The importance of market globalisation and the consequent interest in international marketing has prompted a surge of work examining cross-cultural consumer behaviour. As part of this trend, this paper examines the generalisability of Sproles and Kendall's (1986) Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) in an extension of their work in the UK Most of the original US traits were found in the UK, with the addition of new store-loyalty and time-energy saving traits. However, some problems were encountered with the CSI's reliability and validity. Extending the original study, the research also identified meaningful and distinct decision-making groups which suggests a possible use of the CSI in segmentation. Implications for scale development, segmentation and cross-cultural research are discussed.

The prevalence of intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) in our population of haemophiliacs was 12%. The incidence of ICH was approximately 2% per year. At entry, 7% (21/309) had clinical histories of ICH without MRI evidence of old haemorrhage, indicating that either the haemorrhages had completely resolved, that routine MRI sequences are not particularly sensitive for the detection of old blood products, or a combination of both of these factors. One half (4/8) of the ICHs documented by entry MRI were clinically silent, and three of the 11 incident cases documented by MRI were clinically silent. HIV infection did not increase the risk of ICH.

Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) is a causative agent of bovine tuberculosis, a significant source of morbidity and mortality in the global cattle industry. The Randomised Badger Culling Trial was a field experiment carried out between 1998 and 2005 in the South West of England. As part of this trial, M. bovis isolates were collected from contemporaneous and overlapping populations of badgers and cattle within ten defined trial areas. We combined whole genome sequences from 1,442 isolates with location and cattle movement data, identifying transmission clusters and inferred rates and routes of transmission of M. bovis. Most trial areas contained a single transmission cluster that had been established shortly before sampling, often contemporaneous with the expansion of bovine tuberculosis in the 1980s. The estimated rate of transmission from badger to cattle was approximately two times higher than from cattle to badger, and the rate of within-species transmission considerably exceeded these for both species. We identified long distance transmission events linked to cattle movement, recurrence of herd breakdown by infection within the same transmission clusters and superspreader events driven by cattle but not badgers. Overall, our data suggests that the transmission clusters in different parts of South West England that are still evident today were established by long-distance seeding events involving cattle movement, not by recrudescence from a long-established wildlife reservoir. Clusters are maintained primarily by within-species transmission, with less frequent spill-over both from badger to cattle and cattle to badger.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a zoonotic disease in cattle that is transmissible to humans, distributed worldwide, and considered endemic throughout much of England and Wales. Mid-infrared (MIR) analysis of milk is used routinely to predict fat and protein concentration, and is also a robust predictor of several other economically important traits including individual fatty acids and body energy. This study predicted bTB status of UK dairy cows using their MIR spectral profiles collected as part of routine milk recording. Bovine tuberculosis data were collected as part of the national bTB testing program for Scotland, England, and Wales; these data provided information from over 40,500 bTB herd breakdowns. Corresponding individual cow life-history data were also available and provided information on births, movements, and deaths of all cows in the study. Data relating to single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) skin-test results, culture, slaughter status, and presence of lesions were combined to create a binary bTB phenotype labeled 0 to represent nonresponders (i.e., healthy cows) and 1 to represent responders (i.e., bTB-affected cows). Contemporaneous individual milk MIR spectral data were collected as part of monthly routine milk recording and matched to bTB status of individual animals on the single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin test date (±15 d). Deep learning, a sub-branch of machine learning, was used to train artificial neural networks and develop a prediction pipeline for subsequent use in national herds as part of routine milk recording. Spectra were first converted to 53 × 20-pixel PNG images, then used to train a deep convolutional neural network. Deep convolutional neural networks resulted in a bTB prediction accuracy (i.e., the number of correct predictions divided by the total number of predictions) of 71% after training for 278 epochs. This was accompanied by both a low validation loss (0.71) and moderate sensitivity and specificity (0.79 and 0.65, respectively). To balance data in each class, additional training data were synthesized using the synthetic minority over sampling technique. Accuracy was further increased to 95% (after 295 epochs), with corresponding validation loss minimized (0.26), when synthesized data were included during training of the network. Sensitivity and specificity also saw a 1.22-and 1.45-fold increase to 0.96 and 0.94, respectively, when synthesized data were included during training. We believe this study to be the first of its kind to predict bTB status from milk MIR spectral data. We also believe it to be the first study to use milk MIR spectral data to predict a disease phenotype, and posit that the automated prediction of bTB status at routine milk recording could provide farmers with a robust tool that enables them to make early management decisions on potential reactor cows, and thus help slow the spread of bTB.

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observed when the drop was attributed entirely to loss of convective heat. For males, the most pronounced change in thermoregulation was in skin moisture and TEWL, suggesting a greater thermal load from SRH exposure in males that required water evaporation from the skin to regain thermal balance. Conclusions The exposure to SRH presented unique influences to core metabolism and thermoregulation compared to those from exposure to convective heat. Adequate clothing protecting against temperature step and the residual influence of SRH was necessary in thermal transient. Objectives To quantify the contributions of work intensity and ambient heat to the risk of heat illness in field labourers working with diverse crops. Methods Field workers were assessed throughout a single daytime work shift. Body weight and blood osmolality changes, continuous heart rate and core body temperature (using ingested telemetry) were recorded. Personal and stationary (area) ambient air temperature and relative humidity were measured using individual data loggers and weather stations. Workers were questioned about their current and historical experiences with field work in the heat. Results One-hundred workers were assessed between late June and August 2012 on seven farms in the California Central Valley. Thirteen were female, mean age was 36.8 (SD = 11.9) years. Ninety-four percent were born in Mexico, the remainder in the USA, and over 95% of the workers identified as Latino. Educational level was low; 47% had attended ≤ 6 years of school. Twenty-two percent lost over 1.5% of their original body weight (ACGIH suggested criteria for increased risk of dehydration), 80.2% increased serum osmolality, with 21% increasing ≥ 3%. Males lost significant weight (-0.56 kg, 95% CI -0.40 to -0.73 kg) as did those whose blood osmolality increased (-0.59 kg, 95% CI -0.34 to -0.85 kg). Associations will be assessed between heart rate, task, crop, ambient conditions and core body temperature. Conclusions Field workers exhibited reduced hydration status over their work shift. Combined physiological and survey data may allow susceptibility to heat illness in summertime agricultural workers to be quantified. Objectives. Annoyance from transportation noise is well characterised but little is known about occupational noise. We investigated the relation between occupational noise exposure level, the use of hearing protection devices (HPD), and noise annoyance. 385 CALIFORNIA HEAT ILLNESS PREVENTION STUDY (CHIPS) IN IMMIGRANT LATINO FARM WORKERS 386 ANNOYANCE FROM OCCUPATIONAL NOISE: THE IMPACT OF EXPOSURE LEVEL AND HEARING PROTECTION MethodsWe studied 452 industrial workers and 68 financial workers who post shift reported noise annoyance during work on a 5-point scale. Noise exposure level was recorded every 5 seconds at the dominant shoulder for 24 hours and we calculated the L Aeq value for work hours. For 342 workers who kept a HPD diary, we subtracted 10 dB from every noise recording obtained during HPD use and estimated the L AEq value at the ear. Resul...

Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) is a causative agent of bovine tuberculosis, a significant source of morbidity and mortality in the global cattle industry. The Randomised Badger Culling Trial was a field experiment carried out between 1998 and 2005 in the South West of England. As part of this trial, M. bovis isolates were collected from contemporaneous and overlapping populations of badgers and cattle within ten defined trial areas. We combined whole genome sequences from 1,442 isolates with location and cattle movement data, identifying transmission clusters and inferred rates and routes of transmission of M. bovis. Most trial areas contained a single transmission cluster that had been established shortly before sampling, often contemporaneous with the expansion of bovine tuberculosis in the 1980s. The estimated rate of transmission from badger to cattle was approximately two times higher than from cattle to badger, and the rate of within-species transmission considerably exceeded these for both species. We identified long distance transmission events linked to cattle movement, recurrence of herd breakdown by infection within the same transmission clusters and superspreader events driven by cattle but not badgers. Overall, our data suggests that the transmission clusters in different parts of South West England that are still evident today were established by long-distance seeding events involving cattle movement, not by recrudescence from a long-established wildlife reservoir. Clusters are maintained primarily by within-species transmission, with less frequent spill-over both from badger to cattle and cattle to badger.

Objective As part of a UK Biobank project to investigate the causes of COPD in the UK, initial estimates have been made of the burden of COPD attributed to occupational exposures, based on methods developed to estimate cancer burden, adapted to a prevalence rather than incidence outcome measure. Methods Particular features of the methods were inflation of the estimates of numbers employed in occupations linked to COPD to account for retired or ex-workers whose exposure has ceased, and estimating attributable fraction (AF) by age, as COPD incidence increases with age. The link between age and duration of exposure, and time from cessation of exposure are accounted for by using unit relative risk (URR) estimates (annual change in COPD risk) or annual lung function decline. Where URRs are not available, risks are estimated by age based on assumptions about the age structure of a particular worker cohort. Results Using national data of numbers employed in occupations associated with raised COPD risk, matched to appropriate risk estimates and based on Levin’s estimator, when mainly industry-based cross-sectional study risks were used, AFs for GB were estimated to be 11% for men and 3% for women. Alternatively using single population-based studies estimating risks by occupation or industry, AFs range from 6%-27% for men and 0%-5% for women. The probable reasons for the variability of the results are discussed, and an example is given of the additional impact of taking age into account in the estimation. Conclusions There is consistency between these initial estimates of occupational COPD attribution and previous estimates such as those from the American Thoracic Society. When data from the UK Biobank study becomes available, it is planned to further develop the AF by age methods to use with Miettinen’s study based estimator.