bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Deposition of Organic Coatings at Atmospheric Pressure from Liquid Precursors
Authors: Tatoulian Michael , Arefi‐Khonsari Farzaneh , Borra Jean‐Pascal 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reports on the deposition of organic coatings on flat substrates using atmospheric pressure plasma systems. Special attention will be paid on the use of liquid monomer as the precursor, injected directly into the plasma region, or in post‐discharge. We will also present an original technology that combines a dielectric barrier discharge and an electrohydro dynamic atomisation (EHDA) system to deposit well‐defined polyacrylic acid films. The advantage of such system is the possibility to limit the extent of the monomer fragmentation and to give rise to rapid deposition of a highly functionalised plasma polymer layer.magnified image
Role of the Active Species of Plasmas Involved in the Modification of Textile Materials
Authors: Canal Cristina , Gaboriau Freddy , Molina Ricardo , Erra Pilar , Ricard André 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe role of the active species involved in the superficial modification of natural and manmade fibers is discussed for the example of wool and PA6 fabrics treated by means of post‐discharge plasmas (N2, N2 + 23% O2, O2) to avoid UV radiation, ions, electrons and other species present in direct plasma discharges. The active species present in the N2 post‐discharge have been quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated by means of optical emission spectroscopy. Their action on the surface of the fibers has been analyzed by dynamic contact angle, revealing an improved wettability that has been attributed to the generation of new chemical groups and the reduction/elimination of the fatty layer on the surface of wool.magnified image
Magnetic Mesoporous Fluoropolymer Nanospheres from Plasma Processes and Adsorption of Surface‐Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles
Authors: Zong Bao Y. , Shang Zeng H. , Kang En T. , Neoh Koon G. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractMesoporous fluoropolymer nanospheres of 200–300 nm in size were directly prepared via one‐pot plasma polymerization and deposition of solid fluoropolymer nanospheres, followed by controlled argon plasma dry etching. Films of the assembled mesoporous fluoropolymer spheres exhibited an ultra‐low dielectric constant of about 1.7. Adsorption of surface‐modified PtFe nanoparticles of about 3 nm in size onto the mesoporous structure produced mesoporous fluoropolymer spheres with ferro‐magnetic properties.magnified image
Tyrosine–heme ligation in heme–peptide complex: design based on conserved motif of catalase
Authors: Rai Jagdish , Raghothama S. , Sahal D. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractOn the basis of evolutionary conservation of sequence in catalases, we have designed a heme‐binding peptide (Ac‐RLKSYTDTQISR12‐(GGGG)‐CRIVHC22‐NH2) for the ‘redox activity modulation’ of heme. Heme‐binding studies showed a blue‐shifted Soret (369 nm) in the presence of TFE and a red‐shifted Soret (418 nm) in the absence of TFE. These blue‐ and red‐shifted Sorets suggest ligation through tyrosinate and histidine, respectively. This is the first designed peptide ligating to heme through tyrosine. NMR studies have confirmed that tyrosine ligation to heme in this heme‐peptide complex occurs only in the presence of TFE. We suggest that TFE induces helicity in the peptide and brings the arginine and tyrosine in proximity, resulting in ionization of the phenolic side chain of tyrosine. In the absence of TFE, the unstructured peptide lacks the intra‐molecular Arg+Tyr− ion pair, allowing heme binding to histidine. This peptide has significant peroxidase activity though it does not have catalase activity. Copyright © 2007 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Excitation‐wavelength‐dependent charge transfer resonance of bipyridines on silver nanoparticles: surface‐enhanced Raman scattering study
Authors: Lim Jong Kuk , Joo Sang‐Woo 
Published: May 2007

AbstractCharge transfer (CT) resonance mechanisms of 2,2′‐bipyridine (2,2′‐BiPy), 2,4′‐bipyridine (2,4′‐BiPy), and 4,4′‐bipyridine (4,4′‐BiPy) on silver nanoparticle surfaces have been comparatively investigated by means of surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) at the excitation wavelengths of 457, 514, 633, and 785 nm. A combination of the electromagnetic (EM) and charge transfer (CT) contributions should affect the SERS intensities for the bipyridine compounds adsorbed on silver nanoparticle surfaces. The CT resonance is assumed to occur in dissimilar ways for the bipyridine compounds, as evidenced from their different excitation‐wavelength‐dependent SERS enhancement factors. Ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the level of B3LYP/LANL2DZ have been carried out for the bipyridine‐Ag complexes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The stress response to acute stroke
Authors: O'Connell Janice E. , Gray Christopher S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAcute ischaemic cerebral insult results in a systemic metabolic response producing increased secretion of stress hormones with resultant hyperglycaemia. Reactive hyperglycaemia following stroke is associated with a particularly poor prognosis. The ischaemic cascade to neuronal cell death occurs in response to changes in cerebral perfusion and metabolism. This cascade may be influenced by the stress response which may have implications for treatment in the future.
Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation
Authors: Gioia Dennis A. , Chittipeddi Kumar 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reports an ethnographic study of the initiation of a strategic change effort in a large, public university. It develops a new framework for understanding the distinctive character of the beginning stages of strategic change by tracking the first year of the change through four phases (labeled as envisioning, signaling, re‐visioning, and energizing). This interpretive approach suggests that the CEO's primary role in instigating the strategic change process might best be understood in terms of the emergent concepts of ‘sensemaking’ and ‘sensegiving’. Relationships between these central concepts and other important theoretical domains are then drawn and implications for understanding strategic change initiation are discussed.
Critique of Henry Mintzberg's ‘The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management’
Authors: Ansoff H. Igor 
Published: May 2007

AbstractMintzberg's (1990) critique of the ‘design school’ of strategic management is evaluated on two criteria: methodological soundness and factual veracity. The critique is found to be deficient on both criteria. Mintzberg's own proposal for the basic principles of strategic management is critiqued using the same criteria. It is found that the exposition is deficient methodologically and that Mintzberg's descriptive and prescriptive assertions are at variance with facts observable in the current practice of strategic management. The variance is found to be due to several factors: lack of coherence in Mintzberg's presentation; his use of a definition of strategy which is at variance with the current practice of management, his failure to differentiate between prescriptive and descriptive statements; and his failure to define the context for his prescriptions. Using recent empirical research results on strategic success behaviors, Mintzberg's model is placed in a limited but important context in which it is a valid prescription for successful strategic behavior.
Porter's ‘competitive advantage of nations’: An assessment
Authors: Grant Robert M. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractPorter's Competitive Advantage of Nations is an important book which bridges the gap between strategic management and international economics while contributing substantially to both. Porter's analysis of the impact of national environment on international competitive performance demonstrates the potential for the theory of competitive strategy to rescue international economics from its slide into refined irrelevance, while simultaneously broadening the scope of the theory of competitive strategy to encompass both the international dimension and the dynamic context of competition. Nevertheless, the breadth and relevance of Porter's analysis have been achieved at the expense of precision and determinancy. Concepts are often ill defined, theoretical relationships poorly specified, and empirical data chosen selectively and interpreted subjectively.
Research notes and communications management and organizational change: A note on the railroad industry
Authors: Grimm Curtis M. , Smith Ken G. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractHypotheses which relate top‐level managers' age, years of company and industry service, and education to strategic change are studied with a sample of 855 managers from 27 railroads. Results generally support hypotheses that younger managers and those with less experience are more likely to alter their strategies with changing environmental conditions.
Strategy, structure, and performance of U.S. manufacturing and service MNCs: A comparative analysis
Authors: Habib Mohammed M. , Victor Bart 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study analyzes the strategy‐structure fit and its effect on the economic performance of 144 U.S. manufacturing and service multinational corporations (MNCs). The results indicate that MNCs, irrespective of being services or manufacturing, choose their organization structure consistent with the theoretical fit prescription for the kind of strategy they are pursuing. However, the strategy‐structure fit had no effect on service MNC economic performance. With manufacturing MNCs, mixed results regarding the fit‐performance linkage were found. Based on the findings, implications and directions for future research are suggested.
Deregulation, strategic choice, risk and financial performance
Authors: Reger Rhonda K. , Duhaime Irene M. , Stimpert J. L. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study explores the effects of regulation and deregulation on strategic choice and performance in the U.S. banking industry. Drawing on literature from strategic management, industrial organization economics, and organization theory, we develop a framework which suggests that regulatory scope and regulatory incrementalism influence strategic choice and performance. A path analytic model is used to empirically examine these influences. The results suggest that deregulation has direct effects on firms' strategic choices and both direct and indirect effects on risk and return.
Sources of value in takeovers: Synergy or restructuring–implications for target and bidder firms
Authors: Chatterjee Sayan 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAdvocates of the market for corporate control argue that takeover bids should be accepted because unsuccessful targets tend to lose market value. Other researchers argue that takeover bids should be rejected because the combined firms often perform poorly. However, missing in this debate is the influence of the source of takeover gains on the decision to reject or accept takeover bids. This study posits that value from takeovers can be created by synergy or restructuring. The study suggests that only if the synergy component is dominant should the target firm agree to be taken over. The study then tests the dominance of the source of value in takeovers by examining takeovers that were unsuccessful. The study concludes that, first, restructuring, not synergy, motivated the sample studied and target firms can create the same value independently. Second the need for restructuring was industry‐wide. However, even if restructuring is the motive behind a takeover, the target firm has to carry out the restructuring, failing which it does not create any value. The study also suggests reasons for the ambiguous findings in the strategic management merger literature.
Research notes and communications development and validation of the strategic locus of control scale
Authors: Hodgkinson Gerard P. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractPrevious studies investigating the role of locus of control beliefs in relation to strategy‐making behavior, organizational structure, performance and environment have employed the well known Rotter (1966) I‐E scale. Unfortunately, however, this scale is beset by a number of problems which render it unsuitable for studies of business organizations, namely, that the items comprising the scale lack context‐specificity and its well known tendency to correlate with measures of social desirability response set. This paper describes the development of a new measure designed to overcome these limitations. The measure, intended specifically for investigating locus of control beliefs in relation to issues of strategic management, assesses the extent to which respondents regard their own and other organizations' strategic issues to be resolved by the systematic application of strategic management techniques (e.g. environmental analysis, strategic planning, etc) or through external environmental forces (e.g. the actions of powerful competitors, unforeseen chance events, etc) largely beyond the control of organizations. Data is presented from two samples which indicate that the measure demonstrates acceptable reliability and construct validity.
A new productivity paradigm for competitive advantage
Authors: Istvan Rudyard L. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA decade of observed large differences in productivity driven competitive advantage cannot be explained by traditional productivity notions or conventional strategic analysis. We conclude on both empirical and theoretical grounds that most traditional sources of productivity have encountered diminishing marginal returns. Large competitive differences appear to arise from a new productivity source, nonlinear systems dynamics in business organizations. This has both theoretical and practical consequences for managing toward competitive advantage and requires a new approach to management, control, and organization.
Research notes and communications strategic planning as competitive advantage
Authors: Powell Thomas C. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractSince 1970, over forty empirical studies have examined the performance consequences of formal strategic planning. This line of research has drawn heavy criticism from reviewers on methodological grounds, and has produced confusing, apparently contradictory results. This article reevaluates the planning‐performance relationship from a resource perspective, arguing that strategic planning does not satisfy the criteria for sustainable competitive advantage– although it may produce economic value, it is easily imitated and may be substitutable. The article suggests that previous studies produced inconsistent results because they did not account for the dissemination of strategic planning over time, or for industry differences in strategic planning factor markets. An empirical test in two industries finds that formal strategic planning and financial performance are unrelated in a ‘planning equilibrium’ industry, but positively related in an industry with strategic planning factor market imperfections.
The choice of organizational form: Vertical financial ownership versus other methods of vertical integration
Authors: Mahoney Joseph T. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractVertical integration is a fundamental corporate strategy of interest to the fields of strategic management and organizational economics. This paper synthesizes theoretical arguments and empirical findings from this literature to identify the underlying advantages and disadvantages of choosing vertical financial ownership relative to vertical contracts. It then suggests that in the absence of agency and transaction costs, vertical financial ownership and vertical contracting are equivalent governance structures for achieving corporate objectives. However, given a world of positive agency and transaction costs, the key theoretic question then becomes predicting when market mechanisms are sufficient, when intermediate forms of vertical contracting become necessary, and when vertical financial ownership becomes the preferred governance structure. The concluding section of the paper provides a framework for making this analysis based on a synthesis of agency and transaction costs perspectives.
The role of managerial learning and interpretation in strategic persistence and reorientation: An empirical exploration
Authors: Lant Theresa K. , Milliken Frances J. , Batra Bipin 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study uses a managerial learning framework to build and test a model of the decisionmaking process that drives decisions to strategically reorient an organization. The model examines the effects of past performance, managerial interpretations, and top management team characteristics on the likelihood of strategic reorientation in two distinct environmental contexts. The results indicate that poor past performance, environmental awareness, top management team heterogeneity, and CEO turnover increased the likelihood of reorientation. There are some differences in the ways in which these variables affect reorientation across the two environmental contexts. Poor past performance was more strongly associated with reorientation in the stable environment than in the turbulent environment. The tendency to make external attributions for poor performance outcomes decreased the likelihood of reorientation in the turbulent environment, but not in the stable environment.
Are market pioneers intrinsically stronger than later entrants?
Authors: Robinson William T. , Fornell Claes , Sullivan Mary 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAre market pioneers more successful because they started with superior skills and resources? The absolute pioneer advantage hypothesis is that because market pioneering is desirable, firms with superior skills and resources naturally choose to pioneer new markets. The comparative advantage hypothesis is that market evolution changes success requirements. Market pioneer skills and resources differ from, but are not superior to later entrants. Empirical results across 171 diversification entrants tend to support the comparative advantage hypothesis. Skill and resource profiles are provided for market pioneers, early followers, and late entrants.
Experience report on using object‐oriented design for software maintenance
Authors: Schneidewind Norman F. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractWe experimented with modifying the existing object‐oriented (OO) design and C++ code of a software reliability model. Our purpose was to assess the efficacy of OO methods for performing maintenance on mathematical software, using a real‐world system (NASA Space Shuttle flight software) to illustrate the approach. In this process, we used variants of UML diagrams to modify our design. We found that although a top‐down approach to software maintenance is normally a good idea, it was still necessary to modify the design once the realities of what could be accomplished in the C++ code came to light. As reliability and maintenance are intimately related, we developed reliability risk analysis to show how maintenance changes to our design and code could be used to measure risk. Another maintenance enhancement to the design and code is the use of reliability parameter analysis to assess, in the advance of prediction, the reliability of a set of software releases. We believe this is the first evaluation of software maintenance using OO methods. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Depression in the chronically mentally ill elderly
Authors: Perse Teri , Howell Timothy , Jefferson James W. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractDepression in the elderly is a major mental health problem. It may occur as the primary psychiatric disorder or in association with coexisting conditions, such as dementia, schizophrenia, and obsessive‐compulsive disorder. Appropriate diagnosis and effective treatment can do much to reduce the impact of this chronic mental illness.
Postbuckling Behavior of a Simply Supported Infinite Strip Under the Action of Shearing Forces
Authors: Yamkai Noboru 
Published: May 2007

AbstractBased on the von Kármán's equation of plates with large deflections, theoretical solutions are presented for the postbuckling behavior of a simply supported infinite strip under shear. Galerkin's method is used and the problem is solved in the two limiting cases where the edges are freely movable and perfectly immovable towards each other. Through numerical calculations, the connections of the overall shear deformation, effective width, form of the buckled surface and stress state of the plate, with applied shear load, are clarified. The load‐carrying capacity of the plate is also determined under the yield condition of von Mises.
Two‐Dimensional Flow of Power Law Fluids in the Inlet Length of a Straight Channel II
Authors: Kapur J. N. , Gupta R. C. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe use of two fourth degree velocity profiles in the integration of boundary layer equations by Kármán‐Pohlhausen's method for the inlet length of a straight channel has been studied and for both profiles, the inlet length, the velocity profiles in the inlet length and the pressure drop upto any point in the channel have been obtained.
The Shallow Spherical Shell Subjected to Point Load or Hot Spot
Authors: Reismann Herbert , Thurston Gaylen A. , Holston Alvin A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis investigation extends the method of singular solutions to encompass the treatment of the boundary value problem of shallow spherical shells with circular boundaries. The shell or shell frustrum is assumed to be subjected to arbitrarily located transverse point loads or hot spots. A specific example, the clamped, shallow spherical shell under eccentric point load is discussed in detail.
Die Grundgleichungen der technischen Schalentheorie
Authors: Heuck Klaus 
Published: May 2007

AbstractDie vorliegende Arbeit befaßt sich mit der Herleitung der Grundgleichungen der technischen Schalentheorie und mit der Besprechung ihrer Lösungen. Da die übliche Herleitung einige Voraussetzungen umfaßt, deren Tragweite schlecht abzuschätzen ist und die darüber hinaus teilweise in sich widerspruchsvoll sind, wird ein anderes Verfahren angewandt, das von sechs unabhängigen Voraussetzungen ausgeht, deren Gültigkeit in jedem Einzelfall leicht nachgeprüft werden kann. Anschließend werden die drei Haupttypen von Lösungen behandelt, nämlich Membranspannungszustände, dehnungslose Biegung und Randstörungen. Es wird gezeigt, daß sie alle den oben genannten sechs Voraussetzungen entsprechen. Schließlich wird bewiesen, daß es eine große Klasse von Schalen gibt, in der diese drei Lösungen die einzig möglichen sind. Einige Beispiele dienen zur Veranschaulichung der theoretischen Überlegungen.
Error Estimates for Luke's Approximation Formulas for Bessel and Hankel Functions
Authors: Krumhaar Hans 
Published: May 2007

AbstractError estimates are presented for approximation formulas for Bessel functions Jn(z) and for the Hankel functions H0(1)(z) and H1(2)(z). These approximation formulas are obtained by means of the trapezoidal rule according to Luke. The error estimates are valid in the case of Bessel funtions for arbitrary real or complex argument z, they hold in the case of the Hankel functions for arguments z with a positive imaginary part. Use is made of Luke's results, some of them are repeated in order to make this paper self‐contained. In order to derive the error estimates for the Hankel functions some inequalities are engaged for the Gamma function with certain complex arguments and for Bessel functions of certain complex orders.
Eine Vereinfachung des Verfahrens von Le Verrier — Horst zur Aufstellung des charakteristischen Polynoms einer Matrix
Authors: Krämer H. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractEs wird eine Methode angegeben, die es erlaubt, den Rechenaufwand beim Verfahren von Le Verrier [1] — Horst [2] Für n > 1 von n4 auf n7/2 zu senken.