Division Of Control, Relationship Dynamics And Joint Venture Performance

The control exercised by parent firms over joint ventures (JVs) has been suggested to be a critical element for the effective management and the performance of these organizations. In this context, this study addressed the following questions: (1) How is control divided in JVs? (2) How does the division of control affect the performance and relationship dynamics of JVs? (3) Does the division of control affect international JVs (IJVs) differently compared to domestic JVs (DJVs)? To examine these questions, the study proposed a theoretical framework combining elements of transaction cost analysis and social exchange theory. A multi-method and multi-source methodology was used to investigate these questions in 2-parent, manufacturing JVs in operation in Canada. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis, and both individual and aggregated self-report data.;The study found that the division of control, defined in terms of control sharing and autonomy, could be examined according to three groups of activities: operational, technological and strategic. In fact, the extent of control sharing and autonomy tended to vary significantly across these three dimensions. In addition, the study found that not all of these dimensions of control sharing and autonomy were similarly related with the performance and relationship dynamics of JVs. Specifically, control sharing and autonomy structures were more important determinants of performance in recently-formed JVs, compared to older, more established ventures. Furthermore, analyses suggested that some dimensions of control sharing and autonomy affected the performance of IJVs differently compared to DJVs. In sum, the study provided evidence that the age and the international versus domestic nature of a JV mattered in the division of control-performance relationship. Yet, because of their limited explanatory power, control sharing and autonomy did not prove to be the important factors of performance and relationship dynamics suggested in the literature.;Finally, regarding the management of JVs, the study suggested that the division of control structure of a JV should be adapted to its age and international nature. It also emphasized the importance for managers to invest the time and effort required to support the development of mutual trust and to avoid conflict

Evaluation of learning transfer outcomes of a Certified Occupational Safety Specialist (Coss) training course

The purpose of this study was to generate a “transfer of training” assessment of a Certified Occupational Safety Specialist (COSS) certification training course provided by the Alliance Safety Council, a non-profit organization which provides COSS training throughout the United States targeting individuals who work in the safety and health field that coordinate corporate safety and health plans for their companies. This course consists of a five day, forty hour in-class course designed to build competencies in the field of safety with specific learning outcomes. This study described graduates of the COSS training on selected personal and professional demographic characteristics, determined what variables influenced a graduate’s ability to transfer training within the workplace, and assessed the degree to which graduates of this training engaged in transfer of training activities in their respective workplaces. This paper makes recommendations regarding potential future research efforts designed to further examine COSS participation and sponsorship, barriers to transfer of training, and the impact of transfer of training on an organization’s safety performance. Finally, this paper provides feedback to COSS program designers, instructors, related practitioners

Seeking justice for the victims of cholera in Haiti: framing the reparations debate through transitional justice

On the 1st of December 2016, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon apologized for the cholera epidemic in Haiti, an illness Nepalese peacekeepers brought with them upon arrival in Haiti. After years of silence and denial from the UN, the UN finally established a ‘New Approach to Cholera in Haiti’, promising material assistance and support to the victims through a ‘victim-centered approach’. Based on fieldwork conducted in March 2017 in the communities most affected by the cholera outbreak, this article brings forward the victims’ views on the specific form the material assistance package should take. This article links this discussion with the literature on socioeconomic dimension of reparation in transitional justice, discussing the collective and the individual approaches to reparation and the victims’ preference for the latter

Is the Current Management of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Really Evidence Based?

Vincent discusses the reasons why evidence-based medicine may be particularly difficult to apply in the management of patients with severe sepsis

Phase behaviour of charged colloidal sphere dispersions with added polymer chains

We study the stability of mixtures of highly screened repulsive charged spheres and non-adsorbing ideal polymer chains in a common solvent using free volume theory. The effective interaction between charged colloids in an aqueous salt solution is described by a screened-Coulomb pair potential, which supplements the pure hard-sphere interaction. The ideal polymer chains are treated as spheres that are excluded from the colloids by a hard-core interaction, whereas the interaction between two ideal chains is set to zero. In addition, we investigate the phase behaviour of charged colloid-polymer mixtures in computer simulations, using the two-body (Asakura-Oosawa pair potential) approximation to the effective one-component Hamiltonian of the charged colloids. Both our results obtained from simulations and from free volume theory show similar trends. We find that the screened-Coulomb repulsion counteracts the effect of the effective polymer-mediated attraction. For mixtures of small polymers and relatively large charged colloidal spheres, the fluid-crystal transition shifts to significantly larger polymer concentrations with increasing range of the screened-Coulomb repulsion. For relatively large polymers, the effect of the screened-Coulomb repulsion is weaker. The resulting fluid-fluid binodal is only slightly shifted towards larger polymer concentrations upon increasing the range of the screened-Coulomb repulsion. In conclusion, our results show that the miscibility of dispersions containing charged colloids and neutral non-adsorbing polymers increases, upon increasing the range of the screened-Coulomb repulsion, or upon lowering the salt concentration, especially when the polymers are small compared to the colloids.Comment: 25 pages,13 figures, accepted for publication on J.Phys.:Condens. Matte

Should red cell transfusion be individualized? Yes

SCOPUS: ed.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Efficacy of Trastuzumab in Routine Clinical Practice and After Progression for Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients: The Observational Hermine Study

Results of the Hermine study examining the use of trastuzumab for metastatic breast cancer patients in routine practice, including patients who received trastuzumab treatment beyond progression, are reported. The cardiac safety of trastuzumab in this setting is also reported

DNA barcodes for soil animal taxonomy

A biodiversidade das comunidades do solo continua muito pouco conhecida e entendida. A biologia do solo é fortemente afetada pela crise taxonômica, e a maior parte dos grupos de animais dessa biota sofre forte impedimento taxonômico. O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar como o código de barras de DNA – um método novo que usa uma etiqueta microgenômica para identificação e discriminação de espécies – permite uma melhor avaliação da taxonomia da biota edáfica. Foram analisadas 1.152 sequências de códigos de barras de dois grupos principais de animais, colêmbolos e minhocas, que apresentaram ampla amostragem taxonômica e geográfica. Além de refletir fortemente o impedimento taxonômico de ambos os grupos, com um grande número de linhagens divergentes no nível da espécie que ainda não está descrita, os resultados também destacam um alto (15%) nível de diversidade críptica dentro de espécies conhecidas de minhocas e colêmbolos. Esses resultados apóiam estudos locais recentes que usaram métodos similares. Considerando as dificuldades taxonômicas enfrentadas para identificar os animais de solo, ferramentas de identificação usando DNA podem facilitar e melhorar a exploração da biodiversidade e a sua descrição. As campanhas de código de barras de DNA estão se desenvolvendo rapidamente com animais do solo, e a comunidade de biólogos é incitada a adotar esses métodos.    The biodiversity of soil communities remains very poorly known and understood. Soil biological sciences are strongly affected by the taxonomic crisis, and most groups of animals in that biota suffer from a strong taxonomic impediment. The objective of this work was to investigate how DNA barcoding – a novel method using a microgenomic tag for species identification and discrimination – permits better evaluation of the taxonomy of soil biota. A total of 1,152 barcode sequences were analyzed for two major groups of animals, collembolans and earthworms, which presented broad taxonomic and geographic sampling. Besides strongly reflecting the taxonomic impediment for both groups, with a large number of species-level divergent lineages remaining unnamed so far, the results also highlight a high level (15%) of cryptic diversity within known species of both earthworms and collembolans. These results are supportive of recent local studies using a similar approach. Within an impeded taxonomic system for soil animals, DNA-assisted identification tools can facilitate and improve biodiversity exploration and description. DNA-barcoding campaigns are rapidly developing in soil animals and the community of soil biologists is urged to embrace these methods.   

Identifying Canadian Freshwater Fishes through DNA Barcodes

BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding aims to provide an efficient method for species-level identifications using an array of species specific molecular tags derived from the 5' region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene. The efficiency of the method hinges on the degree of sequence divergence among species and species-level identifications are relatively straightforward when the average genetic distance among individuals within a species does not exceed the average genetic distance between sister species. Fishes constitute a highly diverse group of vertebrates that exhibit deep phenotypic changes during development. In this context, the identification of fish species is challenging and DNA barcoding provide new perspectives in ecology and systematics of fishes. Here we examined the degree to which DNA barcoding discriminate freshwater fish species from the well-known Canadian fauna, which currently encompasses nearly 200 species, some which are of high economic value like salmons and sturgeons. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We bi-directionally sequenced the standard 652 bp "barcode" region of COI for 1360 individuals belonging to 190 of the 203 Canadian freshwater fish species (95%). Most species were represented by multiple individuals (7.6 on average), the majority of which were retained as voucher specimens. The average genetic distance was 27 fold higher between species than within species, as K2P distance estimates averaged 8.3% among congeners and only 0.3% among concpecifics. However, shared polymorphism between sister-species was detected in 15 species (8% of the cases). The distribution of K2P distance between individuals and species overlapped and identifications were only possible to species group using DNA barcodes in these cases. Conversely, deep hidden genetic divergence was revealed within two species, suggesting the presence of cryptic species. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study evidenced that freshwater fish species can be efficiently identified through the use of DNA barcoding, especially the species complex of small-sized species, and that the present COI library can be used for subsequent applications in ecology and systematics