What is creative to whom and why? Perceptions in advertising agencies

The authors apply recent advances in creativity theory to discover perceptual differences in the factors of strategy, originality, and artistry among creatives and noncreatives. It was found that current advertising position influences subjective perceptions of what constitutes creative advertising. Creatives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are artistic, but account executives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are strategic. The study also indicates that creatives have a distinctive preference for a strong originality component to strategy. To be original within the confines of a tight strategy is perceived as the most creative by advertising creatives. Account executives are so focused on strategy, they will often accept artistic advertisements as a substitute for truly original work. The authors consider future research implications of the study and its limitations

The inefficiency of re-weighted sampling and the curse of system size in high order path integration

Computing averages over a target probability density by statistical re-weighting of a set of samples with a different distribution is a strategy which is commonly adopted in fields as diverse as atomistic simulation and finance. Here we present a very general analysis of the accuracy and efficiency of this approach, highlighting some of its weaknesses. We then give an example of how our results can be used, specifically to assess the feasibility of high-order path integral methods. We demonstrate that the most promising of these techniques -- which is based on re-weighted sampling -- is bound to fail as the size of the system is increased, because of the exponential growth of the statistical uncertainty in the re-weighted average

Measuring the Relative Performance of Providers of a Health Service

A methodology is developed and applied to compare the performance of publicly funded agencies providing treatment for alcohol abuse in Maine. The methodology estimates a Wiener process that determines the duration of completed treatments, while allowing for agency differences in the effectiveness of treatment, standards for completion of treatment, patient attrition, and the characteristics of patient populations. Notably, the Wiener process model separately identifies agency fixed effects that describe differences in the effectiveness of treatment ('treatment effects'), and effects that describe differences in the unobservable characteristics of patients ('population effects'). The estimated model enables hypothetical comparisons of how different agencies would treat the same populations. The policy experiment of transferring the treatment practices of more cost-effective agencies suggests that Maine could have significantly reduced treatment costs without compromising health outcomes by identifying and transferring best practices.

Branch accounting: Evidence from the accounting records of the North American Moravians

Europeans transported continental accounting practices during the period of worldwide colonization. This paper describes the transportation of branch accounting by members of the Moravian Church. Physical records maintained in the Archives for the Southern Province of the Moravian Church at Salem, North Carolina, and for the Northern Province at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, contain a complex, two-tiered system of branch accounting for the enterprises within the settlements and the settlements within the worldwide Church. This paper traces recorded activity for 1775 from an enterprise to its diacony (business organization of a church) and from the diacony to the European Church headquarters. Reporting practices in both North American diaconies reflect a similar practice of branch accounting, each culminating in formal financial statements to the European home office of the Moravian Church

Nunalleq, Stories from the Village of Our Ancestors:Co-designing a multivocal educational resource based on an archaeological excavation

This work was funded by the UK-based Arts and Humanities Research Council through grants (AH/K006029/1) and (AH/R014523/1), a University of Aberdeen IKEC Award with additional support for travel and subsistence from the University of Dundee, DJCAD Research Committee RS2 project funding. Thank you to the many people who contributed their support, knowledge, feedback, voices and faces throughout the project, this list includes members of the local community, colleagues, specialists, students, and volunteers. If we have missed out any names we apologize but know that your help was appreciated. Jimmy Anaver, John Anderson, Alice Bailey, Kieran Baxter, Pauline Beebe, Ellinor Berggren, Dawn Biddison, Joshua Branstetter, Brendan Body, Lise Bos, Michael Broderick, Sarah Brown, Crystal Carter, Joseph Carter, Lucy Carter, Sally Carter, Ben Charles, Mary Church, Willard Church, Daniele Clementi, Annie Cleveland, Emily Cleveland, Joshua Cleveland, Aron Crowell, Neil Curtis, Angie Demma, Annie Don, Julia Farley, Veronique Forbes, Patti Fredericks, Tricia Gillam, Sean Gleason, Sven Haakanson, Cheryl Heitman, Grace Hill, Diana Hunter, Joel Isaak, Warren Jones, Stephan Jones, Ana Jorge, Solveig Junglas, Melia Knecht, Rick Knecht, Erika Larsen, Paul Ledger, Jonathan Lim Soon, Amber Lincoln, Steve Luke, Francis Lukezic, Eva Malvich, Pauline Matthews, Roy Mark, Edouard Masson-MacLean, Julie Masson-MacLean, Mhairi Maxwell, Chuna Mcintyre, Drew Michael, Amanda Mina, Anna Mossolova, Carl Nicolai Jr, Chris Niskanen, Molly Odell, Tom Paxton, Lauren Phillips, Lucy Qin, Charlie Roberts, Chris Rowe, Rufus Rowe,Chris Rowland, John Rundall, Melissa Shaginoff, Monica Shah, Anna Sloan, Darryl Small Jr, John Smith, Mike Smith, Joey Sparaga, Hannah Strehlau, Dora Strunk, Larissa Strunk, Lonny Strunk, Larry Strunk, Robbie Strunk, Sandra Toloczko, Richard Vanderhoek, the Qanirtuuq Incorporated Board, the Quinhagak Dance Group and the staff at Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat. We also extend our thanks to three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our paper.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Voltage-dependent Block of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Cl- Channel by Two Closely Related Arylaminobenzoates

The gene defective in cystic fibrosis encodes a Cl- channel, the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR is blocked by diphenylamine-2-carboxylate (DPC) when applied extracellularly at millimolar concentrations. We studied the block of CFTR expressed in Xenopus oocytes by DPC or by a closely related molecule, flufenamic acid (FFA). Block of whole-cell CFTR currents by bath-applied DPC or by FFA, both at 200 µM, requires several minutes to reach full effect. Blockade is voltage dependent, suggesting open-channel block: currents at positive potentials are not affected but currents at negative potentials are reduced. The binding site for both drugs senses ~40% of the electric field across the membrane, measured from the inside. In single-channel recordings from excised patches without blockers, the conductance was 8.0 ± 0.4 pS in symmetric 150 mM Cl^-. A subconductance state, measuring ~60% of the main conductance, was often observed. Bursts to the full open state lasting up to tens of seconds were uninterrupted at depolarizing membrane voltages. At hyperpolarizing voltages, bursts were interrupted by brief closures. Either DPC or FFA (50 µM) applied to the cytoplasmic or extracellular face of the channel led to an increase in flicker at V_m =-100 mV and not at V_m = +100 mV, in agreement with whole-cell experiments. DPC induced a higher frequency of flickers from the cytoplasmic side than the extracellular side. FFA produced longer closures than DPC; the FFA closed time was roughly equal (~ 1.2 ms) at -100 mV with application from either side. In cell-attached patch recordings with DPC or FFA applied to the bath, there was flickery block at V_m = -100 mV, confirming that the drugs permeate through the membrane to reach the binding site. The data are consistent with the presence of a single binding site for both drugs, reached from either end of the channel. Open-channel block by DPC or FFA may offer tools for use with site-directed mutagenesis to describe the permeation pathway

Exploring Process, Enterprise Integration and E-business Concepts in the Classroom: The Case of petPRO

This paper highlights recent curriculum innovations that have occurred in Introduction to Information Systems, a required second-year course for all students completing an undergraduate degree in business or a business minor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. The goal of this course is to highlight the role of technology in business today with particular focuses on enterprise integration and enterprise systems, management decision making in a process-oriented datadriven organization, and the transformation to e-business. The concepts are introduced in lecture and are then brought to life through active learning activities as the students become a company (petPRO) and work in groups to simulate the concepts they have learned. At a second-year level, students have neither encountered all of the functional areas of a business, nor have they seen the interplay among the functions. Through the simulated company experience, students come to appreciate what all the business functions are, and they experience some of the challenges a firm goes through on the road to becoming an integrated, e-business enterprise. Hands-on technology components such as the development of a corporate intranet, a data sharing assignment, execution of the procurement process in SAP, and the course website itself all provide additional mechanisms to bring the concepts to life

Regulation of CFTR ion channel gating by MgATP

AbstractSingle channel currents of wild-type CFTR reconstituted in lipid bilayers were recorded to study the temperature dependence of channel gating between +20°C and +40°C. The opening of the channel was highly temperature dependent and required an activation energy of about 100 kJ/mol. Closing of the channel was only weakly temperature dependent with an activation energy close to that of diffusion in water. We found no significant difference in the free energy between the open and closed states. Most of the excess energy needed to activate channel opening is used to diminish the entropy of the open state. This structural reorganization is initiated by ATP binding followed by interconversion to the open channel structure as the CFTR-ATP-Mg complex passes to the transition state for hydrolysis. The energy of the CFTR-ATP-Mg interaction in the transition state is responsible for the CFTR ion channel opening rather than the energy of ATP hydrolysis. Channel closing is a diffusion limited process and does not require additional ATP binding