Ethics-related value acculturation: the case of Thai employees working at UK and Japanese MNCs in Thailand

Purpose –Multinational corporations (MNCs) at their foreign subsidiaries hire local employees, whose cultural values may differ from the organisations’home cultures. Such value differences may pose managerial difficulties, making it critical to observe whether working at MNCs changes local employees’cultural values, reducing these differences. This study investigates how and to what extent local employees from a collectivistic culture acculturate their ethics-related values when working at MNCs’foreign subsidiaries. The authors examine (1) whether local employees change their values to become closer to the MNCs’home cultures, and if so, (2) whether the cultural distance between the MNCs’home and host national cultures affect the degree of such adaptation. Design/methodology/approach –Survey data were collected through stratified random sampling from Thai employees of a Japanese-owned MNC (n 5196), a UK-owned MNC (n 5143) and a Thai-owned organisation (n 5137), all operating in Thailand. Hypotheses were developed using Berry’s bidimensional acculturation model and were tested using OLS and logistic regression analyses. Findings –The study’s findings indicate that MNCs’local employees from collectivistic cultures adopt Berry’s integration acculturation strategy and acculturate their ethics-related values –collectivism, ethical relativism, collective responsibility preference and executive pay differentiation tolerance –towards the values prevalent in MNCs’home cultures. Overall, acculturation is greater when cultural distance is greater. New insights are presented in relation to collective responsibility preference and pay differentiation tolerance. Originality/value –Findings add to current knowledge on acculturation in management by (1) providing new insights into value acculturation (2) utilising Berry’s acculturation model to analyse employees’ acculturation within an organisation in the context of an emerging economy, outside the more frequently studied topic of mergers and acquisitions, and (3) investigating the impact of cultural distance on the degree of employee acculturation outside the field of expatriate adjustment

Developing Metadata Categories as a Strategy to Mobilize Computable Biomedical Knowledge

A work by a group of volunteer members drawn from the Mobilizing Computable Biomedical Knowledge community's Standards Workgroup. See mobilizecbk.org for more information about this community and workgroup.Computable biomedical knowledge artifacts (CBKs) are digital objects or entities representing biomedical knowledge as machine-independent data structures that can be parsed and processed by different information systems. The breadth of content represented in CBKs spans all biomedical knowledge related to human health and so it includes knowledge about molecules, cells, organs, individual people, human populations, and the environment. CBKs vary in their scope, purpose, and audience. Some CBKs support biomedical research. Other CBKs help improve health outcomes by enabling clinical decision support, health education, health promotion, and population health analytics. In some instances, CBKs have multiple uses that span research, education, clinical care, or population health. As the number of CBKs grows large, producers must describe them with structured, searchable metadata so that consumers can find, deploy, and use them properly. This report delineates categories of metadata for describing CBKs sufficiently to enable CBKs to be mobilized for various purposes.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155655/1/MCBK.Metadata.Paper.June2020.f.pdfDescription of MCBK.Metadata.Paper.June2020.f.pdf : MCBK 2020 Virtual Meeting version of Standards Workgroup's Working Paper on CBK Metadat

Sistema per l’identificazione di difetti su una superficie di almeno una porzione di una scocca e relativo metodo

La presente invenzione riguarda un sistema e un metodo per l’identificazione, la classificazione e la successiva rimozione di difetti di fabbricazione presenti sui componenti di veicoli

Condicionamento osmótico de sementes de Sesbania virgata (CAV.) PERS (Fabaceae)

This study evaluated the effect of the osmopriming on germination and vigour of Sesbania virgata seeds. Seeds were chemically scarified in concentrated sulphuric acid for 40 minutes and put to germinate either directly or after being submitted to osmopriming, drying and accelerated aging. Osmopriming was carried out with polyethylene glycol solutions (PEG 8000) at the following osmotic potentials-0.2; -0.4; -0.6 and -0.8 MPa for 12, 24 and 48 hours. After osmopriming, seeds were dried in silica gel until the initial moisture content was reached, and then submitted to the accelerated aging (48 h/100% RH). The effects of osmopriming and accelerated aging were evaluated through germination test, first counting germination and germination speed index. The osmopriming, followed or not by accelerated aging, positively influenced germination and vigour of Sesbania virgata seeds

Designing soft actuators by taking advantage of structural instabilities

Soft Robotics is a relatively new discipline which aims at using either soft or relatively thin materials to create adaptable robotic systems. Often, the design of soft actuators is based on trial and error, resulting in soft actuators that require relatively large elastic deformations to operate. As a result, a large portion of the power is lost, and only part of the energy is used to generate useful work. In an effort to improve the efficiency of soft actuators, we aim to better understand the real-world behavior of nonlinear elastomeric circular cylinders and the actual emergence of particular morphologies within the post-buckling regime. The importance of buckling is intimately related to the modification of the inner volume of the cylinder, which leads to an effective fluid volume displacement. Understanding buckling phenomenology means quantifying the volume displaced and enabling the assumption of a new paradigm in the design of soft pumps

Space charge behavior of quantum dot-doped polystyrene polymers

This paper deals with the role played by the interface and bulk volume of the nanofiller about affecting the electrical properties of a nanocomposite material. For this purpose, a simple and completely amorphous matrix, polystyrene (PS), is used as base material, and core-shell quantum dots are exploited for simulating the structure of nanocomposites: CdSe core and CdSe-ZnS core-shell semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are added into a PS matrix. The latter is to highlight the effect of the ZnS interface and as contrast to the core material. Dispersion and distribution of QDs are first microscopically observed and optimized, by including isopropyl alcohol in the manufacturing phase as an additional solvent. Among electrical properties the focus is on space charge accumulation, tested by means of the pulsed electroacoustic technique at 10 kV/mm and 50 kV/mm on CdSe and CdSe-ZnS doped PS composites. Results are then compared with a reference PS without QDs. Trap depth and density are also obtained by space charge measurement results. When CdSe QDs are added to PS, the trap density increases with respect to the baseline values measured on the unfilled polymer. In contrast, the ZnS shell around the CdSe core creates an additional trap level with lower trap depth, which increases charge mobility, thus turning homocharge into heterocharge accumulation. Therefore, the surface shell-structure of QD nanocrystals appears to significantly influence the space charge behavior of the nanocomposite, independently of the polymer

Categorizing metadata to help mobilize computable biomedical knowledge

IntroductionComputable biomedical knowledge artifacts (CBKs) are digital objects conveying biomedical knowledge in machine‐interpretable structures. As more CBKs are produced and their complexity increases, the value obtained from sharing CBKs grows. Mobilizing CBKs and sharing them widely can only be achieved if the CBKs are findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable, and trustable (FAIR+T). To help mobilize CBKs, we describe our efforts to outline metadata categories to make CBKs FAIR+T.MethodsWe examined the literature regarding metadata with the potential to make digital artifacts FAIR+T. We also examined metadata available online today for actual CBKs of 12 different types. With iterative refinement, we came to a consensus on key categories of metadata that, when taken together, can make CBKs FAIR+T. We use subject‐predicate‐object triples to more clearly differentiate metadata categories.ResultsWe defined 13 categories of CBK metadata most relevant to making CBKs FAIR+T. Eleven of these categories (type, domain, purpose, identification, location, CBK‐to‐CBK relationships, technical, authorization and rights management, provenance, evidential basis, and evidence from use metadata) are evident today where CBKs are stored online. Two additional categories (preservation and integrity metadata) were not evident in our examples. We provide a research agenda to guide further study and development of these and other metadata categories.ConclusionA wide variety of metadata elements in various categories is needed to make CBKs FAIR+T. More work is needed to develop a common framework for CBK metadata that can make CBKs FAIR+T for all stakeholders.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/171602/1/lrh210271.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/171602/2/lrh210271_am.pd