Now the Orgy Is Over

Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork, this study explores the intersections between embodied flesh and digital (re)presentations by examining how participants experience virtual sex on Second Life. We explore how and to what extent Second Life avatars mediate personal desires and fantasies with others who, collaboratively, construct sexual adventures in forms of playful deviance that allow for the emergence of secret sexual selves, as well as how those sexual adventures are ultimately fashioned and experienced in a “diffused life” that is neither of Second Life nor of first but a tightly bound combination of the two. Despite the enormous freedom of Second Life residents for seemingly boundless creative self‐expression, we conclude that these experiences are more bound to and confined within disciplined practices than they first appear.     

Sign of our times? Revis(it)ing the International Symbol of Access

The International Symbol of Access (ISA), used in a variety of specific locations to represent purposely facilitated access, has become ubiquitous throughout the world within just a few decades. Found wherever people move in physical space and needing to navigate environmental barriers, this symbol is among the most widely recognized representations of disability. While it provides daily interactions with issues of accessibility and disability, its purposes and design in different cultural contexts are neither obvious nor uncontested. We sketch the origin, goals and critiques of this prominent symbol and discuss its functions, from way showing to identity construction and advocacy/activism. Finally, we examine current proposals for alternative symbols.     

Inventory placement problems in dynamic supply chains

Summary  In this paper a basic model for analyzing the inventory placement problem in a supply chain is developed. The problem will be studied for a capacitated, multi-stage supply chain facing a continuous, stochastic demand for a single period for a single product — a specialty item with a very short selling season. The objective is to maximize the probability of achieving a set profit level. We prove that finding an optimal stock investment at the stages entails solving a mixed binary integer linear program. We characterize properties of the stock investment, examine two interesting cases where the stock investments have a simple structure, and develop a branch and bound approach for solving the more general case.

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Zusammenfassung  In diesem Beitrag wird ein Grundmodell entwickelt, um das Problem der Lagerplatzierung in einer Lieferkette analysieren zu k?nnen. Das Problem wird für eine kapazitierte mehrstufige Lieferkette untersucht, wobei unterstellt wird, dass es um die Nachfrage nach einem einzigen Produkt für eine einzige Periode (einen Sonderartikel mit sehr kurzer Verkaufszeit) geht und diese Nachfrage stetig und stochastisch ist. Unter diesen Bedingungen soll die Wahrscheinlichkeit maximiert werden, ein vorgegebenes Gewinnniveau zu erreichen. Die Suche nach der optimalen Vorratsinvestition auf den Stufen der Lieferkette führt zur Formulierung eines gemischten ganzzahligen linearen Programmierungsproblems mit Bin?rvariablen. Die Eigenschaften der Bevorratungsinvestition werden charakterisiert, zwei interessante F?lle mit einer einfachen Struktur der Bevorratungsinvestition untersucht und ein Branch-and-Bound-Ansatz zur L?sung eines allgemeineren Problemfalls entwickelt.

     

An Examination of Cross‐Racial Comparability of Mother‐Child Interaction Among African American and Anglo American Families

This study examined the cross‐racial comparability of maternal quality of assistance and supportive presence coded from a video protocol using data from the Infant Health and Development Program for low‐birth‐weight, premature 30‐month‐olds and their mothers. Evidence of equivalence of measures is necessary before comparisons can be made across groups. Multiple‐group mean and covariance structures analysis was used to demonstrate the invariance of the measures and make comparisons for Anglo American and African American treatment and comparison groups of dyads. Comparisons across groups indicated similar variances and correlation between child and maternal behavior. Differences were found between the mean scores, with Anglo American treatment families scoring the highest.     

Masstige model and measure for brand management

The purpose of this article is to reconceptualize the term “masstige” (Mass Prestige) marketing, develop a masstige model for brand management, and extend the use of the Masstige Mean Scale (MMS). The study was conducted based on the data from 600 individuals living in the United States, France, and India using a structured questionnaire consisting of different factors/sources of brand equity, such as mass prestige, brand knowledge, and perceived quality. On the basis of the findings, we establish that the greater the brand's Masstige Mean Index (MMI) value (“MMIV”), the higher the potential customers' top-of-mind brand awareness. Low MMIVs imply that firms have a long way to go to build their brands. We argue that MMI may allow firms to measure brand equity in different regions, within a country or in foreign countries, to derive insights into the popularity of their brands. We posit three theoretical propositions and develop two theoretical models (i) a hexagon model and (ii) a three-stage model for masstige marketing to define, reconceptualize, and explain the phenomenon.