AACSB Athabasca University (AU) is a Canadian public research university that primarily operates through online distance education. Founded in 1970, it is one of four comprehensive academic and research universities in Alberta and was the first Canadian university to specialize in distance education.
Non-deceptive counterfeiting involves producing and selling counterfeit products without misleading consumers about their authenticity. This practice intensifies price competition for genuine brands while contributing either to brand dilution or network externalities. Using a two-period game modeling approach, we analyze how genuine products should adjust their advertising and pricing strategies in response to non-deceptive counterfeiting. Our findings reveal that in the presence of brand dilution, manufacturers should reduce advertising investments and prices to remain competitive. However, when counterfeiting generates network externalities, the optimal response depends on market conditions and managerial effectiveness. In some cases, a survival strategy (reducing advertising and/or prices) may be necessary to maintain profitability. In other cases, a differentiation strategy (raising advertising and prices) can lead to profit gains. Regardless of the approach adopted, manufacturers must improve the targeting, content, and effectiveness of advertising to further differentiate their offerings and reduce positive spillover effects to counterfeit products.
Scholarly publishing of research on management and business topics is organized in a stratified organizational field, where limited access to authorship and homogenized research practices are institutionalized in a metricized system of quality assessment that amplifies inequality. The system privileges authors from core regions of a knowledge network and favors Western norms of knowledge production. This article explores diversity and stratification in 16 management research journals grouped into four different tiers, comparing subscription print journals and Open Access publishing across two grades of quality status. Analysis of authorship location and the use of normative Western research practices provides evidence that inequality is pervasive in the field. It is suggested that management scholars, journal editors, and universities can counteract inequality by initiating global research collaborations that engage deeply with the context of diverse forms of scholarship and knowledge and aim to disseminate in diversified publication outlets.
Inattention poses significant challenges within the context of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), leading to discernible academic, psychological, and emotional ramifications; however, the comprehensive investigation into effective interventions remains limited. This mixed-methods study examined the effect of a mindfulness-based strengths practice (MBSP) intervention on two groups of undergraduate English language students’ attentional literacy (AL), wellbeing, and academic performance (AP). The experimental group attended ten 90-minute intervention sessions with daily formal/informal practices of 60 min. Data collected using attentional literacy and wellbeing scales, and students’ grade point average, both before and after the intervention. A semi-structured interview was also conducted to evaluate the MBSP participants’ attitude toward the course. Results revealed the efficacy of the intervention in boosting students’ AL, wellbeing, and AP. Furthermore, while the MBSP had a significant positive effect on metacognitive, cognitive, and pedagogical components of AL, and engagement and signature strengths as two components of wellbeing, no significant effect was traced in the technological and emotional components of AL and the other two components of wellbeing, flourishing and satisfaction with life. The semi-structured interview further revealed that students appreciated the MBSP course for fostering personal growth, self-awareness, and concentration through practical techniques. However, the practicality of the weekly formal/informal practices and the content delivery issues could hinder the participants’ engagement.
Magnetic perturbation events (MPEs) can potentially produce geomagnetically-induced currents (GICs) within power grids, rail lines, oil pipelines, and disrupt communications. Predicting when and where these events will occur is not yet possible. It is currently unclear what range of auroral and magnetospheric features correlate with MPEs. Identifying these features will make predicting them easier. In this study, we examine the all sky images and magnetically conjugate geosynchronous Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 13 particle data during 121 MPEs identified in the Kuujjuarapik, Canada ground magnetometer by Engebretson et al. (2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021ja029465, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022ja030580). From this examination, we provide some basic statistics. In the all sky image data, we find a wide range of auroral features associated with MPEs, including auroral streamers, westward traveling surges, pseudo breakups, poleward boundary intensifications, auroral omegas, folds/waves, and vortices. Twenty-Seven of 42 MPEs with all sky images including streamers, auroral omegas, and westward traveling surges are indirectly associated with high speed earthward flows in the magnetotail. Similarly, in the GOES 13 magnetic field and particle data we find a range of features including magnetic field dipolarizations, dispersionless and dispersed particle injections, flux increases, flux decreases, flux dropouts, and no changes in the particle flux levels. Forty-four of 121 MPEs with geosynchronous electron data (57 of 121 MPEs with ion data) have particle injections, which are a good proxy for high speed earthward flows. These auroral and geosynchronous spacecraft results suggest that high speed earthward flows in the magnetotail are a common magnetospheric source of MPEs. While some of these features are indirect evidence of high speed earthward flows in the magnetotail, our results indicate that there is a wide range of auroral and magnetospheric features, making predicting MPEs difficult.
The pursuit of gender equality in education involves diverse actors operating within institutional contexts that reflect and influence underlying cultural frameworks. This study examines how domestic policy actors with varied institutional affiliations navigate these contexts and advance gender-equality goals. Drawing on 12 in-depth interviews with policy reform actors (government officials and consultants) and civil society actors (nongovernmental organization representatives) in Karachi and Lahore, the findings suggest that domestic actors-mostly urban, educated men-engage in strategic ceremonial compliance, balancing global expectations with local realities and institutional demands. They navigate multiple interpretations of gender equality as they prioritize gender parity to signal professional legitimacy. The study underscores the need to attend to domestic meaning-making practices within institutional contexts in both gender policy and comparative education research.
