Abstract
Market and hierarchical/organizational failures have long been the target of public policies explicitly aimed to mitigate their negative effects. However, in spite of a growing interest in ...policies around industrial clusters and business networks, scholarship on public efforts at remediating network failures has been ad hoc and lacking a binding theory. A central question is what strategies public agencies employ to repair network failures. We begin to answer this question by distinguishing between two distinct approaches: (1) “network construction” in which government agents actively build, re-shape, or thicken the structures of private sector networks; and (2) “network activation” in which government agents seek to alter the internal dynamics of existing private sector networks. To provide empirical support for these concepts, we provide a series of short international examples to illustrate the scope of network remediation activities as well as two in-depth cases that demonstrate how these mechanisms can work: the Canadian Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and the specialized Mexican Lead Substitution Program.
Organizational design is a field that is being increasingly recognized by both managers and scholars. It has undoubtedly been the subject of numerous theoretical papers. The same however cannot be ...said about the practical application of the proposed theoretical approaches aimed to establish the organizational level of companies and its improvement.
The purpose of this article is to present an approach and methodological bases capable of establishing companies’ organizational level by developing the so called “organizational profiles”. The proposed approach is based on a quantitative assessment method using organizational parameters shown to be significant. These are used as grounds for identifying “problematic areas” and possibilities to overcome such areas. The organizational profile also demonstrates the extent to which the company management has chosen the appropriate strategy for organizing its processes and operations in terms of functions.
The results from applying the method for developing company's organizational profile are related to the improvement in the organization of the ongoing processes in the company as a whole. This method can be used in the day-to-day operations of business organizations in their pursuit of an improved organizational level.
To compare developmental outcomes of late preterm infants (34-36 weeks' gestation) with infants born at early term (37-38 weeks' gestation) and term (39-41 weeks' gestation), from infancy through ...kindergarten.
Sample included 1000 late preterm, 1800 early term, and 3200 term infants ascertained from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. Direct assessments of development were performed at 9 and 24 months by using the Bayley Short Form-Research Edition T-scores and at preschool and kindergarten using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort reading and mathematics θ scores. Maternal and infant characteristics were obtained from birth certificate data and parent questionnaires. After controlling for covariates, we compared mean developmental outcomes between late preterm and full-term groups in serial cross-sectional analyses at each timepoint using multilinear regression, with pairwise comparisons testing for group differences by gestational age categories.
With covariates controlled at all timepoints, at 9 months late preterm infants demonstrated less optimal developmental outcomes (T = 47.31) compared with infants born early term (T = 49.12) and term (T = 50.09) (P < .0001). This association was not seen at 24 months, (P = .66) but reemerged at preschool. Late preterm infants demonstrated less optimal scores in preschool reading (P = .0006), preschool mathematics (P = .0014), and kindergarten reading (P = .0007) compared with infants born at term gestation.
Although late preterm infants demonstrate comparable developmental outcomes to full-term infants (early term and full-term gestation) at 24 months, they demonstrate less optimal reading outcomes at preschool and kindergarten timepoints. Ongoing developmental surveillance for late preterm infants is warranted into preschool and kindergarten.
An Octane-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Zhan, Zhongliang; Barnett, Scott A.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
05/2005, Volume:
308, Issue:
5723
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
There are substantial barriers to the introduction of hydrogen fuel cells for transportation, including the high cost of fuel-cell systems, the current lack of a hydrogen infrastructure, and the ...relatively low fuel efficiency when using hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons. Here, we describe a solid oxide fuel cell that combines a catalyst layer with a conventional anode, allowing internal reforming of iso-octane without coking and yielding stable power densities of 0.3 to 0.6 watts per square centimeter. This approach is potentially the basis of a simple low-cost system that can provide substantially higher fuel efficiency by using excess fuel-cell heat for the endothermic reforming reaction.
The University of Alabama Libraries began a workflow analysis over a decade ago. Primarily focused on traditional technical services areas, this process has been iterative and evolved from the need ...to seek efficiencies to a broader change in the culture and an acceptance of an ongoing process of improvement. This paper discusses lessons learned from workflow analysis regarding acquisitions, electronic resources, and cataloging/metadata, and examines how these changes impacted the broader library and philosophies of collection development and management.
Companies operate in ever faster and more abruptly changing environments. Due to the global interconnectedness of markets and actors, changes in framework conditions often have impacts across ...industries and geographical borders and constantly present companies worldwide with new challenges; however, they also offer opportunities. Adaptability to abruptly changing conditions and the ability to shape market environments have gained enormous importance as strategic factors for company organizations. How exactly can adaptability be shaped? This paper assumes that today’s companies need concepts that help them to successfully adapt to these turbulent business environments and ideally to shape the changes to their own advantage. In addition, this work assumes that companies rely on already established models from science and business, but also (especially currently) develop new ideas themselves to adapt even faster and more effectively to changing conditions. To explore these phenomena, this paper develops a research funnel that can be used to identify companies that are most likely to provide answers to this question. In addition, this paper presents a research design with which the secrets of the adaptability of these companies can be explored in the field.
PDF
