Transparency,accountability and good governance: Role of new information and communication technologies and the mass media

Abstract

Customer orientation has been suggested to create competitive advantage of firms (Kohli &; Jaworski, 1990 Kohli, A. K. and Jaworski, B. J. 1990. Market orientation: The construct, research propositions, and managerial implications. Journal of Marketing, 54(2): 1–18. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Therefore, the recommendation to media managers has been to let the creation and delivery of customer value guide their strategies for advertising sales (Aris &; Bughin, 2005 Aris, A. and Bughin, J. 2005. Managing media companies: Harnessing creative value, Chichester, , England: Wiley.  [Google Scholar]). However, the concept of customer value, what it is, and how it is created remains unclear in many ways. This article explores the concept of customer value in advertising media purchasing from the media seller's perspective. Between December 2007 and February 2008, sales representatives from three Swedish TV networks were studied through in-depth interviews and observations as they progressed through a negotiation process with a large advertiser and its media agency. A qualitative analysis of the media sellers' experiences shows that they see advertiser and agency to perceiving the value of advertising media differently. Also, they see the customer side parties as diverging in the processes by which these value perceptions are formed. The article reveals the inherent problem of customer orientation on advertising markets—that within media purchasing practice, several actors have their own idea of value, and an advertiser's understanding of value is not always a decisive factor. The TV networks in the study have all chosen different strategies to deal with these dualities.     

Practical Object‐Oriented Software Engineering Education

This article describes the effort undertaken at the University of Iowa to institute a software engineering curriculum at the graduate level. Specifically, the article presents the experiences over 2 years in developing a pilot 2‐semester course in object‐oriented software engineering. This pilot course had the goal of introducing practical and realistic object‐oriented software engineering to students, and developed several innovative techniques to achieve this goal on a very limited budget. Students were exposed to realistic software engineering phases, processes and methodologies in developing real‐world software. This pilot course has culminated in a Master of Science subtrack in Software Engineering offered cooperatively by the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa, which made its debut in the Fall of the 1992/1993 academic year.     

Understandings of gender and education in the political and cultural context: the case of Afghan students in an MA (education) programme

Globally, gender differences in education have been an area of policy concern, research, and development partnerships. The international agenda of gender equality has been adopted by national governments even in countries, such as Afghanistan, where predominant views are clearly at variance with this agenda. Attempts to analyse such conditions must be based on examination of gender and education in the broader political and cultural context. Gender issues have been a central theme in an EU-funded Master's programme in Educational Research and Development for Afghan students at Nangarhar University, conducted during 2008–2010. This article analyses the political and cultural context of gender in Afghanistan, which constitutes the framework for the Afghan students' understandings of gender and education. These are examined as expressed in texts produced by the students and in group interviews. On the basis of our analysis, the following tension is clear: the students are aware of the international agenda of gender equality in education, but at the same time they are concerned about problems in the practical application of this agenda in their own society and relate these concerns to their interpretations of principles of Islam and Afghan cultural traditions.     

How to protect the chromosomal ends? Telomerase, chromosome stability and aging

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to three scientists — Elizabeth H Blackburn, Carol W Greider and Jack W Szostak — for their work during early 1980s and 1990s which helped unravel the molecular mechanisms of protection of chromosomal ends by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Their discovery has had major implications in the fields of ageing and cancer research. Blackburn and Greider are the ninth and tenth women scientist, to get this award in physiology or medicine and this is the first time that two women scientists have shared the prize.     

Reference intervals for serum total cholesterol,HDL-cholesterol,LDL-cholesterol,triglycerides, Lp (a), apolipoprotein A-I,A-II,B, C-II,C-III,and E in healthy South Indians from Andhra Pradesh

The incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease is steadily increasing in South East Asian countries including Indian sub continent. Many lipids, apolipoproteins and Lp (a) except HDL-C and apo A-I, A-II are implicated as risk factors for coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease. There is great need to have national guidelines for each country like the ATP III guidelines recommended for U.S. population. For recommending appropriate medical decision limits, it is mandatory that each country establishes reference intervals pertaining to their population due to dietary, genetic and environmental diversity. In the present study, reference intervals for serum lipids, apolipoproteins and Lp (a) were established in a total of 1923 healthy Indian reference individuals comprising 1161 healthy men and 762 healthy women from Andhra Pradesh. For each analyte viz., serum total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglycerides, Lp (a), Apo A-I, Apo A-II, B, C-II, C-III and E, mean, two SD, median, confidence limits of mean, different percentile values are presented. The study also includes decade wise changes in each analyte and comparison of lipids, lipoproteins and Lp (a) among few populations covering U.S., India, Japan, Sweden, Finland and China. Reference Intervals for all lipid and lipoprotein parameters will immensely help in assessing associated risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in India. Additionally, the results will be beneficial in formulating our own guidelines pertaining to Indian population.     

Stem cells: A dormant volcano within our body?

Stem cells constitute an important class of cells in the body that have the ability to perpetuate themselves and remain in an uncommitted state by a process of self-renewal as well as to specialize into new cell types. Their ability to differentiate into multiple cell types marks the tremendous potential of stem cells for tissue repair and organ regeneration. Realization of this potential is rapidly opening up unexplored avenues for curing several ailments including diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. However, very little is understood about the basic biology of stem cells. For example, what are the biochemical tags that allow us to identify stem cell? Which are the signaling pathways that regulate their function? How does the environment (niche) influence major decisions made by stem cell? Is stem cell therapy the end to all woes, or is there a flip side to the story? This article aims to give an overview of the current status of stem cell research and raises some alarming issues related to stem cell-based therapies.     

Indian = Hindu? The Development of Nationalist Attitudes Among Hindu and Muslim Children in India

Many political movements across the world today define citizenship in exclusionary ethnic or religious terms. This study extends research on ethnic–national associations in adults to children, adding to the relatively sparse literature on the development of national associations in children and in nonwestern contexts. Explicit and implicit religious–national associations were examined in a sample of 160 nine- to sixteen-year-olds (79 Hindu; 81 Muslim) in Gujarat, India. Results suggest that while Hindu children show a strong Indian = Hindu association by age 9, Muslim children appear to be buffered from this association. Furthermore, this association uniquely predicts variance in children’s attitudes about social policy and their concept of nationality, above and beyond their age, religion, and intergroup attitudes.     

Hyaluronic acid as a rescue therapy for trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced colitis through Cox-2 and PGE2 in a Toll-like receptor 4-dependent way

We hypothesized whether systemic administration of high-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid (HMW HA) could rescue trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis through Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signal. C3H/HeN mice and C3H/HeJ mice were used. Mice were divided into four groups: control, 50% ethanol treatment group, TNBS treatment group, and TNBS plus HA treatment group. The weight changes, clinical scores, macroscopic scores, and histological scores were recorded. Cyclooxygenase 2 (Cox-2) and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) expressions were measured both in colons and peritoneal macrophages from these mice. HA was a rescue therapy for the colitis induced by TNBS only in C3H/HeN mice. The clinical score, macroscopic score, and histological score were much lower in C3H/HeN mice receiving TNBS plus HA treatment. Cox-2 and PGE₂ expressions only increased in C3H/HeN mice. These Cox-2 expressing cells were macrophages. HA can also promote the production of Cox-2 and PGE₂ in peritoneal macrophages from C3H/HeN mice. Our data demonstrated that HMW HA can rescue TNBS-induced colitis through inducing Cox-2 and PGE₂ expressions in a TLR4-dependent way. Macrophages may be the effector cells of HMW HA.