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Mastering Customer Loyalty
Get PDFCustomer loyalty can be described as “the result of consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services” (Shaw & Hamilton 2015). Since 1896, loyalty programs have developed from a simple stamp redemption system to an intricate in-store and digital model. This system has become so successful because it properly engages the customer, both inside and outside the store, to build a mutually beneficial relationship between the business and the customer. Understanding customer loyalty is essential in creating a program that will provide the customer with incentives to reward their patronage while also building a personal relationship with the brand. By analyzing the various desires and interests of each generation, companies can modify their loyalty programs to their target audience and engage customers appropriately and effectively. Even Starbucks, a company that considered to be a leader in capturing customer loyalty, has areas for improvement and can make subtle changes to their program to interact more effectively with their consumer base. These programs can be implemented by any business whose goal is to generate a loyal base of customers and improve business-consumer relationships
Identity Theft: A Look into Preventing Decades of Damages
Get PDFEach year identity theft victimizes more people, taking their time, money, and feeling of financial and physical security. Despite its ongoing presence in the news and media, this fraud is too often treated in a reactive manner. Due to the lack of prevention of identity theft, its negative consequences range from damaging one’s credit score for decades to cases of medical identity theft incorrectly altering a patient’s medical records and causing potentially life threatening complications. This thesis examines four major types of identity theft, including medical identity theft, credit card fraud, consumer data breaches, and the identity theft associated with tax returns. It explores what they entail, how perpetrators commit the fraud, and recommendations for prevention. With a look into what the theft is and how it is committed, we can be better informed and able to slow its prevalence in our society
Anthony Daniels, Good and Evil in the Garden of Art: Discrimination as the Guarantor of Civilization
Get PDFEfficacy and Safety of Everolimus for Maintenance Immunosuppression of Kidney Transplantation: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Get PDFBackground
Conversion to everolimus is often used in kidney transplantation to overcome calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) nephrotoxicity but there is conflicting evidence for this approach.
Objectives
To investigate the benefits and harm from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) involving the conversion from CNI to everolimus after kidney transplantation.
Methods
Databases were searched up to March 2016. Two reviewers independently assessed trials for eligibility and quality, and extracted data. Results are expressed as risk ratio (RR) or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Results
Eleven RCTs, with a total of 1,633 patients, met the final inclusion criteria. Patients converted to everolimus had improved renal function at 1 year posttransplant with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 5.36 mL/min per 1.73 m2 greater than patients remaining on CNI (p = 0.0005) and the longer-term results (\u3e 1 year) of renal function was identical to that of 1 year. There was not a substantial difference in graft loss, mortality, and the occurrence of adverse events (AEs) or serious AEs. However, the risks of acute rejection and trial termination due to AEs with everolimus are respectively 1.82 and 2.63 times greater than patients staying on CNI at 1 year posttransplant (p = 0.02, p = 0.03, respectively). Further, those patients who converted to everolimus had a substantially greater risk of anemia, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, hypokalemia, proteinuria, stomatitis, mouth ulceration, and acne.
Conclusions
Conversion from CNI to everolimus after kidney transplantation is associated with improved renal function in the first 5 years posttransplant but increases the risk of acute rejection at 1 year posttransplant and may not be well endured
The Function of Liturgical Music within the History of the Catholic Church
Get PDFWithin the Catholic Church, there has always been a need and a strong presence for music. The need for music has changed from being simply something listened to by all and sung by a few to involving everyone to sing together and participate in liturgical celebrations. There is great richness to be gained from an increased awareness of music in the Church, and many important lessons can be learned from the historical progression of liturgical music. The effect music has had on the liturgy has directly affected the congregation based upon their needs. The central questions addressed within this thesis relate to why Christians sing at worship and why Christians worship with music. The answers to these questions will be provided by an analysis of the three main periods of history within the Church: The Church at the Beginning of the Middle Ages, The Reformation, and The Second Vatican Council. Through this analysis, one will realize that music is an enjoyable part of life, gaining a better understanding of what music can do within worship, and realizing the great impact music has had on the Catholic liturgy
Vesicle-Membrane Tethering: The Interaction of Sec1 and Exocyst Subunit Sec6
Get PDFThe exocyst complex is a multi-subunit tethering complex that is used in the process of exocytosis. There are eight subunits in the complex, and these subunits interact with each other as well as proteins outside of the complex to facilitate membrane fusion. Prior research has shown that the exocyst subunit Sec6 and Sec1 from the Sec1/Munc18 (SM) family, a known regulator of membrane fusion, interact with each other. In this experiment, the goal was to crosslink the two proteins and in turn work to identify the interacting amino acid residues that are responsible for the proteins’ interaction. To do this, Sec1 and Sec6 were purified individually. Binding assays were then performed on the purified proteins to confirm that they folded properly and would interact. Crosslinking experiments were performed and resulted in the appearance of multiple new bands on the gel indicating that crosslinking had occurred. The proteins present in these bands will be analyzed by mass spectrometry to determine the interacting residues of the two protein subunits. Mutational and structural analysis will be performed in the future to confirm that the amino acids identified by mass spectrometry analysis are truly interacting. If the interacting residues are mutated, then the interactions between the two proteins should be weakened or even eliminated. This research is important in furthering our understanding of the exocyst complex and how it interacts with other proteins to facilitate the complex process of exocytosis
Trans-species Collaborations in Response to Social, Economic, and Environmental Violence in Rosa Montero\u27s \u3cem\u3eLágrimas en la lluvia\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eEl peso del corazón\u3c/em\u3e
No full textThis paper addresses Iberian ecocritical approaches and cultural responses to ecological degradation through an examination of Rosa Montero’s futuristic novels Lágrimas en la lluvia (2011) and its sequel El peso del corazón (2015). In these works, contaminated natural resources, cloning, and teleportation for interplanetary travel contribute to new social hierarchies, existential crises, and heightened xenophobia in Europe, now part of the United States of the Earth. This study places particular emphasis on the novels’ criticisms of a North-South divide, in which the use and distribution of natural resources reflects the inequitable burden of environmental contamination and economic exploitation on the world’s southern zones. Montero’s novels posit that interspecies alliances across different geographical regions respond to these inequities. In this analysis, Rob Nixon’s ecocritical work on slow environmental violence, Spanish economist Amaia Pérez Orozco’s writings on feminist economics and collaborative care, and the theory and activism of various ecofeminists underscore Montero’s critique of a global economic system that exploits the environment and the marginalized. These theorists and activists argue that social justice, sustainability, and a non-materialist conception of well-being must replace the dominant androcentric approaches to economics and to social relations, which foster growing inequity and environmental contamination
