Exploring perceptions of advertising ethics: an informant-derived approach

Whilst considerable research exists on determining consumer responses to pre-determined statements within numerous ad ethics contexts, our understanding of consumer thoughts regarding ad ethics in general remains lacking. The purpose of our study therefore is to provide a first illustration of an emic and informant-based derivation of perceived ad ethics. The authors use multi-dimensional scaling as an approach enabling the emic, or locally derived deconstruction of perceived ad ethics. Given recent calls to develop our understanding of ad ethics in different cultural contexts, and in particular within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, we use Lebanon—the most ethically charged advertising environment within MENA—as an illustrative context for our study. Results confirm the multi-faceted and pluralistic nature of ad ethics as comprising a number of dimensional themes already salient in the existing literature but in addition, we also find evidence for a bipolar relationship between individual themes. The specific pattern of inductively derived relationships is culturally bound. Implications of the findings are discussed, followed by limitations of the study and recommendations for further research

Modeling of gypsum precipitation in homogeneous and heterogeneous gas reservoirs

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Water injection into near dew point gas condensate reservoirs is a common method to delay the condensate dropout near the wellbore. Also water can be injected as waste water disposal into the depleted gas reservoirs or to increase the oil recovery in primary enhanced oil recovery process. All of these processes result in mixing of incompatible injection and formation waters which finally causes mineral scale formation. Gypsum is one of the most common mineral scales which is precipitated uring the mixing of incompatible waters in porous media. This scale can reduce the reservoir rock permeability which affects the success of continuous water injection in hydrocarbon reservoirs. The mineral scale formation through the porous media can be determined if the suitable dispersion coefficient is estimated. Dispersion coefficient is already estimated by neglecting the effects of porous media or using unsuitable tracers which might affect the rate of scale precipitation. Two main issues have been investigated in this work. The first one is the development of an experimental method to measure the dispersion coefficient by a proper tracer which has no interaction with the other ions in porous media. The second one is modeling the concentrations of ions in porous media by two approaches. In this study the standard diffusivity equation and the capacitance approach are used to model the concentration profiles for all ions. The results of this work suggest the application of the capacitance model for the heterogeneous rocks and the standard diffusivity model for the homogeneous ones

Multilayer Macula Vessel Density and Visual Field Progression in Glaucoma

PurposeTo evaluate the association of macular superficial vessel density (SVD) and projection-resolved deep vessel density (DVD) with past visual field (VF) progression in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.DesignRetrospective cohort.MethodsIn this longitudinal study, 208 eyes of 147 patients with glaucoma from the Diagnostics Innovations in Glaucoma Study were included. Eligible participants were required to have at least five 24-2 VF tests over a minimum follow-up period of 3 years before macular optical coherence tomography angiography imaging. VF progression was defined based on both event-based pointwise linear regression and trend-based methods. The association of macular SVD and DVD with the probability and rate of past VF progression was evaluated using a linear mixed effects model.ResultsFifty-two (25%) eyes had VF progression based on the pointwise linear regression based criterion at the end of a mean ± standard deviation follow-up duration of 6.9 ± 1.2 years. In the event-based multivariable analysis, a lower baseline SVD was associated with a higher likelihood of past VF progression (odds ratio per 1% lower. 1.28; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.59). Similarly, in the trend-based multivariable analysis, lower macular SVD was associated with a faster past rate of mean deviation decline (coefficient = -0.03 dB/year; 95% confidence interval, -0.04 to -0.01). Event-based and trend-based analyses found no significant associations for macular DVD with the likelihood/rate of past VF progression (P > .05).ConclusionsLower macular SVD, and not DVD, was associated with a higher probability of past VF progression. Macular optical coherence tomography angiography imaging shows promise for identifying eyes at risk of VF progression in patients with glaucoma

Effects of Smoking on Optic Nerve Head Microvasculature Density in Glaucoma

PrcisDecreased superficial whole image capillary density was observed in open angle glaucoma (OAG) patients with high smoking intensity.PurposeTo investigate the effects of smoking on optic nerve head capillary density measured by optical coherence tomography angiography in patients with OAG.MethodsIn this retrospective cross-sectional study, perimetric and preperimetric glaucoma patients enrolled in the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS) with optical coherence tomography angiography follow-up were included. Univariable and multivariable linear mixed analysis were performed to determine the effects of different variables on the superficial whole image capillary density.ResultsA total of 432 eyes of 271 glaucoma patients comprising 63 preperimetric (106 eyes) and 208 perimetric OAG (326 eyes) were included. A history of tobacco consumption was reported in 105 (38.8%). Among smokers, mean (95% confidence interval) smoking intensity was 12.8 (10.2, 15.5) pack-years. After adjusting for age, glaucoma severity and other confounders, each 10 pack-year increase in smoking intensity (95% confidence interval) was associated with -0.54 (-1.06, -0.02) % lower whole image capillary density ( P =0.041).ConclusionsSmoking intensity is associated with reduced optic nerve vessel density in glaucoma