Trade-offs in the value capture of architectural firms

Architectural firms often have difficulty generating profit from their services as they pursue not only commercial but also professional goals. These goals frequently conflict and have to be balanced during the process of value creation and value capture. So far, literature has focused on the interaction between the perceived use value for the customer and the fee that is paid to the firm. To better understand how professional service firms realize their organizational targets, professional value needs to be included. In this study, in-depth interviews with the architects and clients of nine housing projects provide insight into the content and process of value capture by architectural firms. The data reveal strategies by which architects tried to maximize the capture of professional value at the expense of profit or sometimes even their clients’ perceived use value. These trade-offs in value capture confirm the importance of professional value when studying value creation and capture in a professional service context. This paper provides an understanding of how architectural firms struggle to balance competing goals and highlights the importance of well-managed value capture

Three months of local sea level derived from reflected GNSS signals

By receiving Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals that are reflected off the sea surface, together with directly received GNSS signals (using standard geodetic‐type receivers), it is possible to monitor the sea level using regular single difference geodetic processing. We show results from our analysis of three months of data from the GNSS‐based tide gauge at the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) on the west coast of Sweden. The GNSS-derived time series of local sea level is compared with independent data from two stilling well gauges at Ringhals and Gothenburg about 18 km south and 33 km north of OSO, respectively. A high degree of agreement is found in the time domain, with correlation coefficients of up to 0.96. The root‐mean‐square differences between the GNSS‐derived sea level and the stilling well gauge observations are 5.9 cm and 5.5 cm, which is lower than for the stilling well gauges together (6.1 cm). A frequency domain comparison reveals high coherence of the data sets up to 6 cycles per day, which corresponds well to the propagation of gravity waves in the shallow waters at the Kattegat coast. Amplitudes and phases of some major tides were determined by a tidal harmonic analysis and compared to model predictions. From the GNSS‐based tide gauge results we find significant ocean tidal signals at fortnightly, diurnal, semi‐diurnal, and quarter‐diurnal periods. As an example, the amplitudes of the semi‐diurnal M2 and the diurnal O1 tide are determined with 1σ uncertainties of 11 mm and 12 mm, respectively. The comparison to model calculations shows that global ocean tide models have limited accuracy in the Kattegat area

Inflation, Forecast Intervals and Long Memory Regression Models

We examine recursive out-of-sample forecasting of monthly postwar U.S. core inflation and log price levels. We use the autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average model with explanatory variables (ARFIMAX). Our analysis suggests a significant explanatory power of leading indicators associated with macroeconomic activity and monetary conditions for forecasting horizons up to two years. Even after correcting for the effect of explanatory variables, there is conclusive evidence of both fractional integration and structural breaks in the mean and variance of inflation in the 1970s and 1980s and we incorporate these breaks in the forecasting model for the 1980s and 1990s. We compare the results of the fractionally integrated ARFIMA(0,d,0) model with those for ARIMA(1,d,1) models with fixed order of d=0 and d=1 for inflation. Comparing mean squared forecast errors, we find that the ARMA(1,1) model performs worse than the other models over our evaluation period 1984-1999. The ARIMA(1,1,1) model provides the best forecasts, but its multi-step forecast intervals are too large

New Hope: A Thoughtful and Effective Approach to Make Work Pay

This paper makes the case for a national program offering the kind of work supports that were part of the New Hope program, a policy experiment that operated for three years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our policy, like New Hope, would provide a set of work supports for full-time workers-both parents and nonparents, men and women-that would lift them out of poverty as well as provide essential benefits in the form of health insurance and child-care subsidies for people who needed them. Across all of the people offered the chance to participate in the New Hope program, including single men, work increased and poverty rates fell. Children in New Hope families performed better in school, were more cooperative and independent and had fewer behavior problems and loftier schooling expectations than children in the control group. Because boys have a higher risk of school failure and behavior problems than girls do, it is noteworthy that New Hope was especially successful in improving their school performance and behavior. With its positive effects on children\u27s achievement and behavior, a scaled-up New Hope program may well help to break the cycle of poverty for a sizeable number of American families in the next generation. With reasonable assumptions about the long-term value of New Hope\u27s positive impacts on children, New Hope easily passes a cost-benefit test

Internationalisierung der Hochschulen. Eine institutionelle Gesamtstrategie. Gutachten

Die Internationalisierung der deutschen Hochschulen hat sich in den letzten Jahren überaus dynamisch entwickelt. Allerdings lag der rasanten Entwicklung in den verschiedenen Bereichen der Hochschule kein strategisches Gesamtkonzept zugrunde. Die fortschreitende Globalisierung und Europäisierung wird die Hochschulen in den nächsten zwei Jahrzehnten tiefgreifend verändern. Um im internationalen Wettbewerb um Talente bestehen zu können, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen für Forschung und Lehre weiter verbessert werden. Unter dem Motto "Internationalisierung zu Hause" muss allen Hochschulmitgliedern die Möglichkeit eröffnet werden, internationale und interkulturelle Erfahrungen an der heimischen Hochschule zu sammeln. Mit einem größeren Angebot an fremdsprachigen Studiengängen, einer stärkeren Beteiligung an europäischen Forschungskonsortien und der vermehrten internationalen Rekrutierung des Personals werden sich die deutschen Hochschulen immer mehr zu transnationalen Hochschulen entwickeln. Der Aktionsrat Bildung analysiert in seinem aktuellen Gutachten die Internationalisierungsprozesse im deutschen Hochschulsystem und unterbreitet konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen für eine institutionalisierte Gesamtstrategie. (HoF/Text übernommen

Potential harmful health effects of inhaling nicotine-free shisha-pen vapor: a chemical risk assessment of the main components propylene glycol and glycerol

Background A shisha-pen is an electronic cigarette variant that is advertised to mimic the taste of a water pipe, or shisha. The aim of this study was to assess the potential harmful health effects caused by inhaling the vapor of a nicotine-free shisha-pen. Methods Gas chromatography analysis was performed to determine the major components in shisha-pen vapor. Risk assessment was performed using puff volumes of e-cigarettes and “normal” cigarettes and a 1-puff scenario (one-time exposure). The concentrations that reached the airways and lungs after using a shisha-pen were calculated and compared to data from published toxicity studies. Results The main components in shisha-pen vapor are propylene glycol and glycerol (54%/46%). One puff (50 to 70 mL) results in exposure of propylene glycol and glycerol of 430 to 603 mg/m3 and 348 to 495 mg/m3, respectively. These exposure concentrations were higher than the points of departure for airway irritation based on a human study (propylene glycol, mean concentration of 309 mg/m3) and a rat study (glycerol, no-observed adverse effect level of 165 mg/m3). Conclusions Already after one puff of the shisha-pen, the concentrations of propylene glycol and glycerol are sufficiently high to potentially cause irritation of the airways. New products such as the shisha-pen should be detected and risks should be assessed to inform regulatory actions aimed at limiting potential harm that may be caused to consumers and protecting young people to take up smoking

Sociocognitive Predictors of Condom Use and Intentions Among Adolescents in Three Sub-Saharan Sites

Many HIV intervention programs in sub-Saharan Africa have applied social cognitive theories such as the theory of planned behavior. However, a recent sub-Saharan African review was unable to show increased effectiveness for theory-based interventions. This study assessed whether the predictive value of attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and intention was similar to studies in Europe and the U.S., and whether there were differences between three sub-Saharan sites. Longitudinal multigroup structural equation modeling was used to assess whether attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy predicted condom use intentions and condom use (after 6 months) among adolescents in three sites, namely Cape Town (South Africa; N = 625), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania; N = 271), and Mankweng (South Africa; N = 404). Condom use intentions were predicted by subjective norms and self-efficacy in all three sites. Attitudes were not related to intentions in Dar es Salaam and were moderately related to intentions in Cape Town and Mankweng. The proportions of explained variance in intentions and behavior were decent (37–52 and 9–19 %, respectively). Although significant differences in predictive value were found between sites and in comparison to European and U.S. studies, intentions could adequately be explained by attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy. However, the limited proportions of variance in behavior explained by intentions could signify the importance of contextual and environmental factors. Future studies are recommended to use an integrative approach that takes into account both individual and contextual factors, as well as social and environmental differences

The Rap1 Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor C3G Is Required for Preservation of Larval Muscle Integrity in Drosophila melanogaster

C3G is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) and modulator of small G-protein activity, which primarily acts on members of the Rap GTPase subfamily. Via promotion of the active GTP bound conformation of target GTPases, C3G has been implicated in the regulation of multiple cellular and developmental events including proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. The Drosophila C3G orthologue exhibits a domain organization similar to that of vertebrate C3G. Through deletion of the C3G locus, we have observed that loss of C3G causes semi-lethality, and that escaping adult flies are characterized by a reduction in lifespan and general fitness. In situ hybridization reveals C3G expression in the developing embryonic somatic and visceral muscles, and indeed analysis of C3G mutants suggests essential functions of C3G for normal body wall muscle development during larval stages. C3G mutants display abnormal muscle morphology and attachment, as well as failure to properly localize βPS integrins to muscle attachment sites. Moreover, we show that C3G stimulates guanine nucleotide exchange on Drosophila Rap GTPases in vitro. Taken together, we conclude that Drosophila C3G is a Rap1-specific GEF with important functions in maintaining muscle integrity during larval stages

Щодо утворення сімейств атомарних радіальних базисних функцій

Наведено схему побудови сімейств атомарних радіальних базисних функцій, які є нескінченно диференційовними фінітними розв'язками функціонально-диференціальних рівнянь, породжених операторами Лапласа та Гельмгольца.The scheme of building a family of atomic radial basis functions which are infinitely differentiable finite solutions of the functional-differential equations containing the Laplace and Helmholtz operators is introduced

Alterations in Nitric Oxide Activity and Sensitivity in Early Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes Depend on Arteriolar Size

Changes in NO activity may play an important role in the early increase in microvascular flow that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic microangiopathy. We assessed, in the in situ spinotrapezius muscle preparation of 6 weeks' streptozotocin-diabetic rats (n = 6) and of agematched controls (n = 8), basal inside diameters of A2–A4 arterioles and the reactivity to topically applied acetylcholine and nitroprusside, before and after NG-nitro-L-arginine. In diabetic rats, cholinergic vasodilatation in A2–A4 arterioles was intact. Basal diameter in A3 and A4 arterioles was significantly higher in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. The increased basal diameter in A3 arterioles was partially due to an increased contribution of NO to basal diameter. The response to nitroprusside was impaired in streptozotocin-diabetic rats in A2, but not in A3 and A4 arterioles. Thus, this study shows that NO activity and sensitivity are altered after 6 weeks of streptozotocin-induced diabetes. These streptozotocin-induced changes are anatomically specific and, for arterioles, depend on their position within the vascular tree