What Does Place Marketing Mean in Practice? A Preliminary Content Analysis of North West England Place-Related Websites

Place marketing has been used widely as a strategy for improving the competitive image of a place. However, confusion over what place marketing is, difficulties of identifying which practices are part of a place marketing framework, and the unclear roles of stakeholders, are hindering the field's progress. Therefore, this exploratory study is concerned with identifying a range of place marketing practices, supported by the literature, that are implemented by place marketing actors. A preliminary content analysis of 49 web pages from place-related organisations in North West England was conducted, and Chi-Square tests for independence explored the relationships between practices and stakeholders. The results showed that top-down practices associated with planning, place promotions, image communication, and service offerings (retail, events) are more common than practices concerned with engaging a variety of stakeholders for the common good of a place. Chi-Square tests also showed disparities between place stakeholders, as visitors/tourists appear to have a larger effect in the implementation of place marketing practices than citizens and investors. Overall, the study contributes to a better understanding of how place marketing is implemented in practice. The results will be used for further exploration of the relationships between place marketing practices and place stakeholders

Stakeholder Engagement And Communicaton In UK Town Partnerships: An Empirical Study

The crucial role of town partnerships in the management, marketing and regeneration of places, and in factors that affecting its performance (such as retailing, planning, infrastructure, housing) has been widely emphasized in the literature (De Magalhaes, 2012; Diamond, 2002; Hemphill et al., 2006; Warnaby et al., 2004; Whyatt, 2004). Successful partnerships often refrain from the managerial or top-down approach, and emphasize on building bridges between all local stakeholders in an attempt to enhance community engagement and participation (Head, 2007). The ideal concept of “partnership” is one of joined-up place governance by all place stakeholders (Friend, 2006), a view that is supported by the UK government, which calls for "community participation", "involving the community" and "holistic partnership" throughout the attempt to "economically transform areas and create sustainable places where people want to live and can work and businesses want to invest" (DCLG, 2009; pg.1; Greig et al., 2010). However, the creation of sustainable and successful partnerships is hampered by various parameters, such as the lack of stakeholder engagement and communication barriers between partnerships and local stakeholders (public, private, and voluntary). Whereas the future of towns is of relevance to a wide range of stakeholders (Nisco, Riviezzo, & Napolitano, 2008), only a small proportion of them seems to be interested in making a change and engages in collaborative town activities (Medway et al., 2000). Lack of collaboration and co-operation with stakeholders on a network level that stems from the inability to engage with them in the first place hinders the ability of partnerships to tackle complex and ill-defined problem solving in towns (e.g. the long-term decline of a town centre) (O’Higgins & Morgan, 2006). Barriers to communication are also prevalent between place stakeholders and partnerships, which leads to little involvement and no real empowerment of important stakeholders over town decisions (Davies, 2002). The paper aims to address the issue of communication and stakeholder engagement through an empirical examination of 10 town partnerships that participate in a High Street project. Data were collected from direct and indirect observations, as well as town documents. Initial findings suggest that the difficulty of engaging stakeholders stems from failure to find the right way to get everyone "up to speed" with what is going on in town. Town partnerships recognise that “communication is key” to the prosperity of partnerships and the town. The challenges and problems of communicating with stakeholders, as well as ideas and proposals of tackling these will be presented in a communication model, which will emphasise multiple patterns of communication in partnerships. The study aims to contribute to the understanding and successful implementation of communication practices between stakeholders, in order to enhance participation and engagement in town partnerships

A Review Of Epistemological Issues And Philosophical Positons For The Development Of Theory In Place Marketng

The aim of this paper is to present a critical review of epistemologies within the place marketing and place branding fields and propose alternative philosophical positions that can contribute to theory development. The paper argues that the majority of place marketing and place branding literature (either explicitly or implicitly) embraces in either interpretivist or positivist philosophical stances, which have helped the field to progress in the past 20 years, but have evident drawbacks when applied as sole epistemologies. Alternative philosophical perspectives of doing research in the field of place marketing are presented, which stem from a mixed-paradigm, pragmatic approach to research, and blend pragmatism, realism and social constructionism in the context of places. Such views can delimit the concept of “place” from practical issues such as deprivation, crisis, and regeneration, as well as explore “marketing” as a social process, which can benefit communities within places. Overall, the paper suggests that philosophical and epistemological debates can clarify the field of place marketing and advance theory-making

Behavioural responses to spatial variation in perceived predation risk and resource availability in an arboreal primate

Prey species must often face a trade-off between acquiring resources and minimising predation risk. The spatial variation in predation risk across a landscape, as perceived by prey across their foraging or home range, creates a ‘landscape of fear’ by which individuals modify their behaviour in response to the level of perceived risk. Here, we explored the influence of perceived predation risk, habitat features associated with risk, and fruit availability, on the spatial variation in behaviour of the endangered forest-dwelling samango monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis schwarzi). We collected behavioural and location data on two habituated samango monkey groups in the Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa between 2012 and 2016. We further collected location data of the samango monkey’s acoustically distinct alarm call, which has an unambiguous association with aerial predators, to spatially map perceived risk across the landscape. Using generalised linear mixed models, we found that perceived risk from eagles significantly influenced the spatial distribution of critical life-functioning behaviours, with samango monkeys increasing feeding and foraging in high-risk areas. To mitigate this risk samangos increased cohesion between group members, which subsequently reduced vigilance levels. Group cohesion further increased in high-risk areas with abundant fruit, relative to high-risk, fruit-poor areas, demonstrating the monkey’s foraging/risk trade-off. Feeding was also reduced in areas of low canopy height, whilst vigilance decreased with increasing understory visibility and distance from sleep site, showing the influence of landscape features on risk perception from other predator guilds. Thus, for arboreal species foraging in a 3-D landscape, risk perception may occur at multiple scales and in response to multiple predator guilds. Only moving was influenced by fruit availability, either due to moving between localised food patches or from escaping high-risk areas following feeding bouts. These findings highlight that risk-taking in samango monkeys is only associated with behaviours fundamental to survival and that increased cohesion between neighbours is the main antipredator response in this species

The inpatient burden of abdominal and gynecological adhesiolysis in the US

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adhesions are fibrous bands of scar tissue, often a result of surgery, that form between internal organs and tissues, joining them together abnormally. Postoperative adhesions frequently occur following abdominal surgery, and are associated with a large economic burden. This study examines the inpatient burden of adhesiolysis in the United States (i.e., number and rate of events, cost, length of stay [LOS]).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hospital discharge data for patients with primary and secondary adhesiolysis were analyzed using the 2005 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Procedures were aggregated by body system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 351,777 adhesiolysis-related hospitalizations: 23.2% for primary and 76.8% for secondary adhesiolysis. The average LOS was 7.8 days for primary adhesiolysis. We found that 967,332 days of care were attributed to adhesiolysis-related procedures, with inpatient expenditures totaling $2.3 billion ($1.4 billion for primary adhesiolysis; $926 million for secondary adhesiolysis). Hospitalizations for adhesiolysis increased steadily by age and were higher for women. Of secondary adhesiolysis procedures, 46.3$220 million in attributable costs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Adhesiolysis remain an important surgical problem in the United States. Hospitalization for this condition leads to high direct surgical costs, which should be of interest to providers and payers.</p

Universality of pseudogap and emergent order in lightly doped Mott insulators

It is widely believed that high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates emerges from doped Mott insulators. The physics of the parent state seems deceivingly simple: The hopping of the electrons from site to site is prohibited because their on-site Coulomb repulsion U is larger than the kinetic energy gain t. When doping these materials by inserting a small percentage of extra carriers, the electrons become mobile but the strong correlations from the Mott state are thought to survive; inhomogeneous electronic order, a mysterious pseudogap and, eventually, superconductivity appear. How the insertion of dopant atoms drives this evolution is not known, nor whether these phenomena are mere distractions specific to hole-doped cuprates or represent the genuine physics of doped Mott insulators. Here, we visualize the evolution of the electronic states of (Sr1-xLax)2IrO4, which is an effective spin-1/2 Mott insulator like the cuprates, but is chemically radically different. Using spectroscopic-imaging STM, we find that for doping concentration of x=5%, an inhomogeneous, phase separated state emerges, with the nucleation of pseudogap puddles around clusters of dopant atoms. Within these puddles, we observe the same glassy electronic order that is so iconic for the underdoped cuprates. Further, we illuminate the genesis of this state using the unique possibility to localize dopant atoms on topographs in these samples. At low doping, we find evidence for much deeper trapping of carriers compared to the cuprates. This leads to fully gapped spectra with the chemical potential at mid-gap, which abruptly collapse at a threshold of around 4%. Our results clarify the melting of the Mott state, and establish phase separation and electronic order as generic features of doped Mott insulators.Comment: This version contains the supplementary information and small updates on figures and tex

On the Effect of DCE MRI Slice Thickness and Noise on Estimated Pharmacokinetic Biomarkers – A Simulation Study

Simulation of a dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE MRI) multiple sclerosis brain dataset is described. The simulated images in the implemented version have 1×1×1mm3 voxel resolution and arbitrary temporal resolution. Addition of noise and simulation of thick-slice imaging is also possible. Contrast agent (Gd-DTPA) passage through tissues is modelled using the extended Tofts-Kety model. Image intensities are calculated using signal equations of the spoiled gradient echo sequence that is typically used for DCE imaging. We then use the simulated DCE images to study the impact of slice thickness and noise on the estimation of both semi- and fully-quantitative pharmacokinetic features. We show that high spatial resolution images allow significantly more accurate modelling than interpolated low resolution DCE images.acceptedVersio

The Short-Term Effect of Weight Loss Surgery on Volumetric Breast Density and Fibroglandular Volume

Purpose: Obesity and breast density are both associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and are potentially modifiable. Weight loss surgery (WLS) causes a significant reduction in the amount of body fat and a decrease in breast cancer risk. The effect of WLS on breast density and its components has not been documented. Here, we analyze the impact of WLS on volumetric breast density (VBD) and on each of its components (fibroglandular volume and breast volume) by using three-dimensional methods. Materials and Methods: Fibroglandular volume, breast volume, and their ratio, the VBD, were calculated from mammograms before and after WLS by using Volpara™ automated software. Results: For the 80 women included, average body mass index decreased from 46.0 ± 7.22 to 33.7 ± 7.06 kg/m2. Mammograms were performed on average 11.6 ± 9.4 months before and 10.1 ± 7 months after WLS. There was a significant reduction in average breast volume (39.4 % decrease) and average fibroglandular volume (15.5 % decrease), and thus, the average VBD increased from 5.15 to 7.87 % (p < 1 × 10−9) after WLS. When stratified by menopausal status and diabetic status, VBD increased significantly in all groups but only perimenopausal and postmenopausal women and non-diabetics experienced a significant reduction in fibroglandular volume. Conclusions: Breast volume and fibroglandular volume decreased, and VBD increased following WLS, with the most significant change observed in postmenopausal women and non-diabetics. Further studies are warranted to determine how physical and biological alterations in breast density components after WLS may impact breast cancer risk.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun

Mutations in GPAA1, Encoding a GPI Transamidase Complex Protein, Cause Developmental Delay, Epilepsy, Cerebellar Atrophy, and Osteopenia.

Approximately one in every 200 mammalian proteins is anchored to the cell membrane through a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. These proteins play important roles notably in neurological development and function. To date, more than 20 genes have been implicated in the biogenesis of GPI-anchored proteins. GPAA1 (glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor attachment 1) is an essential component of the transamidase complex along with PIGK, PIGS, PIGT, and PIGU (phosphatidylinositol-glycan biosynthesis classes K, S, T, and U, respectively). This complex orchestrates the attachment of the GPI anchor to the C terminus of precursor proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, we report bi-allelic mutations in GPAA1 in ten individuals from five families. Using whole-exome sequencing, we identified two frameshift mutations (c.981_993del [p.Gln327Hisfs∗102] and c.920delG [p.Gly307Alafs∗11]), one intronic splicing mutation (c.1164+5C>T), and six missense mutations (c.152C>T [p.Ser51Leu], c.160_161delinsAA [p.Ala54Asn], c.527G>C [p.Trp176Ser], c.869T>C [p.Leu290Pro], c.872T>C [p.Leu291Pro], and c.1165G>C [p.Ala389Pro]). Most individuals presented with global developmental delay, hypotonia, early-onset seizures, cerebellar atrophy, and osteopenia. The splicing mutation was found to decrease GPAA1 mRNA. Moreover, flow-cytometry analysis of five available individual samples showed that several GPI-anchored proteins had decreased cell-surface abundance in leukocytes (FLAER, CD16, and CD59) or fibroblasts (CD73 and CD109). Transduction of fibroblasts with a lentivirus encoding the wild-type protein partially rescued the deficiency of GPI-anchored proteins. These findings highlight the role of the transamidase complex in the development and function of the cerebellum and the skeletal system