In Search of a Theory of Integrated Marketing Communications

For the most part, the literature base for Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) has developed from an applied or tactical level rather than from an intellectual or theoretical one. Since industry, practitioner and even academic studies have provided little insight into what IMC is and how it operates, our approach has been to investigate that other IMC community, that is, the academic or instructional group responsible for disseminating IMC knowledge. We proposed that the people providing course instruction and directing research activities have some basis for how they organize, consider and therefore instruct in the area of IMC. A syllabi analysis of 87 IMC units in six countries investigated the content of the unit, its delivery both physically and conceptually, and defined the audience of the unit. The study failed to discover any type of latent theoretical foundation that might be used as a base for understanding IMC. The students who are being prepared to extend, expand and enhance IMC concepts do not appear to be well-served by the curriculum we found in our research. The study concludes with a model for further IMC curriculum development

Transcript profiling during preimplantation mouse development

AbstractStudies using low-resolution methods to assess gene expression during preimplantation mouse development indicate that changes in gene expression either precede or occur concomitantly with the major morphological transitions, that is, conversion of the oocyte to totipotent 2-cell blastomeres, compaction, and blastocyst formation. Using microarrays, we characterized global changes in gene expression and used Expression Analysis Systematic Explorer (EASE) to identify biological and molecular processes that accompany and likely underlie these transitions. The analysis confirmed previously described processes or events, but more important, EASE revealed new insights. Response to DNA damage and DNA repair genes are overrepresented in the oocyte compared to 1-cell through blastocyst stages and may reflect the oocyte's response to selective pressures to insure genomic integrity; fertilization results in changes in the transcript profile in the 1-cell embryo that are far greater than previously recognized; and genome activation during 2-cell stage may not be as global and promiscuous as previously proposed, but rather far more selective, with genes involved in transcription and RNA processing being preferentially expressed. These results validate this hypothesis-generating approach by identifying genes involved in critical biological processes that can be the subject of a more traditional hypothesis-driven approach

Correlated Two-Electron Wave Functions of Any Symmetry

Using a procedure originally due to Hylleraas, a convenient expansion in coupled spherical harmonics which terminates in a very small number of terms is applied to the treatment of fully correlated two-electron wave functions of any symmetry (total angular momentum, parity, and spin). Coupled equations satisfied by these wave functions are derived which are well adapted to computation and which we discretize on a numerical lattice utilizing the basis-spline collocation method. Use of this method which relies on very flexible basis functions is intended to facilitate subsequently the consideration of time-dependent rearrangments such as autoionization, photoionization, and electron-impact excitation and ionization. Here, we describe the underlying theoretical and computational methods concerning our treatment of the two-electron problem, the lattice discretization, and partial eigensolution by damped relaxation. Results of explicit calculations are given regarding the ground state and two low-lying singly excited states of helium

Redefining neuromarketing as an integrated science of influence

Multiple transformative forces target marketing, many of which derive from new technologies that allow us to sample thinking in real time (i.e., brain imaging), or to look at large aggregations of decisions (i.e., big data). There has been an inclination to refer to the intersection of these technologies with the general topic of marketing as “neuromarketing”. There has not been a serious effort to frame neuromarketing, which is the goal of this paper. Neuromarketing can be compared to neuroeconomics, wherein neuroeconomics is generally focused on how individuals make “choices”, and represent distributions of choices. Neuromarketing, in contrast, focuses on how a distribution of choices can be shifted or “influenced”, which can occur at multiple “scales” of behavior (e.g., individual, group, or market/society). Given influence can affect choice through many cognitive modalities, and not just that of valuation of choice options, a science of influence also implies a need to develop a model of cognitive function integrating attention, memory, and reward/aversion function. The paper concludes with a brief description of three domains of neuromarketing application for studying influence, and their caveats

Guanylyl cyclase activity associated with putative bifunctional integral membrane proteins in Plasmodium falciparum.

We report here that guanylyl cyclase activity is associated with two large integral membrane proteins (PfGCalpha and PfGCbeta) in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Unusually, the proteins appear to be bifunctional; their amino-terminal regions have strong similarity with P-type ATPases, and the sequence and structure of the carboxyl-terminal regions conform to that of G protein-dependent adenylyl cyclases, with two sets of six transmembrane sequences, each followed by a catalytic domain (C1 and C2). However, amino acids that are enzymatically important and present in the C2 domain of mammalian adenylyl cyclases are located in the C1 domain of the P. falciparum proteins and vice versa. In addition, certain key residues in these domains are more characteristic of guanylyl cyclases. Consistent with this, guanylyl cyclase activity was obtained following expression of the catalytic domains of PfGCbeta in Escherichia coli. In P. falciparum, expression of both genes was detectable in the sexual but not the asexual blood stages of the life cycle, and PfGCalpha was localized to the parasite/parasitophorous vacuole membrane region of gametocytes. The profound structural differences identified between mammalian and parasite guanylyl cyclases suggest that aspects of this signaling pathway may be mechanistically distinct

A Total Lightning Perspective of the 20 May 2013 Moore, Oklahoma Supercell

In the early afternoon of 20 May 2013, a storm initiated to the westsouthwest of Newcastle, Oklahoma. This storm would rapidly intensify into the parent supercell of the tornado that struck the city of Moore, Oklahoma. This article describes what contributions total lightning observations from the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array could provide to operational forecasters had these observations been available in realtime. This effort includes a focus on the GOESR pseudogeostationary lightning mapper demonstration product as well as the NASA SPoRT / Meteorological Development Laboratory's total lightning tracking tool. These observations and tools identified several contributions. Two distinct lightning jumps at 1908 and 1928 UTC provided a lead time of 19 minutes ahead of severe hail and 26 minutes ahead of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado's touchdown. These observations provide strong situational awareness to forecasters, as the lightning jumps are related to the rapid strengthening of the storm's updraft and mesocyclone and serve as a precursor to the stretching of the storm vortex ahead severe weather

Unprecedented inequivalent metal coordination environments in a mixed-ligand dicobalt complex

Bimetallic complexes of the transition metals containing mixed diimine and dithiolate ligands are of fundamental interest on account of their intriguing electronic properties. Almost always, such complexes are isolated as species in which both the metal centers are in identical coordination environments - this means that the two metals often have identical redox properties. In contrast, mixed-diimine/dithiolate bimetallic complexes of the first row transition metals where the two metals are in dissimilar coordination environments are exceedingly rare, and are only known for nickel. Herein, we report the first ever example of a mixed-diimine/dithiolate dicobalt complex where the two cobalt centers are in different coordination environments. The synthesis of this compound is straightforward, and produces a complex in which the two cobalt centers display very different redox properties