University of Stirling

About: University of Stirling is a education organization based out in Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 7722 authors who have published 20549 publications receiving 732940 citations. The organization is also known as: Stirling University.

Corporate Branding, Retailing, and Retail Internationalization

Abstract: Corporate branding emerged as a key concept in the late 1990s. A number of leading retailers have embraced corporate branding and, it could be argued, are among its most extensive proponents. There are, however, issues for retailers in corporate branding arising from the nature of retail operations. Internationalization has for many retailers been a key strategy of recent years. Issues also emerge in the relationship of corporate branding to the process of internationalization. This paper discusses examples from the .elds of corporate branding, retailing and internationalization, raising issues about the interaction of these interlinked areas and about the future research agenda.

Estimating the monetary value of health care: lessons from environmental economics.

Abstract: In the recent past, considerable effort in health economics has been made on applying stated preference methods such as contingent valuation and choice experiments. Despite this increased use, there is still considerable scepticism concerning the value of these approaches. The application of contingent valuation in environmental economics has a long history and has been widely accepted. Whilst choice experiments were introduced to the environmental and health economics literature at a similar time, the wider acceptance of monetary measures of benefit in environmental economics has meant that they have also been more widely applied. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the key issues and debates that have taken place in the environmental economics literature, summarise the state of the art with respect to these issues, and consider how health economists have addressed these issues. Important areas for future research in health economics are identified.

Density-dependent prophylaxis:Evidence from Lepidoptera-baculovirus interactions?

Abstract: Insects from a range of taxa use early larval density as a cue to the future deterioration of their current habitat (Dingle, 1996). Their response to this cue is often to redirect resources away from activities favouring immediate reproduction at the natal site (e.g. egg maturation) towards those that favour reproduction in a different location or at a different time (e.g. the development of wings and flight muscles or the deposition of lipid reserves). As well as predicting a decline in the quality or quantity of the larval food resource, early larval density may also predict the risk of exposure to pathogens, which often increases in a predictable manner with population density. Under such circumstances, natural selection will favour those individuals that use early larval density to predict the optimal level of resources to allocate to pathogen resistance later in life. Such an adaptive prophylactic response to larval density may explain the results of several recent studies of moth caterpillars and their baculoviruses. Kunimi & Yamada (1990) reared caterpillars of the Oriental armyworm moth ( Mythimna separata ) at densities ranging between one and twenty larvae per container. They then orally inoculated newly emerged fourth-instar caterpillars with various concentrations of nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) and recorded the number of deaths. They found that NPV-induced mortality declined gradually from 95% for insects reared solitarily to 37% for those reared at a density of twenty larvae per container. The LC 50 value for caterpillars reared at the highest density was about tenfold that for individuals reared solitarily. In a second experiment, Kunimi & Yamada (1990) allowed second-instar caterpillars to feed for 2 days on artificial diet contaminated with a granulosis virus (GV) before rearing them for a further 36 days under either solitary or crowded conditions. They found that larvae reared at high densities (twenty per container) were about fourfold more resistant to GV than those reared singly. Thus, in this species at least,

A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Rumination and Suicidality

Abstract: Rumination has been persistently implicated in the etiology of hopelessness and depression, which are proximal predictors of suicidality. As a result, researchers have started to examine the role of rumination in suicidality. This systematic review provides a concise synopsis of the current progress in examining the relationship between rumination and suicidality, and highlights areas for future research. A search of the international literature was conducted using the three main psychological and medical databases. Eleven studies were identified providing evidence, with one exception, of a relationship between rumination and suicidality. This review also highlights the considerable dearth of studies on this area of concern, specifically of case-control and prospective, clinical studies, in the worldwide literature.

A theory of collective competence: challenging the neo-liberal individualisation of performance at work

Abstract: Contemporary work-related education and training policy represents occupational competence as the outcome of individual performance at work. This paper presents a critique of this neo-liberal assumption, arguing that in many cases competence should be regarded as an attribute of groups, teams and communities. It proposes a theory of collective competence in terms of (1) making collective sense of events in the workplace, (2) developing and using a collective knowledge base and (3) developing a sense of interdependency. It suggests that the language of competence would become a more effective tool for understanding performance at work if the collectivistic sense of the term ‘competence’ were used in conjunction with the more established individualistic sense.