Variational Monte-Carlo studies of Gossamer Superconductivity

We use a partially Gutzwiller projected BCS d-wave wavefunction with an antiferromagentic weighting factor to study the ground state phase diagram of a half filled Hubbard-Heisenberg model in a square lattice with nearest neighbor hopping $t$ and a diagonal hopping $t'$. The calculations are carried out by using variational Monte Carlo method which treats the Gutzwiller projection explicitly. At large on-site Coulomb interaction $U$, the ground state is antiferromagnetic. As $U$ decreases, the ground state becomes superconducting and eventually metallic. The phase diagram is obtained by extensive calculations. As compared to the strong effect of $U/t$, the phase boundaries turn out to be less sensitive to $t'/t$. The result is consistent with the phase diagram in layered organic conductors, and is compared to the earlier mean field result based on the Gutzwiller approximation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Professionalisation and governance in Swiss sports clubs – Establishing a club office

Introduction Sports clubs in Switzerland face increasing expectations and challenges from internal and external stakeholders. Therefore, more and more sports clubs professionalise their structures and processes, e.g., by establishing a club office with (part-time) employees. Since there is little knowledge in the sports management literature about the causes, forms and consequences of establishing a club office, this study answers the following research questions based on the multi-level framework from Nagel et al. (2015): Why and how do Swiss sports clubs establish a club office? What are the consequences of establishing a club office? Methods We selected five Swiss sports clubs in the context of a multiple case study design (Yin, 2014). Case selection aimed to include sports clubs of varying sizes, sports and professionalisation types. Data were collected through document analysis, expert interviews with decision-makers and focus groups with club members. Data were analysed using causation coding (Miles et al., 2014). Results Findings show different causes for establishing a club office. The main reason was to relieve volunteer board members. The various causes imply different roles and responsibilities of the established club office. While in some sports clubs, the club office is primarily responsible for administrative tasks, in others, it is also responsible for sponsorship. This circumstance explains why some sports clubs did not have to increase their membership fees to finance the club office because they could increase their sponsorship revenue. Although the club office staff is paid in all sports clubs, the volume of work varies. However, the paid staff often works more than agreed (“volunteer professionals”). Regarding the consequences, all sports clubs that established a club office are satisfied with their decision. Positive consequences are that a “place to go” was created for internal and external stakeholders, and many club processes are more efficient now. However, establishing a club office with (part-time) employees raises the question of strategic and operational responsibilities and decision-making power. Discussion/Conclusion The findings offer several implications for sports clubs that want to establish a club office. At the same time, the study provides further research perspectives. First, it might be insightful to analyse if there are any relevant differences in whether a sports club transforms its secretariat into a club office or establishes a club office for the first time. Second, there are further changes regarding the organisational structures and processes that are worth looking at when analysing the establishment of a club office, such as creating an executive/management board or employing a (paid) CEO. To conclude, it might be interesting to analyse sports clubs that have established a club office but shut it down after a while. References Miles, M. B., Hubermann, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods Sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE. Nagel, S., Schlesinger, T., Bayle, E., & Giauque, D. (2015). Professionalisation of sport federations–A multi-level framework for analysing forms, causes and consequences. European Sport Management Quarterly, 15(4), 407–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2015.1062990 Yin, R. K. (2014). Case Study Research: Design and Methods (5th ed.). SAGE

Professionalization and organizational problems of sports clubs: Is there a relationship?

Sports clubs have been reporting several organizational problems in recent decades (e.g., recruitment and retention of members and volunteers). At the same time, certain sports clubs have professionalized their strategies, structures, processes, and staff. However, previous research has not analyzed whether the professionalization of sports clubs is related to their organizational problems. Therefore, this study conducts, in the first step, a cluster analysis based on three dimensions of professionalization to identify professionalization types among sports clubs. In the second step, it examines differences in organizational problems among the identified professionalization types. The main findings are that (1) sports clubs with paid staff report fewer problems with recruiting and retaining members but more problems with finances than sports clubs that rely on voluntary work, and (2) sports clubs with increased professionalization of human resources management (HRM) and strategy have fewer problems with recruiting and retaining board members and coaches than sports clubs with low professionalization of HRM and strategy. These results show that professionalized sports clubs have different, but not necessarily fewer, organizational problems

International sport federations’ commercialisation : a qualitative comparative analysis

Research question: This study examines the conditions and configurations that particularly influence International Federations’ (IFs) commercialisation. Research method: Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) is used to determine the conditions that are related to an IFs’ commercialisation. Sixteen interviews were conducted in six Olympic IFs and one international sport umbrella organisation. Results and findings: The findings reveal a variety of high and low commercialisation configurations. Specialisation is a key condition in both high and low commercialisation, and social media engagement is central in high commercialisation. Strategic planning and low accountability have low degrees of overlap with high commercialisation outcomes. With 13 out of 22 IFs achieving high levels of commercialisation, the findings demonstrate that IFs are increasingly developing business-like behaviours. Implications: The findings highlight the importance of specialisation and social media engagement to achieve high commercialisation. However, when IFs assume a monetisation agenda, there are associated risks such as stakeholder legitimacy, mission drift, goal vagueness and adherence to good governance principles

Sex-based differences in clinical and angiographic outcomes in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with concomitant use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors

Background: The widespread use of primary coronary intervention (PCI) has significantly improved the prognosis of men presenting with acute coronary syndromes, but the cardiovascular event rate among women has either levelled off or increased. The purpose of the present prospective study was to compare the clinical outcome of women and men presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary PCI with concomitant usage of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Methods: Between January 2006 and December 2007, 297 consecutive patients presenting with STEMI were prospectively included in this single center investigation. Overall, 82 (27.6%) women and 215 (72.4%) men were treated by PCI with additional bare metal stent implantation and a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor. Results: Women were significantly older (65 ± 10 vs 60 ± 12 years, p = 0.04), presented with a smaller reference luminal diameter (2.83 ± 0.51 vs 2.94 ± 0.43, p = 0.03) and had a higher prevalence of hypertension (68% vs 53%, p = 0.025) and obesity (30% vs 18%, p = 0.03). The incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE, defined as death, re-myocardial infarction, target lesion revascularization and coronary artery bypass graft) during long-term follow-up was similar in women and men (20% vs 26%, p = 0.29). Age, C-reactive protein, platelet count and cardiogenic shock were identified as independent predictors for MACE, whereas gender was not predictive. Conclusions: In this study, female gender did not emerge as an independent predictor for MACE, but women presenting with STEMI had a higher cardiovascular risk profile; this emphasizes the need for a more extensive therapeutic strategy. Combination therapy with primary PCI and GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors might mitigate gender-related differences in clinical outcomes. (Cardiol J 2010; 17, 6: 580–586

Challenges and opportunities arising from self-regulated professionalisation processes: an analysis of a Swiss national sport federation

In recent decades, some governments (e.g. Canada, the UK, Australia) have imposed far-reaching professionalisation processes on national sport federations (NSFs), while others (e.g. Switzerland) have made only minor impositions and relied more on NSFs to self-regulate. As governments must decide on the extent to which sport policy imposes professionalisation processes on NSFs, understanding the challenges and opportunities arising from both policy-imposed and self-regulated professionalisation processes is relevant. However, extant literature has focused mostly on professionalisation processes imposed by sport policy. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the context, action, content and outcome of self-regulated professionalisation processes to identify the challenges and opportunities arising from these processes. A framework of professionalisation and a corresponding processual approach build the conceptual background of this study. A single-case study is applied to enable a holistic and long-term analysis of the proceedings of a Swiss NSF’s professionalisation processes. The results reveal the mechanisms of self-regulated professionalisation processes (i.e. how contexts and actions shape outcome), thus leading to a conceptualisation of these mechanisms and conclusions about challenges and opportunities arising from selfregulated professionalisation processes, which are useful for sport managers and policymakers

Enhanced molecular analyses by combination of the HOPE-technique and laser microdissection

As part of an investigation aimed at illuminating the possibilities and limits of the HOPE-fixation and paraffin-embedding technique we here describe a novel procedure which was developed in order to combine the benefits of the HOPE-technique with the capabilities of laser microdissection. The presented procedure avoids the need for amplification of template-RNA thus facilitating reliable and reproducible results. The excellent preservation of nucleic acids, proteins, and morphology in HOPE-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues enhances the molecular applications available to date with materials acquired by laser microdissection when compared to formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues, thus substantially extending the methodological panel in tissue based research