Acquisitions, Productivity, and Profitability: Evidence from the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry

We explore how changes in ownership and managerial control affect the productivity and profitability of producers. Using detailed operational, financial, management, and ownership data from the Japanese cotton spinning industry at the turn of the last century, we find a more nuanced picture than the straightforward “higher productivity buys lower productivity” story commonly appealed to in the literature. Acquired firms’ production facilities were not on average any less physically productive than the plants of the acquiring firms before acquisition, conditional on operating. They were much less profitable, however, due to consistently higher inventory levels and lower capacity utilization—differences which reflected problems in managing the inherent uncertainties of demand in the industry. When these less profitable plants were purchased by more profitable establishments, the acquired plants saw drops in inventories and gains in capacity utilization that raised both their productivity and profitability levels, consistent with acquiring owner/managers spreading their better demand management abilities across the acquired capital

Delphi consensus on bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy:An evolutionary cul-de-sac or the birth pangs of a new technical framework?

Bile duct injury (BDI) during laparoscopic cholecystectomy remains a serious iatrogenic surgical complication. BDI most often occurs as a result of misidentification of the anatomy; however, clinical evidence on its precise mechanism and surgeons' perceptions is scarce. Surgeons from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the USA, etc. (n=614) participated in a questionnaire regarding their BDI experience and near-misses; and perceptions on landmarks, intraoperative findings, and surgical techniques. Respondents voted for a Delphi process and graded each item on a five-point scale. The consensus was built when 80% of overall responses were 4 or 5. Response rates for the first- and second-round Delphi were 60.6% and 74.9%, respectively. Misidentification of local anatomy accounted for 76.2% of BDI. Final consensus was reached on: (1) Effective retraction of the gallbladder, (2) Always obtaining critical view of safety, and (3) Avoiding excessive use of electrocautery/clipping as vital procedures; and (4) Calot's triangle area and (5) Critical view of safety as important landmarks. For (6) Impacted gallstone and (7) Severe fibrosis/scarring in Calot's triangle, bail-out procedures may be indicated. A consensus was reached among expert surgeons on relevant landmarks and intraoperative findings and appropriate surgical techniques to avoid BD

Human

finger vein images are diverse and its patterns are useful for personal identificatio

Acquisitions, Productivity, and Profitability: Evidence from the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry

We explore how changes in ownership and managerial control affect the productivity and profitability of producers. Using detailed operational, financial, management, and ownership data from the Japanese cotton spinning industry at the turn of the last century, we find a more nuanced picture than the straightforward “higher productivity buys lower productivity” story commonly appealed to in the literature. Acquired firms’ production facilities were not on average any less physically productive than the plants of the acquiring firms before acquisition, conditional on operating. They were much less profitable, however, due to consistently higher inventory levels and lower capacity utilization—differences which reflected problems in managing the inherent uncertainties of demand in the industry. When these less profitable plants were purchased by more profitable establishments, the acquired plants saw drops in inventories and gains in capacity utilization that raised both their productivity and profitability levels, consistent with acquiring owner/managers spreading their better demand management abilities across the acquired capital

Human finger vein images are diverse and its patterns are useful for personal identification

Kyushu University 21st Century COE Program Development of Dynamic Mathematics with High Functionality九州大学21世紀COEプログラム「機能数理学の構築と展開」Diversity of human finger vein images is shown by extracting their patterns from the right and left index fingers and middle fingers of 506 person and the usefulness of finger veins patterns for personal identification is shown by evaluating the false acceptance and false rejection rates

MODELING TRANSITION PROBABILITIES AND DURATION TIME FOR EVENT HISTORY DATA

There could be covariates that are related to transition probabilities, but not related to duration times to the next event, or vice versa, in event history analyses. A method is proposed in this paper that estimates those relationships, separately, by using an accelerated failure time model. The method is applied to the data taken from individuals staying at home and having government care service, where different levels of care are provided to care need individuals based on their severities officially recognized. It is shown among others that family and disease are significantly related to duration times to the next event, but not related to transition probabilities