The Impact of Ad Characteristics on Adolescents’ Attitudes Towards Antismoking Ads

Smoking exerts a considerable burden not only on those who smoke but just as well on society at large. In response, governments and institutions often resort to advertising which aims to discourage smoking. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the workings of antismoking advertising is detrimentally limited. In particular, the literature delving into the impact of antismoking ad characteristics (e. g., ad content, valence, intensity) on the overall effectiveness of antismoking advertising is scarce and contradictory. This empirical study aims to enhance the knowledge of antismoking advertising by presenting results of the survey involving Slovene adolescents. The adolescents were first exposed to advertisements of different antismoking ad contents (for the purpose of this study the term ‘ad content’ refers to types of appeals used in antismoking advertising), ad valence and intensity, and later invited to respond to a number of questions measuring their attitudes toward the ads, their attitudes toward smoking, their intentions to smoke, etc. The results indicate that while the different intensity and valence of ads produce varying attitudes toward the ads, we could not confirm these differences based on ad content. Also, we found that adolescent smokers respond to antismoking ads differently than do their nonsmoking peers. Our findings offer several important implications for antismoking advertisers and the research community interested in the workings of antismoking advertising.smoking and adolescents, antismoking advertising, attitudes toward antismoking ads

Liquid retail:cultural perspectives on marketplace transformation

Inspired by Bauman’s notion of ‘liquidity’, we problematize the socio-cultural dynamics taking place in contemporary retail. The notion of liquid retail enables reserachers to untangle marketplace transformation and to highlight developments centred around markets and market actors that jointly transform each other. This introduction underlines, as a point of departure, recent developments in retailing that have been marked by the corrosion of fixity and boundaries. We provide a short synopsis of marketplace transformation and liquid retail, from a socio-cultural perspective, and summarize the papers included in this special issue

RTK position quality evaluation by positioning at bigger altitudes

The graduation thesis deals with the quality of 3D point determination using RTK method on higher\ud altitude points’ locations. The field work was bound up with the areas between Cerklje on Carniola\ud and Krvavec. This area was chosen by virtue of the large difference in heights between the points that\ud GNSS-positioning has been performed. First the position of the points was determined with the VRS\ud RTK-method in the national GNSS continuously operating reference network SIGNAL. Furthermore\ud fast static method for point position determination has been performed to acquire positions for points\ud included in the comparison study. We compared positions from RTK where previously static GNSS\ud method results were used as the reference. The goal of the thesis was to show the consistency of 3D\ud positions of points at different altitudes. Finally, the experience of point positioning at higher altitudes\ud of the SIGNAL network has been gained with first assessment of position quality of points from\ud higher altitudes

Professionalism in residency training: A compilation of desirable behaviors and a case-based comparison between pathologists in training and practice

Professionalism is one of the most important competencies for physicians but is also the most difficult to teach, assess, and manage. To better understand professionalism in pathology, we surveyed practicing pathologists and pathology residents and fellows in training. We identified 12 key desirable attributes of professionalism. In addition, 8 case scenarios highlighting unprofessional behavior were presented, and results between pathologists in practice and in training were compared. No significant differences between attending pathologists and residents were identified in how these cases should be managed. Our study demonstrated remarkable concordance between practicing pathologists and residents as to what constitutes professionalism and how to manage unprofessional behavior. Our case-based approach can be a useful technique to teach professionalism to both pathologists in practice and in training

Project Investment Decision-Making

Project evaluation is the control of the planning and implementation of project activities with regard to the objectives to be achieved. In this paper we assume the objective to be efficient outcome and profit maximization. This means that project evaluation puts normative assessments into the context of planning and management and hence into the context of intentional action and cycles of action. The model for project evaluation we propose has two money holders who must decide how to invest their money in two investment funds (financial intermediaries) that, in turn, will use the money to bid to acquire ownership in two projects. The general case when the number of money holders, the number of funds, and the number of investments are arbitrary may be handled in a similar manner to the development below, but at a cost of greater complexity. As a result no mechanism to achieve the maximum outcome is present and different methods to find optimal structure under uncertainty and different cost structures are discussed

A study of road safety crossing G1 - 4, section 1258 Otiški vrh - Sl. Gradec/G1 - 4, section 1445 Sl. Gradec / LZ 378021 Glavni trg - Murko

In this thesis I analyze the traffic load and throughput of 4-way junction with traffic lights. On this basis, I propose two possible solutions to improve existing arrangement. As a first option I present the reconstruction of the intersection with modified geometry and attached left turn lane on the import of the crossing, which is problematic. My second proposal for resolving the current situation, is to place a new roundabout. In both cases, I also change the management of non-motorized road users, which under the new regulation takes place across the river over a wooden footbridge. Eligibility and suitability of each variant I prove by calculation of the degree of saturation and level of services for each way in a classic crossroads with traffic lights, and the calculation of the traffic throughput for every importing lane

Identifying circles on digital images

Identifying circles on digital images is one of the problems that occur in the perception of objects when processing different images/videos. Solutions are used in many procedures, such as analysis of X-ray images, recognition of circular objects in various videos, robot vision, ... Identification process takes place from image acquisition to final results that we have obtained with the program. The steps in-between are preparing pictures, drawing objects, various object detection, high-level processing and others. This thesis focuses on algorithms that allow us to fit circles based on specified points by using least-squares method. We present some of the most common approaches, among which we are looking for the most flexible, resilient, quick and simple solutions. All algorithms are analysed, tested and explained with code examples. Based on the presented tests we can choose an algorithm that is best suited for our program