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An organization’s business model describes the architecture and process by which it creates, delivers, and captures value. Extant research describes how the model enables the enterprise to capitalize on its innovations, and attain or maintain a position of competitive advantage. Business model innovations (BMI) can be a mechanism by which the enterprise can capitalize on opportunities or protect against threats from environmental changes. This paper discusses BMI among nonprofit organizations. Informed by a series of interviews with leaders in the area, we review several existential environmental threats to the nonprofit performing arts sector in the United States. We discuss a number of BMIs being adopted by these organizations to respond to these threats and classify them according to their impact: value creation, value delivery, or value capture. Given the need to develop research in the area of nonprofit BMI, we offer a research agenda to further that goal.

As society has become more diverse and inclusive, so do the images portrayed in advertising. Using an historical research method, we gather data on political, legal, demographic, social, and cultural changes in American society, and changes in the content and messages of American advertising. We develop a framework to describe the process of how advertising and society interact. Our findings demonstrate that advertisers, in their efforts to reach their audiences, use images and language that are familiar and comfortable. Advertisers are also cautious not to alienate consumers and other stakeholders. We also suggest that marketers’ ethical obligation drives them to take a stakeholders perspective, particularly in advertising, resulting in messages that are more representative of society and at times attempt to influence society. Our study focuses on three areas of social interest: race (primarily African Americans), LGBTQ, and women’s roles as portrayed in advertising.

There is a need to examine the productivity of marketing investments in brand social media communication, specifically the implications for brand value enhancement. Adopting a consumer perspective,...

Purpose Brand authenticity has emerged as a strategic imperative for many firms. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect of consumer perceptions of brand marketing communications on brand authenticity of fast-moving consumer goods. Design/methodology/approach Direct and indirect pathways from brand marketing communications to brand authenticity were conceptualized. Data were collected from US energy drink consumers and analysed using structural equation modelling. Multiple marketing mix variables and context-relevant covariates have been controlled for. Findings Direct and indirect pathways to building brand authenticity have been observed. The total effect of brand marketing communications on brand authenticity is strong, thereby highlighting the predictor’s overall effectiveness in shaping the ultimate outcome. Research limitations/implications The focus on consumer-perceived authenticity as opposed to objective authenticity complements the prior literature. An integrative perspective on brand marketing communications is offered, specifying it as an antecedent of perceived brand authenticity. Practical implications An important implication is that investments into brand marketing communications will likely influence perceived brand authenticity. Such investments may also have favourable implications for the clarity of brand positioning. Overall, brand marketing communications are effective tools for building consumer-perceived brand authenticity. Originality/value A need to outline managerially controllable drivers of authenticity was addressed. How consumer perceptions of brand marketing communications influence brand authenticity via direct and indirect mechanisms was demonstrated. The existence of authenticity in fast-moving consumer goods was also demonstrated.

Competition in the nonprofit sector has dramatically intensified in the past two decades because of (1) the increased number of nonprofit organizations (NPOs), (2) the decline and diffusion of gove...

Marketing is a central business function, and because marketing strategy affects decisions central to generating and sustaining competitive advantage, it plays a significant role in the firm’s overall business performance. Further, marketing’s boundary-spanning nature results in marketing strategies playing a major role in the business-strategy formulation. However, in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, many firms have questioned the value of marketing as evidenced by reduced marketing budgets, less executive time allocated to marketing, marketing increasingly being perceived as a cost, and the reduction in the tenure of marketing executives on top management teams (TMTs). In recent times, from a position touted to be in great peril, marketing executives on TMTs are slowly growing into the role of being significant contributors to firm strategy. In this research, drawing on upper echelons theory and silo-spanning communications research, we investigate how integration of marketing knowledge can go a long way in facilitating strong firm performance. Specifically, we investigate how top management emphasis, silo-spanning communication through formal and informal cross-functional interface mechanisms, knowledge valuation, and knowledge-oriented culture influence marketing knowledge integration and, in turn, marketing and financial performance. The results of our research support our premise that organizations that facilitate the integration of marketing knowledge are more likely to reap the positive influence on firm performance. Specifically, by not facilitating effective marketing knowledge integration, it is firms that fail the marketing function and not the other way around. Overall, modern-day marketing strategy is inherently complex and dynamic, and the ever-changing bundles of knowledge about customers, competitors, technologies, strategies, policies and procedures, and other environmental forces demand continuous integration of marketing knowledge. This research is one of the first to empirically examine the role of the marketing function in impacting firm performance. Specifically, on the foundations of upper echelons theory, this research demonstrates the valuable role that the marketing function can play in contributing to firm performance.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the tax regulatory and enforcement agency of the US federal government that grants, reviews, and revokes tax exempt status. In the initial NPO application, the IRS scrutinizes each nonprofit organization’s (NPO) application to determine worthiness for the coveted status. Recently, the service came under pressure for politically biased treatment of certain organizations’ applications, with some applications being delayed for years.

New to the world innovations such as the automobile, telephone, airplane, radio, television, and personal computer have had profound impacts on society. Not only have they changed the way that consumers live and work, but they have given birth to entire industries, industries that in some cases have grown to exceed one trillion US dollars in worldwide revenues. Long before these economy-leading industries emerge, they are at best budding curiosities, with the potential to change the world but without any sense of how to achieve that potential. To understand how these early industries evolve, it would be helpful to look at the history of one to see if there are any identifiable patterns that might be found in other early industries.

SUMMARY Perturbed epigenomic programs play key roles in tumorigenesis, and chromatin modulators are candidate therapeutic targets in various human cancer types. To define singular and shared dependencies on DNA and histone modifiers and transcription factors in poorly differentiated adult and pediatric cancers, we conducted a targeted shRNA screen across 59 cell lines of 6 cancer types. Here, we describe the TRPS1 transcription factor as a strong breast cancer-specific hit, owing largely to lineage-restricted expression. Knockdown of TRPS1 resulted in perturbed mitosis, apoptosis, and reduced tumor growth. Integrated analysis of TRPS1 transcriptional targets, chromatin binding, and protein interactions revealed that TRPS1 is associated with the NuRD repressor complex. These findings uncover a transcriptional network that is essential for breast cancer cell survival and propagation., Graphical Abstract, In Brief Witwicki et al. use a targeted shRNA screening strategy to identify transcriptional and epigenomic dependencies in poorly differentiated human cancers. TRPS1 is a lineage-specific transcription factor that is required for mitosis in breast cancer cells. TRPS1 is associated with the NuRD complex, and it regulates cell adhesion, cytoskeleton, and G2-M phase-related genes.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to offer a sustainability-based typology for non-profit organizations and corresponding strategies to sustain the mission and/or financial objectives of non-profit organizations. The balance of mission and money, known in the non-profit literature as the double bottom line, is a challenge for professional managers who run non-profits and scholars who study them.Design/methodology/approach– Typologies are often used to classify phenomena to improve understanding and bring about clarity. In this paper, non-profit organizations are viewed from a social and fiscal viability perspective, developed from the long standing challenge of balancing mission and money.Findings– The typology developed in this paper identifies several normative strategies that correspond to the social and fiscal viability of non-profit organizations. In fact, the strategies offered in this paper can help non-profit managers achieve organizational sustainability, thus enabling them to continue what they are meant to do – to provide greater social value to their constituents.Research limitations/implications– The typology presented is a classification system rather than a theoretical typology. Its purpose is to help managers of non-profits to recognize threats to their organizations’ long-term survival and offer strategies that if adopted can move the organizations to less vulnerable positions. However, the recommended strategies are by no means exhaustive. Furthermore, the focus of the paper is on non-profit organizations, not profit-driven or hybrid entities. The sustainability-based typology of non-profit organizations and the corresponding strategies have implications for practitioners and academics. The typology and its contents can help managers assess their non-profits, competitive environment and their current strategies, plan their double bottom line strategies and last but not the least, develop and implement strategies for social and fiscal sustainability. In addition, our paper provides great opportunities for future research to subject our typology and its contents to conceptual and empirical scrutiny.Practical implications– The strategies described here are developed based on scholarly research and examples from successful non-profits. The typology and the related list of strategies provide a manager with the tools to accurately diagnose organizational challenges and adopt plans to improve the organization’s viability.Social implications– Non-profit organizations are an integral part of society that bolsters economic prosperity, environmental integrity and social justice. This paper may provide guidance for a number of non-profit managers to keep their organizations operating and serving important social missions.Originality/value– In the context of organizations for social mission, several typologies exist that looked at firms from the perspectives of ownership versus profit objectives, entrepreneurship conceptualizations of economists and origins and development paths of social enterprises. While these typologies provided foundations for theoretical and empirical work into social enterprises, our typology offers strategies for the sustainability of mission and/or money objectives of non-profits. The value of this research lies in integrating virtuous and pragmatic objectives of non-profit sustainability that, in turn, can ensure the social mission of non-profits.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of celebrity endorser credibility on consumer self-brand connection and endorsed brand equity. A conceptual model is developed, positioning consumer self-brand connections as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey of 382 consumers of sports drinks in the USA was conducted to estimate the conceptual model. Stimuli, devised on the basis of a pre-test, involved celebrity–brand pairings in the context of the US non-aseptic sports drinks industry. Structural equation modeling is used as the analytic tool. Findings – The research model is empirically supported. Celebrity endorsements impact endorsed brand equity via two pathways. First, a direct effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity was observed, which is positively moderated by the degree of consumer-perceived endorser–brand congruence. Second, self-brand connection partly mediates the effect of endorser credibility on endorsed brand equity, supporting an indirect mechanism of brand equity enhancement. Practical implications – Managers can now consider using celebrities as tools to develop meaningful self-concept-related connections with consumers. Additionally, the results of this study support for the use of celebrity endorsers as direct brand equity-enhancing tools. Originality/value – This study is among pioneering investigations that examine the self-concept repercussions of celebrity endorsements, suggesting that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to engage with consumers at the self-concept level, in turn, impacting endorsed brand equity. Additionally, this paper examines the direct and indirect mechanisms by which celebrities influence consumer-based brand equity of the endorsed brand.

nhibitors that target the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)/Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway have led to clinical responses in lung and other cancers, but some patients fail to respond and in those that do resistance inevitably occurs (Balak et al., 2006; Kosaka et al., 2006; Rudin et al., 2013; Wagle et al., 2011). To understand intrinsic and acquired resistance to inhibition of MAPK signaling, we performed CRISPR-Cas9 gene deletion screens in the setting of BRAF, MEK, EGFR, and ALK inhibition. Loss of KEAP1, a negative regulator of NFE2L2/NRF2, modulated the response to BRAF, MEK, EGFR, and ALK inhibition in BRAF-, NRAS-, KRAS-, EGFR-, and ALK-mutant lung cancer cells. Treatment with inhibitors targeting the RTK/MAPK pathway increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells with intact KEAP1, and loss of KEAP1 abrogated this increase. In addition, loss of KEAP1 altered cell metabolism to allow cells to proliferate in the absence of MAPK signaling. These observations suggest that alterations in the KEAP1/NRF2 pathway may promote survival in the presence of multiple inhibitors targeting the RTK/Ras/MAPK pathway., National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (R01 CA130998), National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (U01 CA176058), National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (U01 CA199253)

Ganglion cysts, benign soft-tissue tumors that can occur at any joint, are the most common masses occurring in the hand and comprise 50%-70% of all hand soft-tissue tumors. Despite the high frequency of occurrence, ganglion cyst etiology remains uncertain and perhaps even more elusive is the most appropriate treatment. With 53% of wrist ganglion cysts spontaneously resolving and a nearly equal rate of recurrence after treatment, any invasive management should reliably warrant benefits outweighing presenting complaints. A minimally invasive treatment obtaining a 95% cure rate using 2/0 silk suture was first described in 1988 by Gang and Makhlouf. Although surgical excision remains the accepted gold standard of symptomatic ganglion cysts treatment, we present a series of 7 cases of ganglion cysts treated using a suture technique. Six of the cases involve the dorsal wrist and 1 case involved a rare dorsal foot location. These patients were treated in a community family medicine residency setting. We achieved a 71% cure rate over an average follow-up time of 1 year with a range of 6-24 months. The positive outcomes achieved add to the present body of knowledge on using a suture technique. With a fast learning curve for this technique and the low risk of complications relative to other invasive techniques, we offer that the suture technique should be considered a first line of treatment for symptomatic ganglion cysts.

The research outlines forces that threaten a firm’s ability to retain competences that lead to comparative advantage. We argue that resource specialization within competence creation can create resource lock-in which can make the firm vulnerable to interfirm casual ambiguity, intra-firm casual ambiguity, and reward system misalignment. Together, the three elements can result in a triangulated isomorphism which can decrease competence retention. Also, we posit that retention of competences in the presence of triangulated isomorphism results in a new product development focus on incremental (rather than radical) innovations. Discussion and conclusion ensue.

Marketing strategists should create, maintain, and arrest the decay of causally ambiguous resource competences that lead to competitiveness and thus performance. However, competence causal ambiguity, which helps create competitiveness, is also implicated in competitiveness decay. In this study we test a model of specialization-competitiveness-performance using primary and secondary data from 169 public respondents/firms, to examine the effects of negative internal barriers to replication and adaptation. These barriers develop due to resource lock-in arising from the same specialization processes that lead to the positive barriers to imitation that deter competitors. Results suggest that commitment to learning can mitigate resource lock-in problems with internal competence causal ambiguity, competence causal ambiguity among competitors appears more essential to competitiveness in more competitive markets, competitiveness positively relates to both shareholder value and new product performance, and an increased differential focus on marketing versus operations in the organization strengthens the positive bridge between organizational competitiveness and shareholder return.

An assessment of sales research reveals limited theoretical sophistication and grounding, less focus on intraorganizational issues, over emphasis on the micro (salesperson) versus the macro (sales function) aspects in sales management, and the criticality of knowledge to sales management. Although marketing literature draws on metaphors for theory development, there is very little sales management research that relies on metaphors for theory. In addition, reflecting the recent changes in the external environment, there have been several calls to research knowledge-based sales management. Therefore, this article explores knowledge grafting – a new theoretical metaphor – in the context of knowledge-based sales management. In doing so, first, we briefly overview the metaphor literature. Second, we introduce and evaluate the grafting metaphor. Third, we discuss the important issues of knowledge-based sales management. Fourth, we describe the knowledge grafting process and develop a knowledge grafting based conceptual framework in the context of sales management. Fifth, we discuss the strategic normative imperatives for practice. Finally, we conclude with a call for future research.

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) contribute to society through their social value creation. They operate in an increasingly turbulent context where building sustainable organizations has emerged as a critical need. Past authors have discussed this important issue in a fragmented manner. Using multiple case studies of socially entrepreneurial NPOs, this paper examines how the need for building a sustainable organization has impacted on the strategy focus of the nonprofit organization. The findings suggest that in response to an increased competitive environment, NPOs have been forced to adopt an organizational sustainability focus in both strategic and operational levels of management. The study makes a strong contribution to current debate in social entrepreneurship and to a broader agenda concerned with developing sustainable organizations. Whilst the findings have important implications for theory and current practice, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research at the interstices of these areas.

Marketing educators have a responsibility to educate and develop students who are creative, knowledgeable and able to contribute to the success of their firms. One approach to preparing students is to foster a learning orientation. The purpose of this article is to further the understanding of the development of a learning orientation by using team-based active learning for marketing classes. We first discuss how a learning orientation can be beneficial in a class context. Next, we present an overview of team-based active learning rooted in the principles of cooperative learning as an approach for instilling a learning orientation. Finally, we describe an investigation into individual's perception of the influence of learning orientation on creativity, knowledge, and performance. Based on the analysis of data collected from 246 marketing students, the results suggest learning orientation, based on team-based active learning, positively influences marketing program creativity and knowledge.

Drinking alcohol is a major activity among college students. Most of the research on this subject has focused on students’ motivations for excessive drinking and the associated public health concerns. Little research has investigated the leisure context in which students drink alcohol, specifically, why students choose to drink in particular bars. The present study uses a means‐end chain methodology to explore students’ motivation for selecting bars in which they drink. Depth interviews with 36 college students reveal the attributes of a bar that are most important to them, as well as the anticipated consequences and underlying personal values that motivate the preference for these attributes.

Nonprofit organizations are experiencing increasing pressures to be more business-like and to focus on financial outcomes for sustainability and growth. There have been questions whether this attention on performance might come at the cost of serving an organization's mission. The research presented here indicates that a nonprofit organization's mission can facilitate innovation, which has been shown to be a key mediating step in achieving superior organizational performance. Two studies were conducted among nonprofit hospitals in the United States to investigate the role of the nonprofit organization's mission in the innovation process. The findings indicate that a clear, motivating organizational mission helps an organization to focus its attention on those innovations that will most likely support the accomplishment of that mission. Such a mission also creates a climate in which innovations are given a fair chance to succeed. As a result, firms with clear, motivating missions tend to be more innovative.

This paper presents integrated marketing communication (IMC) and brand identity as critical components of the firm's brand equity strategy. Specifically, the authors provide a brand equity strategy schematic that details (1) the role of IMC in creating and maintaining brand equity, and (2) the role of brand identity in informing, guiding, and helping to develop, nurture, and implement the firm's overall IMC strategy. The authors also present a conceptual framework with testable research propositions toward IMC theory development. Finally, a discussion of implications for academics and practitioners is provided, and opportunities for future qualitative and quantitative research are suggested.

The marketing literature is rich with research explicating the usefulness of metaphors. However, in the context of sales management, there is little research that investigates metaphors. Therefore, this article identifies and discusses several literary and theoretical metaphors that are relevant to sales management and discusses their usefulness. Furthermore, the article defines knowledge-based sales management strategy and develops knowledge grafting in the context of knowledge-based sales management strategy. Also, this article presents strategic normative imperatives based on the knowledge grafting metaphor. Along with knowledge grafting, the theoretical metaphors that are identified in this article can contribute to theory development for knowledge-based sales management strategy. Future research directions are discussed.

142 Background: Everolimus (EVE) plus exemestane (EXE) more than doubled progression-free survival (PFS) while maintaining quality of life vs EXE alone in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor–positive (HR+), HER2-negative (HER2–) advanced breast cancer (BOLERO-2 phase III; NCT00863655). PFS benefit was seen in all clinically defined subgroups. We evaluated genetic variations of a broad panel of cancer-related genes and explored their correlations with EVE benefit. Methods: Exon sequence and gene copy number variations were analyzed in 182 cancer-related genes by next-generation sequencing (NGS). Correlations with PFS were evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox models. Results: NGS data (>250x coverage) were successfully generated from archival tumor specimens from 227 patients (NGS population, 157 in EVE + EXE arm and 70 in EXE arm) whose baseline characteristics and clinical outcome were comparable to the trial population (PFS HR = 0.40 and 0.45, respectively). The treatment benefit of EVE...

The BOLERO-2 phase III trial compared the combination of everolimus and exemestane to placebo and exemestane in 724 postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. Results showed significant improvement in progression-free survival, response rate, and clinical benefit rate. Although significant benefit has been observed in all prospectively defined subgroups, variations were seen among patients. As the first step to delineate the molecular determinants of sensitivity to everolimus and interactions between estrogen receptor and mTOR pathways, we used next-generation sequencing technology to comprehensively assess the genetic alterations in archival tumor specimens. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tumor samples were obtained from 496 patients. DNA was extracted from 348 samples of sufficient quantity and 230 samples (representing approximately 1/3 of all patients) qualified for the analysis. No indication of sampling bias was observed when the data were assessed and compared against several covariates as well as to the full trial data. The coding regions of 182 cancer-related genes were analyzed using an Illumina HiSeq 2000. Mutations and copy number variations were evaluated in 230 samples for which DNA extraction, library construction, and hybrid capture were successful and sequencing depth was sufficient (250-1500×). Alterations predicted to be germline events were discarded. One hundred seventy-three genes were found to be altered in at least one tumor sample. The number of alterations per sample varied from 1 to 24 (average 9 ± 4). Sequence variations (N = 1565) consisted primarily of point mutations (85%), followed by deletions (9%) and insertions (6%). 225 of 230 (98%) patients had at least two sequence variations. The most frequently mutated genes included PIK3CA (49%), TP53 (24%), and ARID1A (16%). ESR1 and IGF1R mutations were detected in 9% and 4% of the cohort, respectively. PIK3CA and AKT1 (6%) mutations were found to be mutually exclusive. Copy-number alterations comprised of 524 amplifications and 27 bi-allelic deletions. The most frequently amplified genes included CCND1 (32%) and FGFR1 (18%). Specific rearrangements assayed in 14 genes occurred infrequently (9% of the samples). These results demonstrated the feasibility of performing large-scale next-generation sequencing in a global phase III clinical trial. High alteration frequencies were observed in specific genes, resulting in activated PI3K, FGFR1, and estrogen receptor pathways, corroborating the rationale of concomitant targeting of the mTOR and estrogen receptor pathways. The results generate testable hypotheses for the development of combinations of new targeted therapies in this patient population. Citation Format: Jose Baselga, Martine Piccart, Hope Rugo, David Chen, Howard A. Burris, Mario Campone, Shinzaburo Noguchi, Alejandra Perez, Inas Deleu, Mikhail Shtivelband, Louise Provencher, Adnan Derti, Alan Huang, Rob McDonald, Creton Kalfoglou, Douglas Robinson, Tetiana Taran, Tarek Sahmoud, David Lebwohl, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi. Assessment of genetic alterations using next-generation sequencing in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer: results from the BOLERO-2 phase III trial. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4564. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4564

The authors propose an analytical framework for innovations, based on the resource-advantage theory of competition. Categorisation of innovations depends on how they contribute to a firm's competitive advantage. Essentially, do innovations reduce costs to the organisation, or do they increase the value of its market offerings? They apply this framework to an important segment of the US economy: healthcare (specifically hospitals), to examine the impact of technological innovations for competitive advantage. The findings show that adoption is higher among bigger hospitals and also teaching hospitals.

Top-braced open thin-walled steel box girders under combined bending and torsion were studied. Two model box girders were tested in the elastic range. Analytically, the top bracing of open box sections was converted to an equivalent plate thus forming an equivalent closed box. Experimental results on top-braced open boxes and computed stresses for the equivalent closed boxes agreed fairly well. Rotations calculated from deflections without adjustment of support rotations were higher than the values computed for the equivalent closed boxes. Deformation of cross section was neglected in the analysis. The stresses in the bracing members were estimated using stresses in the equivalent top plate as loads on a bracing frame. The estimated stresses also compared well with experimental results. Based on the concept of equivalent closed box, a procedure was recommended for the selection of bracing member sizes.

1. 1. In reviewing the literature on cord anomalies only three cases of varix were found. The largest of these was the size of a hen's egg. One case of false aneurysm, probably a varix, is reported. 2. 2. Three types of varicose tumors are recognized among these five cases reported. Three are of the thin-walled type with a relatively large cavity; one a small tumor with thickened walls and containing organized clotted blood, and one is described as simply a dilatation of the vein as it entered the umbilicus. 3. 3. In our case, when the membranes ruptured early in the second stage of labor, a large amount of old blood discoloring the amniotic fluid was released. 4. 4. The fetus was stillborn in a pallid state. It had been exsanguinated by rupture of a large varix of the umbilical cord. 5. 5. The time of rupture cannot be definitely stated but probably occurred about two or three days before the onset of labor when the mother first noticed cessation of fetal movements. 6. 6. The case reported is one of ruptured umbilical varix and adds one to the four cases which we have been able to find recorded in the literature.

1. 1. The diagnosis of some abnormality of the internal generative organs was aided by uterosalpingography. 2. 2. Exploratory laparotomy revealed the presence of a double uterus (uterus didelphys), ovarian cyst, and endometriosis of the pelvic peritoneum. 3. 3. Extirpation of the rudimentary uterus, ovarian cyst, appendix, and peritoneal endometrial implants was performed. 4. 4. The transtubal implantation theory of endometriosis (Sampson) might seem tenable in this case. 5. 5. There has been no dysmenorrhea in the three menstrual periods which have occurred since operation.

We report a case of Clostridium perfringens infection following upper urinary tract stone surgery. A karaya seal urostomy bag used over the drain site was found to be the cause of the infection. Subsequent investigation revealed that the karaya seal on urostomy bags cannot be sterilized.

The Big Piney--La Barge complex, with cumulative gas production of 1.2 Tcf, has been the leading gas-producing area in Wyoming since 1956. It also contributes significant oil production, which has amounted to about 65 million bbl. Ultimate reserves are estimated to be 2.5 Tcf of gas and 7.5 million bbl of oil. In addition, condensate production averages about 3 bbl/MMcf of gas. Production is from rocks as young as Paleocene and as old as Triassic. The major gas reservoir in the area is the Cretaceous Frontier Formation. Structural, stratigraphic, and combination traps are all common in the Big Piney--La Barge area. Probably significant to trapping the hydrocarbons in the Paleocene strata was the transgression of Paleocene units onto the Big Piney--La Barge platform or anticline. The area was anticlinally folded during Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene times, and Mesaverde units reflect the influence of the Moxa arch to the south and the Monument Buttes--Blue Rim arch to the southeast. Accumulations in the Frontier are essentially structurally controlled west of the La Barge thrust; however, east of that thrust, production is mainly from stratigraphic traps

Celebrity endorsements are a popular marketing communication’s strategy globally. Yet, there is limited understanding of how celebrity endorsements influence consumers’ self-brand connections as well as brand evaluation of an endorsed brand. Emergent research reveals support for an indirect mechanism by which endorser credibility facilitates consumer outcomes. The present research has two objectives. The first is to assess the impact of endorser credibility on consumers’ self-brand connection, an emergent concept that captures the consumer tendency to integrate a brand into their self-concept. Celebrities represent aspirational reference groups for consumers, and an investigation of how celebrities shape consumers’ self-brand connections and subsequent brand evaluations adds novelty to the branding literature. The second objective is to examine a possible mediating role of self-brand connection towards generating endorsed brand evaluation. We develop a conceptual model and estimate it using data generated from consumers of telecom brands. The model achieves acceptable fit to the data, supporting most of the hypotheses. Self-brand connection is offered as an outcome of endorser credibility as well as a mediator of the influence of endorser credibility on brand evaluation. The findings have useful implications for brand managers contemplating the use of celebrity endorsements.