Demographic analysis of Chinese gamblers’ perceptions of e-marketing mix elements adopted by online casinos

The Internet explosion has revolutionized numerous industries, making online shopping and auctions into profitable business sectors. An increasingly important market sector is the casino industry. The profile and popularity of gambling on an internet casino is evolving rapidly, with the online gambling business seeing significant growth in Europe, Asia and South America. In China, there are twice as many online gamblers as there are Internet shoppers. In this study, the Chinese gamblers’ perceptions of e-marketing mix elements offered by online casinos will be analyzed. The purpose is : i) to investigate the popular e-marketing tools supported by existing online casinos; ii) to evaluate the demographic effect on Chinese gamblers’ perceptions of e-marketing mix elements. The results can provide a market reference for investors in online casinos

Differences in dopamine beta-hydroxylase immunoreactivity between the brains of genetically epilepsy-prone and Sprague-Dawley rats.

Biochemical studies have indicated that norepinephrine is present in lower levels in certain brain regions of genetically epilepsy-prone rats (GEPR-9s) as compared to non-epileptic Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. In this study, the immunocytochemical localization of dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH), the synthesizing enzyme for norepinephrine, was compared between GEPR-9s and SD rats. Brain regions caudal to the inferior colliculus, such as the cerebellum and locus coeruleus, showed no differences in the distribution of DBH-like immunoreactive (DBH-I) neurons and fibers. In contrast, differences in the distribution of DBH-I fibers were observed in more rostral brain regions including the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus, thalamus, piriform, orbital and somatosensory cortices and hippocampus. In these areas, the number, and often the staining intensity, of DBH-I processes was lower in GEPR-9s as compared to SD rats. It was interesting to note that other cortical regions displayed no differences in DBH immunoreactivity between GEPR-9s and SD rats. These results provide anatomical data that support previously described biochemical results. Furthermore, the reduced number of fibers and their decreased staining intensity in specific brain regions provide greater details to resolve the localization of deficiencies in the noradrenergic fiber plexus of GEPR-9s

ANALYSIS OF ORGANISATIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF SMALL ORGANISATIONS - DOES IT ALLOW BUILDING STRONG LOCAL BRANDS OR PRODUCTS ONLY?

Globalization of modern economy leads to many challenges for small local organizations, such as building and maintaining strong local brands, in a complicated environment where global competitors dominate the local markets. This scientific paper will be focused on analysis of organizational structure and architecture of local organizations and its level of development, as one of major preconditions for implementation of advanced marketing managerial concepts that would enable building strong brands, as well as maintaining the customer loyalty and brand equity in a long run. Using the methods of survey and a case study, a sample of Macedonian organizations will be analyzed, and conclusions will be presented in terms of identifying the level of development of their organizational structure and architecture. Does it enable or impede the implementation of effective long term brand strategies? What is the actual level of readiness of local organizations for implementation of advanced marketing concepts and innovation in this context? What are major adjustments that local organizations should undertake in order to build strong brands instead of products only? Furthermore, customer perspective will be presented as well, by using methods of survey and focus groups, in order to identify major determinants of customer loyalty for strong global brands vs. local products and/or brands

The inferior colliculus of GEPRs contains greater numbers of cells that express glutamate decarboxylase (GAD67) mRNA.

Previous studies have shown significantly greater GABA levels and numbers of GABAergic neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICCN) of genetically epilepsy-prone rats (GEPR-9s). In the present study, in situ hybridization and emulsion autoradiographic techniques were used to determine whether there are also elevated numbers of ICCN cells that contain the 67-kD form of mRNA for the GABA synthesizing enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), in GEPR-9s as compared to normal Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Hybridization with a 35S-labeled RNA probe complementary to a span of monkey GAD mRNA labeled cells throughout the brain including the ICCN. Labeled cells in the ICCN appeared to be of different sizes that corresponded with previous descriptions of GABAergic neurons from immunocytochemical studies. In the GEPR-9s, a larger number of GAD67 cRNA labeled neurons was observed in the ICCN as compared to SD rats. The external nucleus of the inferior colliculus was also found to contain significantly greater numbers of GAD67 cRNA labeled neurons whereas in the frontal cortex, a region of the brain that is not required for audiogenic seizure activity in GEPR-9s, there were no significant differences in hybridization between GEPR-9s and SD rats. Interestingly, within the superficial layers of the superior colliculus there was a higher density of hybridization in GEPR-9s than in SD rats indicating higher levels of GAD expression.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

GPU accelerated investigation of a dual-frequency driven nonlinear oscillator

The bifurcation structure of a dual-frequency driven, second order nonlinear oscillator (Keller–Miksis equation) is investigated by exploiting the high computational resources of professional GPUs. The numerical scheme of the applied initial value problem solver was the explicit, adaptive Runge–Kutta–Cash–Karp method with embedded error estimation using solutions of order 4 and 5. The four dimensional parameter space (amplitudes and frequencies of the driving) is explored by means of several high resolution bi-parametric plots with the amplitudes as control parameters at fixed frequencies. The resolution of the control parameter plane is 500 × 500 with 10 initial conditions at each parameter pair (altogether 2.5 million initial value problems in each bi-parametric plot). The program code for one fine parameter scan runs approximately 50 times faster on a Tesla K20 GPU (Kepler architecture) than on an Intel i7-4790 4 core CPU even applying double precision floating point operations

An analysis of the acoustic cavitation noise spectrum: The role of periodic shock waves

Research on applications of acoustic cavitation is often reported in terms of the features within the spectrum of the emissions gathered during cavitation occurrence. There is, however, limited understanding as to the contribution of specific bubble activity to spectral features, beyond a binary interpretation of stable versus inertial cavitation. In this work, laser-nucleation is used to initiate cavitation within a few millimeters of the tip of a needle hydrophone, calibrated for magnitude and phase from 125 kHz to 20 MHz. The bubble activity, acoustically driven at f0 = 692 kHz, is resolved with high-speed shadowgraphic imaging at 5 × 106 frames per second. A synthetic spectrum is constructed from component signals based on the hydrophone data, deconvolved within the calibration bandwidth, in the time domain. Cross correlation coefficients between the experimental and synthetic spectra of 0.97 for the f 0/2 and f 0/3 regimes indicate that periodic shock waves and scattered driving field predominantly account for all spectral features, including the sub-harmonics and their over-harmonics, and harmonics of f 0

Fast jets from bubbles close to solid objects: examples from pillars in water to infinite planes in different liquids

The dynamics of a single, laser-induced cavitation bubble on top of a solid cylinder and right at a plane solid boundary is studiedboth experimentally and numerically. The most intriguing phenomenon that occurs for a millimeter sized bubble right at a flatsolid boundary in water is the formation of a fast jet that is directed towards the solid with a speed of the order of 1000 m/s.Paradoxically, in this setting, fast jet formation causally is related to the viscosity of the liquid.Thus, results from numericalsimulations with varying liquid viscosity and bubble size are presented. Bubble dynamics and jet formation mechanisms arediscussed. It is shown, that fast jet formation persists for a wide range of liquid viscosities, including e.g. 50 cSt silicone oil. Forbubbles generated close to the flat top of a long, thin cylinder the parameter space of initial distance to the cylinder, bubble size andcylinder radius is scanned numerically and partly compared to experiments. When the maximum radius of the bubble exceeds theone of the cylinder the bubble collapses in the form of a mushroom or can resemble a trophy, depending on the values of thegeometry parameters. Complex patterns of jet formation with jet speeds ranging from the order of a few hundred m/s to severalthousand m/s are found.The results represent a contribution to understand the behavior of bubbles collapsing close to solid surfaces,in particular, how thin, fast jets are generated

Chaotic gas bubble oscillations in a viscoelastic fluid

Regular and chaotic radial oscillations of an acoustically driven gas bubble in a viscoelastic fluid have been theoretically analyzed. For parameter values usually found in diagnostic ultrasound period-doubling routes to chaos have been identified. Thresholds values of the external pressure amplitude for a first bifurcation in terms of the elasticity and the shear viscosity of the host fluid have also been evaluated. Les oscillations radiales, régulières ou chaotiques, d’une bulle de gaz au sein d’un fluide viscoélastique et soumise à l’action d’un champ acoustique sont analysées théoriquement. Pour des valeurs des paramètres qui sont normalement rencontrées dans le diagnostic médical, des chemins vers le chaos par doublement de la période ont été identifiés. Les valeurs limites pour la première bifurcation en fonction de l’élasticité et de la viscosité du fluide, ont été aussi déterminées