Financing a portfolio of projects

This paper shows that investors financing a portfolio of projects may use the depth of their financial pockets to overcome entrepreneurial incentive problems. Competition for scarce informed capital at the refinancing stage strengthens investors’ bargaining positions. And yet, entrepreneurs’ incentives may be improved, because projects funded by investors with “shallow pockets” must have not only a positive net present value at the refinancing stage, but one that is higher than that of competing portfolio projects. Our paper may help to understand provisions used in venture capital finance that limit a fund’s initial capital and make it difficult to add more capital once the initial venture capital fund is raised

ATLAS monitored drift tube chambers for super-LHC

After the high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the ATLAS muon spectrometer is expected to work at 10 times increased background rates of gammas and neutrons. This is challenging as the momentum resolution of the spectrometer is expected to be 10 %. This requires a single tube resolution of the muon drift tubes of 80 mum. At background rates around 1000 Hz/cm2 space charge effects will lead in the slow and non-linear AR:CO2 = 93:7 gas mixture to a degradation of the drift-tube spatial resolution. This was studied before experimentally for gammas and low energetic neutrons. Almost no information exists for fast neutrons. Therefore, we organized our studies under the following aspects: - We investigated the influence of 11 MeV neutrons on the position resolution of ATLAS MDT chambers. At flux densities between 4 and 16 kHz/cm2, almost no influence on the position resolution was found, it degrades by only 10 mum at a detection efficiency of only 4*10-4. - We investigated inert gas mixtures on fastness and linearity of their position-drifttime (r-t) relation. At a reduction of the maximum drift time by a factor of 2, the use of the present hardware and electronics might be possible. For our experimental studies we used our Munich cosmic ray facility. Two gas mixtures show almost identical position resolution as the standard gas. - For spectrometer regions of highest background rates we contributed to the investigation of newly developed 15 mm drift tubes. Position resolutions have been measured as a function of gamma background rates between 0 and 1400 Hz/cm2. - Garfield simulations have been performed to simulate space charge effects due to gamma irradiation. Results will be presented for the standard geometry as well as for the new 15 mm drift tubes.Comment: 3 pages, 7 figures, conferenc

Documentation of Flexible Business Processes - A Healthcare Case Study

In many industries, such as manufacturing and logistics, semi-formal process models have become a common means to reason and communicate about business processes. However, in a dynamic and flexible environment the suitability of semiformal process models as an instrument of process documentation may be challenged. Hospital processes are typical examples of business processes that are characterized by both the existence of well-defined procedures and the need for operational flexibility. This research investigates the current practice of process documentation in healthcare by means of a case study in a German hospital. We aim at getting an understanding of how flexible processes may be documented to give medical staff effective guidance and how this documentation has to be managed in order to provide value in everyday routine. On the basis of our findings we give suggestions on how to effectively implement process documentations in similar settings

Polyradical Character of Triangular Non-Kekulé Structures, Zethrenes, p -Quinodimethane-Linked Bisphenalenyl, and the Clar Goblet in Comparison: An Extended Multireference Study

In this work, two different classes of polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) systems have been investigated in order to characterize the amount of polyradical character and to localize the specific regions of chemical reactivity: (a) the non-Kekulé triangular structures phenalenyl, triangulene and a π-extended triangulene system with high-spin ground state and (b) PAHs based on zethrenes, p-quinodimethane-linked bisphenalenyl, and the Clar goblet containing varying polyradical character in their singlet ground state. The first class of structures already have open-shell character because of their high-spin ground state, which follows from the bonding pattern, whereas for the second class the open-shell character is generated either because of the competition between the closed-shell quinoid Kekulé and the open-shell singlet biradical resonance structures or the topology of the π-electron arrangement of the non-Kekulé form. High-level ab initio calculations based on multireference theory have been carried out to compute singlet–triplet splitting for the above-listed compounds and to provide insight into their chemical reactivity based on the polyradical character by means of unpaired densities. Unrestricted density functional theory and Hartree–Fock calculations have been performed for comparison also in order to obtain better insight into their applicability to these types of complicated radical systems

Antiviral defence mechanisms during early mammalian development

The type I interferon (IFN) response constitutes the major innate immune pathway against viruses in mammals. Despite its critical importance for antiviral defence, this pathway is inactive during early embryonic development. There seems to be an incompatibility between the IFN response and pluripotency, the ability of embryonic cells to develop into any cell type of an adult organism. Instead, pluripotent cells employ alternative ways to defend from viruses which are typically associated with safeguard mechanisms against transposable elements. The absence of an inducible IFN response in pluripotent cells and the constitutive activation of the alternative antiviral pathways have led to the hypothesis that embryonic cells are highly resistant to viruses. However, some findings challenge this interpretation. We have performed a meta-analysis which suggest that susceptibility of pluripotent cells to viruses is directly correlated with the presence of receptors or co-receptors for viral adhesion and entry. These results challenge the current view of pluripotent cells as intrinsically resistant to infections and raises the fundamental question of why these cells have sacrificed the major antiviral defence pathway if this renders them susceptible to viruses

What makes “the System” tick? - Explaining Individuals’ Adaptation Behavior towards Effective Use in Enterprise System Implementations

Over the last three decades, research on adoption, implementation, and use of information technology in organizations such as technology acceptance has undoubtedly provided for valuable and important insights. However, there is still a lack of understanding of users’ responses to new IT, their adaptation behaviors and associated outcomes such as effective use in organizations. With a critical realist case study and new conceptualization of individuals’ adaptation behavior, we studied an Enterprise System (ES) implementation in work systems of a financial services provider. We found evidence for four generic adaptation modes as response to the ES implementation that are based on mechanisms of exploration or exploitation of knowledge, communication and structures of the ES. These modes can be instantiated differently by each individual, leading to different adaptation patterns that drive effective use and work system assimilation and thus can influence benefits from ES.\

Self-Regulation Training, Labor Market Reintegration of Unemployed Individuals, and Locus of Control - Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

Recent evidence suggests that self-regulation plays an important role for labor market success. We conducted a randomized natural field experiment embedded in an existing labor market reactivation program to examine the effect of a self-regulation training on long-term unemployed individuals. First, we find a positive treatment effect on the quality of submitted CVs. Second, there is no overall treatment effect on (short-term) labor market reintegration, but heterogeneous effects with respect to participants’ Locus of Control that are consistent with psychological theory. The low costs of our intervention suggest high individual and social rates of return from a roll-out to other programs