Reconceptualising product life-cycle theory as stakeholder engagement with non-profit organisation

The paper critically re-examines product life-cycle (PLC) theory, developed over fifty years ago. Despite prevalence in marketing pedagogy and continued popularity within empirical research, PLC is seldom challenged. The paper identifies the organisation-centric construct underpinning the theory and highlights a disconnection between PLC theory and the recent academic insight around customer engagement. It reconceptualises the life-cycle concept based on engagement between stakeholder and non-profit organisation (NPO), structured upon both the market orientation and social exchange constructs. The revised framework maps stakeholder engagement with the NPO through the five stages of incubation, interaction, involvement, immersion, and incapacitation. The paper concludes with identifying a roadmap for future empirical research to develop and validate the re-envisaged conceptual model. The methodology used is narrative literature review supported by secondary research from specialist practitioner reports

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Satellite Tagging and Biopsy Sampling of Killer Whales at Subantarctic Marion Island: Effectiveness, Immediate Reactions and Long-Term Responses

Remote tissue biopsy sampling and satellite tagging are becoming widely used in large marine vertebrate studies because they allow the collection of a diverse suite of otherwise difficult-to-obtain data which are critical in understanding the ecology of these species and to their conservation and management. Researchers must carefully consider their methods not only from an animal welfare perspective, but also to ensure the scientific rigour and validity of their results. We report methods for shore-based, remote biopsy sampling and satellite tagging of killer whales Orcinus orca at Subantarctic Marion Island. The performance of these methods is critically assessed using 1) the attachment duration of low-impact minimally percutaneous satellite tags; 2) the immediate behavioural reactions of animals to biopsy sampling and satellite tagging; 3) the effect of researcher experience on biopsy sampling and satellite tagging; and 4) the mid- (1 month) and long- (24 month) term behavioural consequences. To study mid- and long-term behavioural changes we used multievent capture-recapture models that accommodate imperfect detection and individual heterogeneity. We made 72 biopsy sampling attempts (resulting in 32 tissue samples) and 37 satellite tagging attempts (deploying 19 tags). Biopsy sampling success rates were low (43%), but tagging rates were high with improved tag designs (86%). The improved tags remained attached for 26±14 days (mean ± SD). Individuals most often showed no reaction when attempts missed (66%) and a slight reaction-defined as a slight flinch, slight shake, short acceleration, or immediate dive-when hit (54%). Severe immediate reactions were never observed. Hit or miss and age-sex class were important predictors of the reaction, but the method (tag or biopsy) was unimportant. Multievent trap-dependence modelling revealed considerable variation in individual sighting patterns; however, there were no significant mid- or long-term changes following biopsy sampling or tagging

Molecular Mechanism of Basic Calcium Phosphate Crystal-induced Mitogenesis

Synovial tissue hyperplasia in basic calcium phosphate deposition disease has been suggested to develop through the stimulation of cell growth by basic calcium phosphate (BCP) crystals deposited in joints. These crystals have been used in vitro to stimulate DNA synthesis in quiescent fibroblasts to experimentally study this proliferative disease. The stimulation of DNA synthesis, in density-arrested Balb/c 3T3 cells, by BCP crystals was inhibited after down-regulating protein kinase C activity with 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol 13-acetate (TPA). No effect on platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-stimulated DNA synthesis was observed under the same conditions. The expression of c-myc and c-fos increased in response to BCP stimulation in a manner similar to the increase produced by stimulation with PDGF. The BCP stimulation of c-fos and c-myc messages was inhibited 60 and 90%, respectively, in TPA-pretreated, protein kinase C-down-regulated cells. The induction of these transcripts by PDGF was unaffected in cells pretreated with TPA. TPA was unable to stimulate c-fos and c-myc expression or DNA synthesis following protein kinase C down-regulation. Both PDGF and TPA stimulated phosphorylation of an 80-kDa protein, whereas BCP crystals had no effect on phosphorylation of this protein. The exposure of density-arrested Balb/c 3T3 cells to BCP crystals had no effect on high affinity epidermal growth factor receptor binding under conditions in which PDGF and TPA reduced epidermal growth factor binding. The data suggest that PDGF can act to stimulate c-fos and c-myc expression as well as DNA synthesis through a protein kinase C-independent pathway, whereas BCP crystals require at least endogenous levels of protein kinase C to stimulate these events