Spoiled Brands: Protecting Your Company\u27s Goodwill and Assets from Food Contamination Claims

For most people, going to a restaurant ends with a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment, not sickness and the possibility of death. This is also true when purchasing products at a local grocery store. However, recent events have cast doubt on the safety of America’s food supply. The issue facing risk managers is how to reduce these escalating risks and manage any unfortunate outcomes. The cost of food contamination can be devastating to a business financially, and can result in both direct losses related to product recall expenses and indirect losses such as lost reputation and goodwill. By reducing the frequency and severity of such risks and using proper risk transfer techniques, risk managers can help prevent catastrophic losses from contaminated food, and ensure the long-term viability of their company\u27s brands

Healthy Work Environments: An Interprofessional Partnership Model to Promote Positive Workplace Culture

Background: Healthy work environments (HWEs) are a primary focus of leaders in health care. Many nurse- specific HWE initiatives exist to improve workplace culture; however, workplace harm persists. An interprofessional partnership model is needed to sustain healthy workplace cultures to promote engagement among providers and employees, and safe, high-quality patient care. Methods: The 5-Stage Process® is a method for teams to openly examine workplace behavior, co-creating their future using continuous quality improvement strategies of Team Building, Assessment, Implementation, Evaluation, and Sustainability. To ensure success, each stage should be completed with focused attention to the concrete strategies the team needs to take to sustain the healthy work environment. Results: The entire 5-Stage Process® was used by interprofessional teams from the specialties of Perinatology and Radiology at major health care institutions in the Midwest and Perioperative in the Northeast United States. Each team implemented one-on-one conflict resolution techniques, and one team noted improvements in employee engagement scores from 60% to 86%, patient satisfaction from 74% to 85%, safety perception scores from 70% to 79%, and teamwork perception scores from 82% to 84%. Conclusion: The interprofessional partnership 5-Stage Process® may be a successful method to continuously improve workplace cultures and ultimately improve patient safety and provider and staff satisfaction. Sustaining healthy work environments requires leaders’ constant focus and dedication to partnership techniques to ensure that new healthy behaviors persist

Hur ett varumärke uppfattas efter ett utländskt uppköp

Ett företag som varit svenskt under en längre tid och profilerat sig som svenskt kan komma att möta motstånd när företaget inte längre ägs av svenskar. Denna studie ämnar analysera hur företag uppfattas av sin givna svenska målgrupp efter ett utländskt uppköp. Hur reagerar målgruppen på de nya ägarna, förändras uppfattningen om varumärket och hur påverkar det konsumenternas syn på ett köp från företaget ifråga. I denna uppsats vill vi bidra till den tidigare forskningen gällande varumärkesuppköp och se på det hela ur ett nytt perspektiv, hur varumärket uppfattas av den tidigare nationens befolkning. I det teoretiska ramverket så läggs fokus på att förstå begrepp som strategisk brand management, varumärkesidentitet, kändismarknadsföring och culture branding. Ansatsen i vår studie är kvalitativ och vårt empiriska material består av intervjuer med personer i en specifik målgrupp. Det företag som vi har valt att inkludera i vår studie är Volvo. Resultatet visar hur den specifika målgruppen uppfattar ett tidigare svenskägt företag

On the theory of vortex quantum tunnelling in the dense Bose superfluid helium II

The quantum tunnelling and nucleation theory of vortices in helium II is reviewed. Arguments are given that the only reliable method to calculate tunnelling probabilities in this highly correlated, strongly interacting many-body system is the semiclassical, large scale approach for evaluation of the tunnelling exponent, which does not make any assumptions about the unknown dynamical behaviour of the fluid on microscopic scales. The geometric implications of this semiclassical theory are represented in some detail and its relevance for the interpretation of experimental data is discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, revised version, to appear in Physica

Efficient computation of matched solutions of the Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij envelope equations for periodic focusing lattices

A new iterative method is developed to numerically calculate the periodic, matched beam envelope solution of the coupled Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij (KV) equations describing the transverse evolution of a beam in a periodic, linear focusing lattice of arbitrary complexity. Implementation of the method is straightforward. It is highly convergent and can be applied to all usual parameterizations of the matched envelope solutions. The method is applicable to all classes of linear focusing lattices without skew couplings, and also applies to all physically achievable system parameters -- including where the matched beam envelope is strongly unstable. Example applications are presented for periodic solenoidal and quadrupole focusing lattices. Convergence properties are summarized over a wide range of system parameters.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, Mathematica source code provide

African ancestry and higher prevalence of triple-negative breast cancer

BACKGROUND: The study of breast cancer in women with African ancestry offers the promise of identifying markers for risk assessment and treatment of triple-negative disease. METHODS: African American and white American women with invasive cancer diagnosed at the Henry Ford Health System comprised the primary study population, and Ghanaian patients diagnosed and/or treated at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana constituted the comparison group. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens were transported to the University of Michigan for histopathology confirmation, and assessment of estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER-2/ neu expression. RESULTS: The study population included 1008 white Americans, 581 African Americans, and 75 Ghanaians. Mean age at diagnosis was 48.0 years for Ghanaian, 60.8 years for African American, and 62.4 for white American cases ( P = .002). Proportions of Ghanaian, African American, and white American cases with estrogen receptor-negative tumors were 76%, 36%, and 22%, respectively ( P < .001), and proportions with triple-negative disease were 82%, 26%, and 16%, respectively ( P < .001). All Ghanaian cases were palpable, locally advanced cancers; 57 (76%) were grade 3. A total of 147 American women were diagnosed as stage III or IV; of these, 67.5% (n = 46) of African Americans and 44.6% (n = 29) of white Americans were grade 3. Among palpable, grade 3 cancers, Ghanaians had the highest prevalence of triple-negative tumors (82.2%), followed by African Americans (32.8%) and white Americans (10.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates progressively increasing frequency of estrogen receptor-negative and triple-negative tumors among breast cancer patients with white American, African American, and Ghanaian/African backgrounds. This pattern indicates a need for additional investigations correlating the extent of African ancestry and high-risk breast cancer subtypes. Cancer 2010. © 2010 American Cancer Society.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78243/1/25276_ftp.pd

Motion of Quantized Vortices as Elementary Objects

The general local, nondissipative equations of motion for a quantized vortex moving in an uncharged laboratory superfluid are derived from a relativistic, co-ordinate invariant framework, having vortices as its elementary objects in the form of stable topological excitations. This derivation is carried out for a pure superfluid with isotropic gap at the absolute zero of temperature, on the level of a hydrodynamic, collective co-ordinate description. In the formalism, we use as fundamental ingredients that particle number as well as vorticity are conserved, and that the fluid is perfect. No assumptions are involved as regards the dynamical behaviour of the order parameter. The interaction of the vortex with the background fluid, representing the Magnus force, and with itself via phonons, giving rise to the hydrodynamic vortex mass, are separated. For a description of the motion of the vortex in a dense laboratory superfluid like helium II, two limits have to be considered: The nonrelativistic limit for the superfluid background is taken, and the motion of the vortex is restricted to velocities much less than the speed of sound. The canonical structure of vortex motion in terms of the collective co-ordinate is used for the quantization of this motion.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, published versio

Higher population‐based incidence rates of triple‐negative breast cancer among young African‐American women

BACKGROUND: Differences in the breast cancer burden of African‐American women compared with white American women are well documented. Recent controversies have emerged regarding age‐appropriate mammographic screening guidelines, and these surveillance recommendations may influence future breast cancer disparities. The objective of the current study was to evaluate age‐specific breast cancer stage distributions and incidence rates of triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) in a population‐based tumor registry. METHODS: The authors analyzed breast cancers from the California Cancer Registry (CCR) that were diagnosed between 1988 and 2006. The results were stratified by age and race/ethnicity, with white Americans identified as non‐Hispanic whites (NHWs) and African Americans identified as non‐Hispanic blacks (NHBs). Breast cancer stage distributions and TNBC incidence rates also were analyzed. RESULTS: In total, 375,761 invasive breast cancers were evaluated (including 276,938 in NHWs and 21,681 in NHBs). NHBs and Hispanics tended to be younger than NHWs (median ages 57 years, 54 years, and 64 years, respectively). Lifetime incidence rates were higher for NHWs compared with NHBs and Hispanics; however, for women aged <44 years, incidence was highest among NHBs. NHBs also had higher incidence rates of stage III and IV disease and a higher incidence of TNBC in all age categories. CONCLUSIONS: Population‐based data demonstrated that African‐American women had a more advanced stage distribution for breast cancer compared with white American women and higher incidence rates for TNBC. These patterns were observed for women ages 40 to 49 years and for older women, and they suggest that mammographic screening for the early detection of breast cancer will be particularly relevant for younger African‐American women. Cancer 2011. © 2011 American Cancer Society. The California Cancer Registry revealed higher population‐based incidence rates of early onset, advanced‐stage, and triple‐negative breast cancer for African‐American women compared with white American women. These findings suggested that mammographic screening will be particularly important for young African‐American women.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87175/1/25862_ftp.pd