bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Single Academic Center Experience of Unrestricted β-d-Glucan Implementation
Authors: Fabre Valeria , Markou Theodore , DeMallie Kathryn , Mehta Seema , Shoham Shmuel , Tamma Pranita D , Zhang Sean , Cosgrove Sara E
Published: August 2018

We investigated serum β-d-glucan (BDG) testing among non-neutropenic adult inpatients at an academic center where the test is unrestricted. BDG orders were inappropriate in 49% of cases due to absence of predisposing host factors or clinical picture consistent with fungal infection. Providers’ knowledge about BDG was insufficient.
Hellenistic Hesiod
Authors: Canevaro Lilah Grace
Published: August 2018

This chapter uses Callimachus’s Aetia, Aratus’s Phaenomena, and Nicander’s Theriaca to explore the intense engagement with Hesiodic poetry in the Hellenistic period. Informed by statistics for explicit references to Hesiod at this time, it asks: Why is this the only period of antiquity in which the Theogony and the Works and Days are considered equally important? Questions of genre and didaxis, of inspiration and knowledge, are set against a backdrop of learned library culture, in order to determine what it really meant in the Hellenistic age to be a scholar-poet. This chapter draws on a recent wave of interest in the ancient reception of Hesiod and considers not only how Hesiodic poetry was used, but also how the potential for that use is embedded in the archaic poems themselves.
Plato’s Hesiods
Authors: Folch Marcus
Published: August 2018

This chapter surveys Hesiodic reception in fourth-century bce prose, with emphasis on Plato and especially the Laws. Passages of the Laws are read in context and used to illuminate the status of Hesiodic poetry in the fourth century. Topics discussed include rhapsodic performance, Hesiod’s relationship to Homer, study of Hesiodic poetry in schools, the fourth-century manuscript tradition, citation of Hesiod’s poems in conversation and Athenian courtrooms, and the politics of Hesiodic quotation. Whether understood as part of the rhapsode’s canon, a gnomic poet, a proto-sophist or proto-philosopher, or an allegorist, Hesiod remained a dynamic site for the production of the philosophical, literary, and political debates that animated fourth-century prose.
Hesiod and Christian Humanism, 1471–1667
Authors: Wolfe Jessica
Published: August 2018

This chapter surveys the scholarly and poetic engagement with the poems of Hesiod during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on editions, translations, and philosophical and literary interpretations produced in northern Europe and England in the century and a half after the Protestant Reformation. The first part discusses the most influential early printed editions and Latin translations of Hesiod’s poems, as well as their scholia and other paratexts. The second and third parts examine the interpretive traditions that prevailed among Italian humanists and their northern counterparts, the latter focusing on Erasmus and Melanchthon. The fourth and fifth parts focus on the French and English Renaissance, examining the most significant editions of Hesiod produced in these nations as well as the incorporation of Hesiodic myths and motifs by major poets such as Ronsard and Spenser. The final section examines Paradise Lost’s complex imitation of Hesiodic cosmogony.
Hesiod in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Authors: Lecznar Adam
Published: August 2018

This chapter introduces some key moments from Hesiod’s reception during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and offers a starting point for future scholarship in this new field of research. It explores examples of Hesiod’s reception by French, English, and German figures, including Voltaire, John Flaxman, and Friedrich Nietzsche, to demonstrate the European scope of the ancient author’s appeal while also drawing attention to some of the recurring concerns that animated turns to Hesiod during this period. Hesiod offers an alternative vision of Greece to the one that had gained currency during the Enlightenment; his focus on ancient Greek religious belief and rural life provided an important counterpoint to narratives of Greece as the birthplace of modern European civilization, while his poetry offered readers a personal connection with a distant cultural and historical context.
The Hesiodic Question
Authors: Konig Hugo
Published: August 2018

This chapter attempts to address the so-called Hesiodic Question: who was Hesiod, when and where did he live, what poems did he compose, and in what order? After a brief overview of ancient thoughts on these matters, modern views are briefly discussed, with particular attention to the several scholarly approaches to the dating of the Hesiodic poems. Most of these converge on the beginning of the seventh century bce. Another focus is on Hesiod’s supposed autobiographical remarks in the Theogony and Works and Days. Whether or not Hesiod was a historical person, his poems are characterized by a distinct voice and an intriguing awareness of the poetic tradition.
Seventh-Century Material Culture in Boiotia
Authors: Larson Stephanie
Published: August 2018

This chapter briefly discusses aspects of the material culture of seventh-century bce Boiotia in general and makes specific reference to sites and areas of relevance in studying Hesiod, in particular Askra, Thespiai, the Valley of the Muses, Thebes, Plataiai, and Akraiphnia. It pays special attention to the sanctuary of Apollo on the Ismenion hill and to the Herakleion in Thebes, the sanctuary of the hero Herakles, who was worshipped there as an epichoric figure, and discusses inscriptions and finds from these two sites. The chapter also offers a view of Boiotia and of the environs of Thebes in particular as an early Greek center for artistic production during the time of Hesiod, as shown through vase painting, figurines, early writing, sculpture, and an artist’s signature.
Lesbian Identity Construction
Authors: Jones Lucy
Published: August 2018

This chapter considers the relevance of cultural discourses to speakers’ indexing of recognizable “lesbian” identities. It begins with a discussion of the ideological discourses that lesbian women have been found to draw upon in their interactions, explaining key aspects of lesbian culture and experience. It then provides a survey of linguistic research into lesbian discourse, offering an account of the mostly Western studies conducted to date. A critical discussion of the prevalence of “butch” and “femme” identities is provided, with the inclusion of data from the author’s ethnographic fieldwork with a lesbian community of practice. The chapter demonstrates that these normative notions carry symbolic value in the construction of some lesbian identities, but also argues—through an account of studies looking at same-sex-identified women who identify with categories other than lesbian—for research that looks beyond the white, middle-class, Western women who so far dominate work in this area.
Organizational Learning and Organizational Improvisation
Authors: Miner Anne S. , O'Toole Jay
Published: August 2018

Organizational learning and organizational improvisation are distinct constructs, but the two processes intertwine in important ways. First, improvisational episodes can lead to long-term group/organizational learning when organizations selectively retain improvised action patterns, or when they learn the process of improvisation itself. Such postimprovisation learning can but also may not generate valid/useful learning. Still, unresolved questions remain, such as when does it lead to unexpected discovery, distinct forms of myopic learning, the emergence of unplanned identities, and improvisational competency traps? This chapter reviews evidence that learning can also occur during improvisational action streams, as when organizations draw on real-time information and long-term organizational memory while they improvise. Finally, this chapter highlights two underexplored learning issues: How does the organization create the nugget or template for the novel part of an improvised design? What is the role of short-term memory during improvisation? The chapter advocates that tackling the intersection of improvisation and learning will advance both areas.
Rappalachia
Authors: Snyder Todd
Published: August 2018

In this chapter, I list the key players in the hick hop tradition and examine the regional pride, symbolic values, and performance of marginalized identities found in their work. The rhetorical moves employed by these artists are often misunderstood by cultural outsiders because stereotypes of the Appalachian region cloud the context from which the music is crafted. While maintaining a rhetorical tradition that borrows from yet is also distinct from the Dirty South subgenre, hick hop works to untangle a cultural thread at the intersection of authenticity, regionalism, and race in hip hop music. Appalachia, bounded by its namesake mountain range, is more of a cultural region—a state of mind, a set of living conditions, an identity configuration—than it is a geographic region. In other words, this culture is defined as much by rhetoric as by geography. As such, hick hop artists can be differentiated by the manner in which they pay homage to Appalachia’s cultural heritage, employing region-specific rhetorical traditions while simultaneously negotiating their identities in relation to connotations of ignorance and poverty—social stigmas attributed to the “Hillbilly.”
Polyphony
Authors: Tenzer Michael
Published: August 2018

This chapter situates the extensive phenomenon of musical polyphony globally, taking typological and historical/material approaches in turn, and interspersing applications of comparative method that crosscut both. The typological method involves first considering the elemental aspects of musical sounds and the ways they can be combined, individually and in sequences, to create patterns we recognize as belonging to one of several polyphonic categories. The historical/material approach surveys the development of polyphony in European art music over a millennial span with respect to advances in technology, which drive changes in musical instrument construction, music notation, temperament, and music’s social context. Interspersed throughout are comparative analyses juxtaposing musical homonyms from starkly different world traditions, and musical synonyms from different historical moments within the same tradition.
Dewey and Confucian Philosophy
Authors: Ames Roger T.
Published: August 2018

Perhaps the most important international relationship in the twenty-first century is that between America and China. Given the often delicate and sometimes underproductive history of the relationship between America and China broadly, this chapter argues that American pragmatism might serve as a vocabulary to promote a positive dialogue between these cultures at a moment in history when such a conversation is imperative. These commonalities provide a language introducing Confucian philosophy to the Western academy and also an external perspective from which to examine the presuppositions of our own worldview and common sense. The chapter compares the central Confucian notion of relationally constituted persons (ren 仁)— or human “becomings”—with Dewey’s technical term, “individuality.” It explores the centrality of moral imagination in Confucian role ethics and in Deweyan ethics and also concludes that these two traditions share the idea of a human-centered religiousness.
Brazil’s Agricultural Modernization and Embrapa
Authors: Martha Geraldo B. , Alves Eliseu
Published: August 2018

Brazilian agriculture reinvented itself by targeting a science-based approach. Embrapa, the research arm of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, is recognized as key in this process. A set of characteristics—public corporation model; scale of operation at national level; spatial decentralization; specialized research units; strong focus in human capital; a vision of an agriculture based on science and technology—explains Embrapa’s strength and achievements. Looking ahead, agricultural production needs to increase at least at the same pace of demand. Otherwise, prices will increase, and the poor will suffer the greatest impact. One of the greatest barriers to ensure modern technology will be more broadly and effectively adopted is market imperfection, which alters relative prices and the returns to investment in technologies. Reducing market imperfections is a necessary condition for expanding production in a more inclusive way, and to increase the effectiveness of policies targeting technology adoption by farmers.
Manufacturing, Services, and the Productivity Gap
Authors: Arbache Jorge
Published: August 2018

This chapter examines a little explored and yet important aspect of the poor productivity in Brazil: the performance of the service sector. It shows evidence that the meager long-term performance of the services sector is a key factor in explaining the poor aggregate productivity and manufacturing competitiveness in Brazil. The reasons for that are twofold. First, Brazil is experiencing a profound structural transformation in favor of the services sector, mainly at the expense of the manufacturing sector, to the point that the shares of services in output and in employment have become unusually high by emerging market standards. Second, manufacturing firms in Brazil are increasingly outsourcing all types of services to the point where the share of services in total costs have become comparable to that of advanced economies.
Infrastructure
Authors: Amann Edmund , Baer Werner , Trebat Thomas , Villa Lora Juan
Published: August 2018

This chapter analyzes the issues surrounding Brazil’s long-standing underinvestment in critical infrastructure. Following a survey of sectoral issues—in transportation, water, and energy—the chapter addresses the challenges that will need to be overcome if infrastructural bottlenecks are to be overcome successfully. The challenges center on regulatory as much as financial constraints. Particular areas of concern in the latter regard center on uncertainties surrounding the regulatory process, the existence of overlapping regulators and poor regulatory design. However, fiscal constraints, high financing costs and lack of technical capacity are also relevant features of the environment in which Brazilian infrastructure investment has to take place.
Labor Market Development in Brazil
Authors: Kerstenetzky Celia Lessa , Machado Danielle Carusi
Published: August 2018

After presenting general facts concerning the evolution of the labor market in Brazil over the 2004–2014 decade, this chapter documents the outstanding formalization process that took place, as well as its main consequences and driving forces. In this period, the Brazilian economy achieved sizable GDP growth rates. Although far below Chinese or Indian performances, in contrast to the experiences of the latter, Brazilian growth was notable for being (re)distributive (i.e. associated with important reductions in inequality). In particular, the new growth path was accompanied by a sustained expansion in formal employment, an increase in labor incomes, particularly of earnings at the bottom end of wage distribution, and a consistent decline in wage inequality. Thus, the chapter discusses some of the interventions that led to these achievements and the challenges now faced if these achievements are to be preserved or built upon.
Environmental Issues
Authors: Chimeli Ariaster B.
Published: August 2018

This chapter discusses critical issues surrounding the economics of the environment in Brazil. A general framework for analyzing the state of the environment in a developing country is first presented and is used as a departure point for the study of the recent Brazilian case. High marginal utility of consumption, high marginal cost of abatement, imperfect representation of citizens by politicians, and market failures are put forth as candidate explanations for poor environmental quality and low willingness to pay for environmental improvements in developing countries, even when large gains to health and income could result. These arguments are applicable in several contexts in Brazil, but not universally. The chapter presents a critical and selective literature review on key topics including deforestation in the Amazon region, aspects of ethanol production and consumption, and climate change.
Antitrust and Competition Policy in Brazil
Authors: Ribeiro Eduardo Pontual , Pires-Alves Camila , Prado Luis Carlos D.
Published: August 2018

This chapter presents and analyzes Brazil’s competition policy on merger control and the abuse of market power. Its role as an important Brazilian public policy derives from a combination of three factors: historical evolution, legal framework, and institution building. The chapter provides an analysis of the evolution of its main agency, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica, CADE), while focusing on the control of cartels and mergers. The chapter further discusses institution building over the years surrounding the practice of competition law. Current practice and challenges in this are also discussed in the chapter.
Design and Implementation of Collaborative Language Documentation Projects
Authors: Sapién Racquel-María
Published: August 2018

Academic work with endangered languages has been criticized for failing to consider speech community members' needs. Recent calls to better integrate speech community needs have led many researchers to explore the notion of collaborative language documentation. This chapter outlines phases in the planning and implementation of a community-collaborative language documentation project drawing from models of sustainable community development and the author’s own experience working with members of the Konomerume, Suriname community. The emphasis is on working with members of a speech community from the outset of a project rather than on “giving back” after academic needs have been met. Collaborative language documentation is defined, phases of a project are described, and potential challenges are discussed.
Corpus Compilation and Exploitation in Language Documentation Projects
Authors: Mosel Ulrike
Published: August 2018

This chapter analyzes the specific characteristics of corpora of endangered languages from a corpus linguistic perspective. Therefore it starts with a definition of the central notions of corpus and text and then investigates how the heterogeneous language documentation corpora may fit into a general typology of corpora. The third section looks at the genres and registers that for methodological and theoretical reasons are typical for language documentations, whereas the fourth section deals with the structure of corpora and how texts of a particular content, genre or register can be accessed in archives. The format of the texts, which are typically annotated audio and video recordings, is described in the fifth section and deals with metadata, transcription, orthography, translation, glossing, and syntactic annotation. How annotated corpora can be analyzed for grammatical and lexical research is shown in the sixth section. The last section summarizes the specific features of language documentation corpora.
Ethics in Language Documentation and Revitalization
Authors: Good Jeff
Published: August 2018

The increasing emphasis that linguistics has placed on the documentation and revitalization of the world’s endangered languages has brought more scholars of language into contact with communities whose cultures, needs, and interests diverge greatly from their own. Moreover, in many countries, research involving human subjects has become the target of increasing scrutiny, and the rise of digital means of information dissemination that has made contemporary documentary linguistics possible has foregrounded issues of rights and access to language resources. These contexts of “culture clash” have prompted serious considerations of ethical practices in documentation and revitalization. This chapter looks at these issues through the examination of five case studies which clarify the ideological underpinnings of key ethical concerns in language documentation and revitalization. Insights from the previous literature are incorporated into the discussion, and additional topics such as archiving and compliance with institutional regulations are also discussed.
Language Revitalization in Kindergarten
Authors: Tang Apay
Published: August 2018

This study explores whether a Truku Seediq kindergarten immersion program in Taiwan has contributed to stemming indigenous language erosion. The preliminary results suggest areas for improvement in the ongoing project, and may serve as a starting point for future preschool indigenous language immersion programs. The project centers on five activities: (1) weekly culture-based language classes, (2) bimonthly teachers’ empowerment workshops, (3) online documentation of teaching processes and activities, (4) advisory visits and evaluations, and (5) development of pedagogical materials. Data were collected through focus group interviews, observations, advisory visits, and proficiency tests. The results show both that the immersion program improves the children’s proficiency and that it faces obstacles: lack of qualified teachers proficient in the language and culture-based teaching, insufficient hours of immersion and co-teaching with elders, imperfect communication in the administrative system, obstacles to collaboration with families and communities, and lack of effective pedagogical materials and proficiency tests.
Planning Minority Language Maintenance
Authors: Wright Sue
Published: August 2018

The concept of language “minority” derives largely from the idea of national standard language which developed as part of the nation-state system and its constant search for homogenization. Those who remained outside the processes of linguistic convergence to the standard (for whatever reason) were designated “minority.” They were salient in a political system that prized intragroup communication and were often the object of prejudice and suspicion. State majorities tended either to exclude or assimilate them. Where international law intervened to provide language rights, there was a preference for individual over group rights and for negative over positive rights. And when these weak rights were extended and minority languages accepted in the public space, there was always pressure for a standard—on the nation-state model. However, standardization often has a negative effect, working against maintenance of traditional dialect continua and contemporary heteroglossia. This complexity is worthy of further consideration in any attempt at language policy or planning.
Designing Mobile Applications for Endangered Languages
Authors: Bird Steven
Published: August 2018

Speakers of the world’s endangered languages are rapidly gaining access to broadband internet on mobile devices. Meanwhile, social mobile technologies continue to transform the way people work together. I believe that conditions are ripe for the development of a new generation of software for endangered languages. This software will enable new ways for linguists to collaborate with speakers in ancestral homelands and worldwide diasporas to produce high-quality large-scale documentation. This chapter sets out a conceptual framework and describes some concrete steps for designing mobile applications for endangered languages, recognizing the special challenges they present, such as reliance on oral materials, lack of established orthography, and lower digital literacy.
Documentation, Linguistic Typology, and Formal Grammar
Authors: Rice Keren
Published: August 2018

This chapter addresses the relationship between language documentation and linguistic theory, focusing on linguistic typology and formal grammar, with particular attention to the understanding of linguistic diversity. It reviews the goals of documentation and of the theories under consideration, and outlines the types of data considered in documentation as well as preferred data types in the two theoretical perspectives. It concludes that, while the questions and preferred types of data are different in linguistic typology and formal grammar, nevertheless language documentation has made strong contributions to each of them, and each of them has made strong contributions to language documentation.
Institutional Changes and Changing Political Consumerism in China
Authors: Lei Zhang , Liu Wenling , Oosterveer Peter
Published: August 2018

The growth of consumption is one of the most impressive social changes in contemporary China. This transformation is driven and shaped by the forces of globalization, economic growth, political modernization, the emerging middle class, industrialization/urbanization, advances in information and communication technologies, and sustainability challenges. Given China’s unique historical, cultural, and institutional context, it is highly interesting to assess the relevance of the concept of political consumerism in China. This chapter analyzes how institutional changes are shaping consumer politics and how political consumerism affects the development of governance in China. Two important consumption domains, food and energy, are used to explore what occurred in the particular context of rapidly transforming China. The conclusion discusses the question of whether the increased buying power of Chinese consumers will actually be used to address environmental and safety concerns.
The Successes of Political Consumerism as a Social Movement
Authors: Monticelli Lara , della Porta Donatella
Published: August 2018

The chapter aims at providing a set of interpretive tools to analyze the outcomes of consumer activism when performed through collective action. In the last years, there has been a shift from political consumerism understood as a practice of the individual citizen-consumer to political consumerism performed by a growing number of organized collectives like solidarity purchasing groups, consumer-producer cooperatives, ecological communities, etc. This implies that a reconceptualization of political consumerism should be accompanied by renewed interpretive frameworks and methodologies. Drawing from the literature on social movements and their outcomes, the chapter proposes an interpretive compass composed of six main features (type, domain, nature, target, timing, duration) that help in understanding the effectiveness of consumer activism. The authors then underline the importance of taking into account factors like resources, media outreach, and alliances as well as political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts.
Sexuality, Dis/Ability, and Sublimity in Grand Opera
Authors: Blank Hanne
Published: August 2018

This chapter proposes that in the grand opera of the nineteenth century, sexuality and dis/ability combine with opera’s musical, literary, and dramatic elements, enabling experiences of the sublime within the context of human embodiment. Operatic representation of disability, including madness and lovesickness, enables audiences to both experience and contemplate uncontrollable and overwhelming forces, the essence of Arthur Schopenhauer’s conception of sublimity. The rise of these representations in nineteenth-century opera coincides with increasingly influential concepts of normative bodies, bodily controllability, and marginalization of bodily excess and disability. Opera’s textual, musical, sung, and acted representations of embodied excess, disability, and physical extremity enhance audiences’ immersive witnessing of and physical empathy with those representations.
Bells in the Cultural Soundscape
Authors: Shapreau Carla
Published: August 2018

Over 175,000 of Europe’s bells were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II. A communal musical instrument, bells have permeated secular and religious life for centuries. Artistic, musical, and historical works, bells are bound up in the fabric of their nations, regions, and cities as cultural property and heritage, reflecting civic, social, and religious traditions as well as customs of bell founding and performance. Unlike the aesthetic motives that fueled Nazi-era looting of other musical material culture, bells were taken for their metal content for use in the Reich war machine, even though international law prohibited such seizures and destruction. By the war’s end, an estimated 150,000 bells were destroyed, leaving a sonic gap in the European landscape. Bells that remained were repatriated to their countries of origin. Bell losses were remembered at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and remain symbols of community and culture, war and peace.
Baroque Diplomacy
Authors: Hampton Timothy
Published: August 2018

Between the the late sixteenth and the mid-seventeenth century, European diplomacy undergoes a dramatic expansion. New forms of representation and negotiation—summed up in Richelieu’s call for a “constant negotiation, ceaselessly and everywhere”—result in an increasingly complicated diplomatic world. These changes in practice are discussed in theories of diplomacy, but their implications may be most clearly seen in imaginary—that is, literary—depictions of diplomacy. The chapter studies a number of moments of diplomatic confusion, in plays by Shakespeare, Calderón, and Rotrou. It shows that these plays depict the changing political and moral role of the ambassador, the relationship between diplomacy and other forms of power, and the importance of new forms of communication. The essay also explores the largely neglected role of diplomacy in modern theories of the Baroque.
Innovation and Internationalization of SMEs in Emerging Markets
Authors: Child John
Published: August 2018

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have considerable economic significance in emerging economies. They provide the greater proportion of employment and create many new jobs. They have a major potential role in such countries’ economic development through the promotion of innovation and entry into the world market. This chapter examines the innovation and internationalization strategies pursued by emerging economy SMEs (EE SMEs) and the factors influencing these. Innovation and internationalization tend to be mutually reinforcing, though the role they play in SME business models can vary according to the context, such as the industry to which an SME belongs. The chapter is organized in terms of four major analytical perspectives which inform studies of international business and international entrepreneurship. These are (1) the contextual perspective (with special reference to institutions); (2) the resource-based view; (3) the network perspective; and (4) the entrepreneurial perspective. Between them, these perspectives identify many features of the environment, the firm, and its leaders that are relevant to understanding innovation and internationalization among EE SMEs. While each perspective has its own distinct focus and rationale, the factors they highlight are in practice connected.
Family Business in Emerging Markets
Authors: Basco Rodrigo
Published: August 2018

The phenomenon of the family firm has received considerable attention in academia over the last two decades. Even though the family business field is becoming increasingly more legitimate, the vast majority of family business research has focused on developed countries, with emerging countries being largely underrepresented. This limitation ultimately restricts our understanding of family firms. Thus, to address this gap, this chapter proposes a conceptual model linking three dimensions: family, business, and context. The model considers the specificities of organizational, institutional, social, temporal, and spatial forces across contexts for studying family and business dimensions in emerging countries. The aim of this conceptual model is to capture the complexity of the connectivity among contextual, family, and business dimensions. Exploring, understanding, and predicting these connectivities is particularly relevant in emerging economies because of the economic and social importance of family firms. Therefore, this chapter contributes to our understanding of the family business phenomenon by presenting a brief literature review on what we know about the topic so far, proposing a conceptual model that presents the relevant dimensions for researching family businesses in emerging economies, and highlighting future lines of research to further expand the family business field.
State-Owned Multinationals in International Competition
Authors: Musacchio Aldo , Monteiro Felipe , Lazzarini Sergio G.
Published: August 2018

This chapter explores the challenges and advantages of state-owned multinational companies (SOMNCs) vis-à-vis private firms in global markets. SOMNCs are a common form of hybrid organization in emerging markets and have features that differentiate their behavior from that of competitor private firms. However, it is not clear if SOMNCs perform better than private firms (given the ownership advantages they have) or underperform them (given the variety of agency problems they deal with). This chapter argues that, in contrast to the old model of state ownership, modern SOMNCs are often publicly traded corporations, with corporate governance and financial reporting practices similar to those of private firms. Furthermore, these firms also enjoy a variety of benefits and rents from being associated with the state, such as access to subsidized financing, protections from competitors, and so forth. Yet, there is also a liability of stateness, which has to do with government meddling in SOMNCs and with the fact that government ownership carries legitimacy issues when these firms internationalize. This chapter reviews the existing literature on SOMNCs and provides original evidence on the performance of these firms. This evidence and the matching exercise demonstrate that publicly traded SOMNCs perform at least as well as similar private firms, either because they get rents or because they have overcome most of the inefficiencies of the past.
Managing in Emerging Markets in Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Kalotay Kálmán , Sass Magdolna
Published: August 2018

This chapter examines how multinational enterprises (MNEs) headquartered in the region or investing from outside manage their production capacities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) through inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI), or other forms of engagement of those firms in host countries. It shows that Western and intra-regional MNEs adjust their strategies to local conditions dictated by the regulatory framework of individual host countries, the availability and quality of local business partners, and the quality of available skills and infrastructure. It points at different ways through which local and international MNEs adapt their production plans to a context that in the bulk of the region can be called “post-transition.” These choices in turn affect the decisions that different types of MNEs take in locating various parts of their value chains in the region, and their strategies vis-à-vis the upgrading or relocation of existing capacities.
Operating Across Levels in the Global Economic Hierarchy
Authors: Barnard Helena , Onaji-Benson Theresa
Published: August 2018

The categories “emerging” and “advanced” multinationals gloss over the “middleness” of multinationals from and even in middle-income countries. Middle-income countries face weaker institutions and smaller markets than high-income countries, but conditions are better than in low-income, typically least developed countries. Similarly, skills levels and wages are higher than in low-income countries, but lower than in high-income countries. We argue that this “middleness” matters. Emerging multinationals leverage their position in the global economic hierarchy as brokers working with lead firms, local optimizers operating only downstream, specialist niche providers working only upstream, and sometimes global consolidators operating across the hierarchy. Advanced multinationals use the global economic hierarchy to expand as lead firms in global value chains or pecking order exploiters that enter low-income countries through middle-income countries. Our research, using evidence from South African multinationals, expands our understanding of multinationals’ operations, especially in Africa.
Human Rights, Emerging Markets, and International Business
Authors: Wettstein Florian
Published: August 2018

This chapter provides an introduction to business and human rights (BHR) as a new research field in the intersection of corporate responsibility and international business and specifically reflects on it through, and relates it to, an emerging economies perspective. It aims at outlining the basic contours of the BHR field, clarifying its underlying rationale, as well as providing an overview of some prevalent issues and delineating it from other related concepts such as, particularly, corporate social responsibility. The chapter concludes with a reflection on some key research trends and themes emerging from the BHR field, which may be of particular relevance to international business and emerging markets scholars.
Economics, Transitions, and Traps in Emerging Markets
Authors: Luiz John M.
Published: August 2018

While future drivers of economic growth will be from emerging markets, the complexities associated with transitioning from low- to high-income country status. This chapter examines the economic prospects of emerging markets and the challenges they may face. In particular, the chapter investigates the notion of middle-income traps as a possible structural impediment to the realization of consistently high growth and the implications for business when operating within these traps. These countries may find themselves struggling to compete with the low wages of low-income countries and the technological aptitude of advanced countries. The result is the increasing deindustrialization of these countries and a growth slowdown as these countries fail to transition to higher-value activities. This struggle may be accentuated by structural changes in the economy and the process of modernization may produce political disorder, policy paralysis, and instability. This has implications for business that needs to be mindful of the pitfalls associated with countries in transition and different strategies may be required to operate in these settings where companies may have difficulty in moving up value chains and new consumer markets may be vulnerable to structural volatility.
Flexible Bayes regression of epidemiologic data
Authors: Dunson David
Published: August 2018

This article focuses on flexible Bayes regression of epidemiologic data involving pregnancy outcomes. It first provides an overview of finite mixture models and nonparametric Bayes methods before discussing some of the possibilities focusing on gestational age at delivery, DDE and age data from the Longnecker et al. (2001) study. More specifically, it examines how risk of premature delivery is impacted by maternal exposure to the pesticide DDT. The results showcase the use of Bayesian analysis in epidemiological studies that collect continuous health outcomes data, and in which the scientific and clinical interest typically focuses on the relationships between exposures and risks of an abnormal response, corresponding to an observation in the tails of the distribution. The article also highlights the limitations of current standard approaches that can be overcome by means of Bayesian analysis using density regression, mixtures and nonparametric models, as developed and applied in this pregnancy outcome study.
Bayesian modelling of train door reliability
Authors: Ferreira Marco , Bertoldey Adelmo , Holan Scott
Published: August 2018

This article discusses the results of a study in Bayesian reliability analysis concerning train door failures in a European underground system over a period of nine years. It examines failure data from forty underground trains, which were delivered to an European transportation company between November 1989 and March 1991. All of the trains were put in service from 20 March 1990 to 20 July 1992. Failure monitoring ended on 31 December 1998. The goal of the study was to find models able to assess the failure history and to predict the number of failures in future time intervals in order to help the company determine the reliability level of the train doors before warranty expiration. The article describes the development and application of a novel bivariate Poisson process as a natural way to extend the usual Poisson models for analysing the occurrence of failures in repairable systems.
Bayesian analysis in item response theory applied to a large-scale educational assessment
Authors: Gamerman Dani , Soares Tufi M. , Gonçalves Flávio
Published: August 2018

This article discusses the use of a Bayesian model that incorporates differential item functioning (DIF) in analysing whether cultural differences may affect the performance of students from different countries in the various test items which make up the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test of mathematics ability. The PISA tests in mathematics and other subjects are used to compare the educational attainment of fifteen-year old students in different countries. The article first provides a background on PISA, DIF and item response theory (IRT) before describing a hierarchical three-parameter logistic model for the probability of a correct response on an individual item to determine the extent of DIF remaining in the mathematics test of 2003. The results of Bayesian analysis illustrate the importance of appropriately accounting for all sources of heterogeneity present in educational testing and highlight the advantages of the Bayesian paradigm when applied to large-scale educational assessment.
Probabilistic grammars and hierarchical Dirichlet processes
Authors: Liang Percy , Jordan Michael , Klein Dan
Published: August 2018

This article focuses on the use of probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFGs) in natural language processing involving a large-scale natural language parsing task. It describes detailed, highly-structured Bayesian modelling in which model dimension and complexity responds naturally to observed data. The framework, termed hierarchical Dirichlet process probabilistic context-free grammar (HDP-PCFG), involves structured hierarchical Dirichlet process modelling and customized model fitting via variational methods to address the problem of syntactic parsing and the underlying problems of grammar induction and grammar refinement. The central object of study is the parse tree, which can be used to describe a substantial amount of the syntactic structure and relational semantics of natural language sentences. The article first provides an overview of the formal probabilistic specification of the HDP-PCFG, algorithms for posterior inference under the HDP-PCFG, and experiments on grammar learning run on the Wall Street Journal portion of the Penn Treebank.
Bayesian analysis and decisions in nuclear power plant maintenance
Authors: Cumming Jonathan A. , Goldstein Michael
Published: August 2018

This article discusses the results of a study in Bayesian analysis and decision making in the maintenance and reliability of nuclear power plants. It demonstrates the use of Bayesian parametric and semiparametric methodology to analyse the failure times of components that belong to an auxiliary feedwater system in a nuclear power plant at the South Texas Project (STP) Electric Generation Station. The parametric models produce estimates of the hazard functions that are compared to the output from a mixture of Polya trees model. The statistical output is used as the most critical input in a stochastic optimization model which finds the optimal replacement time for a system that randomly fails over a finite horizon. The article first introduces the model for maintenance and reliability analysis before presenting the optimization results. It also examines the nuclear power plant data to be used in the Bayesian models.
Wigner matrices
Authors: Arous Gerard Ben , Guionnet Alice
Published: August 2018

This article reviews some of the important results in the study of the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of Wigner random matrices, that is. random Hermitian (or real symmetric) matrices with iid entries. It first provides an overview of the Wigner matrices, introduced in the 1950s by Wigner as a very simple model of random matrices to approximate generic self-adjoint operators. It then considers the global properties of the spectrum of Wigner matrices, focusing on convergence to the semicircle law, fluctuations around the semicircle law, deviations and concentration properties, and the delocalization of the eigenvectors. It also describes local properties in the bulk and at the edge before concluding with a brief analysis of the known universality results showing how much the behaviour of the spectrum is insensitive to the distribution of the entries.
Financial applications of random matrix theory: a short review
Authors: Bouchaud Jean-Phillipe , Potters Marc
Published: August 2018

This article reviews some applications of random matrix theory (RMT) in the context of financial markets and econometric models, with emphasis on various theoretical results (for example, the Marčenko-Pastur spectrum and its various generalizations, random singular value decomposition, free matrices, largest eigenvalue statistics) as well as some concrete applications to portfolio optimization and out-of-sample risk estimation. The discussion begins with an overview of principal component analysis (PCA) of the correlation matrix, followed by an analysis of return statistics and portfolio theory. In particular, the article considers single asset returns, multivariate distribution of returns, risk and portfolio theory, and nonequal time correlations and more general rectangular correlation matrices. It also presents several RMT results on the bulk density of states that can be obtained using the concept of matrix freeness before concluding with a description of empirical correlation matrices of stock returns.
Asymptotic singular value distributions in information theory
Authors: Tulino Antonia , Verdu Sergio
Published: August 2018

This article examines asymptotic singular value distributions in information theory, with particular emphasis on some of the main applications of random matrices to the capacity of communication channels. Results on the spectrum of random matrices have been adopted in information theory. Furthermore, information theorists, motivated by certain channel models, have obtained a number of new results in random matrix theory (RMT). Most of those results are related to the asymptotic distribution of the (square of) the singular values of certain random matrices that model data communication channels. The article first provides an overview of three transforms that are useful in expressing the asymptotic spectrum results — Stieltjes transform, η-transform, and Shannon transform — before discussing the main results on the limit of the empirical distributions of the eigenvalues of various random matrices of interest in information theory.
Painlevé transcendents
Authors: Its Alexander R.
Published: August 2018

This article discusses the history and modern theory of Painlevé transcendents, with particular emphasis on the Riemann–Hilbert method. In random matrix theory (RMT), the Painlevé equations describe either the eigenvalue distribution functions in the classical ensembles for finite N or the universal eigenvalue distribution functions in the large N limit. This article examines the latter. It first considers the main features of the Riemann–Hilbert method in the theory of Painlevé equations using the second Painlevé equation as a case study before analysing the two most celebrated universal distribution functions of RMT in terms of the Painlevé transcendents using the theory of integrable Fredholm operators as well as the Riemann–Hilbert technique: the sine kernel and the Airy kernel determinants.