17,109 research outputs found
Corporate governance and employment relations
Using the 2004 United Kingdom Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), this paper examines the impact of corporate governance on HRM practices and employment relations outcomes within organizations in the
UK. The analysis suggests that when a remote external stake-holder is assigned dominance, particularly in the case where their liability is limited and the organization is large, the conditioning of managerial commitments on the
requirements of the dominant stake-holder has the potential to undermine the effectiveness of the HRM system in achieving its objectives
Corporate governance, stakeholding and the nature of employment relations within the firm
This paper investigates the effect of different forms of corporate governance on the structure and nature of stakeholder relationships within organizations and
the consequent impact on employment relations within the firm. In this, HRM assumes a dual role in delivering improvements in production efficiency and in fostering employee commitment to the organization and its objectives.
However, different forms of corporate governance prioritise stakeholder interests in ways that may bring these two objectives into conflict. To address these questions, we examine the interrelationship between corporate governance, HRM practices and HRM outcomes in a comparative analysis of
companies operating under alternative forms of governance, including private sector, public sector and family-owned firms. The empirical analysis is based on the UK Work and Employment Relations Survey (WERS98)
The Precision of Higgs Boson Measurements and Their Implications
The prospects for a precise exploration of the properties of a single or many
observed Higgs bosons at future accelerators are summarized, with particular
emphasis on the abilities of a Linear Collider (LC). Some implications of these
measurements for discerning new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) are also
discussed.Comment: Summary report of the Precision Higgs Working Group P1WG2 at Snowmass
200
New Duality Relations for Classical Ground States
We derive new duality relations that link the energy of configurations
associated with a class of soft pair potentials to the corresponding energy of
the dual (Fourier-transformed) potential. We apply them by showing how
information about the classical ground states of short-ranged potentials can be
used to draw new conclusions about the nature of the ground states of
long-ranged potentials and vice versa. They also lead to bounds on the T=0
system energies in density intervals of phase coexistence, the identification
of a one-dimensional system that exhibits an infinite number of ``phase
transitions," and a conjecture regarding the ground states of purely repulsive
monotonic potentials.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Slightly revised version that corrects typos.
This article will be appearing in Physical Review Letters in a slightly
shortened for
Quaternionic Root Systems and Subgroups of the
Cayley-Dickson doubling procedure is used to construct the root systems of
some celebrated Lie algebras in terms of the integer elements of the division
algebras of real numbers, complex numbers, quaternions and octonions. Starting
with the roots and weights of SU(2) expressed as the real numbers one can
construct the root systems of the Lie algebras of SO(4),SP(2)=
SO(5),SO(8),SO(9),F_{4} and E_{8} in terms of the discrete elements of the
division algebras. The roots themselves display the group structures besides
the octonionic roots of E_{8} which form a closed octonion algebra. The
automorphism group Aut(F_{4}) of the Dynkin diagram of F_{4} of order 2304, the
largest crystallographic group in 4-dimensional Euclidean space, is realized as
the direct product of two binary octahedral group of quaternions preserving the
quaternionic root system of F_{4}.The Weyl groups of many Lie algebras, such
as, G_{2},SO(7),SO(8),SO(9),SU(3)XSU(3) and SP(3)X SU(2) have been constructed
as the subgroups of Aut(F_{4}). We have also classified the other non-parabolic
subgroups of Aut(F_{4}) which are not Weyl groups. Two subgroups of orders192
with different conjugacy classes occur as maximal subgroups in the finite
subgroups of the Lie group of orders 12096 and 1344 and proves to be
useful in their constructions. The triality of SO(8) manifesting itself as the
cyclic symmetry of the quaternionic imaginary units e_{1},e_{2},e_{3} is used
to show that SO(7) and SO(9) can be embedded triply symmetric way in SO(8) and
F_{4} respectively
Toward the Jamming Threshold of Sphere Packings: Tunneled Crystals
We have discovered a new family of three-dimensional crystal sphere packings
that are strictly jammed (i.e., mechanically stable) and yet possess an
anomalously low density. This family constitutes an uncountably infinite number
of crystal packings that are subpackings of the densest crystal packings and
are characterized by a high concentration of self-avoiding "tunnels" (chains of
vacancies) that permeate the structures. The fundamental geometric
characteristics of these tunneled crystals command interest in their own right
and are described here in some detail. These include the lattice vectors (that
specify the packing configurations), coordination structure, Voronoi cells, and
density fluctuations. The tunneled crystals are not only candidate structures
for achieving the jamming threshold (lowest-density rigid packing), but may
have substantially broader significance for condensed matter physics and
materials science.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Myelin pathology: Involvement of molecular chaperones and the promise of chaperonotherapy
The process of axon myelination involves various proteins including molecular chaperones. Myelin alteration is a common feature in neurological diseases due to structural and functional abnormalities of one or more myelin proteins. Genetic proteinopathies may occur either in the presence of a normal chaperoning system, which is unable to assist the defective myelin protein in its folding and migration, or due to mutations in chaperone genes, leading to functional defects in assisting myelin maturation/migration. The latter are a subgroup of genetic chaperonopathies causing demyelination. In this brief review, we describe some paradigmatic examples pertaining to the chaperonins Hsp60 (HSPD1, or HSP60, or Cpn60) and CCT (chaperonin-containing TCP-1). Our aim is to make scientists and physicians aware of the possibility and advantages of classifying patients depending on the presence or absence of a chaperonopathy. In turn, this subclassification will allow the development of novel therapeutic strategies (chaperonotherapy) by using molecular chaperones as agents or targets for treatment
Experimental Investigation of Gully Formation Under Low Pressure and Low Temperature Conditions
International audienceIntroduction: A large morphological diversity of gullies is observed on Earth and on Mars. Debris flow â a non-newtonian flow comprising a sediment-water mix â is a common process attributed to gully formation on both planets [1, 2]. Many variables can influence the morphology of debris flows (grainsizes, discharge , slope, soil moisture, etc) and their respective influences are difficult to disentangle in the field. Furthermore effects specific to the martian environment have not yet been explored in detail. Some preliminary laboratory simulations have already been performed that isolate some of these variables. Cold room experiments [3] were already perfomed to test the effect of a melted surface layer on the formation of linear gullies over sand dunes. Low pressure experiments [4] were performed to test the effect of the atmospheric pressure on erosional capacity and runout distance of the flows. Our aim is to develop a new set of experiments both under Martian atmospheric pressure and terrestrial atmospheric pressure in order to reproduce the variability of the observed morphologies under well constrained experimental conditions
Direct observation of irradiation-induced nanocavity shrinkage in Si
Nanocavities in Si substrates, formed by conventional H implantation and thermal annealing, are shown to evolve in size during subsequent Si irradiation. Both ex situ and in situ analytical techniques were used to demonstrate that the mean nanocavity diameter decreases as a function of Si irradiation dose in both the crystalline and amorphous phases. Potential mechanisms for this irradiation-induced nanocavity evolution are discussed. In the crystalline phase, the observed decrease in diameter is attributed to the gettering of interstitials. When the matrix surrounding the cavities is amorphized, cavity shrinkage may be mediated by one of two processes: nanocavities can supply vacancies into the amorphous phase and/or the amorphous phase may flow plastically into the nanocavities. Both processes yield the necessary decrease in density of the amorphous phase relative to crystalline material
Highly erosive glaciers on Mars - the role of water
International audiencePolewards of 30 âą in each hemisphere, the surface of Mars hosts a suite of landforms reminiscent of glacial landscapes on Earth. Amongst these landforms are: 1) Viscous Flow Features (VFF), which resemble glaciers on Earth and are thought to contain large volumes of water ice, 2) martian gullies which are km-scale features resembling water-eroded gullies on Earth and 3) arcuate ridges thought to be moraines from previous glaciations. Gullies have been long-associated with a surface unit originally called "pasted-on terrain" and now often called the "latitude dependant mantle". Arcuate ridges are often found at the base of hillslopes with gullies, but are also found on hillslopes with pasted-on terrain and no gullies. We have found a systematic lowering of the slope of the bedrock exposure located topographically above the pasted-on terrain whether that same slope hosts gullies or not. The lowered bedrock exposures display a different surface texture from bedrock exposed on other parts of the crater wall and from fresh crater walls-it appears fragmented and has reduced relief. Using 1-m-digital elevation models from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) we compared the slopes of eight "eroded" craters and seven unmodified craters. We estimated their age using the crater size-frequency distribution of small craters on their ejecta blankets. From this information we calculated bedrock retreat rates for the eroded craters and found they were up to âŒ103 m Myr-1-equivalent to erosion rates of wet-based glaciers on Earth. This is several orders of magnitude higher than previous estimates of erosion by VFF (10-2-101 m Myr-1), which themselves are roughly equivalent to cold-based glaciers on Earth. Such erosion rates are sufficient to erase previously existing landforms, such as martian gullies. We hypothesise, therefore, that the pasted-on terrain is a glacial deposit, overturning its previous interpretation as an airfall deposit of ice nucleated on dust. We maintain the interpretation of the arcuate ridges as moraines, but further conclude that they are likely the result of glaciotectonic deformation of sub-marginal and proglacial sediment in the presence of sediment pore-water. We do not support the generation of large quantities of glacial meltwater because it would have broken-up and degraded the arcuate ridges and pasted-on terrain an produced a suite of landforms (e.g., hummocky moraine, lacustrine forms, outwash plains, eskers) which are not observed
- âŠ