A question of value(s): Political connectedness and executive compensation in public sector organizations

While the de-politicization of public sector management was a core objective of past reform initiatives, more recent debates urge the state to act as a strong principal when it comes to public sector unity and policy coherence - and consequently make a case for reinvigorating links between the political and managerial sphere. Using data from Austrian public sector organizations, we test and confirm the causal relationship of political connectedness of board members and executive compensation. Differentiating between value-based and interest-based in-groups, we suggest that only value-based political connectedness has the potential to restore patronage as a control instrument and governance tool. Self-interested and reward-driven patronage, on the other hand, indicated by a strong association of political connectedness and executive pay, refers to the type of politicization that previous public sector reforms promised to abolish

Distributed Estimation with Information-Seeking Control in Agent Network

We introduce a distributed, cooperative framework and method for Bayesian estimation and control in decentralized agent networks. Our framework combines joint estimation of time-varying global and local states with information-seeking control optimizing the behavior of the agents. It is suited to nonlinear and non-Gaussian problems and, in particular, to location-aware networks. For cooperative estimation, a combination of belief propagation message passing and consensus is used. For cooperative control, the negative posterior joint entropy of all states is maximized via a gradient ascent. The estimation layer provides the control layer with probabilistic information in the form of sample representations of probability distributions. Simulation results demonstrate intelligent behavior of the agents and excellent estimation performance for a simultaneous self-localization and target tracking problem. In a cooperative localization scenario with only one anchor, mobile agents can localize themselves after a short time with an accuracy that is higher than the accuracy of the performed distance measurements.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

Enantiomers of methylenedioxy designer drugs : the role of cytochrome P450s and catechol-O-methyltransferase in their metabolism

In the presented studies, the CYP dependent, enantioselective N-dealkylation and demethylenation of the designer drugs MDMA (Ecstasy), MBDB (Eden), and MDEA (Eve) was investigated. Furthermore, the COMT-catalyzed O-methylation of the supposed neurotoxic catecholic metabolites of the aforementioned drugs and the demethylenation of the dealkyl metabolites MDA and BDB was studied. The data clearly indicated a metabolic preference for the S-enantiomer of all investigated compounds, indicating CYP2C19 to be the most selective in all cases. Furthermore, their N-dealkyl-metabolites MDA, BDB are also demethylenated with a preference for their S-enantiomers. Data also suggest that the primary amines are not metabolized as enantioselectively as the secondary amines. The catecholic phase-I metabolites are also enantioselectively methylated with a preference for their S-enantiomer. These findings explain in part the observed different in vivo kinetic of these methylenedioxy designer drugs. Inhibition studies with the catecholic phase-I metabolites DHMA, DHEA, and DHMBB indicated an uncompetitive inhibition of the sCOMT catalyzed dopamine 3-methylation. This inhibition of the dopamine methylation in the central nervous system could be another reason for the drug-induced irreversible damage to central nerve terminals.Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation wurde die Cytochrom P450 abhängige, enantioselektive N-Desalkylierung und Demethylenierung der Missbrauchsdrogen MDMA, MBDB und MDEA untersucht. Des Weiteren wurden Studien zur COMT-katalysierten O-Methylierung der catecholartigen Phase I Metabolite DHMA, DHEA und DHMBB sowie der Demethylenierung der N-Desalkyl-Metaboliten MDA und BDB angeschlossen. Die erhaltenen Daten dokumentieren eindeutig eine Präferenz für das S-Enantiomer der jeweiligen Stammverbindungen. Das Isoenzym CYP2C19 scheint in diesem Zusammenhang dasjenige Isoenzym mit der größten Enantioselektiviät zu sein. Die N-Desalkyl-Metaboliten der Ausgangsverbindungen wurden ebenfalls enantioselektiv, mit einer S-Präferenz, demethyleniert. Es war jedoch augenfällig, dass die Enantioselektivität bei diesen primären Aminen niedriger zu sein scheint als bei den sekundären Aminen. Auch die catecholartigen Phase I Metabolite der zuvor erwähnten Drogen unterliegen einer die S-Enantiomere bevorzugenden O-Methylierung. Diese Befunde können auch dazu beitragen, die in vivo beobachteten pharmakokinetischen Unterschiede der jeweiligen Enantiomere zu erklären. Abschließend wurden Hemmstudien mit den Metaboliten DHMA, DHEA und DHMBB durchgeführt. Diese zeigten eine nichtkompetetive Hemmung bezüglich der sCOMT-katalysierten 3-O-Methylierung von Dopamin. Diese Hemmung der physiologischen Methylierung könnte mit ein Grund für die beschriebene drogeninduzierte, irreversible Schädigung der Nervenzellendigungen sein

Deep Video Color Propagation

Traditional approaches for color propagation in videos rely on some form of matching between consecutive video frames. Using appearance descriptors, colors are then propagated both spatially and temporally. These methods, however, are computationally expensive and do not take advantage of semantic information of the scene. In this work we propose a deep learning framework for color propagation that combines a local strategy, to propagate colors frame-by-frame ensuring temporal stability, and a global strategy, using semantics for color propagation within a longer range. Our evaluation shows the superiority of our strategy over existing video and image color propagation methods as well as neural photo-realistic style transfer approaches.Comment: BMVC 201

Whole Farm Modeling of the Effect of Risk on Optimal Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilizer Intensity

nitrogen, tillage, risk, risk aversion, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Alcohol consumption in heroin users, methadone-substituted and codeine-substituted patients - Frequency and correlates of use

This retrospective study aims to determine whether there is a difference in the additional consumption of alcohol between addicts treated with methadone or dihydrocodeine (DHC) and untreated addicts injecting heroin. 1,685 patients admitted for opioid withdrawal between 1991 and 1997 were reviewed. Cross-reference tables and multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out. 28% of patients take more than 40 g of alcohol daily (on average 176 g). We found that patients who are treated with methadone or DHC drink alcohol significantly more often daily than the heroin-dependent patients (p<0.01). Using multiple regression analyses, the results were confirmed. Additionally, we found that co-abuse of alcohol was predicted by male gender, longer duration of drug use, additional daily consumption of tetrahydrocannabinol and daily consumption of benzodiazepines. Alcohol consumption by opioid-addicted patients treated with methadone or DHC presents a serious medical problem. Co-abuse of alcohol will receive more attention Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

Economic analysis of site-specific wheat management with respect to grain quality and separation of the different quality fractions

The paper analyzes site-specific and uniform management options for wheat production with respect to grain quality. Besides site-specific fertilization the economic potential of segregation of different grain qualities is the subject of this paper. Yield and quality response to fertilizer were taken from field experiments in Germany to calculate site-specific response functions. The economic optima were calculated for uniform management (UM), complete separate management of the subfields (SM), site-specific fertilization (SSF) and grain segregation (GS) for different price structures according to different grain qualities. The results show that over all price structures, highest economic potential was found with SM or SSF compared to UM. However, these management practices require the possibility to separately manage subfields (SM) or specific fertilization equipment and fertilizer algorithms (SSM). GS did not have a higher economic potential than UM. However, if required grain qualities are not met for the whole field, GS can substantially reduce profit losses by separating part of the grains and selling them at higher prices. This may save the farmer more than 50 € ha–1. In situations where higher grain qualities could only be obtained at the expense of yield penalties, premiums for higher grain qualities can create incentives for fertilizer rates beyond the yield maximizing rate. GS technologies may even boost this effect.site-specific nitrogen management, wheat quality, grain segregation., Crop Production/Industries,

Laying a smoke screen: Ambiguity and neutralization as strategic responses to intra-institutional complexity

Our research contributes to knowledge on strategic organizational responses by addressing a specific type of institutional complexity that has, to date, been rather neglected in scholarly inquiry: conflicting institutional demands that arise within the same institutional order. We suggest referring to such type of complexity as "intra-institutional" - as opposed to "inter-institutional." Empirically, we examine the consecutive spread of two management concepts - shareholder value and corporate social responsibility - among Austrian listed corporations around the turn of the millennium. Our work presents evidence that in institutionally complex situations, the concepts used by organizations to respond to competing demands and belief systems are interlinked and coupled through multiwave diffusion. We point to the open, chameleon-like character of some concepts that makes them particularly attractive for discursive adoption in such situations and conclude that organizations regularly respond to institutional complexity by resorting to discursive neutralization techniques and strategically producing ambiguity. (authors' abstract

Constructing domains of corporate social responsibility: a politicization of corporations at the expense of a de-politicization of society?

Using annual reports of Austrian listed corporations between 1990 and 2005, we analyze how corporations theorize their social and societal responsibilities. We empirically illustrate that these organizations not only evoke several distinct domains of corporate responsibility, but also assign themselves and others specific positions in the social matrix of relevancy and power - which in turn gives rise to a distinct pattern on the field level. We discuss various features and implications of what we describe as a politicization of individual corporations at the price of a relocation of politics away from recognized and firmly institutionalized arenas of collective interest representation (i.e., the polity) as well as a broad-scale de-politicization of society