115 research outputs found
Connection, Trust, and Commitment: Dimensions of Co-creation?
The purpose of this research is to identify a key driver of relationship closeness for service organizations. Based upon the co-creation concept from Service-Dominant Logic, connection is proposed as a new construct rooted in emotional attachment that bolsters the effect of trust and commitment on future intention among customers of a service-intense organization. Causal models are verified with a large empirical sample drawn from an organization in the process of dealing with the increasing sense of depersonalization that has afflicted growing organizations in a variety of industries. The paper distinguishes an important dimension of customer relationships that can be affected by service managers in order to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction
Socio-Economic Sourcing: Benefits of Small Business Set-Asides in Public Procurement
Purpose
Small businesses are critical to economic health and encouraged in government spending by set-asides – annual small business sourcing goals that often are not attained. Little research has explored the negative and risky stigmas associated with small business sourcing. Design/methodology/approach
This research explores reduced transaction costs of small business sourcing to government buyers. A survey of 350 government source selections reveals lower transaction costs derived from lower perceived risk of receiving a bid protest and via more efficient source selection processes. Findings
Contrary to common bias, the performance level of small businesses is no less than that of large business. Thus, small businesses engender lower transaction costs for correcting supplier’s performance. On the basis of these findings, managerial and theoretical implications are discussed
Explaining the effectiveness of performance-based logistics: a quantitative examination
The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09574091111181354Purpose – Performance-based logistics (PBL) strategies are providing governments and for-profit
organizations with a contractual mechanism that reduces the life cycle costs of their systems. PBL
accomplishes this by establishing contracts that focus on the delivery of performance not parts. PBL
establishes a metric based governance structure where suppliers make more profit when they invest in
logistics process improvements, or system redesign, that reduces total cost of ownership. While work
has been done to outline an overall PBL theoretical framework, the underlying theory explaining the
enablers that lead to organizational and team-level, team-goal alignment associated with the PBL
governance structure requires testing. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively test previously
posited relationships between enablers of PBL and PBL effectiveness. An additional objective is to
explore any differences in PBL effectiveness between different business sectors.This material is based upon work supported by the Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program under Grant No. N00244-10-1-0074
Roles and capabilities of the retail supply chain organization
Supply chain management (SCM) has become a critical strategic function in recent years. Research in the discipline has been focused toward the upstream side of the supply chain on functions such as warehousing, transportation, procurement and production. As power has shifted downstream toward retailers and their customers, SCM research has been slow to respond. This represents a significant gap, and a significant opportunity. Retailers face challenges that differ from those found in upstream suppliers and manufacturers. We present findings from a study of senior supply chain executives in the retail industry that focuses on the supply chain challenges of greatest importance to retailers, and the evolving capabilities used to address these issues
Increase in invasive Streptococcus pyogenes M1 infections with close evolutionary genetic relationship, Iceland and Scotland, 2022 to 2023
Group A Streptococcus isolates of the recently described M1UK clade have emerged to cause human infections in several European countries and elsewhere. Full-genome sequence analysis of M1 isolates discovered a close genomic relationship between some isolates from Scotland and the majority of isolates from Iceland causing serious infections in 2022 and 2023. Phylogenetic analysis strongly suggests that an isolate from or related to Scotland was the precursor to an M1UK variant responsible for almost all recent M1 infections in Iceland
Evolutionary pathway to increased virulence and epidemic group A Streptococcus disease derived from 3,615 genome sequences.
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files.
This article is open access.We sequenced the genomes of 3,615 strains of serotype Emm protein 1 (M1) group A Streptococcus to unravel the nature and timing of molecular events contributing to the emergence, dissemination, and genetic diversification of an unusually virulent clone that now causes epidemic human infections worldwide. We discovered that the contemporary epidemic clone emerged in stepwise fashion from a precursor cell that first contained the phage encoding an extracellular DNase virulence factor (streptococcal DNase D2, SdaD2) and subsequently acquired the phage encoding the SpeA1 variant of the streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A superantigen. The SpeA2 toxin variant evolved from SpeA1 by a single-nucleotide change in the M1 progenitor strain before acquisition by horizontal gene transfer of a large chromosomal region encoding secreted toxins NAD(+)-glycohydrolase and streptolysin O. Acquisition of this 36-kb region in the early 1980s into just one cell containing the phage-encoded sdaD2 and speA2 genes was the final major molecular event preceding the emergence and rapid intercontinental spread of the contemporary epidemic clone. Thus, we resolve a decades-old controversy about the type and sequence of genomic alterations that produced this explosive epidemic. Analysis of comprehensive, population-based contemporary invasive strains from seven countries identified strong patterns of temporal population structure. Compared with a preepidemic reference strain, the contemporary clone is significantly more virulent in nonhuman primate models of pharyngitis and necrotizing fasciitis. A key finding is that the molecular evolutionary events transpiring in just one bacterial cell ultimately have produced millions of human infections worldwide.Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
Swedish Research Council
Houston Methodist Hospital
Fondren Foundatio
The Cosmological Slingshot Scenario: Myths and Facts
We generalize the Cosmological Slingshot Scenario for a Slingshot brane
moving in a Klebanov-Strassler throat. We show that the horizon and isotropy
problems of standard cosmology are avoided, while the flatness problem is
acceptably alleviated. Regarding the primordial perturbations, we identify
their vacuum state and elucidate the evolution from the quantum to the
classical regimes. Also, we calculate their exact power spectrum showing its
compatibility with current data. We discuss the bouncing solution from a four
dimensional point of view. In this framework the radial and angular motion of
the Slingshot brane are described by two scalar fields. We show that the
bouncing solution for the scale factor in String frame is mapped into a
monotonically increasing (in conformal time) solution in the Einstein frame. We
finally discuss about the regularity of the geometry in Einstein frame.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figs. Major clarifications and references added, version
accepted in Gen. Rel. Grav. (2009
Association of Accelerometry-Measured Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Events in Mobility-Limited Older Adults: The LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders) Study.
BACKGROUND:Data are sparse regarding the value of physical activity (PA) surveillance among older adults-particularly among those with mobility limitations. The objective of this study was to examine longitudinal associations between objectively measured daily PA and the incidence of cardiovascular events among older adults in the LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders) study. METHODS AND RESULTS:Cardiovascular events were adjudicated based on medical records review, and cardiovascular risk factors were controlled for in the analysis. Home-based activity data were collected by hip-worn accelerometers at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months postrandomization to either a physical activity or health education intervention. LIFE study participants (n=1590; age 78.9±5.2 [SD] years; 67.2% women) at baseline had an 11% lower incidence of experiencing a subsequent cardiovascular event per 500 steps taken per day based on activity data (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.96; P=0.001). At baseline, every 30 minutes spent performing activities ≥500 counts per minute (hazard ratio, 0.75; confidence interval, 0.65-0.89 [P=0.001]) were also associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular events. Throughout follow-up (6, 12, and 24 months), both the number of steps per day (per 500 steps; hazard ratio, 0.90, confidence interval, 0.85-0.96 [P=0.001]) and duration of activity ≥500 counts per minute (per 30 minutes; hazard ratio, 0.76; confidence interval, 0.63-0.90 [P=0.002]) were significantly associated with lower cardiovascular event rates. CONCLUSIONS:Objective measurements of physical activity via accelerometry were associated with cardiovascular events among older adults with limited mobility (summary score >10 on the Short Physical Performance Battery) both using baseline and longitudinal data. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01072500
On Brane Back-Reaction and de Sitter Solutions in Higher-Dimensional Supergravity
We argue that the problem of finding lower-dimensional de Sitter solutions to
the classical field equations of higher-dimensional supergravity necessarily
requires understanding the back-reaction of whatever localized objects source
the bulk fields. However, we also find that most of the details of the
back-reacted solutions are not important for determining the lower-dimensional
curvature. We find, in particular, a classically exact expression that, for a
broad class of geometries, directly relates the curvature of the
lower-dimensional geometry to asymptotic properties of various bulk fields near
the sources. Specializing to codimension-two sources, we find that the
contribution involving the asymptotic behaviour of the warp factor (which has a
definite sign for most supergravities and so is usually used to infer a
preference for anti-de Sitter geometries) is precisely canceled by the
contribution of the sources themselves (that are left out in earlier
treatments). We identify which combination of bulk fields survives this
cancelation, and so controls the sign of the lower-dimensional geometry, for
several supergravities in 6, 10 and 11 dimensions. Our results show precisely
why explicit 4D de Sitter solutions to 6D supergravity evade general no-go
theorems. As an application we show that all classical compactifications of
Type IIB supergravity (and F-theory) to 8 dimensions are 8D-flat if they
involve only the metric and the axio-dilaton sourced by codimension-two
sources, extending earlier results to include warped solutions and more general
source properties.Comment: 23 pages plus appendice
Comparative analytical performance of multiple plasma Aβ42 and Aβ40 assays and their ability to predict positron emission tomography amyloid positivity
INTRODUCTION: This report details the approach taken to providing a dataset allowing for analyses on the performance of recently developed assays of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides in plasma and the extent to which they improve the prediction of amyloid positivity. METHODS: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative plasma samples with corresponding amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) data were run on six plasma Aβ assays. Statistical tests were performed to determine whether the plasma Aβ measures significantly improved the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting amyloid PET status compared to age and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype. RESULTS: The age and APOE genotype model predicted amyloid status with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.75. Three assays improved AUCs to 0.81, 0.81, and 0.84 (P < .05, uncorrected for multiple comparisons). DISCUSSION: Measurement of Aβ in plasma contributes to addressing the amyloid component of the ATN (amyloid/tau/neurodegeneration) framework and could be a first step before or in place of a PET or cerebrospinal fluid screening study. HIGHLIGHTS: The Foundation of the National Institutes of Health Biomarkers Consortium evaluated six plasma amyloid beta (Aβ) assays using Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative samples. Three assays improved prediction of amyloid status over age and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype. Plasma Aβ42/40 predicted amyloid positron emission tomography status better than Aβ42 or Aβ40 alone
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