<p>Parallel imports often lead to lowered prices and is therefore regarded as good from a consumer's point of view. From a business'point of view this is not always the case. When do parallel imports occur? Is it possible to prevent parallel imports to protect an introduction of a product in another member state? The purpose of this thesis is to present situations where parallel imports occur and to see if it is compatible with competition law to prevent parallel imports. Furthermore I will analyse the future development after the group exemption of vertical restraints enters into force in June 2000. RESULTS: I believe that the group exemption of verical restraints will lead to an increasing amount of businesses setting up in other countries. As a result of the increasing internationalisation, prices will fall which leads to decreasing parallel imports. I also consider that it should be possible to prevent parallel imports for a short time in order to protect an introduction abroad.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 200

Parallel imports often lead to lowered prices and is therefore regarded as good from a consumer's point of view. From a business'point of view this is not always the case. When do parallel imports occur? Is it possible to prevent parallel imports to protect an introduction of a product in another member state? The purpose of this thesis is to present situations where parallel imports occur and to see if it is compatible with competition law to prevent parallel imports. Furthermore I will analyse the future development after the group exemption of vertical restraints enters into force in June 2000. RESULTS: I believe that the group exemption of verical restraints will lead to an increasing amount of businesses setting up in other countries. As a result of the increasing internationalisation, prices will fall which leads to decreasing parallel imports. I also consider that it should be possible to prevent parallel imports for a short time in order to protect an introduction abroad.

En av de vanligaste biverkningarna som patienter med cancer får är cancerrelaterad fatigue (CRF). Symtomen på CRF kan vara trötthet, oro och utanförskap. Syftet med litteraturöversikten var att belysa hur patienter upplevde CRF. Litteraturöversikten är baserad på tio kvalitativa artiklar och för att hitta dessa artiklar användes databaserna Cinahl och PubMed. Studierna analyserades utifrån en femstegsmodell som resulterade i fyra huvudkategorier: Att känna sig helt utmattad, Att uppleva en inre kamp, Att inte känna igen sig själv och Att förlora sin plats i livet. Många av patienterna i studierna beskrev en känsla av kroppslig utmattning, minskad fysisk förmåga samt daglig trötthet, vilket ledde till att de inte hade någon energi kvar. Det blev viktigt att lära sig uppfatta och tolka kroppens signaler och passa på att göra saker de stunder som patienterna hade energi. När de inte orkade utföra dagliga aktiviteter bidrog det till utanförskap och att de blev beroende av andra. Patienterna upplevde också en inre stress och oro. Slutsatserna är att CRF är det mest nedslående symtomet vid cancer och för med sig konsekvenser för hela livet. Det behövs mer utbildning inom vården för att kunna tillgodose patienternas behov. / One of the most common side effects that cancer patients experience is cancer-related fatigue (CRF). The symptoms of CRF may be tierdness, anxiety and alienation. The aim of the literature review was to illustrate how patients experienced CRF. The literature review is based on ten qualitative articles and to found these articles the databases Cinahl and PubMed were used. Studies were analyzed by a five-stage model that resulted in four main categories: To feel completely exhausted, To experience an inner struggle, To not recognize yourself and To lose your place in life. Many of the patients in the studies described a feeling of physical exhaustion, reduced physical ability and daily tierdness which led to that they had no energy left. It was important to learn how to perceive and interpret the body's signals and take the opportunity to do things the moments that patients had energy. When they could not manage to perform daily activities it contributed to alienation and they became dependent on others. Patients also experienced an internal stress and anxiety. The conclusions are that CRF is the most depressing symptom of cancer and cause consequences for life. More education is needed in health care to meet patients' needs.

Syftet med denna pilotstudie var att skapa hypoteser om och hur utmattningssyndrom påverkar förmågan att känna igen emotioner i ansiktsuttryck. En grupp patienter med utmattningssyndrom jämfördes med en matchad frisk kontrollgrupp (N=14). Grupperna undersöktes med ett datorbaserat test beståendes av färgbilder av autentiska ansiktsuttryck som gradvis i steg om 10% förändrades från ett neutralt ansiktsuttryck till någon av de fem grundemotionerna ilska, avsky, rädsla, glädje och ledsenhet. Mätningarna gjordes i termer av igenkänningsprecision och responshastighet. Resultatet visade att patientgruppen responderade signifikant långsammare än kontrollgruppen sett över samtliga emotioner i testet. Inga emotionsspecifika skillnader såväl som skillnader i igenkänningsprecision kunde påvisas mellan grupperna. Orsakerna till diskrepansen i responshastighet diskuterades utifrån fyra tänkbara förklaringsområden: ansiktsperceptuell funktion, visuell uppmärksamhet, självfokuserad uppmärksamhet samt noggrannhet/oro. Rekommendationer gjordes till framtida forskning om att utforska dessa områden närmare.

No description available.

none

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV-1 is a worldwide epidemic that currently affects over 35 million people worldwide, and continues to spread at an appalling rate. A universal HIV-1 preventive vaccine is considered to be the optimal solution in achieving the ultimate goal of AIDS eradication. Regretfully, most endeavors thus far of developing a prophylactic vaccine have been largely disappointing. Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) has been shown to reduce the plasma HIV-1 RNA level to below the detection limit of clinical assays (50 copies/ml); it combines three or more antiretroviral drugs which belong to at least two different classes – targeting distinct steps in the viral life cycle, and inhibiting viral replication. However, unless the infection is eradicated, strict adherence to a lifelong treatment regimen is required. HAART is limited by its high cost, drug availability, complicated administration schedules, serious side effects, and the potential that the virus will ultimately develop drug resistance. A more plausible approach lies in therapeutic vaccines that provide immunity to partially control viral replication postinfection – delaying or minimizing ART, and offering “drug holidays”. The primary goal of a therapeutic vaccine is to effectively induce HIV-1 specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses, which plays a critical role in control of viral proliferation. Dendritic cells (DCs)-based therapeutic vaccines have been showing the most promising results. However, the therapeutic efficacy of DCs based vaccines is limited. This is partially due to the fact that DCs induced CD8+ T cell responses are largely CD4+ T cell dependent, while HIV-1 infection usually renders the immune system very “helpless” from CD4+ T cells. In addition, infection, impaired function, and physical depletion of DCs are often reported during the early stage. Furthermore, DCs are often found to be inflammatory and immunosuppressive, which is mainly mediated by the interaction between HIV-1 Env gp120 and DC receptors. Thus, the search for a novel therapeutic vaccine strategy is warranted. Using T-APC (T cells-antigen-presenting cells) as a novel T cell-based vaccine has emerged as a potential candidate for a HIV-1 therapeutic vaccine, which aims at boosting HIV-specific CTL responses. Our previous work demonstrated that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells derived from ovalbumin (OVA)-specific T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic OT II and OT I mice via co-culture with OVA-pulsed DCs (DCOVA) can be activated, acquiring pMHC I, pMHC II, and costimulatory molecules, thus act as CD4+ T helper-antigen-presenting cells (Th-APCs) and CD8+ cytotoxic T-antigen-presenting cells (Tc-APCs). We also elucidated that DC-derived exosomes (EXO), which are 50- to 90-nm diameter vesicles containing antigen-presenting, tetraspan, adhesion, and costimulatory molecules, can transfer the antigen-presenting activity of DCs to activated CD4+T cells through EXO uptake. EXOOVA-targeted activated CD4+T (aTexo) cells can (1) stimulate more efficient central memory CD8+ CTL responses and T cell memory than EXOOVA or DCOVA, (2) activate CD8+ CTL responses independent of CD4+Th cells, and (3) counteract CD4+25+regulatory T (Tr) cell-mediated immune suppression. These results formed the new concept of novel EXO-targeted CD4+ T cell vaccines. In this study, we tailored EXO-targeted T cells vaccine by using polyclonal activated CD8+ T cells instead of CD4+ T cells, as CD4+ T cells served as the primary target for HIV-1 infection. We showed that (1) OVA-specific exosome-targeted CD8+ T cell-based vaccine (OVA-Texo) can stimulate efficient OVA-specific CD8+ CTL and memory responses, inducing sufficient antitumor immunity against OVA-expressing tumor cells in mouse models. (2) This exosome-targeted CD8+ T cell-based vaccine strategy could be applied to HIV-1-Gag protein, provoking effective Gag-specific CD8+ CTL, T cell memory, and antitumor immunity against Gag-expressing tumor cells. (3) Engineering Gag-Texo with up-regulated 4-1BBL (APC derived costimulatory molecule) expression could improve the performance of Gag-Texo vaccine. (4) OVA-Texo is able to evoke a successful immune response in bystander chronic infection, converting CD8+ T cell exhaustion, restoring effector functions of exhausted CD8+ T cells. Moreover, combination of OVA-Texo vaccine with PD-L1 blockage in a dual treatment could result in a synergistic effect in rescuing CTLs exhaustion in chronic infection. Those desired features make EXO-targeted CD8+ T cells vaccine an appealing novel strategy in HIV-1 infection. The EXO-targeted CD8+ T cells vaccine may be applicable to therapeutic HIV treatment through the use of autologous T cells with uptake of EXOs derived from engineered DCs.

Emotions are recognized as central to organizational life. The dialogue on the role of emotion in organizational life is furthered here by addressing the role that gendered display rules and associated expectations play in shaping individuals' expressed (rather than felt) responses to emotional exchanges within the organization. The role of gender in shaping intraorganizational emotional display rules is examined as it interplays at social, organizational and individual normative levels. In this context, emotions and emotional displays at work are seen as affecting individual's subjective social place in organizations. It is argued that gendering influences within the organization make social place marking more difficult and may result in increased forms of emotional labor, particularly surface acting/emotional dissonance, which may lead to emotional exhaustion in employees. A laboratory experiment was conducted using videotaped vignettes to represent more and less levels of gendering in emotional interactions. Findings indicate that there were no main effects for level of gendering as operationalized by this study on emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and subjective social place. Exploratory data analyses conducted further examine these relationships and point out the importance of the sex of the employee involved in the emotional exchange. This study points towards theoretical and empirical implications for how emotions are interpreted not only by members of different sex categories, but also for other dimensions of diversity in the organization and associated consequences.

A healthy, productive and motivated police service is an important contributor to the stability and resulting economic growth and development of countries. Burnout is a recognised health risk in law enforcement agencies but notwithstanding the stressful nature of police work, relatively few studies focused on burnout of police officials. For this reason it seems necessary to investigate burnout in the South African Police Service (SAPS) in order to understand and predict this risk factor more effectively. The objective of this study was to establish to what extent burnout, job stress and personalay traits were related. We also wanted to find out which components of job stress and personality traits best predicted the components of bumout. A cross-sectional survey research design was used. The study population (N = 2153) includes samples of police officials across South Africa. The Maslach Burnout Inventory -General Survey (MBI-GS), Police Stress Indicator (PSI) and Personality Characteristics Inventory (PCI) were administered. Descriptive statistics, product- moment correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that burnout was significantly correlated to job stress and personality traits. Job stress and personality traits were also significantly correlated to one another. Multiple regression analysis showed that exhaustion is best predicted by stress due to job demands and lack of resources, introversion, low conscientiousness and low emotional stability. Cynicism was best predicted by stress because of job demands, lack of resources, police demands, low emotional stability and low conscientiousness. Professional efficacy was best predicted by low job stress, emotional stability, agreeableness as well as conscientiousness. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.