UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER RESPONSES’ TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ADVERTISING MESSAGES

This research explores how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and women’s empowerment messages for luxury brands can be effectively and persuasively integrated into advertising messages using the context of jewelry advertising. For this program of research, two studies were conducted: a content analysis and in-depth interviews with jewelry consumers. The content analysis of 187 jewelry advertisements examined how jewelry ads communicate with consumers and found that jewelry advertising is traditional, aspirational, and non-discrepant. Furthermore, jewelry advertising’s use of CSR messages is almost non-existent (<3%). Prior research suggests that CSR messages, which includes the use of female empowerment messages, could act as a functional alibi for consumers who feel guilty about indulging in extravagant goods. Therefore, study 2 sought to understand how these CSR messages can be incorporated into advertising for jewelry and luxury goods. Using a qualitative inquiry, a Luxury Goods CSR Marketing Model was developed based on interviews with 20 consumer informants. The model and findings suggest that jewelry consumption requires an internal or external push. An external push is something extraneous to the brand such as a consumer seeking to celebrate a milestone or accomplishment, whereas an internal push can be delivered through the marketing strategy. An internal push can come through direct or indirect pathways, including CSR advertising messages which can include references to ethical sourcing, care and quality, diversity, and company values. The findings of the research contribute to the understanding of the role of advertising in the purchase of luxury goods and provides managerial implications for luxury retailers who are seeking to communicate a pro-social purpose in their advertising

Effects of Brood Pheromone Modulated Brood Rearing Behaviors on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Colony Growth

A hallmark of eusociality is cooperative brood care. In most social insect systems brood rearing labor is divided between individuals working in the nest tending the queen and larvae, and foragers collecting food outside the nest. To place brood rearing division of labor within an evolutionary context, it is necessary to understand relationships between individuals in the nest engaged in brood care and colony growth in the honey bee. Here we examined responses of the queen, queen-worker interactions, and nursing behaviors to an increase in the brood rearing stimulus environment using brood pheromone. Colony pairs were derived from a single source and were headed by open-mated sister queens, for a total of four colony pairs. One colony of a pair was treated with 336 µg of brood pheromone, and the other a blank control. Queens in the brood pheromone treated colonies laid significantly more eggs, were fed longer, and were less idle compared to controls. Workers spent significantly more time cleaning cells in pheromone treatments. Increasing the brood rearing stimulus environment with the addition of brood pheromone significantly increased the tempo of brood rearing behaviors by bees working in the nest resulting in a significantly greater amount of brood reared

Ovarian Control of Nectar Collection in the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Honey bees are a model system for the study of division of labor. Worker bees demonstrate a foraging division of labor (DOL) by biasing collection towards carbohydrates (nectar) or protein (pollen). The Reproductive ground-plan hypothesis of Amdam et al. proposes that foraging DOL is regulated by the networks that controlled foraging behavior during the reproductive life cycle of honey bee ancestors. Here we test a proposed mechanism through which the ovary of the facultatively sterile worker impacts foraging bias. The proposed mechanism suggests that the ovary has a regulatory effect on sucrose sensitivity, and sucrose sensitivity impacts nectar loading. We tested this mechanism by measuring worker ovary size (ovariole number), sucrose sensitivity, and sucrose solution load size collected from a rate-controlled artificial feeder. We found a significant interaction between ovariole number and sucrose sensitivity on sucrose solution load size when using low concentration nectar. This supports our proposed mechanism. As nectar and pollen loading are not independent, a mechanism impacting nectar load size would also impact pollen load size

Development of Stronger and More Reliable Cast Austenitic Stainless Steels (H-Series) Based on Scientific Design Methodology

The goal of this program was to increase the high-temperature strength of the H-Series of cast austenitic stainless steels by 50% and upper use temperature by 86 to 140 F (30 to 60 C). Meeting this goal is expected to result in energy savings of 38 trillion Btu/year by 2020 and energy cost savings of $185 million/year. The higher strength H-Series of cast stainless steels (HK and HP type) have applications for the production of ethylene in the chemical industry, for radiant burner tubes and transfer rolls for secondary processing of steel in the steel industry, and for many applications in the heat-treating industry. The project was led by Duraloy Technologies, Inc. with research participation by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and industrial participation by a diverse group of companies. Energy Industries of Ohio (EIO) was also a partner in this project. Each team partner had well-defined roles. Duraloy Technologies led the team by identifying the base alloys that were to be improved from this research. Duraloy Technologies also provided an extensive creep data base on current alloys, provided creep-tested specimens of certain commercial alloys, and carried out centrifugal casting and component fabrication of newly designed alloys. Nucor Steel was the first partner company that installed the radiant burner tube assembly in their heat-treating furnace. Other steel companies participated in project review meetings and are currently working with Duraloy Technologies to obtain components of the new alloys. EIO is promoting the enhanced performance of the newly designed alloys to Ohio-based companies. The Timken Company is one of the Ohio companies being promoted by EIO. The project management and coordination plan is shown in Fig. 1.1. A related project at University of Texas-Arlington (UT-A) is described in Development of Semi-Stochastic Algorithm for Optimizing Alloy Composition of High-Temperature Austenitic Stainless Steels (H-Series) for Desired Mechanical and Corrosion Properties (ORNL/TM-2005/81/R1). The final report on another related project at the University of Tennessee by George Pharr, Easo George, and Michael Santella has been published as Development of Combinatorial Methods for Alloy Design and Optimization (ORNL/TM-2005-133). The goal of the project was to increase the high-temperature strength by 50$185 million/year. The goal of the project was achieved by using the alloy design methods developed at ORNL, based on precise microcharacterization and identification of critical microstructure/properties relationships and combining them with the modern computational science-based tools that calculate phases, phase fractions, and phase compositions based on alloy compositions. The combined approach of microcharacterization of phases and computational phase prediction would permit rapid improvement of the current alloy composition of an alloy and provide the long-term benefit of customizing alloys within grades for specific applications. The project was appropriate for the domestic industry because the current H-Series alloys have reached their limits both in high-temperature-strength properties and in upper use temperature. The desire of Duraloy's industrial customers to improve process efficiency, while reducing cost, requires that the current alloys be taken to the next level of strength and that the upper use temperature limit be increased. This project addressed a specific topic from the subject call: to develop materials for manufacturing processes that will increase high-temperature strength, fatigue resistance, corrosion, and wear resistance. The outcome of the project would benefit manufacturing processes in the chemical, steel, and heat-treating industries

E-β-Ocimene, a Volatile Brood Pheromone Involved in Social Regulation in the Honey Bee Colony (Apis mellifera)

Background: In honey bee colony, the brood is able to manipulate and chemically control the workers in order to sustain their own development. A brood ester pheromone produced primarily by old larvae (4 and 5 days old larvae) was first identified as acting as a contact pheromone with specific effects on nurses in the colony. More recently a new volatile brood pheromone has been identified: E-β-ocimene, which partially inhibits ovary development in workers. [br/] Methodology and Principal Finding: Our analysis of E-β-ocimene production revealed that young brood (newly hatched to 3 days old) produce the highest quantity of E-b-ocimene relative to their body weight. By testing the potential action of this molecule as a non-specific larval signal, due to its high volatility in the colony, we demonstrated that in the presence of E-β-ocimene nest workers start to forage earlier in life, as seen in the presence of real brood. [br/] Conclusions/Significance: In this way, young larvae are able to assign precedence to the task of foraging by workers in order to increase food stores for their own development. Thus, in the complexity of honey bee chemical communication, E-β- ocimene, a pheromone of young larvae, provides the brood with the means to express their nutritional needs to the workers

Development of Stronger and More Reliable Cast Austenitic Stainless Steels (H-Series) Based on Scientific and Design Methodology

The goal of this project was to increase the high-temperature strength of the H-Series of cast austenitic stainless steels by 50% and the upper use temperature by 86 to 140 degrees fahrenheit (30 to 60 degrees celsius). Meeting this goal is expected to result in energy savings of 35 trillion Btu/year by 2020 and energy cost savings of approximately $230 million/year. The higher-strength H-Series cast stainless steels (HK and HP type) have applications for the production of ethylene in the chemical industry, for radiant burner tubes and transfer rolls for secondary processing of steel in the steel industry, and for many applications in the heat treating industry, including radiant burner tubes. The project was led by Duraloy Technologies, Inc., with research participation by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and industrial participation by a diverse group of companies

Brood Pheromone Effects on Colony Protein Supplement Consumption and Growth in the Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in a Subtropical Winter Climate

Fatty acid esters extractable from the surface of honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), larvae, called brood pheromone, significantly increase rate of colony growth in the spring and summer when flowering plant pollen is available in the foraging environment. Increased colony growth rate occurs as a consequence of increased pollen intake through mechanisms such as increasing number of pollen foragers and pollen load weights returned. Here, we tested the hypothesis that addition of brood pheromone during the winter pollen dearth period of a humid subtropical climate increases rate of colony growth in colonies provisioned with a protein supplement. Experiments were conducted in late winter (9 February–9 March 2004) and mid-winter (19 January–8 February 2005). In both years, increased brood area, number of bees, and amount of protein supplement consumption were significantly greater in colonies receiving daily treatments of brood pheromone versus control colonies. Amount of extractable protein from hypopharyngeal glands measured in 2005 was significantly greater in bees from pheromone-treated colonies. These results suggest that brood pheromone may be used as a tool to stimulate colony growth in the southern subtropical areas of the United States where the package bee industry is centered and a large proportion of migratory colonies are overwintered.Keywords: winter colony growth, brood pheromone, honey be