The failure of the global consumer: the importance of localization in the pursuit of globalization

Advancements in globalization and technology have led to the dangerous assumption that the world is becoming increasingly more homogenous. Through providing a definition of the global consumer and an explanation of this concept, evidence will be presented in this paper to support this concept’s failure. This paper will also provide a framework so as to improve upon this concept and facilitate its success within a non-static system. Lastly, this paper will reflect on this increasingly problematic identity of global consumer

African American Men and Ostrich Behavior

This project explores why African American men choose Ostrich Behavior when it comes to health care prevention and maintenance as related to hypertension. The population was African American men, ages18–80, in Northern California. Men were recruited while getting a haircut or waiting for one or after church services. Blood pressure readings were taken and a health questionnaire was administered. The results show that even if hypertension is known, men ages 18–45 go to fewer office visits than African American men in other age groups, and older men tend to seek medical care and take medication if prescribed

Stabilizer States as a Basis for Density Matrices

We show that the space of density matrices for n-qubit states, considered as a (2^n)^2 dimensional real vector space, has a basis consisting of density matrices of stabilizer states. We describe an application of this result to automated verification of quantum protocols

Explicit concave fillings of contact three-manifolds

In this paper we give explicit, handle-by-handle constructions of concave symplectic fillings of all closed, oriented contact 3-manifolds. These constructions combine recent results of Giroux relating contact structures and open book decompositions of 3-manifolds, earlier results of the author on attaching 4-dimensional symplectic 2-handles along transverse links, and some tricks with mapping class groups of compact surfaces with non-empty boundary.Comment: 15 pages. Accepted for publication in the Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Current version is identical to final version submitted to the journal, differs from original version only in some notation and minor editorial change

Minimum Variance Unbiased Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Extreme Value Index

New results for ratios of extremes from distributions with a regularly varying tail are presented. Deriving from independence results for certain functions of order statistics, 'consecutive' ratios of extremes are shown to be independent as well as non-distribution specific. They have tractable distributions related to beta distributions. The minimum variance unbiased maximum likelihood estimator has the form of Hill's estimator. It achieves the Cramer-Rao minimum variance bound and is a function of a sufficient statistic. For small sample sizes the form of the moment generating function of the estimator shows it has a gamma distribution.Tail-index, Minimum variance unbiased, Maximum likelihood, Asymptotically normal

Firm dynamic governance of global innovation by means of flexible networks of connections

Today a plethora of inter-company alliances exists. Firms have networked value chains, disclosing consequently their strategy, which assets are internalized or externalized, and their ability to cope with fast change. The picture of all interfirm alliances in high tech sectors is that of an unstable complex network, or macrostructure, that evolves quickly and into which firms are differently entwined. Structural metrics borrowed from network research in sociology such as centrality and constraint (or lack of “structural holes”) can be used to assess dynamically a firm’s position in the macro structure and therefore the market: does the firm occupy a dominant or dominated position in an industry? How do its partners and competitors perform? Drawing also from recent theories on complex networks developed by statistical physicists, we show that firms are embedded in dynamic complex networks that have a ‘scale-free’ format, with only a few firms or “hubs” controlling the system, as well as a cohesive or ‘small-world’ structure. This small-world structure, which allows rapid diffusion of innovation along very short paths, also constrains firms continuously and can lead to a fast reversal of their position on the market. Taking as an example a major sector of the biopharmaceutical industry, this study offers insights for managers to assess effectively their environment and navigate under constant pressure within these ever-changing networks.Innovation; alliances; structural holes; centrality; complex networks; small world