Qualitative Insights into Brand Management Practices of Universities in Emerging Markets: The Ghanaian Perspective

Increasing competition emanating from private sector participation in Ghana’s higher education is redefining management practices of most universities. University brands in students’ consideration set are those that offer easier recall and are inherently distinctive and appealing. A brand identified as such would signify quality and offer a strong sense of association for potential students to grasp what it is and what makes it special. This study examined brand management practices employed by Ghanaian Public and Private Universities to enhance university brand equity in the country. The study was conducted using in-depth interviews with Public Relations/Marketing Directors of five (5) public and private universities. The study showed that universities use different brand elements and devices to differentiate their brands. Various activities are also carried out including PR audits and feedback on lecturer evaluations to measure customer perceptions of the brand. Universities however had little or no budget for brand building activities. Key Terms: University, Higher Education, Brand Management, Ghana

Glucose and glycogen metabolism in cancer:potentials for intervention and patient selection

Metabolic alterations enable cancer cells to proliferate rapidly by providing sufficient biomolecules, energy and reducing equivalents for cell division and growth. Furthermore, high glucose consumption by the tumour and excretion of waste metabolites affect cells in the tumour microenvironment. As a consequence, anti-tumour immune responses can be hampered. Specific metabolic alterations can also underlie acquired resistance to currently used targeted therapies. Therefore, targeting cancer metabolism may be an attractive novel therapeutic strategy. Nevertheless, bringing anti-cancer metabolic therapies to the clinic has been hampered by a lack of suitable targets, disappointing efficacy, and considerable toxicity.In the work described in this thesis, we aimed to identify novel therapeutic targets in the glucose and glycogen metabolism of solid tumours and to evaluate clinical markers that reflect tumour glucose metabolism in patients. In the first part of the thesis, the enzyme glycogen synthase 1, important for glycogen synthesis, was identified as a novel target-of-interest in breast and ovarian cancer cells. In the second part, we used quantitative PET/CT scanning with the glucose analogue 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and immunohistochemical target expression in patient tumours, which revealed substantial differences in tumour glucose metabolism in patients. Together, the insights from this thesis provide leads for novel drug targets and potential tools for patient selection which may guide future studies that evaluate drugs targeting cancer’s glucose and glycogen metabolism

Формирование подхода и методики, влияющих на процесс генерации стратегии предприятия

Цель исследования состоит в формировании нового подхода и методики, влияющих на процесс генерации стратегии предприятия

A method to extract pure Raman spectrum of epitaxial graphene on SiC

A method is proposed to extract pure Raman spectrum of epitaxial graphene on SiC by using a Non-negative Matrix Factorization. It overcomes problems of negative spectral intensity and poorly resolved spectra resulting from a simple subtraction of a SiC background from the experimental data. We also show that the method is similar to deconvolution, for spectra composed of multiple sub- micrometer areas, with the advantage that no prior information on the impulse response functions is needed. We have used this property to characterize the Raman laser beam. The method capability in efficient data smoothing is also demonstrated.Comment: 3 figures, regular pape