Cricket South Africa’s Protea Fire brand

Subject area Marketing, Sports marketing and Social media marketing. Study level/applicability Graduate level. Case overview This case, based on field research and multiple secondary sources, documents the 12-month period since early 2014 during which Cricket South Africa (CSA) developed the Protea Fire brand for their national men’s cricket team, known as the Proteas. In mid-2014, Marc Jury, the Commercial and Marketing manager of CSA set up a project team to take the previously in-house Protea Fire brand public. With the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand less than a year away, Jury worked with a diverse project team of Proteas players, cricket brand managers and external consultants to build a public brand identity for the national team, to nurture greater fan affinity and to mobilize South Africans behind their team for the World Cup. The project team developed a range of Protea Fire multimedia content as the core of the campaign. These included video diaries, scripts which were written by the Proteas players themselves, player profile videos, motivational team-talk videos and good luck video messages featuring ordinary and famous South Africans. Having invested in creating this content, the project team faced the difficult task of allocating a limited media budget to broadcast and amplify the content. Another significant challenge was to ensure that the Proteas team values were authentically communicated across all content, including via the social media strategy using Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. As the World Cup tournament kicked off on February 14th 2015, South Africa was well placed to overcome their previous inability to reach a final, although Jury wondered whether another exit in the knockout round would weaken the strong and positive emotions the Protea Fire campaign had ignited. With the last two balls remaining in South Africa’s semi-final game against New Zealand on March 24th 2015, and the home team requiring just five runs to win, Jury joined 60 million South Africans hoping that Protea Fire was strong enough. The case concludes with South Africa losing the semi-final game and Jury turning his attention to how the #ProteaFire campaign should respond. Expected learning outcomes This study aimed to analyse the development of a sport team brand and a megaevent campaign; to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing campaign; and to consider appropriate brand responses to the team’s failure to deliver on expectations. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing. </jats:sec

MAppleT: simulation of apple tree development using mixed stochastic and biomechanical models

International audienceConstruction of architectural databases over years is time consuming and cannot easily capture the event dynamics, especially when both tr ee topology and geometry are considered. The present project aimed to bring together models of topology and geometry in a single simulation such that the architecture of an apple t ree may emerge from process interactions. This integration was performed using L-systems. A m ixed approach was developed based on stochastic models to simulate plant topology and me chanistic model for the geometry. The succession of growth units (GUs) along axes and the ir branching structure were jointly modeled by a hierarchical hidden Markov model. A bi omechanical model, derived from previous studies, was used to calculate stem form a t the metamer scale, taking into account the intra-year dynamics of primary, secondary and f ruit growth. Outputs consist of 3D mock- ups geometric models representing the progression o f tree form over time. To asses these models, a sensitivity analysis was performed and de scriptors were compared between simulated and digitized trees, including the total number of GUs in the entire tree, descriptors of shoot geometry (basal diameter, length), and des criptors of axis geometry (inclination, curvature). In conclusion, in spite of some limitat ions MAppleT constitutes a useful tool for simulating development of apple trees in interactio n with gravity

Photosynthesis at an extreme end of the leaf trait spectrum: how does it relate to high leaf dry mass per area and associated structural parameters?

Leaf dry mass per area (LMA) is a composite parameter relating to a suite of structural traits that have the potential to influence photosynthesis. However, the extent to which each of these traits contributes to variation in LMA and photosynthetic rates is not well understood, especially at the high end of the LMA spectrum. In this study, the genus Banksia (Proteaceae) was chosen as a model group, and key structural traits such as LMA, leaf thickness, and density were measured in 49 species. Based on the leaf trait variation obtained, a subset of 18 species displaying a wide range in LMA of 134–507 g m−2 was selected for analyses of relationships between leaf structural and photosynthetic characteristics. High LMA was associated with more structural tissue, lower mass-based chlorophyll and nitrogen concentrations, and therefore lower mass-based photosynthesis. In contrast, area-based photosynthesis did not correlate with LMA, despite mesophyll volume per area increasing with increases in LMA. Photosynthetic rate per unit mesophyll volume declined with increasing LMA, which is possibly associated with structural limitations and, to a lesser extent, with lower nitrogen allocation. Mesophyll cell wall thickness significantly increased with LMA, which would contribute to lower mesophyll conductance at high LMA. Photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and the nitrogen allocation to Rubisco and thylakoids tended to decrease at high LMA. The interplay between anatomy and physiology renders area-based photosynthesis independent of LMA in Banksia species

How much detail and accuracy is required in plant growth sub-models to address questions about optimal management strategies in agricultural systems?

The amount of detail and accuracy required in plant growth sub-models within agricultural systems management models depends strongly on the question being addressed. Taking an ‘as-simple-as-possible’ approach has advantages such as keeping models transparent and easy to analyse while remaining appropriate to the question of interest

MAppleT: simulation of apple tree development using mixed stochastic and biomechanical models

International audienceConstruction of architectural databases over years is time consuming and cannot easily capture the event dynamics, especially when both tr ee topology and geometry are considered. The present project aimed to bring together models of topology and geometry in a single simulation such that the architecture of an apple t ree may emerge from process interactions. This integration was performed using L-systems. A m ixed approach was developed based on stochastic models to simulate plant topology and me chanistic model for the geometry. The succession of growth units (GUs) along axes and the ir branching structure were jointly modeled by a hierarchical hidden Markov model. A bi omechanical model, derived from previous studies, was used to calculate stem form a t the metamer scale, taking into account the intra-year dynamics of primary, secondary and f ruit growth. Outputs consist of 3D mock- ups geometric models representing the progression o f tree form over time. To asses these models, a sensitivity analysis was performed and de scriptors were compared between simulated and digitized trees, including the total number of GUs in the entire tree, descriptors of shoot geometry (basal diameter, length), and des criptors of axis geometry (inclination, curvature). In conclusion, in spite of some limitat ions MAppleT constitutes a useful tool for simulating development of apple trees in interactio n with gravity

Intimal smooth muscle cells are a source but not a sensor of anti-inflammatory CYP450 derived oxylipins

AbstractVascular pathologies are associated with changes in the presence and expression of morphologically distinct vascular smooth muscle cells. In particular, in complex human vascular lesions and models of disease in pigs and rodents, an intimal smooth muscle cell (iSMC) which exhibits a stable epithelioid or rhomboid phenotype in culture is often found to be present in high numbers, and may represent the reemergence of a distinct developmental vascular smooth muscle cell phenotype. The CYP450-oxylipin - soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) pathway is currently of great interest in targeting for cardiovascular disease. sEH inhibitors limit the development of hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis and aneurysm formation in animal models. We have investigated the expression of CYP450-oxylipin-sEH pathway enzymes and their metabolites in paired intimal (iSMC) and medial (mSMC) cells isolated from rat aorta. iSMC basally released significantly larger amounts of epoxy-oxylipin CYP450 products from eicosapentaenoic acid > docosahexaenoic acid > arachidonic acid > linoleic acid, and expressed higher levels of CYP2C12, CYP2B1, but not CYP2J mRNA compared to mSMC. When stimulated with the pro-inflammatory TLR4 ligand LPS, epoxy-oxylipin production did not change greatly in iSMC. In contrast, LPS induced epoxy-oxylipin products in mSMC and induced CYP2J4. iSMC and mSMC express sEH which metabolizes primary epoxy-oxylipins to their dihydroxy-counterparts. The sEH inhibitors TPPU or AUDA inhibited LPS-induced NFκB activation and iNOS induction in mSMC, but had no effect on NFκB nuclear localization or inducible nitric oxide synthase in iSMC; effects which were recapitulated in part by addition of authentic epoxy-oxylipins. iSMCs are a rich source but not a sensor of anti-inflammatory epoxy-oxylipins. Complex lesions that contain high levels of iSMCs may be more resistant to the protective effects of sEH inhibitors

Generating species assemblages for restoration and experimentation: A new method that can simultaneously converge on average trait values and maximize functional diversity

1. Restoring resilient ecosystems in an era of rapid environmental change requires a flexible framework for selecting assemblages of species based on functional traits. However, current trait‐based models have been limited to algorithms that select species assemblages that only converge on specified average trait values, and could not accommodate the common desire among restoration ecologists to generate functionally diverse assemblages. 2. We have solved this problem by applying a nonlinear optimization algorithm to solve for the species relative abundances that maximize Rao's quadratic entropy (Q) subject to other linear constraints. Rao's Q is a closed‐form algebraic expression of functional diversity that is maximized when the most abundant species are functionally dissimilar. 3. Previous models have maximized species evenness subject to the linear constraints by maximizing the entropy function (H’). Maximizing Q alone produces an undesirable species abundance distribution because species that exhibit extreme trait values have the highest abundances. We demonstrate that the maximization of an objective function that additively combines Q and H’ produces a more even relative abundance distribution across the trait dimension. 4. Some ecological restoration projects aim to restore communities that converge on one set of traits while diverging across another. The selectSpecies r function can derive assemblages for any size species pool that maximizes the diversity of any set of traits, while simultaneously converging on average values of any other set of traits. We demonstrate how the function works through examples using uniformly spaced trait distributions and data with a known structure. We also demonstrate the utility of the function using real trait data collected on dozens of species from three separate ecosystems: serpentine grasslands, ponderosa pine forests, and subtropical rainforests. 5. The quantitative selection of species based on their functional traits for ecological restoration and experimentation must be both rigorous and accessible to practitioners. The selectSpecies function provides ecologists with an easy‐to‐use open‐source solution to objectively derive species assemblages based on their functional traits