5,612 research outputs found
Prevalence and diagnostic characteristics of non-clinical mitral regurgitation murmurs in North American Whippets
Remote sensing and climate data as a key for understanding fasciolosis transmission in the Andes: review and update of an ongoing interdisciplinary project
Fasciolosis caused by Fasciola hepatica in various South American countries located on the slopes of the
Andes has been recognized as an important public health problem. However, the importance of this zoonotic hepatic
parasite was neglected until the last decade. Countries such as Peru and Bolivia are considered to be hyperendemic areas
for human and animal fasciolosis, and other countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela are also affected.
At the beginning of the 1990s a multidisciplinary project was launched with the aim to shed light on the problems
related to this parasitic disease in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano. A few years later, a geographic information system
(GIS) was incorporated into this multidisciplinary project analysing the epidemiology of human and animal fasciolosis
in this South American Andean region. Various GIS projects were developed in some Andean regions using climatic
data, climatic forecast indices and remote sensing data. Step by step, all these GIS projects concerning the forecast of
the fasciolosis transmission risk in the Andean mountain range were revised and in some cases updated taking into
account new data. The first of these projects was developed on a regional scale for the central Chilean regions and the
proposed model was validated on a local scale in the Northern Bolivian Altiplano. This validated mixed model, based
on both fasciolosis climatic forecast indices and normalized difference vegetation index values from Advanced Very
High Resolution Radiometer satellite sensor, was extrapolated to other human and/or animal endemic areas of Peru
and Ecuador. The resulting fasciolosis risk maps make it possible to show the known human endemic areas of, mainly,
the Peruvian Altiplano, Cajamarca and Mantaro Peruvian valleys, and some valleys of the Ecuadorian Cotopaxi
province. Nevertheless, more climate and remote sensing data, as well as more accurate epidemiological reports, have
to be incorporated into these GIS projects, which should be considered the key in understanding fasciolosis transmission
in the Andes
Spectroscopic Signatures of Electronic Excitations in Raman Scattering in Thin Films of Rhombohedral Graphite
Rhombohedral graphite features peculiar electronic properties, including
persistence of low-energy surface bands of a topological nature. Here, we study
the contribution of electron-hole excitations towards inelastic light
scattering in thin films of rhombohedral graphite. We show that, in contrast to
the featureless electron-hole contribution towards Raman spectrum of graphitic
films with Bernal stacking, the inelastic light scattering accompanied by
electron-hole excitations in crystals with rhombohedral stacking produces
distinct features in the Raman signal which can be used both to identify the
stacking and to determine the number of layers in the film.Comment: 15 pages in preprint format, 4 figures, accepted versio
Spin-1/2 geometric phase driven by decohering quantum fields
We calculate the geometric phase of a spin-1/2 system driven by a one and two
mode quantum field subject to decoherence. Using the quantum jump approach, we
show that the corrections to the phase in the no-jump trajectory are different
when considering an adiabatic and non-adiabatic evolution. We discuss the
implications of our results from both the fundamental as well as quantum
computational perspective.Comment: 4 page
The Contribution of Social Simulation in the Advancement of Marketing Issues and Challenges
For some years now, marketers have been praising for a more holistic approach of a company’s marketing efforts across all areas. However, traditional models show serious limitations to address the complexities of managing all of a company’s touch points with a customer. Agent-based modeling (ABM) has opened the door to explore the unfolding behaviors and outputs of an increasingly connected and interactive marketplace. The contribution of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it provides researchers with a state-of-the-art repository for this strand of research. This facilitates the identification of relevant gaps in the literature and future research avenues. Second, it contributes to assess the way ABM has improved our understanding of the dynamics of markets and its participants when marketing strategies are implemented. Both goals aim at showing the various ways that social simulation has expanded our understanding of marketing and the future research opportunities for both, marketing and computer scientists
Millennials\u27 National and Global Identities as Drivers of Materialism and Consumer Ethnocentrism
A major effect of globalization is one that occurs on the self-concept. This is especially the case for young consumers, and particularly for millennials. Despite this cohort’s idiosyncrasies, little attention has been paid to the study of their consumer identities, an important aspect of self-concept. The current research addresses this gap by examining the way millennial consumers’ global and national identities help explain two attitudinal outcomes associated with globalization: materialism and consumer ethnocentrism. Data were collected from millennials in two distinct socio-cultural contexts. A key finding suggests that distinct contexts (i.e., collectivist and ethnically homogeneous vs. individualistic and ethnically diverse) exhibit differences in the formation of materialism and consumer ethnocentrism among millennials. Additionally, results indicate that for similar consumer segments, each context’s configuration of millennials shows differences in global and national identities. Implications for future researchers and practitioners are discussed
The Organization of the Future and the Marketing Function: Marketers\u27 Competencies in the Era of Information Technology
The past two decades—and the technology advancements experienced throughout them—have left marketers with a new context that has provided new business opportunities. This new context has prompted a change in the focus of the marketing function and demanded a shift in marketing imperatives and competencies. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the technological changes experienced by the marketing function in a company, as documented by both scholars and practitioners. It also provides a thorough discussion of the ongoing academic debate regarding the new set of technical skills that have defined employability in the marketing circles for the past couple of decades and the challenges ahead for future professionals and executives
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