Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plots: A Case Study of Analysing Foreign Direct Investment

The curse of dimensionality has been an open issue for many years and still is, as finding nonobvious and previously unknown patterns in ever-increasing amounts of high-dimensional data is not an easy task. Advancing in descriptive data analysis, the present paper proposes Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plots (HUEPs) as a new visualization technique to combine the outputs of Exploratory Projection Pursuit and Clustering methods in a novel and informative way. As a case study, HUEPs are validated in a real-world context for analysing the internationalization strategy of companies, by taking into account bilateral distance between home and host countries. As a multifaceted concept, distance encompasses multiple dimensions. Together with data from both the countries and the companies, various psychic distances are analysed by means of HUEPs, to gain deep knowledge of the internationalization strategy of large Spanish companies. Informative visualizations are obtained from the analysed dataset, leading to useful business implications and decision making.The work was conducted during Álvaro Herrero’s research stay at KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux (France). Some results of this ongoing research, from the same dataset, have been presented in the 13th International Conference on Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications, as a paper entitled “Visualizing Industrial Development Distance to Better Understand Internationalization of Spanish Companies”

Climate risk and private participation projects in infrastructure: Mitigating the impact of locational (dis)advantages

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of climate risk on the success vs failure of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in private participation infrastructure (PPI) projects. The authors also consider the extent to which project-level characteristics mitigate such risks. Design/methodology/approach The authors study a sample from the World Bank covering 18,846 projects in 111 countries from 2004 to 2013. The authors apply logistic regressions to determine the impact of climate risk and mitigating project characteristics on project failure. Findings The authors find that higher levels of climate risk at the host country level are associated with higher risk of project failure. The authors also find that the disadvantage of higher climate risk is weakened by two project-level characteristics, namely, the inclusion of host government ownership in the project consortium and the size of the project. Originality/value The research contributes to the current debate about the impact of climate risks on international business ventures. The authors demonstrate that climate risk is a locational disadvantage for FDI in PPI projects. The authors establish that the “fittest” projects in locations characterized by higher climate risk tend to be those that involve host government participation in their ownership structure as well as those of larger sizes

Examining the generalizability of research findings from archival data

This initiative examined systematically the extent to which a large set of archival research findings generalizes across contexts. We repeated the key analyses for 29 original strategic management effects in the same context (direct reproduction) as well as in 52 novel time periods and geographies; 45% of the reproductions returned results matching the original reports together with 55% of tests in different spans of years and 40% of tests in novel geographies. Some original findings were associated with multiple new tests. Reproducibility was the best predictor of generalizability—for the findings that proved directly reproducible, 84% emerged in other available time periods and 57% emerged in other geographies. Overall, only limited empirical evidence emerged for context sensitivity. In a forecasting survey, independent scientists were able to anticipate which effects would find support in tests in new samples

Development of Biosensors for Determination of the Total Antioxidant Capacity of Olive Leaf Extract

In the present work, a laccase biosensor was investigated for determination of the oleuropein concentration that is the biological active component of olive leaf and contributes dominantly to the total antioxidant capacity. The biosensor was prepared by immobilization of laccase from Trametesversicolor by addition of cross-linking agent, glutaraldehyde, into the carbon paste electrode. The best biosensor performance was determined for biosensor having glutaraldehyde amount of 12.03 % and 5 mg/ml of laccase enzyme. The scan rate of 10 mV/s was decided to be the optimum for the amperometric detection of oleuropein based on the fastest response and maximum reduction current. Biosensor performance was also investigated for olive leave extract fractions varying in their oleuropein amounts. Therefore, biosensor performance was investigated for fractions containing different types of phenolic compounds. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), total phenol content and antioxidant capacity analyses of the fractions were also carried out for comparison with biosensor results

Purification of alpha-galactosidase from pepino (Solanum muricatum) by three-phase partitioning

WOS: 000297444900018Three-phase partitioning (TPP) is a bioseparation technique used for the extraction, concentration and purification of biomolecules. The technique consists of simultaneous addition of a salt (generally ammonium sulfate) to the crude extract followed by the addition of an organic solvent (generally t-butanol). In the present study, alpha-galactosidase was purified from pepino (Solanum muricatum) fruit by TPP. The influence of various process parameters (ammonium sulfate saturation, crude extract to t-butanol ratio and pH) on alpha-galactosidase partitioning is investigated to get highest purity fold and yield. The results showed that, 50% (w/v) ammonium sulfate saturation with 1:1.5 crude extract to t-butanol ratio at pH 5.25 gave 6.2-fold purification with 127% activity recovery of alpha-galactosidase. Characterization and determination of biochemical properties of the partitioned alpha-galactosidase were also aimed. The sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis showed considerable purification and the molecular weight of the enzyme was nearly found to be as 38 kDa. Various parameters (temperature, pH and substrate concentration) affecting to the enzyme activity and stability were studied. The optimum temperature and pH of the partitioned alpha-galactosidase were found to be 50 degrees C and pH 5.5, respectively. The enzyme was very stable at the temperature ranged from 37 to 45 degrees C and also in a pH range of 4.5-7.0. The kinetic constants; K(m) and V(max) were determined to be 0.37 mM and 0.46 U, respectively. The results indicated that, TPP technique is very attractive process for purification of pepino alpha-galactosidase and the characteristic properties of the enzyme partitioned by TPP make the enzyme good candidates for its several industrial applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

De la “brecha de género” al “techo de cristal”: un análisis bibliométrico de la presencia de mujeres en los consejos de administración de empresas a través de mapas de evolución

Este trabajo presenta un análisis bibliométrico de artículos científicos acerca de la presencia de mujeres en consejos de administración de empresas. Realizamos un análisis del rendimiento de los artículos y un mapa de evolución de este campo de investigación en una muestra de 395 artículos publicados en Web of Science (1991-2017). Nuestros resultados muestran que este campo comenzó con un enfoque centrado en la brecha de género desde un punto de vista únicamente comparativo entre hombres y mujeres, pero ha ido evolucionando progresivamente de manera que los estudios más recientes se enfocan en el papel específico de las mujeres dada su creciente relevancia en la economía y la sociedad.Cet article propose une analyse bibliométrique d’articles scientifiques traitant du thème de la présence des femmes dans les conseils d’administration des entreprises. Nous réalisons une analyse des contenus et une carte d’évolution de ce domaine de recherche sur un échantillon de 395 articles publiés dans Web of Science (1991-2017). Nos résultats montrent que ce domaine a commencé par une approche centrée sur l’écart entre les sexes d’un point de vue uniquement comparatif entre les hommes et les femmes, mais a progressivement évolué vers des études dont les plus récentes se concentrent sur le rôle spécifique des femmes étant donné leur importance croissante dans l’économie et la société.This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of scientific articles addressing the topic of the presence of women on company boards. We conducted the content analysis and an evolution map of this research field on a sample of 395 articles published in Web of Science (1991-2017). Our results show that this field began with an approach focused on the gender gap from a solely comparative point of view between men and women, but has progressively evolved so that the most recent studies focus on the specific role of women given their growing relevance in the economy and society

Immobilization and stabilization of alpha-galactosidase on Sepabeads EC-EA and EC-HA

WOS: 000295502500059PubMed ID: 21871914alpha-Galactosidase from tomato has been immobilized on Sepabead EC-EA and Sepabead EC-HA, which were activated with ethylendiamino and hexamethylenediamino groups, respectively. Two strategy was used for the covalent immobilization of alpha-galactosidase on the aminated Sepabeads: covalent immobilization of enzyme on glutaraldehyde activated support and cross-linking of the adsorbed enzymes on to the support with glutaraldehyde. By using these two methods, all the immobilized enzymes retained very high activity and the stability of the enzyme was also improved. The obtained results showed that, the most stable immobilized alpha-galactosidase was obtained with the second strategy. The immobilized enzymes were characterized with respect to free counterpart. Some parameters effecting to the enzyme activity and stability were also analyzed. The optimum temperature and pH were found as 60 degrees C and pH 5.5 for all immobilized enzymes, respectively. All the immobilized alpha-galactosidases were more thermostable than the free enzyme at 50 degrees C. The stabilities of the Sepabead EC-EA and EC-HA adsorbed enzymes treated with glutaraldehyde compared to the stability of the free enzyme were a factor of 6 for Sepabead EC-EA and 5.3 for Sepabead EC-HA. Both the free and immobilized enzymes were very stable between pH 3.0 and 6.0 and more than 85% of the initial activities were recovered. Under the identical storage conditions the free enzyme lost its initial activity more quickly than the immobilized enzymes at the same period of time. The immobilized alpha-galactosidase seems to fulfill the requirements for different industrial applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved