Colour changes upon cooling of Lepidoptera scales containing photonic nanoarchitectures

The effects produced by the condensation of water vapours from the ambient in the various intricate nanoarchitectures occurring in the wing scales of several Lepidoptera species were investigated by controlled cooling (from room temperature to -5 - -10 {\deg}C) combined with in situ measurement of changes in the reflectance spectra. It was determined that, due to this procedure, all photonic nanoarchitectures giving a reflectance maximum in the visible range and having an open nanostructure exhibited alteration of the position of the reflectance maximum associated with the photonic nanoarchitectures. The photonic nanoarchitectures with a closed structure exhibited little to no alteration in colour. Similarly, control specimens coloured by pigments did not exhibit a colour change under the same conditions. Hence, this effect can be used to identify species with open photonic nanoarchitectures in their scales. For certain species, an almost complete disappearance of the reflectance maximum was found. All specimens recovered their original colours following warming and drying. Cooling experiments using thin copper wires demonstrated that colour alterations could be limited to a millimetre, or below. Dried museum specimens do not exhibit colour changes when cooled in the absence of a heat sink due to the low heat capacity of the wings.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, including supplemen

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE STARTING WAGE OF MASTER'S VS. BACHELOR'S DEGREE GRADUATES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE HUNGARIAN GRADUATE CAREER TRACKING SURVEY 2012

The study examines the wage gap between bachelor‟s and master‟s degree graduates in the Hungarian labour market by NUTS2 regions. The databases used in the study have been gained from the Hungarian Graduate Career Tracking Survey conducted in 2012 as well as from public regional data sources of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Relying on these databases independent t-tests, variance and regression analyses are performed to 1) identify the starting wage premium of those graduated at master‟s level compared to others owning only a bachelor‟s degree in the regions of Hungary, and to 2) define the role of regional factors (economic development, labour market indicators, demographic variables) in the wage differences. Major conclusions of the study are that 1) obtaining a master‟s degree forecasts a significantly higher starting wage in most of the observed geographical areas, but 2) the size of this positive contribution significantly differs region by region (partly depending on economic and labour market factors)

A COMPARISON OF SELF-ASSESSMENT TENDENCIES OF FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Several studies in the existing literature of education research provide empirical evidences that low-achiever higher education students tend to predict and evaluate their own academic performance less accurately than those who perform better in their studies. Former papers have also supported that low-performers generally over-evaluate (both before and after examinations) while high-performers regularly underestimate their performance (or at least they are overestimating to a significantly lower extent). These findings highlight that less good skills and/or abilities are only a part of the low-achievers’ handicap. Another serious problem is that they are unaware about these problems (this phenomenon is sometimes referred to as ’Dunning–Krueger effect’). More information on this tendency is useful for both educators and researchers of education, because helping students who are facing this double challenge needs a better understanding of the processes and factors in the background. One of the information still missing from the literature is the results of testing and comparing the self-assessment patterns of students with different background. As a contribution to this area of research we measure the self-assessment differences between full-time and part-time business students. After a brief introduction and a short review of the empirical literature the current paper tests the above mentioned hypotheses on two small samples of full-time (N = 64) and part-time (N = 63) business students from the same course, university and majors. All the students wrote the same test type (multiple choice). Our main results support that in the cases of both the full-time and the part-time students the low-achievers showed a significantly greater mean overestimation. This was true for the pre- and also for the post-examination self-assessment. At the same time, self-assessment accuracy (measured indirectly via the absolute value of the self-assessment error) connected positively to the students’ test performance only in the case of part-time students. Moreover, performance and self-assessment accuracy showed a positive linear correlation in case of part-time, a negative linear correlation in the case of full-time students

THE SHEEPSKIN EFFECT IN THE HUNGARIAN LABOUR MARKET 2010-2012: ANALYSIS OF DATA FROM THE HUNGARIAN GRADUATE TRACKING SYSTEM

The sheepskin effect is a wage increase connected to the attainment of a degree (or credential) in addition to the wage gap connected to the completion of a schooling level (school years, exams passed etc.). This effect is often referred to as a phenomenon supporting the signaling (or screening) hypothesis against human capital theory in the so called ‘signaling vs. human capital debate’ over the economic role of education. Many empirical studies in many countries have tested (mostly successfully) this hypothesis during the last decades, but it has never been tested in Hungary. Therefore the main goal of the current study is to identify and measure the sheepskin effect in Hungarian higher education based on the country-wide, representative databases of the Hungarian Graduate Career Tracking System (HGCTS). The 2 databases used in the analysis are two HGCTS surveys from the years 2011 and 2012. The first part of the article is a literature review that summarises the results of the existing empirical sheepskin research and highlights their connections to the signaling vs. human capital debate. In the second part, empirical research is carried out based on the HGCTS data. This research has two phases. In the first phase subjective data are analysed (according to the perceived negative effect of not obtaining the degree in time), while in the second, mean differences are tested between net hourly wages of responder groups (1) who have the educational credential and (2) do not have it (even though they have finished all courses and passed all exams at the given educational level). The statistical analysis identified significant wage gaps between graduated responders and those who had not graduated but had passed the state exam (and so had finished all the exams in higher education before graduating) on nearly all levels and in both samples (the only exemption was the post-Bologna master level in the 2011 sample). We can conclude that the existence of the sheepskin effect in the Hungarian higher education has been supported

THE EFFECT OF 'ORGANIC' LABELS ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION OF CHOCOLATES

One of the most important success factors in the organic food industry is the positive image that a significant number of customers attach to organic products in many countries, which includes the perception of healthiness and also sensory characteristics such as smell, texture or taste. Several papers have examined the effect of organic certification on consumer perceptions for many types of products from a number of perspectives. The present study aims to reveal the effect of organic (‘bio’) labels on customers’ evaluation of chocolates regarding five product attributes: fragrance, taste, healthiness, calorie content and price. The two research questions are: (1) ‘How do consumers modify their perceptions about a given chocolate after receiving information as to whether the given chocolate is an organic or a non-organic product?’ and (2) ‘How do consumers’ evaluations of organic and non-organic chocolates relative to each other change after it is revealed which ones have an organic certificate?’ To find the answers an experiment was conducted on a sample of 32 second year bachelor university students from the ‘Commerce and Marketing’ major. During the experiment the students tasted 4 dark (2 regular and 2 organic) and 3 milk (2 regular and 1 organic) chocolates in two phases. In the first phase they had no information as to whether organic products were involved in the experiment, but in the second the organic products were labelled. The students had to evaluate fragrance, taste, healthiness, and calorie content, and estimate the price in both phases. The results show that ‘organic’ labels can significantly modify consumers’ perception and evaluation of chocolates with every attribute for one or more of the chocolates. Labelling can also widen the perceived gap between organic and regular chocolates according to fragrance, healthiness, calorie content and price. However, changes were identified only in the case of healthiness and price. Both were absolutely and relatively evaluated as higher for organic products after labelling

ANALYSING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES - THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SCALE OF CHANGE AND EMPLOYEES ATTITUDES

In the 21st century all organizations have to cope with challenges caused by trigger events in the environment. The key to organizational success is how fast and efficiently they are able to react. In 2014 we conducted a research survey on this topic with the contribution of Hungarian students on Bachelor courses in Business Administration and Management. They visited organizations which had gone through a significant programme of change within the last 5 years. The owners, managers or HR managers responsible for changes were asked to fill in the questionnaires about the features of these organisational changes. Several issues regarding change management were covered, besides general information about the companies. Respondents were asked about the trigger events and the nature of changes, and about the process of change and participation in it. One group of questions asked leaders about employees’ attitude to change, another section sought information about the methods used in the process. In this paper, after a short literature review, we will analyse the adaptation methods used by organizations and the connection between the scope of change and employees’ attitude toward change

Integration of logistics function and business performance

Purpose: The degree of integration amongst business functions in enterprises and through the supply chain can greatly affect performance. Integration, with a focus on logistic functions, is investigated to discover the internal and external integration connections at production enterprises so as to measure the association between the level of integration and performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: Internal factors of the analysis are logistics, procurement, sales, accounting and finance, and HR while external elements are suppliers and external customers. ROS, ROE and ROA were used as the indicators of performance. Based on questionnaire data, rank correlation analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis and structural equation modelling were applied. Findings: The research shows that the relationship between the level of integration and performance resulted in some cases in a significant correlation, although there were many instances where there was no positive association between integration and performance. The limitations of the research are the relatively small sample size and geographic scope. Practical Implications: Our research contributes to the scientific understanding of the integration of logistic functions, using four analytical methods. Research shows professionals how important the integration of logistic functions is, which works effectively to improve productivity. Originality/Value: The novelty of the research is to determine functions that can work efficiently with logistics to improve productivity. At the same time, the relatively small ratio of significantly correlated logistic integration factors with business performance signals to us that the integration-performance relationship makes it difficult to use the results in managerial practice.peer-reviewe

Effects of once-weekly exenatide on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular effects of adding once-weekly treatment with exenatide to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes are unknown. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes, with or without previous cardiovascular disease, to receive subcutaneous injections of extended-release exenatide at a dose of 2 mg or matching placebo once weekly. The primary composite outcome was the first occurrence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. The coprimary hypotheses were that exenatide, administered once weekly, would be noninferior to placebo with respect to safety and superior to placebo with respect to efficacy. RESULTS: In all, 14,752 patients (of whom 10,782 [73.1%] had previous cardiovascular disease) were followed for a median of 3.2 years (interquartile range, 2.2 to 4.4). A primary composite outcome event occurred in 839 of 7356 patients (11.4%; 3.7 events per 100 person-years) in the exenatide group and in 905 of 7396 patients (12.2%; 4.0 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.00), with the intention-to-treat analysis indicating that exenatide, administered once weekly, was noninferior to placebo with respect to safety (P<0.001 for noninferiority) but was not superior to placebo with respect to efficacy (P=0.06 for superiority). The rates of death from cardiovascular causes, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal or nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and the incidence of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes with or without previous cardiovascular disease, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events did not differ significantly between patients who received exenatide and those who received placebo

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

non present