Cultural influences and the mediating role of socio-cultural integration processes on the performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This paper reports findings from a longitudinal case study (2005–2011) of a merger between an Austrian and a German energy provider. I develop a model of socio-cultural integration processes based on an analysis of critical incidents expressed in 71 problem-centred interviews and observations with acquired and acquiring employees at four different points of time: immediately before the takeover and during the first negotiation talks, and one, three and six years after the takeover. The findings suggest that the relationship between national and organizational cultural differences and M&A outcomes is mediated by socio-cultural integration processes defined in terms of the formation of interpersonal relationships, trust and shared identity. Based on these findings I formulate specific propositions and build an evidence-based model of M&A socio-cultural integration processes that guides future research and practice

Randomised controlled trial of clinical medication review by a pharmacist of elderly patients receiving repeat prescriptions in general practice

Objective: To determine whether a pharmacist can effectively review repeat prescriptions through consultations with elderly patients in general practice. Design: Randomised controlled trial of clinical medication review by a pharmacist against normal general practice review. Setting: Four general practices. Participants: 1188 patients aged 65 or over who were receiving at least one repeat prescription and living in the community. Intervention: Patients were invited to a consultation at which the pharmacist reviewed their medical conditions and current treatment. Main outcome measures: Number of changes to repeat prescriptions over one year, drug costs, and use of healthcare services. Results: 590 (97%) patients in the intervention group were reviewed compared with 233 (44%) in the control group. Patients seen by the pharmacist were more likely to have changes made to their repeat prescriptions (mean number of changes per patient 2.2 v 1.9; difference=0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.06 to 0.57; P=0.02). Monthly drug costs rose in both groups over the year, but the rise was less in the intervention group (mean difference £4.72 per 28 days, -£7.04 to -£2.41); equivalent to £61 per patient a year. Intervention patients had a smaller rise in the number of drugs prescribed (0.2 v 0.4; mean difference -0.2, -0.4 to -0.1). There was no evidence that review of treatment by the pharmacist affected practice consultation rates, outpatient consultations, hospital admissions, or death rate. Conclusions: A clinical pharmacist can conduct effective consultations with elderly patients in general practice to review their drugs. Such review results in significant changes in patients' drugs and saves more than the cost of the intervention without affecting the workload of general practitioners

Constructing spatial representations from narratives and non-narrative descriptions: Evidence from 7-year-olds

Although narratives often contain detailed descriptions of space and setting and readers frequently report vividly imagining these story worlds, evidence for the construction of spatial representations during narrative processing is currently mixed. In the present study, we investigated 7 year old children's ability to construct spatial representations of narrative spaces and compared this to the ability to construct representations from non-narrative descriptions. We hypothesized that performance would be better in the narrative condition, where children have the opportunity to construct a multi-dimensional situation model built around the character's motivations and actions. Children listened to either a narrative that included a character traveling between 5 locations in her neighbourhood or a description of the same 5-location neighbourhood. Those in the narrative condition significantly outperformed those in the description condition in constructing the layout of the neighbourhood locations. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that whereas performance on the narrative version was predicted by narrative comprehension ability, performance on the description version was predicted by working memory ability. These results suggest the possibility that building spatial representations from narratives and non-narratives may engage different cognitive processes

Rigorous results on superconducting ground state of attractive extended Hubbard models

We show that the exact ground state for a class of extended Hubbard models including bond-charge, exchange, and pair-hopping terms, is the Yang ''eta-paired'' state for any nonvanishing positive value of the pair-hopping amplitude, at least when the on-site Coulomb interaction is attractive enough and the remaining physical parameters satisfy a single constraint. The ground state is thus rigorously superconducting. Our result holds on a bipartite lattice in any dimension, at any band filling, and for arbitrary electron hopping

Children's Enactment of Characters' Movements: A Novel Measure of Spatial Situation Model Representations and Indicator of Comprehension

A story's space or setting often determines and constrains the actions of its characters. We report on an experiment with 106 children of 7-8 years old in which, using a novel enactment task, we measured children's representation of a story character's movement during story listening. We found that children were more likely to enact movements that were explicitly stated in the passage than those they had to infer based on their situation model representation of the house and the character's location within it. We found that this ability to infer movements was significantly predictive of children's narrative comprehension after controlling for oral comprehension, vocabulary, working memory, and enactment of explicitly stated movements. We discuss the role of spatial situation models in comprehension and potential future uses for this enactment task in research and classrooms. © 2017 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Storybooks aren't just for fun: Narrative and non-narrative picture books foster equal amounts of generic language during mother-toddler book sharing

Parents and children encounter a variety of animals and objects in the early picture books they share, but little is known about how the context in which these entities are presented influences talk about them. The present study investigated how the presence or absence of a visual narrative context influences mothers' tendency to refer to animals as individual characters or as members of a kind when sharing picture books with their toddlers (mean age 21.3 months). Mother-child dyads shared both a narrative and a non-narrative book, each featuring six animals and matched in terms of length and quantity of text. Mothers made more specific (individual-referring) statements about animals in the narrative books, whereas they provided more labels for animals in the non-narrative books. But, of most interest, the frequency and proportion of mothers' use of generic (kind-referring) utterances did not differ across the two different types of books. Further coding of the content of the utterances revealed that mothers provided more story-specific descriptions of states and actions of the animals when sharing narrative books and more physical descriptions of animals when sharing non-narrative books. However, the two books did not differ in terms of their elicitation of natural facts about the animals. Overall, although the two types of books encouraged different types of talk from mothers, they stimulated generic language and talk about natural facts to an equal degree. Implications for learning from picture storybooks and book genre selection in classrooms and home reading are discussed. © 2014 Nyhout and O'Neill

Genetic variability of cultivated cowpea in Benin assessed by random amplified polymorphic DNA

Characterization of genetic diversity among cultivated cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] varieties is important to optimize the use of available genetic resources by farmers, local communities, researchers and breeders. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity in 70 cowpea accessions collected throughout Benin. Nine random primers were screened on 24 accessions to assess their ability to reveal polymorphisms in cowpea and four of them were selected for use in characterizing the total sample. A total of 32 amplified bands were generated by the four primers. The number of loci detected varied from 5 to 11. RAPD profiles were analysed and amplified polymorphic DNA fragments were used to construct a dendrogram, clustering the accessions into nine groups at a similarity index of 71% based on the Unweighted Pair-Group Method using Arithmetic Averages. The genetic diversity among the cowpea cultivars investigated was large and the RAPD proved to be a useful technique to characterise it. Based on the molecular variance, the fixation index suggests a large differentiation of cowpea cultivars in Benin

Positivity of High Density Effective Theory

We show that the effective field theory of low energy modes in dense QCD has positive Euclidean path integral measure. The complexity of the measure of QCD at finite chemical potential can be ascribed to modes which are irrelevant to the dynamics at sufficiently high density. Rigorous inequalities follow at asymptotic density. Lattice simulation of dense QCD should be possible using the quark determinant calculated in the effective theory.Comment: 10 pages, Revised version, to appear in Rapid Communications of Physical Review

Energy poverty, shack fires and childhood burns

Burn injuries are a persisting challenge in South Africa. Energy poverty, prevalent in under-resourced communities, is a key contributor to the problem. The energy-poor rely on solid fuels and flammable hydrocarbons, such as paraffin, for energy services. The fuels are burnt in inefficient, leaky and unstable appliances, leading to health losses from pollutant emissions, burns, and conflagrations. Within cramped informal home settings, using flammable fuels and risky combustion technologies, the situation can become devastating, especially for young children. Those who survive fiery incidents have to contend with trauma and property losses that may lead to further impoverishment. Proactive intervention strategies are required and should include the broadening of access to safe and sustainable energy. We advocate greater enforcement of home appliance standards and targeted support for the distribution of proven alternative energy technologies, such as liquefied petroleum gas and solar power. Support and advocacy from professional and citizen groups would be necessary to ensure that government prioritises the safe energy requirements of poor citizens

An integrated approach to climate change, income distribution, employment, and economic growth

A demand-driven growth model involving capital accumulation and the dynamics of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration is set up to examine macroeconomic issues raised by global warming, e.g. effects on output and employment of rising levels of GHG; offsets by mitigation; relationships among energy use and labor productivity, income distribution, and growth; the economic significance of the Jevons and other paradoxes; sustainable consumption and possible reductions in employment; and sources of instability and cyclicality implicit in the two-dimensional dynamical sysem. The emphasis is on the combination of biophysical limits and Post-Keynesian growth theory and the qualitative patterns of system adjustment and the dynamics that emerge