Business models enhancing the diffusion of mobile Internet in emerging markets

Tämän tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli selvittää, millaiset liiketoimintamallit soveltuvat mobiilin internet-liiketoiminnan harjoittamiseen kehittyvillä markkinoilla. Tavoitteena oli myös selvittää tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat mobiilin internetin diffuusioon. Tutkimus tehtiin käyttäen sekä kvantitatiivista että kvalitatiivista tutkimusmenetelmää. Klusterianalyysin avulla 40 Euroopan maasta muodostettiin sisäisesti homogeenisiä maaklustereita. Näiden klustereiden avulla oli mahdollista suunnitella erityyppisille markkinoille soveltuvat liiketoimintamallit. Haastatteluissa selvitettiin asiantuntijoiden näkemyksiä tekijöistä, jotka vaikuttavat mobiilin internetin diffuusioon kehittyvillä markkinoilla. Tutkimuksessa saatiin selville, että tärkeimmät liiketoimintamallin elementit kehittyvillä markkinoilla ovat hinnoittelu, arvotarjooma ja arvoverkko. Puutteellisen kiinteän verkon todettiin olevan yksi tärkeimmistä mobiilin internetin diffuusiota edistävistä tekijöistä kehittyvillä markkinoilla.

Time-Varying Benefits of International Diversification for Finnish Investor: Country-Specific Strategy Concentrating on Emerging Markets

The main objective of this study is to investigate whether the Finnish investors’ country-specific strategy concentrating on emerging markets provides diversification benefits. We also analyze whether the benefits of international diversification has been diminished after periods of high volatility caused by different market crisis. The objective is investigated with three methods: Correlation coefficients, rolling correlations added with OLS trend-lines and Box’s M statistic. All the empirical tests are analyzed and calculated with logarithmic returns of weekly time series data from Friday closing values between January 1995 and December 2007. The number of weekly observations is 678. The data type is total return indices of different countries. Data is collected from DataStream and provided by Datastream Financial. Countries investigated are Finland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Turkey. The current data is quoted both in U.S. Dollars and local currencies. The empirical results of this thesis show that the correlation coefficients are time-varying across Finland and 12 emerging market countries. Although the correlations have risen from 1995 to 2007, there can be found sub-periods where the correlation has declined from earlier period. The results also indicate that a Finnish investor constructing a portfolio of emerging market countries cannot rely on the correlation coefficients estimated from historical data because of the instability of correlation matrices.

Plant polyamines in stress and development: an emerging area of research in plant sciences.

Compelling evidence indicates the participation of polyamines in abiotic and biotic stress responses in plants. Indeed, genetic engineering of polyamine levels in plants has successfully improved biotic and abiotic stress resistance in model plants and crops. We anticipate that many of the current challenges in agriculture to cope with climate change and maintain nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables can be approached by considering the polyamine pathway...

Waddlia: An emerging pathogen and a model organism to study the biology of chlamydiae.

Waddlia chondrophila is an emerging pathogen associated with abortion in cattle. In humans, a growing body of evidence supports its pathogenic role in miscarriage and in respiratory tract infection. The human pathogenicity of W. chondrophila is further supported by the presence of several virulence factors including a catalase, a functional T3SS and several adhesins. Despite this medical importance, no commercial tests are available and diagnostic of this strict intracellular bacterium mainly relies on serology, PCR and immunohistochemistry. So far, the epidemiology of W. chondrophila remains largely unexplored and zoonotic, waterborne or interhuman transmission has been considered. Apart from its pathogenic role, chlamydiologists are also interested in W. chondrophila in order to better understand biological mechanisms conserved and shared with Chlamydia spp. Indeed, W. chondrophila proved to be a useful model organism to study the pathobiology of chlamydiae thanks to its rapid replication, its large size allowing precise subcellular protein localization, as well as its growth in Dictyostelium amoebae.

Video Gaming Disorder and Sport and Exercise in Emerging Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study.

Among the negative consequences of video gaming disorder, decreased participation in sport and exercise has received little attention. This study aimed to assess the longitudinal association between video gaming disorder and the level of sport and exercise in emerging adult men. A questionnaire was completed at baseline and 15-month follow-up by a representative national sample of 4,933 respondents. The seven items of the Game Addiction Scale were used to construct a latent variable representing video gaming disorder. Level of sport and exercise was also self-reported. Cross-lagged path modeling indicated a reciprocal causality between video gaming disorder and the level of sport and exercise, even after adjusting for a large set of confounders. These findings support the need for better promotion of sport and exercise among emerging adults in order to contribute to the prevention of video gaming disorder, and to raise the level of sport and exercise activity in addicted gamers.

Emerging bacterial pathogens: the past and beyond.

Since the 1950s, medical communities have been facing with emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, and emerging pathogens are now considered to be a major microbiologic public health threat. In this review, we focus on bacterial emerging diseases and explore factors involved in their emergence as well as future challenges. We identified 26 major emerging and reemerging infectious diseases of bacterial origin; most of them originated either from an animal and are considered to be zoonoses or from water sources. Major contributing factors in the emergence of these bacterial infections are: (1) development of new diagnostic tools, such as improvements in culture methods, development of molecular techniques and implementation of mass spectrometry in microbiology; (2) increase in human exposure to bacterial pathogens as a result of sociodemographic and environmental changes; and (3) emergence of more virulent bacterial strains and opportunistic infections, especially affecting immunocompromised populations. A precise definition of their implications in human disease is challenging and requires the comprehensive integration of microbiological, clinical and epidemiologic aspects as well as the use of experimental models. It is now urgent to allocate financial resources to gather international data to provide a better understanding of the clinical relevance of these waterborne and zoonotic emerging diseases.

The state's response to the Catalan question : an emerging ethnic component in contemporary Spanish nationalism?

Peer-reviewed

The state's response to the Catalan question : an emerging ethnic component in contemporary Spanish nationalism?

Peer-reviewed

On performance persistence in emerging markets: Empirical evidence from Asia-Pacific

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance persistence of international mutual funds, employing a data sample which includes 2,168 European mutual funds investing in Asia-Pacific region; Japan excluded. Also, a number of performance measures is tested and compared, and especially, this study tries to find out whether iterative Bayesian procedure can be used to provide more accurate predictions on future performance. Finally, this study examines whether the cross-section of mutual fund returns can be explained with simple accounting variables and market risk. To exclude the effect of the Asian currency crisis in 1997, the studied time period includes years from 1999 to 2007. The overall results showed significant performance persistence for repeating winners when performance was tested with contingency tables. Also the annualized alpha spreads between the top and bottom portfolios were more than ten percent at their highest. Nevertheless, the results do not confirm the improved prediction accuracy of the Bayesian alphas.

Church Windows : four symphonic impressions

Soitinnus: ork.

The Emerging Human Rights Revolution: The Beginning of the Fifth Historical Process in the Consolidation of Human Rights

Emerging human rights are destined to modify, improve and transform a number of already traditional concepts so as to achieve greater guarantees and protection for the rights of individuals and collectivities. One of the big changes that will be brought about by the concept and conception of emerging human rights is that, following on from the processes of positivization, generalization, internationalization and specification, they represent the beginning of the fifth historical process in the consolidation of human rights, namely the process of interaction. A number of breakthroughs have already been achieved, such as the recognition of emerging biocultural rights in the recently adopted Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and shared benefits.

The Market Behavior of Emerging Stock Markets in Europe

This study investigates the over and underreaction effects in nine emerging stock markets of Europe. Especially, the possible behavioral aspects behind them are an area of interest. These aspects would link them strongly to behavioral finance. Second, our aim is to provide more evidence of the similar or dissimilar behavior in general among these countries. Third, the possibility to gain abnormal returns from these markets is also under investigation. Data from nine emerging stock market indexes in Europe is gathered from January 1, 1998 to January 1, 2008 to find answers to the stated questions. Studies for the over and underreaction effects are done using a variant of the event study methodology which in this case includes two different calculation methods for the expected returns. Studies are performed using 60 day time intervals. The results between the two different methods used are relatively similar concerning the over and underreaction effects. Another of the methods, however, suggests there to be behavioral aspects behind the effects interpreted. On the other hand, the another method does not support this suggestion. However, a conclusion can be made that the factors driving these countries' behavior are related to their geographical location and to the fact that they are emerging countries.

Emerging, non-PCV13 serotypes 11A and 35B of Streptococcus pneumoniae show high potential for biofilm formation in vitro

Background: Since the use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines PCV7 and PCV13 in children became widespread, invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) has dramatically decreased. Nevertheless, there has been a rise in incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae non-vaccine serotypes (NVT) colonising the human nasopharynx. Nasopharyngeal colonisation, an essential step in the development of S. pneumoniae-induced IPD, is associated with biofilm formation. Although the capsule is the main pneumococcal virulence factor, the formation of pneumococcal biofilms might, in fact, be limited by the presence of capsular polysaccharide (CPS). Methodology/Principal Findings: We used clinical isolates of 16 emerging, non-PCV13 serotypes as well as isogenic transformants of the same serotypes. The biofilm formation capacity of isogenic transformants expressing CPSs from NVT was evaluated in vitro to ascertain whether this trait can be used to predict the emergence of NVT. Fourteen out of 16 NVT analysed were not good biofilm formers, presumably because of the presence of CPS. In contrast, serotypes 11A and 35B formed >45% of the biofilm produced by the non-encapsulated M11 strain. Conclusions/Significance This study suggest that emerging, NVT serotypes 11A and 35B deserve a close surveillance.