Does Spatial Ambidexterity Pay Off? On the Benefits of Geographic Proximity Between Technology Exploitation and Exploration

While most scholars tend to agree that it is worthwhile for firms to strive for ambidexterity, less consensus exists on how to organize simultaneously for exploration and exploitation. Although firms increasingly conduct R&D activities in multiple locations and countries, prior ambidexterity research has ignored a geographical dimension in explaining the ambidexterity-performance relationship. In this paper, we develop and validate the concept of spatial ambidexterity, which we define as the degree to which firms pursue technology exploration and exploitation in proximate locations. We argue that both activities benefit from proximity as firms will increase their ability to enact cross-fertilization opportunities and synergies between explorative and exploitative technological activities. Relying on a panel dataset (1995-2003) of the technological activities of 156 large R&D intensive European, U.S. and Japanese firms, we examine the degree to which technology exploration and exploitation activities are pursued simultaneously in similar or different geographical regions. Patent data are used to construct indicators of technology exploration and exploitation activities. Spatial ambidexterity is measured as the degree to which global technology exploration and exploitation activities are pursued in proximity. Our analysis confirms that firms exhibiting greater geographic proximity between technology exploration and exploitation activities display an elevated level of technological performance. Both technology activities of an explorative and exploitative nature appear to benefit from spatial proximity

Fluid loading responsiveness

Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and in the peri-operative phase are dependent on physicians and nurses for their fluid intake. Volume status optimization is required to maximize oxygen delivery to vital organs. Unnecessary fluid administration can, however, lead to general and pulmonary oedema, cardiac failure, infections, prolonged hospitalization and death. Besides signs like skin turgor, diuresis and skin colour, hemodynamic measurements like central venous pressure (CVP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) are most often used for hemodynamic management. These parameters, however, often fail to accurately predict the response of a patient to fluid loading. Cardiac output (CO) is the amount of blood pumped through the circulation by the heart per minute. The general conception is that an increase in cardiac output will improve perfusion of vital organs. Increased flow might also imply improved oxygen delivery to the tissues. This is the basis of the fluid loading responsiveness strategy (FLR). This strategy aims to prevent fluid overloading by an accurate prediction of the response in cardiac output to fluid loading. Arthur Guyton__s work provided an important step forward to the determination of volume status directly. Together with the shape of cardiac output function curve, dimensions of the vascular system, blood viscosity and mean systemic filling pressure (MSFP) can be considered as a primary determinant of venous return and thus cardiac output. Ultimately, MSFP can be used to calculate stressed volume and, hence, quantify effective volume status in a specific patient. In this thesis, we review literature on fluid loading responsiveness research, we try to assess the impact of literature on hemodynamic management in Dutch ICU__s, we discuss a novel method to assess mean systemic filling pressure and last we discuss studies performed to assess the reliability of several challenges to predict FLR; +10 cmH2O PEEP, the fluid challenge, passive leg raising, the respiratory ventilator manoeuvre and the measurement of baseline MSFP. The manoeuvres are aimed at determining the working point of the circulation on the Frank- Starling curve. It is assumed that when the patient is on the ascending portion of the Frank- Starling curve an (auto)transfusion will increase cardiac output.Centre for Human Drug Research, Dept. Anaesthesiology LUMCUBL - phd migration 201

Eupsychian Management: Organizational Change, Behavior, Motivation, And Trust

In Part 1 of this real-life incident, Professor Carson is teaching the customary material associated with the multiple theories of leadership, motivation, and organizational behavior. He deviates slightly from the way he normally presents these standard concepts and theories and divulges the concept of Eupsychian Management — a culture in which self-actualizing people behave in ways where trust begets trust and work is viewed as natural as play or rest. The class is given the following website www.interpolis.nl which demonstrates how the built environment of Interpolis relates to its organizational culture and behavior. In Part 2, the content of a personal interview that he conducted in Tilburg, The Netherlands — the home of Interpolis is elaborated. A new organizational culture based on “trust” — both of employees and customers is revealed. The end performance results and the productivity metrics are unbelievably high. The reader is challenged to address the content of seven penetrating questions and instructions which are part of the learning module; then, is asked to complete the case log and administrative journal entry

"Grass" By Any Other Name - Xeriscaping And Sustainability

With water conservation and use policy considered to be among the greatest challenges facing contemporary society, this case takes on the enduring issues associated with water and how it impacts urban planning, land use, water conservation, economic development, and sustainability. Conflicted on the uses of natural and artificial turf, Jerard Leon, director of Blue Havens Planning Commission recommends that Joseph Teaberry, landscape architect, contact a premier program on xeriscape in the United States the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). Teaberry prepares for an in-depth, structured interview with Doug Bennett, conservation manager of SNWA. He reviews the relevant academic and professional literature on the hydrologic cycle, and the economics and geological concerns that affect water use policy, including the meaning of Water quality, Watershed, and the sundry metrics used to assess water quality under the Clean Water Act, 1972. As the structured interview reveals, Teaberry learns about the history of water policy in the Colorado Basin, the multiple uses and costs associated with water consumption in the SNWA, and the conservation practices and water policy pricing policies and how they impact water utilization. In the final analysis, Teaberry discusses the various strategic management practices employed by SNWA and their attendant efficacies, successes/failures pertaining to water policy education, pricing, inducement, enforcement, and the future water policy concerns. The case has several take-away points associated with xeriscape policy, followed by six poignant questions that stimulate broad discussion on the general areas of water resource policy

Children's opinions about organ donation:a first step to assent?

Background: Parents have to decide about organ donation after the death of their child. Although most parents probably would like to respect their child's intentions, parents often are not aware of their child's wishes. This requires insight into children's opinions about donation. Methods: An internet survey that investigated whether Dutch children in the age range of 12 through 15 years had heard about organ donation, what their opinions were on donation and whether the topic had been discussed at home. Questionnaire response rate 38%. Results: Around 99% of 2016 responders had heard about organ donation and about the possibility of becoming a donor, 75% preferred to decide for themselves about donation, 43% had discussed organ donation more than once at home, 66% were willing to donate. The willingness to donate was positively associated with age and socio-economic status. Conclusion: This survey indicates that these children at 12 through 15 years of age are capable and willing to think about organ donation. Thought should be given about how to raise awareness and how to enable parents and children to develop some sort of health literacy concerning the concept of organ donation. Children and their parents should be given adequate opportunities to receive appropriate information, suited to their psychological and moral developmental status

Hypothetical Reasoning via Provenance Abstraction

Data analytics often involves hypothetical reasoning: repeatedly modifying the data and observing the induced effect on the computation result of a data-centric application. Previous work has shown that fine-grained data provenance can help make such an analysis more efficient: instead of a costly re-execution of the underlying application, hypothetical scenarios are applied to a pre-computed provenance expression. However, storing provenance for complex queries and large-scale data leads to a significant overhead, which is often a barrier to the incorporation of provenance-based solutions. To this end, we present a framework that allows to reduce provenance size. Our approach is based on reducing the provenance granularity using user defined abstraction trees over the provenance variables; the granularity is based on the anticipated hypothetical scenarios. We formalize the tradeoff between provenance size and supported granularity of the hypothetical reasoning, and study the complexity of the resulting optimization problem, provide efficient algorithms for tractable cases and heuristics for others. We experimentally study the performance of our solution for various queries and abstraction trees. Our study shows that the algorithms generally lead to substantial speedup of hypothetical reasoning, with a reasonable loss of accuracy

Phase stability analysis in Fe-Pt and Co-Pt alloy systems: An augmented space study

We have studied the problem of phase stability in Fe-Pt and Co-Pt alloy systems. We have used the orbital peeling technique in the conjunction of augmented space recursion based on the tight binding linear orbital method as the method for the calculation of pair interaction energies. In particular, we have generalized our earlier technique to take into account of magnetic effects for the cases where the magnetic transition is higher than the order disorder chemical transition temperature as in the case of Co$_3$Pt. Our theoretical results obtained within this framework successfully reproduce the experimentally observed trends.Comment: 17 pages, 9 Figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics : Condensed Matte