Artificial Sweeteners: History and New Concepts on Inflammation

Since the introduction of artificial sweeteners (AS) to the North American market in the 1950s, a growing number of epidemiological and animal studies have suggested that AS may induce changes in gut bacteria and gut wall immune reactivity, which could negatively affect individuals with or susceptible to chronic inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a disorder that has been growing exponentially in westernized countries. This review summarizes the history of current FDA-approved AS and their chemical composition, metabolism, and bacterial utilization, and provides a scoping overview of the disease mechanisms associated with the induction or prevention of inflammation in IBD. We provide a general outlook on areas that have been both largely and scarcely studied, emerging concepts using silica, and describe the effects of AS on acute and chronic forms of intestinal inflammation.

Obstacles to Using Chinese Film to Promote China’s Soft Power: Some Evidence from the North American Market

China’s use of film to project soft power has been unsuccessful. However, the generation of soft power through its film industry is not China’s highest priority. The pursuit of soft power, including through film, is much more directed toward the domestic audience in China, reflecting the greater importance of political and social stability, along with ensuring the patriotism of youth. Moreover, given the origins of the soft power concept and the methodologies used to evaluate countries on a soft power scale, countries that are not liberal democracies will never be able to score high on any soft power ranking. Using empirical data such as box office figures, and Chinese and Western media sources, it will be shown that the lack of success of Chinese films in overseas markets stems in part from structural reasons beyond China’s control, but also in part because of decisions made by Chinese state officials and the filmmakers themselves.

THE BANKRUPTCY RISK IN INFRASTRUCTURE SECTORS: AN ANALYSIS FROM 2006 TO 2018

ABSTRACT Purpose: This research aims to identify the probability of default of infrastructure companies considering the sector specificities of their activities. In addition, the work seeks to identify the application of structural variables of probability of default in a model in a reduced way in order to identify the significance of its use. For this purpose, we investigated 1,520 North American companies from six different sectors linked to infrastructure. Originality/value: The analyzes carried out to identify the probability of a company going bankrupt hardly consider its sectorial particularity. Although most models bring important inputs for risk assessment, most of them do not consider this sectoral view. Then, this work has as value and originality the contribution to fill this gap and identify the existence of sectorial differences in the analysis of default risk in infrastructure companies in the North American market in the period between 2006 and 2018. Design/methodology/approach: The study performed a logistic regression (logit model) using 11 model variables established in calculating the probability of default. It also used the variable distance to default as an explanatory variable in order to identify its ability to explain the researched phenomenon. Findings: The study identified that, in addition to the size of the companies, the distance to default variable is the only variable that can be applied with significance in all the analyzed sectors. In addition, it was identified that companies in the oil and gas sector have less sensitivity to this variable than companies in the other sectors.

Of Markets and Principles

This chapter assesses how blood, tissue, and cells are retrieved and circulated in Europe. It investigates the ongoing tug of war between two main regulatory paradigms in the field of human body parts and cells: a human/fundamental rights–inspired paradigm on one hand, and a market–inspired one on the other hand. It also recasts the familiar opposition that is often found in comparative work in the field of health and biomedical law between a European “human rights” model of regulation and a North American “market” one as overly simplistic. As it highlights the status of the actual actors that evolve in the field of biomedicine concerned in blood, tissue, and cells circulation as well as the corresponding normative rationales, it complements Natalie Ram’s “incomplete commodification” paradigm in the United States to that of the market creep that is taking place in Europe.

Do the Manager's Personal Features Influence the Verbal Tone Used in Conference Calls?

The objective of this study is to evaluate whether managers’ tone of voice of Brazilian companies that publish the results in the presentation phase of the conference call is influenced by the personal characteristics of these agents. A total of 10 Brazilian companies were traded on the New York Stock Exchange (ADR) between 2002 and 2016, which made voluntary disclosure. The sample was limited to the companies with negotiations in North American market, that make the voluntary disclosure of the results by the necessity of the availability of the conference calls in English. To calculate the tone of voice, the dictionary developed by Loughran and McDonald (2011) was used. The tone was calculated based on the conference calls of quarterly disclosure of the results of the companies and related to the characteristics of the managers like gender, position and academic formation. The results verified in the Brazilian companies confirm the same ones found in international surveys, which find evidences that the personal characteristics influence the tone of voice used in the phase of presentation of the conference calls, controlling other factors like the performance of the company.

E-cigarettes: A new hazard for children and adolescents

Objectives Electronic cigarettes and fluid (e-cigarettes, e-fluid) are hazardous materials that when inhaled or ingested may pose significant health risks to children and adolescents. The objective of this work was to explore the spectrum of injury related to e-cigarette exposure among Canadian children and adolescents. Methods A one-time survey was sent to all paediatricians in Canada. Information was collected on children and adolescents who presented with e-cigarette exposure (inhalation and ingestion cases) in the previous 12 months. Questions included the number of injuries and symptoms, in addition to age, sex, treatment setting, intentional e-cigarette use, and how the products were accessed. Results A total of 520 surveys were completed and returned, identifying 35 cases. Symptoms related to inhalation were present in 30 cases and in 5 ingestion cases (5 unintentional, 0 intentional). For inhalation cases, most were male, ages 15 to 19 years, who sought treatment for nausea/vomiting, cough, throat irritation, or acute nicotine toxicity in an outpatient clinic/office. Most inhalation cases reported e-cigarette use 2 to 3 days/week, and e-cigarettes purchases from a mall kiosk/store. For ingestion cases, most were male, ages 1 to 4 years presenting to an emergency department with nausea/vomiting, cough, or respiratory irritation. Younger cases accessed e-fluid at home, older cases purchased in a mall kiosk/store. E-fluid flavours reported consumed were fruit, candy, and tobacco. Conclusions E-cigarettes, recently introduced into the North American market are hazardous to children and adolescents. Given the low response rate to the survey, further investigation into the true burden of injury, as well as the risks that e-cigarettes pose, together with ways to reduce exposure, is needed.

Customer Experience in the Coffee World

This chapter contributes to understanding the customer experience of the in-store environment by analyzing the business of coffee shops in the United States (U.S.) market. After a brief overview of the evolution of coffee shops and a short analysis of the management literature on coffee shops, in the last decade, the main findings of the qualitative research are presented. The chapter outlines the features of the U.S. coffee shop landscape and explores American consumers' perception of the coffee shop experience using the nethnographic research method. The results show a complex picture from the offer and the demand perspective that could also contribute to supporting coffee companies in managing customer experience strategy in the large and multicultural North American market.

Conceptual Design of Dahej-Nagothane Ethane Pipeline in India

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) planned to import liquid Ethane from North American market for use as feedstock in Gas Crackers at Dahej Manufacturing Division (DMD), Hazira Manufacturing Division (HMD) in the state of Gujarat and Nagothane Manufacturing Division (NMD) in the state of Maharashtra. Liquid Ethane was planned to be unloaded at GCPTCL (Gujarat Chemical Port Terminal Company Limited) Jetty and stored in cryogenic tank in DMD. For use in NMD and HMD, it was proposed to transport Ethane via a dedicated pipeline traversing through the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra and deliver at respective gas crackers of HMD and NMD in a direct usage mode as no storage facilities for Ethane were envisaged at delivery locations. Reliance Gas Pipelines Limited (RGPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL implemented the Asia’s 1st liquid Ethane Pipeline project as “Dahej - Nagothane Ethane Pipeline Project” (DNEPL) and successfully commissioned the pipeline in September, 2018. This paper presents the Conceptual Design of the project including selection of phase of transportation, pipeline configuration in terms of pipeline size, no. of pump stations, spacing of main line valves (MLV’s), operating conditions, material of construction and emergency evacuation requirements of Ethane during long haul transportation.