leading role in the phenomenon of MBF autoregulation. Because the debate on autoregulation of MBF fervently continues, we discuss the evidence favouring a physiological role for pericytes in the regulation of MBF and describe their potential role in tubulo-vascular cross-talk in this region of the kidney. Our review also considers current methods used to explore pericyte activity and function in the renal medulla

Reconstruction of a Nonminimal Coupling Theory with Scale-invariant Power Spectrum

A nonminimal coupling single scalar field theory, when transformed from Jordan frame to Einstein frame, can act like a minimal coupling one. Making use of this property, we investigate how a nonminimal coupling theory with scale-invariant power spectrum could be reconstructed from its minimal coupling counterpart, which can be applied in the early universe. Thanks to the coupling to gravity, the equation of state of our universe for a scale-invariant power spectrum can be relaxed, and the relation between the parameters in the action can be obtained. This approach also provides a means to address the Big-Bang puzzles and anisotropy problem in the nonminimal coupling model within Jordan frame. Due to the equivalence between the two frames, one may be able to find models that are free of the horizon, flatness, singularity as well as anisotropy problems.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figure