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This study aims to assess if the benefits outweigh the costs of participation in online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com.,A two-step system generalised method of moments estimation of a regression model of firm-level return on assets (ROA) is used on a dummy variable indicating whether a lodging facility participates in Booking.com. The assessment contained various control variables, including size, age, leverage, liquidity and lagged ROA. The moderating effect of firm age and size was studied by including interaction variables between the Booking.com dummy and age and size, respectively. The model was estimated using participation and financial data of 775 Belgian firms over a 20-year period (1999–2018).,The findings indicate that participation in Booking.com is associated with higher profitability, with this effect more economically important and pronounced for smaller hotel properties.,The study provides a broadly applicable empirical model to assess the impact of platform participation on the financial performance of tourism, hospitality or retail businesses.,The study provides empirical evidence that, from a transaction cost perspective, the benefits of participation in OTAs outweigh the costs, resulting in substantially higher profitability. The evidence can be used to justify the use of OTAs as distribution channels.,While prior studies have described and conceptually analysed the evolution and role of OTAs in the hotel sector, and speculated on the net effect of OTA participation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically assess whether OTA participation creates value for hotel owners and investors.,本文采用了两步系统GMM的估计方法, 用一个虚拟变量指示住宿设施是否参与了Booking.com, 以确定企业级别的资产回报率（ROA）的回归模型。评估涵盖了多种控制变量, 包括公司规模, 年限, 杠杆, 流动性和滞后资产回报率。企业年龄和规模的调节作用是通过加入Booking.com虚拟变量与年龄和规模之间的交互变量实现的。该模型是使用20年（1999–2018年）间775家比利时公司的参与和财务数据估算得出的。,本文目的是评估收益是否超过了参与Booking.com等在线旅行社（OTA）的成本。,研究结果表明, 参与Booking.com与更高的获利能力相关联。这种影响在经济上更加重要, 并且对于较小的酒店物业而言更为明显。,该研究提供了广泛适用的经验模型, 以评估平台参与对旅游业, 酒店业或零售业的财务绩效的影响。,该研究提供了重要的实证依据。从交易成本的角度来看, 参与OTA的收益大于成本, 从而大大提高了盈利能力。该实例证明了使用OTA作为分销渠道是合理的。,尽管先前的研究已经描述并从概念上分析了OTA在酒店领域的演变和作用, 并推测了OTA参与的净效应, 但据我们所知, 这是第一个凭经验评估OTA参与是否为酒店所有者和投资者创造价值的研究。,Una estimacion GMM en dos pasos de un modelo de regresion del rendimiento de los activos (ROA) a nivel de empresa sobre una variable ficticia que indica si un establecimiento de alojamiento participa en Booking.com. La evaluacion contenia diversas variables de control, como el tamano, la edad, el apalancamiento, la liquidez y el ROA retardado. El efecto moderador de la edad y el tamano de la empresa se estudio incluyendo variables de interaccion entre la variable ficticia de Booking.com y la edad y el tamano, respectivamente. El modelo se estimo utilizando datos de participacion y financieros de 775 empresas belgas durante un periodo de 20 anos (1999–2018).,Evaluar si los beneficios superan los costes de la participacion en agencias de viajes online (OTAs) como Booking.com.,Los resultados indican que la participacion en Booking.com esta asociada a una mayor rentabilidad, siendo este efecto mas importante y pronunciado desde el punto de vista economico para las propiedades hoteleras mas pequenas.,El estudio proporciona un modelo empirico ampliamente aplicable para evaluar el impacto de la participacion en la plataforma en los resultados financieros de las empresas turisticas, hoteleras o minoristas.,El estudio proporciona pruebas empiricas de que, desde la perspectiva de los costes de transaccion, los beneficios de la participacion en las OTAs superan los costes, lo que se traduce en una rentabilidad sustancialmente mayor. Las pruebas pueden utilizarse para justificar el uso de las OTAs como canales de distribucion.,Aunque estudios anteriores han descrito y analizado conceptualmente la evolucion y el papel de las OTAs en el sector hotelero, y han especulado sobre el efecto neto de la participacion en las OTAs, hasta donde sabemos, este es el primero que evalua empiricamente si la participacion en las OTAs crea valor para los propietarios e inversores de hoteles.

FOSS4G 2021 Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentine, 27-/09/2021 - 02/10/2021; Arabesque is an application for the exploration and geovisualisation of origin-destination flows (or spatial networks), developed within the framework of the Univ. Gustave Eiffel (ex. IFSTTAR)-funded research project geographic flow visualisation (gflowiz) geoflowiz, in collaboration with the CNRS. It allows both the exploration and the filtering of OD data and their representation, with a strong emphasis on geographic information layering and features' semiology. The key-objective is to propose an easy way to produce a modern cartography (a geovisualisation) of thematic flows (e.g. bilateral flow volume), at several geographic scales, even from your own datasets. The objective of this article is to position Arabesque in the range of geoweb applications for producing flow maps, by comparing its functionalities with those of similar web applications- Magrit, Kepler.gl, flowmap.blue -pointing out their respective advantages and limitations. The analysis of its functionalities is compared on the same flow dataset -MOBSCO, i.e. a dataset describing the school mobility of French pupils and students on a given year- for a practical and empirical "validation" of its contributions. We demonstrate that the configurations and appearances of these tools' visual output depend largely on the culture of their developers, and on the use and audiences for which they have been developed.

Background A load carrying task was identified as a major factor leading to slip and fall injuries such as overexertion and bodily reaction. Holding a load in front of the body while walking would shift the whole body center-of-mass to the front, loading additional rotational torque at the foot-ground contact. Objectives The present study evaluated if carrying a load would increase the likelihood of slip initiation and the slip severity. Methods Eleven young and 10 older adults participated in the present study. A dry surface or a slippery surface was introduced while walking. Slip distance, peak sliding heel velocity, heel contact velocity, and required coefficient of friction were measured to test the study hypotheses. Results The results showed that significant main effects were found in slip distance, and peak sliding heel velocity and no main effect were found in heel contact velocity and required coefficient of friction. Conclusion In conclusion, younger adults were found to slip longer and faster on the slippery surface while carrying a load. On the contrary, the older adults employed a safety-centered gait adaptation while carrying, to maintain slip initiation and severity characteristics at the same level as normal walking. Furthermore, light load carriage at 10% of body weight was suggested as a safe task for the elderly.

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of fluorine-18 (F-18) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging in staging of pediatric osteosarcoma patients and also to evaluate the ability of metabolic parameters from the primary tumor to predict tumor necrosis rate (TNR). Material and methods: F-18 FDG-PET/CT imaging was performed in staging 37 pediatric osteosarcoma patients. The metabolic parameters SUVmax (maximum standardised uptake value), MTV (metabolic tumour volume), and TLG (total lesion glycolysis) were measured from the primary tumor. TNR level of the primary tumor was histopathologically measured after standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment. The contribution of F-18 FDG-PET/CT to staging of pediatric osteosarcoma patients and the accuracy of metabolic parameters of the primary tumor to predict TNR were analized by regression analysis. Results: MTV and TLG of the primary tumor were found to efficiently predict histopathologic TNR, whereas SUVmax was not (P = 0.012, P = 0.027, P = 0.25, respectively). Also 5 of 12 patients (41.6%) who were initially defined as localised osteosarcoma were upstaged in consequence of staging F-18 FDG-PET/CT findings. Conclusion: F-18 FDG-PET/CT staging in pediatric osteosarcoma patients can effectively distinguish metastatic-localised disease. MTV and TLG values are important parameters, which can efficiently be used to predict TNR. WOS:000668244900026 2-s2.0-85109991916 PubMed: 33387988

As the contract cheating market has become more sophisticated and competition has intensified, the contract cheating industry has had to redevelop its approach to gain custom. The industry has developed new models of internal operation and providers are using more sophisticated techniques to reach potential customers. This paper discusses contract cheating industry workflows and introduces terminology to allow complexities of the industry to be more consistently discussed. Examples are provided throughout to indicate the scale and challenge of the contract cheating industry operations.An analysis of contract cheating operations on the micro-outsourcing website Fiverr.com is presented, using comparative data collected in June 2016 and October 2018. The analysis of the data demonstrates how the contract cheating industry is seeing continual change. Specifically, on Fiverr.com, this includes an increase in the number of providers offering essay writing services, particularly those from Kenya and Pakistan. The increase in service availability is accompanied by an associated reduction in essay pricing. The advertised pricing per 1000 words has dropped substantially, from $31.73 USD to $5.73 USD. The accounts used by contract cheating providers are also being replaced at an increased rate.Based on the data, contract cheating providers on Fiverr.com are currently estimated to be taking a minimum of $92,001 USD per year in revenue. This is an example calculated from only one search term on which contract cheating providers advertise on only one micro-outsourcing site used for contract cheating. The actual industry income from micro-outsourcing web sites is likely to be substantially higher.

Aim To determine the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of the Zurich Chronic Middle Ear Inventory (ZCMEI-21), a questionnaire assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in chronic otitis media (COM). Methods In this longitudinal study, 103 patients completed the ZCMEI-21 before and after surgery for chronic otitis media. An anchor-based method including a global rating of change (GRC) was used to assess the MCID of the ZCMEI-21. Results A total of 103 patients were included. The mean preoperative and postoperative ZCMEI-21 scores were 28.6 (SD 13.6), and 21.8 (SD 12.8), respectively. The mean change was 6.8 (SD 0.8; p r = − 0.5; p Conclusions Knowledge of values indicating a clinically relevant change in patient-reported outcome measures is important when interpreting effects of different treatment modalities. This is the first study assessing the MCID of a questionnaire measuring HRQoL in COM, i.e. the ZCMEI-21. We recommend a MCID of 5 in COM patients undergoing surgical treatment. This information substantially increases the usefulness of the ZCMEI-21 as an outcome measure in COM as changes can be assessed with regard to their clinical meaningfulness.

At large scales, typologies of urban form and corresponding generating processes remain an open question with important implications regarding urban planning policies and sustainability. We propose in this paper to generate urban configurations at large scales, typically of districts, with morphogenesis models, and compare these to real configurations according to morphological indicators. Real values are computed on a large sample of districts taken in European urban areas. We calibrate each model and show their complementarity to approach the variety of real urban configurations, paving the way to multi-model approaches of urban morphogenesis., 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Sara Fernandes,1 Guillaume Fond,1 Xavier Zendjidjian,1 Pierre Michel,1 Karine Baumstarck,1 Christophe Lancon,1 Fabrice Berna,2 Franck Schurhoff,2 Bruno Aouizerate,2 Chantal Henry,2 Bruno Etain,2 Ludovic Samalin,2 Marion Leboyer,2 Pierre-Michel Llorca,2 Magali Coldefy,3 Pascal Auquier,1 LaurentBoyer1 On behalf of the French PREMIUM Group 1Aix-Marseille University, School of Medicine, CEReSS – Health Service Research and Quality of Life Center – EA 3279 Research Unit, Marseille, France; 2FondaMental Foundation, Créteil, France; 3Institute for Research and Information in Health Economics (IRDES), Paris, France Background: Measuring the quality and performance of health care is a major challenge in improving the efficiency of a health system. Patient experience is one important measure of the quality of health care, and the use of patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) is recommended. The aims of this project are 1) to develop item banks of PREMs that assess the quality of health care for adult patients with psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression) and to validate computerized adaptive testing (CAT) to support the routine use of PREMs; and 2) to analyze the implementation and acceptability of the CAT among patients, professionals, and health authorities.Methods: This multicenter and cross-sectional study is based on a mixed method approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative methodologies in two main phases: 1) item bank and CAT development based on a standardized procedure, including conceptual work and definition of the domain mapping, item selection, calibration of the item bank and CAT simulations to elaborate the administration algorithm, and CAT validation; and 2) a qualitative study exploring the implementation and acceptability of the CAT among patients, professionals, and health authorities.Discussion: The development of a set of PREMs on quality of care in mental health that overcomes the limitations of previous works (ie, allowing national comparisons regardless of the characteristics of patients and care and based on modern testing using item banks and CAT) could help health care professionals and health system policymakers to identify strategies to improve the quality and efficiency of mental health care.Trial registration: NCT02491866. Keywords: patient-reported experience measures, quality of care, item bank, computerized adaptive testing, psychiatry

International audience; The aim of this article is to conduct an analysis of the consequences of public modal shift policies on interurban journeys in France (people who live and work in two separate functional urban areas). It measures and analyses three facets of these policies: the potential for a modal shift from the car to public transport, the environmental consequences (CO2 emissions) and the social consequences (transport costs) of such a shift. The increase in travel costs brought about by higher fuel prices or from charges for access to urban centres, together with a reduction in the costs of travelling by public transport, are the three elements which-according to the models-have the biggest influence on modal shift and the reduction in CO2 emissions. However, our findings also show that these policies are socially regressive in that they financially advantage the higher socioeconomic categories.

Kidney stones are one of the urologic diseases that have plagued mankind for centuries. The main constituents of stones in the kidney are calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystals. Nowadays, there are varieties of drugs and treatments that can be made to minimize the grievances due to kidney stone disease. The treatment can be done either by using chemicals or traditional medicine. Calcusol™ is one of the popular herbal products that have been used by Indonesian people in curing the kidney stone disease. The main constituent that was contained in Calcusol™ is an extract of the tempuyung leaves (Sonchus arvensis L.), which is expected could cure the kidney stone disease. This study used primary cultured renal epithelial cells of mice to determine the optimal dose of Calcusol™ and the optimal dose of COM. The primary Kidney epithelial cell were treated with Calcusol™ and COM at various doses. The analysis of the cell death either by necrosis or apoptosis pathways was analyzed by flow cytometric analysis. The results that were obtained is the percentage of cell death that is then analyzed by using a complete randomized design (CRD) One Way Anova. Based on the results that were obtained, it is known that the optimal dose of Calcusol™ in vitro were ranging from 75 ppm to 100 ppm, whereas the optimal dose of COM suggested for 500 ppm.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine event sponsorship decision making by the Indian drinks industry, comparing the non‐alcoholic and alcoholic drinks sectors.Design/methodology/approachData regarding event sponsorship activity, perceptions of event sponsorship, motives to sponsor, form of investment and structure of sponsorship was obtained from a sample of 61 drinks producers in India through a questionnaire. Mann‐Whitney and logistic regression were employed to compare the alcoholic and the non‐alcoholic sectors.FindingsThe results suggest that the alcohol and non‐alcohol drinks sectors sponsored a similar level of events, but in investment volume terms, sponsorship from the non‐alcoholic sector is far greater than that of the alcoholic sector. While the two sectors are similar in many ways, the emphasis placed on certain motives for sponsoring events was different, with alcoholic drinks businesses placing greater importance on reaching niche audiences and increasing media coverage than non‐alcoholic ones.Research limitations/implicationsA limited number of areas of the sponsorship decision‐making were covered, yet the study provides insights into the decision making of one of the key sponsoring industries: the drinks industry.Practical implicationsSecuring sponsorship is becoming more difficult and complex. By understanding how sponsors make decisions, including potential variations between companies within an industry, event organisers will be in a better position to tailor sponsorship proposals, enhancing the likelihood of obtaining the desired sponsorship contracts.Originality/valueMost sponsor decision‐making research focuses on how sponsorship decisions can be improved so that they work better for the sponsor. This paper, in contrast, emphasises that by understanding how clients make decisions (i.e. sponsors), sellers (i.e. the sponsored) will be in a better position to win over competition and secure the desired sponsorship deals.

In this paper, a prototype of ship basic planning system is implemented for the small and medium sized shipyards based on the internet technology and concurrent engineering concept. The system is designed from the user requirements. Consequently, standardized development environment and tools are selected. These tools are used for the system development to define and evaluate core application technologies. The system will contribute to increasing competitiveness of small and medium sized shipyards in the 21st century industrial en-vironment.

As nonprofit and charity organizations face increasing competition, there have been growing interests in how nonprofit organizations conduct commercial activities to raise funds as well as grow their business. However, there is lack of prior research about market-oriented and/or commercial activities in the context of nonprofit business. This study examines the process of how nonprofit organizations use relationally embedded network ties to acquire financial, human, and human capital resources to fulfill their social mission and achieve business growth. The study investigates commercial activity of three U.K.-based nonprofit organizations using the case study method. The findings contribute to insights into components of network ties for acquiring three different network resources of financial, human, and human capital. Nonprofit organizations leverage social mission to improve their ability to acquire network resources. The findings also suggest the charity and social mission of nonprofit business enhance trustworthiness in relationally embedded network ties for resource acquisition.

Although consumers are increasingly engaged with ethical factors when forming opinions about products and making purchase decisions, recent studies have highlighted significant differences between consumers’ intentions to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour. This article contributes to an understanding of this ‘Ethical Purchasing Gap’ through a review of existing literature, and the inductive analysis of focus group discussions. A model is suggested which includes exogenous variables such as moral maturity and age which have been well covered in the literature, together with further impeding factors identified from the focus group discussions. For some consumers, inertia in purchasing behaviour was such that the decision-making process was devoid of ethical considerations. Several consumers manifested their ethical views through post-purchase dissonance and retrospective feelings of guilt. Others displayed a reluctance to consume ethically due to personal constraints, a perceived negative impact on image or quality, or an outright negation of responsibility. Those who expressed a desire to consume ethically often seemed deterred by cynicism, which caused them to question the impact they, as an individual, could achieve. These findings enhance the understanding of ethical consumption decisions and provide a platform for future research in this area.

In many countries rural maternity care is under threat. Consequently rural pregnant women will have to travel further to attend larger maternity units to receive care and deliver their babies. This trend is not dissimilar from the disappearance of other rural services, such as village shops, banks, post offices and bus services. We use a comparative approach to draw an analogy with large-scale supermarkets, such as the Wal-Mart and Tesco and their effect on the viability of smaller rural shops, depersonalisation of service and the wider community. The closure of a community–maternity unit leads to women attending a different type of hospital with a different approach to maternity care. Thus small community–midwifery units are being replaced, not by a very similar unit that happens to be further away, but by a larger obstetric unit that operates on different models, philosophy and notions of risk. Comparative analysis allows a fresh perspective on the provision of rural maternity services. We argue that previous discussions focusing on medicalisation and change in maternity services can be enhanced by drawing on experience in other sectors and taking a wider societal lens.

This paper presents an optimal design for a Love wave reflective delay line on 41o YX LiNbO3 with a polymer guiding layer for wireless sensor applications. A theoretical model was established to describe the Love wave propagation along the larger piezoelectric substrate with polymer waveguide, and the lossy mechanism from the viscoelastic waveguide was discussed, which results in the optimal guiding layer thickness. Coupling of modes (COM) was used to determine the optimal design parameters of the reflective delay line structured by single phase unidirectional transducers (SPUDTs) and shorted grating reflectors. Using the network analyzer, the fabricated Love wave reflective delay line was characterized, high signal noise ratio (S/N), sharp reflection peaks, and few spurious noise between the peaks were found, and the measured result agrees well with the simulated one. Also, the optimal guiding layer thickness of 1.5~1.8μm was extracted experimentally, and it is consistent with the theoretical analysis.

How should corporate directors determine what is the ‘right’ decision? For at least the past 30 years the debate has raged as to whether shareholder value should take precedence over corporate social responsibility when crucial decisions arise. Directors face pressure, not least from ‘ethical’ investors, to do the ‘good’ thing when they seek to make the ‘right’ choice. Corporate governance theory has tended to look to agency theory and the need of boards to curb excessive executive power to guide directors' decisions. While useful for those purposes, agency theory provides only limited guidance. Supplementing it with the alternatives -stakeholder theory and stewardship theory – tends to put directors in conflict with their legal obligations to work in the interests of shareholders. This paper seeks to reframe the discussion about corporate governance in terms of the ethical debate between consequential, teleological approaches to ethics and idealist, deontological ones, suggesting that directors are – for good reason – more inclined toward utilitarian judgments like those underpinning shareholder value. But the problems with shareholder value have become so great that a different framework is needed: strategic value, with an emphasis on long-term value creation judged from a decidedly utilitarian standpoint.

Business failure represents a significant outcome of entrepreneurial activity and yet remains an underdeveloped area of research. This article focuses on the attitudes of VC investors towards entrepreneurs with a previous failure experience. It illustrates that VCs recognise the complex, contextual nature of failure and do not necessarily perceive the entrepreneur to be the primary cause of the venture’s demise. Consequently, the article differentiates between ‘business’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘venture capitalist’ failure. The article demonstrates that VCs often adopt a tolerant, flexible and open-minded attitude to failure and are keen to understand the circumstances in which it occurred. The majority of the VCs in the study emphasise that their decision to invest in an entrepreneur is not negatively affected to any significant degree by a previous experience of failure. A number of influential factors are presented, such as a high quality concept, which can\ud offset this aspect of the entrepreneur’s track record. The article concludes that business failure is not automatically considered a ‘black mark’ by VCs. It is important for entrepreneurs involved in business failure to be aware of these positive and sympathetic attitudes when considering putting forward new proposals to the VC community.

The evolution of reporting about employees in the 20th century culminated in the mandatory disclosures of the Companies Act (1985). This paper reports upon a study of the employee reporting practices of FTSE 100 companies that was carried out by examining the year 2000 annual report and accounts.\ud \ud The analysis whilst noting a wide range of practice among these companies, finds that their annual reports indicate an apparent disregard for the statutory disclosures. Even where such disclosures are made, they often appear to lack any conviction, adhering only to threshold compliance.\ud

International audience; Membrane contactors have received increased attention since the 1980s and are already used for different industrial applications. A very large number of studies have been reported, more specifically to achieve intensified gas-liquid mass transfer, almost exclusively in water or aqueous solutions. In contrast, the potentialities of membrane contactors for gas-liquid processes based on non-aqueous physical solvents are essentially unexplored. This study intends to discuss the difficulties associated with the specific physical solvent context and explore the potentialities of membrane contactors for both absorption and regeneration steps. Theoretical arguments show that dense membranes based on superpermeable and mechanically resistant polymers could offer promising performances, owing to their capacity to simultaneously prevent wetting effects, sustain a high transmembrane pressure and offer process intensification possibilities. Moreover, a significant improvement in terms of energy efficiency is theoretically achievable for the regeneration step. A preliminary proof of concept study, which supports these potentialities, is presented and the research needs for this new approach in order to possibly achieve applications at industrial scale are discussed.

Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT)\ud diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results.\ud To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance\ud link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more\ud than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity\ud and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected\ud in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by\ud theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity\ud on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT\ud diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus,\ud the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance.

Background Sponsorship of Formula One (F1) motor racing, which has been used as an indirect medium of tobacco advertising for several decades, was prohibited by the 2005 European Union Tobacco Advertising Directive. Most F1 tobacco sponsorship of motor racing in the EU has since ceased, with the exception of the Scuderia Ferrari team, which continues to be funded by Philip Morris. In 2007, the Marlboro logo on Ferrari cars and other race regalia was replaced by an evolving ‘barcode’ design, which Ferrari later claimed was part of the livery of the car, and not a Marlboro advertisement. \ud \ud Objective: To determine whether the ‘barcode’ graphics used by Ferrari represent ‘alibi’ Marlboro advertising. \ud \ud Methods Academic and grey literature, and online tobacco industry document archives, were searched using terms relevant to tobacco marketing and motorsport. \ud \ud Results Tobacco sponsorship of F1 motor racing began in 1968, and Philip Morris has sponsored F1 teams since 1972. Phillip Morris first used a ‘barcode’ design, comprising red vertical parallel lines below the word Marlboro on the British Racing Motors F1 car in 1972. Vertical or horizontal ‘barcode’ designs have been used in this way, latterly without the word Marlboro, ever since. The modern ‘barcode’ logos occupied the same position on cars and drivers' clothing as conventional Marlboro logos in the past. The shared use of red colour by Marlboro and Ferrari is also recognised by Philip Morris as a means of promoting brand association between Marlboro and Ferrari. \ud \ud Conclusion The Ferrari ‘barcode’ designs are alibi Marlboro logos and hence constitute advertising prohibited by the 2005 EU Tobacco Advertising Directive.

International audience; In this work, we exploit the fact that wavelets can represent magnetic resonance images well, with relatively few coefficients. We use this property to improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstructions from undersampled data with arbitrary k-space trajectories. Reconstruction is posed as an optimization problem that could be solved with the iterative shrinkage/thresholding algorithm (ISTA) which, unfortunately, converges slowly. To make the approach more practical, we propose a variant that combines recent improvements in convex optimization and that can be tuned to a given specific k-space trajectory. We present a mathematical analysis that explains the performance of the algorithms. Using simulated and in vivo data, we show that our nonlinear method is fast, as it accelerates ISTA by almost two orders of magnitude. We also show that it remains competitive with TV regularization in terms of image quality. Index Terms—Compressed sensing, fast iterative shrinkage/ thresholding algorithm (FISTA), fast weighted iterative shrinkage/ thresholding algorithm (FWISTA), iterative shrinkage/thresh-olding algorithm (ISTA), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), non-Cartesian, nonlinear reconstruction, sparsity, thresholded Landweber, total variation, undersampled spiral, wavelets.

The open source RFortran library is introduced as a convenient tool for accessing the functionality and packages of the R programming language from Fortran programs. It significantly enhances Fortran programming by providing a set of easy-to-use functions that enable access to R's very rapidly growing statistical, numerical and visualization capabilities, and support a richer and more interactive model development, debugging and analysis setup. RFortran differs from current approaches that require calling Fortran Dynamic link libraries (DLL) from R, and instead enables the Fortran program to transfer data to/from R and invoke R-based procedures via the R command interpreter. More generally, RFortran obviates the need to re-organize Fortran code into DLLs callable from R, or to re-write existing R packages in Fortran, or to jointly compile their Fortran code with the R language itself. Code snippets illustrate the basic transfer of data and commmands to and from R using RFortran, while two case studies discuss its advantages and limitations in realistic environmental modelling applications. These case studies include the generation of automated and interactive inference diagnostics in hydrological model calibration, and the integration of R statistical packages into a Fortran-based numerical quadrature code for joint probability analysis of coastal flooding using numerical hydraulic models. Currently, RFortran uses the Component Object Model (COM) interface for data/command transfer and is supported on the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Intel and Compaq Visual Fortran compilers. Extending its support to other operating systems and compilers is planned for the future. We hope that RFortran expedites method and software development for scientists and engineers with primary programming expertise in Fortran, but who wish to take advantage of R's extensive statistical, mathematical and visualization packages by calling them from their Fortran code. Further information can be found at www.rfortran.org.

Ventilation processes inside the greenhouse strongly affect air renewal and internal climatic conditions, which themselves interact with the growth and homogeneity of the crop. Natural ventilation is often chosen since it is the most economic method available. Studies of internal distributed climate induced by ventilation have been taking place for the past 25 years. Experimental studies have pointed out the impact of vent configurations on airflow pattern, particularly when the wind is the main driving force. However, the development of computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) has only recently provided the opportunity to simulate the climate inside greenhouses for known vent configurations, and to test a wide range of geometries with different vent combinations under different climatic conditions. In this article, the main factors governing air movements inside the greenhouse are first analysed. The characteristics of the laboratory scale models and field experiments are reviewed, with particular focus on the technologies implemented. The principles of CFD, the main modelling approach, together with its adaptations to greenhouse climate simulation, are then described in detail. Conclusions of studies concerning ventilation efficiency inside greenhouses are reviewed with respect to greenhouse geometry and opening arrangements. Other parameters affecting ventilation, such as wind speed and direction, the addition of insect-proof or shading screens, and interactions with the crop, are also discussed.

Available online: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/840/1/Johnsen_output_3.pdf; International audience; The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and application of a theoretical framework to examine the connections between different types of suppliers, their capabilities and opportunities in customer relationships, and the illustration of these connections through the findings from empirical case studies of small and medium-sized suppliers in the metal industry in Denmark. Multiple case studies involving 17 small and medium-sized suppliers within the Danish metal industry were undertaken. By focusing on the development of capabilities that are "valuable" to customers in specific types of supply, small and medium-sized suppliers may improve their responses to opportunities in their customer relationships. Further investigation is needed on the longer-term impacts of valuable capabilities on opportunity enactment by suppliers, and the examination of key issues arising from these findings across different industries and countries. Small and medium-sized suppliers, their customers and government agencies involved with suppliers should advocate and actively support the development of valuable capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of suppliers' relationship and network strategies and their potential to seize opportunities. This study highlights that different types of suppliers require different types of current and future valuable capabilities to seize opportunities and sustain current customers or develop new customer relationships.

Our ongoing work aims at defining an ontology-centered approach for building expertise models for the CommonKADS methodology. This approach (which we have named "OntoKADS") is founded on a core problem-solving ontology which distinguishes between two conceptualization levels: at an object level, a set of concepts enable us to define classes of problem-solving situations, and at a meta level, a set of meta-concepts represent modeling primitives. In this article, our presentation of OntoKADS will focus on the core ontology and, in particular, on roles - the primitive situated at the interface between domain knowledge and reasoning, and whose ontological status is still much debated. We first propose a coherent, global, ontological framework which enables us to account for this primitive. We then show how this novel characterization of the primitive allows definition of new rules for the construction of expertise models.

This work's goal is the definition of a set of criteria to be used as a reference for evaluation and comparison of existing distributed object technologies. In particular the defined criteria are applied to the evaluation of: CORBA, DCOM and RMI but they can also be applied to other distributed object technologies or to compare implementations of a particular one. The results of the our evaluation are discussed and presented.