Desired End Research Articles

Cross-country experiences and lessons in nutraceutical health marketing in the United States, China, and India

The distinction between food and drugs has blurred in recent years with a new — and novel — health paradigm representing a hybrid of “nutrition” and “pharmaceuticals.” Nutraceuticals are formulated or processed to satisfy dietary requirements arising from physical or physiological conditions, and to treat certain diseases. This study examines the complex interface between the regulatory framework and nutraceutical marketing by drawing from the experiences of three leading global producers and markets: the United States, China, and India. It identifies opportunities in leveraging positive drivers of health marketing and the risks and challenges to market players, particularly in relation to product safety and effectiveness. Findings indicate that: 1) marketing incentives can stem from the regulatory framework; 2) regulation can yield adverse, albeit unintended, consequences on marketing activity; 3) containment or punishment of undesirable market behavior does not necessarily support the legitimate and desirable ends of health marketing; 4) uncommunicated differences between prescription nutraceutical products and nutraceutical supplements breed public confusion and misinformation, and encourage self-medication; and 5) health marketing may be effectively channeled to act as an agent of compliance and positive change. Practical implications and recommendations drawn from the comparative experiences of the three surveyed countries are addressed by way of conclusion.

Long Term Results of Bipolar Hemiarthroplasty in Treatment of Fracture Neck Femur

Femoral neck fractures are intracapsular fractures that occur in the proximal femur in the area beginning distal to articular surface of the femoral head and ending just proximal to the intertrochantric region. to evaluate the functional outcome of bipolar hemiarthroplasty in patients with intra capsular femoral neck fractures . and to determine the factors affecting the outcome and to see whether bipolar hemiarthroplasty meets desired end result or not; patient will be evaluated using Harris hip score and radiographic assessment. The present work was a retrospective study including twenty patients. These patients were be followed up for minimum five years post-operatively and traced to detect their actual hip function and performance. The early complicated patients would be excluded. The mean age of the patients was 73.4 years. The Harris hip score showed satisfactory results at the end of follow up three patients (15%) had hip scores from 100 to 91 (excellent). eight patients (45%) cases had hip scores90 to 81 (good). Two patients (10%) were rated 80 to 70. (fair), and seven patients (35%) were rated below 70(poor) . The mean Harris hip score at the end of follow up was71.0 (range from 25.0– to97.0) with SD 22.4. It was found that the greater motion at the inner bearing correlated with better clinical results. Therefore the amount of motion at the two interfaces appears dependent on a number of variables and still a topic of debate.

Assessing the proximity to the desired End State in complex Water systems: Comparing the Great Lakes and Rio Grande transboundary basins

Scholars from diverse fields of inquiry agree on the need to redesign institutions for governance of complex transboundary water systems to become more ‘adaptive’, and they assume that this will lead to a ‘desired end state.’ However, the exact features of the desired end state are often not clearly delineated, and the relationship between attributes of adaptive governance and the desired end state is difficult to empirically assess. We advocate for shifting the research focus instead to investigating the ‘proximity’ of a complex water system to desired ends, by assessing three aspects: the nature and significance of contextual constraints operating on a policy regime, the current status of policy outputs, and the outcomes achieved by the system to date. Taken together, these can provide us with a broader and deeper picture of what we want to achieve with adaptive governance and how close we are to achieving it. Methodologically, it then becomes easier to assess the impact of changes to governance institutions in subsequent research. We demonstrate these arguments through an illustrative comparison of two complex water governance systems in North America: Great Lakes Basin and Rio Grande-Bravo River Basin.

Purposeful tool use in early lithic technologies

Tool use can be considered in terms of purposeful behaviour. This emphasis on ‘purpose’ hides a host of assumptions about the nature of cognition and its relationship with physical activity. In particular, a notion of ‘purpose’ might assume that this is teleological which, in turn, requires a model of a desired end state of an action that can be projected onto the environment. Such a model is fundamental to traditional descriptions of cognition and a version of this can be found in the ‘template’ theory of stone-tool production (i.e. where the maker of the tool has a model in mind and attempts to reproduce this model in stone). Against this cognitive perspective, a number of approaches have been proposed that share their roots in the work of Gibson (i.e. ecological psychology) or Bernstein (i.e. dynamic systems). From these perspectives, ‘purpose’ is not a matter of a projection but opportunity; put simply, an action is performed until it need not be performed further. Trivial though this might sound, it has implications for how we define purpose and how this might apply to our understanding of tool use. We argue from a dynamic systems perspective and demonstrate the use of tools to crack bones for marrow extraction.

Examining the relationship between ethnic identity, depression, and alcohol use among students at historically black colleges/universities (HBCUs)

Alcohol abuse among college populations is a serious public health issue and is associated with many negative consequences; however, few studies have examined the drinking behavior of African American students at Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). Alcohol abuse, including binge drinking, has historically been lower among African American than Caucasian college students; however, recent studies indicate that HBCU undergraduates are reporting increased rates of alcohol consumption, raising the question of which potential risk and protective factors are associated with alcohol consumption in this population. Ethnic identity has been identified as one protective factor for ethnic minorities, yet the processes that facilitate this relationship are little known. This study sought to further investigate the relationship between ethnic identity, depression, and alcohol use in a sample of 171 African American HBCU students. Participants were tightly clustered toward the desirable end on all measures, which restricted variability and thus attenuated correlational analyses to evaluate the relationships between study variables. There was a consistent pattern of high ethnic identification, minimal mental health distress, and low alcohol and substance use. Results suggest HBCU students are maintaining lower rates of alcohol consumption and binge drinking compared to nationally-stratified samples of undergraduates. Furthermore, these findings suggest African Americans attending HBCUs score highly on ethnic identity and resiliency. Cultural and social norms at HBCUs may help explain low rates of substance and alcohol misuse among HBCU students. Recommendations for culturally-informed alcohol use prevention and intervention strategies and for future research are provided.

“Living the dream”: a closer look into passionate consumer-entrepreneurship in a developing latin american country

This paper contributes to entrepreneurship theory by conceptualising consumer-entrepreneurship as a means to a desired end: to ‘live the dream’. This complements more common functionalist and economically driven definitions. We see this kind of entrepreneurship as avowedly embedded in consumer interests or hobbies. Such conceptualisation is important as we note the move within entrepreneurship scholarship away from articulations of a solitary heroic endeavour influenced by individual factors and behaviours, towards a more relational, interwoven perspective. We draw from literature on consumption, the creation of meaning and on entrepreneurship to weave together this understanding of consumer-entrepreneurship. Based on a qualitative approach, we analyse primary data from four businesses in a developing country to see how porous the work/life boundaries are for actual practitioners ‘living the dream’. We find that the love of a hobby drives the business; that this is shared by fellow enthusiasts; and that from this connection a network of resources is assembled. Such resources support identity projects for the consumer-entrepreneur. This results in blurred work/leisure/life boundaries. Consumer-entrepreneurship, seen as a social practice to achieve life projects, complements entrepreneurship seen merely as a business practice to generate economic outcomes.

Corporate Law, Antitrust, and the History of Democratic Control of the Balance of Power

Since their creation, corporations have proven to be vehicles for incredible aggregate wealth creation. From the creation of the Bank of England to the empire-building of the East India Company, the company form was harnessed as a tool for the expansion of public life. It was, however, recognised at the outset that in creating a unique set of legal features that would make the company so attractive for private investment, the state was not only creating its own co-investor in public wealth but there was also the possibility that the company would pose a threat to the state itself through its ability to channel and multiply the accumulation of private power. As such, since its inception, the corporation has been involved in a delicate dance with the state both to route its productive capacity towards socially desirable ends and to control the corporation’s power. Today, as technological development and the mobilisation of international financial capital allow the power of the corporation to transcend that of the democratic state in both scale and scope, the tools of the past that were used with varying degrees of vigour to constrain the corporation are increasingly relevant. Corporate law and antitrust were once used to maintain the balance between the power of the corporation and the power of the state. Today, this vital role has been all but forgotten. The now-separate conversations about corporate responsibility in the corporate governance sphere and about corporate power within competition policy circles have always, in fact, been fundamentally connected and targeted at the same set of risks. The balance of power will continue to swing in favour of the corporation unless there is a mechanism for counterbalance. The roles of antitrust law and corporate law in embedding the corporation in society must be re-established.

Long-Term Outcome After Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation in Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy: Late Potential Abolition and VT Noninducibility.

In patients with an ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), the combination of late potential (LP) abolition and postprocedural ventricular tachycardia (VT) noninducibility is known to be the desirable end point for a successful long-term outcome after VT ablation. We investigated whether LP abolition and VT noninducibilty have a similar impact on the outcomes of patients with non-ICMs (NICM) undergoing VT ablation. A total of 403 patients with NICM (523 procedures) who underwent a VT ablation from 2010 to 2016 were included. The procedure end points were the LP abolition (if the LPs were absent, other ablation strategies were undertaken) and the VT noninducibilty. The underlying structural heart disease consisted of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM, 49%), arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD, 17%), postmyocarditis (14%), valvular heart disease (8%), congenital heart disease (2%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (2%), and others (5%). The epicardial access was performed in 57% of the patients. At baseline, the LPs were present in 60% of the patients and a VT was either inducible or sustained/incessant in 85% of the cases. At the end of the procedure, the LP abolition was achieved in 79% of the cases and VT noninducibility in 80%. After a multivariable analysis, the combination of LP abolition and VT noninducibilty was independently associated with free survival from VT (hazard ratio, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.29-0.69], P=0.0002) and cardiac death (hazard ratio, 0.38 [95% CI, 0.18-0.74], P=0.005). The benefit of the LP abolition on preventing the VT recurrence in patients with ARVD and postmyocarditis appeared superior to that observed for those with DCM. In patients with NICM undergoing VT ablation, the strategy of LP abolition and VT noninducibilty were associated with better outcomes in terms of long-term VT recurrences and cardiac survival. Graphic Abstract: A graphic abstract is available for this article.

Environmentally Sustainable Food Consumption: A Review and Research Agenda From a Goal-Directed Perspective.

The challenge of convincing people to change their eating habits toward more environmentally sustainable food consumption (ESFC) patterns is becoming increasingly pressing. Food preferences, choices and eating habits are notoriously hard to change as they are a central aspect of people’s lifestyles and their socio-cultural environment. Many people already hold positive attitudes toward sustainable food, but the notable gap between favorable attitudes and actual purchase and consumption of more sustainable food products remains to be bridged. The current work aims to (1) present a comprehensive theoretical framework for future research on ESFC, and (2) highlight behavioral solutions for environmental challenges in the food domain from an interdisciplinary perspective. First, starting from the premise that food consumption is deliberately or unintentionally directed at attaining goals, a goal-directed framework for understanding and influencing ESFC is built. To engage in goal-directed behavior, people typically go through a series of sequential steps. The proposed theoretical framework makes explicit the sequential steps or hurdles that need to be taken for consumers to engage in ESFC. Consumers need to positively value the environment, discern a discrepancy between the desired versus the actual state of the environment, opt for action to reduce the experienced discrepancy, intend to engage in behavior that is expected to bring them closer to the desired end state, and act in accordance with their intention. Second, a critical review of the literature on mechanisms that underlie and explain ESFC (or the lack thereof) in high-income countries is presented and integrated into the goal-directed framework. This contribution thus combines a top-down conceptualization with a bottom-up literature review; it identifies and discusses factors that might hold people back from ESFC and interventions that might promote ESFC; and it reveals knowledge gaps as well as insights on how to encourage both short- and long-term ESFC by confronting extant literature with the theoretical framework. Altogether, the analysis yields a set of 33 future research questions in the interdisciplinary food domain that deserve to be addressed with the aim of fostering ESFC in the short and long term.

Functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes with active pharmaceutical ingredient via carboxylation

We experimented the functionalization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes by simple and laboratory friendly reaction path. The exercise performed by hypothesizing the enhancement in the activation of Multiwalled Carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) walls which subsequently were used for the functionalization of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). The tailoring of MWCNTs was achieved by suspending the MWCNTs in acidic mixture of nitric acid and sulphuric acid (HNO3/H2SO4) in volume proportionate. The reaction mixture was stirred manually followed by ultra-sonication and magnetic stirring for specific time interval to achieve the desired end product. After achieving promising analytical data, the functionalised MWCNTs (f-MWCNTs) were doped with API in alkaline medium. The obtained solids were further characterised by key analytical techniques like FTIR and Powder XRD (p-XRD).

Applying Combat Power in the Context of Vuca and Jiim Operational Environments

Abstract The present study is aligned with the concerns of different armies to identify solutions regarding the operational adaptation of military structures to the demands of current and future operational environments. The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) character of the various operational environments determines the military structures to operate from a joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational (JIIM) perspective in order to reach the desired end state. From this perspective, the adjustment of combat functions becomes the groundwork for the proposed variant of the combat power adapted to support the operational flexibility and the organizational versatility of the forces.

Peter and the Bomb: A Play

PETER, a man in his early thirties.JOSEPHINE, a woman in her late twenties. PETER's girlfriend.Josephine's bedroom. Livermore, CA. 1985. Night.A bedroom that overlooks a quiet street. The room's only furnishings are a nightstand holding a tall lamp, and a bed. In it, lay PETER and JOSEPHINE. The room is dark. There is no sound.When asked for his view on the value and nature of political theatre, in a 1985 interview with Benedict Nightingale, Pinter responded by reading a comment from Peter Hagelstein—a leading nuclear physicist: “My view of weapons has changed. Until 1980 or so, I did not want anything to do with nuclear anything. Back in those days, I thought there was something fundamentally evil about weapons. Now, I see it as an interesting physics problem.” Now, look, this man is really there. He is at the hilt. At the top of his profession. And what he is doing, and what he is encouraged to do … is to look at things as abstractions. That's how I understand his assertion. And that is what I think we are all encouraged to do. (Pinter 1985) Pinter, here, argues that it is the desired end of, ostensibly, a given nation-state to press its citizens to think abstractly. And his specific example, namely Hagelstein's portrayal of nuclear weapons as a science problem, underlines the dissonance between this object's true (according to Pinter) reality and its promoted abstraction.This glaring divide, and Pinter's interest in it, serves as the catalyst for my work. In my short drama, I offer a Pinteresque vision of Peter Hagelstein's relationship with his partner (in 1985) Josephine Stein, a notable dissident of his pioneering work in weapons research at Livermore National Laboratory.

Association Between Seroclearance of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and Long-term Clinical Outcomes of Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Seroclearance of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is the desired end point of treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, according to guidelines. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the strength of the association between HBsAg seroclearance and long-term clinical outcomes. We performed a systematic review of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases for articles that assessed HBsAg status and reported the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), liver decompensation, liver transplantation, and/or all-cause mortality during follow-up evaluation. We performed a meta-analysis of rate ratios (RR) using a random-effects model independently for each end point and for a composite end point. We analyzed data from 28 studies, comprising a total of 188,316 patients with chronic HBV infection (treated and untreated), and 1,486,081 person-years (PY) of follow-up evaluation; 26 reported data on HCC, 7 on liver decompensation, and 13 on liver transplantation and/or death. The composite event rates were 0.19/1000 PY for the HBsAg seroclearance group and 2.45/1000 PY for the HBsAg-persistent group. Pooled RRs for the HBsAg seroclearance group were 0.28 for liver decompensation (95% CI, 0.13-0.59; P= .001), 0.30 for HCC (95% CI, 0.20-0.44; P < .001), 0.22 for liver transplantation and/or death (95% CI, 0.13-0.39; P < .001), and 0.31 for the composite end point (95% CI, 0.23-0.43; P < .001). No differences in RR estimates were observed among subgroups of different study or patient characteristics. In a systematic review and meta-analysis, we found seroclearance of HBsAg to be associated significantly with improved patient outcomes. The results are consistent among different types of studies, in all patient subpopulations examined, and support the use of HBsAg seroclearance as a primary end point of trials of patients with chronic HBV infection.

To Formalize or Not to Formalize: Women Entrepreneurs\u2019 Sensemaking of Business Registration in the Context of Nepal

Despite the depiction of decisions to formalize informal firms as rational and ethical, many entrepreneurs in developing countries continue to operate informally regardless of its perceived illicit status. While existing research on why entrepreneurs choose informality emphasizes the economic costs and benefits of such decisions, this often overlooks the realities of the informal economy and the constraints which marginal populations—particularly women—face. In this paper, we use institutional theory and sensemaking to understand the experiences of women in the informal economy and what formalization means to them. We use a qualitative approach to collect data from 90 women entrepreneurs in three different cities in Nepal. In our findings we identify three groups of women with distinctive understandings of formalization—business sustainability, livelihood sufficiency and strategic alignment. Their interpretation of formalization reveals the complex, dynamic, and cyclical nature of formalization decisions. Decisions are also guided by the optimization of social and emotional logics, whereby formalization is conceived differently depending on different life stages, experiences within the informal economy and wider socio-cultural contexts. Our findings highlight the ethical implications of formalization where being a ‘good citizen’, rather than complying with formal rules and regulations, is about attuning to and fitting in with socially prescribed roles. Our research provides a nuanced view of formalization decisions, challenging idealized and ethical notions of formalization as a desired end state.

Snack foods from brewing waste: consumer-led approach to developing sustainable snack options

PurposeUsing a consumer-led approach, the purpose of this research is to examine how consumers perceive new cereal-based snack food concepts using healthy brewers spent grain (BSG) as a sustainable and functional ingredient.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth laddering interviews based on means–end chain theory were conducted with 40 healthy snack consumers in Dublin, Ireland.FindingsFour hierarchical value maps (HVM) representing data from each snack concept dimensions were generated. The results identified the crispy crackers concept as the most promising for further development, followed by crispy sticks with dip, fruity biscuits and twisted breadsticks. Consumer cognitions regarding the crispy sticks with dip and fruity biscuits were more dominantly associated with a hedonic orientation, while crispy crackers and twisted breadsticks were more strongly associated with health- related dimensions. The HVMs also identified factors which could potentially prevent the acceptance of these snacks. Although consumers displayed a level of environmental consciousness regarding the perceived packaging type, outcomes also showed that the environmental benefit of using BSG in foods is not viewed as a means to attain a desired end state in the consumers’ mind. Our findings also suggest the rich protein content of BSG is not considered relevant in the context of a cereal snack product.Practical implicationsBSG is an abundant, low-cost, nutritious waste material which is available globally in large quantities. This study provides new actionable consumer insights with important implications for snack manufacturers regarding the design and development of cereal snack foods containing this healthy by-product.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a limited body of literature by illustrating which product characteristics are considered important for consumers when selecting healthy, cereal-based snack foods using BSG as an ingredient.

Securing Criminal Records using R-Pi, QR code and Steganography

In today`s digital scenario it has become very essential to maintain secrecy of criminal records otherwise forgery could happen. Using steganography it is possible to provide security for the information which is communicated over the internet from one crime branch to the other. Steganography one of the emerging security fields works to mask the very existence of the message. A wide range of carrier file formats can be utilized, but digital steganography is the extremely beneficial data hiding technique to secure criminal image as well as the crime scene images. Various applications have various prerequisites of the steganography method utilized. In this paper, we proposed CRSS (Criminal Record Security System) an image steganography method with LSB and RSA technique for enhanced security and along with that Raspberry pi and GSM module is used. Thus, for a more secure approach, the proposed method hides the criminal`s confidential records such as criminal`s image, crime scene digital images etc. using LSB steganography and also encrypts the confidential data making use of a private key using RSA algorithm and then sends it to the desired end. The receiver then decrypts the confidential data to get the original criminal information. CRSS is also proposed to send a QR code to the receiver which hides sensitive data and may include criminal`s previous crime history and other written proofs which are scanned at the receiving end reveals the entire criminal record. The entire system is implemented on Raspberry Pi 3 processor and thus a secure transmission of data without traditional desktop dependency in a more economical way could be established.

A projected primal-dual gradient optimal control method for deep reinforcement learning

In this contribution, we start with a policy-based Reinforcement Learning ansatz using neural networks. The underlying Markov Decision Process consists of a transition probability representing the dynamical system and a policy realized by a neural network mapping the current state to parameters of a distribution. Therefrom, the next control can be sampled. In this setting, the neural network is replaced by an ODE, which is based on a recently discussed interpretation of neural networks. The resulting infinite optimization problem is transformed into an optimization problem similar to the well-known optimal control problems. Afterwards, the necessary optimality conditions are established and from this a new numerical algorithm is derived. The operating principle is shown with two examples. It is applied to a simple example, where a moving point is steered through an obstacle course to a desired end position in a 2D plane. The second example shows the applicability to more complex problems. There, the aim is to control the finger tip of a human arm model with five degrees of freedom and 29 Hill’s muscle models to a desired end position.

From the Leader’s Values to Organizational Values: Toward a Dynamic and Experimental View on Value Work in SMEs

In this article, we contribute to empirically account for Selznick’s argument about the moral competence of organizations by showing the ways an organization collectively thinks, acts, feels and expresses needs (Callon, 2006) related to its desirable ends. These are related to the socio-technical arrangements processing the values work. Made up of devices, actors, and social groups, the socio-technical arrangements are brought into existence by means of material embodiments of values in artifacts. Considering the case of a leader who has founded a firm in the social and solidarity sector in order to implement his personal values, we contribute to better understanding value-based leadership. We trace how this leader’s values are progressively and collectively materialized into artifacts that create new relationships in which the organization’s desirable ends are to be met. Adopting a relational and processual view on values work, we trace the evolution of this socio-technical arrangement to maintain or restore the implementation of organizational values in an evolving context, contributing to a dynamic view on organizational values.

Development of an Artificial Intelligence Powered TIG Welding Algorithm for the Prediction of Bead Geometry for TIG Welding Processes using Hybrid Deep Learning

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) modeling tools allows for envisaging that AI will remove elements of human mechanical effort from welding operations. This paper contributes to this development by proposing an AI tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding algorithm that can assist human welders to select desirable end factors to achieve good weld quality in the welding process. To demonstrate its feasibility, the proposed model has been tested with data from 27 experiments using current, arc length and welding speed as control parameters to predict weld bead width. A fuzzy deep neural network, which is a combination of fuzzy logic and deep neural network approaches, is applied in the algorithm. Simulations were carried out on an experimental test dataset with the AI TIG welding algorithm. The results showed 92.59% predictive accuracy (25 out of 27 correct answers) as compared to the results from the experiment. The performance of the algorithm at this nascent stage demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method. This performance shows that in future work, if its predictive accuracy is improved with human input and more data, it could achieve the level of accuracy that could support the human welder in the field to enhance efficiency in the welding process. The findings are useful for industries that are in the welding trade and serve as an educational tool.

Should Wellness Be a Core Competency for Physicians?

There has been a recent rise in calls for action around wellness and physician health. In medical education, wellness has been proposed as a physician competency. In this article, the authors review the history of the "wellness as a competency" concept within U.S. and Canadian residency programs and medical schools. Drawing from literature on the discourses of wellness and competence in medical education, they argue that operationalizing wellness as a physician competency holds profound implications for curricula, admissions, evaluation, and licensure. While many definitions of "wellness" and "competency" are used within medical training environments, the authors argue that the definitions institutions ultimately use will have significant impacts for trainees who are considered "unwell." In particular, medical learners with disabilities-including those with mental health, chronic health, learning, sensory, and mobility disabilities-may not conform to dominant conceptions of "wellness," and there is a risk they will become further stigmatized or even be considered unsuitable to practice in the profession. The authors conclude that framing wellness as a competency has the potential to legitimize support-seeking and prioritize physician health, yet it may also have the potential unintended effect of excluding certain learners from the profession. They propose a universal design approach to understand wellness at a systems level and to remove barriers to wellness for all medical learners.