bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Corporate Portfolio Management: Theory and Practice
Authors: Pidun Ulrich , Rubner Harald , Krühler Matthias , Untiedt Robert ,   The Boston Consulting Group, Nippa Michael 
Published: March 2011

Forty years after the introduction of the BCG growth‐share matrix, some version of corporate portfolio management (CPM) is employed by most large multibusiness companies. But little is known about the current practices of CPM. Which processes have companies adopted, and which executives in a company tend to be the main participants? What are the major corporate uses of CPM? And how satisfied are today's companies with their approaches?To answer these questions, The Boston Consulting Group, in collaboration with Freiberg University in Germany, conducted a comprehensive global survey on the practices of corporate portfolio management that involved more than 200 senior executives at the largest companies worldwide. These survey responses were supplemented by interviews with 50 senior executives of global multibusiness companies as well as a systematic review of more than 100 major client projects that BCG conducted between 2004 and 2009.One major focus of the survey was the concept of “parenting advantage.” Defined in terms of a particular company being the best possible owner of a particular business, the concept offers a clear framework for identifying the four most important ways in which management can use the principles and methods of CPM to create value for its businesses:

Influencing strategy and improving performance through its distinctive capabilities and resources, including periodic evaluations of performance.
Identifying and increasing synergies.
Providing centralized functional leadership and cost‐efficient services.
Monitoring and, when necessary, changing the composition of the portfolio of businesses.

While fostering synergies and realizing advantage through centralization of functions and services were considered relevant by about half of the companies responding to the survey, the most important drivers of corporate value added by CPM were said to be the direct influence of the parents expertise and active portfolio monitoring. But even so, only 40% of recent divestiture decisions and 23% of recent acquisitions were said to be triggered by portfolio considerations, suggesting a significant gap between the effort put into CPM processes and their role in corporate‐level decision‐making.
Deleveraging Corporate America: Job and Business Recovery Through Debt Restructuring
Authors: Yago Glenn , Li Tong 
Published: March 2011

When the Great Recession roiled capital and labor markets in early 2009, up to a third of U.S. public corporations, and nearly 60% of privately owned companies, reported high levels of financial distress resulting from frozen credit markets. And the problems of “debt overhang” and corporate underinvestment were clearly in evidence as the combination of default risk and a relatively new provision of the tax code restricted the ability of distressed companies to deleverage their capital structures.But as described in this article, at least 110 U.S. companies used a little known provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to defer taxes on the cancellation of debt income (CODI) resulting from exchanges or repurchases of significant amounts of debt. This suspension of tax policy gave many distressed U.S. companies the flexibility to cut costs, shore up balance sheets, and boost liquidity, thereby keeping themselves in business and their workers employed throughout the economic crisis. The 110 companies examined either repurchased or exchanged a total of $32.5 billion of corporate debt. The deleveraging of these companies, which represented more than $2.2 trillion in total assets and $520 billion in market capitalization, helped them to remain solvent throughout the downturn and retain their collective 2.2 million employees. The resulting tax savings are estimated to have saved (or in some cases created) almost 90,000 jobs, while contributing $3.2 billion to total corporate earnings and $10.7 billion of output to the national gross domestic product. Although this approach could be criticized as adding to the federal budget deficit, the deferral of taxes on CODI is viewed as a targeted financial policy tool aimed directly at boosting the productive capacity and employment of corporate enterprises.
Law and Executive Compensation: A Cross‐Country Study
Authors: Bryan Stephen , Nash Robert , Patel Ajay 
Published: March 2011

Companies outside the U.S. use substantially less equity in their compensation mix than U.S. firms. But despite this consistent “cross‐sectional” difference, the pattern of changes in equity‐based pay of non‐U.S. companies over time appears to mirror changes in the pay of U.S. companies.The authors provide persuasive evidence that features of a nation's legal environment help explain major differences in compensation structure across countries. As a general rule, companies in countries that provide greater protection of shareholder rights use larger amounts of equity‐based compensation. And the equity mix also tends to be higher when a country's legal system ensures strict enforcement of the laws that are on the books.At the same time, since the equity mix varies considerably over time within the same legal environment, it is clear that factors other than the legal environment affect compensation structure. The authors report that, after controlling for legal factors, company‐specific variables that proxy for “agency” conflicts—not only between managers and shareholders, but between controlling and minority shareholders as well—also affect the compensation mix in fairly predictable ways.The bottom line of this study is that, although we may have a global market for talent, compensation structures across countries are not likely to converge unless and until the underlying legal protections afforded shareholders converge. At the same time, the effect of agency costs in compensation design for non‐U.S. firms appears to be partly conditioned by the nation's legal system and the entire set of regulatory and other institutions that are affected by it.
SYNTHESIS Expansion: Design of a Nonprofit, Pragmatic, Randomized, Controlled Trial on the Best Fast-Track Endovascular Treatment Vs. Standard Intravenous Alteplase for Acute Ischemic Stroke
Authors: Ciccone Alfonso , Valvassori Luca , Nichelatti Michele ,   on behalf of the SYNTHESIS Expansion investigators
Published: March 2011

Rationale Reperfusion in ischemic stroke can be pursued by either systemic intravenous thrombolysis or endovascular treatment. However, systemic intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase within 4·5 h of symptom onset in selected patients is the only medication of proven efficacy. No randomized-controlled trials have so far compared the two modalities. To explore this, after a pilot phase, we started the SYNTHESIS Expansion trial. Aims To determine whether endovascular treatment (i.e., intra-arterial thrombolysis with alteplase – if necessary, associated to or substituted by mechanical clot disruption and/or retrieval) compared with systemic intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase, administered according to European labelling, increases the proportion of independent survivors at three-months. Design SYNTHESIS Expansion is an open-label, multicenter randomized-controlled trial, with blinded follow-up. Eligibility applies to; patients with symptomatic ischemic stroke, seen within 4·5 h of onset; being able to initiate intravenous alteplase immediately, and endovascular treatment as soon as possible (not later than six-hours of stroke onset). The study is pragmatically based on the ‘uncertainty principle’ between endovascular treatment and systemic intravenous thrombolysis for patients eligible for intravenous alteplase. There are no prespecified clinical or instrumental criteria to further select a patient, although investigators are left free to use them. Enrollment will be completed with 350 randomized patients. Primary analysis is on an intent-to-treat basis. Study outcomes Primary: modified Rankin scale score of 0 or 1 at three-months. Secondary: neurological deficit seven-days after thrombolysis and the safety of the procedure on the basis of events reported within seven-days following thrombolysis – symptomatic cerebral hemorrhage, fatal and nonfatal stroke, death from any cause, neurological deterioration.
Bioinformatic analysis and annotation of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated from Anopheles sinensis mosquitoes challenged with apoptosis‐inducing chemical, actinomycin‐D
Authors: JO Yong Hun , LEE Yong Seok , KANG Se Won , KHO Weon‐Gyu , PARK Hong Seog , CHOI Sang Haeng , KIM Yu Jung , HONG Young Seok , NOH Mi Young , OH Seung Han , KIM Iksoo , HAN Yeon Soo 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn 1993, after 10 years of absence, malaria re‐emerged in the Republic of Korea in Gyeonggi and Gangwon Provinces near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Anopheline mosquitoes are known to play a critical role in malaria transmission. Several studies have used gene expression data to examine the transcription responses of Anopheles gambiae after microbial and Plasmodium infections; however, as of now, there have been no reports of studies concerning the innate immune response and apoptosis in Anopheles sinensis. We have constructed two independent cDNA libraries from An. sinensis challenged with actinomycin‐D (T, treated with apoptosis‐inducing chemical) and without actinomycin‐D (C, control). Analysis of the 5704 (C, 2848; T, 2856) expression sequence tags (ESTs) generated from these libraries identified 884 contigs (C, 421; T, 463) and 2180 singletons (C, 1038; T, 1142) with average lengths of 831 and 817 bp, respectively. Furthermore, comparison of our EST sequences against the eukaryotic orthologous group database showed that 4324 (75.82%) of 5704 sequences could be grouped into three major functional categories. These EST data provide the basis for further studies characterizing the molecular mechanisms of midgut apoptosis.
Overview of methods in economic analyses of behavioral interventions to promote oral health
Authors: O'Connell Joan M. , Griffin Susan 
Published: March 2011

AbstractBackground:Broad adoption of interventions that prove effective in randomized clinical trials or comparative effectiveness research may depend to a great extent on their costs and cost‐effectiveness (CE). Many studies of behavioral health interventions for oral health promotion and disease prevention lack robust economic assessments of costs and CE.Objective:To describe methodologies employed to assess intervention costs, potential savings, net costs, CE, and the financial sustainability of behavioral health interventions to promote oral health.Methods:We provide an overview of terminology and strategies for conducting economic evaluations of behavioral interventions to improve oral health based on the recommendations of the Panel of Cost‐Effectiveness in Health and Medicine. To illustrate these approaches, we summarize methodologies and findings from a limited number of published studies. The strategies include methods for assessing intervention costs, potential savings, net costs, CE, and financial sustainability from various perspectives (e.g., health‐care provider, health system, health payer, employer, society). Statistical methods for estimating short‐term and long‐term economic outcomes and for examining the sensitivity of economic outcomes to cost parameters are described.Discussion:Through the use of established protocols for evaluating costs and savings, it is possible to assess and compare intervention costs, net costs, CE, and financial sustainability. The addition of economic outcomes to outcomes reflecting effectiveness, appropriateness, acceptability, and organizational sustainability strengthens evaluations of oral health interventions and increases the potential that those found to be successful in research settings will be disseminated more broadly.
Infrastructures of Consent: Interrogating Citizen Participation Mandates in Indian Urban Governance
Authors: Coelho Karen , Kamath Lalitha , Vijaybaskar M. 
Published: March 2011

SummaryHow does the state ‘perform’ people's participation and public consultation exercises in a context where it is increasingly forced to rely on private capital to build infrastructure? How do these new forms of participation and consultation articulate with existing institutions of people's representation? Are the new mandates for citizen participation and public consultation that are written into the reform agenda driving a further wedge into the already fractured citizenship that characterizes the Indian urban polity? These are the questions posed by this paper.While ‘participatory development’ itself has come under critique since the late 1990s for its demonstrated effects of disenfranchising marginalised groups, manufacturing consensus for plans already made, and/or closing off alternative pathways for transformation, this paper argues that contemporary practices of public consultation and citizen participation have moved out of the ambit of such critiques. No longer do they contain more than tokenistic gestures toward broad inclusion or people's empowerment. Instead, the imperatives of ‘fast‐tracking’ India's cities into a post‐Third World regime of ‘global cities’, have given new shape and meaning to contemporary practices of participation and consultation. The paper explores notions of participation as located in 'second generation’ or institutional reforms, particularly as articulated by prominent state‐sponsored public‐private partnerships such as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and the Tamilnadu Urban Development Fund (TNUDF). These ‘model’ partnerships provided key programmatic elements that became the basis of national reform programs, notably the Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The paper also discusses the emerging character of collective action in Indian cities in terms of its implications for the unfolding of governance reform measures such as the JNNURM's Community Participation Law.
Modularity lifting theorems for Galois representations of unitary type
Authors: Guerberoff Lucio 
Published: March 2011

AbstractWe prove modularity lifting theorems for ℓ-adic Galois representations of any dimension satisfying a unitary type condition and a Fontaine–Laffaille condition at ℓ. This extends the results of Clozel, Harris and Taylor, and the subsequent work by Taylor. The proof uses the Taylor–Wiles method, as improved by Diamond, Fujiwara, Kisin and Taylor, applied to Hecke algebras of unitary groups, and results of Labesse on stable base change and descent from unitary groups to GLn.
ACOUSTICAL STANDARDS NEWS
Authors: Blaeser Susan B. , Schomer Paul D. 
Published: March 2011

American National Standards (ANSI Standards) developed by Accredited Standards Committees S1, S2, S3, and S12 in the areas of acoustics, mechanical vibration and shock, bioacoustics, and noise, respectively, are published by the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).In addition to these standards, ASA publishes catalogs of Acoustical Standards, both National and International.To receive copies of the latest Standards catalogs, please contact Susan B. Blaeser.
Comments are welcomed on all material in Acoustical Standards News.
This Acoustical Standards News section in JASA, as well as the National and International Catalogs of Acoustical Standards, and other information on the Standards Program of the Acoustical Society of America, are available via the ASA home page: http://acousticalsociety.org.
Clinicopathological significance and prognostic value of EphA3 and CD133 expression in colorectal carcinoma
Authors: Xi Hong-Qing , Zhao Po 
Published: March 2011

AimsTo investigate clinicopathological significance and prognostic implications of EphA3, CD133 and Ki-67 expression in colorectal cancer.MethodsEphA3, CD133 and Ki-67 expression was assessed in 201 cases of paraffin-embedded colorectal carcinoma and 60 cases of distal normal mucosal tissue by immunohistochemistry. Medical records were reviewed and clinicopathological analysis was performed. The differential expression of EphA3 and CD133 protein was detected in 20 cases of fresh resected colorectal carcinoma and 20 cases of matched normal mucosal tissue adjacent to the carcinoma by western blot.ResultsThe expression of EphA3 and CD133 in carcinoma was significantly higher than that in normal mucosal tissue (p=0.008; p=0.004). EphA3 and CD133 were positively correlated with tumour size (p=0.029; p=0.017), histological grade (all p=0.001), infiltrative depth (all p=0.00), lymph node metastasis (all p=0.00), distant metastasis (p=0.017; p=0.030) and TNM stage (all p=0.001). Patients with high expression of EphA3 and CD133 had the lowest survival (all p=0.001) (median survival time of EphA3 positive and negative cases: 34.0 and 72.0 months; median survival time of CD133 positive and negative cases: 34.0 and 77.0 months). Multivariate survival analysis showed that EphA3 and CD133 expression was correlated significantly with shortened survival in patients with colorectal cancer (Cox regression: p=0.001, HR=4.722, 95% CI 2.667 to 8.361; p=0.001, HR=5.224, 95% CI 2.622 to 10.405). EphA3, CD133 and Ki-67 expression in colorectal cancer had positive correlations with each other (all p=0.001).ConclusionsEphA3 and CD133 may play an important role in the development and progression of tumours, and thus become useful indicators for clinical assessment of tumour biological behaviour and prognosis in patients with colorectal carcinoma.
Intramolecular H-atom transfer reactions in rigid peptides — Correlated solvent and structural effects
Authors: Lewandowska Anna , Hug Gordon L. , Hörner Gerald , Pogocki Dariusz , Kazmierczak Franciszek , Marciniak Bronislaw 
Published: March 2011

The rates and the mechanism of intramolecular hydrogen-atom transfer across the rigid diketopiperazine spacer in two epimeric benzophenone–tyrosine dyads were studied by nanosecond laser flash photolysis in 12 non-protic and protic solvents. Effects of the stereochemistry on the ground-state structures and conformational equilibria and dynamics have been addressed by means of NMR-based population analysis and long-term molecular-dynamics simulations. The excited triplet state of the benzophenone is found to be quenched intramolecularly by the remote phenol moiety with rates that are highly dependent on the solvent and on the relative benzophenone–phenol orientation. In agreement with previous studies, the kinetic diversity, with rates ranging from <105 s−1 to 2 × 107 s−1, can be attributed to retarding effects of the bulk viscosity and to effects of specific solvation, which can be both rate retarding and rate accelerating. As an extension of the previous knowledge, however, the phenomenology of the kinetic solvent effects, that is, the nature of the predominating solvent parameter and its absolute impact on the reactivity, is found to be highly correlated with structural effects.
Deposition of anionic conjugated poly(phenylenevinylene) onto silica nanoparticles via electrostatic interactions — Assembly and single-particle spectroscopy
Authors: Ngo An T. , Lau Kai L. , Quesnel Jeffrey S. , Aboukhalil Robert , Cosa Gonzalo 
Published: March 2011

Fluorescent nanoparticles were prepared via adsorption of the conjugated polyelectrolyte poly[5-methoxy-2-(3-sulfopropoxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MPS-PPV) onto 50 and 100 nm aminosilane functionalized silica beads. The particles were investigated via ensemble and single-molecule or -particle spectroscopy techniques to quantify the effect of the silica bead core on the exciton migration efficiency within the polymer. Ensemble emission spectra and ensemble fluorescence quenching studies with methyl viologen are consistent with good exciton migration along the polymer in the polymer-coated bead. The silica nanobead scaffolding preserves the sensitivity of the free polymer and provides a controllable architecture that minimizes nonspecific interactions. Single-particle spectroscopy studies were conducted on particles immobilized onto the positively charged surface of glass cover slips. Particle immobilization enabled us to monitor the effect of oxygen scavenger solutions on individual particles by changing the surrounding solution. The intensity–time trajectories of individual beads provide a mechanism of signal transduction with potential applications in multiplexing studies. Hundreds of individual beads can be imaged in a rapid parallel fashion.
Regulation of L-type inward calcium channel activity by captopril and angiotensin II via the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase pathway in cardiomyocytes from volume-overload hypertrophied rat hearts
Authors: Alvin Zikiar , Laurence Graham G. , Coleman Bernell R , Zhao Aiqiu , Hajj-Moussa Majd , Haddad Georges E. 
Published: March 2011

Heart failure can be caused by pro-hypertrophic humoral factors such as angiotensin II (Ang II), which regulates protein kinase activities. The intermingled responses of these kinases lead to the early compensated cardiac hypertrophy, but later to the uncompensated phase of heart failure. We have shown that although beneficial, cardiac hypertrophy is associated with modifications in ion channels that are mainly mediated through mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activation. This study evaluates the control of L-type Ca2+current (ICa,L) by the Ang II/PI3K pathway in hypertrophied ventricular myocytes from volume-overload rats using the perforated patch-clamp technique. To assess activation of the ICa,Lin cardiomyocytes, voltages of 350 ms in 10 mV increments from a holding potential of –85 mV were applied to cardiocytes, with a pre-pulse to –45 mV for 300 ms. Volume overload-induced hypertrophy reduces ICa,L, whereas addition of Ang II alleviates the hypertrophic-induced decrease in a PI3K-dependent manner. Acute administration of Ang II (10−6 mol/L) to normal adult cardiomyocytes had no effect; however, captopril reduced their basal ICa,L. In parallel, captopril regressed the hypertrophy and inverted the Ang II effect on ICa,Lseemingly through a PI3K upstream effector. Thus, it seems that regression of cardiac hypertrophy by captopril improved ICa,Lpartly through PI3K.
Delivery of Common Lizards (Zootoca (Lacerta) vivipara) to nests of Eurasian Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) determined by solar height and ambient temperature
Authors: Steen Ronny , Løw Line M. , Sonerud Geir A. 
Published: March 2011

Recent development in video monitoring has allowed collecting of data on prey deliveries at raptor nests, and this offers an opportunity to relate prey selection to short-term changes in environmental factors on a scale of hours. Whereas raptors may specialize on ectothermic prey at southern latitudes, only some generalist raptors may include such prey in their diet at northern latitudes. In particular, at northern latitudes the activity pattern of ectothermic reptiles is strongly dependent on the prevailing weather conditions. To test whether this dependence affects the exposure of reptiles to raptors, we used video recording of prey deliveries at nests of the Eurasian Kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus L., 1758) at 61°N in Norway, where the Common Lizard ( Zootoca ( Lacerta ) vivipara (Jacquin, 1787)) is the only lizard available to kestrels. The probability that a prey item delivered at a kestrel nest was a lizard increased towards midday and also increased independently with increasing ambient temperature, which on average, was 20.2 °C when lizards were delivered compared with 15.7 °C when other types of prey were delivered. Thus, the delivery of lizards by kestrels in our study may be regarded as a functional response, where the abundance of lizards is determined by solar height and ambient temperature.