Orbital motion in T Tauri binary systems

Using speckle-interferometry we have carried out repeated measurements of relative positions for the components of 34 T Tauri binary systems. The projected separation of these components is low enough that orbital motion is expected to be observable within a few years. In most cases orbital motion has indeed been detected. The observational data is discussed in a manner similar to Ghez et al. (1995). However, we extend their study to a larger number of objects and a much longer timespan. The database presented in this paper is valuable for future visible orbit determinations. It will yield empirical masses for T Tauri stars that now are only poorly known. The available data is however not sufficient to do this at the present time. Instead, we use short series of orbital data and statistical distributions of orbital parameters to derive an average system mass that is independent of theoretical assumptions about the physics of PMS stars. For our sample this mass is 2.0 solar masses and thus in the order of magnitude one expects for the mass sum of two T Tauri stars. It is also comparable to mass estimates obtained for the same systems using theoretical PMS evolutionary models.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

How should firms develop and or change their marketing competencies when developing relationships with consumers online?

An empirical study is reported which attempts both to improve marketing practice whilst developing key aspects of marketing and resource-based theory. The thesis describes how firms can develop marketing competencies to exploit emerging online marketing technology and business opportunities. In doing so, the thesis provides empirical evidence that opens up what is widely acknowledged in the literature as "the black box of resources". Specifically, it explores the way marketing competencies develop as the result of investment in complementary marketing resources and conscious management activity. A literature review is presented which identifies generic marketing competencies and how they are expressed across a continuum of three forms of marketing: transaction, relationship and network. From this insight, the researcher develops a framework and a set of tools that help managers identify their firms' current marketing competencies and develop future marketing competencies needed to implement their marketing strategies. A co-operative inquiry research design is developed that permits managers to use and develop further these frameworks and tools, improve their day-to-day practice and contribute to academic literature and theory. The experience of two sets of managers trying to develop their firms' online marketing competencies through co-operative inquiry is presented. One inquiry is with a highly successful dot. com and the other the UK division of a leading automotive manufacturer. The findings from each are compared and the researcher develops contributions to both theory and practice. The contributions confirm and illuminate much of the extant, conceptually-grounded dynamic capabilities literature. The major implication for marketing theory and practice is that online consumer relationships can only develop incrementally along a continuum of marketing competencies. Details as to how these marketing competencies develop and change are discussed. Secondary contributions involve economics and the nature of co- operative inquiry within a marketing context. The validity of co-operative inquiry, and therefore of this research, is discussed in detail. Limitations of the research and its future directions are discussed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

What makes an organisation's corporate identity attractive to its employees? : a social identity perspective

Corporate Identity provides the foundation for an organisation’s Corporate Brand, and managers need to understand how they can align the behaviour of their employees with that identity. In this thesis I argue that employees will align their behaviour with the identity of their organisation when they perceive that identity to be attractive and unique. This argument is supported by theory and research in the areas of Employer Branding and the Social Identity Approach to Organisational Identification. However, little is known about what makes an organisation’s Corporate Identity attractive to its employees. The objective of my research was to address this gap by conducting a comparative case study of six organisations. The identity of each organisation was found to be comprised of five dimensions: Organisation, Employment, Product or Service, Reputation, and Stakeholder Relationships. The attributes that employees considered most attractive were different in each organisation, but when all six cases were considered at once, they encompassed all five dimensions. These results suggest that current conceptualizations of the Employer Brand, which focus solely on employment, may be overly restrictive. They also indicate that the strategy of becoming an Employer of Choice, though widely considered a ‘business imperative’, is unlikely to have the desired effect on employee behaviour; this strategy is based on the assumption that organisations should conform to an ‘ideal blueprint of employment’, but the results clearly indicate that this blueprint does not exist. In order to align the behaviour of their employees with the identity of their organisation, managers should seek to understand the unique identity of their own organisation and to determine what makes that identity attractive to their employees. This may be achieved in an efficient and cost-effective manner by following the methodology outlined in this thesis.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Building an empirically robust framework for corporate brand communications using action research

This thesis aims to develop a more robust framework for understanding the management processes involved in Corporate Brand Communications. A review of the literature on corporate branding shows a growing body of conceptual work, but also highlights that much of the recent work in the field has not focused on the underlying processes involved in managing a corporate brand. There is, therefore, a clear need to understand how a corporate brand is defined, developed and communicated. This international study adopts a Participatory Action Research approach, grounded in Intervention Theory (Argyris, 1973), to develop an intervention framework based on the concept of privileged access' (Torbet, 1991). This methodological framework is tested on a pilot study and then adopted for the study of three separate organisations in the UK, France and the Netherlands to answer three distinct, but related Research Questions. Based upon the findings emerging from these studies, the researcher identifies a series of 'emergent management stages', and uses this empirical evidence to develop a new 'Six Conventions' framework for understanding the processes of nurturing and managing a corporate brand. The study makes an explicit contribution to the field by helping to 'join up' many of the existing, disparate conceptual models. It makes a further significant contribution by grounding the 'Six Conventions' framework in rich empirical data in a way that operationalizes the inherent management processes in a new and more robust manner than previous studies. These findings offer both new insight to academics, and a set of guiding principles and practices for managers engaged in managing brands at an organisational level, fulfilling the requirements of Participatory Action Research to generate both Propositional and Practical knowledge. A further methodological contribution is provided by demonstration of the potential that participatory approaches, utilising the concept of this privileged access', offer in contrast to traditional case research. This leads to the development of a new process to guide effective intervention studies of management processes.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Missed Opportunity for Neonates to Live: A Cross-Sectional study on Utilization of Peri-Natal Death Audits to address the Causes of Peri-Natal Mortality in District Hospitals of East–Central Uganda.

Aim:  To assess the utilization of PDAs in addressing the avoidable causes of perinatal mortality in the eastern region of Uganda. Methodology:  A cross-section design using a mixed method was conducted between 2014-2015 at Iganga, Bugiri, and Kamuli general hospitals in the East-Central region of Uganda. The interviews involved 115 health workers who included Doctors, Nurses/Midwives, Clinical officers, and Laboratory and Theatre staff. These were drawn from four departments including the Maternity ward, Outpatient department, Theatre, and pediatric ward. Hospital top and departmental managers formed the key informants for this study. Annual reports for the period 2009/10-2012/13 were reviewed. In addition, monthly reports for the calendar year 2013 together with patients’ clinical case notes and patients’ registers were also reviewed to determine the magnitude and causes of perinatal mortality. Factors contributing to perinatal death were assessed and categorized into fetal, maternal, and health facility factors. Results:  Results revealed a high and rising perinatal mortality rate of 70/1,000 live births and a decreasing maternal mortality ratio of 363/100,000 live births. Most perinatal deaths were fresh stillbirths 48/88 which occurred during the intrapartum period and the majority of early neonatal death was due to birth asphyxia. None of the health facilities was conducting perinatal death audits and the quality of data used for perinatal death audits was inadequate and was scored poorly. Challenges hindering utilization of perinatal death audits included lack of staff sensitization and training, work overload, lack of motivation, fear of blame and litigation, political interference, and lack of support from the community. Conclusion:  There was a high prevalence of perinatal deaths in east-central Uganda yet none of the hospitals was conducting perinatal death reviews. Recommendations: Health workers should be trained on perinatal death audit tools and guidelines. Records departments to revitalize with tools and personnel for effective data management

Factors affecting the accuracy of urine-based biomarkers of BSE

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases are untreatable, uniformly fatal degenerative syndromes of the central nervous system that can be transmitted both within as well as between species. The bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) epidemic and the emergence of a new human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), have profoundly influenced beef production processes as well as blood donation and surgical procedures. Simple, robust and cost effective diagnostic screening and surveillance tools are needed for both the preclinical and clinical stages of TSE disease in order to minimize both the economic costs and zoonotic risk of BSE and to further reduce the risk of secondary vCJD.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Urine is well suited as the matrix for an ante-mortem test for TSE diseases because it would permit non-invasive and repeated sampling. In this study urine samples collected from BSE infected and age matched control cattle were screened for the presence of individual proteins that exhibited disease specific changes in abundance in response to BSE infection that might form the basis of such an ante-mortem test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) was used to identify proteins exhibiting differential abundance in two sets of cattle. The known set consisted of BSE infected steers and age matched controls throughout the course of the disease. The blinded unknown set was composed of BSE infected and control samples of both genders, a wide range of ages and two different breeds. Multivariate analyses of individual protein abundance data generated classifiers comprised of the proteins best able to discriminate between the samples based on disease state, breed, age and gender.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Despite the presence of confounding factors, the disease specific changes in abundance exhibited by a panel of urine proteins permitted the creation of classifiers able to discriminate between control and infected cattle with a high degree of accuracy.</p