bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Unveiling the successful process of technological transition: a case study ofMatsushitaElectric
Authors: Shibata Tomoatsu 
Published: October 2015

Technological transition requires serious management decisions because it essentially means withdrawing from an existing technology, in which the company has been successful, and shifting management resources to a new technology with a high degree of uncertainty. We will analyze in detail an example of a successful transition to a new technology and draw key factors for success.The subject of our analysis is the transition made byMatsushitaElectricGroup (MEG), a large corporate group representative of Japanese companies, at the time of its commercialization of plasma display panel (PDP)TVs. During commercialization process, Matsushita made a successful transition from accumulated direct current‐plasma display panel (DC PDP) to alternating current‐plasma display panel (AC PDP) through incorporatingAC PDPtechnology fromPlasmaco,VentureCompany established in 1987.Key conceptual contributions are as follows. Old and new technology can differ in their knowledge base. According to existing literature, when the knowledge base is radically different, incumbent firms have a difficulty adapting to the technological change. On the other hand, when the knowledge base is very similar, incumbent firms have no trouble adapting to the change. Beyond these established existing understandings, this paper argues that when the knowledge base is moderately different, managers can increase the likelihood of successful transition by implementing a set of organizational strategies. Among these strategies, a particularly insightful one is that through the parallel development process of both existing and new technologies, managers can eventually integrate the advantages of both technologies by implementing a flexible resource allocation mechanism to overcome the dichotomy between old and new through creation of a ‘Ba’,Japanese concept offering shared context for knowledge creation.
Quality of Labor Markets in a Developing Country
Authors: Dei Fumio 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis study is an application of Yano's market quality economics to trade. It considers the quality of labor markets in a developing country and sheds light on an important role of the voting mechanism in the process of which the quality of labor markets is endogenously determined. Assuming the majority vote, it is demonstrated that if the timing of voting is wrong, a developing country misses high‐quality labor markets although trade provides an opportunity for it to reach such markets.
Flexibility at the Margin and Labor Market Volatility in OECD Countries*
Authors: Sala Hector , Silva José I. , Toledo Manuel 
Published: October 2015

AbstractWe study the business‐cycle behavior of segmented labor markets with flexibility at the margin (e.g., just affecting fixed‐term contracts). We present a matching model with temporary and permanent jobs (i) where there is a gap in the firing costs associated with these types of jobs and (ii) where there are restrictions in the creation and duration of fixed‐term contracts. We show that a labor market with ``flexibility at the margin'' increases the unemployment volatility with respect to one that is fully regulated. This analysis yields new insights into the interpretation of the recent volatility changes witnessed in the OECD area.
Incentives and the Sorting of Altruistic Agents into Street‐Level Bureaucracies*
Authors: Buurman Margaretha , Dur Robert 
Published: October 2015

AbstractMany street‐level bureaucrats have the dual task of helping some clients, while sanctioning others. We develop a model of a street‐level bureaucracy, and we study the implications of its personnel policy on the self‐selection and allocation decisions of agents who differ in altruism towards clients. When bureaucrats are paid flat wages, they do not sanction, and the most altruistic types sort into bureaucracy. Pay‐for‐performance induces some bureaucrats to sanction, but it necessitates an increase in compensation, which can result in sorting from the top and bottom of the altruism distribution. We also explain why street‐level bureaucrats often experience an overload of clients.
Does FDI Spur Productivity, Knowledge Sourcing and Innovation by Incumbent Firms? Evidence from Manufacturing Industry in Estonia
Authors: Vahter Priit 
Published: October 2015

AbstractDoes FDI affect knowledge sourcing activities, innovation and productivity growth of domestic firms? This study employs firm‐level panel data from Estonia’s manufacturing sector to investigate different channels through which FDI affects domestic firms. Based on instrumental variables approach, I find no evidence of an effect of FDI entry on local incumbents’ short‐term productivity growth. However, there is positive association between the entry of FDI and the more direct measures of spillovers. FDI inflow to a sector is associated with more knowledge flows to domestic firms and increase in their innovation activities.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MAGIC TO SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Authors: Palmer Craig T. , Steadman Lyle B. , Cassidy Chris , Coe Kathryn 
Published: October 2015

Abstract.Many anthropological explanations of magical practices are based on the assumption that the immediate cause of performing an act of magic is the belief that the magic will work as claimed. Such explanations typically attempt to show why people come to believe that magical acts work as claimed when such acts do not identifiably have such effects. We suggest an alternative approach to the explanation of magic that views magic as a form of religious behavior, a form of communication that promotes or protects cooperative social relationships. We suggest that all forms of religious behavior involve persons communicating acceptance of a supernatural claim and that this act communicates a willingness to accept nonskeptically the influence of the person making such a claim. Thus, religious behavior communicates a willingness to cooperate with the claim maker and others who accept his or her influence. We suggest that magic, which can be distinguished by the communicated acceptance of the claim that certain techniques have supernatural effects, also promotes cooperation. Different types of magic, including sorcery, love magic, and curing magic, can be shown to communicate different types of messages, such as a threat to use violence to punish unsocial behavior, sexual desire, or concern for a person's well‐being. Ethnographic examples are used to support this hypothesis. This approach requires no assumptions about whether the practitioners of magic do or do not believe that the magical acts work as claimed. It attempts only to account for the identifiable talk and behavior that constitute magical acts by examining the identifiable, and often important, effects of these acts on the behavior of others.
JAMES B. ASHBROOK AND HIS HOLISTIC WORLD: TOWARD A “UNIFIED FIELD THEORY” OF MIND, BRAIN, SELF, WORLD, AND GOD
Authors: Albright Carol Rausch 
Published: October 2015

Abstract.James B. Ashbrook's “new natural theology in an empirical mode” pursued an integrated understanding of the spiritual, psychological, and neurological dimensions of spiritual life. Knowledge of neuroscience and personality theory was central to his quest, and his understandings were necessarily revised and amplified as scientific findings emerged. As a result, Ashbrook's legacy may serve as a case example of how to do religion‐and‐science in a milieu of scientific change. The constant in the quest was Ashbrook's core belief in the basic holism of brain, mind, personality, the nature of reality, and the underlying reality of God.
REFLECTING UPON RELIGION
Authors: Drees Willem B. 
Published: October 2015

Abstract.The new editor of Zygon considers the task of “yoking religion and science” not as the combination of two similar entities. Rather, their categorical difference makes reflection on their interplay worthwhile. One thereby confronts the understanding of religion, the multiple facets of religion, the diversity of religious traditions, and disagreements within religious communities. Although concern about secularization might stimulate an apologetic attitude, the author favors a critical and more skeptical attitude, countering superstition and the abuse of people. By being academic rather than apologetic we engage in the best apology for meaningful religion, if any.
GOD AND THE WORLD OF SIGNS: INTRODUCTION TO PART 2
Authors: Robinson Andrew , Southgate Christopher 
Published: October 2015

Abstract.We introduce the second part of a two‐part collection of articles exploring a possible new research program in the field of science and religion. At the center of the program lies an attempt to develop a new theology of nature drawing on the philosophy of C. S. Peirce. Our overall idea is that the fundamental structure of the world is exactly that required for the emergence of meaning and truth‐bearing representation. We understand the emergence of a capacity to interpret an environment to be important to the emergence of life, and we see the subsequent history of biological evolution as a story of increasing capacities for meaning‐making and ‐seeking. Theologically, we understand God to be the ground of all such meaning‐making and the ultimate goal of the universe's emerging capacity for interpreting signs. Here we summarize the articles in Part 1, which focused on scientific and philosophical aspects of the research program, and introduce Part 2, which turns to the theological outworking of the project.
SEMIOTICS AS A METAPHYSICAL FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
Authors: Robinson Andrew , Southgate Christopher 
Published: October 2015

Abstract.We provide an overview of a proposal for a new metaphysical framework within which theology and science might both find a home. Our proposal draws on the triadic semiotics and threefold system of metaphysical categories of C. S. Peirce. We summarize the key features of a semiotic model of the Trinity, based on observed parallels between Peirce's categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness and Christian thinking about, respectively, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We test and extend the semiotic model by exploring how Peirce's taxonomy of signs offers a new approach to theological reflection on the Incarnation. This leads to a novel way of framing scientific questions about human evolution in semiotic terms and to a new approach to theological anthropology. Finally, we use the semiotic model of the Trinity as the basis of a trinitarian approach to the theology of creation according to which the semiotic processes that are fundamental to life and to human behavior and cognition may be understood as “vestiges of the Trinity in creation.”
Strong serological responses and HIV RNA increase following AS03‐adjuvanted pandemic immunization in HIV‐infected patients
Authors: Calmy A , Bel M , Nguyen A , Combescure C , Delhumeau C , Meier S , Yerly S , Kaiser L , Hirschel B , Siegrist C‐A ,   the H1N1 study group
Published: October 2015

IntroductionWe aimed to determine the antibody responses and effect on viral load of the AS03‐adjuvanted pandemic H1N1 vaccine in HIV‐infected patients.MethodA total of 121 HIV‐infected patients and 138 healthy subjects were enrolled in a prospective, open‐label study. Healthy subjects received one dose and HIV‐infected patients two doses of the AS03‐adjuvanted split influenza A/09/H1N1 vaccine (Pandemrix®; GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, United Kingdom.) at an interval of 3–4 weeks. The study was extended in 2010/2011 for 66 patients. Geometric mean titres (GMTs), seroprotection rates (post‐vaccination titre ≥1:40) and HIV‐1 RNA levels were measured before and 4 weeks after immunization.ResultsAfter two immunizations, the seroprotection rate (94.2 vs. 87%, respectively) and GMT (376 vs. 340, respectively) in HIV‐infected patients were as high as in healthy subjects after one dose, regardless of CD4 cell count. Four weeks after immunization, HIV RNA was detected in plasma samples from 40 of 68 (58.0%) previously aviraemic patients [median 152 HIV‐1 RNA copies/mL; interquartile range (IQR) 87–509 copies/mL]. Subsequent measures indicated that HIV RNA levels had again declined to <20 copies/mL in most patients (27 of 34; 79.4%). Following (nonadjuvanted) influenza immunization in 2010/2011, HIV RNA levels only slightly increased (median final level 28 copies/mL) in three of 66 (4.5%) previously aviraemic patients, including two of 25 (8%) patients in whom an increase had been elicited by AS03‐adjuvanted vaccine the year before.ConclusionMost HIV‐infected patients developed seroprotection after two doses of AS03‐adjuvanted pandemic vaccine. A transient effect on HIV RNA levels was observed in previously aviraemic patients. A booster dose of the nonadjuvanted influenza vaccine containing the A/09/H1N1 strain the following year did not reproduce this finding, indicating a non‐antigen‐specific adjuvant effect.
Involuntary part‐time workers in Britain: evidence from the labour force survey
Authors: Cam Surhan 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTPart‐time employment is widely considered functional for the economy, with both benign and detrimental implications for employees. However, specific analyses of involuntary part‐time work in Britain are surprisingly absent from the flexibility debate, and workers in such positions remain largely under‐researched. This article explores involuntary part‐time employment in relation to socio‐economic circumstances. We analyse Labour Force Survey data, using logistic regression modelling to identify the segments of workers filling part‐time jobs involuntarily. The results suggest that involuntariness for part‐time jobs is affected by a range of demographic and work‐related characteristics considered. Being a couple with dependent children, for example, reduces the likelihood of involuntariness among female part‐time employees whereas lower educational and occupational levels imply a higher involuntariness across both sexes.
Should Larger Reserve Holdings Be More Diversified?
Authors: Beck Roland , Weber Sebastian 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThe notable increase in international reserve holdings over the past decade and their use during the global financial crisis has sparked renewed interest in the analysis of the optimal level for reserve holdings. However, less attention has been paid to the optimal composition of reserves and even less to the joint determination of level and composition. We show that despite the common belief that higher reserve levels should lead to greater diversification to minimize the opportunity costs of holding reserves, the opposite appears to be true. Across a sample of 20 countries, we find that reserve accumulation is driven primarily by precautionary motives, underpinning in turn the allocation of reserves to safe assets. More generally, we show that a positive relationship between increases in reserves and reserve diversification should be expected only if the reserve increase is not being driven by precautionary motives.
Ecological developmental biology: environmental signals for normal animal development
Authors: Gilbert Scott F. 
Published: October 2015

SUMMARYThe environment plays instructive roles in development and selective roles in evolution. This essay reviews several of the instructive roles whereby the organism has evolved to receive cues from the environment in order to modulate its developmental trajectory. The environmental cues can be abiotic (such as temperature or photoperiod) or biotic (such as those emanating from predators, conspecifics, or food), and the “alteration” produces a normal, not a pathological, phenotype, that is appropriate for the environment. In addition, symbiotic organisms can produce important signals during normal development. Environmental cues can be obligatory, such that the organism cannot develop without the environmental cue. These cues often permit and instruct the organism to proceed from one developmental stage to another, as when larvae receive cues to settle and undergo metamorphosis from substrates. Such obligatory cues can also be given by symbionts, as when Wolbachia bacteria prevent apoptosis in developing ovaries of some wasps. Other environmental cues can be used facultatively, allowing organisms to follow different developmental trajectories depending on whether the cue is present or not. This can be seen in the temperature‐dependent determination of sex in many reptiles and in the determination of thermotolerance in aphids by their symbiotic bacteria. Signaling from the environment is essential in development, and co‐development appears to be normative between symbionts and their hosts. Here, one sees the reciprocal induction of gene expression, just as within the embryonic organism. The ability of organisms to respond to environmental cues by producing different phenotypes may be critically important in evolution, and it may be an essential feature that can facilitate or limit evolution.
Heterochrony in somitogenesis rate in a model marsupial, Monodelphis domestica
Authors: Keyte Anna , Smith Kathleen K. 
Published: October 2015

SUMMARYMarsupial newborns are highly altricial and also show a wide array of shifts in the rate or timing of developmental events so that certain neonatal structures are quite mature. One particularly notable feature is the steep gradient in development along the anterior–posterior axis such that anterior structures are generally well developed relative to posterior ones. Here, we study somitogenesis in the marsupial, Monodelphis domestica, and document two heterochronies that may be important in generating the unusual body plan of the newborn marsupial. First, we demonstrate a 4‐fold change in somitogenesis rate along the anterior–posterior axis, which appears to be due to somitogenesis slowing posteriorly. Second, we show that somitogenesis, particularly in the cervical region, initiates earlier in Monodelphis relative to other developmental events in the embryo. The early initiation of somitogenesis may contribute to the early development of the cervical region and forelimbs. Other elements of somitogenesis appear to be conserved. When compared to mouse, we see similar expression of genes involved in the clock and wavefront, and genes of the Wnt, Notch, and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathways also cycle in Monodelphis. Further, we could not discern differences in somite maturation rate along the anterior–posterior axis in Monodelphis, and thus rate of maturation of the somites does not appear to contribute to the steep anterior–posterior gradient.
Expression and function of a limb‐patterning gene Distal‐less in the soldier‐specific morphogenesis in the nasute termite Nasutitermes takasagoensis
Authors: Toga Kouhei , Hojo Masaru , Miura Toru , Maekawa Kiyoto 
Published: October 2015

SUMMARYOne of the major foci in evolutionary developmental biology is to understand developmental mechanisms that underlie the acquisition of morphological novelties. Termite soldiers, the highly specialized defensive caste, show exaggerated species‐specific morphologies, mostly enlarged mandibles. Soldiers of the subfamily Nasutitermitinae (Termitidae), however, possess a novel structure for defense in their heads, that is a horn‐like frontal projection (nasus) from which defensive chemicals are discharged. Just prior to the molt into presoldiers (the preceding stage to soldiers) from workers, a nasus disc, or a nasus primordium, is observed under the worker head cuticle. In order to understand the developmental underpinnings of this evolutionarily novel structure, the role of a homeobox gene Distal‐less (Dll) during nasus development was examined in this study, using a nasute termite Nasutitermes takasagoensis. Histological observations showed that complex developmental processes comprising epidermal evagination and invagination through changes in cell shape and cell proliferation formed the projection and the gland. Immunohistochemistry showed that Dll was localized in the developing nasus disc, but not in the frontal‐gland primordium. Consistent with this finding, Dll RNA interference only repressed nasus growth not the frontal‐gland formation. Taken together, the co‐option of Dll is suggested to contribute to the acquisition of a novel defensive structure in a termite lineage, coupled with the acquisition of adaptive defensive behaviors.
Functional conservation and divergence of BMP ligands in limb development and lipid homeostasis of holometabolous insects
Authors: Namigai Erica K. O. , Suzuki Yuichiro 
Published: October 2015

SUMMARYBone morphogenetic protein (BMP) ligands play key roles in regulating morphological and physiological traits. To investigate how the functions of BMP ligands have evolved among insects, the roles of two key BMP ligands, decapentaplegic (dpp) and glass bottom boat (gbb), were studied in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. RNA interference‐mediated knockdown revealed that the role of dpp in establishing limb segmentation is conserved among insects. Based on the expression pattern of dpp in the presumptive leg tarsal segments, we propose that the function of dpp has evolved through heterochronic changes during the evolution of complete metamorphosis. Gbb1 was found to be necessary for sculpting the tarsal segment morphology characteristic of beetles. Knockdown of Dpp and Gbb1 expression also resulted in transparent larvae and reduced triglyceride levels, indicating their critical roles in maintaining lipid homeostasis. Both knockdown phenotypes were mediated by larval translucida. Because only Gbb regulates lipid metabolism in Drosophila, regulation of lipid homeostasis appears to have evolved by developmental systems drift. Thus, developmental systems drift may underlie evolution of both morphology and physiological processes.
The Impact of Pamidronate and Chemotherapy on Survival Times in Dogs with Appendicular Primary Bone Tumors Treated with Palliative Radiation Therapy
Authors: Oblak Michelle L. , Boston Sarah E. , Higginson Geraldine , Patten Steven G. , Monteith Gabrielle J. , Woods J. Paul 
Published: October 2015

ObjectiveTo assess survival times in dogs that received palliative radiation therapy (RT) alone, and in combination with chemotherapy, pamidronate, or both for primary appendicular bone tumors and determine whether the addition of these adjunctive therapies affects survival.Study DesignRetrospective case series.AnimalsDogs (n = 50) with primary appendicular bone tumors.MethodsDogs were divided into the following treatment groups: RT alone, RT + chemotherapy, RT+ pamidronate, and RT+ chemotherapy + pamidronate. Dogs were considered for analysis if they had a known euthanasia date or follow‐up data were available for at least 120 days from the time of diagnosis. Survival time was defined as the time from admission to euthanasia. Cox proportional hazard models and Kaplan–Meier survival functions were used. A P value of less than .05 was considered significant.ResultsFifty dogs were considered for survival analysis. Median survival times (MSTs) were longest for dogs receiving RT and chemotherapy (307 days; 95% CI: 279, 831) and shortest in dogs receiving RT and pamidronate (69 days; 95% CI: 47, 112 days). The difference in MST between dogs who received pamidronate and those who did not in this population was statistically significant in a univariate (P = .039) and multivariate analysis (P = .0015). The addition of chemotherapy into any protocol improved survival (P < .001).ConclusionsChemotherapy should be recommended in addition to a palliative RT protocol to improve survival of dogs with primary appendicular bone tumors. When combined with RT ± chemotherapy, pamidronate decreased MST and should not be included in a standard protocol.