Commitment or Control? Human Resource Management Practices in Female and Male-Led Businesses

This paper investigates the commitment-orientation of HRM practices in female- and male-led firms. A distinction is made between emphasizing commitment or control in the design of HRM practices. To test for gender differences use is made of a sample of 555 Dutch firms. Contrary to what is generally believed it is found that – when controlled for relevant factors related to the business (e.g., firm size, age, sector) – HRM in female-led firms is more control-oriented than that in male-led firms. More specifically, female-led firms are more likely to be characterized by fixed and clearly defined tasks, centralized decision-making and direct supervision of the production process.entrepreneurship;gender;human resource management;commitment;control

Start-Up Capital

Female and male entrepreneurs differ in the way they finance their businesses. This can be attributed to the type of business and the type of management and experience (indirect effect). Female start-ups may also experience other barriers based upon discriminatory effects (direct effect). Whether gender has an impact on size and composition of start-up capital, is the subject of the present paper. To test for these direct and indirect effects data of 2000 Dutch starting entrepreneurs, of whom approximately 500 are women, are used.Entrepeneurship;Financing;Gender;Start-ups

A single Streptomyces symbiont makes multiple antifungals to support the fungus farming ant Acromyrmex octospinosus

Attine ants are dependent on a cultivated fungus for food and use antibiotics produced by symbiotic Actinobacteria as weedkillers in their fungus gardens. Actinobacterial species belonging to the genera Pseudonocardia, Streptomyces and Amycolatopsis have been isolated from attine ant nests and shown to confer protection against a range of microfungal weeds. In previous work on the higher attine Acromyrmex octospinosus we isolated a Streptomyces strain that produces candicidin, consistent with another report that attine ants use Streptomyces-produced candicidin in their fungiculture. Here we report the genome analysis of this Streptomyces strain and identify multiple antibiotic biosynthetic pathways. We demonstrate, using gene disruptions and mass spectrometry, that this single strain has the capacity to make candicidin and multiple antimycin compounds. Although antimycins have been known for > 60 years we report the sequence of the biosynthetic gene cluster for the first time. Crucially, disrupting the candicidin and antimycin gene clusters in the same strain had no effect on bioactivity against a co-evolved nest pathogen called Escovopsis that has been identified in similar to 30% of attine ant nests. Since the Streptomyces strain has strong bioactivity against Escovopsis we conclude that it must make additional antifungal(s) to inhibit Escovopsis. However, candicidin and antimycins likely offer protection against other microfungal weeds that infect the attine fungal gardens. Thus, we propose that the selection of this biosynthetically prolific strain from the natural environment provides A. octospinosus with broad spectrum activity against Escovopsis and other microfungal weeds.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Structural relaxation due to electronic correlations in the paramagnetic insulator KCuF3

A computational scheme for the investigation of complex materials with strongly interacting electrons is formulated which is able to treat atomic displacements, and hence structural relaxation, caused by electronic correlations. It combines ab initio band structure and dynamical mean-field theory and is implemented in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials. The equilibrium Jahn-Teller distortion and antiferro-orbital order found for paramagnetic KCuF3 agree well with experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Entanglement and Quantum Phase Transition Revisited

We show that, for an exactly solvable quantum spin model, a discontinuity in the first derivative of the ground state concurrence appears in the absence of quantum phase transition. It is opposed to the popular belief that the non-analyticity property of entanglement (ground state concurrence) can be used to determine quantum phase transitions. We further point out that the analyticity property of the ground state concurrence in general can be more intricate than that of the ground state energy. Thus there is no one-to-one correspondence between quantum phase transitions and the non-analyticity property of the concurrence. Moreover, we show that the von Neumann entropy, as another measure of entanglement, can not reveal quantum phase transition in the present model. Therefore, in order to link with quantum phase transitions, some other measures of entanglement are needed.Comment: RevTeX 4, 4 pages, 1 EPS figures. some modifications in the text. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

One-step replica symmetry breaking solution for a highly asymmetric two-sublattice fermionic Ising spin glass model in a transverse field

The one-step replica symmetry breaking (RSB) is used to study a two-sublattice fermionic infinite-range Ising spin glass (SG) model in a transverse field $\Gamma$. The problem is formulated in a Grassmann path integral formalism within the static approximation. In this model, a parallel magnetic field $H$ breaks the symmetry of the sublattices. It destroys the antiferromagnetic (AF) order, but it can favor the nonergodic mixed phase (SG+AF) characterizing an asymmetric RSB region. In this region, intra-sublattice disordered interactions $V$ increase the difference between the RSB solutions of each sublattice. The freezing temperature shows a higher increase with $H$ when $V$ enhances. A discontinue phase transition from the replica symmetry (RS) solution to the RSB solution can appear with the presence of an intra-sublattice ferromagnetic average coupling. The $\Gamma$ field introduces a quantum spin flip mechanism that suppresses the magnetic orders leading them to quantum critical points. Results suggest that the quantum effects are not able to restore the RS solution. However, in the asymmetric RSB region, $\Gamma$ can produce a stable RS solution at any finite temperature for a particular sublattice while the other sublattice still presents RSB solution for the special case in which only the intra-sublattice spins couple with disordered interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Determinants of self-employment preference and realization among women and men in Europe and the United States

Female self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. This untapped female potential has drawn the attention of policy makers. In the present paper the determinants of selfemployment rates of both men and women are investigated in the context of a two-equation model explaining both actual self-employment and the preference for self-employment. A systematic distinction is made between different ways in which gender can exert influence on (preference for) self-employment, including moderation, mediation and direct effects. Using Flash Eurobarometer data of about 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (including the 15 old EU member states, 10 new EU member states and the United States) probit equations are estimated explaining the (preference for) self-employment. Next to gender, explanatory variables include age, education, social capital, risk attitude, locus of control and perceptions of the entrepreneurial environment. Findings show that at least part of the explanation of the lower female self-employment rate is caused by a lower preference for women to become self-employed. We do not find evidence for a moderating effect of gender on the relationship between self-employment and the preference for self-employment, indicating that other things equal women and men who have a preference to become self-employed do not differ with respect to the impact of this preference on its materialization. Entrepreneurship and its determinants in a cross-country setting

Women’s preferences and mode of delivery in public and private hospitals: a prospective cohort study

Background Rates of caesarean section have steadily increased in most middle- and high-income countries over the last few decades without medical justification. Maternal request is one of the frequently cited non-medical factors contributing to this trend. The objectives of this study were to assess pregnant women’s preferences regarding mode of delivery and to compare actual caesarean section rates in the public and private sectors. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted in two public and three private hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 382 nulliparous pregnant women (183 from the private sector and 199 from the public sector) aged 18 to 35 years, with single pregnancies over 32 weeks of gestational age were enrolled during antenatal care visits between October 2010 and September 2011. We excluded women with pregnancies resulting from assisted fertility, women with known pre-existing major diseases or, with pregnancy complications, or with a medical indication of elective cesarean section. We used two different approaches to assess women’s preferences: a survey using a tailored questionnaire, and a discrete choice experiment. Results Only 8 and 6 % of the healthy nulliparous women in the public and private sectors, respectively, expressed a preference for caesarean section. Fear of pain and safety were the most frequently expressed reasons for preferring caesarean section. When reasons for delivery mode were assessed by a discrete choice experiment, women placed the most emphasis on sex after childbirth. Of women who expressed their preference for vaginal delivery, 34 and 40 % ended their pregnancies by caesarean section in public and private hospitals, respectively. Conclusions The preference for caesarean section is low among healthy nulliparous women in Buenos Aires. The reasons why these women had a rate of more than 35 % caesarean sections are unlikely related to their preferences for mode of delivery.Fil: Mazzoni, Agustina. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Althabe, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Gutierrez, Laura. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Gibbons, Luz. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Liu, Nancy H.. UCSF General Internal Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Bonotti, Ana María. Ministerio de Salud de la Nación; ArgentinaFil: Izbizky, Gustavo H.. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Ferrary, Marta. Hospital Magdalena; ArgentinaFil: Viergue, Nora. Centro de Educación Médica e Investigaciones Clínicas “Norberto Quirno”; ArgentinaFil: Vigil, Silvia I.. Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Zalazar Denett, Gabriela. Hospital Materno Infantil Dr. Carlos Gianantonio; ArgentinaFil: Belizan, Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; Argentin