Socioemotional wealth and the innovativeness of family SMEs in the United Arab Emirates

Why are some family SMEs more innovative than others? We use the heterogeneity within family SMEs to explore how their socioemotional wealth (SEW) affects innovativeness. The ubiquity of smaller family firms means that their innovativeness is critical for policymakers, such as those in the United Arab Emirates, seeking innovation-led development. We conduct a multi-case study analysis of SEW and innovativeness in fourteen family SMEs based in the United Arab Emirates. Participants were from a range of sectors and across the employment size-range of family SMEs. None of the most innovative family SMEs had highly family-centric socioemotional wealth. High family-centricity was however evident in all the least innovative firms who survived on reputation and incremental customer or supplier-driven improvements. The least innovative firms were amongst the smallest but not the youngest, with firm age not influential for innovativeness. The paper proposes redressing family-centric SEW preferences to raise the innovativeness of family SMEs. This will involve longer-term decision-making that gives greater consideration to the interests of external stakeholder as well as future generations of the family

Luby Transform Coding Aided Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation for the Wireless Internet

Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation using Iterative Decoding (BICM-ID) is amalgamated with Luby Transform (LT) coding. The resultant joint design of the physical and data link layer substantially improves the attainable Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. A Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) combined with a novel Log-Likelihood Ratio (LLR) based packet reliability estimation method is proposed for the sake of detecting and disposing of erroneous packets. Subsequently, bit-by-bit LT decoding is proposed, which facilitates a further BER improvement at a lower number of BICM-ID iterations. Finally, we revisit the pseudo random generator function used for designing the LT generator matrix

Insights Into Unveiling a Potential Role of Tertiary Lymphoid Structures in Metastasis

Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) develop in non-lymphatic tissue in chronic inflammation and cancer. TLS can mature to lymph node (LN) like structures with germinal centers and associated vasculature. TLS neogenesis in cancer is highly varied and tissue dependent. The role of TLS in adaptive antitumor immunity is of great interest. However, data also show that TLS can play a role in cancer metastasis. The importance of lymphatics in cancer distant metastasis is clear yet the precise detail of how various immunosurveillance mechanisms interplay within TLS and/or draining LN is still under investigation. As part of the tumor lymphatics, TLS vasculature can provide alternative routes for the establishment of the pre-metastatic niche and cancer dissemination. The nature of the cytokine and chemokine signature at the heart of TLS induction can be key in determining the success of antitumor immunity or in promoting cancer invasiveness. Understanding the biochemical and biomechanical factors underlying TLS formation and the resulting impact on the primary tumor will be key in deciphering cancer metastasis and in the development of the next generation of cancer immunotherapeutics

Edge states in Open Antiferromagnetic Heisenberg Chains

In this letter we report our results in investigating edge effects of open antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chains with spin magnitudes $S=1/2, 1,3/2,2$ using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method initiated by White. For integer spin chains, we find that edge states with spin magnitude $S_{edge}=S/2$ exist, in agreement with Valence-Bond-Solid model picture. For half-integer spin chains, we find that no edge states exist for $S=1/2$ spin chain, but edge state exists in $S=3/2$ spin chain with $S_{edge}=1/2$, in agreement with previous conjecture by Ng. Strong finite size effects associated with spin dimmerization in half-integer spin chains will also be discussed.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX 3.0, 5 figures in a separate uuencoded postscript file. Replaced once to enlarge the acknowlegement

Parallel String Sample Sort

We discuss how string sorting algorithms can be parallelized on modern multi-core shared memory machines. As a synthesis of the best sequential string sorting algorithms and successful parallel sorting algorithms for atomic objects, we propose string sample sort. The algorithm makes effective use of the memory hierarchy, uses additional word level parallelism, and largely avoids branch mispredictions. Additionally, we parallelize variants of multikey quicksort and radix sort that are also useful in certain situations.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures and 12 table

Frustrated multiband superconductivity

We show that a clean multiband superconductor may display one or several phase transitions with increasing temperature from or to frustrated configurations of the relative phases of the superconducting order parameters. These transitions may occur when more than two bands are involved in the formation of the superconducting phase and when the number of repulsive interband interactions is odd. These transitions are signalled by slope changes in the temperature dependence of the superconducting gaps.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Tilting instability and other anomalies in the flux-lattice in some magnetic superconductors

The flux-line lattice in the compound $ErNi_2B_2C$, which has a tendency to ferromagnetic order in the a-b plane is studied with external magnetic field direction close to the c-axis. We show the existence of an instability where the direction of flux-lines spontaneously tilts away from that of the applied field near the onset of ferromagnetic order. The enhanced fluctuations in the flux lattice and the square flux lattice recently observed are explained and further experiments suggested.Comment: 12 pages, Latex file, no figur