Toward a business-to-business channel incentives classification scheme

A recent focus on intermediary compensation underscores the need to organize the many complex incentives used by channel practitioners. Employing a grounded theory methodology, a channel incentives classification scheme is induced from 170 unique channel incentives used in 59 high technology suppliers’ channel programs. The incentives are organized into 16 subcategories and 5 major categories: Credible Channel Policies, Market Development Support, Supplemental Contact, High-Powered Incentives, and End-User Encouragements. Each incentive subcategory is discussed as a means of controlling reseller behaviors. Also, the conditions that give rise to the implementation of incentives are investigated through four testable research propositions.

The ecology of algae in relation to river water equality surveillance

The broad objectives of the work were to develop standard methods for the routine biological surveillance of river water quality, using the non-planktonic algae. Studies on sampling methodology indicated that natural substrata should be sampled directly wherever possible, but for routine purposes, only a semi-quantitative approach was found to be feasible. Artificial substrata were considered to be useful for sample collection in deeper waters, and of three different types tested, Polythene strips were selected for further investigation essentially on grounds of practicality. These were tested in the deeper reaches of a wide range of river types and water qualities: 26 pool sites in 14 different rivers were studied over a period of 9 months. At each site, the assemblages developing on 3 strips following a 4, or less commonly, an 3 week immersion period were analysed quantitatively. Where possible, the natural substrata were also sampled semi-quantitatively at each site, and at a nearby riffle. The results of this survey were very fragmentary: many strips failed to yield useful data, and the results were often difficult to interpret, and of limited value for water quality surveillance purposes. In one river, the Churnet, the natural substrata at 14 riffle sites were sampled semi-quantitatively on 14 occasions at intervals of 4 weeks. In this survey, the results were more readily interpreted in relation to water quality, and no special data processing was found to be necessary or helpful. Further studies carried out on the filamentous green alga Cladophora showed that this alga may have some value as a bioaccumulation indicator for metals, and as a bioassay organism for the assessment of the algal growth promoting potential of natural river waters.

An examination of adverse drug reaction reporting to the yellow card scheme

Chief pharmacists in 209 hospitals were surveyed about ADR reporting schemes, the priority given to ADR reporting, and attitudes towards ADR reporting. ADR reporting had a low managerial priority. Local reporting schemes were found to be operating in 37% trusts, but there were few plans to start new schemes. Few problems were discovered by the introduction of pharmacist ADR reporting. Chief pharmacists had concerns about the competence of hospital pharmacists to detect ADRs and were in favour of increased training. Lack of time on wards, and recruitment difficulties were suggested as reasons for hospital pharmacist under-reporting. Teaching hospitals appeared to have an increased interest in ADR reporting. A retrospective analysis of reporting trends within the West Midlands region from 1994, showed increasing or stable reporting rates for most sectors of reporters, except for general practitioners (GPs). The West Midlands region maintained higher ADR reporting rates than the rest of the UK. National reporting figures showed a worrying decline in ADR reports from healthcare professionals. Variation was found in the ADR reporting rates of Acute NHS Hospital Trusts and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in the West Midlands region, including correlations with prescribing rates and other PCT characteristics. Qualitative research into attitudes of GPs towards the Yellow Card scheme was undertaken. A series of qualitative interviews with GPs discovered barriers and positive motivators for their involvement in the Yellow Card scheme. A grounded theory of GP involvement in the Yellow Card scheme was developed to explain GP behaviour, and which could be used to inform potential solutions to halt declining rates of reporting. Under-reporting of ADRs continues to be a major concern to those who administer spontaneous reporting schemes.

The evaluation and development of the lead authority partnership scheme as a central intervention strategy for health and safety enforcement by local authorities

The research comprises a suite of studies that examines and develops the Lead Authority Partnership Scheme (LAPS) as a central intervention strategy for health and safety by local authority (LA) enforcers. Partnership working is a regulatory concept that in recent years has become more popular but there has been little research conducted to investigate, explore and evaluate its practical application. The study reviewed two contrasting approaches to partnership working between LAs and businesses, both of which were intended to secure improvements in the consistency of enforcement by the regulators and in the health and safety management systems of the participating businesses. The first was a well-established and highly prescriptive approach that required a substantial resource commitment on the part of the LA responsible for conducting a safety management review (SMR) of the business. As a result of his evaluation of the existing ‘full SMR’ scheme, the author developed a second, more flexible approach to partnership working. The research framework was based upon a primarily qualitative methodology intended to investigate and explore the impact of the new flexible arrangements for partnership working. The findings from this study of the flexible development of the scheme were compared and contrasted with those from studies of the established ‘full SMR’ scheme. A substantial degree of triangulation was applied in an attempt to strengthen validity and broaden applicability of the research findings. Key informant interviews, participant observation, document/archive reviews, questionnaires and surveys all their particular part to play in the overall study. The findings from this research revealed that LAPS failed to deliver consistency of LA enforcement across multiple-outlet businesses and the LA enforced business sectors. Improvement was however apparent in the safety management systems of the businesses participating in LAPS. Trust between LA inspector and safety professional was key to the success of the partnerships as was the commitment of these key individuals. Competition for precious LA resources, the priority afforded to food safety over health and safety, the perceived high resource demands of LAPS, and the structure and culture of LAs were identified as significant barriers to LA participation. Flexible approaches, whilst addressing the resource issues, introduced some fresh concerns relating to credibility and delivery. Over and above the stated aims of the scheme, LAs and businesses had their own reasons for participation, notably the personal development of individuals and kudos for the organisation. The research has explored the wider implications for partnership working with the overall conclusion it is most appropriately seen as a strategic level element within a broader structured intervention strategy.

A novel multilocus sequence typing scheme for the opportunistic pathogen Propionibacterium acnes and characterisation of type 1 cell surface-associated antigens

We have developed a novel multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme and database (http://pubmlst.org/pacnes/) for Propionibacterium acnes based on the analysis of seven core housekeeping genes. The scheme, which was validated against previously described antibody, single locus and random amplification of polymorphic DNA typing methods, displayed excellent resolution and differentiated 123 isolates into 37 sequence types (STs). An overall clonal population structure was detected with six eBURST groups representing the major clades I, II and III, along with two singletons. Two highly successful and global clonal lineages, ST6 (type IA) and ST10 (type IB1), representing 64?% of this current MLST isolate collection were identified. The ST6 clone and closely related single locus variants, which comprise a large clonal complex CC6, dominated isolates from patients with acne, and were also significantly associated with ophthalmic infections. Our data therefore support an association between acne and P. acnes strains from the type IA cluster and highlight the role of a widely disseminated clonal genotype in this condition. Characterization of type I cell surface-associated antigens that are not detected in ST10 or strains of type II and III identified two dermatan-sulphate-binding proteins with putative phase/antigenic variation signatures. We propose that the expression of these proteins by type IA organisms contributes to their role in the pathophysiology of acne and helps explain the recurrent nature of the disease. The MLST scheme and database described in this study should provide a valuable platform for future epidemiological and evolutionary studies of P. acnes.

A series-dynamic-resistor-based converter protection scheme for doubly-fed induction generator during various fault conditions

This paper proposes a new converter protection method, primarily based on a series dynamic resistor (SDR) that avoids the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) control being disabled by crowbar protection during fault conditions. A combined converter protection scheme based on the proposed SDR and conventional crowbar is analyzed and discussed. The main protection advantages are due to the series topology when compared with crowbar and dc-chopper protection. Various fault overcurrent conditions (both symmetrical and asymmetrical) are analyzed and used to design the protection in detail, including the switching strategy and coordination with crowbar, and resistance value calculations. PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results show that the proposed method is advantageous for fault overcurrent protection, especially for asymmetrical faults, in which the traditional crowbar protection may malfunction.

A network coding based interference cancelation scheme for wireless ad hoc networks

The performance of wireless networks is limited by multiple access interference (MAI) in the traditional communication approach where the interfered signals of the concurrent transmissions are treated as noise. In this paper, we treat the interfered signals from a new perspective on the basis of additive electromagnetic (EM) waves and propose a network coding based interference cancelation (NCIC) scheme. In the proposed scheme, adjacent nodes can transmit simultaneously with careful scheduling; therefore, network performance will not be limited by the MAI. Additionally we design a space segmentation method for general wireless ad hoc networks, which organizes network into clusters with regular shapes (e.g., square and hexagon) to reduce the number of relay nodes. The segmentation methodworks with the scheduling scheme and can help achieve better scalability and reduced complexity. We derive accurate analytic models for the probability of connectivity between two adjacent cluster heads which is important for successful information relay. We proved that with the proposed NCIC scheme, the transmission efficiency can be improved by at least 50% for general wireless networks as compared to the traditional interference avoidance schemes. Numeric results also show the space segmentation is feasible and effective. Finally we propose and discuss a method to implement the NCIC scheme in a practical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communications networks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A dynamic bandwidth reservation scheme for hybrid IEEE 802.16 wireless networks

A dynamic bandwidth reservation (DBR) scheme for hybrid IEEE 802.16 wireless networks is investigated, in which 802.16 networks serve as the backhaul for client networks, such as WiFi hotspots and cellular networks. The DBR scheme implemented in the subscription stations (SSs) (co-locating with access pointers) consists of two components: connection admission controller (CAC), and bandwidth controller (BC). The CAC processes the received connection set-up requests from the client networks connected to the SSs. The BC manages the request and release of bandwidth from the base station (BS). It dynamically changes the reserved bandwidth between a small number of values. Hysteresis is incorporated in bandwidth release to reduce bandwidth request signalling load and connection blocking probability. An analytical model is proposed to evaluate the performances of reserved bandwidth, connection blocking probability and signalling load. The impacts of hysteresis mechanism and probability of reservation request blocking are taken into account. Simulation verifies the analytical model. ©2008 IEEE.

Service differentiation for the bandwidth request scheme in fixed IEEE 802.16 networks

IEEE 802.16 standards have been developed as one of the technical solutions for broadband wireless access systems. It has high data rate, large network coverage, flexible QoS schemes and cheap network deployment. Various flexible mechanisms related to QoS provisioning have been specified for uplink traffic at the medium access control (MAC) layer in the standards. Among the mechanisms, contention based bandwidth request scheme can be used to indicate bandwidth demands to the base station for the non-real-time polling and besteffort services. These two services are used for most application with unknown traffic characteristics. Due to the diverse QoS requirements of those applications, service differentiation (SD) is anticipated over the contention based bandwidth request scheme. In this paper we investigate the SD with the bandwidth request scheme by means of assigning different channel access parameters and bandwidth allocation priorities. The effectiveness of the differentiation schemes are evaluated by simulations. It is observed that the initial backoff window can be efficient in SD, and if combined with the bandwidth allocation priority, the SD performances will be better. ©2008 IEEE.

A practical phase sensitive amplification scheme for two channel phase regeneration

A "black-box" phase sensitive amplifier is presented achieving simultaneous suppression of deterministic phase distortion on two independent 42.66 Gbit/s DPSK modulated signal wavelengths.

Novel real-time homodyne coherent receiver using a feed-forward based carrier extraction scheme for phase modulated signals

We report a novel real-time homodyne coherent receiver based on a DPSK optical-electrical-optical (OEO) regenerator used to extract a carrier from carrier-less phase modulated signals based on feed-forward based modulation stripping. The performance of this non-DSP based coherent receiver was evaluated for 10.66Gbit/s BPSK signals. Self-homodyne coherent detection and homodyne detection with an injection-locked local oscillator laser was demonstrated. The performance was evaluated by measuring the electrical signal-to-noise (SNR) and recording the eye diagrams. Using injection-locking for the LO improves the performance and enables homodyne detection with optical injection-locking to operate with carrier-less BPSK signals without the need for polarization multiplexed pilot-tones.

Novel synchronous DPSK optical regenerator based on a feed-forward based carrier extraction scheme

We experimentally demonstrate a novel synchronous 10.66Gbit/s DPSK OEO regenerator which uses a feed-forward carrier extraction scheme with an injection-locked laser to synchronize the regenerated signal wavelength to the incoming signal wavelength. After injection-locking, a low-cost DFB laser used at the regenerator exhibited the same linewidth characteristics as the narrow line-width transmitter laser. The phase regeneration properties of the regenerator were evaluated by emulating random Gaussian phase noise applied to the DPSK signal before the regenerator using a phase modulator driven by an arbitrary waveform generator. The overall performance was evaluated in terms of electrical eye-diagrams, BER measurements, and constellation diagrams.