Driver-Vehicle Interactions in 4WDs: A Theoretical Review

With the escalating number of four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicles present on Australian roads, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the factors contributing to 4WD crashes. While 4WDs and other cars often differ in their performance characteristics, it is also possible that there are differences in driver-vehicle interactions which go beyond performance characteristics and relate more to social and personal perceptions. This paper reviews the theoretical approaches and concepts that may be used to understand the relationship between drivers and vehicles. It is noted that in recent sociological and psychological literature the conceptualization of driving has varied across multiple theoretical approaches. Some have constructed driving as a set of social practices, embodied dispositions, cybernetic associations and physical affordances, while other approaches have constructed the vehicle as a territory, and the vehicle as an extension of the driver (Dant, 2004; Fraine, 1999; Sheller, 2004). This review will discuss how these constructs may be applied to 4WD driver behaviour. Further, it will provide suggestions for methodology for future studies that aim to enhance knowledge of 4WD driver behaviour and the factors which contribute to 4WD crashes

Using Customer Relationship Trajectories to Segment Customers and Predict Profitability

A central premise of relationship marketing theory is that economic benefits flow fromretaining customers. However, the early research focus on the duration of the relationship may obscure other important aspects of the interactions with the customer that drive profitability. Borrowing from the branding literature, where different types of customer relationships have been described (but not empirically examined), we study the patterns of business customers’ buying behavior, or trajectories that characterize customer-firm relationships over time, and their impact on profitability. We develop a finite mixture model relating customer relationship trajectories to profitability over a three year period. Our analysis yields five segments, or types of customer-firm relationships, for this dataset. We find key determinants of profitability vary across types of customer relationship. Interestingly, in none of these segments does duration predict profitability.marketing ;

How a focus on asset performance might help ‘Breaking New Ground’ contribute towards poverty reduction and overcome the two-economies divide

In 2007 the Presidency called for a review of second economy strategies1 contained within the national housing programme with particular reference to how it has fared in relation to the so-called ‘second economy’. This article draws from that review. The article reflects on the emphasis that policy places on the notion of the housing asset, and argues that while this is useful, it falls short in understanding the nuance of how housing assets perform for different stakeholders – individuals and the public. Within this, the persistence of informal settlements becomes a special challenge that might benefit from an understanding of asset performance. The article considers how state programmes and the intentions of Breaking New Ground have and have not facilitated absorption of the poor into the urban space economy, and what this means for the two-economies debate.&nbsp

The stellar, molecular gas and dust content of the host galaxies of two z~2.8 dust obscured quasars

We present optical through radio observations of the host galaxies of two dust obscured, luminous quasars selected in the mid-infrared, at z=2.62 and z=2.99, including a search for CO emission. Our limits on the CO luminosities are consistent with these objects having masses of molecular gas <~10^10 solar masses, several times less than those of luminous submillimeter-detected galaxies (SMGs) at comparable redshifts. Their near-infrared spectral energy distributions, however, imply that these galaxies have high stellar masses (~10^11-12 solar masses). The relatively small reservoirs of molecular gas and low dust masses are consistent with them being relatively mature systems at high-z.Comment: AJ, in pres

Urban-rural differences in quality of life across the European Union

This paper analyses the European Quality of Life Survey 2003, to explore urban-rural differences in income, deprivation, and other life domains. The main conclusion is that the richest countries in the EU show little evidence of significant urban-rural differences, whereas, in the poorer countries of the east and south, rural areas have a much lower level of perceived welfare and quality of life, particularly in the candidate countries. Despite this, subjective well-being is not significantly different, and this paradox is explored through multi-level modelling. The paper concludes by considering the policy implications for rural policy, urban policy and cohesion policy

The Spitzer mid-infrared AGN survey. II-the demographics and cosmic evolution of the AGN population

We present luminosity functions derived from a spectroscopic survey of AGN selected from Spitzer Space Telescope imaging surveys. Selection in the mid-infrared is significantly less affected by dust obscuration. We can thus compare the luminosity functions of the obscured and unobscured AGN in a more reliable fashion than by using optical or X-ray data alone. We find that the AGN luminosity function can be well described by a broken power-law model in which the break luminosity decreases with redshift. At high redshifts ($z>1.6$), we find significantly more AGN at a given bolometric luminosity than found by either optical quasar surveys or hard X-ray surveys. The fraction of obscured AGN decreases rapidly with increasing AGN luminosity, but, at least at high redshifts, appears to remain at $\approx 50$\% even at bolometric luminosities $\sim 10^{14}L_{\odot}$. The data support a picture in which the obscured and unobscured populations evolve differently, with some evidence that high luminosity obscured quasars peak in space density at a higher redshift than their unobscured counterparts. The amount of accretion energy in the Universe estimated from this work suggests that AGN contribute about 12\% to the total radiation intensity of the Universe, and a high radiative accretion efficiency $\approx 0.18^{+0.12}_{-0.07}$ is required to match current estimates of the local mass density in black holes.Comment: 14 pages, accepted by Ap

Proteasome-based selection systems for generation of recombinant CHOK1SV GS- KO™ cell lines with enhanced productivity

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used industrially for the production of biotherapeutic proteins. In order to generate recombinant CHO cell lines expressing the target biotherapeutic gene(s) of interest, metabolic markers are used to select for those cells that have stably incorporated the gene(s) of interest. Such selection systems work very efficiently but do not directly select cells based upon secreted biotherapeutic recombinant protein productivity characteristics. When such biotherapeutic proteins are synthesised in eukaryotic cells, typically the polypeptide is co-translationally fed into the endoplasmic reticulum where it is folded, and if required, assembled with other polypeptides/domains, as in the case of antibodies. An overload of the capacity of the ER to fold and assemble recombinant proteins can result in upregulation of ER-associated degradation (ERAD) where unfolded or incorrectly folded or assembled material is retro-translocated out of the ER to the proteasome for degradation and recycling of amino acids. We have therefore investigated whether the susceptibility of cells to proteasome inhibitors during cell line construction when a recombinant load is placed upon the cell can be used to select for cells with a greater capacity for producing recombinant biotherapeutic proteins whilst maintaining or enhancing the quality of the material secreted. A number of proteasome inhibitors were therefore investigated, epoxomicin, MG-132 and bortezomib, at different concentrations to identify concentrations that would provide selection but not result in complete cell death. A range of concentrations was then added to CHO cells, along with MSX, during cell pool construction using Lonza’s CHOK1SV GS-KO™ proprietary host cell line to investigate whether this resulted in the generation of cell pools with enhanced productivity characteristics as compared to selection using MSX alone. Using this approach, and a number of different recombinant biotherapeutic molecules, we have found that CHO pools giving enhanced product concentrations can be generated (see Figure 1 for example) and validated this in ambr15 miniature bioreactor experiments. We have thus shown that stable transfectants derived from pools that had been cultured with proteasome inhibitors were more productive than pools generated without proteasome inhibitors. Further, stable transfectants generated using proteasome inhibitors retained their higher productivity characteristics even when the proteasome inhibitors were no longer added at subculture, meaning that proteasome inhibitors are only required in the initial stages of cell line construction. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract