Managing Growth: Best Practices of Family-Owned Businesses

Family-owned businesses represent the majority of business in the United States. As consumers and employees, we are compelled to their sense of trustworthiness that all too often disappears in the business world. Our economy depends on the success of family-owned businesses, but only one third of these organizations successfully transition to the second generation and only one in ten survive to the third generation. While a series of best practices attempt to prescribe solutions their challenges, these practices fail to account for the various types of family-owned businesses. More specifically, many types of family-owned businesses exist as evident by specific transitions in terms of ownership, family and business. Therefore, the study of best practices in family firms must consider the timing of implementation. This study analyzes three family-owned businesses that successfully transitioned from start-up businesses owned by a single controlling owner ready to give up control to an expanding business owned by a sibling partnership with young children. From this analysis of a specific type of family-owned business, six common practices emerged

Instabilities of Spherical Solutions with Multiple Galileons and SO(N) Symmetry

The 4-dimensional effective theory arising from an induced gravity action for a co-dimension greater than one brane consists of multiple galileon fields pi^I, I=1...N, invariant under separate Galilean transformations for each scalar, and under an internal SO(N) symmetry. We study the viability of such models by examining spherically symmetric solutions. We find that for general, non-derivative couplings to matter invariant under the internal symmetry, such solutions exist and exhibit a Vainshtein screening effect. By studying perturbations about such solutions, we find both an inevitable gradient instability and fluctuations propagating at superluminal speeds. These findings suggest that more general, derivative couplings to matter are required for the viability of SO(N) galileon theories.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, comments and references added, version appearing in PR

Postsecondary education gender disparities among Inuit in Alaska: A symptom of male malaise?

En Alaska, les femmes inuit sont de loin plus nombreuses dans l’enseignement postsecondaire que les hommes. Chez les Inupiat de l’Alaska, seulement 28% des étudiants inscrits dans les programmes du baccalauréat à l’Université de l’Alaska sont des hommes, et la proportion d’hommes ayant obtenu un diplôme de baccalauréat a décliné entre 2000 et 2003. Parmi les Yupiit, 30% des étudiants inscrits au baccalauréat sont des hommes. De semblables disparités entre les sexes se constatent chez les lycéens suivant des programmes destinés à préparer académiquement les étudiants autochtones au collège. Ce phénomène peut s’interpréter soit comme un signe de «malaise masculin», de désengagement vis-à-vis de l’instruction scolaire et des emplois salariés auxquels la scolarité est une préparation, soit comme une adaptation fonctionnelle à un mode de vie alliant emploi salarié et subsistance traditionnelle où l’instruction, et en particulier la formation supérieure, paraît moins importante aux hommes qu’aux femmes inuit. Afin d’argumenter l’explication de ce «malaise masculin», nous comparons deux régions inuit de l’Alaska, la région des Inupiat au nord-ouest, où la Corporation autochtone régionale a mis l’accent sur la création d’emplois au niveau local par le biais de la Red Dog Mine, et la région des Yupiit au sud-ouest, qui offre peu d’emplois, en particulier en dehors du réseau régional de Bethel. Dans le nord-ouest de l’Alaska, 49% des jeunes hommes inuit ayant entre 22 et 29 ans se décrivent eux-mêmes, dans le recensement de l’an 2000, comme étant «sans emploi» ou bien «en dehors de la force de travail». Dans le sud-ouest de l’Alaska, 48% des jeunes hommes inuit disent la même chose. Ces schémas soutiennent l’explication de ce «malaise masculin». Cependant, les études communautaires, qui permettent des analyses domestiques fines de la participation des hommes et des femmes dans l’emploi salarié et l’économie de subsistance, s’avèrent nécessaires pour distinguer entre ces deux explications ou suggérer d’autres interprétations.Far more Inuit women in Alaska are pursuing postsecondary education compared to Inuit men. Among Inupiat in Alaska, only 28% of students pursuing baccalaureate degrees at the University of Alaska are male, and the proportion of males receiving baccalaureate degrees declined from 2000 to 2003. Among Yupiit, 30% of students pursuing baccalaureate degrees are male. Similar gender disparities occur in programs for high school students designed to prepare academically able Indigenous students for college. This phenomenon can be interpreted either as a sign of “male malaise,” of disengagement from education and the wage employment for which education is a preparation, or as a functional adaptation to a mixed wage and subsistence way of life where education and particularly higher education is less important to Inuit males than females. To examine support for the explanation of “male malaise,” we compare two Inuit regions of Alaska, the Inupiaq region of Northwest Alaska, where the regional Native corporation has emphasized providing employment within the region through the Red Dog Mine, and the Yup’ik region of southwestern Alaska, which has low numbers of jobs, particularly outside the regional hub of Bethel. In Northwest Alaska, 49% of young Inuit men, ages 22 to 29, described themselves in the 2000 census as either “unemployed” or “out of the labor force.” In Southwest Alaska, 48% of young Inuit men said the same thing. These patterns support the explanation of “male malaise.” However, community studies, which allow fine-grained, household analyses of male and female participation in the wage and subsistence economies are needed to distinguish between these two explanations or suggest other interpretations

The Gender Gap in Higher Education in Alaska

A gender gap strongly favoring women is occurring in higher education throughout the Arctic and is especially severe among indigenous groups. This study documents the size, nature, and recent increase in the gender gap at the University of Alaska, especially for Alaska Native students. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide statistical documentation of this phenomenon. We find that among Alaska Natives, women are earning bachelor’s degrees at almost three times the rate of men and associate degrees at almost five times the rate of men. Furthermore, the gender gap in favor of females widened between 1998 and 2004, the most recent year for which we have information. The experience at the University of Alaska shows that increasing access and providing college preparation and support services alone are not enough to engage indigenous young men in postsecondary education. What may also be needed are ways of making education more compatible with traditional male cultural roles and community values. The Community Trades Technology Program at the University of Alaska has succeeded in enrolling large numbers of young Native men in a postsecondary program through such an educational model. The program 1) is located in the students’ home community; 2) offers cohort-based instruction that enrolls most of the students’ friends; 3) emphasizes practical, hands-on knowledge and the lore of the trade; 4) embeds academic instruction in practical tasks, such as writing letters about construction supplies; 5) connects the educational program to immediate employment in construction projects scheduled for the community; and 6) provides practical help to people, such as doing home repairs, without charge.En matière d’études supérieures dans l’Arctique, il existe un écart prononcé entre les sexes, écart qui se montre en faveur des femmes et se manifeste surtout dans les groupes indigènes. Ce document porte sur l’ampleur, la nature et l’accroissement récent de l’écart entre les sexes à l’Université de l’Alaska, plus particulièrement chez les étudiants autochtones de l’Alaska. À notre connaissance, il s’agit de la première étude à fournir de la documentation statistique au sujet de ce phénomène. Nous avons constaté qu’au sein des Autochtones de l’Alaska, les femmes décrochent un baccalauréat au moins trois fois plus souvent que les hommes, et des diplômes associés au moins cinq fois plus souvent que les hommes. De plus, l’écart entre les sexes en faveur des femmes s’est intensifié entre 1998 et 2004, l’année la plus récente pour laquelle nous possédons de l’information. L’expérience de l’Université de l’Alaska indique que l’amélioration de l’accès et la prestation de services de préparation et de soutien ne suffisent pas à attirer les jeunes hommes à faire des études postsecondaires. Ce qu’il faut probablement, c’est une façon de rendre l’éducation plus compatible avec les rôles traditionnels et culturels de l’homme, ainsi qu’avec les valeurs communautaires. Le programme communautaire de technologies et de métiers (Community Trades Technology Program) de l’Université de l’Alaska a réussi à recueillir les inscriptions de grands nombres de jeunes hommes autochtones dans un programme postsecondaire grâce à un modèle d’études de ce genre. Le programme 1) est donné au sein de la collectivité même des étudiants; 2) est caractérisé par des cours dispensés à la cohorte, qui est composée principalement des amis des étudiants; 3) met l’accent sur des connaissances pratiques et manuelles, ainsi que sur l’attrait des métiers; 4) intègre l’instruction théorique aux tâches pratiques, comme la rédaction de correspondance au sujet de matériaux de construction; 5) établit un lien entre le programme d’études et des emplois immédiats dans le cadre de travaux de construction prévus dans la région; et 6) fournit de l’aide pratique visant à aider les gens, en faisant des réparations à domicile par exemple et ce, gratuitement

Instabilities of spherical solutions with multiple Galileons and \u3cem\u3eSO\u3c/em\u3e(\u3cem\u3eN\u3c/em\u3e) symmetry

The 4-dimensional effective theory arising from an induced gravity action for a codimension greater than one brane consists of multiple Galileon fields π1, I = 1,...,N, invariant under separate Galilean transformations for each scalar, and under an internal SO(N) symmetry. We study the viability of such models by examining spherically symmetric solutions.We find that for general, nonderivative couplings to matter invariant under the internal symmetry, such solutions exist and exhibit a Vainshtein screening effect. By studying perturbations about such solutions, we find both an inevitable gradient instability and fluctuations propagating at superluminal speeds. These findings suggest that more general, derivative couplings to matter are required for the viability of SOðNÞ Galileon theories

Nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in itinerant electron systems

We study the effect of the voltage bias on the ferromagnetic phase transition in a one-dimensional itinerant electron system. The applied voltage drives the system into a nonequilibrium steady state with a non-zero electric current. The bias changes the universality class of the second order ferromagnetic transition. While the equilibrium transition belongs to the universality class of the uniaxial ferroelectric, we find the mean-field behavior near the nonequilibrium critical point.Comment: Final version as accepted to Phys. Rev. Let

Robotic Assistance Enables Inexperienced Surgeons to Perform Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasties on Dry Bone Models with Accuracy Superior to Conventional Methods

Robotic systems have been shown to improve unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) component placement accuracy compared to conventional methods when used by experienced surgeons. We aimed to determine whether inexperienced UKA surgeons can position components accurately using robotic assistance when compared to conventional methods and to demonstrate the effect repetition has on accuracy. Sixteen surgeons were randomised to an active constraint robot or conventional group performing three UKAs over three weeks. Implanted component positions and orientations were compared to planned component positions in six degrees of freedom for both femoral and tibial components. Mean procedure time decreased for both robot (37.5 mins to 25.7 mins) ( = 0.002) and conventional (33.8 mins to 21.0 mins) ( = 0.002) groups by attempt three indicating the presence of a learning curve; however, neither group demonstrated changes in accuracy. Mean compound rotational and translational errors were lower in the robot group compared to the conventional group for both components at all attempts for which rotational error differences were significant at every attempt. The conventional group's positioning remained inaccurate even with repeated attempts although procedure time improved. In comparison, by limiting inaccuracies inherent in conventional equipment, robotic assistance enabled surgeons to achieve precision and accuracy when positioning UKA components irrespective of their experience

A doubly-refined enumeration of alternating sign matrices and descending plane partitions

It was shown recently by the authors that, for any n, there is equality between the distributions of certain triplets of statistics on nxn alternating sign matrices (ASMs) and descending plane partitions (DPPs) with each part at most n. The statistics for an ASM A are the number of generalized inversions in A, the number of -1's in A and the number of 0's to the left of the 1 in the first row of A, and the respective statistics for a DPP D are the number of nonspecial parts in D, the number of special parts in D and the number of n's in D. Here, the result is generalized to include a fourth statistic for each type of object, where this is the number of 0's to the right of the 1 in the last row of an ASM, and the number of (n-1)'s plus the number of rows of length n-1 in a DPP. This generalization is proved using the known equality of the three-statistic generating functions, together with relations which express each four-statistic generating function in terms of its three-statistic counterpart. These relations are obtained by applying the Desnanot-Jacobi identity to determinantal expressions for the generating functions, where the determinants arise from standard methods involving the six-vertex model with domain-wall boundary conditions for ASMs, and nonintersecting lattice paths for DPPs.Comment: 28 pages; v2: published versio

Impact of the national rotavirus vaccination programme on acute gastroenteritis in England and associated costs averted.

BACKGROUND: Introduction of infant oral rotavirus vaccination in the UK in July 2013 has resulted in decreased hospitalisations and Emergency Department (ED) visits for acute gastroenteritis (AGE), for both adults and children. We investigated reductions in AGE incidence seen in primary care in the two years after vaccine introduction, and estimated the healthcare costs averted across healthcare settings in the first year of the vaccination programme. METHODS: We used primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and age-stratified time-series analyses to derive adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRa) for AGE in the first two years of the post-vaccination era (July 2013-April 2015) compared to the pre-vaccination era (July 2008-June 2013). We estimated cases averted among children aged <5years in the first year of the vaccination programme by comparing observed numbers of AGE cases in 2013-2014 to numbers predicted from the time-series models. We then estimated the healthcare costs averted for general practice consultations, ED visits and hospitalisations. RESULTS: In general practice, AGE rates in infants (the target group for vaccination) decreased by 15% overall after vaccine introduction (IRRa=0.85; 95%CI=0.76-0.95), and by 41% in the months of historically high rotavirus circulation (IRRa=0.59; 95%CI=0.53-0.66). Rates also decreased in other young children and to a lesser degree in older individuals, indicating herd immunity. Across all three settings (general practice, EDs, and hospitalisations) an estimated 87,376 (95% prediction interval: 62,588-113,561) AGE visits by children aged <5years were averted in 2013-14, associated with an estimated £12.5million (9,209-16,198) reduction in healthcare costs. CONCLUSIONS: The marked decreases in the general practice AGE burden after rotavirus vaccine introduction mirror decreases seen in other UK healthcare settings. Overall, these decreases are associated with substantial averted healthcare costs

A survey of medical students to assess their exposure to and knowledge of renal transplantation

BACKGROUND: Within the field of renal transplantation there is a lack of qualified and trainee surgeons and a shortage of donated organs. Any steps to tackle these issues should, in part, be aimed at future doctors. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to final year students at a single medical school in the UK to assess their exposure to and knowledge of renal transplantation. RESULTS: Although 46% of responding students had examined a transplant recipient, only 14% had ever witnessed the surgery. Worryingly, 9% of students believed that xenotransplantation commonly occurs in the UK and 35% were unable to name a single drug that a recipient may need to take. CONCLUSIONS: This survey demonstrates a lack of exposure to, and knowledge of, the field of renal transplantation. Recommendations to address the problems with the recruitment of surgeons and donation of organs, by targeting medical students are made