On Morals, Markets, and Climate Change: Exploring Pope Francis’ Challenge

The relation between Culture and Business has caught researchers’ attention long ago; itis not hard to find studies relating to these topics. According to Hofstede et al. (2010, p.18), Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (2012, p. 8), and Erez and Gati (2004, p. 5),culture can be defined in many levels, for example, organizational culture, and national culture. The field of Business also contains several disciplines, for example, International Business Management, Project Management, and Project Governance. However, not somany studies can be found studying the relation between National Culture and Project Governance; therefore, this study is focused on this relation.This study is designed following a qualitative approach in order to clarify the relation between National Culture and Project Governance Principles. Case studies are used targeting the IT industry of three countries, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan. These cases also contain the classical theory of cultural dimensions from Hofstede. Hofstede’s dimensionsare Power Distance (PDI), Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV), Uncertainty Avoidance(UAI), Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS), Long-term Orientation (LTO), and Indulgencevs. Restraint (IDU). They are applied in this study for distinguishing the differences between countries. This study is also based on the definition of Project GovernancePrinciples from Garland (2009), Klakegg (2008), and Müller et al. (2013). ProjectGovernance Principles are split into two categories as well, hard/ structural principles andsoft/ behaviour principles.In order to clarify the link between National Culture and Project Governance Principles,this thesis’ authors interviewed 19 people, including 10 project managers and 9 experts.All of them have a long experience dealing with Project Management in the three selected countries. Their answers are based on the knowledge and experience of Project Management and Project Governance, as well as their opinions about their own national culture. After analysing the interviews, the authors consider that differences between these three countries in Project Governance and Project Governance Principles do exist. On the other hand, there are also some similar parts, for example, the influence ofcustomers’ orientation and preference. Moreover, respondents, Project Managers and Experts, all mentioned it is also necessary to be aware of the globalized environment, inother words, there is no influence of a single national culture in one country anymore.However, they all admit the importance of their own national culture as well. All these findings from this study encourage further and deeper study in the future

Issues Relevant to C-H Activation at Platinum(II): Comparative Studies between Cationic, Zwitterionic, and Neutral Platinum(II) Compounds in Benzene Solution

Cationic late metal systems are being highly scrutinized due to their propensity to mediate so-called electrophilic C-H activation reactions. This contribution compares the reactivity of highly reactive cationic platinum(II) systems with structurally related but neutral species. Our experimental design exploits isostructural neutral and cationic complexes supported by bis(phosphine) ligands amenable to mechanistic examination in benzene solution. The data presented herein collectively suggests that neutral platinum complexes can be equally if not more reactive towards benzene than their cationic counter-parts. Moreover, a number of unexpected mechanistic distinctions between the two systems arise that help to explain their respective reactivity

Using baseline-dependent window functions for data compression and field-of-interest shaping in radio interferometry

In radio interferometry, observed visibilities are intrinsically sampled at some interval in time and frequency. Modern interferometers are capable of producing data at very high time and frequency resolution; practical limits on storage and computation costs require that some form of data compression be imposed. The traditional form of compression is a simple averaging of the visibilities over coarser time and frequency bins. This has an undesired side effect: the resulting averaged visibilities "decorrelate", and do so differently depending on the baseline length and averaging interval. This translates into a non-trivial signature in the image domain known as "smearing", which manifests itself as an attenuation in amplitude towards off-centre sources. With the increasing fields of view and/or longer baselines employed in modern and future instruments, the trade-off between data rate and smearing becomes increasingly unfavourable. In this work we investigate alternative approaches to low-loss data compression. We show that averaging of the visibility data can be treated as a form of convolution by a boxcar-like window function, and that by employing alternative baseline-dependent window functions a more optimal interferometer smearing response may be induced. In particular, we show improved amplitude response over a chosen field of interest, and better attenuation of sources outside the field of interest. The main cost of this technique is a reduction in nominal sensitivity; we investigate the smearing vs. sensitivity trade-off, and show that in certain regimes a favourable compromise can be achieved. We show the application of this technique to simulated data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the European Very-long-baseline interferometry Network (EVN)

Cosmological consequences of a principle of finite amplitudes

Over 30 years ago, Barrow & Tipler proposed the principle according to which the action integrated over the entire 4-manifold describing the universe should be finite. Here we explore the cosmological consequences of a related criterion, namely that semi-classical transition amplitudes from the early universe up to current field values should be well defined. On a classical level, our criterion is weaker than the Barrow-Tipler principle, but it has the advantage of being sensitive to quantum effects. We find significant consequences for early universe models, in particular: eternal inflation and strictly cyclic universes are ruled out. Within general relativity, the first phase of evolution cannot be inflationary, and it can be ekpyrotic only if the scalar field potential is trustworthy over an infinite field range. Quadratic gravity eliminates all non-accelerating backgrounds near a putative big bang (thus imposing favourable initial conditions for inflation), while the expected infinite series of higher-curvature quantum corrections eliminates Lorentzian big bang spacetimes altogether. The scenarios that work best with the principle of finite amplitudes are the no-boundary proposal, which gives finite amplitudes in all dynamical theories that we have studied, and string-inspired loitering phases. We also comment on the relationship of our proposal to the swampland conjectures

Dynamical quantum phase transition of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

We study dynamics of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate where the two components are coupled via an optical lattice. In particular, we focus on the dynamics as one drives the system through a critical point of a first order phase transition characterized by a jump in the internal populations. Solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we analyze; breakdown of adiabaticity, impact of non-linear atom-atom scattering, and the role of a harmonic trapping potential. Our findings demonstrate that the phase transition is resilient to both contact interaction between atoms and external trapping confinement.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Bis(phosphino)borates: A New Family of Monoanionic Chelating Phosphine Ligands

The reaction of dimethyldiaryltin reagents Me_(2)SnR_(2) (R ) Ph (1), p-MePh (2), m,m-Me_(2)Ph (3), p-tBuPh (4), p-MeOPh (5), p-CF_(3)Ph (6)) with BCl_(3) provided a high-yielding, simple preparative route to the corresponding diarylchloroboranes R_(2)BCl (R ) Ph (10), p-MePh (11), m,m-Me2Ph (12), p-tBuPh (13), p-MeOPh (14), p-CF_(3)Ph (15)). In some cases, the desired diarylchloroborane was not formed from an appropriate tin reagent Me_(2)SnR_(2) (R ) o-MeOPh (7), o,o-(MeO)_(2)Ph (8), o-CF_(3)Ph (9)). The reaction of lithiated methyldiaryl- or methyldialkylphosphines with diarylchloroboranes or dialkylchloroboranes is discussed. Specifically, several new monoanionic bis(phosphino)borates are detailed: [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (25); [(p-MePh)_(2)B(CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (26); [(p-^(t)BuPh)_(2)B(CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (27); [(p-MeOPh)_(2)B- (CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (28); [(p-CF_(3)Ph)_(2)B(CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (29); [Cy_(2)B(CH_(2)PPh_(2))_(2)] (30); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)P{p-^(t)BuPh}_(2))_(2)] (31); [(p-MeOPh)_(2)B- (CH_(2)P{p-^(t)BuPh}_(2))_(2)] (32); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)P{p-CF_(3)Ph}_(2))_(2)] (33); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)P(BH_(3))(Me)_(2))_(2)] (34); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)P(S)(Me)_(2))_(2)] (35); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)PiPr_(2))_(2)] (36); [Ph_(2)B(CH_(2)P^(t)Bu_(2))_(2)] (37); [(m,m-Me_(2)Ph)_(2)B(CH_(2)P^(t)Bu_(2))_(2)] (38). The chelation of diarylphosphine derivatives 25-33 and 36 to platinum was examined by generation of a series of platinum dimethyl complexes. The electronic effects of substituted bis(phosphino)borates on the carbonyl stretching frequency of neutral platinum alkyl carbonyl complexes were studied by infrared spectroscopy. Substituents remote from the metal center (i.e. on boron) have minimal effect on the electronic nature of the metal center, whereas substitution close to the metal center (on phosphorus) has a greater effect on the electronic nature of the metal center

A homoleptic phosphine adduct of Tl(I)

A homoleptic phosphine adduct of thallium(I) supported by a tris(phosphino)borate ligand has been isolated and structurally characterized