Value first, then price: the new paradigm of B2B buying and selling

Most companies today take an inherently adversarial approach to buying and selling in industrial markets, thereby missing out on opportunities for joint value creation with customers and suppliers. Sales as well as procurement are too obsessed with price and not enough with value. In this paper we present a set of principles that put joint value creation at the centre of the relationship with customers and suppliers. With respect to customers, the value quantification capability is the most important competency of the sales function, i.e. the ability to translate a firm’s competitive advantages into one quantified, monetary value reflecting both qualitative as well as quantitative customer benefits. With respect to suppliers, we call for the creation of new metrics, such as total value of ownership, reflecting innovation, management capabilities, sustainability, and other elements beyond quality, price, and delivery. With value quantification capabilities (sales) and total value of ownership models (procurement) the key element of relationship with both customers and suppliers is value first, then price

Effect of mental rehearsal on team performance and non-technical skills in surgical teams: systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Simulation-based training in medical education has become a common method to develop both technical and non-technical skills in teams. Mental rehearsal (MR) is the cognitive act of simulating a task in our heads to pre-experience tasks imaginatively. It has been used widely to improve individual and collective performance in fields outside healthcare, and offers potential for more efficient training in time-pressured surgical and medical team contexts. This study aimed to review the available literature to determine the impact of MR on team performance and non-technical skills in healthcare. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, British Educational Index, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsycInfo and Cochrane databases were searched for the period 1994-2018. The primary outcome measure was improvement in team performance and non-technical skills. Study quality of RCTs was assessed using the Medical Education Research Quality Instrument. The reported impacts of MR in all included studies were mapped on to the Kirkpatrick framework for evaluation of educational interventions. RESULTS: Eight studies with 268 participants were identified that met the inclusion criteria, of which there were six randomized trials, one prospective pragmatic trial and one qualitative study. Three studies found MR to be effective in improving team non-technical skills. MR practices were varied and often poorly defined. MR benefited team non-technical skills when it was specifically designed to do so, but was not an automatic consequence of technical MR alone. The majority of studies demonstrated benefits of MR for technical performance, but only three showed positive impacts on teamwork. Overall the studies were of low quality and lacked sufficient discriminatory focus to examine impacts on teamwork dynamics. CONCLUSION: MR can improve technical performance, but the benefits on non-technical skills are less clear. Future research should look at longitudinal mixed-method evaluation designs and focus on real clinical teams

Human Female Genital Tract Infection by the Obligate Intracellular Bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis Elicits Robust Type 2 Immunity

While Chlamydia trachomatis infections are frequently asymptomatic, mechanisms that regulate host response to this intracellular Gram-negative bacterium remain undefined. This investigation thus used peripheral blood mononuclear cells and endometrial tissue from women with or without Chlamydia genital tract infection to better define this response. Initial genome-wide microarray analysis revealed highly elevated expression of matrix metalloproteinase 10 and other molecules characteristic of Type 2 immunity (e.g., fibrosis and wound repair) in Chlamydia-infected tissue. This result was corroborated in flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry studies that showed extant upper genital tract Chlamydia infection was associated with increased co-expression of CD200 receptor and CD206 (markers of alternative macrophage activation) by endometrial macrophages as well as increased expression of GATA-3 (the transcription factor regulating TH2 differentiation) by endometrial CD4+ T cells. Also among women with genital tract Chlamydia infection, peripheral CD3+ CD4+ and CD3+ CD4- cells that proliferated in response to ex vivo stimulation with inactivated chlamydial antigen secreted significantly more interleukin (IL)-4 than tumor necrosis factor, interferon-γ, or IL-17; findings that repeated in T cells isolated from these same women 1 and 4 months after infection had been eradicated. Our results thus newly reveal that genital infection by an obligate intracellular bacterium induces polarization towards Type 2 immunity, including Chlamydia-specific TH2 development. Based on these findings, we now speculate that Type 2 immunity was selected by evolution as the host response to C. trachomatis in the human female genital tract to control infection and minimize immunopathological damage to vital reproductive structures. © 2013 Vicetti Miguel et al

The development of novel LTA4H modulators to selectively target LTB4 generation

The pro-inflammatory mediator leukotriene B4 (LTB4) is implicated in the pathologies of an array of diseases and thus represents an attractive therapeutic target. The enzyme leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) catalyses the distal step in LTB4 synthesis and hence inhibitors of this enzyme have been actively pursued. Despite potent LTA4H inhibitors entering clinical trials all have failed to show efficacy. We recently identified a secondary anti-inflammatory role for LTA4H in degrading the neutrophil chemoattractant Pro-Gly-Pro (PGP) and rationalized that the failure of conventional LTA4H inhibitors may be that they inadvertently prevented PGP degradation. We demonstrate that these inhibitors do indeed fail to discriminate between the dual activities of LTA4H, and enable PGP accumulation in mice. Accordingly, we have developed novel compounds that potently inhibit LTB4 generation whilst leaving PGP degradation unperturbed. These novel compounds could represent a safer and superior class of LTA4H inhibitors for translation into the clinic

Imaging Oxygen Distribution in Marine Sediments. The Importance of Bioturbation and Sediment Heterogeneity

The influence of sediment oxygen heterogeneity, due to bioturbation, on diffusive oxygen flux was investigated. Laboratory experiments were carried out with 3 macrobenthic species presenting different bioturbation behaviour patterns:the polychaetes Nereis diversicolor and Nereis virens, both constructing ventilated galleries in the sediment column, and the gastropod Cyclope neritea, a burrowing species which does not build any structure. Oxygen two-dimensional distribution in sediments was quantified by means of the optical planar optode technique. Diffusive oxygen fluxes (mean and integrated) and a variability index were calculated on the captured oxygen images. All species increased sediment oxygen heterogeneity compared to the controls without animals. This was particularly noticeable with the polychaetes because of the construction of more or less complex burrows. Integrated diffusive oxygen flux increased with oxygen heterogeneity due to the production of interface available for solute exchanges between overlying water and sediments. This work shows that sediment heterogeneity is an important feature of the control of oxygen exchanges at the sediment–water interface

Climate Change and invasibility of the Antarctic benthos

Benthic communities living in shallow-shelf habitats in Antarctica (<100-m depth) are archaic in their structure and function. Modern predators, including fast-moving, durophagous (skeleton-crushing) bony fish, sharks, and crabs, are rare or absent; slow-moving invertebrates are the top predators; and epifaunal suspension feeders dominate many soft substratum communities. Cooling temperatures beginning in the late Eocene excluded durophagous predators, ultimately resulting in the endemic living fauna and its unique food-web structure. Although the Southern Ocean is oceanographically isolated, the barriers to biological invasion are primarily physiological rather than geographic. Cold temperatures impose limits to performance that exclude modern predators. Global warming is now removing those physiological barriers, and crabs are reinvading Antarctica. As sea temperatures continue to rise, the invasion of durophagous predators will modernize the shelf benthos and erode the indigenous character of marine life in Antarctica

Artificial reefs: from ecological processes to fishing enhancement tools

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How Visitors and Locals at a Sport Event Differ in Motives and Identity

Although the literature on events differentiates between locals, casual attendees, and those who have travelled specifically to attend the event, little is known about how the types of attendee differ. This study compared the fan motivation, leisure motivation, and identification with the subculture of athletics reported by a sample (N = 777) of attendees at the 2005 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. Age, gender, and income were also included. Regression analyses were used to determine the structure of relations among the variables, and to ascertain whether the levels of motivation or identity varied among the three types of attendee. Tests for linear restrictions were used to determine whether the structure of relations among the variables differed by type of attendee. The structure of relations among the variables did not differ among the three types of attendee, but attendees who had travelled specifically to attend the event reported substantially higher identification with the subculture of athletics, and slightly higher fan motivation. Identification with the subculture of athletics mediated much of the effect. Females reported higher fan motivation and higher leisure motivation than did males. Age had a small but significant relationship with fan motivation, and income had a small but significant relationship with leisure motivation. Findings are generally consistent with predictions derived from theories of motivation, subculture, and gender roles. It is suggested that marketing communications directed out-of-town should highlight opportunities to strengthen, parade, and celebrate, while those in the local trading radius should underscore the entertainment, aesthetics, and vicarious achievement featured at the event

Resolving fine-scale population structure and fishery exploitation using sequenced microsatellites in a northern fish

Funding Information Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Strategic Project Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation grants allocated to the Labrador Institute (MC) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Genomics Research and Development Initiative (GRDI) Weston Family AwardPeer reviewedPublisher PD