JOOP!

Joop GmbH, branded JOOP! (pronounced [joːp] in German, roughly: yope; known in English as dʒuːp) is a contemporary clothing and cosmetics company founded as a designer label by German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop in Hamburg, Germany, in 1986. Joop, who had been selling designer clothing under his last name since 1981, established a successful license business that eventually offered upscale womenswear, menswear, kid's clothing, accessories and home articles. To distinguish the brand from himself as an artist he added an exclamation mark to the name. A secondary denim and sportswear collection, Joop! Jeans, was created in 1988. The company is most notable for its vast fragrance range originally launched in 1987. In the mid-1990s, Joop! fragrances were introduced to the American market while its fashions were presented at New York Fashion Week and sold by American retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue.

In 1998, Wolfgang Joop and his estranged business partner sold 95% of their Joop shares to an investor while Joop remained the brand's creative director. In 2001, Joop sold the remaining 5% and left the company. The conglomerate investor, Wünsche AG of Hamburg, itself heavily in debted and unable to turn the Joop! brand into a Global player as it had planned, declared bankruptcy in the end of 2001. In 2003, Joop was sold by Wünsche AG's liquidator to three of Joop's former licensees in equal shares and business units (fashion, accessories/leather and fragrance/cosmetics). In 2006, the fashion licensee, Swiss-based Holy Fashion Group, paid off the accessories/leather licensee, Egana Goldpfeil, and now owns Joop's clothing and accessories business. The fragrance and cosmetics business remains with Coty, Inc. of New York. The Joop! Jeans and kidswear lines were discontinued in the late 2000s. Holy Fashion Group, whose owners are descendants and former owners of Hugo Boss, is based in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

The Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the British Psychological Society. It covers all aspects of occupational and organizational psychology, and also includes behavioral and cognitive aspects of industrial relations and human factors and ergonomics. The journal is also an outlet for articles in the management fields of organizational behavior and human resource management. It was established in 1922 as Occupational Psychology, and in 1975 was renamed the Journal of Occupational Psychology when ownership was transferred to the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

Katana

Historically, katana (刀) were one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (日本刀, nihontō) that were used by the samurai of feudal Japan. Modern versions of the katana are sometimes made using non-traditional materials and methods. The katana is characterized by its distinctive appearance: a curved, slender, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands.

History

The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:

The first use of "katana" (gatana) as a word to describe a long sword that was different from a tachi occurs as early as the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). These references to "uchigatana" and "tsubagatana" seem to indicate a different style of sword, possibly a less costly sword for lower-ranking warriors. The evolution of the tachi into the katana seems to have started during the early Muromachi period (1337 to 1573). Starting around the year 1400, long swords signed with the "katana" signature were made. This was in response to samurai wearing their tachi in what is now called "katana style" (cutting edge up). Japanese swords are traditionally worn with the signature facing away from the wearer. When a tachi was worn in the style of a katana, with the cutting edge up, the tachi's signature would be facing the wrong way. The fact that swordsmiths started signing swords with a katana signature shows that some samurai of that time period had started wearing their swords in a different manner.

Katana (disambiguation)

Katana is Japanese for backsword and often refers to uchigatana, especially in English. For a list of fictional katana, see Katanas in fiction. Katana may also refer to:

Dreamcast

The Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト, Hepburn: Dorīmukyasuto) is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998 in Japan, September 9, 1999 in North America, and October 14, 1999 in Europe. It was the first in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast is Sega's final home console, marking the end of the company's 18 years in the console market.

In contrast to the expensive hardware of the unsuccessful Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast was designed to reduce costs with "off-the-shelf" components, including a Hitachi SH-4 CPU and an NEC PowerVR2 GPU. Released in Japan to a subdued reception, the Dreamcast enjoyed a successful U.S. launch backed by a large marketing campaign, but interest in the system steadily declined as Sony built hype for the upcoming PlayStation 2. Sales did not meet Sega's expectations despite several price cuts, and the company continued to incur significant financial losses. After a change in leadership, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast on March 31, 2001, withdrawing from the console business and restructuring itself as a third-party publisher. 9.13 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide.