Online Store Locator: An Essential Resource for Retailers in the 21st Century

Most retailers use their websites and social media to increase their visibility, while potential customers get information about these retailers using the Internet on electronic devices. Many papers have previously studied online marketing strategies used by retailers, but little attention has been paid to determine how these companies provide information through the Internet about the location and characteristics of their stores. This paper aims to obtain evidence about the inclusion of interactive web maps on retailers’ websites to provide information about the location of their stores. With this purpose, the store locator interactive tools of specialty retailers’ websites included in the report “Global Powers of Retailing 2015” are studied in detail using different procedures, such as frequency analysis and word clouds. From the results obtained, it was concluded that most of these firms use interactive maps to provide information about their offline stores, but today some of them still use non-interactive (static) maps or text format to present this information. Moreover, some differences were observed among the search filters used in the store locator services, according to the retailer’s specialty. These results provided insight into the important role of online store locator tools on retailers’ websites

Propiedades psicométricas de la Escala de Evaluación de la Competencia Docente en Matemáticas. Modelo de predicción de satisfacción y rendimiento académico

The purposes of this study were: (i) to provide reliability and validity evidence regarding the Teaching Competence Questionnaire for the Math class in the Mexican context; (ii) to analyze factorial invariance according to sex in the Teaching Competence Questionnaire; (iii) to study the relationship among student perceptions of Math teaching competencies, satisfaction with school, and academic performance. A sample was selected from the total number of third-grade secondary school Mexican students. The prediction model showed that the students’ perception of their Math teachers’ competence does predict satisfaction with Math class, as well as their academic performance in MathLos objetivos de este estudio fueron: (i) proporcionar evidencia de confiabilidad y validez del Cuestionario de Competencias Docentes para la clase de Matemáticas en el contexto mexicano; (ii) analizar la invariancia factorial según sexo en el Cuestionario de Competencia Docente; (iii) estudiar la relación entre las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre las competencias de enseñanza de Matemáticas, la satisfacción con la escuela y el rendimiento académico. Se seleccionó una muestra del total de estudiantes mexicanos de tercer grado de secundaria. El modelo de predicción mostró que la percepción de los estudiantes sobre la competencia de sus profesores de Matemáticas sí predice la satisfacción con la clase de Matemáticas, así como su rendimiento académico en MatemáticasSecretary of Public Education of Mexico (identification number: 431/569/E

Web GIS to Enhance Relational Capital: The Case of General Merchandise Retailers

Purpose – This paper aims to study the impact of information and communication technologies in organizations to capture and manage intellectual capital. The paper focuses particularly on the use of Web-based geographical information systems (Web GIS) to increase relational capital. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyzes in detail the Web sites of 143 general merchandise retailers, which have been grouped according to their dominant operational format. Menus and search tools have been used to find out about the way in which these retailers provide information to the customers about their stores, with special attention to the use of Web GIS. Findings – The results obtained show that most of the companies analyzed use Web GIS to provide information about the location and other characteristics of the stores. The findings in this paper also suggest that the quantity and quality of the information provided by is somewhat related to the company size. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study come from the difficulty of predicting whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will generalize the use of Web GIS in the future. Practical implications – The findings of the paper suggest that large retail firms have adopted Web GIS to provide information to the customers and for other geomarketing purposes. Moreover, SMEs should use Web GIS to improve their relationship with customers.Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Changes in radiological protection and quality control in Spanish dental installations : 1996-2003

Introduction: The European Union has established specific directives concerning radiological protection which are obligatory for member States. In addition, all Spanish dental clinics with radiological equipment are required to have an annual quality control check. Objective: To analyze the effect of new European legislation on dental radiological practice in Spain and to determine whether it has resulted in lower doses being administered to patients. Material and Methods: A total of 10,171 official radiological quality control reports on Spanish dental clinics, covering 16 autonomous regions, were studied following the passing of Royal Decree 2071/1995 on quality criteria in radiodiagnostic installations. The reports, compiled by U.T.P.R Asigma S.A., a company authorised by the Nuclear Safety Council, cover the years 1996 to 2003, which has enabled us to monitor the evolution of radiological procedures in dental clinics over a seven year period. Results: According to the reports for 2003, 77.3 % of clinics complied with EU requirements, using equipment of 70 kVp, 8 mA, 1.5 mm Al filters, with a collimator length of 20 cm. However, non-compliance was detected in approximately a third (30.8%) of the equipment inspected: alterations in the kilovoltage used, exposure time, performance of the tubing, dosage, linearity/intensity of current and acoustic-luminous signal 6.86%. The mean skin dose reached 3.11 mGy for patients who received an x-ray of an upper molar, representing a decrease of 18% over the seven years studied. Conclusion: there has obviously been a general improvement in the parameters studied, but only 77.3% of the installations complied fully with official EU regulations concerning dental radiological protection

Antibiotics shaping bacterial genome: deletion of an IS91 flanked virulence determinant upon exposure to suinhibitory antibiotic concentrations

The nucleoid-associated proteins Hha and YdgT repress the expression of the toxin α-hemolysin. An Escherichia coli mutant lacking these proteins overexpresses the toxin α-hemolysin encoded in the multicopy recombinant plasmid pANN202-312R. Unexpectedly, we could observe that this mutant generated clones that no further produced hemolysin (Hly-). Generation of Hly- clones was dependent upon the presence in the culture medium of the antibiotic kanamycin (km), a marker of the hha allele (hha::Tn5). Detailed analysis of different Hly- clones evidenced that recombination between partial IS91 sequences that flank the hly operon had occurred. A fluctuation test evidenced that the presence of km in the culture medium was underlying the generation of these clones. A decrease of the km concentration from 25 mg/l to 12.5 mg/l abolished the appearance of Hly- derivatives. We considered as a working hypothesis that, when producing high levels of the toxin (combination of the hha ydgT mutations with the presence of the multicopy hemolytic plasmid pANN202-312R), the concentration of km of 25 mg/l resulted subinhibitory and stimulated the recombination between adjacent IS91 flanking sequences. To further test this hypothesis, we analyzed the effect of subinhibitory km concentrations in the wild type E. coli strain MG1655 harboring the parental low copy number plasmid pHly152. At a km concentration of 5 mg/l, subinhibitory for strain MG1655 (pHly152), generation of Hly- clones could be readily detected. Similar results were also obtained when, instead of km, ampicillin was used. IS91 is flanking several virulence determinants in different enteric bacterial pathogenic strains from E. coli and Shigella. The results presented here evidence that stress generated by exposure to subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations may result in rearrangements of the bacterial genome. Whereas some of these rearrangements may be deleterious, others may generate genotypes with increased virulence, which may resume infection

Green Packaging from Consumer and Business Perspectives

Sustainable development is a global objective that aims to address the societal challenge of climate action, the environment, resource efficiency, and raw materials. In this sense, an important strategy is the promotion of green packaging, that is, the use of sustainable materials and designs for the packaging of goods. In recent years, many research works have been published in the specialised area covering the different perspectives and dimensions of green packaging. However, to our knowledge, no previous investigations have analysed the research activity on green packaging from business and consumer perspectives. The present study intends to fill this gap by analysing all of the publications found in the Scopus database with the help of visual analytic tools, including word clouds and Gephi network visualization software. More specifically, our study analyses the impact of green packaging from business and consumer viewpoints, including some specific issues such as the design and materials used in green packaging, green packaging costs, marketing strategies and corporate social responsibility related to green packaging, and the impact of green packaging in waste management, the circular economy, logistics, and supply chain management. The results obtained reveal the growing interest of scholars and researchers in all of these dimensions, as is made patently clear by the increasing number of journal publications in recent years. The practical implications of this study are significant, given the growing awareness among companies and consumers about the importance of the promotion of sustainable development through green packaging alternatives. More specifically, the results of this research could be very useful for all of those agents who are interested in learning about the main lines of research being developed in the field of green packaging

Algunas cualidades fundamentales del temperamento para el desempeño deportivo en atletas élite de Lucha Libre

En la formación del deportista, uno de los aspectos más importantes es la preparación psicológica. Aún cuando un atleta esté en óptimas condiciones físicas y tenga un excelente dominio de la técnica y la táctica del deporte, no es posible alcanzar óptimos resultados si su estado psicológico no es el más adecuado, pues esto influye negativamente en su actuación competitiva.La influencia del estado psicológico del atleta es multifactorial, y el entrenador debe poseer los conocimientos requeridos para el control y regulación de este estado; esto lo obliga a conocerla personalidad de cada atleta, sus necesidades, intereses y motivaciones, entre otros aspectos. Uno de los componentes de la personalidad más importante es el temperamento, ya que determina la dinámica de la actividad psíquica, factor decisivo en la ejecución de las acciones técnico-tácticas.El temperamento tiene un sustrato fisiológico y otro psicológico. El primero hace más compleja su educación, pero, al mismo tiempo, favorece la estabilidad del comportamiento psicodinámico del individuo, lo cual puede ser de gran utilidad práctica para la selección de talentos, ubicación de los deportistas en posicioneso especialidades deportivas, así como para hacer pronósticos de competencias, entre otras posibilidades de utilización.5La autora referida ha demostrado en investigaciones realizadas en varios deportes, que existe una correspondencia entre las exigencias psicodinámicas (temperamentales) de determinados deportes y las características temperamentales de los practicantes con óptimos resultados; es decir, ella ha encontrado una tipicidad en la conducta temperamental de los deportistas élites, según el deporte que practican.El objetivo principal de esta investigación es elaborar el Modelo Psicodinámico de luchador de Estilo Libre,pero, en este trabajo,sólo se exponen resultados de la aplicación de la MEDITEM (Metodología para la determinación de la Idoneidad Temperamento), a través de la cual, se pueden elaborar Modelos que incluyen las características temperamentales ideales que debe tener un deportista para desempeñar con éxito su actividad deportiva.5Se utilizó como muestra el total de un equipo de atletas élite de lucha libre (a cada uno de los cuales se les diagnosticó su temperamento y se hizo una caracterización psicológica del deporte y de cada deportista. También fue entrevistado un grupo de especialistas, que por la experiencia y calidad en su labor de entrenadores fueron considerados como expertos.Como resultados concretos, fue posible distinguir las cualidades del temperamento ideales para este deporte.Palabras clave: Temperamento, ( Comportamiento Psicodinámico del individuo).IDETEM ( Instrumento paraIdentificar el temperamento en los atletas).MEDITEM ( Metodología para la determinación de la Idoneidad Temperamento).CUALIDADES TEMPERAMENTALES (Las identificadas en el Modelo y las que necesita el luchador para su desempeño deportivo) .</p

GameTeen: new tools for evaluating and training emotional regulation strategies

The aim of this paper is to describe GameTeen, a novel instrument for the assessment and training of Emotional Regulation (ER) strategies in adolescent population. These new tools are based on the use of 3D serious games that can be played under different settings. The evolution of ER strategies will be monitored in two ways depending on the setting where the tool is presented. Firstly, in the laboratory, physiological signals and facial expressions of participants will be recorded. Secondly, in real life settings, ecological momentary assessment tools will be used to obtain answers from the subjects using their mobile phone. The goal is to obtain more attractive and reliable tools to evaluate and train ER strategies.This study was funded by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Spain, Project Game Teen (TIN2010-20187) and partially by projects Consolider-C (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC), “CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, an initiative of ISCIII” and Excellence Research Program PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana. Consellería de Educación, 2008-157). The work of A. Rodríguez was supported by the Spanish MEC under an FPI Grant BES-2011-043316.Rodríguez Ortega, A.; Rey, B.; Alcañiz Raya, ML.; Baños, R.; Guixeres Provinciale, J.; Wrzesien, M.; Gómez Martínez, M.... (2012). GameTeen: new tools for evaluating and training emotional regulation strategies. En Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine 2012. IOS Press. 334-338. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-121-2-334S33433

Maternal Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Levels Decrease during Early Pregnancy in Normotensive Pregnant Women but Are Higher in Preeclamptic Women—A Longitudinal Study

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) is an endocrine factor involved in glucose and lipid metabolism that exerts pleiotropic effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the serum FGF-21 profile in healthy and mild preeclamptic pregnant women at each trimester of pregnancy; (2) Methods: Serum FGF-21 levels were determined by ELISA in a nested case-control study within a longitudinal cohort study that included healthy (n = 54) and mild preeclamptic (n = 20) pregnant women, women at three months after delivery (n = 20) and eumenorrheic women during the menstrual cycle (n = 20); (3) Results: FGF-21 levels were significantly lower in the mid-luteal phase compared to the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle in eumenorrheic women (p < 0.01). Maternal levels of FGF-21 were significantly lower in the first and second trimesters and peaked during the third trimester in healthy pregnant women (p < 0.01). Serum levels of FGF-21 in healthy pregnant were significantly lower in the first and second trimester of pregnancy compared with the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and postpartum (p < 0.01). Serum FGF-21 levels were significantly higher in preeclamptic compared to healthy pregnant women during pregnancy (p < 0.01); (4) Conclusions: These results suggest that a peak of FGF-21 towards the end of pregnancy in healthy pregnancy and higher levels in preeclamptic women might play a critical role that contributes to protecting against the negatives effects of high concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and hypertensive disorder. Furthermore, FGF-21 might play an important role in reproductive function in healthy eumenorrheic women during the menstrual cycle

Maternal serum angiopoietin-like 3 levels in healthy and mild preeclamptic pregnant women

Objective: Angiopoietin-like protein 3(ANGPTL3) is an important regulator of lipoprotein metabolism in the fed state by inhibiting the enzyme lipoprotein lipase in oxidative tissues. However, the possible role of ANGPTL3 throughout gestation and its relationship with hormonal and biochemical variables are still unknown. The aim of this study was to determinate serum ANGPTL3 level in healthy non-pregnant women, during healthy and preeclamptic pregnancy and postpartum. Methods: Serum ANGPTL3 was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), in a prospective cohort of healthy pregnant women (n = 52) and women with mild preeclampsia (n = 21), and women at three months postpartum (n = 20) and healthy non-pregnant women (n = 20). The results obtained were correlated with biochemical, hormonal and anthropometric variables and insulin resistance indices. Results: Levels of ANGPTL3 were not different between the follicular and the luteal phases of the cycle in healthy non-pregnant women. There was a significant reduction in serum ANGPTL3 levels from the first to the third trimester in healthy pregnant women compared with healthy non-pregnant and postpartum women (p 0.05) Conclusions: We describe for the first time the profile of ANGPTL3 throughout pregnancy and postpartum as well as and discussed about explore their potential contribution interactions with lipoprotein metabolism throughout pregnancy and postpartum. Thus, low levels of ANGPTL3 during pregnancy might favor lipid uptake in oxidative tissues as the main maternal energy source, while may helping to preserve glucose for use by the fetus and placenta.Fil: Garces, María Fernanda. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Rodriguez Navarro, Haiver Antonio. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Buell Acosta, Julieth Daniela. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Burgos Cardenas, Alvaro Javier. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Franco Vega, Roberto. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Maldonado Acosta, Luis Miguel. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Eslava Schmalbach, Javier. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Parada Baños, Arturo José. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Castro Pinzon, Andres. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Sanchez, Elizabeth. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Angel Muller, Edith. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Lacunza, Ezequiel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Castaño, Justo P.. Universidad de Córdoba; EspañaFil: Dieguez, Carlos. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; EspañaFil: Nogueiras, Rubén. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; EspañaFil: Ruiz Parra, Ariel Ivan. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; ColombiaFil: Caminos, Jorge Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; Colombi