Foreign Product Perceptions and Country of Origin Analysis across Black Sea:Studies on Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia and Turkey

The research aims to join the limited knowledge about COO perceptions of Black Sea regional consumers with the examples of the selected countries. Studies on foreign product perceptions are still scarce about this region. In the consequences of radical reforms to adopt free market system, consumers are exposed to a large variations of imported products more than ever before. Lack of consumer experience of particular products and inadequate product information and their producers resulted in the perception of the product's country-of-origin (COO) as the most important cue to assess the quality. This study analyses approaches toward foreign products, country of origin effect and the ethnocentric behavior of consumers of the selected countries. The study is a literature review of related studies in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia and Turkey.Consumer Behavior, Country of Origin, Ethnocentrism, Developing Countries, International Marketing, BSEC, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Turkey

A strategic framework for e-government adoption in public sector organisations

E-government has been recognized as a change agent for public sector reform. Through this change, the public sector organisation plans to increase operating efficiencies, build information-sharing partnerships and improve communication with other organisations, as well as with the public. Several studies have discussed how e-government will transform public sector organisations from traditional paper-based systems to electronic delivery that leads self-service operations that develop efficiently managed internal business process. However, a number of voids exist in the immature e-government literature, regarding its adoption strategy and process. This paper looks at the implementation aspect of e-government in public sector organisations. The paper critically reviews the issues of e-government adoption and identifies factors that affect the implementation process, such as, technical, organisational, and environmental. In addition, the authors discuss the benefits and barriers that might influence the decision making process toward the adoption of e-government in public sector. Since, e-government is an emerging research area, there is limited literature explaining the framework of e-government adoption. Therefore, this study suggests a strategic framework for e-government adoption that will assist decision makers in public sector organisations to support their egovernment adoption strategy and guide the IT developers for implementation process of e-government project

Content Analysis of Acculturation Research in Counseling and Counseling Psychology: A 22-Year Review

The authors conducted a 22-year (1988–2009) content analysis of quantitative empirical research that included acculturation and/or enculturation as a study variable(s). A total of 138 studies in 134 articles were systematically evaluated from 5 major American Psychological Association and American Counseling Association journals in counseling and counseling psychology, including Journal of Counseling Psychology, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Counseling and Development, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. To guide the analysis, the authors conceptualized acculturation/enculturation as a “bilinear” (i.e., developing cultural orientations to both majority and ethnic cultures) and “multidimensional” (i.e., across multiple areas such as behaviors, values, identity, and knowledge) cultural socialization process that occurs in interaction with “social contexts” (e.g., home, school, work, West Coast, Midwest). Findings include the patterns and trends of acculturation/enculturation research in (a) conceptualization and use of acculturation/enculturation variable(s), (b) research designs (e.g., sample characteristics, instruments, data collection, and analysis methods), (c) content areas, and (d) changes in total publications and trends over time. Additionally, meta-analyses were conducted on the relationship of acculturation/enculturation and a few key variables of mental health, adjustment, and well-being. Major findings and directions for future research are discussed

A new gender-specific model for skin autofluorescence risk stratification

Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) are believed to play a significant role in the pathophysiology of a variety of diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Non-invasive skin autofluorescence (SAF) measurement serves as a proxy for tissue accumulation of AGEs. We assessed reference SAF and skin reflectance (SR) values in a Saudi population (n = 1,999) and evaluated the existing risk stratification scale. The mean SAF of the study cohort was 2.06 (SD = 0.57) arbitrary units (AU), which is considerably higher than the values reported for other populations. We show a previously unreported and significant difference in SAF values between men and women, with median (range) values of 1.77 AU (0.79–4.84 AU) and 2.20 AU (0.75–4.59 AU) respectively (p-value « 0.01). Age, presence of diabetes and BMI were the most influential variables in determining SAF values in men, whilst in female participants, SR was also highly correlated with SAF. Diabetes, hypertension and obesity all showed strong association with SAF, particularly when gender differences were taken into account. We propose an adjusted, gender-specific disease risk stratification scheme for Middle Eastern populations. SAF is a potentially valuable clinical screening tool for cardiovascular risk assessment but risk scores should take gender and ethnicity into consideration for accurate diagnosis

A Life in Frocks

'Visual writing' or 'hybrid books' is an emerging area of research within visual communication. Increasingly, both publishers and the book design community are recognizing that hybrid books are a powerful form of visually communicating content that traditionally has been presented as text-heavy. This project was a direct result of a public presentation about my doctoral research at the Sydney Writers' Festival (23 May 2010). The publisher, Colette Vella from Murdoch Books, approached me to design this book after seeing my presentation. Murdoch were looking for an innovative design approach for the presentation of an autobiography told through fashion. I worked closely with the publisher, editor and author to produce a 'hybrid book' - the design and illustrations are an integral part of the book as a whole. There are 32 original illustrations that pick up key themes or images from the writing, as well as an illustrated cover and French-fold dust jacket. I spent several days photographing the author's wardrobe and talking to her about the particulars of her outfits to communicate in an informed aesthetic way. I typeset the whole book to closely control the relationship between image and typography. This book won an Australian Publishers' Association award for the Best Design Non-Fiction book, 2010. Now in its 60th year, the APA Book Design Awards recognise excellence and innovation in Australian book design and are highly regarded by industry

Critical Foundations of the Contextual Theory of Mind

The contextual mind is found attested in various usages of the term complement, in the background of Kant. The difficulties of Kant's intuitionism are taken up through Quine, but referential opacity is resolved as semantic presence in lived context. A further critique of rationalist linguistics is developed from Jakobson, showing generic functions in thought supporting abstraction, binding and thereby semantic categories. Thus Bolzano's influential philosophy of mathematics and science gives way to a critical view of the ancient heritage acknowledged by Plato.\ud \u

TINGKAT PENDIDIKAN PENGAJAR, SARANA PENDIDIKAN, DAN LINGKUNGAN PENDIDIKAN UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KUALITAS LULUSAN SLTP DI KABUPATEN SUKOHARJO

The objectives of this research are: (1) to reveal how teacher's education level can affect the quality of students of SLTP in Sukoharjo regency; (2) to describe how far the school facilities can effect the students' quality; (3) to detect how far external envi-ronment means can affect students' quality of SLTP in Sukoharjo regency. The hypothesis made was that there is a significant correlation between teacher’s education level and quality of graduated students of SLTP in Sukoharjo regency. The researcher used des-criptive analysis to support this research, and used questionnaires to collect the data. Quota-sampling method is used to determine 30 SLTPs as samples and 10 teachers in every SLTP to be respondents. Based on the data analysis, F value (8.244) was greater than F table, so Ho was rejected. It means that there is a significant correlation between education and quality of graduated students of the SLTP in Sukoharjo regency with the level of significance 5 percent. Based on the data analysis results, the researcher suggests that the policy makers on education should implement continuous improvement on the quality of teaching learning process by maintaining qualified teacher with minimum bachelor degree and upgrading course