A taxonomy of measures for consumer-based brand equity:drawing on the views of managers in Europe

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the components of consumer-based brand equity from the perspective of experts in brand management in the UK, Germany and Greece. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with senior brand consultants and managers, five in the UK, five in Germany and five in Greece. Findings: The findings suggested four categories of measures which can be used to define brand equity. These are the consumers' understanding of brand characteristics; consumers' brand evaluation; consumers' affective response towards the brand; and consumers' behaviour towards the brand. Specific dimensions are identified as indicators of each category. Research limitations/implications: Although the focus of this study is Europe, data were only collected from the UK, Germany and Greece, countries representing three of the five European cultural clusters. The resultant taxonomy adds to the fragmented literature on brand equity measurement by proposing four categories to gauge brand equity. Practical implications: The suggested taxonomy provides indicators of a framework managers could use when assessing brand equity. Originality/value: There is little agreement on what constitutes brand equity and therefore measures of brand equity are fragmented. To date, the views of practicing managers have not been taken into account in research. This paper draws on the views of practitioners and academics to suggest a taxonomy of categories of measures for brand equity. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Challenges and emerging solutions in the development of compressed orally disintegrating tablets

Areas covered: The review discusses the main challenges of ODT manufacturing process and the emerging solutions featured at early drug development stages. The research specifically describes the methods reported for taste masking/assessment and solubilisation of unpalatable and poorly soluble drugs, respectively. Furthermore, this review highlights the techniques used for developing modified-release ODTs, an emerging area in the field. In addition, it also discusses the poor flowability and segregation problems of directly compressed powders. Moreover, the review describes the tests reported in the literature for ODT disintegration time assessment since a universal technique is still non-existent. Expert opinion: The approaches used to overcome the manufacturing challenges often have a bearing on the price of the end product. However, despite the technical and regulatory challenges, ODTs can offer many advantages over the conventional dosage forms if accompanied by suitable adjuvant technologies and in vitro analytical tools. © 2014 Informa UK, Ltd. Introduction: Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) provide several advantages over conventional tablets such as suitability for patients with swallowing difficulties and faster onset of action. The manufacture of ODTs by compression/tableting offers a practical and cost-effective strategy over the freeze drying (lyophilisation) method. Nonetheless, the FDA recommends a disintegration time of 30 s and a maximum weight of 500 mg for a tablet to be labelled as an ODT. These requirements, alongside other desirable product properties, have created a number of challenges for the formulator to overcome while developing compressed ODTs.

The role of academic/industry partnerships in the development of supply chain managers

The need for improvement in the logistics and supply chain management capability of companies in Ireland is becoming increasingly recognised. One of the main bottlenecks currently is the shortage of supply chain management professionals. Education and training has a fundamental role to play if the supply of suitably qualified human resource is to be addressed in a meaningful way. Recent research indicates that demand for people with the right knowledge and skills greatly exceed supply. There are numerous techniques and technologies which can facilitate improvement in a company’s supply chain capability. However, experience has shown that these tools alone can not address the weaknesses – any improvement tool is only as good as a company’s ability to utilise it and effective utilisation depends above all on the knowledge and skill of employees. Education and training is essential in developing the requisite knowledge and skills. Consultants can play a role in terms of providing an objective view of a company’s requirements. But the only way to generate a sustainable competitive advantage is to ensure that the necessary knowledge and skills are available in-house. Indeed, the “consultancy culture” which has developed in many companies is a direct result of this lack of in-house expertise. Given the shortage of suitably qualified and experienced people in the job market, the only way that this problem can be addressed is through effective development of existing staff. This paper describes the partnership model adopted by the NITL to achieve its objective of combining academic excellence with real relevance to commercial needs in its supply chain management development programmes. The Executive Development Programme (EDP) is used to illustrate how the model is implemented.

Anchoring effects in the development of false childhood memories

When people receive descriptions or doctored photos of events that never happened, they often come to remember those events. But if people receive both a description and a doctored photo, does the order in which they receive the information matter? We asked people to consider a description and a doctored photograph of a childhood hot air balloon ride, and we varied which medium they saw first. People who saw a description first reported more false images and memories than did people who saw a photo first, a result that fits with an anchoring account of false childhood memories. © 2010 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.

Development of potent and selective tissue transglutaminase inhibitors:their effect on TG2 function and application in pathological conditions

Potent-selective peptidomimetic inhibitors of tissue transglutaminase (TG2) were developed through a combination of protein-ligand docking and molecular dynamic techniques. Derivatives of these inhibitors were made with the aim of specific TG2 targeting to the intra- and extracellular space. A cell-permeable fluorescently labeled derivative enabled detection of in situ cellular TG2 activity in human umbilical cord endothelial cells and TG2-transduced NIH3T3 cells, which could be enhanced by treatment of cells with ionomycin. Reaction of TG2 with this fluorescent inhibitor in NIH3T3 cells resulted in loss of binding of TG2 to cell surface syndecan-4 and inhibition of translocation of the enzyme into the extracellular matrix, with a parallel reduction in fibronectin deposition. In human umbilical cord endothelial cells, this same fluorescent inhibitor also demonstrated a reduction in fibronectin deposition, cell motility, and cord formation in Matrigel. Use of the same inhibitor in a mouse model of hypertensive nephrosclerosis showed over a 40% reduction in collagen deposition.

Obstructive sleep apnoea predicts the development of preproliferative and proliferative retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes:a longitudinal analysis

Background and aims: Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness. OSA is associated with increased oxidative and nitrosative stress and endothelial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Hence, it is plausible that OSA can promote the development and progression of DR. Materials and methods: An observational longitudinal study in adults with T2DM. Patients with pre-existing OSA, end-stage renal disease and non-diabetic retinopathy were excluded. OSA (apnoea hypopnea index ≥ 5 events/hour) was assessed by a single overnight home-based cardio-respiratory monitoring (Alice PDX, etc.). DR was assesses using retinal images between 2007 and 2012. Sight threatening retinopathy (STR) was defined as pre-proliferative or proliferative DR, maculopathy or photocoagulation. Advanced DR was defined as pre-proliferative or proliferative DR. Results: 199 patients were included (57.3% men, 47.7% White Europeans). STR and OSA prevalence were 38.7 % and 62.8% respectively. STR preva-lence was higher in patients with OSA (OSA+) compared to those with-out (OSA-) [48.8% vs. 21.6%, p <0.001]. After adjustment for confounders, OSA remained independently associated with STR (OR 3.7, 95%CI 1.6-8.9, p=0.006, maculopathy (OR 4.5, 1.8-11.4, p=0.002) and advanced DR (OR 3.9, 1.02-15.3, p=0.047). Over 4.4±1 years, more OSA+ patients progressed from no or background DR to advanced DR (15.3% vs. 3%, p=0.01). OSA was an independent predictor of advanced DR development after adjustment (OR 6.6, 95%CI 1.2-35.1, p=0.03). OSA did not predict the development of maculopathy. Patients received continuous positive airway pressure treatment were less likely to develop advanced DR. Conclusion: OSA is independently associated with STR and predicts the development of preproliferative and proliferative DR. Interventional studies are needed to assess the impact of OSA treatment on DR.Supported by: NIHR (UK) and The UK Novo Nordisk Research Foundation.

Progress in the development of mesoporous solid acid and base catalysts for converting carbohydrates into platform chemicals

This chapter provides a general overview of recent studies on catalytic conversion of fructose, glucose, and cellulose to platform chemicals over porous solid acid and base catalysts, including zeolites, ion-exchange resins, heteropoly acids, as well as structured carbon, silica, and metal oxide materials. Attention is focused on the dehydration of glucose and fructose to HMF, isomerization of glucose to fructose, hydrolysis of cellulose to sugar, and glycosidation of cellulose to alkyl glucosides. The correlation of porous structure, surface properties, and the strength or types of acid or base with the catalyst activity in these reactions is discussed in detail in this chapter.

Development of multiphase and multiscale mathematical models for thermal spray process

High velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) thermal spraying is one of the most significant developments in the thermal spray industry since the development of the original plasma spray technique. The first investigation deals with the combustion and discrete particle models within the general purpose commercial CFD code FLUENT to solve the combustion of kerosene and couple the motion of fuel droplets with the gas flow dynamics in a Lagrangian fashion. The effects of liquid fuel droplets on the thermodynamics of the combusting gas flow are examined thoroughly showing that combustion process of kerosene is independent on the initial fuel droplet sizes. The second analysis copes with the full water cooling numerical model, which can assist on thermal performance optimisation or to determine the best method for heat removal without the cost of building physical prototypes. The numerical results indicate that the water flow rate and direction has noticeable influence on the cooling efficiency but no noticeable effect on the gas flow dynamics within the thermal spraying gun. The third investigation deals with the development and implementation of discrete phase particle models. The results indicate that most powder particles are not melted upon hitting the substrate to be coated. The oxidation model confirms that HVOF guns can produce metallic coating with low oxidation within the typical standing-off distance about 30cm. Physical properties such as porosity, microstructure, surface roughness and adhesion strength of coatings produced by droplet deposition in a thermal spray process are determined to a large extent by the dynamics of deformation and solidification of the particles impinging on the substrate. Therefore, is one of the objectives of this study to present a complete numerical model of droplet impact and solidification. The modelling results show that solidification of droplets is significantly affected by the thermal contact resistance/substrate surface roughness.

The development of calibration and adaptive filtering procedures for neuromagnetic studies of human visual function

This thesis first considers the calibration and signal processing requirements of a neuromagnetometer for the measurement of human visual function. Gradiometer calibration using straight wire grids is examined and optimal grid configurations determined, given realistic constructional tolerances. Simulations show that for gradiometer balance of 1:104 and wire spacing error of 0.25mm the achievable calibration accuracy of gain is 0.3%, of position is 0.3mm and of orientation is 0.6°. Practical results with a 19-channel 2nd-order gradiometer based system exceed this performance. The real-time application of adaptive reference noise cancellation filtering to running-average evoked response data is examined. In the steady state, the filter can be assumed to be driven by a non-stationary step input arising at epoch boundaries. Based on empirical measures of this driving step an optimal progression for the filter time constant is proposed which improves upon fixed time constant filter performance. The incorporation of the time-derivatives of the reference channels was found to improve the performance of the adaptive filtering algorithm by 15-20% for unaveraged data, falling to 5% with averaging. The thesis concludes with a neuromagnetic investigation of evoked cortical responses to chromatic and luminance grating stimuli. The global magnetic field power of evoked responses to the onset of sinusoidal gratings was shown to have distinct chromatic and luminance sensitive components. Analysis of the results, using a single equivalent current dipole model, shows that these components arise from activity within two distinct cortical locations. Co-registration of the resulting current source localisations with MRI shows a chromatically responsive area lying along the midline within the calcarine fissure, possibly extending onto the lingual and cuneal gyri. It is postulated that this area is the human homologue of the primate cortical area V4.

Evaluation and development of drainage and pipeline construction processes

In 1974 Dr D M Bramwell published his research work at the University of Aston a part of which was the establishment of an elemental work study data base covering drainage construction. The Transport and Road Research Laboratory decided to, extend that work as part of their continuing research programme into the design and construction of buried pipelines by placing a research contract with Bryant Construction. This research may be considered under two broad categories. In the first, site studies were undertaken to validate and extend the data base. The studies showed good agreement with the existing data with the exception of the excavation trench shoring and pipelaying data which was amended to incorporate new construction plant and methods. An inter-active on-line computer system for drainage estimating was developed. This system stores the elemental data, synthesizes the standard time of each drainage operation and is used to determine the required resources and construction method of the total drainage activity. The remainder of the research was into the general topic of construction efficiency. An on-line command driven computer system was produced. This system uses a stochastic simulation technique, based on distributions of site efficiency measurements to evaluate the effects of varying performance levels. The analysis of this performance data quantities the variability inherent in construction and demonstrates how some of this variability can be reconciled by considering the characteristics of a contract. A long term trend of decreasing efficiency with contract duration was also identified. The results obtained from the simulation suite were compared to site records collected from current contracts. This showed that this approach will give comparable answers, but these are greatly affected by the site performance parameters.

An exploration of policies and practices used to showcase production facilities

Manufacturers who seek innovative ways in which to differentiate their products and services should not overlook the value of showcasing their production facilities. By careful design, visitors can be exposed to a series of experiences that can help to emphasize the value built into products. This topic has, however, received almost no attention by manufacturing researchers. Therefore, this paper describes a study of six manufacturers and, from this, proposes a set of guidelines for showcasing production facilities. Although exploratory, this work provides both a guide to manufacturers and a platform for more in-depth research. The guidelines and the case studies on which they are based are all described within the paper.

Inhibition of pyruvate kinase M2 by reactive oxygen species contributes to the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension

Aims: Pulmonary arterial hypertension [1] is a proliferative disorder associated with enhanced proliferation and suppressed apoptosis of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is implicated in the development of PAH and regulates the vascular tone and functions. However, which cellular signaling mechanisms are triggered by ROS in PAH is still unknown. Hence, here we wished to characterize the signaling mechanisms triggered by ROS. Methods and Results: By Western blots, we showed that increased intracellular ROS caused inhibition of the glycolytic pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) activity through promoting the phosphorylation of PKM2. Monocrotaline (MCT)-induced rats developed severe PAH and right ventricular hypertrophy, with a significant increase in the P-PKM2 and decrease in pyruvate kinase activity which could be attenuated with the treatments of PKM2 activators, FBP and l-serine. The antioxidant NAC, apocynin and MnTBAP had the similar protective effects in the development of PAH. In vitro assays confirmed that inhibition of PKM2 activity could modulate the flux of glycolytic intermediates in support of cell proliferation through the increased pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). Increased ROS and decreased PKM2 activity also promoted the Cav1.2 expression and intracellular calcium. Conclusion: Our data provide new evidence that PKM2 makes a critical regulatory contribution to the PAHs for the first time. Decreased pyruvate kinase M2 activity confers additional advantages to rat PASMCs by allowing them to sustain anti-oxidant responses and thereby support cell survival in PAH. It may become a novel treatment strategy in PAH by using of PKM2 activators.

Marketing responsibility in an era of economic and climatic challenge

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate Michael Thomas's concept of civic professionalism and social trusteeship as a future alternative to the current marketing profession's code of conduct and to put this in the context of climate change and ecological sustainability as a model for firms everywhere. Design/methodology/approach – Review of the marketing profession's responsibility towards society, communities and the ecology of the planet in the twenty-first century in the light of climate change. Findings – The hypothesis for the paper emerges as: whether it is possible for Chinese firms to embrace the needs of twenty-first century global ecological sustainability in meeting their own economic requirements for development and financial prosperity. Research limitations/implications – Limited secondary research and primary research that is also limited in terms of scope. Practical implications – As we move into an era of Chinese economic supremacy, we marketers must face up to the responsibility we have towards balancing the progression of global economic development (and selling goods and services in global market systems) with our responsibility towards our cultural systems and the global ecological system (the global ecosystem), the home of all our economic wealth. Social implications – To extrapolate lessons and opportunities for firms from developing economies as they move towards global domination of world economic markets and, suggest strategies for sustainability that they can, and should, adopt. Originality/value – The paper presents a theoretical framework for a global strategy for sustainability, and provides a vision of marketing responsibility that embraces civic professionalism, social trusteeship and a strategy for sustainability.

Magnetoencephalography in the study of epilepsy and consciousness

The neural bases of altered consciousness in patients with epilepsy during seizures and at rest have raised significant interest in the last decade. This exponential growth has been supported by the parallel development of techniques and methods to investigate brain function noninvasively with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. In this article, we review the contribution of magnetoencephalography to deconvolve the bioelectrical changes associated with impaired consciousness during seizures. We use data collected from a patient with refractory absence seizures to discuss how spike-wave discharges are associated with perturbations in optimal connectivity within and between brain regions and discuss indirect evidence to suggest that this phenomenon might explain the cognitive deficits experienced during prolonged 3/s spike-wave discharges. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

The development of maternal self-esteem

Although an important theoretical concept, little is known about the development of maternal self-esteem. This study explores the significance of maternal cognitions, psychopathological symptoms, and child temperament in the prediction of prenatal and postnatal maternal self-esteem. During pregnancy 162 women completed measures assessing their unhealthy core beliefs, psychopathological symptoms, and self-esteem. At 1 year postpartum 87 of these women completed measures assessing their self-esteem and their child's temperament. Overall maladaptive maternal core beliefs and psychopathological symptoms during pregnancy explained 19% of the variance in prenatal maternal self-esteem. Forty-two percent of the variance in maternal self-esteem at 1 year could be explained by a combination of prenatal maternal self-esteem, mental health symptoms, maternal core beliefs, and more unsociable infant temperament. Underlying maternal cognitive structures may be important in determining the development of maternal self-esteem. © 2007 2006 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.