Does going green pay off? The effect of an international environmental agreement on tropical timber trade

Trade-related measures aim to regulate side-effects in international environmental agreements and are expected to positively influence the level of participation in the agreements as well as their degree of stability. In this paper we examine one side-effect of the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement - its impact on tropical timber trade. We use a cross-sectional dataset on bilateral trade flows of tropical timber that additionally contains information on trading partners' economic and geographical characteristics. Our empirical specification is based on a gravity equation, which is estimated using Heckman's selection model to address the potentially systematic selection of trading partners. We find significantly positive impacts of the 1994 ITTA on member countries' level of tropical timber trade. Furthermore, poor exporter countries benefit more from this trade enhancing effect than their richer counterparts.International environmental agreements, side benefits, bilateral trade flows, product quality, sample selection

Voters do not improve their evaluations of the political system simply because the government is behaving well

Established political parties across the democratised world are struggling to regain their previous levels of popularity, with scandal, voter fatigue, and an inability to tackle the issues that motivate voters proving a toxic combination for both parties and the political systems they operate within. But when parties are seen to be behaving well in government, do voters correspondingly improve their views about the system as a whole? Here, Debra Leiter and Michael Clark show that this is not the case, and that any variation usually relates to the other parties in the system

Assessing and reducing product portfolio complexity in the pharmaceutical industry

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-66).Overly complex product portfolios lead to inefficient use of resources and limit an organization's ability to react quickly to changing market dynamics. The challenges of reducing portfolio complexity are defining excess complexity, identifying it in the portfolio, and removing it while still delivering value to customers. Novartis Pharmaceuticals, in agreement with the prevalent operational excellence culture, is exploring complexity reduction as a mechanism to reduce waste, costs, and inventory levels. This thesis proposes the use of a comprehensive complexity reduction approach which targets both large and tail-end products for rationalization. The first complexity reduction focus area, redundant product rationalization, targets medium to large stock keeping units that do not directly satisfy a unique customer requirement. Removing redundant products has two benefits. First, larger products consume more resources, so the cost savings associated with removing a large redundant product are greater than that of smaller products. Second, sales levels will be preserved, as the demand for the rationalized product will shift to the remaining products that still meet the customer requirement in question. The second focus area is the more traditional tail-end pruning. By removing smaller, less profitable products and product groups, critical resources can be reallocated to more profitable products or new product launches. Novartis has piloted and partially implemented this approach with impressive results. With the support of influential leaders across all functions, Novartis is expecting a reduction of 15% of the portfolio in terms of number of finished product stock keeping units and a reduction of up to $22 million USD in inventory value. Other benefits include improvements in demand forecast accuracy, production write-offs, asset utilization, and replenishment lead times.by Kevin M. Leiter.S.M.M.B.A

Does going green pay off? The effect of an international environmental agreement on tropical timber trade

Trade-related measures aim to regulate side-effects in international environmental agreements and are expected to positively influence the level of participation in the agreements as well as their degree of stability. In this paper we examine one side-effect of the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement - its impact on tropical timber trade. We use a cross-sectional dataset on bilateral trade flows of tropical timber that additionally contains information on trading partners' economic and geographical characteristics. Our empirical specification is based on a gravity equation, which is estimated using Heckman's selection model to address the potentially systematic selection of trading partners. We find significantly positive impacts of the 1994 ITTA on member countries' level of tropical timber trade. Furthermore, poor exporter countries benefit more from this trade enhancing effect than their richer counterparts

Prediction of Fungal Proteins Secreted through Non-Classical Pathways

The Microbotryum genus of smut fungi is known to parasitize flowering plants by colonizing the plant host and ultimately replacing pollen with fungal spores, which continues the transmission process with the help of pollinators to disperse spores A hallmark of this genus of fungi is host specialization wherein one fungal species is only capable of infecting one species of plant host However, there are rare generalists that flout this pattern and one of those generalists, Microbotryum intermedium is the subject of this analysis. The life cycle of Microbotryum intermedium begins when a pollinator transmits spores to an uninfected flower Meiosis and conjugation take place, and are followed by systemic infection of the plant by the fungu

The protective role of self-efficacy against workplace incivility and burnout in nursing: A time-lagged study

Background: Incivility has negative consequences in the workplace and remains a prevalent issue in nursing. Research has consistently linked incivility to nurse burnout and, in turn, to poor mental health and turnover intentions. To retain high quality nurses it is important to understand what factors might protect nurses from the negative effects of workplace mistreatment. Purpose: This study investigated the role of relational occupational coping self-efficacy in protecting nurses from workplace incivility and related burnout and turnover intentions. Methodology: A two-wave national sample of 596 Canadian nurses completed mail surveys both at Time 1 and one year later at Time 2. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. Results: The model showed a good fit and most of the hypothesized paths were significant. Overall, the results supported the hypothesized protective effect of relational occupational coping self-efficacy against incivility and later burnout, mental health, and turnover intentions. Conclusion: Relational occupational coping self-efficacy is an important protective factor against negative work behavior. Practice Implications: Organizations should provide nurses with opportunities to build their coping strategies for managing job demands and difficult interpersonal interactions. Similarly, providing exposure to effective role models and providing meaningful verbal encouragement are other sources of efficacy information for building nurses’ relational coping self-efficacy

Factor structure of the straightforward incivility scale in an Italian sample

Workplace incivility is defined as low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target. In this sense, it involves a violation of workplace norms that could damage the quality of working relationships. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factor structure of the adaptation of Straightforward Incivility Scale (SIS; Leiter 2013) in an Italian sample. A sample of 404 healthcare workers completed the SIS. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. In the first step of analysis, exploratory factor analysis and parallel analysis with 202 participants revealed three factors: supervisor, coworker, and instigated incivility. In the second step, a confirmatory factor analysis with 202 participants supported the 15-item three-factor model in the cross-validation sample. Results provide confirmation of the cross-cultural stability of the facet, factor, and global scale structure of the SIS

Evidências preliminares de validade da versão brasileira da Short Work Attachment

There is growing interest on the relationship between attachment and work- or career-related decisions. However, to this date, there are no scientific reports assessing adult attachment in work environment in Brazilian samples. This study aimed to adapt and collect psychometric evidence from the Short Work Attachment Measure for Brazilian Portuguese. A total of 450 adults (62.2% women; mean age = 23.8 years old) from a Southeastern state of Brazil participated in this research. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial procedures replicated the original version of the two-dimensional structure of the measure. The McDonald’s Omega accuracy indicators were higher than 0.78 for the instrument. Evidence of convergent validity was observed with a measure of attachment to romantic relationships and life satisfaction. We concluded that the Brazilian version of SWAM presents adequate psychometric properties.Há um crescente interesse na relação entre apego e decisões relacionadas a trabalho e carreira. Entretanto, até o presente momento, não há relatos científicos de nenhuma medida para avaliação do apego adulto no contexto laboral em amostras brasileira. O presente estudo teve por objetivo adaptar e levantar evidências psicométricas da Short Work Attachment Measure para o português brasileiro. Participaram da pesquisa 450 profissionais adultos (62,2% feminino, M = 23,8 anos) oriundas de um estado do sudeste brasileiro. Procedimentos fatoriais exploratórios e confirmatórios replicaram a versão original da estrutura bidimensional da medida. Os indicadores de precisão ômega de McDonald's do instrumento foram ambos superiores a 0,78. Evidências de validade convergente foram observadas com uma medida de apego para relações românticas e satisfação com a vida. Conclui-se que a versão brasileira da SWAM apresenta propriedades psicométricas adequadas.Existe un creciente interés en la relación entre apego y decisiones relacionadas con el trabajo y la carrera. Pero hasta el momento son inexistentes los estudios científicos sobre medidas que evalúan el apego adulto en el contexto laboral en muestras brasileñas. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo adaptar y recopilar evidencias psicométricas de la Short Work Attachment Measure para el portugués brasileño. Participaron 450 profesionales adultos en la investigación (el 62,2% mujeres, M = 23,8 años), provenientes de un estado del Sudeste de Brasil. Los procedimientos factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios se replicaron a la versión original de la estructura bidimensional de la medida. Los indicadores de precisión omega de McDonald's del instrumento fueron superiores a 0,78. Se observó evidencias de validez convergente con una medida de apego a las relaciones románticas y de satisfacción con la vida. Se concluye que la versión brasileña de SWAM tiene propiedades psicométricas adecuadas