Probiotics are viable by definition, and viability of probiotics is often considered to be a prerequisite for the health benefits. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of clinical studies in the field have been performed with viable probiotics. However, it has also been speculated that some of the mechanisms behind the probiotic health effects may not be dependent on the viability of the cells and...

The historically prevailing view in the network literature has been that relationships within networks develop gradually and cumulatively over time, with power playing what might be termed a ‘concrete’ role in such a process, based primarily on identifiable resource dependencies. The concept of (Foucauldian) ‘system power’, beginning to emerge in the management and organisation literature, is n...

With the business environment become more complex and dynamic, organizations have been faced with more pressures of competition. Organizations are often compelled to form strategic alliances with other organizations to survive and prosper. The inter-organizational arrangement can become favorable seedbed for inter-organization conflict. The participants in the strategic alliance often spend a s...

This paper generalizes the model proposed by Misra, by considering switching between political parties. In the model proposed, the movements of members from political party B to political party C and vice versa, are considered but the net movement is considered by assuming that [Formula: see text] (a constant), which implies that the movement of members is either from party B to party C or from...

political participation is an indication of democracy and political development and legitimacy in different societies. the more participation in a society occurs, the more legitimacy a political system will have. so, the efforts of iranian political system are toward increasing people’s political participation rate. since half of the iranian world consists of women, a survey on the factors affe...

Sociologists mostly treat age-at-arrival as a dichotomous variable whereas economists often approach it as a continuous variable. This article extends this debate by addressing a set of political behaviours that has mostly been the purview of political scientists. Analysing restricted, geocoded data from the National Survey of Latinos on Politics and Civic Participation, this article examines h...

This article performs exploratory research using a mixed-methods approach (structural equation modelling and a thematic analysis of interview data) to analyse the ways in which socioeconomic disparities in voting patterns are reproduced through inequalities in education in different national contexts, and the role of self-efficacy in this process. The evidence suggests that in Germany and Engla...

Blogs are probably most associated with the high profile postings of a few highly popular bloggers who debate or comment on major news stories, but for each ‘A-lister’ there are numerous faceless bloggers who write about their own daily lives and/or interests. Hence it is interesting to investigate the extent to which an event with extensive media coverage, such as the London attacks, is reflec...