The role of diversification profiles and dyadic characteristics in the formation of technological alliances:Differences between exploitation and exploration in a low-tech industry

This paper posits that corporate and technological diversification of firms and their relatedness in terms of products and technologies will impact their propensity to form technological alliances. It argues that both higher levels of diversification and greater relatedness signal superior capabilities and available resources to prospective partners that will facilitate exploration and exploitation of technological assets in an alliance. These theoretical conjectures are tested using a dataset of all tire producers worldwide between 1985 and 1996 that combines detailed firm data on establishment, patenting, and alliance activities. The results indicate that complementarity in terms of corporate and technological diversification strategies, as well as partner characteristics (e.g., size, age, and technological capabilities) drive exploitation alliances. Moreover, firms with similar product portfolios are more likely to engage in exploitative interactions. In contrast, exploration alliances exhibit strong partner similarity across all firm characteristics. Both corporate and technological diversification have positive effects on firms’ propensity to engage in exploration, while technological distance has a negative nonlinear one.<br/

The export performance of emerging economy firms: the influence of firm capabilities and institutional environments

We advance a two-stage theoretical model which contends that the export performance of emerging economy firms (EEFs) will depend both upon their firm-specific capabilities and their home institutional environments. Specifically, we argue that EEFs will be more likely to export when facing more uncertainty at home from greater political instability, substantial informal competition, and high corruption. Furthermore, we hypothesize that firms’ export intensities will be contingent upon specialized internal capabilities such as a skilled workforce, top managerial experience, and access to external technologies. We test these hypotheses using a dataset of more than 16,000 firms from the four BRIC economies (i.e., Brazil, Russia, China and India). Our results confirm that political instability and informal competition have robust effects on the export propensity of EEFs, whilst export intensity is contingent upon the availability of skilled workers and access to external technologies via licensing

The determinants of export performance in BRIC countries: the role of firm resources and the institutional environment

We posit that export performance of firms in emerging economies depends both on their firm-specific resource endowments and on the institutional environments within which they operate. Specifically, we argue that firms will be likely to export when political instability is high, they face more informal competitors, and are able to grease the regulatory system via bribes. Furthermore, firm export intensity will depend on access to critical resources such as skilled workforce, managerial talent and product quality. We test these conjectures using a dataset of 5,600 firms in the four largest emerging market economies (Brazil, Russia, China and India). Our results confirm that the institutional environments affect export propensity through political instability and bribery, whilst the export intensity of firms depends on the availability of skilled workers and adherence to international quality standards. These findings provide new insights into the export performance of emerging market firms (EMFs)

Happy diamond anniversary JMS! A decade analysis of the Journal of Management Studies

The Journal of Management Studies, founded in 1963, is celebrating its 60 th year. Clark et al. (2014) conducted a bibliometric analysis for its 50 th anniversary assessing whether the journal had maintained its leading international ranking and sustained its mission to serve as a broad-based management outlet. In this review, we build on and extend their findings by examining trends in the journal over the past decade (2012–22). We present a broader analysis of JMS by exploring its unique identity within the management journal ecosystem and examining its scope and breadth in terms of topics, methods, and author demographics to document JMS's evolution, impact, reach, and accessibility. We develop a new bibliometric framework that employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative analyses (including regression, text, and language analysis) to cover a broad range of considerations for a journal and its stakeholders. In so doing, we contribute to the bibliometric and review research areas by proposing new metrics (related to diversity, equity, and inclusion) and analysis tools to assess the relative position of an academic journal. Employing this framework, we conclude that JMS has retained and enhanced its position as a leading, cutting-edge general management journal.</p

Stalking influenza by vaccination with pre-fusion headless HA mini-stem.

Inaccuracies in prediction of circulating viral strain genotypes and the possibility of novel reassortants causing a pandemic outbreak necessitate the development of an anti-influenza vaccine with increased breadth of protection and potential for rapid production and deployment. The hemagglutinin (HA) stem is a promising target for universal influenza vaccine as stem-specific antibodies have the potential to be broadly cross-reactive towards different HA subtypes. Here, we report the design of a bacterially expressed polypeptide that mimics a H5 HA stem by protein minimization to focus the antibody response towards the HA stem. The HA mini-stem folds as a trimer mimicking the HA prefusion conformation. It is resistant to thermal/chemical stress, and it binds to conformation-specific, HA stem-directed broadly neutralizing antibodies with high affinity. Mice vaccinated with the group 1 HA mini-stems are protected from morbidity and mortality against lethal challenge by both group 1 (H5 and H1) and group 2 (H3) influenza viruses, the first report of cross-group protection. Passive transfer of immune serum demonstrates the protection is mediated by stem-specific antibodies. Furthermore, antibodies indudced by these HA stems have broad HA reactivity, yet they do not have antibody-dependent enhancement activity

Banddehnungsmessung am Kniegelenk - Der Dehnungsmeßstreifen und seine Alternativen

Those techniques for measuring ligament tension at the knee joint that are most commonly cited and easiest to carry out are discussed, These include four techniques based on the use of strain gauges. Apart from the Omega transducer and the buckle transducer, there is also the tendon force transducer, and the application of strain gauges to the bony ligament insertion sites, Other indirect measuring methods considered are the mercury strain transducer and the Hall effect transducer. The parameter measured with all of these methods is fluctuating current or voltage, which is then correlated with ligament tension. Three direct measurements are also discussed: the separation distances of marked fibres of the ligaments, replacement of fibres by threads, and a load cell/bone plug construction. The measured value is equated with the effective change in ligament length

Two computable sets of multipartite entanglement measures

We present two sets of computable entanglement measures for multipartite systems where each subsystem can have different degrees of freedom (so-called qudits). One set, called 'separability' measure, reveals which of the subsystems are separable/entangled. For that we have to extend the concept of k-separability for multipartite systems to a novel unambiguous separability concept which we call \gamma_k-separability. The second set of entanglement measures reveals the 'kind' of entanglement, i.e. if it is bipartite, tripartite, ..., n-partite entangled and is denoted as the 'physical' measure. We show how lower bounds on both sets of measures can be obtained by the observation that any entropy may be rewritten via operational expressions known as m-concurrences. Moreover, for different classes of bipartite or multipartite qudit systems we compute the bounds explicitly and discover that they are often tight or equivalent to positive partial transposition (PPT).Comment: 3 figures, 21 page

Influenza virus differentially activates mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling to maximize late stage replication

<div><p>Influenza A virus usurps host signaling factors to regulate its replication. One example is mTOR, a cellular regulator of protein synthesis, growth and motility. While the role of mTORC1 in viral infection has been studied, the mechanisms that induce mTORC1 activation and the substrates regulated by mTORC1 during influenza virus infection have not been established. In addition, the role of mTORC2 during influenza virus infection remains unknown. Here we show that mTORC2 and PDPK1 differentially phosphorylate AKT upon influenza virus infection. PDPK1-mediated phoshorylation of AKT at a distinct site is required for mTORC1 activation by influenza virus. On the other hand, the viral NS1 protein promotes phosphorylation of AKT at a different site via mTORC2, which is an activity dispensable for mTORC1 stimulation but known to regulate apoptosis. Influenza virus HA protein and down-regulation of the mTORC1 inhibitor REDD1 by the virus M2 protein promote mTORC1 activity. Systematic phosphoproteomics analysis performed in cells lacking the mTORC2 component Rictor in the absence or presence of Torin, an inhibitor of both mTORC1 and mTORC2, revealed mTORC1-dependent substrates regulated during infection. Members of pathways that regulate mTORC1 or are regulated by mTORC1 were identified, including constituents of the translation machinery that once activated can promote translation. mTORC1 activation supports viral protein expression and replication. As mTORC1 activation is optimal midway through the virus life cycle, the observed effects on viral protein expression likely support the late stages of influenza virus replication when infected cells undergo significant stress.</p></div

A high-resolution diatom-based Middle and Late Holocene environmental history of the Little Belt region, Baltic Sea

The large‐scale shifts in the salinity of the Baltic Sea over the Holocene are well understood and have been comprehensively documented using sedimentary proxy records. More recent work has focused on understanding how past salinity fluctuations have affected other ecological parameters (e.g. primary productivity, nutrient content) of the Baltic basin, and salinity changes over key events and over short time scales are still not well understood. The International Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 347 cored the Baltic basin in order to collect basin‐wide environmental records through a glacial–interglacial cycle. Site M0059 is located in the Little Belt between the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. A composite splice section from Site M0059 was analysed at a decadal resolution to study changes in salinity, nutrient conditions and other surface water column parameters based on changes in diatom assemblages and on quantitative diatom‐based salinity inferences. A mesotrophic slightly brackish assemblage is seen in the lowermost analysed depths, corresponding to 7800–7500 cal. a BP . An increase in salinity and nutrient content of the water column leads into a meso‐eutrophic brackish phase. The observed salinity increase is rapid, lasting from 7500 to 7150 cal. a BP . Subsequently, the Little Belt becomes oligotrophic and is dominated by tychopelagic diatoms from c . 7100 to c . 3900 cal. a BP . This interval contains some of the highest salinities observed followed by diatom assemblages similar to those of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, composed primarily of cosmopolitan open ocean marine diatoms. A return to tychopelagic productivity is seen from 3850 to 980 cal. a BP . Anthropogenic eutrophication is detected in the last 300 years of the record, which intensifies in the uppermost sediments. These results represent the first decadally resolved record in the region and provide new insight into the transition to a brackish basin and subsequent ecological development.The large-scale shifts in the salinity of the Baltic Sea over the Holocene are well understood and have been comprehensively documented using sedimentary proxy records. More recent work has focused on understanding how past salinity fluctuations have affected other ecological parameters (e.g. primary productivity, nutrient content) of the Baltic basin, and salinity changes over key events and over short time scales are still not well understood. The International Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 347 cored the Baltic basin in order to collect basin-wide environmental records through a glacial-interglacial cycle. Site M0059 is located in the Little Belt between the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. A composite splice section from Site M0059 was analysed at a decadal resolution to study changes in salinity, nutrient conditions and other surface water column parameters based on changes in diatom assemblages and on quantitative diatom-based salinity inferences. A mesotrophic slightly brackish assemblage is seen in the lowermost analysed depths, corresponding to 7800-7500 cal. a BP. An increase in salinity and nutrient content of the water column leads into a meso-eutrophic brackish phase. The observed salinity increase is rapid, lasting from 7500 to 7150 cal. a BP. Subsequently, the Little Belt becomes oligotrophic and is dominated by tychopelagic diatoms from c. 7100 to c. 3900 cal. a BP. This interval contains some of the highest salinities observed followed by diatom assemblages similar to those of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, composed primarily of cosmopolitan open oceanmarine diatoms. A return to tychopelagic productivity is seen from 3850 to 980 cal. a BP. Anthropogenic eutrophication is detected in the last 300 years of the record, which intensifies in the uppermost sediments. These results represent the first decadally resolved record in the region and provide new insight into the transition to a brackish basin and subsequent ecological development.Peer reviewe