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This paper aims to investigate the electroporation phenomenon in a single cell exposed to ultra short (μs) and high voltage (kV) electric pulses.

The problem is addressed by two complementary approaches. First, numerical simulations based on an asymptotic approximation derived from the Smoluchowski theory are used to calculate the pore generation, growth and size evolution at the membrane of a spherical cell model, immersed in a suspension medium and consisting of cytoplasm and membrane. The numerical calculations are solved using the finite difference method. Second, an in vitro experiment with LLC-MK2 cells is carried out in which electroporation was monitored with molecules of propidium iodide. This part also comprehended the design and manufacturing of a portable electric pulse generator capable of providing rectangular pulses with amplitude of 1,000 V and duration in the range of 1-μs to 100-μs. The pulse generator is composed of three modules: a high voltage DC source, a control module, and an energy storage and high voltage switching.

The numerical simulations considered a 5-μm radius cell submitted to a 500 kV/m rectangular electric pulse for 1-μs. The results indicate the formation of around 3,500 pores at the cell membrane, most of them, around 950, located at the poles of the cell aligned to the applied electric pulse, with radii sizes varying from 0.5-nm to 13-nm. The in vitro experiment considered exposition of LLC-MK2 cells to pulses of 200 V, 500 V, and 700 V, and 1-μs. Images from fluorescence microscopy exhibit the LLC-MK2 cells with intense red, a strong evidence of the electroporation.

The work presents a thorough study of the electroporation phenomenon combining two complementary approaches, a rigorous numerical simulation and a detailed in vitro experiment.

We explore the simultaneous influence of activist organizations and corporations on institutional change. Focusing on protests, campaign contributions, and lobbyists as the strategies used by activist organizations and corporations to influence institutional change, we study the dynamics between movements and counter-movements and their influence on the probability of institutional change. In the context of the US tobacco industry, the results shed light on the effectiveness of these strategies and uncover potential moderators of this relationship. Overall, we demonstrate the simultaneous and asymmetric effects of activist organizations and corporations that use conspicuous and inconspicuous strategies to change institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the mobilities paradigm by exploring the role of tourist mobilities in destination marketing. This is important as studies that explore the impact of modes of transport on the development of destinations, or compare the transportation experience with the destination experience are lacking.

The study uses the context of the Jacobite steam train, which runs in the Scottish Highlands. It draws on multiple qualitative methods including participant observation, interviews and netnography.

The study explores the spatial, temporal and social mobilities associated with the journey and the destination, reveals how a rail journey becomes a “destination-in-motion” and, in turn, transforms what might otherwise be a neglected destination.

The study demonstrates how modes of transport that offer rich embodied experiences to visitors can present an important differentiation strategy and become core to a destination’s product and service portfolio.

By approaching destination marketing from a mobilities perspective, this paper recognises the significance of human and objects mobility to tourist experiences and offers a new perspective to existing research which biases a geographically bounded understanding of destinations.

Scenarios are cognitive aids for thinking about the future in a sustained and disciplined manner. Because scenarios must be facilitated, scenarios must be considered in the context of their practice. In the strategic management literature, there has been a considerable conversation on the practical difference between “hot” and “cold” cognition. Thinking in this conventional literature demonstrates how the facilitators of scenario planning workshops establish and channel the productive cognition of their clients away from hot cognition and toward cold cognition. But how? As a thought experiment, we examine whether the sociological concept of “emotional labor” helps explain the cognition management of clients by facilitators during scenario planning. We end by considering how a deeper practical understanding of emotional labor might help facilitators identify mechanisms and adapt their tools to better manage the cognitive-affective dimensions of scenario planning in practice.

To critically assess the contribution of community-based logging, low-carbon emission non-timber activities, and direct payment for environmental services in building sustainable rural livelihoods in the Amazon.

Fieldwork undertaken in 2008, 2010, and 2013 on sources of income for 110 interviewed families living in and around three different types of conservation units located on the advancing frontier in western Pará State.

Three scenarios identified with very different socio-environmental outcomes, (1) the multi-functional combination of agricultural and non-agricultural activities replaces frontier farming, reduces deforestation and carbon emissions, increases income, and promotes social inclusion, (2) the mere juxtaposition of green alternative activities alongside unsustainable frontier farming has limited regional impact, and (3) environmental restrictions interfere with rural livelihoods to the point that people to leave the countryside.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of GO and NGO policies in one of the poorest and environmentally problematic regions of Brazil.

First-hand information at the family farmer level concerning sources of income from conventional and green land use systems which is essential for formulating viable socio-environmental policy capable of reducing deforestation and carbon emissions which negatively impact global climate change.

Studies on the socio-technical relations between bodies and self-tracking apps have become more relevant as the number of digital solutions for monitoring our bodies are increasing and becoming even more embedded in our everyday lives. While a strong body of literature within the fields of self-tracking and the quantified self has evolved during the recent years, the author suggests it is time we (once again) start paying attention to the specific bodies in question when we look into the quantification of bodies, particularly about the question as to whose bodies are we talking about when we say, ‘quantified bodies’. The author also proposes that, when discussing the quantification of bodies, we take interest in the bodies designing, producing, and guiding the logic behind the algorithms embedded in the technological solutions in question. By suggesting this focus on bodies as knowledge producing, the author draws from a feminist perspective of situated knowledges (Haraway 1988; Harding, 1986, 2004) with a particular interest in knowledge production and the understanding of bodies as active, epistemological objects. Feminist theory of science replaces, so to speak, the idea of a universal human identity with a knowing subject who can occupy many different positions – in co-creative and transforming constellations. Following this line of thought, all kinds of knowledge production must be bodily anchored and situated. However, knowledge production always takes place in relation to or with something/someone else/other. As explained by philosopher Rosi Braidotti ‘[t]he post-human knowing subject has to be understood as a relational embodied and embedded, affective and accountable entity and not only as a transcendental consciousness’ (Braidotti, 2018, p. 1). Thus, the bodies in this chapter are the bodies who menstruate. The author wishes to discuss a particular socio-technical relation between smartphone applications (apps) to track and monitor the female cycle; period-apps, and the menstruating bodies engaging with these apps. Building on early feminist thoughts from the science and technology studies (STS), the author seeks to move beyond the algorithmic quantification of bodies to study the network of knowledge production formed by bodies, materialities, technology and history with all its reminiscence of stigma and taboo surrounding these leaking bodies (Shildrich, 1999). These inquiries are not only theoretical accounts but are also rooted in empirical soil. Based on a feminist ethnography of Danish women’s everyday engagement with period-apps, the female developers from the Femtech-industry and the women-only groups within the quantified self-movement, the author aims to provide a broad perspective on what the author defines as the gendered data body. The author argues for a feminist approach to better understand the socio-technical relations and the socio-cultural discourses the menstruating body is situated in, as well as to better understand the unique relation between knowledge production and technology as being constitutional for the gendered data body.

The authors believe the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on supply and demand. The potential decline in real sector performance leads to lower expectations of securities performance. The uncertainty of future performance can change investor behaviour. This study tried to gain insight into stock investor behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that the majority of the investor realized and believed the pandemic would affect the stock market performance. Hence, they did not show herding behaviour and were very confident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey also indicates that investors tend to avoid risk rather than take the opportunity to buy at a lower price. Moreover, investors believe that the COVID-19 vaccine will soon be found, and the economy will return to normal. Government and self-regulated organizations (SRO) are responsible for making effective policies to convince the investors about the future prospect.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the way different economic sectors in Brazil use knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and explore which features of KIBS use are associated with better innovation outcomes.

Clusters and regression analyses were used to analyze data from the national innovation survey (PINTEC) from 2014.

The results show that most of the 55 sectors of the Brazilian economy studied make little use of KIBS, but industries in which firms that interact with KIBS providers also have better innovation performance and offer more innovative offerings. The relationship with higher education institutions and research institutes proved particularly relevant, while the interaction with consultancy firms seems to be a strategy that leaves firms “stuck in the middle”.

The outcomes confirm the arguments of the literature that the use of KIBS has positive outcomes for customer firms. More importantly, however, the paper complements the existing literature by showing that the type of KIBS used in each country is relevant to understand firms’ innovation performance. The outcomes can guide firms and public policy initiatives oriented at the articulation of the national innovation system.

The marketing literature uses five different experience terms that are supposed to represent different streams of research. Many papers do not provide a definition, most of the used definitions are unclear, the different experience terms have similar dimensionality and are regularly used interchangeably or have the same meaning. In addition, the existing definitions are not adequately informed from other disciplines that have engaged with experience. This paper aims to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of experience in marketing informed by related disciplines aiming to provide a more holistic definition of the term.

This research follows previously established procedures by conducting a systematic literature review of experience. From the approximately 5,000 sources identified in three disciplines, 267 sources were selected, marketing (148), philosophy (90) and psychology (29). To address definitional issues the analysis focused on enlightening four premises.

This paper posits that the term brand experience can be used in all marketing-related experiences and proposes four premises that may resolve the vagaries associated with the term’s conceptualization. The four premises address the what, who, how and when of brand experience and aim to rectify conceptual issues. Brand experience is introduced as a multi-level phenomenon.

The suggested singular term, brand experience, captures all experiences in marketing. The identified additional elements of brand experience, such as the levels of experience and the revision of emotions within brand experience as a continuum, tempered by repetition, should be considered in future research.

The multi-level conceptualization may provide a greater scope for dynamic approaches to brand experience design thus providing greater opportunities for managers to create sustainable competitive advantages and differentiation from competitors.

This paper completes a systematic literature review of brand experience across marketing, philosophy and psychology which delineates and enlightens the conceptualization of brand experience and presents brand experience in a multi-level conceptualization, opening the possibility for further theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary promise.